If you want to read about Saffron and Grenadine instead.
November 30, 2008
Sunrise/Sunset updated with Chilliwack
I wanted to update my best graph ever to include sunrise/sunset times for Chilliwack to check to see if the sun goes down especially early here (it doesn't). I was also able to clearly see the newly minted DST times:
From wikipedia:
US and Canada observe DST from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, almost two-thirds of the year. The 2007 U.S. change was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005; previously, from 1987 through 2006, the start and end dates were the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October.
You can see that clearly has increased the amount of DST. I vastly prefer DST to not because I'd much rather have an hour of extra daylight in the evening and trade off the upcoming sun at 7am.
I guess that would have the adverse effect of 'High Noon' actually being 'High One' - I can deal with that.
Latitudes:
Montreal 45°30′N = 45.5°N
Chilliwack 49°09′N = 49.16°N
Saskatoon 52°07′N = 52.12°N
Posted by matthew at 6:46 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2008
Xbox Transformation
About a month and a half ago, I re-purchased an Xbox to use as a media center console for my videos and also to do a little bit of gaming on the side. So far, I'm enjoying it a great deal.
To get from a regular xbox to one that you can put interesting stuff on like XBox Media Center, you should follow this great lifehacker guide of moderate technical difficulty. XBMC is what you see in the screenshot of my system above - it handles TV shows, Movies, Music, Photos and anything else you'd like to manage, and it does it beautifully.
Next, I wanted to take my stock 10GB Hard Drive and upgrade it to the 40GB model that I had lying around. This was a bit more difficult than the first task because the original xbox HD needs to be unlocked then the new one needs to be formatted and locked to the xbox's EEPROM; which sounds a bit complicated and actually is. It took me awhile to figure out what I all needed to do, probably the best guide was this one at xbox-scene (which is THE site to go to for any xbox questions, btw).
Okay, so I was pretty much done with the small exception that I wanted to bring my Forza Profile progress over from my old xbox to my new one (I purchased two xbox's in total, but I just told you about that now). Sounds easy enough, just use a memory card, right? Actually, for some unknown reason, Forza locks your profile to your Xbox HD, so you can't transfer it around - buggers! I found a little crack that allows you to move it from one HD to another and it actually worked; so I'm set and thrilled with my new setup.
Now, what to do with that second Xbox?
Posted by matthew at 6:42 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2008
Opera's Got Talent
First off, it should be known that I have no great love for 'talent' or 'reality' shows but this little audition for Britain's Got Talent (from ages ago, thanks Chris) is a real heart-warmer.
I don't want to spoil it too much in case you haven't seen it, but there's Opera, mobile phones and an unexpected performance.
Posted by matthew at 6:33 AM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2008
Be a Pepper
from flickr
Drink Hot Dr. Pepper! (over a slice of lemon)
Posted by matthew at 6:17 AM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2008
Thundercats Wristband
When I had my fantastic face burning experience, I also burned my wrist a little. At the hospital I had to get some stuff put on it and have it wrapped and since then I've like the idea of wearing a wristband.
Kinda geeky and sporty at the very same time; I think that by getting a wristband of a favorite 80's cartoon, Thundercats, on a wristband I'd be 100% geek. Too bad they're out of stock; ahh, I wouldn't do it anyways...
Posted by matthew at 6:51 AM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2008
Shield Series Finale Tonight
In 2002, having just completed its freshman season on the air (well, through the wire, really), Michael Chiklis won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series on the Shield, beating out some big names like Keifer, Sheen and the Six Feet Under guys.
After the big Emmy win, I checked out the first episode and was completely hooked by the 'reality' of the show, and the depths to which these cops could plunge, the corners they would cut and still not get caught - that was 6 years ago! The secondary characters are amazing too; Dutch, Billings and Claudette are all well defined and complex characters. I've been looking forward to it every week a new episode comes out and lamenting when they take long breaks between seasons.
It's been well known that the present season (7) is going to be the final season and I believe that tonight the very final episode of this final season is going to air. Vic's been getting him into a lot of trouble this season and it seems as though he's going to run out of luck in the final episode, but that's yet to be seen - I'm excited to see what happens to these guys and will really miss seeing new episodes.
And then I gotta wait till Jan 16th for new BSG eps.
Posted by matthew at 5:57 PM | Comments (1)
Tretorn Rubber Boots
After moving to Vancouver, Heidi decided that she had to have good rain gear if you're to enjoy the outdoors, and that has started with her feet.
She saw the perfect rubber boot from a Swedish company named Tretorn and she had to have it. Synthetic fur lining on the inside was the main selling feature, but also a cool looking boot (with no heel!) was helpful.
The problem was finding places in Canada that sold them. There were many places in the States but we couldn't find anything in Canada until we happened upon a store called Plenty who stocked them. Awesome! Make a trip into downtown and Heidi's a very happy girl - thanks Mom and Dad for the early Christmas present.
Posted by matthew at 7:41 AM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2008
Astroboy Movie Teaser
ThinkHero has a new teaser trailer up for the Astroboy movie that's coming out in 2009. I grew up with great love for Astroboy and that has only diminished very little - this appears to be a really good look for Astroboy, I am excited.
link via the Movie Blog
Posted by matthew at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2008
Seeking potato chips that hurt
Picture from productwiki
I love potato chips. On opening any bag of chips, the first thing I'll say is something like, "Oh yeah, this is a good bag" or not, if it's not. I often crave a chip that is so strong that their strength compels me to quit eating before I want to. Years ago it was the Old Dutch Rave Xtra Salt and Vinegar chips, which were really powerful and could only be eaten in quantities with great difficulty.
Recently, I've found another chip with extreme spice called Blair's Death Rain Habanero Chips. These suckers are truly powerful - I had 10 in a row and my mouth was flaming for a while afterwards (followed by my stomach, followed by my... forget it). A truly powerful potato chip with the ability to force rationing.
Posted by matthew at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2008
Star Trek Trailer online
from startrekmovie.com
The new Star Trek trailer is online and this movie is looking like exactly the sort of re-boot that the series needs - I'm excited!
See the trailer!
Posted by matthew at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 7, 2008
If you can't say something nice...
Fresh from Thumper's mouth, CNN decided to run a piece on saying something nice about the candidate that you're NOT voting for.
I'm aware that the election is over (congrats B.O. - he he) but this was one of the only election news pieces I actually benefited from reading.
Posted by matthew at 1:32 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2008
Exfoliation Complete
My head healing is coming along very nicely. The two doctors that I saw (the ER one and my own) both said that I'll be completely fine with no scarring or loss of hair. My doctor commented that it was nice of me to give myself a total forehead exfoliation but that there's probably healthier ways.
Time to think of how to light that pile of yard rubbish on fire for real now.
Posted by matthew at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2008
Happy Burn-day
It was my birthday yesterday and it is Saffron's on Tuesday so we decided to have a joint birthday party yesterday and invite a bunch of family and friends over. We had a great time carving pumpkins and I was thinking, there can't be a better time than now to burn my rubbish pile in the backyard.
Not thinking anything through too much, I poured about a liter of gas on the pile and proceeded to light it with a lighter. KABOOM - huge ball of fire, right in my face; I immediately look (and smell) disgusting. Our community wisdom decided that it was best for me to go to the hospital (good choice community!) where the nurses thoroughly checked my breathing to check for signs of inhaled flame (none, thankfully) and then cleaned and bandaged my mangled head.
The Doctor said that I should be fine, no skin grafting necessary and no major permanent skin damage, so I'm thankful for that. There's lots of other things I'm thankful for too; that my hands and eyes are fine, that I didn't hurt someone else, that the doctors took care of me quickly (zero minute wait time, gotta love an injury that actually looks like something happened), that Scott and Andy could take advantage of the bonding event, that I don't have to travel for work tomorrow (as was originally planned), and that I didn't have more gasoline available to me.
Now, I'm left to puzzle over how to actually burn up that soaked pile of rubbish - I'll figure it out.
Posted by matthew at 8:34 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2008
Re-getting an Xbox
I've been streaming movies and TV shows from my main computer to an oldie computer behind my old analog TV in the living room. This was working out ok but I really wanted to put XBMC onto that oldie computer; while trying, I was having the hardest time getting it to work because of the S-Video output that I wanted to use to my analog TV from the computer didn't compute with the Linux OS.
An Xbox would be a more ideal solution and I found a great auction on craigslist that had pretty much everything I needed to softmod said Xbox at a reasonable price and in the neighborhood, so I snatched it up and am currently in the process of exploiting some of its weaknesses to install my own OS onto it using the brains of this guide.
Once I get that going, I'm mostly excited to be able to have a remote to pause and resume movies with instead of having to walk over to the mouse. That, and some Forza racing in my spare time sure can't hurt. Oh, I love that game!
Posted by matthew at 1:02 AM | Comments (1)
October 14, 2008
Ti-Cats are really bad
With good reason, I haven't done a CFL post in about 10 months. My team, the dreadful Ti-Cats are 3-12 so far this season, officially eliminating themselves from the playoffs again; their history of non-excellence is propelling them through another epic-fail season.
This brings their 7 year win-loss total to 32-90 meaning that they win just over a quarter of their games.
Let's take a look by the year:
| Year | Wins | Losses | Ties | Total Games | Winning Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 20% | |
| 2007 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 17% | |
| 2006 | 4 | 14 | 18 | 22% | |
| 2005 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 28% | |
| 2004 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 18 | 50% |
| 2003 | 1 | 17 | 18 | 6% | |
| 2002 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 39% | |
| Totals | 32 | 90 | 1 | 123 | 26% |
Ouch, I really wish they'd do a bit better. This is probably all strategy though, just making sure they get all the good draft picks; yeah, that's what they're doing.
Posted by matthew at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)
