Apt pics, finally! (well, a few)

This is the elevator of Death. It is called as such because, despite it's pretty elevator exterior / interior, it's actually a human oven. People enter and are slow cooked (each floor takes over 5 seconds, which may not seem to be long, but for an elevator, it's pathetic) by the three ridiculously intense halogen lights in the ceiling, with heat being reflected and contained by the stainless steel surfaces.



This is the doorway of/to my room. Please excuse the mess. Please note the MASSIVE window... :D



Room again.



You guessed it... more of my room! Ok, so that's all I'm going to show you now. The kitchen was a mess, and frankly, I ain't cleaning it... I'll show you the living room when it's more... uh.. livey... and I'll be uploading a few daytime pics sometime to show off the view. Sorry about the quality (or lack thereof) of the pics, my camera blows the big one.

Easily Amused

::This post is dedicated to my friend from whom I am protecting you all.::

I picked up a new umbrella today. I decided to actually get a nice one for a change, so that it would be with me for a while. So I get home, and I'm looking at the release button, (it's the standard sized folding umbrella) and notice that there's an up arrow, AND a down arrow! Now, my curiosity piqued, I pop the slip cover off and open it; nice and smooth. Then, I press said button again, and WAP, the sucker closes down! All I have to do is slide it back down the shaft! It's a good thing that there was no-one home at the time, because they would have found me giggling like an idiot in my room, repeatedly opening and closing an umbrella for a good five minutes. Oh god, now I want to play with it more...

*ps. I hav been duly informed of the sexual connotations of this post, and well... you can all just sit there and wank it, if that's your thing... otherwise, get your minds outta the gutter for 2 sex! hehe*

Oogle the Google!

That's right... this Jamaican, courtesy of his awesome friend (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) now has gmail!!! Muhahahahahahahahaha... what ever will I do with all this space? It's so nifty... It's taken serious effort to tear myself away from staring at it. I know, sounds boring, especially with an empty inbox, but the interface is so ingenious! And the features... yummmm. You'll all see... (and if you have, you know what I mean... or are too blahse, *sp?* in which case, bite me!)

stefan.holmes@gmail.com

Elevator Wierdo

Ok. So I leave my apartment today to go to the corner store, and there's this guy waiting for the elevator, (we have the world's slowest elevator, each floor takes around five seconds) holding dryer sheets. He cordially asks how I'm doing, so I respond, and reciprocate, and then proceed to introduce myself in the elevator, which is taking us down at this point. I'm noticing that he's sort of moving in slow-motion, but dismiss it as a quirk. "I'm $&*@&*#," (insert unintelligible Iranian name that I somehow managed to repeat back to him), he said, "I am from Irrrrran." "That's cool," I reply, about to make some mention of being from a foreign country myself, but was cut off. "I smoke joints. You come smoke sometime. Come join me!" he blurted. I just look at him, not knowing whether to feel welcomed or terrified. "Sorry man, I quit, but thanks for the offer...." He looked me up and down, exited the elevator, and headed down to the laundry, leaving me quite confused, feeling as though I had just been run over by a very strange hippy van. Hopefully he'll be a little more together when next I bump into him, he lives on my damn floor... :S

Microwave of Death

We had a microwave. It was awesome.

We had opted for the brushed aluminum look, seeing as how it was modern and utilitarian, and gave the kitchen a more "aggressive" feel... "It's like it's tearin' ass around the kitchen.. but it's standing still!" kinda thing. Sweet little puppy...



Anywho. It worked great, no problems, with the possible exception of getting covered with fingerprints the second it was unwrapped... (who'd a thunk?)

One day, not too long ago, I exited the elevator to the smell of burning. Not a faint smell, but one that makes you wonder if you should have taken the elevator in the first place,- and where the nearest exit is. So I walked towards my apartment, hoping to find a haven from the smell. That, however, was not to be, as I opened the door to be confronted by a wall of scent that can only be described as black burning. Fearing the worst, I quickly kicked off my shoes and scurried towards the kitchen, phone in hand, ready to call the fire department. What should I see there but Adam, feverishly cleaning said microwave, sweat dripping off of his brow. "What happened?" I queried. "Uh.... Popcorn.... Microwave... uh... fire...." I left the room, shaking my head, grinning. Knowing Adam's gift of gab, getting a new microwave would be no problem... The only thing concerning me was how in hell do you combust microwave popcorn?
Your guess is as good as mine.

Well, in the aftermath, we got a new microwave today, (no pic available) and it seems that things turned out for the better, because the new magic oven is actually quite a bit better than our previous one, having been a brand new discounted floor model. I have yet to test it, but something tells me that were history to repeat itself, this one would take the apartment down with it.

Damn you, AIM

Ok, I'm getting seriously sick of waiting for an update for AIM. I've had enough trouble with compu security so far, the last thing I need is another hole... (http://news.com.com/Flaw+opens+AOL+chat+software+to+intruders/2100-1002_3-5303636.html)
I want to talk to people! Seeing as how I'm making a concerted effort to stay in touch now, (yes, I know I've been bad about that... but hopefully this blog will help somewhat) the existence of such a large hole in my contacts is quite troublesome. Oh well... here's to hoping that this whole mess is soon resolved. On quite another note, Kevin (my buddy from George Brown) has had his friends Rob and Kelly and their friend Rachel up from the States over the past few days. They're sticking around until Monday, and so far it's been a blast, nonewithstanding my rather hardcore drinking over the past two days... Today was made a little less fun by my having woken up still quite drunk, even after a considerable amount of sleep. 2 big cups of coffee and a load of laundry later, I wasn't feeling much better, so I just went with it... but it's simply gone to re-affirm my general cautiousness with regard to alcohol. Can't live with it... don't want to live without it. :D

Nerdgasm

HOLY CRAP

ok, so i'm checking out PS3 news, when I discover this:


That's right, 23 friggin GB!!!! *Drools* Apparently the PS3's going to be running on those puppies.... so sexy.. and protected!! Finally. The cd - sheath drives always seemed like a great idea, I never understood why they never caught on, at least for data purposes... *shrugs* now, read more info:



"Nine leading companies have jointly established the basic specifications for a next generation large capacity optical disc video recording format called "Blu-ray Disc". The Blu-ray Disc enables the recording, rewriting and play back of up to 27 gigabytes (GB) of data on a single sided single layer 12cm CD/DVD size disc using a 405nm blue-violet laser. The companies that established the basic specifications for the Blu-ray Disc are:

Hitachi, Ltd. LG Electronics Inc. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Pioneer Corporation Royal Philips Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Sharp Corporation Sony Corporation Thomson Multimedia

The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV). Blu-ray makes it possible to record over 2 hours of HDTV, or more than 13 hours of SDTV on a 27GB disc. There are also plans for higher capacity discs that are expected to hold up to 54GB of data.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM use a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. The benefit of using a blue laser is that it has a shorter wavelength (405 nanometer) than a red laser (650 nanometer), which means that it's possible to focus the laser beam with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly on the disc and makes it possible to fit more data on the same size disc. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray Disc recorders can be made backwards compatible with current red-laser technologies and allow playback of CDs and DVDs.

Specifications

The following formats are part of the Blu-ray Disc specification v1.0:

BD-ROM, which is a read-only format developed for pre-recorded content.
BD-R, which is a recordable format developed for PC data storage.
BD-RW, which is a rewritable format developed for PC data storage.
BD-RE, which is a rewritable format developed for HDTV recording.

A single-layer disc can fit 23.3GB, 25GB or 27GB.
A dual-layer disc can fit 46.6GB, 50GB or 54GB.

At present specification v2.0 is being devised which addresses issues such as the use of video codecs and read / write speeds etc." - PS3 Resource Centre

Video Photo

So I spent a while this morning playing with video of the sun coming up through my (giant) bedroom window... and it made me realize just how much I miss my old photo-taking hobby. It's just too good; the ability to take what's there, and frame and represent it the way that you want to... It's like playing God! Well, not really, but you know... So now I'm pondering a way to make my old digicam less crapped out... (it's quite damaged, for some reason or other) Maybe I should adopt my old habit of carrying it everywhere with me? Who knows. Invariably in a day there'll be at least one thing that's worth snapping... and that's where the camera phone comes in handy; it's a shame that I don't have the transfer cable for the lil bugger. Lousy $100 cable... grrr...

My first Blog

Okay, so I've decided to start one of these... I can only guess how this is going to go. *shrugs* I always see other people with them, and I'm online, and bored... so I figure, why not?

Anyhow. I've spent this summer working on a lot of things that are me, and I think it's working out well thus far. I'm in a sweet new apartment now, Living with my bro Adam, one of the closest friends I have. Now, I know you may be thinking, "Don't live with your friend!!!"... it's cool though... I met Adam first as my roommate in first year at U of T. Funnily enough, he's been the only roommate that I've really gotten along with... I'll post pics (of the apt) when I have some, I'm sure. Otherwise.. I've quit skateboarding, because admittedly, I enjoy the freedom of walking... Having permanently messed up my left ankle, and quite possibly doing the same to my right not too long ago was deffo a wake-up call. So that's sad, but I'm trying to divert energies elsewhere, namely golf and the gym. Seems nerdy, I know... but when you think about it, skateboarding's not that bad a transition to golf. They're both really technical, require a lot of concentration, stray from t he typical team sport mentality, and allow a great deal of stress relief. Additionally, they can be fun either alone, or with friends... depending on your mood. And plus, if you get bored of either, have a few drinks! Spice it up! hehe

Hrrmmm... this whole train of thought writing thing's going to prove to be interesting... and quite possibly detrimental. *shrugs*
We'll see!