I haven't taken the bus often lately, as I usually prefer to walk instead. But there I was with my four bags of groceries, and suddenly the idea of riding home sounded quite nice. (Not to mention the fact that my sneakers have seen better days, and are probably hurting my feet more than they're protecting them.)
Anyway, I noticed that the design of the exit mechanism has been changed yet again on new busses. When I was young, there used to be those large red flapping things that you would push out of your way, and they would open the door. (After which, they would flap back and make lots of noise.)
At some point, the People Who Know How To Improve Things decided to switch for some "magic eye" system, that wouldn't work reliably. Then, this was replaced with something weird, where you had to basically wave your hand in front of the door. A very natural gesture indeed. And I think there was a time where you had to slightly push on the door to get it to open, which always seemed to me like an emergency procedure.
Now, they've got these weird handles on each door, and you're supposed to push the handles to get out. You don't really push on the door itself; there are sensors in the handle that activate the opening of the doors.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like someone is trying hard to come up with more unnatural and counter-intuitive ideas every time. Not to mention that any motion of hands can become quite a task when you've carrying lots of grocery bags. I figure next year they'll just put a doorknob in there to cheese everybody off.
Yay! I finally got the transcode inverse telecine filters working. And it works faster than de-interlacing too!
Now, if only I could figure out why my encodings aren't as good as everybody else's. (Doom9 encoded The Matrix at less than 600Kbps and seemed to get really nice results out of it. Anything I make that's below 1000Kbps looks blocky to me.)
Bought lots of expensive foodstuff, including prosciutto (although I would like to taste real prosciutto di Parma at least once), and provolone, which seems to me as being exactly like mozzarella, only more expensive. Of course, I'm sure the real stuff doesn't taste anything like the "Made in Taiwan" stuff we buy at the supermarket, so my apologies to all Italian cheesemakers. (Blessed are the cheesemakers.)
Amazon are shipping the wrong item, which I will need to ship back later on. This is getting somewhat annoying – although I guess Canada Post will apprecitate the extra traffic.
I was sure I checked all my DVDs upon delivery, to make sure everything was in order. Somehow, I managed to completely overlook the error in the Babylon 5 set (disc 2 is actually disc 4). Amazon is shipping another, but it appears to be out of stock. Sigh.
Interesting article in the paper today, about Italia, hogs and prosciutto. Anybody will tell you that the crap they sell at the supermarket is nothing more than dried, cured, salted, smoked bacon, and does not even compare to the real thing. Yet even that crap costs 30 bucks a kilo, so I dare not imagine what the real thing could cost.
Sending some stuff back to Amazon, which was damaged at some point (and I don't think it was at transport).
Yuck. Snow.
I really need to shop for some good boots this year – mine give me blisters when I go for a long walk.
Future Shop were out of stock on L'album Pirate, since it was on sale at ten bucks for that day only. The flyer stated that no rainchecks would be offered, but didn't state how many copies would be available, which is a violation of section 74.04 of the Competition Act, and section 231 of the Consumer Protection Act. I wish consumers didn't always need to fight to have their rights respected.
On a sadder note, I think today was my last occasion to ride the bike without worrying about ice and snow. Sigh.
Finally got the DVD player. Lots of fun trying to figure out the DVD format and options. Although the video artifacts are often obviously visible, it still beats any of my 10-year-old VHS recordings.
More fun than ever at Canadian Tire, where you apparently cannot use a raincheck until they have actually called you. Here I am, with the VCR in my hands, arguing over whether or not I can walk away with it. Then, the clerk (the same one who entered my name last week) couldn't find anything in the database. Great.
Lots of fun going back and forth between two bank branches. I went to open my safety box, and the key would not work; came back later on with the duplicate, which wouldn't work either. (Fortunately, there was nothing in the box, so they just gave me another.)
In the meantime, I rode to another branch, where I manage another account. They finally let me cash the "you can't cash this because it isn't issued to the proper name" check I was stuck with.
Then, back to my branch to cash a check, issued by a well-known insurance company, with lots of micro-impression, invisible ink, holograms and other security features that make such a check harder to forge than actual paper money. Of course, they just have to hold the check for five days.
The ride took me at the corner of St-François and King. As usual, all the cars just turn right even when it is not allowed, without any consideration for pedestrians or cyclists. And to think they will actually have the right to do this on a red light next year...
More DVDs. Still no player. :(
L'album Pirate, which was supposed to ship today, has been delayed until Saturday. Future Shop will also be selling the second European album; I guess I can cancel my order at Amazon.fr.
D Day – as in Dentist Day. I survived.
Truly gorgeous day, with temperatures breaking a new record. Seems I'll be able to take the bike out again for a few days.
Left town for the weekend. Our bus happened to hit something, which I gather was a horse. (There seems to be a rule among bus drivers never to tell the passengers what is going on.) Fortunately, nobody was hurt, although I'm sure many of us had the same desire of killing one of the passengers, who just wouldn't shut up.
Stupid people can be quite irritating when you need to interact with them (especially droids), but this was the first time I could remember feeling annoyed at someone's sheer stupidity. I mean, real stupidity, which I can't even put into words. (The fact that I suck as a writer might have something to do with it.)
She kept saying the same things over and over. Argued with the driver who said that there were two horses involved. (I'm sure we all thought: "Look, it was dark, so maybe you only saw one. Besides, who the hell cares anyway?") Since she had a friend in the area, she became convinced that it was her friend's horses that were involved, and insisted that her friend always kept her horses fenced. (At which point, I thought she was the one who should be kept fenced in.)
An exchange that stuck in my head:
Passenger 1: Is it past 6 o'clock yet?
Passenger 2: Yeah, I think it is.
Passenger 3: [looking at his watch] 6:10, actually.
[pause]
Mental case: What time is it?
Fortunately, we got back on the road at that point, and she got off the bus a few kilometers later. Otherwise, I think one of us would've killed her.
Future Shop is advertising L'album Pirate from François Pérusse. I can't find any information on this, anywhere on the Net, as with just about anything that's local to Quebec. Although, while searching his site, I found out that he published a second disc in France. Given that the first one was also published here (and sold rather well), it's strange that we never heard about this.
Took the bus to Canadian Tire, to get a VCR on sale. Of course, they were out of stock. Instead of giving you a physical piece of paper that says "raincheck" on it, they enter your name in the computer, and tell you "we'll call you back". I'm not too entirely confident. Oh well, at least it gave me an excuse to take a long walk back home. (For some reason, my foot has gone back to normal.)
On another topic, I've been eating Risotto everyday for a week. I doubt I'll be making any more this year – I'm just about sick of it.
Got the Radeon, which finally justifies the extra I spent on the monitor. (When you start X, there's a screen of black and white pixels for a moment; you can truly see the difference between analog and digital there.)
Got my Simpsons DVDs (incidentally, my first DVDs ever). Now, I only have to wait for the player to actually arrive. (In the meantime, I can always admire the packaging.)
Yay! Kino is working again. I certainly don't mind; editing out the commercials with transcode alone was pretty much a pain in the a**.
Wednesday's recording of La boite noire had squished credits, so I taped the end of today's rerun. I thought about taping the whole rerun, "just in case", but declined. Guess what? Wednesday's run had lots of audio and video problems. Thank you Murphy.
I hate it when kids knock on my door all night on Halloween, and I usually make plans to be elsewhere on that evening. This year, I stayed home, and I didn't hear one single knock.
I spent three hours in the kitchen (now with three square inches of counter space!) toiling over some vol-au-vent and risotto Milanese. I wisely declined to bake the patty shells myself, but everything else was home-made, aside from the gallons of chicken stock required for the risotto. (I did flavor the stock with lots of vegetable, which makes a great difference.)
The results were truly delicious. Which is fortunate, considering I've got enough risotto and creamed chicken to last me through winter.
My foot is still acting up – maybe it's time for me to consult about that damn toe.
I managed to make my brakes work somewhat, at least for a while. To celebrate, I took a ride at 1am, with the temperature below freezing point. I found it to be quite revigorating.
I ended up walking quite a bit on Monday and Tuesday, and now my left foot hurts a bit. I happened to break a toe (or at least, it looked broken) two years ago, and it never healed quite correctly.
I forgot to mention that on Monday, my stroll lead me right in front of Abacom's offices. No, it was not on purpose. :)
On the bus today, I saw a woman a bit younger than me, with a little girl who was maybe four or five years old. (Though I suck at putting an age on kids.) This brought back memories of my childhood, when my sitter (who was probably of the same age) took me on the bus. Then, through the clouds of nostalgia, one detail hit me: I do not remember my sitter ever uttering one swear word in front of me.
Now, I do not claim that my sitter was a saint; for all I know, she swore all night long at home. But when she was with me, she knew the importance of her role, and assumed it with dignity and respect. I felt sad when I saw that this kid didn't share that luxury. She must have heard people swearing 20 or 30 times during the entire ride.
Made a stop at Canadian Tire to buy batteries. I was about to buy an 8-pack of C batteries, when I found that it would be cheaper to buy four packs of two, since they were on sale. What's the point of leaving the 8-pack at regular price, I wonder? (They didn't have enough 2-packs left either. Next time, I should buy the 8-pack, and ask that they lower the price. I like pissing off people that way.)
They were out of cantilever brakes, and I suspect they won't get any until next spring. Damn! (It's okay, I'm not babysitting anyone.)
It appears that the brakes on my bike don't work well when it's not raining either. I don't think that adjusting them one more time will do the trick.
There's nothing better than to wake up and eat cold pizza for breakfast. :)
Pizza day, take two. It's nice to enjoy pizza at a fraction of retail cost, even though it does take much more time than calling for delivery. (And it's not free if it takes more than 30 minutes.)
Today was pizza day. Or rather, it was supposed to be pizza day, until I thought to check the yeast I had bought last year. Yeah, just about anybody knows that yeast doesn't keep for a year at room temperature, but I just had to find out by myself. Of course, I only thought about this at the last minute, after I had bought all the ingredients. Good going, Fred.
Spent about five minutes trying to buy some Ziploc(R) bags. Every time I would say "okay, I've checked them all, this is the most economic choice", I'd find another box of a different brand/size/type on a different shelf. I'm still not sure what difference there is between non-freezer and freezer bags. Aren't they all supposed to be plastic bags anyway?
Nothing like a bike ride when it's 5C outside and rain is pouring, even though your first thought afterwards is usually: why did I do this already? Forecasts say it's going to rain most of the time for a couple more days; I guess I'm not done with the laundry just yet.
I do wish my bike had brakes that keep on working when it rains, or snows, or anything else that distinguishes our weather from the Sahara. At some point, I was going downhill with my brakes fully engaged, and still managed to accelerate. Even though brakes are not as essential on a bike as they are on a car (cars can't swerve as easily, and can't be stopped with your feet either), they're still an important safety feature nonetheless. It's nice to know that if you can't swerve, you still have another option before closing your eyes and hoping for the best.
Made the "I will get off my sorry ass and do all the things that should've been dealt with eons ago" pledge. This never actually worked before, but it makes me feel good every time. Until I realize how much is still left. Sigh.
Tom's Hardware found the 152T to be the best 15" LCD monitor in its latest roundup. I'm not surprised. :)
Totally unconsequential weekend. I like those.
Made an interesting Freudian slip today. What I meant to say was: "Given that this skillet just came out of the oven less than five minutes ago, grabbing it with my bare hand might not be wise." Funny how this actually translated to something closer to a guttural scream. And lots of swear words.
Although I've forgotten lots of first-aid tips and facts over the years, I still remember two important rules when dealing with burn wounds: stick the wound under running tap water, and never apply butter. All my life I have always wondered who would actually smear butter on such a wound. I can now testify that your first reflex in such a situation does not involve any dairy products, but rather is to stick your hand in a bucket of ice water.
Spent the remainder of the evening cussing at myself, and looking up information on burns. Promptly ignored the "go see a doctor if you get second-degree burns on such areas as [...], or the hands" warnings. No way am I going to rot in an emergency room at 11pm for this. I'm sure that anybody who spends more than 10 minutes a day in the kitchen has gone through the same thing at some point, and their hands still seem to be working perfectly, thank you very much.
Turns out second-degree burns can be superficial or deep. Doctors evaluate this by asking questions such as "is the skin flexible, or leathery", or "can you still feel the tip of a pin", to which the answer is: "How the hell should I know? I've got a two-feet thick blister all over the wound, for crissakes!"
I guess that's why I never became a doctor.
Oh, and I got the 152T I ordered last week. It's got two bad pixels instead of one, and they're much more visible. Oh well, at least I now have color again.
abacomsucks.com is staying online.
I had actually reached that decision as early as last week, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't making a mistake. At least our lawyer doesn't seem to think I'm a fool, so I guess this is a good sign. :)
On another topic, I don't know exactly what I caught, but I'm feeling like crap right now.
Probably a cold or something. We originally planned to meet with our lawyer again today, but I felt it wiser if I just stayed home. Darn it. IMO, nobody should ever get sick before there's at least two inches of snow on the lawn.
I'm told there's a wave of flu that's hitting the region. I'd rather hope it's just a cold. If this keeps up, I fear that Stéphane will have to meet with our lawyer without me. Good thing we cleared up most of the matter yesterday, though.
The meeting with our lawyer went rather well, but we will let her do some reading before we make our decision. She subsequently faxed a short notice to Me Lessard, who's representing Abacom, to let him know we'll have an answer for him, no later than Thursday.
I don't know what happened, but after coming back home, I barely had enough strength to eat something and lie down. Maybe this goes to show that not going to law school was a good decision. :)
Wouldn't you know, we have lawyers with experience in intellectual property in Sherbrooke. Settled on one, who can meet us tomorrow at 13:30. She asked us to fax her what we got so far; we opted for putting it online instead, which is a good thing, considering that I have over 200 pages of printouts.
Uneventful day. We'll try and find an lawyer, and fix a meeting for tomorrow if possible.
It's decided, abacomsucks.com will remain online until we've had a chance to talk this through with a lawyer. I've never been one to make impulsive decisions, and I'm not about to begin now. As far as I'm concerned, the "sufficient delay" in the Québec civil code allows for legal council in this case. Hell, we're not talking about a simple default in payment, here.
Got my pots and pans from Paderno. In two copies. Now I know why my credit card was billed twice. Okay, I love their pots, but not that much.
I can't decide whether my life has become more interesting since I started this weblog, or if I started this weblog because my life had finally become interesting. :)
It seems the evening and week-end option didn't get activated, after all. No big deal, as the switch has been done today anyway. It's so nice to have my phone back. :)
Stéphane tells me he received his cease and desist order from Abacom. Delivered by bailiff, of all things. Now I know who it was rapping at my door at 8:30. Believe me, you'd have to be quite stubborn to get me to answer the door at 8:30.
Stéphane is quite upset that he's being given only 24 hours to comply or face the consequence. (Actually, it's not clear whether he's being given 24 hours now, or 24 hours from when I get my own C&D.) Anyway, this doesn't sound like due process to me; how is he supposed to get legal council within 24 hours on a Friday?
The big question is now whether or not abacomsucks.com will be taken down while we seek legal advice.
On a lighter note, I'm writing this on a pre-War Compaq monochrome monitor. All I need is a CoCo and a lava lamp, and I'm back in the '70s.
Called Bell, and told them my situation, ready to argue over it. Was told it shouldn't have happened, as the SIN is not mandatory. Shoot, I got all hyped up for nothing. :)
I'm amazed at how good and bad phone systems can be. I had to punch in my cell phone number twice to get to customer service, and still I was asked what my number was. On the other hand, the guy who answered already knew that I had called last week, and even knew what plan I wanted at that time. But then, when he transferred me to the credit check department (or something like that), they didn't have the address and birthdate I had confirmed with the first person. Go figure.
Seems it takes 48 to 72 hours just to switch from pre-paid to monthly, even though it took Rogers a few minutes to set Stéphane up when he signed on. Maybe they have to get some forms signed by Mr. Bell Inc. in Washington or something...
One nice gesture I should point out was that they activated the unlimited evenings and week-ends option right away, which is appreciated. This goes to show that the quality of customer service depends a lot on who's currently answering the phone at customer service.
Oh, and I bought the 152T. I get the feeling this will turn against me the next time I tell Stéphane, "You sure you really need this?"
Oh wonder, Equifax replied. They confirm what I thought, which means I've got all the ammo I need to confront Bell. Even if everything works out okay in a single phone call (yeah, right), I'm still sending a formal complaint to the Commission d'accès à l'information, and maybe to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. (What they're doing is legal outside of Québec, but that's no reason not to put pressure on them.)
I bought a new cable for the monitor, just to be really sure it was the monitor. It is.
I figure that the best solution would be to buy another monitor, and ship this one to Taiwan when I get the replacement. This way, I can relax even if they keep it for months. When it gets back, I can always sell it on eBay. Yes, this means throwing even more money at the problem, but I can't stand this flickering much longer, and I can't go back to CRTs. (I tried hooking up my old 14" CRT, and it felt like those cheap computers you'd see in a 1978 movie. I'm amazed I managed to work for years on those.)
While I'm at it, I'd probably settle for a 152T, which is the digital equivalent of my 152B. It doesn't cost that much more, and I've learned that video cards with DVI output can be had for less than a hundred bucks. That way, you really get that crystal-clear picture they woo you about when they sell you an LCD monitor.
My main concern is that it'll take a while for the 152T to ship. Should I go to Bureau en Gros and take a substitute for 10 days? This is getting quite expensive, even if it's only temporary... :(
Did some more research on trademarks and domain names. Think I got it covered. Now we wait for the C&D.
Tried to sort out Bell's cellphone plans. I wonder if they're deliberately trying to confuse me. I can't keep Solo pre-paid, because call waiting doesn't exist under pre-paid. I'm still trying to sort out Solo monthly (what's the point of Solo monthly?), which actually includes call display for free, but you get 50 minutes instead of 100. Or something like that.
I'd like to compare pricing for Solo options, but I just can't get that information online. Every time I figure Bell's website couldn't suck any further, I find something new. That's quite an achievement.
Wrote again to Equifax. Who knows, a miracle might occur.
(Yesterday, I forgot to mention that I tried plugging the monitor into the laptop. You can get the same results at home by cranking the V-sync knob all the way. There's definitely something really screwed up in that monitor. That very expensive monitor. Sigh.)
Got an email from Abacom, claiming I'm committing trademark infringement. Spent all evening Googling on the subject. Completely forgot to tape Bunker, le cirque. I'll bet there won't be any rerun soon.
Installed WinXP on a spare disk, to test the monitor and sound card. The whole shebang took over half an hour, and installed over a gigabyte of crap. I'm sure there's a 2-hour video presentation from Bill Gates hidden in there. How Windows still manages to average 500K/s between a 32x CD drive and a UDMA hard drive still eludes me. If Microsoft delivered pizza, the delivery boy would drive a Porsche, the streets would be deserted, and it would still take over 30 minutes.
Everybody says that XP has finally reached stability. When I first booted XP, it complained that it couldn't find the network. Then, Internet Explorer just hung there, unkillable and unresponsive. Same thing for Media Player. After installing the sound card driver, Windows couldn't find any sound card. I tried to set things manually, but I was told there was still another hardware installation underway. At this point, I figured I'd reboot.
I swear it took WinXP between 5 and 10 minutes to detect the network after booting. Subsequent reboots didn't have this problem though. This was the explanation for IE and Media Player hanging before; Media Player tries to lookup the CD in an online database. I still managed to have some Hotmail/Exchange/Whatever menu stuck on the desktop. I guess reliability is not all it's cracked up to be under WinXP.
(On a subjective note, nothing is at the same place under WinXP; whatever knowledge you have from configuring Win95/98/ME won't do you any good.)
Oh, and the sound card worked great. Even under Linux, I no longer get that annoying hiss. I have no idea what happened, but I don't mind. I wish that muting "line in" would work under Linux as it does under WinXP, though.
As for the monitor, I brought it from 75Hz to 60Hz. Now the image doesn't "jump" anymore (which made it impossible to work with that thing). Instead, it looks like analog TV from a roof antenna. Sigh.
The warranty from Oxycom is over, so I have to deal directly with Samsung. Which, BTW, never replied from a previous inquiry I made before buying that monitor. I don't want to ship it back and lose it for weeks. I could take it to a service location, but the nearest is 30km from here. (They have two retailers in Acton Vale, and none in Sherbrooke. Go figure.) Besides, I doubt there's anybody at Cantin Électronique who's qualified to repair my monitor, so they'll probably ship it back to Taiwan anyway. Double sigh.
No reply from Equifax, of course. Why do they bother having an email address?
Great. My monitor is flickering. LCDs are not supposed to do that. This is driving me crazy. Now I have to figure out which is the culprit; the monitor, the video card, the cable, or the electical system. Yeah, I really needed that.
Wrote to Equifax, asking if they really need the SIN. I'm pretty sure they don't, which would allow me to confront Bell Mobility head on.
Drove to a Bell Mobility retailer, hoping they'd be more cooperative in person than on the phone. No go, this can only be done on the phone. If I wanted to buy a plan and a phone, this could be done in-store. But since I already have the phone and only want to switch plans, this becomes too simple for them. Sigh.
Not in the mood to argue today. Will take care of the whole cellphone business tomorrow.
On another matter, my new email address and websites have become officially open for business. I wish I could rejoice.
Called Bell Mobility to switch from pre-paid to monthly. Refused to divulge my social insurance number, since it's none of their ****ing business. Was told in clear terms that Bell won't do the credit check without it. They blame Equifax. Yeah, right.
Spent many hours researching the matter. It turns out that the SIN is poorly legally protected in Canada, but there is a provincial law in Quebec that can be applied in this situation. The hilarious part is that it has already been applied to Bell Mobility. Having a legal precedent always makes things much easier, although I'm not sure how helpful it will be when calling customer service.
Bought a bunch of domain names for my exile from Abacom. I secured
fbriere under .com, .net,
.org, .ca and .qc.ca. I probably went
overboard, but I want to play it safe for now. It's much easier to let go of a
domain name than to secure it in the first place.
Also bought abacomsucks.com, for obvious reasons. :)
Stéphane tells me he tried working something out with Abacom, but without success. The cheapest way to keep my address is to buy a monthly plan @ ten bucks a month. I could take the three months minimum and use this time to smooth out the transfer, but I eventually resolved not to give them one cent from this point on.
I need to think about this, as soon as I've calmed down.
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