Weekend in the Bruce

I was utterly exhausted this past week. I came back from a weekend road-trip to Bruce Peninsula, which was fantastic except for the 13 hours I spent driving. The ride up was scenic and gorgeous; in addition to the wonderful farmlands and colourful trees I spotted 2 vultures by the roadside, a field of wind turbines, and an old-fashioned streetcar-turned-diner.

On the first day Christian and I arrived at the northern Bruce Peninsula at noon, unloaded at our wonderful B&B at Miller Lake (completely built by the owners themselves), and first headed to Dyer's Lake, which had some really interesting flat rocks creeping out into the Georgian Bay. We then spent the rest of our afternoon in Bruce Peninsula National Park, particularly around Cypress Lake where we started our hiking journey that lead us to the tall cliffs along the bay. The views were stunning throughout our trek along the Bruce Trail from the "wave pool" and caves of Half Indian Head, to rock climbing down into the Grotto (with an underwater passage to the Georgian Bay) and climbing back up to Boulder Beach, which was a huge expanse of, you guessed it, boulders. By the time we reached this area, Christian and I had just grew so tired of rocks... our ankles and feet were in complete pain after that rugged hike. The national park extends to the other end of the Peninsula so we drove over to Singing Sands beach facing Lake Huron to watch the sunset. For dinner we headed back to Dyer's Lake to eat at Applewood Inn, a quaint little restaurant recommended to us by our B&B hosts. Christian's soup and fish were delicious, but my veggie curry didn't taste at all like curry... more like tomatoes...? We shared a scrumptious fresh blueberry crêpe with ice cream afterwards which made up for my non-curry dinner. Afterwards I tried some super long exposure shots of the moonlit lake with my film SLR so I made Chris wait around for me for 30 min, hehe. I just submitted them for developing, but I hope they come out!

The next morning we woke up to a lovely breakfast of the yummiest raspberry blueberry scone (I'm trying to get the recipe from the host), fresh berries, eggs, bacon and toast with homemade jam. We high-tailed it to Tobermorey, situated at the northern tip of the Peninsula, where we took a ferry out to the Fathom Five National Marine Park (apparently this is the scuba diving capital of Canada). We ferried around the various islands and got off at Flowerpot Island, which is famous for its towering flowerpot rock structures that were carved out by pounding waves. On our way back to Tobermorey, the ferry took us to see two of the 22 shipwrecks in the park. The ferry had a glass-bottom floor so it was sooooooooo cool to see the shipwrecks. up close.

On our drive up the Peninsula the previous day we encountered the funniest signs for the Tobermorey Sweet Shop (for example, "Losing Weight? Fight Back! The Sweet Shop") so of course, we had to step inside. We ended up getting a single scoop of raspberry chocolate ice cream (deeeeeelish!) but the "single scoop" was really soup bowl jam packed with at least 3 scoops! And it was only $2, woo!

Being the sole driver on the trip, I had to drive us all the way back home after our exhausting weekend... not fun. Only upside was that I was able to make pit stops whenever I felt like it so I stopped a few times to take some pictures of the gorgeous road-side scenery. I've realized that I'm completely obsessed with wind turbines. And my bf seriously needs to get his license.

Maybe I Should Have Gotten a Mac

Ever since I brought my new Sony Vaio back to Toronto I ran into the problem of only being able to connect to wireless networks but not the internet via those networks (I was only able to connect to WiFi once in Montreal). I was downtown to try to do some work, but I tried various networks at coffee shops and at U of T, but no luck. No matter who I asked to look at my laptop, no one was able to help me. So I brought it to the Sony Store and all they could tell me was to restore it back to factory settings, but to perhaps call Sony support before I resort to their solution. I called Sony support and was on the phone with them for TWO freakin hours. OMG those people were unbelievable. The first 45 minutes was with some dude who, after I told him I couldn't connect to the internet, still told me to try to use my browser. Here's how it went:

Him: Try going to www.sony.com
Me: I can't reach it because I'm not connect to the internet.
Him: Ok, then try typing in www.google.com
Me: [What??] Um, still not working.
Him: Now try typing this [and he spelled out each character really slowly for me]... h, t, t, p, colon, slash, slash [and some random ip address]
Me: Still doesn't work [surprise surprise!!!]
Him: Ok try this other IP address then
Me: ............

I just sat there and I couldn't believe where this was headed. After I told him it was a no-go yet again he made me try some other useless stuff for I don't know how long. He gave up and passed me onto the next level of support,who was just as unhelpful. After another 45 minutes with the support person, she got really frustrated and I think she just wanted to give up. The next part of the conversation became quite ludicrous:

Her: Wait, are you running Vista Home or Business?
Me: Vista Home
Her: Hold on. [Goes off the phone for 5 minutes and comes back] Vista Home actually doesn't support networking.
Me: Um, WHAT?
Her: Yeah, only the Business version gives you networking capabilities. Vista Home doesn't have the networking capability to connect through servers and proxies [and she continues on without making any sense], and so you won't be able to connect anywhere outside your home.
Me: [WTH! Now I'm getting really peeved. Is she telling me that Microsoft is seriously that retarded?] So, you're basically saying that my computer is useless.
Her: Um, hold on please. [Puts me on hold for another 5 minutes and comes back to continue helping me as if the last 10 minutes didn't happen]

Basically, the support woman came to the conclusion that I had no recovery partition (even though I told her I could see the recovery partition) and was missing important files, which supposedly was the possible cause to my problem. Now I have a recovery and backup disk being delivered to me. Just great.

I took my laptop to the tech guys at Robarts library and within 10 minutes they were able to tell me that I was having problems because either my network card is too new since it's in draft version so it wasn't compatible with the older routers, or that my ip address was static. Turned out it was the latter, and after fishing around forever in Vista trying to find the IP properties, my problem was fixed and now I'm up and running. I hated my laptop before but now I love it :P

You Know You're a Computer Geek When...

1) You keep typing Denmark as Denmakr... every. single. time. (And yes, I had to go back to correct myself for the first spelling)

2) You type Cape Code without seeing a problem until someone points it out and calls you a computer geek.

I guess I have too much time on my hands so I googled my name for fun, and my site actually appears as the first result, woohoo! The last time I did that a few years ago I only appeared in a tutuorial class list on like page 4 or something- my name is way too common. My life is finally fulfilled.

Christmas in the Springtime

It's halfway through December and it's been unseasonably warm with temperatures hovering between 5-10 degrees. Crazy global warming- I want my snow! I should get moving along on my holiday duties. Aside from having only just mailed out some Christmas cards, I haven't started any of my Christmas shopping or decorated my tree (but it's up!) I can't help it, I don't get into the mood until crunch time. I actually found a fun site called Simon Sez Santa which is an interactive video version of the game Simon Says. Santa will do some hilarious things if you give him the right command. My favourite is "kill rudolph".

In Flight

A couple of weekends ago I had my In Flight exhibit opening at Pearson Airport's Terminal 1. It was the public preview day for the new Pier F that will handle transborder flights (Terminal 1 will continue to expand until eventually replacing Terminal 2 entirely). The new space was really nice and the long pier led to an open space where a massive steel sculpture called Tilted Sphere The most impressive aspect of the piece was when you go into the middle or through the side passages you could hear some really great echoes resonating all around you.

The unfortunate thing about my exhibit was that the pieces were in glass frames which where then all displayed behind another sheet of glass so there was a lot of glare coming at the viewer. In any case, it was exciting to be a part of the exhibit and I ended up taking a bunch of photos of my piece along with the other works on display. Our final stop for the day was the artist reception, where we got to pig out on many delectable goodies.

Hockey

Ball hockey season ended on Monday with our final playoff game against 1maniacs (aka "whine" maniacs). That team played so rough and their guys were even body checking us girls, which was peeving me off. I was still harbouring some anger from our previous match against them in which I was tripped to the ground, body checked by guys twice my size, slashed in the ankle and elbowed in the face. So during this week's game, when one of the guys flicked up my stick to keep from hitting the ball, my stick flew up near his face. He starting whining that I was high sticking and that I almost hit him in the face. I was like, dude, you inflicted that on yourself! Yet he wouldn't stop complaining and yelling at me, so then I proceeded to call him a jerk :O No more miss nice girl. The rest of the game continued on with their ridiculous antics. We were originally losing but near the end we started to come back for a tiebreaker. I played so hard like I had never played before and we finally won in sudden death! Whoopee, all that work for 2nd last place :P Victory is oh so sweet!

Super Mario Brothers

Check out this hilarious live rendition of a Super Mario Brothers level. Oh the nostalgia!

A Daily Dose of Randomness

How many times can you go awwww to these poor creatures or at these adorable quotes? My favourites: "I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones" and "When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you".

And what's up with this "spring" weather? Looks like winter and spring had swapped places this year. Apparently spring comes earlier and earlier every year... back in the day we all remember March 21 as the vernal equinox. Recently it's been happening on March 20 and soon, spring will arrive March 19... all due to our weird calendar system and imperfect crazy gravitational forces on the Earth. Now we all learned something today.

Happy Festivus

Inspired by Seinfeld's made-up nondeonimational holiday ("a Festivus for the rest of us!"), Christian's office celebrated Festivus last night in lieu of Christmas party in December like normal people. It turned out to be a fun night of amazing food (tried filet mignon for the first time, yum!), zany dances around the tables, and conga lines through the dining hall. The wildest scene of all was when one person from each table got up and danced on their chairs while swung their napkins around over their heads, and then chugged their glasses of wine... all within the fancy ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Good times.

Answers To Identity Crisis

Online quizzes are fun. They tell you what kind of person you are (without any requisite soul searching) and predict your life's future concerning anything ranging from relationships to what you should major in. I am proud to proclaim that I now know what kind of donut am I and what kind of person I really was in high school.

Arty Kid

Whether you were a drama freak or an emo poet, you definitely were expressive and unique. You're probably a little less weird these days - but even more talented!

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

Don't Vote. Eat Your Ballot!

Since I have a recipe theme running through my last few posts, and seeing how it's election day tomorrow, I found a few recipes for edible ballots. So go out and pick up your ballot!

Lighten Up

I stumbled up some of Ken Rockwell's humourous articles entitled Seven Levels of Photographers and Seven Levels of Artists. He also offers his opinion on why Your Camera Does Not Matter. While I agree that compelling images are captured by the photographer and not the camera, sometimes a really terrible camera/lens can make a potentially stunning image look like garbage (I unfortunately had to use one of those when I broke my camera). On the other hand, I do know some people who are all about their equipment and lusting after the newest set of expensive lenses (and who happen to be in CS, no surprise) who have only snapshots of friends and family to show for all of it. I guess I'm in the middle of the spectrum- I'm pretty picky about the camera equipment I invest in, but I love playing around with different toy cameras and experimenting with ways of using film.

Wow, I'm Really Not A Geek?!

This made me laugh!

The Poser Geek You answered 57% of the questions as a geek truly would.

As a poser geek, you're trying too damned hard. There's a strong possibility that you think you're a geek because you own your own computer, however you're truly missing the bigger picture. You aspirations of being a geek mainly come from your friends, who are probably slightly cooler. Get rid of those thick black-rimmed glasses. Being a geek isn't about style, it's about substance! So what's this all mean? It means you're probably a pretty cool person. You've probably got social graces and are well liked by many people. While not a complete conformist, you do prefer to follow along with popular culture. True geeks probably laugh at you behind your back. In a nutshell, you answered most question how you thought a geek WOULD answer, but your misconceptions deceived you. Truth is, 60% of people are geekier than you.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 10% on geekness

Link: The True Geek Test written by ambientred on Ok Cupid

Cute But Psycho

You are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You're adorable, but a little out there. It's alright, you might not have it all, but there are worse which happy bunny are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Killing Time

Waaaah!

Guess who these characters are!

The Economics of Relationships

This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands!

What Pie Flavour Are You?

find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com

Exam Time

Ok it's exam time, so it's time to get down to studying right? Err... more like doing some online quizzes.

What am I?

The Sonnet
Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDf)

Romantic, hopeful, and composed. You are the Sonnet. Get it? Composed?

Sonnets want Love and have high ideals about it. They're conscientious people, caring & careful. You yourself have deep convictions, and you devote a lot of thought to romance and what it should be. This will frighten away most potential mates, but that's okay, because you're very choosy with your affections anyway. You'd absolutely refuse to date someone dumber than you, for instance.

Lovers who share your idealized perspective, or who are at least willing to totally throw themselves into a relationship, will be very, very happy with you. And you with them. You're already selfless and compassionate, and with the right partner, there's no doubt you can be sensual, even adventurously so.

You probably have lots of female friends, and they have a special soft spot for you. Babies do, too, at the tippy-top of their baby skulls.

Your exact opposite:
Genghis Khunt (Random Brutal Sex Master)

ALWAYS AVOID: The 5-Night Stand, The False Messiah, The Hornivore, The Last Man on Earth

CONSIDER: The Loverboy

So You Want To Learn Japanese...

I just read this HILARIOUS essay about learning Japanese. Here's the opener:

You've eaten at a few Japanese restaurants, seen some anime, hosted an exchange student, and had a Japanese girlfriend. And now, somewhere in the back of your tiny brain, you think that Japanese would be a good language to learn. Hey, you could translate video games! Or Manga! Or even Anime! Pick up Japanese girls, impress your friends! Maybe you'll even go to Japan and become an anime artist! Yeah! Sounds like a great idea!

So you head down to the library, pick up some books with titles like "How To Teach Yourself Japanese In Just 5 Seconds A Day While Driving Your Car To And From The Post Office" and "Japanese For Complete And Total, Utter Fools Who Should Never Procreate". Hey, you already know a few words from your manga collection / girlfriend / anime. Excited and impressed with your new knowledge, you begin to think: "Hey. Maybe, just maybe, I could do this for a living! Or even major in Japanese! Great Idea, Right?

WRONG.

Source: The Foreigner

I was actually thinking of taking Japanese next year... maybe I should reconsider :P

The MINI Driver Psychological Exam

How did you fare?

I'm Mikan Boya

This Is How Ice Cream Is Made

Haha, so cute!

For All You Computer Geeks Out There

I thought this was hilarious. This would be really useful to Bart Simpson.

Po-mo Axioms

~ I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
~ Needing someone is like needing a parachute. IF he isn't there the first time, chances are you won't be needing him again.
~ I don't have an attitude problem; you have a perception problem.
~ My reality check bounced.
~ On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.
~ Never argue with an idiot. He drags you down to his leve, then beats you with experience.
~ Be careful: A pat on the back is only a few centimetres from a kick in the butt.
~ Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you won't be promoted.
~ Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
~ What should you give a man who has everything?
A woman to show him how it works

-- Source: Toronto Star