The security cards that control the elevators aren’t working here today, which means that we all get to sign in before stepping onto an elevator. Not a big deal, but on all the other floors, they have security access doors that they’ve locked down (normally they’re just locked after hours) instead. On this floor though, we have no lobby doors, so the office is wide open to whoever wants to walk in and help themselves. Honestly I don’t think it’s a big deal, but it has happened in the past. Having a security guard in the main lobby probably deters any would be thieves though.

Pretty quiet weekend - I went to the mediclinic to have my throat looked at (nothing obviously wrong, likely viral, I get to wait it out) and that’s about it.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Whatsamatta Homer? You’re not your usual effervescent self.” - Moe

My MythTV computer has been up and running for a while now - I have it downloading listings, and making recordings of shows (mainly as a test) which it’s been successful at. Yesterday I installed some software on the laptop that lets me stream those recordings, and watch them on the laptop. It works pretty well - via the MythWeb interface, I just have to click on a thumbnail of a show, and it starts playing.

I have a bit of a problem with the way I’ve set up the capture - I can’t get it to change channels - but that should be solvable by just changing inputs. Last night I put a blank DVD in the burner before I went to bed, and I set it to burn a couple of shows to DVD today. I’ll check it when I get home, but all accounts show that it seems to have worked. I guess the next step is to get that wall finished up so I can fire up the projector :)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Damn it Smithers, this is brain surgery not rocket science!” - Mr. Burns

I updated the backend on this site two nights ago, and it seems to have gone pretty smoothly. I also updated all the other sites on this server over the last couple of days (though not Bryan’s, because his template is too big for a simple upgrade - he’s not using it right now anyway.) As a result, the “next/previous” buttons at the very bottom of the page now work properly everywhere. That means that if you search for something, you’re not restricted to the five most recent hits anymore, which is a nice bonus.

What’s kind of funny though, is that the comment spammers found the new version of the site right away, and the new breed of comment spam that I was getting wasn’t exactly as nice as the texas holdem goofs. Once again, none of it got through, but there were about a dozen that I had to moderate.

The commenting system has changed a little bit too, which means that maybe more comments will wind up in the moderation queue at first. There’s a whitelist feature, so once you’ve successfully had a comment approved you shouldn’t have to wait for me to approve future comments. Of course that would be really easy to manipulate, but I’m still running all my other anti-comment spam arsenal, so if someone decided to turn evil on me, they’d probably still have no luck.

What else is new? Well, our new dishwasher has turned out to be a real lemon - the fine folks who sold it to us are replacing it early next week because it doesn’t do anything anymore (other than sit there and take up space.) Unfortunately it was discovered to be broken when it was full and ready to be run, so I got to pull all the dishes out of it and wash them by hand. Wasn’t too bad though. Imagine what life must have been like before such modern conveniences ;)

I remember when I was a little kid, and my mom would talk about how they didn’t have TV (or whatever technology) when she was a kid, and I’d think - wow, life must have been a lot different then. Well, looking back to when I was a kid, we didn’t have a lot of the things that we take for granted now - computers being the primary one, but there are lots of other things, like digital cameras, mp3 players, cell phones, satellite tv, dvd players - heck the VCR was a major revolution in my lifetime. It’s hard to imagine what William’s list will look like when he’s approaching 30.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “And then they realized that they were no longer little girls…they were little women. (sniff)” - Moe

I got a new PC at work, so I’m busily working through getting it set up properly. It’s a fun/frustrating thing, because I wind up missing some tiny little piece of functionality that I’d set up on my old machine, and I have to figure out how I did that in the first place. When you’ve had the same PC for 3 years, it kind of feels like an old shoe - very worn in and comfortable.

Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to have the new faster machine, and especially the new pretty LCD monitor.

I also get to deal with new versions of some key software, which is always a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you have all the new functionality, and lots of old annoyances are gone. On the other hand, it’s not quite the same, and getting it to work like the old software did in certain instances can be tough. I think the good outweighs the bad though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Well, anyone who beats you up for wearing a shirt isn’t your friend.” - Marge

So I was sick last week. I stayed home on Tuesday and Wednesday, then was too busy catching up on Thursday to post here, then I went home at lunch on Friday because my head was swimming. I’m still a little sick, but I’m a lot better than I was last week.

So what happened last week? I spent a lot of time sleeping, sneezing, coughing, and taking medicine. Oh yeah, and Thursday was William’s birthday, so we had parts of my family over for cake and ice cream. William didn’t blow out his candles, which is kind of funny because he blew out the candles at most of the recent birthday parties he attended without any problem. He really enjoyed having his uncles and his Grandma come for a visit. Mom got William a little train set that he absolutely loves, and a couple of play hats (a cowboy hat and a pirate hat) as well as a couple of dancing animals (the kind where you push in the base, and it loosens tension on the animal’s joints, and they kind of dance around.) We got him a Leappad and a Thomas the Tank Engine book to go with it. He wasn’t enthused about it at first, but now that he knows how it works, he likes playing with it quite a bit too. I think he’s a little bit too young for it just yet, but I don’t think it’ll be too long…He already has the whole “press the green go button when you change the page” bit down pat.

Not much else that’s newsworthy around these parts - at least not much that I can remember at the moment. I’m probably forgetting something big, but you have to excuse me, my head is still a little [can’t think of a good word for here - see what I mean?]

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Nacho, Nacho Man! I want to be a Nacho Man!” - Homer

Erin and William came back into town Friday night, which was good. I don’t think William stopped smiling until he was fast asleep Friday night. I think he quite missed being home, and playing with Daddy.

Saturday, we went out for lunch with Erin’s grandparents (who had driven Erin and William home from Edmonton) and then said our goodbyes. Saturday night we went to my parents’ place to visit. Auntie Diana was in town for a conference of some sort, so there was a family dinner. After a practical joke was played over the phone, we played a bunch of cards, then headed home to bed. Fast forward to about 1:30AM (cue ominous music) and Erin yells at me “turn on the lights” while I hear sounds of gagging coming from the other side of the bed. I got the lights on, just in time to see William puking up whatever supper/desert he’d eaten. He was pretty calm about it and everything, but still…Anyway, five hours and dozens of pukes later, we finally got back to sleep. Unfortunately William woke up at 10:00 or something, so the day was begun anew at that point. He seemed fine until later in the afternoon, when he woke up from his nap and spewed his lunch all over the place. Again, he was more upset by what he’d puked on than anything else. Fortunately that was the last of the vomit, and by bedtime he was his old rambunctious self again.

Apparently he hadn’t been eating well for the duration of the Alberta trip, so it’s possible that he was sick the whole time, culminating in our enjoyable Saturday night (oh yeah, it was accompanied by explosive diarrhoea too - for all of William’s future girlfriends…Something like 10 diapers worth, no kidding.)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” - Homer

I emerged a bunch of stuff last night, so my MythTV machine is getting closer and closer to being ready to go. In fact, I have a working web server on it, though you can’t get at it from the outside world. I think I’ll wait until it’s more stable before I move these sites over to it.

I also thought I’d have a look at what the projector looks like projecting TV onto the mudded wall, so while I was working on the computer, I fired up the projector, and flipped the channel until I got tired of standing there (I didn’t have a remote with me, and didnt really feel like looking for one.) It looked pretty good, considering the vast differences in color between the mudded sections and the non-mudded sections. The stripes on people’s heads were only slightly distracting, but since I wasn’t really paying much attention to the screen, it wasn’t a big deal.

Erin and William should be getting back into town tonight, which will be good. The house has been too quiet without them. I think Erin’s had a rough trip, so I don’t know if they’ll be doing that again any time soon.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “You’re doing a bang-up job, Mitch.” - Bart