Geek-out time! I just read a post about all the computers this guy owned in his life. Great idea!

Apple Lisa
My dad brought home our first computer probably around '87. It was an ancient relic already at the time, but considering that it would have cost $10k new, that's not such a bad thing. It had an unheard of 1MB of RAM, and ours came with three ProFile hard drives (the unit on top of the computer in the picture) with a whopping 2MB each! It was a very hardcore system at the time. It also had a dot matrix and daisywheel printer with it.

I used it to play around with mostly. I used the spreadsheet program to enter all the performance data of all the cars in different car magazines to compare. It was also my introduction into computer graphics, where I used the LisaDraw program to make pictures of my mother's Volkswagen and modify it with wheels, skirts and 2-tone paint jobs (despite the monochrome monitor).

This was also my introduction to GUI based computing... it worked very similarly to a Macintosh. At one point there was a trade-in program offered by Apple where you could get a Mac Plus as an even trade for it. Stupidly we didn't take it, and the display's power supply died a month later.

Tandy 1000 SL/2
Mine wasn't exactly as pictured, it had a separate display. This was my first DOS-based machine. It was a pretty weak machine, even at the time... but still cost $2k. It came with Tandy's suite of programs, including some basic office software and a music program. The audio card was actually pretty high-tech for a pre-Soundblaster card. It could record and edit audio, and was able to play 3 sounds at a time. The graphics sucked big time, they were just a step above CGA, in that it allowed for 16 colours.

The coolest thing about this one is I eventually got a modem for it in 91. This is where I got into BBSing and eventually got onto the Internet... although at the time there was no WWW, so it pretty much meant Usenet to me. I frequented alt.rave, alt.techno and the WNYSOR-L mailing list. That was such a huge deal at the time.

Macintosh SE/30
The next few are actually work machines. This was the first one we started using for graphics at work. I'm not sure, but I think we had 16MB of RAM, which was a lot again. This model had an expansion slot where we housed a video card that drove a 21" Radius monochrome monitor.

We used early versions of QuarkXPress 3.1, and Adobe Illustrator 3. This one was a couple years old when we got it. It worked reasonably well, considering most of what we used it for was type.

Macintosh IIx
Our first colour graphics computer. We upgraded it with a Radius Rocket accelerator card and 32MB of RAM, which gave it speed comparable to the Quadra 950—the benchmark of the time. The only problem is it broke audio playback.

Power Macintosh 8100/80
This was a pretty kick-ass machine in '94! It was part of Apple's first PowerPC computers. We had a Radius 20" colour monitor, a 1GB hard drive and 80MB of RAM. We actually kept this machine in production up until two years ago when we picked up a few higher-end machines from a customer for cheap to replace this old workhorse. It drove our scanner and did much of our crunch work for years.

Assorted Macs and PCs
We went through a bunch of computers at work after this... pretty much every Macintosh model that came out for a while, from the 7100/100 to dual G4 server. I didn't really have a computer I used personally all the time, because we needed a few different computers each to keep up with the two of us. This is also where we started buying PCs again. None of these boxes I can really consider being "mine," so they don't count.

This was probably the best computer I had. It was relatively fast at 300mHz, had 96MB of RAM and a small 3GB hard drive. But it had wireless and it was absolutely bulletproof. I dropped it from shoulder height flat on the ground once. I thought it was completely dead, it wouldn't start or anything. But once I reinstalled the system software everything was fine again.

It ran OS X, but it wasn't too happy about it. I didn't really use it at work much, since it was a little underpowered, even compared to the 300mHz desktop G3s I was using. The display was only 800x600 pixels, and with no support for an external display there wasn't much I could do with it.

Eventually I traded it with a friend for an eMac, but I was sad to see it go. I had upgraded the HD to a 30GB for her myself (not a task for the weak), and it still felt good.

My current HTPC
Like most PCs it's just a mismash of parts. It's got some decent stats though, 3.x gHz P4 or something, some kick ass nVidia gaming card, a gig of RAM, a few 300 gig hard drives. This is my media centre. I use it to watch and record HDTV, download video, play games, DVDs, and it displays at my TV's native resolution. It's all I use. Instead of cable I've got an antenna that picks up the Toronto HDTV channels. I've played around with a lot of different software, but right now I'm happy with Windows Media Center. It works well enough. I've wanted to replace it with a Mac-based solution, but really there's no reason to fix what's not broken.

If there's any problem with it (other than all the spyware that I STILL occasionally manage to find), it's that it's too noisy. I was going to replace it with a Dell as a server with an AppleTV as a front end, but I would actually be losing native resolution support, and support for DiVX and other codecs.

PowerBook G4
This is my current main computer. I've had it for two years now and it's been awesome. I carry it back and forth between home and work. It's great, especially now that I can VPN to work, it's like I'm practically there. I plug it into an old 17" Apple Cinema Display when I'm in the office and use my PC to share my keyboard and mouse over the network. Its a brilliant setup, since I have one keyboard and mouse and I can scroll across a PC and two Mac displays, and I can still copy and paste text! I'm very happy, but I'm starting to get tempted by newer and faster machines...

What's next?
It's tough, because I'm tempted to get a desktop machine that I can just leave at work. I don't mind carrying my computer back and forth, but there are days like when I ride my bike to the office where I really don't want to have an extra 15 pounds worth of crap on my back. At the same time, the new, cheap MacBooks are at least twice as fast as my current computer. Especially now with Adobe CS3 coming out it's even MORE tempting.

What I'd really like is a computer that slots between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro. I don't need all the expansion (or price tag) of the Pro, but the Mini is kinda lacking for me. It's a tough call. I like the iMac, but I'd really prefer to have the option of what display to use. Maybe I'll just wait to see what comes out next.

Today I had my first appointment with my knee and back fixing d00d. I had suspected my problem was my IT Band for my knee, but my back I wasn't so sure about. I figured they'd fix themselves given enough time, but that just hasn't happened. So I finally caved and went to get it looked at.

It didn't take long for him to determine my problems. In my knee it definitely was my IT Band. The good news is it's not a very hard problem to fix, and I haven't caused much damage by ignoring it for too long. To fix that he's going to be using some active release therapy to break up the scar tissue and stretch the muscle. That and some exercises he's be showing me next week should be enough to have this fixed within a few weeks! WOW! Just in time to start the training rides.

My back is a little more complicated. He said that I bruised some bones a couple years ago, but the main problem is... I forget the name.* It was some bone in the hip area. Back to hip type thing. He said that it's out of place and my ass and hip muscles are weak. I have to learn how to use my ass to walk instead of my lower back, which is what I'm doing now. It's usually caused by sitting too much. Weird. It doesn't make complete sense to me, but I'm going to ask him again so I have something to google.

At the end of the diagnosis he started treatment. For the IT Band this involved me bending my knee up and down while he got in deep and manipulated the band. That was about it for that for now, but it felt a LOT better. I've tried the stretches I've seen online, and they don't to ANYTHING like that did.

For my lower back he did a few things. One was where he pressed somewhere on my glute and moved my leg in these weird positions. Craziest thing was before he started he asked me to lie on my side and move my leg up while he pushed down on it. On my right he barely held it down and I couldn't push. After the manipulation it was much stronger... about as strong as the left. I was shocked that something that seems so simple could have such a drastic effect.

It looks like I'm going to be fixed soon. This couldn't have come at a better time, because I've got a lot of work ahead of me this summer.

*[edit: how could I let this name slide? It's the sacroiliac. It's like a rap-sack, backpack
(wic-wic-whack), give me some slack jack]

Today there were a lot of comments in facebook on a picture Kim BG posted today of our grade 8 graduation. They were hilarious in a way, and as you'd expect pretty embarrassing. It's fascinating to see who we were and who we've become in the years since. It's literally been half a lifetime since then. We've all changed so much, but at the same time the events that happened back then shaped who we are now. In that post I was reminded about my most embarrassing experience ever. I think it's been long enough be be able to look at it subjectively and (hopefully) laugh.

I've had a lot of crushes on chicks in my life. Odds are if you're female and I've spent some time with you, at some point I've thought about it. Usually it's just a cursory thought, lasts an hour or even a few days and it's over. Sometimes it lasts a lot longer. The first serious long-term crush I had started in grade five for this girl Pandora.

Pandora was a very cute girl. She had a similar background, a nice smile, and eventually she developed... a lot! But I noticed her first. For four years I analyzed everything she did, everything I saw. There weren't any others. One evening she called me out of the blue with her friend and "asked me to go out with her." Whatever that meant... we were probably about 12 at the time. I didn't believe she was serious, so I pussied out of it. I knew I wasn't the coolest kid in the school. I didn't think she meant it... kids can be really mean. I was certain that she was doing it as a part of a cruel joke.

I wouldn't have blamed her. I certainly wasn't anywhere near being cool. I was a comic book and science fiction reading nerd who spent all his spare time watching 80s sitcoms and listening to hip hop. If Alex P. Keaton donned tights and a cape then bore a tunnel straight into the earth's core while breakdancing I would have been in heaven! I dreamed of being captain of the trivia club. I didn't join the AV squad because I didn't think I was cool enough. Can you spell GEEK? At the very least I'd say my social development was stunted.

I assumed my crush on Pandora was pretty undercover. Aside from admitting it once during an all-night gossip session on an overnight school trip, I kept my it to myself. I think by grade 8 everyone knew. It must have been pretty obvious. At our graduation dance one of the things we had to get the boys and girls away from standing on opposite sides of the gym was a "snowball dance." The DJ would play a slow song (invariably it was Can You Stand the Rain by New Edition), and get on the mic and call out the first two people to dance. It was supposed to seem random. From there other couples would randomly couple up, and then when it was announced on the mic they'd switch.

The first few dances seemed relatively random... until I heard my name. I was already embarrassed by this. I walked up to the front by the stage and waited to hear who they called. Of course it was Pandora. I waited. And waited. The DJ called her again, trying to get her to come up. She didn't. I just stood there trying to play it off. I knew she wasn't going to come. I just laughed and pretended that I didn't care until I had to walk back to the boy wall with my tail between my legs.

It is said that we are all three different people: the person we think we are (the one we have invented), the person other people think we are (the impression we make) and the person we think other people think we are (the one we fret about). You could say it would be a lifetime's quest to reconcile this battling trinity into a seamless whole. (via kottke.org)

March 14th marks exactly one year since I started taking better care of myself. It's a hard day for me to forget, because not only did I start going to the gym, but there are a couple notable birthdays and it's also the date I got the S2000 (that's the single guy's equivalent of remembering your wedding anniversary).

One year ago I was on medication for high blood pressure. I wasn't able to climb a flight of stairs without breaking a sweat. I was certain that my clothes kept shrinking in the wash, because they never seemed to fit around my pot belly. I didn't know why they didn't fit as well as they used to. I didn't feel too good about myself either. I knew what the problem was, and that's when I started to fix it.

It started with a trip to the gym I made a month earlier. The Goodlife across the street was opening, and I signed up for a personal trainer and everything. My first session was on March 14th, and he got me started. I started with a spinning class twice a week almost right away. I always liked cycling, so I figured it'd be the most enjoyable way to get in shape.

I kept up spinning twice a week, and started to look after what I ate too. My trainer touched up a little bit on caloric intake and ratios of carbs:protein:fat, and what I needed to do to lose what I had. Nothing specific, but he got me pointed in the right direction. I started logging everything I ate.

When the weather started getting better I started riding with the Friends For Life Bike Rally crew. They started off as a group of people who were riding to Montreal and that was all I knew. Every week I would join them on their training rides, starting from around 50k or so until ultimately around 120ish or so. I met a lot of riders and learned a bit about their cause to benefit people suffering from AIDS. I'll be posting more about that soon.

After the FFLBR crew left for Montreal I was a little lost. My ultimate ride was to Ben's cottage in Honey Harbour and back. 382k in two non-consecutive days in a weekend. That's way over 200 miles, or 2/3 of the way to Montreal! I was pretty happy about that! I dropped five pounds from doing that ride alone!

A little while after that I started getting pains in my knee. On my last medium distance ride to work in Newmarket it was getting pretty bad. I couldn't spin anymore or ride. I figured after Ben's cottage ride it wouldn't be too big of a deal. I had already lost so much extra weight, I was in great cardiovascular shape, and I was still eating healthier.

I tried taking up running for a while. That hurt my back a LOT. It was worse than the knee pain, although it was quicker to subside. It was a pretty big disappointment, because I was seeing improvements in my running abilities almost daily! It's amazing how little of the fitness carries over from cycling.

With the winter here I slowed down a lot. It's hard to be motivated. I finally hit 160 pounds, down from the 200 I started at on March 14th. I started eating a little more normally by this point. Trips to Chicago, Vegas, Vancouver... it was hard to keep in line. I still kept out most fries and sugar drinks though.

Since the winter started I've gained a few pounds, somewhere around three or four. I'm not happy with it considering all the work that went into losing them! I don't want this post to sound like I'm patting myself on the back. I'm very proud of what I've accomplished, but that doesn't mean I can sit back and be happy. Now that it's March 14th I have to get of my ass and get going again!

I'm starting to come up with some new goals for this year. I've already signed up to join the FFLBR crew for this year's ride for people with AIDS. I'm very excited about this event. It's something I've wanted to do for years and now I've been lucky enough that I'll actually be able to do it. I'm sure most of my posts this year will be about training for and planning for this ride.

I'm also hoping that if I can ramp up my mileage quickly enough I might ride in the TBN Hairshirt. When I first read that page I thought it was a joke... it seemed preposterous:

Training:
Train at the pace you plan to do the ride at or faster. Eat and drink as you plan to do on the ride. Unless you enjoy suffering you should be completing weekly cumulative distances of 300 km or more by the end of May. Two weeks before the ride do back-to-back centuries on Saturday and Sunday—the TBN's TNT Overnight is perfect for this and fun to boot! The following Saturday do about 220 kms. The next day you should do an easy spin (active rest) of 50 km or less. You can ride through the week but avoid any hard efforts. Starting Thursday make sure you eat well for the next three days. Get plenty of sleep Friday night.

I'm also hoping to drop a few extra pounds before then, maybe to get myself to an even 150. That's been my goal for a while, and it's definitely in reach within a few months. It's harder to qualify this, but I'd also like to have a little more upper body mass. Just a little.

I should have my cycling goals done by the middle of the summer. Hopefully if I get my back looked at I'll be able to start running again. We'll see. There will be a whole slew of new goals if that happens. I'd like to do some rock climbing, maybe some kayaking... but I don't want to overextend myself. That's what got me into this trouble in the first place!

I've made some adjustments to my bike and my shoes, hopefully that'll be enough to keep my knee/IT band happy. If not I have an idea of how to correct that. My back... I think that should be a professional thing. My doctor said "you'll have to live with it," which bothered me a lot. This was after he was shocked that I was able to bend over and touch my palms to the ground. I don't get it.

It's been an amazing year in a completely unexpected way. Here's hoping that this year will be even better!

The second day of skiing was even better than the first. I was a little apprehensive after putting my feet back into my ski boots—they were still drenched all the way through from the day before. Jay had some time off work, so he came along and acted as a superb tour guide.

We headed off and started directly on Blackcomb instead of Whistler where I was the day before. After taking a gondola and another lift to get to the midway point, we did a few runs before they opened up the alpine area. I was a little apprehensive about going up. If I were alone the signs in front of the lift would have scared me off. They said that the lifts were for advanced or expert skiers only.

After waiting in vain for the Glacier Express lift to open we sidetracked to the 7th Heaven lift instead. They both access the same area, just on different sides of the mountain. Once we entered the cloud on top I lost it. Visibility was very limited. It didn't help that my goggles had fogged internally, between the two lenses that were glued together. I guess enough moisture from the day before got in.

Jay was nice enough to trade goggles with me, since he already knew the area quite well. The snow was really deep. There was a lot of fresh powder, since it hadn't warmed up enough to melt any over the previous week. We were also among the first people up there. I had no idea how to ski in this stuff. Actual powder... at least a foot deep.

Halfway down the glacier the trails turned into regular wood-lined runs. We were also out of the clouds, so visibility was back up. I liked this part the most. Everything was fast and smooth. I think I liked the blue square runs the most. Challenging, but not so much that I was fearing losing control.

We took a lunch break at the Rendezvous after a few runs, where I did some surgery on my goggles. There was a glove dryer that I used to separate the two layers of my goggles and dry the insides. It was still hot enough to fuse them back together after. I was quite pleased.

After a lunch break they opened the Glacier Express lift. We weren't able to get access to the glacier in the back where Spanky's Ladder is, but we still had access to a huge number of runs. We mostly went around the Ridge Runner, which took us around the outside and wasn't too challenging. There were some nice runs like Twist and Shout that branched off it. That is where I reached my peak heartrate - 190! That was a little insane. I thought it was an all-time high, but I forgot I hit 196 once. But still... that's the highest it's ever gone without me feeling like I was going to puke. Awesome! Whoever said alpine skiing isn't much of a workout?

It was on that run that my foot started to hurt. I probably could have gone for another run or two, but I was completely satisfied with what we had done so far. Maybe I was just a little tired too. On the way down to the bottom everything completely clicked. I remembered what I had watched the night before on this site, and I tried to keep my arms forward and back facing the top of the hill. I was bending my knees a lot, and almost reaching forward with the poles to get the rhythm down. It all made sense. It was a zen moment. The last run of the season is where it all came together.

It didn't hurt that the last run had a vertical drop of over 5000 feet and took over a half hour! To put that into perspective, that's more than two and a half times the height of the CN Tower!

Click the map (or here) to view the stats and to watch where I went. If you've got Google Earth, then use this link. I can't stress enough how beautiful Google Earth looks in the Whistler area. It's VERY high resolution, you can even see individual trees. There's one part where you can specifically see where I went around a couple!



After all that time spent skiing I was exhausted. I passed out as soon as I got back to the apartment, and after waking up long enough to eat I passed right out again until I had to get ready to come home. Crazy! I can't wait for next winter. In the meantime I've got some cycling to train for...

What a difference a year makes. The past few years I've made it out a couple times a year, and it was pretty rough. I never got my confidence back to where it was when I was younger, and after every run I was absolutely exhausted. I had to take breaks every other run to let my feet recover a little, and the pain I was in was tremendous, even just walking to the hill. It's amazing how much better shape I'm in now, despite barely working out lately.

I was very lucky when I got to the hill, because there was this nice chick from Chicago who was looking for someone to share her two for one coupon with. I didn't realize how expensive the ticket on it's own would be, so that helped a lot. I was concerned after talking to a few snowboarders who were trying to get rid of their tickets. They were out for the first snow, and they said the conditions were horrible. They just wanted to get out of there. There was a lot of rain, and even though near the peak there was some snowfall, it was way too heavy and it was very difficult to get through. But whatever... I figured it'd be nicer to land on.

I started off doing a lot of green runs in the Emerald lift area to try and get back into it. The first one was pretty bad, and I was worried this trip would have been a waste. I just wasn't feeling right about it at all. But it didn't take long to get my groove back. As long as I stayed on the more groomed and/or busier trails it wasn't too bad. The one time I went out into the fresh stuff I had some serious issues. My skis were flying all over the place and nearly threw me over the skis forwards!

After a quick burger I was back out. I bought some new gloves, since mine seemed to have a leak in the finger. I thought they were supposed to be waterproof. Yeah, neither were the new ones. I managed to get in a bunch of runs on the other side of the lodge. This is where I found the Big Red Express, and started to do some blue square runs. I was doing alright here. I was still falling a fair bit, but every time I did was fun! I'd just slide down the hill on my stomach for a while before stopping. It's pretty neat to have the GPS along for the ride, because I can replay all the falls!

I was eventually way too wet to continue. Not really all that cold, but the wetness made it pretty bad. At the bottom of the lift it would be raining, then freezing rain halfway up, and at the top it turned into wet snow. Pretty funny stuff. On my last run I was going to take this cute green run called Bear Cub. It looked like a nice meandering ride under the lift. But I got to this black diamond run called Jimmy's Joker and debated about taking it for a while.

I was trying hard to resist. Yesterday Alison told me that it's bad karma to say "this is my last run." As long as you think you're going to go up again you'll be fine. I was considering coming back up after this one... I don't know if it was because of what she said though, because my legs were burning, my asthma was kicking in again (after two years), and I was so wet that I had this Princess Superstar track stuck in my head.

It was a decent run. Hard as hell. Maybe it's the way I ski, but I was bloody exhausted by the time I got to the bottom of it. The harder I try and slow myself down, the more work it is. I barely topped 18 km/h down the majority of it, but I didn't care. I did a black diamond run!

Right now I'm going to pass out so I can be up first thing in the morning. I can't wait! Why did I have to enjoy this so much at the end of the season?

Click the map (or here) to view the stats and to watch where I went. If you've got Google Earth, then use this link. It looks awesome!

Name as many countries as you can in 10 minutes. I got 72, although one was a mistype that turned out to be a country I didn't really know about.

via kottke.org

I'm somewhere between lost and pissed right now. I'm not really sure where to direct my anger right now, and neither do most other people around me right now. First off, I was supposed to be in Vancouver right now. Probably getting a hotel for the night or something. It would have been nice. 7º and... nice. Fuck, it's Vancouver. Okay, the beginning...

Last minute I found a cheap flight to Vancouver to go see Allison and do some serious skiing. The flight was cheap, I have a piece of carpet to sleep on... it's the best of both worlds. The kind of mini vacation that I can only do solo. Something to give me the opposite of what Vegas was to complete it. Whatever... I just wanted to go.

Thursday night I tried to get a bag for my skis, but it was way too snowy to go hunting around the town. I tried National Sports, but they had nothing ski-related. So Friday morning I stopped by Skiis and Biikes on the way to work. No problem, I found a decent bag, and got suckered into buying some goggles (which I needed) that they were advertising as being $100 off. Yes, I can't refuse a deal like that, so I got them for $60. Awesome.

The only problem was when I got back to my car I couldn't find the key fob for the alarm. I lost it the other day, but it turned out to be on my seat the whole time. So I figured that's what happened this time. I opened the door and had a look around, but nothing. The problem wasn't the siren, I already pulled that POS out. The problem was the ignition interlock. I couldn't start the car without turning off the alarm. So I sat in the parking lot for a while, traced the wires from the alarm back under the dash and found the wires for it. I borrowed a cable cutter from inside and cut the whole thing out. It took 10 seconds when I realized what I was doing. Alarms are completely worthless. Oh yeah, and BTW, guess what I found when I opened my trunk? Yep... the fob.

Work went okay, but the plane was delayed almost half an hour. No biggie. The flight was originally supposed to leave at 10:45 pm, but was rescheduled for 11:20. No biggie, it just gave me some time to eat and have a beer. I went to the grill and had a seat at 10:43. The waitress saw me when I got there, but she didn't come over until 11:07. Whatever, I figured I got to sit there free for 20 minutes. Only thing when she finally made it over the grill had closed at 11:00. Bitch.

I drank my two pints and got a good buzz going on. My $10 pints, mind you. Whatever... I needed it to sleep on the plane. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the time had changed again. I thought I saw 0:00. Ehhh, so I'd have time to get another pint before leaving. I sat down, plugged in and waited. I got a call from my dad telling me about my delay until 1:00. 1:00? I had no idea. I read the board wrong. But whatever... so I went to grab another pint from the grill. There were people with beer on the tables still, but they just closed the bar. Fuckers.

I made my way to the other side of the terminal to the other bar. It was good to chill out there. Good times. Best $9 for internet I spent! By this point I was pretty pissed. Three pints is enough to do that on an empty stomach these days. [click - picture time] I grabbed my favourite all-purpose jacket and left to go back to the gate. Somewhere between the bar and the first moving sidewalk I dropped my jacket. I was drunk as shit, but I realized it right away. Someone must have taken it. Probably thought it was a bomb. Assholes.

I talked to maintenance and security all over the place. I figured maintenance might have found it lying somewhere, or security must have known that it was being defused somewhere. No luck. They said that I should try the lost and found on the ground level. I had to go outside the secure area to do that. I figured I'd have time to kill anyway, so I did it. Ran to the front and guess what? It was closed. Stupidheads!

Going back through security was pretty fun actually. They knew I was shittied and they had a pretty good sense of humour. Gotta love it when you're not flying to the US. Those assclowns ruin everything! I forgot my ipod in my pocket and a bunch of change and shit, but they helped me find it. Haha!

By the time I grabbed my Tim Horton's sandwich and sat down to plug in again they announced the flight was cancelled. CANCELLED!?! What the fuck? Do flights really get cancelled? And what do you do when that happens? I've always wondered that. I still don't fucking know!

They announced where our bags were being let out, but I wasn't paying attention. There were all these bags in the various carousels, outside them, on the ground, people everywhere. It was fucking chaos! I was lost. Lost as fuck. So I stood in line while trying to call Air Canada. Dying battery. So I had to have my laptop open. But I was too drunk to hold it. I told the guy behind the counter that "I was too drunk to care, but do you know where the bags from flight 151 are going?" He directed me to A and said they were already out. Decent guy!

The next thing was a bit of a blur. I somehow ended up on the floor with my phone and laptop plugged in beside a pay phone. I was on hold with Air Canada for an hour and a half. AN HOUR AND A HALF! Then they hung up on me! I was laying on my suitcase, drifting in and out of consciousness, listening to this fucking Celine Dion bullshit "all flights are now in terminal one for your improved experience" recording! It drove me fucking insane! But I listened. And listened. But when it hung up on me I got pissed and threw it across the room.

I needed a break, and I was drunk enough to smoke, so I bummed one of this hottie Chinese chick. She was delayed and the car rental place was closed and now she had to wait for a co-worker to pick her up. But she got me excited to go to Vancouver. I was refreshed, awake and ready to go! So excited at her description of the mountains, and the runs that were awaiting me. Clear skies and the perfect temperature. I couldn't wait!

I ran upstairs and figured I'd wait the hour and a half to get another ticket. I took a nap with the phone on hold to my ear again. It was much nicer since everyone else there was in the same situation. I was sobering up too. After an hour on the phone the line started moving. Everyone woke up and we were on our way... until this woman came by asking if anyone was buying tickets. I hung up the phone until she came back. She said that I'd have to go to this other section and call on a white phone.

I was like "score, the hotline! Awesome!" I ran over and picked up the phone. It went to the same fucking place I just hung up from. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This is where I gave up. I went downstairs to grab the shuttle to Park 'n Fly. It took them forever to get there, but the ride was short. When we got to the valet area the building was FULL of people standing around. When I paid for the car I asked if these people were waiting for their cars or to get to the airport. They were waiting for their cars.

Some of these people have been here for (a claimed) three hours! I don't know why, maybe there's more people than they expected because of the cancellations or what. But seriously... they need to wake some fuckers up and pay them overtime, because that's fucking ridiculous. Now I'm sober, relatively calm, almost hung fucking over, pissed and lost. This sucks ass, and not in a good way.

So what's the moral of this story? Air Canada sucks. Their customer service has lost me as a customer. Done. Finished. Cocksuckers. I used to be proud of them, and proud to fly them. Now? Fuck that shit. Celine Dion licking piss drinking motherfuckers. Park 'n Fly sucks too. There are people here threatening the employees. Threatening them! Hire another fucking jockey. Hell, *I'd* do it for the right money. Why not?

I'm going to try to call Air Crapada back when I get home to reschedule. I might be able to go Saturday night, but that kinda defeats the purpose. Hopefully I can go next weekend, and if not... I don't know. Fuck them. Then I'll REALLY rant.

Okay, so I got to Park 'n Fuck at 5:15, after giving them a 15 minute heads up to grab the car. I finally got in it at 7:00. Two fucking hours to grab my fucking car!

Meanwhile I tried calling back Air Crapada while at Park 'n Fuck. That was made around 6:00. I held the call all the way home, through the underground parking garage, and up to my apartment. It was on speakerphone while I started to collect myself. I heard a voice at 8:20. Two hours and 20 minutes later! I told the guy to hold on a sec while I got off speakerphone and my fucking POS phone shut down. I'm too tired and pissed off to care right now. I'm on hold again... listening to Celine Difuckingon again. I hate her more than life it's self.

More updates to follow... as if anything else could go wrong...

UPDATE! W00t! I finally got through and rescheduled for next week, same time same everything. The awesomest thing is that the next week flight is over twice as expensive on their site, and that's when I really wanted to go anyway. So it works out well. Aside from the Park 'n Fluck fiasco and being a little worn for the wear, this is better. :)

Chris, Tuan and I headed out to Vegas again a couple weeks ago. It was a little hard to get excited about after all the thinking about Berlin two posts ago. I wanted something authentic and real, and Vegas is anything but! I figured we'd make the best of it though. We'd drink a lot, gamble a little, and maybe do some hiking or mountain biking. There's all kinds of stuff to do outside the casinos, right?

It all started a little nuts. After the three separate flights there, we were tired, buzzed and slightly delirious. We had a cheap car reserved at Hertz, but I saw the pretty picture of the Shelby GT-H on display. Oops. We were slightly mislead by the woman behind the counter though. I don't really know much about big American iron, so when she said that the car had 500 horse I believed her. She must have had it confused with the Shelby GT500. But whatever. For only $400 more we took it. I figured it'd be smarter than renting an Elise for a day, and lately I've had been tempted by big throaty V8s.

After getting on the highway I figured something was up, because that didn't feel anything near 500 horse. I've driven a car with 425 before, and that was much crazier, despite being a much heavier car. But whatever... I had to get back at them for the false advertising somehow. After a quick search online I figured out how to disable the traction control. :) It's so unbelievably low-tech. There is a little paperclip behind the button. That's it. We removed it and had a little more fun. Oddly enough we didn't do anything stupid in the car. I must be getting old.

We did the usual Vegas thing, gambled, drank, ate a lot. We saw a Cirque show, Mystere. Pretty cool stuff. Slept a lot, oddly enough. But whatever... it was good times. We ended up seeing a magic show for free, because they were testing it out and it wasn't actually started yet. That was pretty cool, can't remember the name of the guy though. I think it was Steve. Right after that we hit up a comedy hypnotist. Chris went up on stage and did a lot of crazy shit. Haha!

The best part was our little trip to Red Rock. We did some climbing and playing around taking pics. There are some pretty good ones here on flickr.

I also had my new toy delivered to the hotel. VERY excited about that. I tracked a lot of cool stuff, like our hike through Red Rock and our golf session. That actually seems like a pretty cool sport. With the proper toys (GPS) it actually looks like it could be an awesome sport! I'm definitely going to be trying some more of that this summer.

The best part of the trip though was the shopping. I never thought I'd say that! There was a Ben Sherman store in our hotel and they were having a 60% off sale. This is where Tuan and I dragged Chris around for hours. Seriously. I picked up some cool shit! And that was pretty much it. Back a little too soon. We had no time for the gun store, and somehow I managed to miss out on winning a car. Sheesh.