I felt everything else seemed to be doing enough updating already. Every time I turned on my computer Windows (Vista) needed to restart and implement another update. Wordpress is at 2.9.1 which is quite a few decimals after the version I have not been bothered to update from. Last time, after spending a couple night upgrading it I was told to do it all again a couple weeks later. Everything I touch goes out of date and needs refreshing all the damned time.

It would not be so bad if the process was simple. Windows would be fine if it checked and updated when I tell it to; Despite checking the settings that are supposed to make it work that way it does not. Wordpress I do not blame so much because I imagine having a button for a website update like that would be a security nightmare. But CCleaner and NeoOffice cannot auto-update, they make you visit the website and effectively reinstall it every time or at best every other time I start them up. Far more ghetto programs than those can update within their program. I will not even start on Adobe.

Gah. What started as little pun got all ranty. I am mulling over just what I want to do with the site for 2010 and beyond. I find little that occurs in my life that I need to write about here as it generally consists of trivial details that I can mention in Facebook and Twitter. I try to be reserved about work events as if I got on a rant about a specific co-worker I risk them reading it and trouble occurring. Details about the happenings within the job itself could be confidential and I get in deep shit if I mention a detail I should not. That is why I rename locations and never specifically say where I work. It is usually not where but what that matters anyways.

While a certain person did cause the rant I did go off on last year the general message that whining constantly about something you are going to do nothing about is fucking stupid applies to everyone. Not that I am over what a so-and-so that person can be.

I am going to try and talk more about pen-and-paper gaming, as I have been at it for a long time and feel it is one of few things I am truly good at. Warroom Jr. (The Dorks to Teddy) are a great crew and our experiences and methods should provide a lot of opportunities to talk about a great many things beyond just what level my Rogue reached this week. Zero, by the way, we only just bought a D&D game (Well, an uber-3.5 edition to be exact) and have not made characters yet.

For those who are interested in the more personal: I am finally sorted out enough financially that soon I will not be paying off a debt and instead saving up for real estate ownership. I have a price range I am shooting for and the building I want a condo in is within that range. If alll goes well in two years I should have something set up. I also want to get a driver’s license so I can travel, a passport so I can travel out of Canada, a real range membership so I can stop looking at my cabinet thinking of selling the guns, and a gym membership so I try to trim a bit. It all adds up to being a proper adult at 30.

That is an adult that still plays video games, Warhammer, and enjoys a good scotch (Big on Oban these days). This crap about me having to get a woman and procreate has been old and tiresome since I was 18.

Working in the Control Centre I dreaded aftenoon shifts because Friday just after 1700 would always the calls: “Hi, I know it’s late notice but I need the boardroom booked for Monday at seven AM.” They would then get immensely upset when I inform them a lack of preparation on their part does not constitute an emergency on mine. The personnel and time to book a boardroom are gone, and if you knew about this meeting for so long why did you wait until the 13th hour to handle the easiest but most important part? Probably because you slacked off all week and realised too late Friday was already here and you still had shit to do.

I hate December because it is a whole month of that and Christmas all at the same time.

I like the evening of the 24th when the whole family gather, chats, gets drunk and opens presents. It will be even better now that little scampering kiddies are in the clan once again. Christmas day is nice because I tend to spend it with Mom and Dad and a warm mug of coffee, quietly enjoying their company. Occasionally with Teddy around to chat like we do not get enough chances to these days.

Just about every day before and after those is everyone realising everything they needed to get done for the year is not done yet. I finished everything last month and met all the dealines I was asked to, so I can cope with this in the current position I am in at work. However, so many other people are stressed out and worrying it cannot help but spill over to us bystanders. Couple that with the heavier rush-hour traffic thanks to the snow and holiday scaring everyone on to the TTC and the general mood just sucks.

I had my usual moment of Christmas Cheer early this year: On our way into the grocery store the Salvation Army band was playing. That always chokes me up. I was even startled to find said grocery store had turned off its muzak so everyone could hear them. I hope to see them again in the next week as they are the pick-me-up I need to get to the party without turning into a complete Grinch.

December should be when everyone is relaxed and contemplating the year about to pass, not running around screaming because they missed it going by.

A list of celebrities for which I have a new-found respect.

Cool.

Found this in Cracked.com’s Progressive Rock Topic. I found it hilarious if still not enough to get me on the Nickelback Hate Train. I am willing to bet you could do this to Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, Tool and All-American-Blink-41.

Yes: Tool. Sober and Stinkfist, GO!

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

-Carl Sagan, b. Nov 9

I just discovered this little experiment while I was doddling around during my lunch break. I really needed that warm feeling that comes from learning people do not always suck.

Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.

Take five extra minutes to look up the facts. Cracked.com’s article on toying with your own brain started with the too-good-to-be-true idea of Polyphasic Sleeping. I had broken out a day-timer and planned out how I could fit my life around 20-minute naps every four hours when the Onyszczak side of me redoubled its skepticism and made me dig through Google a little longer, finding the first link above.

Call me a sheep but I am going to side with the doctor and his scientific data instead of the bloggers. Personal experience with the war between sleep and shift work backs up Dr. Wozniak’s claims, too.