Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my blog, but there's been ****-all going on recently, so I haven't really had anything to post about. The highlight for this month is that my mom is going to the States next week, so I'll have the house to myself. I am soooo looking forward to that.

Not much going on in the way of work... same old, same old... it gets quite dull sometimes actually.

blah... blah.... blah....

I feel so braindead and tired right now... I think I'm going to sign-off before I really start rambling on about nothing...

It's been a while, hasn't it? My contract at the OGS ended about 2 weeks ago, so that's why I haven't been posting, I haven't been at work and I haven't been able to get over to my mom's boyfriend's place to use his computer. (Shock horror! Yes, I used the computers at work for personal stuff!! Gasp!)

I'm working now though. I'm back in the labs. I just started this week. I'm in a different lab than I was before, it's much dirtier than the lab I was in. It's not too bad though, and there's another girl in the lab with me, so at least there's someone else to talk to.

Anyway, I have to keep this one short, so I'm signing off now. Hopefully it won't be as long until my next post.

Well, I just went for my afternoon coffee break, and on the table someone had put one of those catalogues where you can order those inspirational poster thingies so I started leafing through it. Most of the quotes were pretty good, but cheesy. I did, however, find a couple of quotes worthy of posting, and here they are:

"Greatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. Me must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but sail we must, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

This next one had no source attached to it:

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens; not by what life brings us, but by the attitude we bring to life."

There was more to that last one, but it made me want to look for some crackers (as in, I found it cheesy) so I didn't include it.

Didn't realize this, but my previous post was my 50th! I've just added some notes to my pictures on Flickr, if you weren't able to see the puffins or whatever, go scroll over the photo and a box will pop up around it.

Yeah, that was annoying. This computer is having issues, I had to type up my previous post 3 times before I could publish it. It kept on disappearing. I'm going to try to do these last two TWQs in one post, keep your fingers crossed. TWQ #2: Which movies to you become teary eyed during? I was able to come up with four for this one, three of which require no real explanation if you've seen them. Top Gun It's A Wonderful Life Titanic To Kill A Mockingbird -- ok, this is the one that requires the explanation. It's going to be too clumbsy to try to describe the whole scene, so I'm going to see if I can explain the setting of the one line that makes me teary. It's when Atticus is defending an African American and loses. As he walks out of court, all of the people in the balcony, who are all African Americans, stand up. One of them grabs the elbow of Atticus' daughter and says to her "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father is passing." It's the amount of respect that they show Atticus that gets to me. TWQ #3: What are your favourite movie quotes? This is his latest question, it was for this past weekend. I haven't been able to think of all of my favourites, but I was able to think of quite a few. There's a couple where I might be paraphrasing, but the gist of it is there. "As God as my witness, I shall never go hungry again." -- Scarlett, Gone With The Wind "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." -- Rhett, Gone With The Wind "After all, tomorrow is another day." -- Scarlett, Gone With The Wind "Rosebud." -- Citizen Kane "No Elvis is not dead, he simply went home." -- K, Men In Black "Shit." -- Data, Star Trek Generations "Bilbo was meant to find the ring, which means you were also meant to have it, and that is a very encouraging thought." -- Gandalf, The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring "Of all the gin joints in all the world, she had to walk into mine." -- Rick, Casablanca "If you don't get on that plane, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but someday." -- Rick, Casablanca "Here's looking at you kid." -- Rick, Casablanca "This could be the start of a beautiful friendship." -- Rick, Casablanca There's another one from Lord of The Rings that I want to put up here, but I have to watch the scene again in order to get the exact words. It's right around the same point of the line that I put up, when Gandalf is talking to Frodo. I can't remember what Frodo says, but the line is from Gandalf, and it starts 'So do all who live to see such times...' but I can't remember it all. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to watch the movie again. Yeah, right. Like I need and excuse to watch that movie. ;-)

Ok, I finally got around to answering some of "The Weekend Questions (TWQ)" as posted by Jean-Luc Picard, so here we go. TWQ #1: Name 5 Songs Recognizable by Their Intros Only My first response to this was 'I can only choose 5?' So here are the 14 I came up with. The Eagles: Desperado, Take It To The Limit, and Hotel California The Beatles: Let It Be, and All You Need Is Love Micheal Buble: Save The Last Dance, and Home (sorry, don't know how to put on the accent) Sara McLachlan: Angel Josh Groban: You Raise Me Up Celine Dion: My Heart Will Go On The Muppets: Rainbow Connection (you heard me, I said The Muppets!) Brian Adams: Everything I Do, and Cloud Number Nine

I Knew There Was Something Else...

...that I wanted to tell you. The last of my photos from St. John's are now up on Flickr.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

or... "There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home" Well, our flights home were certainly a lot better than our flights there. There was no stop in Halifax, it was a direct flight to Toronto. It felt very good to sleep in my own bed last night. Hello Sudbury!!

Final Day - Travelling

Well, I'm sitting at the airport right now. Don't you just love wireless technology? Didn't really do much in the morning, but I did get the chance to take some pics of the architecture, and of the infamous George Street. I didn't, however, get the chance to put them up on the net. I'll do that as soon as I get the chance.

Not much else to say, we're just sitting here at the airport waiting to board our flight from St. John's to Toronto, with a probable stop in Halifax, then from Toronto on home to Sudbury.

I loved it here, it was great. I am so glad I came. The people were great, the food was great, the places were great. I would like to come back again, see more of the province.

Good bye St. John's!!

I Forgot AGAIN

I completely forgot to tell you about dinner last night. We went to the Keg. I had crab and lobster for the very first time. The crab was wonderful. I can't really describe the taste of it, but it was yummy. The lobster, though, is a different story. I found the texture very rubbery. I didn't like it at all.

Forgot again...

I know I said that I had taken more photos, but I forgot to mention that I put them up on Flickr.

Day 3 - Cape Spear

...or 'There Be Whales Here!'

We went to Cape Spear this morning. This is the most easterly point in North America. I got some nice pictures. There isn't much to see there, just some lighthouses, and the remains of a WW2 battery, but there were whales out there today. It was so cool! I saw whales! Up to that point, going to Signal Hill was my favourite part of coming here, but the whales so top that. I'm not entirely sure what kind of whales they were, I think they might have been Humpback.

After lunch we drove to Bay Bull's (no, it's not supposed to be Bull's Bay) and went on a whale watching tour. We didn't see any, but they also take you past two islands that are bird sanctuary's. We saw tons of birds. Most of them gulls, but there were also Puffins, and Common Murs, which are also known in Newfoundland as Turs.

All in all it was a great day. Seeing the whales at Cape Spear made up for not seeing any during the tour, but even if we hadn't seen any, the boat ride and the birds were certainly worth it.

Missing Info

I forgot to tell you about the end of the day on Saturday (Day 2). It was the last day of the convention, so that night there was a 'Member's Gala'. The outgoing Lt. Governors were introduced and they walked in with their spouses, and then the incoming Lt. Governors did the same, so I got to walk into dinner infront of 500 people. Yay. The meal was excellent, soup, salad, and entree. Oh, and cheesecake for dessert. They had music and dancing afterwards, but I was way too tired to stick around.

It was a good end to the convention.

Almost forgot to tell you that I uploaded another couple of photos from today. There aren't many as the weather wasn't very cooperative, but I hope to take quite a few tomorrow.

Day 2 - Joseph Geo Centre

... or a Study In Newfoundland Time.

We went up to see Joseph Geo Centre today. It's on the way to Signal Hill, just below Cabot Tower. It was neat, it was kinda like the St. John's version of Science North. They had a little thing about the geology of Newfoundland, like the different theatres located in Science North. Then they had a bunch of different displays, talking about Our Earth, Our People, Our Future, and a fourth thing that I can't remember. They also had a display about Exxon and oil, which was kinda interesting, lots of hands on stuff, again, like Science North, and the really cool thing there was a display about the Titanic. It went right from the building of her to the sinking of her, giving a lot of info that isn't common knowledge. I leart a lot of stuff. Most of it was in panels, and there were arrows on the floor pointing you in the right direction, so you read the panels in order. They also had little displays of stuff. Like, with the panels that explained about the different Classes, they had reproductions of the dinner sets each Class would use, and models of what the room looked like. In some of the displays there were also artifacts from the Titanic, or from people connected to the Titanic, and they also had reproductions of different things, and also props from James Cameron's movie. It was a real learning experience.

Now onto why I also call this post "A Study in Newfoundland Time". We went to a little cafe across from the hotel for lunch. Big mistake. We ordered our food around noon, and it was close to 1 by the time we finally got it. There were four people who were seated after us who got served their food before us. We were not impressed, we are going to find somewhere else to have our meals tomorrow.

We didn't do much in the afternoon, just hung around the hotel. Oh! One of the little boutiques here has a thing called "Aqua Massage". My mom and I did it, it feels wonderful. I'm going to see if they will allow me to take a picture of one of the beds, because I don't know if I'm going to be able to describe it properly. You don't get wet or anything, there's a waterproof liner between you and the water, you just have to take off your shoes, and any jewlery, belts, etc. If you get the chance to do this, I highly suggest you do it. I am so going back for another couple of sessions.

Tomorrow we're going to Cape Spear and whale watching. Hopefully. That's the plan. The weather has been pretty cool here, and today it really rained out. I really don't want to be out on a boat, in the Atlantic Ocean, in the rain.

Well, I'm so tired, I'm afraid I'm going to stop making sense soon, or is it already too late?

Day 1 - End of the Day

Well, just got back from the big dinner and entertainment. The theme for the night was Newfoundland night, and, sorry to say, there were more dishes that I didn't like than those I did. The cod nuggets were really good, along with the meatballs and moose sausages, but that's about all I liked, not counting the sandwiches they had. The Screech was really good though. ;-)

The entertainer they had was Sheila Williams. She was wonderful, she really knew her audience. We sang along to almost every song, and there were quite a few people who started dancing. I had fun, even though I'm still a little hungry.

I have posted my pictures to Flickr, but when I tried to add the link to my sidebar, something happened when I tried to republish my blog, so I'm just going to put the addy here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45844725@N00/

Hopefully that will lead you to my photos. If not, just go to the Flickr homepage www.flickr.com (the 'e' is supposed to be missing), click on the link for 'Explore Flickr' link. On the new page that opens, near the top there will be a 'Search' link. Click on that and you will have the option to search for 'People'. The name I use at Flickr is Pat007. Hopefully those instructions are clear enough. I'm pretty tired right now, so I couldn't tell you.

Day 1 - Signal Hill

I've had a pretty full day today, and it's not even over yet. We're back at the hotel for a bit until we go out again tonight around 6. We slept in a little this morning (thank God) then we headed off for Signal Hill. It's really close to the hotel, it didn't take us long to get there. I got some really nice pictures, it's an absolutely glorious view. I wouln't mind heading back up there, there are some really nice walking trails, and I want to check out the one called "Ladies Way". I'm pretty sure that's what it's called anyway, I know it's Ladies something. My mom and I think it's called that because it's where all the women would go to look for the ships their husbands were on.

Everything is pretty close to everything else here, though I'm glad we rented a car. You wouldn't be able to walk to Signal Hill from here, and even though we're pretty much downtown, and all the shops are really close, the streets are very hilly. Like, think San Fransisco and you get the idea.

There's a lot of wonderful architecture here as well, though I haven't had the opportunity to take any pictures of it yet. The Supreme Court building is beautiful, and there is a marvelous looking church not too far from here. Couldn't tell ya the denomination of the church, there are signs near it that say something about Anglican, and there's one advertising a Catholic crypt tea room (how would you like to have tea in a crypt? Is this really a popular thing to do?)

Our hotel is really close to the harbour, and I mean really close. There's the street that the hotel is on, then the street next to it, and the next street is the one that runs along the water. There's been a big ship docked in front of our room all day, it was kinda neat watching them load all the containers onto it.

I think tomorrow I'm going to ask someone at the front desk were George Street is. Apparently that's where all the action is. They even have a George Street festival every year. It's where all the bars are, and where all the sailors are apparently.

Anyway, I'm going to go see if I can upload these pictures to the net somewhere, maybe set up an account on Flickr. I'll let you know if I end up putting them somewhere.

We're Here!!!.... Finally

a.k.a... There But For The Grace of God Go I....

Don't even get me started on all the trouble we had with our flights... it's a miracle we made it here while it was still actually Thursday. Every flight was late... and I mean every. We were supposed to fly out of Sudbury at 9:45, our flight was cancelled an rescheduled for 11:45. We were late getting into Toronto, so my mom and I had to run to catch our connector, only to find out that is was going to be boarding almost an hour later than it was supposed to. Then when we got to Halifax, late of course, (just a layover, no change in planes or anything) we had around a 45 minute wait because they had issues with their flight attendants. So, needless to say, we were very late getting into St. John's. We didn't get in until after 9 p.m., Nfld time (any times are going to be in Newfie time). We were originally supposed to be here around 5 p.m., then the change to 11:45 bumped it to 8:15. Ah, well, at least we got some free food out of it. We got offered a meal on our Toronto-St.John's flight, but it costs money to get it, our flight didn't have any change so we got our food for free because they still had to give us food. Should have gotten a mixed drink. You always think of these things afterward.

Well, I'm pretty beat and everyone here is ready for bed, so I'm signing off. I'll post again whenever I get the chance.

Is This An Omen? I Hope Not.

I should be at the airport right now. But where am I? I'm at my mom's boyfriend's place writing this because our flight got cancelled and rescheduled to later in the day. I think it's because there weren't enough people on the earlier flight. So I had to come over here and email him because we couldn't get through to him on his cell to let him know about the change in flights. Now instead of getting to St. John's in the middle of the afternoon, we aren't going to be getting there until after 8.

Anybody mind if I take this opportunity to RANT?? Anyone? Oh, good.

I HATE COMPUTERS!!

For the past half hour I have not been able to do any kind of work, because the program I need to use keeps on crashing. It all started when stupid McAfee started doing it's stupid Friday morning scan, and I could tell when the stupid scan started because it almost froze my stupid computer. From that point on, the program I was using started acting up, now I keep on getting that stupid "Application Recovery Wizard" window popping up. It's enough to make one scream, and throw the stupid computer out the stupid window. (Note: In previous paragrah, please replace 'stupid' with much stronger words that would probably get me flagged. Thank you.)

That's it, I'm going to lunch.

So many things to talk about... where to start?

First off... ever have one of those days? I'm having one of those days, or at least, one of those afternoons. Grr... nothing seems to be going right, or just when I think it is, something goes wrong. Very annoying.

Seondly... Viva Italia!! Yes, I know I'm a little late... shoot me

Thirdly... I can't believe it's only, like, another week and a half until I leave for Newfoundland. I don't know if I'm going to be able to post any pics or anything while I'm there, but I'll try to get to it ASAP when I get back.

I can't think of anything else to say. I know my brain was here this morning, I don't know where it is at the moment. I think it's a good thing that it's almost the end of the day. No new animals to report.

Hmm... that's about it.

Happy July and even happier Friday!! (Thank God, I never thought that Friday would get here. For a short week, this one has seemed very, incredibly, long).

Ever have this happen to you: you have the radio on, but you're not really listening to it, it's just background noise, but then there is a set of lyrics or a certain tune or whatever that catches your ear? That happened to me the other day. One of the guys in the office has the radio on a country station, and I was hearing it, but not really listening until some lyrics caught my attention: "I am Rosemarie's granddaughter, the spitting image of my father, and at the end of the day, my mother's still my biggest fan." Recognize the song? I heard that line and perked up... "Hey, I recognize that, it's the 'Sue Thomas' theme song." Until that point in time, I never realized that it was an actual song, I just thought it was a theme song. So I looked it up... the song is called "Who I Am" and it's by Jessica Andrews. There, now you know.

Oh, and I'm up to 18 with the animals. I saw a rabbit in my backyard (yes it counts, it's wild, not someone's pet who happened to escape) and on the way back from my camp I saw a deer.

You've probably noticed a slight change in my post today. That's because I'm probably not going to get the chance to post tomorrow, so I'm taking the time today to say:

HAPPY 139th BIRTHDAY CANADA!!!

Just thought it would be a good idea to update my animal list, so here it is:

--bear (x3)
--deer
--moose
--fox (x6, 4 of which are kits)
--beaver (x2)
--partridge
--raccoon
--porcupine

Ya gotta love IT. Only they will send around an email saying that they are having problems with several email servers and that people with accounts on those servers 'aren't able to send or recieve email at this time'. Yah, that's really helpful. The people who can read that don't really care, and the people who are affected not only can't get the message, they more than likely already know that there are issues with the servers at the moment. Your tax dollars pay their sallary people. Be afraid, be very afraid.

On the plus side, I am now up to 16 animals. I saw two fox kits when I went cleaning on the weekend (even though they are the same ones I've already seen, it still counts) and on Monday or Tuesday I saw a bear at work. It was across the street from the building I work in, I saw it as I was waiting for the water to boil for my tea.

Hey check this out! I found this site, blogthings.com, and they have a bunch of different surveys you can do, and they provide code so you can post your results. Well, I just did one called "Who's Your Inner European?" and check out the answer: Your Inner European is Irish! Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table. Who's Your Inner European? Uncanny or what?

Two more animals to add to my list! I went down to Manitoulin yesterday and I saw a baby bear and a deer. That makes 13 so far, and my mom has yet to see one. For those of you who missed it, way back in April I talked about a contest my mom and I have each summer to see who can spot the most "wild" animals (squirrels and the like don't count). There's no prize for the winner, except bragging rights (dammit!). In my last post I gave a list of all the animals I've seen to date, not counting the bear and deer I saw yesterday.

It is so quiet up here at work lately. The field season started last week, so nearly half the floor is gone for the summer. In a way that's good, because I don't have 50 million things to do that are all due at the same time, but in a way it's bad, because it means I can run out of stuff to do very easily. I guess time will tell.

Don't you just love it when there's a big thunderstorm at the same time you're working on a networked computer? (Can you sense my sarcasm? Yes? Good.) You could tell when the storm was overhead because the lights flickered, the computer monitors went out briefly, and the network connection went down. I took this as my cue to "Save". The storm was so big that at one point, it was hailing.

I should update you about the animal spotting contest. I'm up to 11 animals. My mom doesn't have any yet. Let's see if I can remember what I've seen (this isn't necessarily the order in which I've seen the animals, just the order in which I remember them):

--bear
--moose
--fox (x2)
--beaver (x2)
--partridge
--fox kit (x2)
--raccoon
--porcupine

I think that's all that I have to say for today. I do plan on putting those surveys and questions and stuff in my blog, it's just a matter of finding the time to do it. Somehow, I think doing it from work would be pushing it.

It seems to be longer and longer between posts. There have been a couple of times where I've thought of something that I want to put in my blog, but when I get the chance to post, I always forget what it was that I wanted to say.

I think I have an idea for my next posts though... I've been reading a fictitious blog that someone has been writing from the point of view of Jean-Luc Picard (Captain of the Enterprise in Stark Trek: The Next Generation for those of you who aren't sci-fi fans). Anyway, what he does for the weekend is post a question.. like name your "5 favourite books and why" kind of thing. He also puts up those quiz things, like the ones that you get emailed to you. What I'm thinking of doing is going back through his blog (I'm almost caught up to date) and answer certain questions, and perhaps do a few of his quizes.

Oh, and if anyone likes Star Trek, you have to go read his blog, but go with a sense of humour.

Since this is my 25th post, I thought I'd show you a picture of my cats. We have two cats, the orange one is named Simon and the brown one is Joy (no, she is not grey, she is a brown tabby). The dresser they are sitting on is in my mother's bedroom, and it's tall enough for them to see out of the window from. They love to sit up there and watch the birds that are in the backyard.

When I first downloaded this picture from my camera, I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to keep it because of how dark it was, but I was able to save it using the software that came with my HP printer. Instead of playing with the brightness and contrast to try to lighten it without washing it out, I was able to use the "digital flash" feature that the software has. It worked like a charm, this picture is the fixed up one. I was also able to make a really cool one of Joy. By turning the brightness on this photo way down, there's kinda a silhouette thing that happens because of the way the light is shining on her.

Long time, no post! I have been pretty busy at work since everyone has come back from the trip. It seems like everyone needs everything done NOW. It's not too bad though, at least it keeps me out of trouble. ;-)

My computer at home is working like a dream. I really like the photo software that came with the printer, I've been able to really fix up some pictures that I thought I'd never be able to keep. If you like putting special effects on your pictures though, like the different brush strokes and stuff, you should consider also getting ACDSee or CorelPhotoPaint. It's also a treat being able to play my games on my computer, and not have to go over to my mom's boyfriend's place to use his computer. Did I ever tell you that I ended up getting the same keyboard I have at work for home? The guy I got my computer from had some in stock, (for cheaper than what they were at Staples) so I thought, hey why not. My mom hates it. She tried using it the other day to type something up and she ended up giving up, saying she would type it up at work.

Not much else is going on with me at the moment.

Oh, in case I don't get the chance to post again before the weekend... Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's already May 1st! Where does the time go? The irises are starting to grow in the garden, the leaves on the trees are about ready to start opening, spreading lovely, lovely pollen everywhere... I hate having allergies.

It's pretty quiet up here today. About half of the floor are gone on a field trip up to Hemlo. Not sure exactly where that is, somewhere north I think.

Okay, okay, so I made a mistake -- sue me. I forgot that Office XP came out in 2002 and not 2003, so chances are, at some point, I'm going to be upgraded and more than likely lose Access.

Every summer my mom and I have a contest between ourselves to see who can spot the most wild animals (as in, squirrels, chipmunks, and the more common birds don't count; cranes, moose, bears and whatnot do). There's no real prize except bragging rights. Well, this year's contest has already started, and I'm winning. I saw a bear on my way home from practice last night. I haven't seen many black bears in person, so I can't say if this was an adult or a juvenile (all I can tell you is that it wasn't a cub).

Well, my computer is all fixed. I had to get some software reloaded onto it, but that wasn't a problem, it was just Corel Suite 12. we have the software here, I just needed someone else to load it for me (God forbid they give me Administrative privileges on my own computer!). Still not sure what documents I lost, but I was able to throw the stuff on the laptop onto the network, so I didn't have to worry about burning anything.

I have XP Pro on this computer now. The only thing I don't like about it (and it's a small, tivial thing) is that there aren't a lot of themes preloaded in it, and I don't know if I would be able to download any, because of the privileges. Oh well, like I said, it's a small thing, and I really like one of the ones that are loaded. I've been able to customize the "Olive Green" option a bit, just making the window and menu backgrounds another colour but white, and it looks cool.

The only other problem (I really hate complaining, because the stuff that's wrong is such small stuff, and the computer isn't all that bad, really) is that the connection on the front of the computer for headphones doesn't work, so I can't listen to my music. Of course, it does give me an excuse to spend more of the government's money (if I'm allowed). All I have to do is buy a set of speakers that I can plug headphones into, because I discovered that the connection on the back, where the speakers plug in, does work. My boss already left for the day when I discovered this, though, so I didn't have the chance to ask him.

Hopefully there won't be any more complaints, about either of my computers.

Oh, meant to tell you... I thought that I would end up getting Office 2003 installed, seeing as that's what most people have, or are going to be getting through updates from IT, but I have Office XP Pro. I didn't know there was an Office XP Pro. I didn't even have the chance to really use the Office 2003 that was on this computer before it went kerflooie.

Has anyone out there used Office XP Pro? What's it like?

Miracle of miracles! IT is finally here to fix my computer. The guy thinks it's a problem with the hard-drive, so, of course, I'm going to loose all the documents that were on there. Too bad I can't remember if anything new had been added. I know that some documents were modified, (I burned stuff onto disks when I switched from the laptop to computer...the first time), but I can't remember if there was anything new. The modified documents don't really matter much, because they've been modified even more since I've come back to the laptop. Oh well. I guess I'll find out if there were any new documents when someone asks for something and it's not there.

Woohoo!! Printer issue is resolved! Thank goodness for website support pages, and toll free 1-800 numbers. I went to HP's website to see if I could find any info about the error I was getting while trying to install my printer, apparently other people have been getting that error message too, because they had steps to follow to try to get around the error. (I was getting a "Failed to read file xxx" error... error #1305 if memory serves...) So, I did what they said, which probably would have worked had it not been for the "cyclic redundancy check" error I got while copying a certain file. A call to HP support followed, and they told me that I can download the software right from their website. That worked. My printer is now operational. I haven't tried out the different programs completely yet, I only printed out a couple of pictures last night to make sure that it was really working. Yay HP!!

:-D

Don't you just love four day long weekends? I hope everyone's Easter was as good as mine was. I had turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, and gravy at my grandparents. Yummy!! I also got to set up my new home computer! I love it! I'm just having a slight issue installing my new printer. I hope to get it resolved shortly.

I'm still on the laptop at work, IT should be around sometime this week to look at the tower (I hope). It's not that I mind working from the laptop so much, it's just hard to use with the kind of work I do. I have to print out some really big posters, and with the laptop it takes a really long time for them to spool (the network connection seems slower on the laptop than what it did on the 'real' computer); and there's no way I'd be able to work without the mouse connected -- I also work on a lot of figures and the touch pad on the laptop just doesn't cut it when you're drawing.

My mom's boyfriend just got himself a really nice laptop, pretty close to top of the line. It's got a pen, and one of those screens that can turn a whole 180, so you can 'fold' it down, and write on it like you would a regular pad of paper. He loves it. Like I said, I have nothing against laptops, I just prefer PCs. His is really cool though... you can use the pen to move the cursor, and to write... wireless...bluetooth... I think if I were to get a laptop, I'd get one like his. All I know about it though, is that it's an Acer. I haven't the slightest idea of speed, or memory, or anything like that.

Anway, I guess I should actually get to work, seeing as I've been here for about half and hour now.

Only 30 minutes left until the start of the Long Weekend. Yes!! I am very looking forward to this long weekend, well, not this long weekend in particular, just the long weekend in general. The afternoon seems to have slowed to a stop. This past hour or so has been exruciatingly long. Don't you just hate that time does that? Slows down when you are expecting something, or waiting for something? It's quite annoying.

I can't think of anything else to say, so I guess all there is left to say is...

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Yay! I'm getting a new computer (at home)! Yesterday after work my mom's boyfriend took me to the place he always goes to, so I was able to talk to the guy he deals with all the time. There's one setup that they do, and that's what I'm getting, with just a few upgrades i.e. he's doubling the memory, and putting in a better video card). It a middle range setup, better than basic, but not "Extreme Gamer" either. I'm getting XP with some version of Office, not sure if it's going to be 2000 or something newer, a DVD Rom with burner (very cool!), and he's going to put ACDSee on it for me. At the moment I can't remember if there's anything else... oh yah!.. he has the keyboard I just got at work (the ergonomic one) in stock, so I'm getting one of those as well. Seeing as all of his business is custom make stuff, I figured it would be ready sometime next week or the week after, but it's going to be ready tomorrow!

Pat is a very happy person!! :-D

Remember how I told you that I had to go back to using the laptop? Well, I got a call from IT a little while ago, and they told me that it would be next week when someone would be able to come look at my computer. Nice. Have I told you that I hate computers sometimes?

Don't you just love spending someone else's money? I didn't want to spend $80 on a keyboard for home, that's just too much money, but I had no problems spending the government's money in order to buy the keyboard for work! It's a really cool one, it's a natural ergonomic one. How to describe how it looks.... hmm.... take a flat keyboard and put your fingers on it. Now, rotate your fingers towards the centre, so the keyboard makes a kinda "U" shape.... got it? Okay, now pretend that it's a piece of paper and push in from either end, so it ends up folding up in the middle, that's what my keyboard is like. It's wonderful to type on, you don't have to rotate your wrists in order to put your fingers on the keys, and it's got a thing on the bottom of it that raises the keyboard an inch or two off the desk, so you can rest your wrist more easily and comfortably. I love it. I love it so much it just might override my more... 'Scottish' tendencies... shall we say? (Meaning I just might fork over the $80 to bring this keyboard home.)

That computer buying trip didn't amount to much. The guy I wanted to talk to at the store my mom's boyfriend always goes to wasn't there, and I was told that he hardly ever came in on the weekends. Swell. My friends and I went to Staples and Future Shop next, but I didn't really look for a computer there, I was looking for a new keyboard. I ended up not getting one, because the one I wanted was too much. What did I end up buying? Well at Futures I ended up buying "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Wich, and The Wardrobe", and a pack of CD slip covers (for when you buy blank CDs in one of those towers things, you know?), I didn't get anything at Staples (there's always a first time for everything!). I'm hoping to have time sometime this week to head over to that computer store to see that guy after I get off work.

Well, it's the end of another week. Thank God. I am so glad it's the weekend.

I'm hoping to go computer shopping on Saturday, maybe I'll call a few of my friends and see if they'll go with me. There's a place in town that I've never been to, but it's where my mom's boyfriend always goes, so I think I'll hit there before I go to places like Staples or Future Shop. I need to be sure to get the name of the guy he deals with.

Apparently there was an interesting happening at the labs today. I went and had morning coffee break with the cleaners, and they were telling me that a bird flew directly into the window across from the lab I used to work in. They said that you could see the outline of it and everything. There were a couple of people around when it happened, and one of them went outside right away to pick it up and put it in a garbage bag, but by the time he got down there, the bird was gone, something had already picked it up. No one is too sure what kind of bird it was either. I wanted to go over to see the imprint for myself, but I never got around to it.

Happy Friday!!

I don't know why, but I feel very brain dead today. I have managed to get very little actual work done today. I don't know if it's because I'm back on the laptop or what. I guess it's a good thing that it's almost time to go.

I can tell you one thing though, it was very depressing having to go back on the laptop. I had burned most of my documents onto disks for the transfer from the laptop to the computer, but since then I've gotten quite a bit of work done on some stuff, and the new stuff is on the computer, so I'm almost back to square one, pulling stuff off the disks to put back on the laptop. I'll be very happy when IT finally sends someone over to fix my computer.

Blah, blah, blah...

I don't get it. I have no idea why my font sizes are all different. Technology hates me, and I have proof. My nice new computer at work? I have to go back to using the laptop because my "new computer" is fried. I had to get some updates put on my computer, so the girl came to do that, and then when I restarted my computer, my desktop wouldn't show up, I'd just get a blank screen. The girl at IT said, "Oooo, I think this is more serious than I thought." It's going to take them a few days to get it fixed. I hate computers.

Okay, who ordered all the snow? (I have a few ideas, but I'm not saying) Don't you know it's April now? We're trying to get rid of this stuff, not get more! Think of how confused the poor geese must be. Of course, if they're real northern geese, they're used to this weather.

Wow, it sounds like someone is getting major remodeling done on the floor below me. They must be working on something in the ceiling, because it sounds like they are about to come through the floor.

Miracle of miracles! The big map scanner that was ordered a few months ago, and was suppposed to be here last month, has finally arrived! They are working on installing it now. Now we won't have to go downstairs to scan maps, which will be nice seeing as the guy who has the scanner has all the personality of a rattle snake and seems quite put out whenever anyone comes to see him to do some scanning. (Like, I had to go see him to get some maps scanned. There were six of them to do, which took all of 10 minutes, but he acted as if he has to clear this huge block of time in his schedule.)

Well, I've switched over to an actual computer, instead of using the laptop. Apparently this computer has a different version of IE on it, seeing as the formatting for my blog looks completely different then when I looked at it on the laptop. When I used the "large" size font before, it was never that big. It looks HUGE on this computer. I'm using "normal" size now, so hopefully noone will go blind trying to read this.

The switch over to an actual computer wasn't too bad, but it could have gone better. The guy who used to have this tower had to come over and log in, add me as a user with administrator privileges, and change the security on his extra hard drives in order for me to be able to use the stupid things. Grrr. I haven't even checked the printers yet.

Well, I made it through Friday. I didn't have to stay that much later to get stuff done. The big plotter started cooperating shortly after I posted. So, yesterday was my birthday (I'm not about to tell you which one it was) and all in all, it was a pretty good day. My friend took me out to Casey's for lunch, and then we spent the day at Science North. We saw that Grossology exhibit, very aptly named. It was kinda cool though. It found fun (and gross) ways to teach you different stuff about the human body. There was one friend who couldn't make it yesterday, so I'm getting my gifts from them at a later date. From my family I got some really nice gifts, my favourite was one that I got from my grandparents. They got a whole bunch of photos of me and my family, starting from one that was taken when I was 3 months old up to just about present day, and put them all in a photo album for me. It's a really great keepsake. I'm going to go through some of my photos, and see what photos my mom has and maybe add a couple of photos to the book. I also got the typical "grandparent" gift from them (socks and underwear). From my mom and her boyfriend I got a really cool set of martini glasses. Instead of having stems and feet, they have flattened balls of glass. It's really hard to describe, I might see if I can get a photo of them to post. I also got a metronome from them. (Is that how you spell that?) You know, one of those things that you can set to a certain tempo and the thing swings back and forth. Like I said, all in all a pretty good day. I wish I could have had more time to go around Science North, but that's okay, there's always another time for that. I can't believe that our snow is just about gone. You would never believe that we had the amount that we did. It has really gone down the past couple of weeks, but this past week has really seen it disappear. Well, I can't really think of anything else to say, so I guess I'll just say "Goodbye". Happy April!!

Are you sure it's really Friday? At the moment it feels like it should be Monday. Why is it that things always seem to break down on Friday afternoon, shortly before you're supposed to leave? I'm trying to print out a set of maps on the nice big plotter, and what happens? It breaks down. This stuff can't wait until Monday, so I'm going to have to print it out on the small plotter. No big deal right? Wrong because when I try to print to the small plotter, Corel freezes up.

Yep, technology hates me. Now I'm going to have to stay late, on a FRIDAY, in order to get this stuff done. How did that girl put that? Oh yes, "Carma kickback". I wonder what I did wrong.

Birthday Countdown: 1 day (I just need to get through the rest of today!)

Hmm.... maybe I should rename this blog "Rants and Other Thoughts"

I wish you could smell what I smell right now. No, wait, I take that back, I wouldn't wish this smell on anyone. They are doing renovations to a bunch of the offices up here, and right now one of them is getting their rubber baseboards glued down. The absolutely wonderful smell (are you sensing my sarcasm? Good.) going around the floor right now is that of the industrial glue they are using. The smell is so strong, it's making me not think straight. Well, it's either the glue or the fact that it's after 4 pm on a Thursday ;-) Whatever it is, this is the third time I've rewritten this entry, and I'm still not sure I'm saying what I really want to say, the way I really want to say it. I'm going to stop writing now, before I stop making any sense, or is it already too late?

Birthday Countdown: 2 days

Did you ever see that Garfield cartoon where he's hanging on the screen door saying "I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm bored, bored, bored..." and then the door opens, he slams into the wall and says "I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in pain, pain, pain..."? Well, that's how I feel right now, minus the slamming into the wall part. I am very bored at the moment, which is a very bad thing considering that I'm at work, and there is stuff that I could be working on, I just don't feel like working on it.

Eh, oh well, I guess I should try to get back to work. It is almost the end of the day after all.

Birthday Countdown: 3 days

I think I've pretty much decided to get a new computer. Seeing as the one I have is around 5 years old, it wasn't that hard of a decision. It would be very nice to be able to play the newer games I've bought on my own computer instead of having to install them on my mom's boyfriend's computer. It shouldn't be that expensive, considering that all I'd be getting is the tower. Of course, that would depend on what I got put on it.

On another note, Spring is finally in the air in Sudbury. It got up to 8 Celsius today, and it's supposed to be around that temperature for the remainder of the week. Another good sign that it's spring is that the geese are starting to return to their usual haunts, like the soccer field at Lily Creek.

Birthday count down: 5 days

Ah, the joys of having a computer. I went shopping the other day and bought myself a new printer. The one I had was a lousy Lexmark, I hated it, I haven't used it in like, forever, because of how much I dislike it. For those of you with Lexmarks who wouldn't trade them for anything, kudos. Anyway, so I went out and bought an HP All-In-One, one of those printer/scanner/copier things. Apparently, my computer is too old and slow to be able to use the darn thing. I've tried installing it three times now. If it doesn't work the next time I try, it's going back to the store. Either that, or the printer is staying and I'm shopping for a better computer. (FYI: I don't even have the internet on my computer, I'm at my mom's boyfriend's place at the moment.) Well, there's my daily rant. (Maybe that's what I should call this blog.) Oh well. On a brighter note, I find it hard to believe that it's my birthday next weekend. Where does the time go? Don't bother asking me what I want, because I haven't the slightest idea. Cheers!

Well, it's Friday, March 24, and this is my first ever blog posting. I think "Ramblings" is a very good name for this blog, because that's what I tend to do. Today also marks the end of my first week at my new job. I'm trying to refrain from saying that I like where I worked before better, at least until I've been at my new job for a while, to give myself a chance to get used to the change. I think I'm going to like it at this place though, the job I'm doing is actually in my field. That's very rare these days, especially here in Sudbury.