work as if you live in the early days of a better nation
Why is the Canadian release of The Magic Roundabout called Doogal? Surely everyone knows he’s Dougal (unless you know him as the francophone Pollux)? Sheesh.
It’ll suck. Since there’s no Eric Thompson, and no mention of sugar cubes for recreational purposes, it’ll be v.poor.
They’ve just discontinued my razor of choice — the Wilkinson Sword/Schick Diamond — so I’ve decided to go old-school. Now that Wilkinson Sword has the four-blade Quattro, and Gillette their five-bladed monstrosity, I’ve realised that the whole multi-blade thing is a load of hooey.
Consider this: if the first blade was supposed to do most of the work, then draw the hair out a bit to be cut below the skin level, further blades would have less and less effect. It’s just as likely that the whole multi-blade cartridge thing was a scam to sell more, and non-standard, blades that could easily be made obsolescent by the time generic manufacturers caught on —Â the old Instamatic effect.
So I bought a Merkur safety razor (from Toronto Salon Supply, at Bay and Dundas), and a bunch of Merkur blades. I didn’t shave particularly close today, but it’s just as close a shave as the old twin-blader I used to use.
The plus side is that I’m throwing away no plastic with every blade, so I’m shaving the planet.
Scored some yerba mate for Catherine’s cousin Phil yesterday. Seems there aren’t so many South American food stores in KCMO, while there’s a strip of them on Augusta in Kensington Market.
The store at 239 Augusta had a whole yerba mate section. Since it was cheap ($2 for the half key), I got some for myself. Wonder what I’ll do with it?
I’ve finally managed to snag a model wind turbine. Thanks to Jay Wilgar at AIM Powergen, I now have a GE Your Wind Turbine in a Box 1/265 scale turbine, complete with tiny plastic cow.
I was bitten by a spider today, but I have yet to develop superpowers.
Seems that the Decemberists (current indie band, of Portland) are a bit concerned to hear about the Decemberists (indie band out of Liverpool in the 1980s, now mostly known as the Hellfire Sermons).
The strange thing is, bassist for the (original, Liverpool) Decemberists is none other than my mate Andy Ford, who co-moderates liontower with me.
Today’s daily build of rockbox caused my iRiver to crash. It’s the first time it’s been anything other than perfect.
Has NerdTV gone the way of all flesh? The main page has been stuck on Doug Engelbart for more than a month.
I’m running WordPress 2.0 now. You shouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Oh dear, I’ve just discovered Arnold, the Amstrad CPC emulator for OS X. The CPC was my first home computer, and I have fond memories. What with that, and the ftp.nvg.ntnu.no games archive, I’ll be as happy as a pig in glabber.
Millions of birds perish every year from crashing into glass windows. And architects don’t need to do costly and time-consuming migration studies.
But us wind guys get it in the neck.
To: Etymotic Research Inc. Customer Support
I recently placed an order with you for accessories for my Isolator ER-6i headphones. I was very disappointed when UPS added an additional brokerage charge of approximately US$27 (plus taxes and duties) to the order. Since the value of the the order was only $43, your courier’s brokerage charge was almost two-thirds the value of the goods ordered.
Please consider using another courier for Canadian orders. USPS/Canada Post’s brokerage charges are much smaller, of the order of $5.
I would also like to note that none of your agents in Toronto seems able to stock these spares. I visited all three of the dealers mentioned on your website:
Up until now, I have been widely recommending your products. Until I know that you’re serious about supporting your Canadian customers, however, I cannot recommend your products to anyone in this country.
I see that wind turbines make it on to the recent 51 cent stamp series. I guess they’re part of the landscape now.
(Would it be astonishingly churlish of me to point out that the flag is flying one way, and the turbines facing the other?)
Take the TTC: Platform Video Screen Survey. Those video screens suck.
Etymotic — makers of otherwise fine headphones — must really hate its Canadian customers. Not merely do the local suppliers not stock replacement eartips, but getting them shipped from the US incurs UPS‘s unbelievable brokerage charge, which approaches the value of the parts you’re ordering.
A more coherent posting will come later when the old strongly-worded letter of complaint goes out.
My Blackberry mail server setup hasn’t been completed yet (it’s quite a shock to be on a computer with nothing above user privileges, I tell you). So I’m getting lots of blackberry.net messages which look a bit like this:
BEGINETP 10
AwUAAAAAAAAAAQ!!
ENDETP ...
Sums up pretty much how I feel about it: AwUAAAAAAAAAAQ!! AwUAAAAAAAAAAQ!!
I had a good day. There was a lot of administrivia, setting up e-mail accounts, form filling, and learning about the network, but that’s all once off. The afternoon was mostly spent fighting with my new BlackBerry (a 7130e, you nerds), which works as a very nice phone, but the e-mail isn’t set up.
My cube has a view, and the transit is great. I’m happy.
Getting ready for the new job; clothes have been bought, shoes polished, case packed.
And it’s Ivor Cutler’s birthday. No gruts for tea for me.
Lee Valley make and sell good (if doggedly non-metric) woodworking tools. It would seem, though, that LV proprietor Leonard Lee has a rather unhealthy problem with Canada Post: postalproblem.ca.
His lengthy letters and full page ads in the Ottawa Citizen have an Incensed of Tunbridge Wells quality to them. It might be an idea to start hiding the sharp things when Leonard’s around.
Last night was my last WindShare board meeting. I’ve been on the board ever since there was a board to be on. I hope I was useful.