Brock Skywalker

It's not the flu unless it is the flu! · 29 December 08

From www.hc-sc.gc.ca

Influenza (or flu) is a common respiratory illness affecting millions of Canadians each year.

Many people use the terms “flu” or “stomach flu” to describe other illnesses that may actually be a common cold or a mild case of food poisoning. There is no such thing as “stomach flu.” A true case of influenza typically starts with a headache, chills and cough, which are followed rapidly by fever, loss of appetite, muscle aches and fatigue, runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes and throat irritation. Children may have nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but these symptoms are uncommon in adults.

Ok, have we got it straight now? Good.

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The wind is chilled · 28 January 08

I was inclined to post this for my far-away friends who I think sometimes don’t believe me when I tell them about our extreme weather, but I think I am mostly inclined to post this as a reminder to myself that I want to leave this godforsaken part of the world someday.

As Gregg Oldring so eloquently just put it, during a parka-clad conversation about why anyone would live here: “Our ancestors were idiots”… so very true.

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Nice park job! · 20 April 07

I saw this car parked rather interestingly on my way to work this morning at 8:30-ish. How drunk must this guy have been when he got home last night?

Please excuse the craptastic photo… I only had my phone camera with me.

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How do you set the clock on this thing? · 11 March 07

Spring ahead! Spring ahead! For god’s sake, spring ahead!

Once again I really should really have posted this on Friday before it was too late (or is it too early?) to make it to your hockey practises, pancake breakfasts, dungeons and dragons tournaments, hot dog eating competitions or whatever else you had going on this fine Sunday morning but is it really my responsibility to remind you all? It’s not like it does any good to give Canadians advance warning on things. I mean look at what happened with the passports! We knew for nearly 2 full years that we were going to need to have passports to go pretty much anywhere starting early this year and did it help? Not a bit. Line-ups are still out of control.

So anyway, daylight savings time is early this year so if you haven’t already done so, spring ahead and feel the weekend slip away from you even quicker than usual.

Related posts:

• What time is it anyway?
• If they jumped off a bridge…

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iTunes vs. Me · 24 January 07

From Monday’s New York Times:

Last year, as Ry Cooder worked on “My Name Is Buddy,” an oddball folk and blues concept album about a red cat that travels through a mythic American landscape, he ran into familiar problems. When he subjected the recording to his usual test — playback in his Toyota, on the factory-installed stereo — the result wasn’t to his liking. “It started to sound processed,” he said. “We were losing the feeling of the thing, and this is not music that can withstand this.”

Then Mr. Cooder noticed something else: When he burned a copy of the album using Apple’s iTunes software, it sounded fine. He didn’t know why until one of his younger engineers told him that the default settings on iTunes apply a “sound enhancer.” (It’s in the preferences menu, under “playback.”) Usually, that feature sweetens the sound of digital music files, but Mr. Cooder so liked its effect on his studio recordings that he used it to master — that is, make the final sound mixes — his album. “We didn’t do anything else to it,” he said.

Ah hell… Well, there goes that portion on my income. Who will hire me to make their album sound better when Steve Jobs does it for free? Thanks Steve. First you make the iPhone really expensive and not available in Cananda until 2008, now you do this? Sigh… why do you hate me Steve? Why?

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Listen up sickies! · 3 January 07

There are a lot of sick people at work these last few days and I just want to share some info with all you sickies:

Presenteeism (the act of showing up at work or school, even though you probably should be at home getting over whatever it is that ails you) costs the American economy up to $150 billion US a year, as ill workers perform well below their usual levels while they pass on their ailments to their co-workers.

Respiratory infections (such as colds and flu) are responsible for 21% of the presenteeism costs, not including the added costs of potentially infecting others.

Being on the job but not functioning to the best of your ability can cut your productivity by a third or more – and can actually cost an employer much more than absenteeism.

So, what symptoms should keep you at home?

• Fever of any kind
• Achy joints
• Persistent cough accompanied by green mucus buildup and a runny nose
• Severe sore throat
• Vomiting
• Eyes are bright red and have a discharge

What symptoms are normally OK to go to work with?

• Sniffling but no fever
• Throat tickles or postnasal drip
• Ear aches
• Sinus infection
• Dry cough with little or no mucus

Oh yeah! Contrary to common belief, stomach and intestinal complaints are not a feature of the flu. The flu is a respiratory illness and the lungs are the major site of symptoms. If you are nauseated and vomiting, it’s far more likely you have food poisoning or gastroenteritis. As for the term “stomach flu,” well… there’s no such thing.

79% of Canadians surveyed reported going to work sick at some point in the past year… don’t be one of them.

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Refuse to be Terrorized · 18 September 06

This article, from Wired News, is one of the best I have read. It sums up the fundamentals of terrorism and exposes how governments, policticians and media outlets are cashing in and even helping the terrorists by using these incidents as campaign platforms or, even worse, as ways to sell more newspapers.

Key quote:

We’re all a little jumpy after the recent arrest of 23 terror suspects in Great Britain. The men were reportedly plotting a liquid-explosive attack on airplanes, and both the press and politicians have been trumpeting the story ever since.

In truth, it’s doubtful that their plan would have succeeded; chemists have been debunking the idea since it became public. Certainly the suspects were a long way off from trying: None had bought airline tickets, and some didn’t even have passports.

Great work Bruce Schneier. I am a fan for life.

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MySpace unfulfilled · 31 August 06

I have been a member since October 28, 2005. Since then I have had 1874 profile views, my songs have been played between 440 and 608 times each, I have had 83 comments added to my page (more, but I deleted some due to vulgarity), but most of all I have 1088 friends. If you don’t believe me look at this:

Ok ok, the Waynefest one is actually me… so I have 1087 friends. But you know what? I am still sad at night. I still weep myself to sleep. I still have 300 copies of my cd getting dusty in my sister’s basement and I still do not know what the heck MySpace is actually for! Maybe I am not doing it right. You’d think if I have 1088 (fine – 1087) friends I must be doing something right… right? If I am, I sure don’t know what it is.

I am tempted to ask for help or advice from someone younger and hipper than me, though I can’t help but think that this is all there is. A desperate attempt to collect a ton of “friends”, have them make inane comments on your page, go home, eat dinner and go to bed. Well, call me old fashioned but I want need more from my online experience. I want something more than just blurby messages from people I could just as easily email. I want more than just 4 songs (that I can’t purchase or steal) from a band I really like. I want more substance and less nudity, more creativity and less vulgarity, less sidescrolling and much less bad css integration. I also want my browser not to crash constantly. Yeah, I am using firefox, but it doesn’t crash at cbc.ca.

Anyways, thanks Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, thanks you 1088 (1087) people who called me your “friend” (thanx 4 the ad!), and thank you Tom. Thanks for nothing… virtually. I am about to commit MySpacecide!

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Random or unexpected? · 22 August 06

I have been harbouring deep feelings on this subject for a while now but have refrained from ranting about it… until now. I guess it took me reading Luke Doucet’s blog, and finding that he feels the same way, to tip me on to the need-to-say-something side.

From L-Do:

RANDOM. Ok. Pet peeve. I have to get something off my chest. Can anyone tell me where & when everyone started (miss) using the word random? oh, my god I was just at 711 & this totally random guy comes up to me & goes like, do I know you?

It must have come from some TV show or a hip hop track or something because it’s so ubiquitous now & 3 years ago it was not part of most kid’s vocabulary. Now, its being used like it’s a BIG word, by the same people who think comprehend is a big work (no, it’s just French for understand). I fear the Olsen twins are behind this. Barf. I apologize to all who are offended by my elitist rant.

Please, let’s all try together to stop this scourge on the English language. I know it is far from the only word being misused and abused but… we have to start somewhere, right?

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Just google it people! · 16 August 06

I freakin’ hate spam. I seriously do. Perhaps more than is necessary. Perhaps more than is advisable.

I also hate forwards. The joke ones (that usually aren’t funny), the ones that promise you wealth and riches for forwarding it on to 10 people within 3 minutes or doom for those who delete it, and the mushy hallmark ones that some 16 year old emo girl wouldn’t even be moved by. But, I must say, the forwards I hate the most are the ones that try to pass themselves off as news.

In the last few weeks I have received the The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! email about 5 times. “This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history.” Yeah, back in 2003! A quick google of any key sentence in this email will reveal that fact. It’s a quick and easy step that anyone can take to avoid spreading misinformation and clogging up email servers around the world with some crap that should have been deleted upon receipt.

Now I am not angry at the people who forward these to me. They are really just trying to be helpful and spread what they thought was an interesting tid-bit BUT it is easy to avoid this sort of problem.

Here are some rules, that I am just making up now, to help stop the scourge of email forwards on our (or at least my) inbox:

1. Only forward a joke that you really thought was hilarious.
2. Only forward that joke to people who have also forwarded funny jokes to you.
3. Do not ever ever EVER forward anything that claims it will bring you luck or doom if you do or do not forward it.
4. Google the subject line, or a key sentence, from a “newsy” forward to find out if it is a hoax or not BEFORE you send it out to all your friends (especially something as alarming as the Progesterex scare email).

Sounds easy right? Yes, it does. But I will still keep my delete finger in good shape. I have a feeling this war is far from over.

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