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Ask Dr Nerd

Does anyone have any suggestions on getting my X-Box “live” i.e. on the internet, in a non-expensive fashion, given that we have our non-wireless router in a completely different room?

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This is an Outrage!

I have been tracking – on the Canada Post website – the journey of my new batch of giant squid light switch covers which have ironically been coming from Nova Scotia (ironic because they have giant squid there from time to time).

toastpost

Yesterday I noticed they were in Richmond so I was excited because I thought there’d be a good chance I’d get them in the mail today (Monday). I had them mailed to my work. I was at work from about 9:45 until 4:30 or so. So were 3 other people, on and off. So you can imagine my surprise when I checked at 4:30 to see that there was an “attempted delivery” and “notice card left” because somehow all four of us missed it and there was nary a notice card to be found in the place.

I went down to the West Broadway PO and I says to the lady “what’s all this then?” She checks her computer and tells me it’s not there. I say something to the effect of “you mean this information off the website is not accurate?
Isn’t the package scanned at these times at these places?” She tells me bluntly “No. Try again tomorrow.”

So now you know that the Canada Post tracking system is a bunch of bullshit. Just thought you might like to know so that you too can be OUTRAGED!

Thanks to David Herrold – from the 2008 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival

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Now We Play Rock Band 2 At Home

Yesterday we rented a car, took it out for some errands and then drove to Chilliwack for Cthulhumas up top Rider Lake Mountain or whatever giant hill my brother lives on. Driving was fine on the way but coming back it started to snow and it got scary fast. Two cars slid off the road just in front of us between Abbotsford and Langley and we saw many others just sitting on the side of the highway, some with hazards on and some not. Even more fun was getting it back to Budget this morning but we had no mishaps and now we can look back and guffaw.

Since we were out we decided we better get an xbox 360 to go with our copy of Rock Band 2. So we waited for the #8 Fraser bus going downtown. There was a stack of people waiting so we figured the bus would come soon. It took another 5-10 minutes or so and four buses came all at once. That’s a new record for me. We went to EB Games in the Pacific Center Mall and the guy greeted us just as we went in the door. The conversation boiled down to this:

him: “You guys looking for anything in particular?”

us: “We want the xbox 360 with the 60 gig hard drive.”

him: “Anything else?”

us: “I don’t think so.”

Awkward silence.

us: “Well I guess we’ll go look at the games then.”

him: “They’re right over there.”

That was weird. We decided not to get any other games so we told the guy at the counter that we wanted the xbox and he went and got one from the back room.

winter2008

When we got home we shoveled the walk and let Lunch roam around. I also brought Kodos out in the snow for the first time. I was holding him in my arms on the front walk and he began to pee. Kodos does not like change, and that’s exactly what I had to do to my clothes.

winter2008-1

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If We're So Stupid How Did We Get To The Moon?

Some guy explains a bunch of things, including why we play the lottery and why we pay what we pay for what we pay for. This is 34 minutes long but it’s a real eye opener except maybe for Paul who always talks about this kind of stuff. I think anyone who spends money, especially these days, should pay close attention. But also it goes back to something I’ve always been interested in – how our brains have evolved for a world that we no longer live in. Our brains aren’t used to being in large groups, seeing people who are different than us, having a long life, and having to deal with things besides eating and mating.

Some guy reports on whether or not expensive things are better, having been funded to try them by GQ: