Social Code in Edmonton!

If you are like me and you missed Social Code at WEM a couple weeks ago, never fear! They are coming back to Edmonton on August 18th and 19th to Kingsway Mall. Then they will be back again for NAIT’s Oookfest on September 11th. If anyone wants to go to one of these times, let me know! Social Code Rocks!

[Listening to: Waiting – Social Code – A Year At The Movies (03:17)]

Internet Outages!

Looks like the Internet is suffering some major outages this morning, and as of yet, no one seems to know why. Google is reporting an error for many users (though it seems to be working for me) and apparently Yahoo, AltaVista, and Channel9 among other sites are having troubles. The thinking is that these sites are under a DNS attack. More information here, here, here and here.

Very rarely do the top 40 sites dip under 99% reliability, so this is interesting indeed!

New MSN Messenger Display Pictures!

Yes, its time for more display pictures! I haven’t created any for a while, and my list was growing too long. Plus I have the new Gallery now, so the pictures are better organized. Here are the newest display pictures by series – click the links to download, rate, and comment:

General Series: STFU!, Night Owl
Emotions Series: In Love, Pleased
Pop Culture Series: Dodgeball: Globo Gym, Dodgeball: Average Joes Gym
Technology Series: Bluetooth, WiFi

And the newest entries to the Activities Series are Bath Time and Toothing:

Enjoy, and be sure to check out my other pictures!

REVIEW: Ashlee Simpson's Debut CD – "Autobiography"

You might have heard Ashlee Simpson’s lead single “Pieces Of Me” on the radio recently, just as I did. I liked the song, so I decided to get the album and see what the rest of her songs were like. And I can safely say, if you like that song, you’ll like the rest of the record as well!

Her debut CD “Autobiography” has 12 tracks for a total playing time of 44 minutes even. I think my favorite track is still “Pieces Of Me”, though I really like “Love Me For Me”, “Giving It All Away”, and “Nothing New” as well. One of the most upbeat tracks on the disc is “La La”, kind of a neat song! Other tracks on the album include “Autobiography”, “Shadow”, “Better Off”, “Love Makes The World Go Round”, “Surrender”, “Unreachable” and “Undiscovered”.

I think I like her CD better than, say her older sister’s first release, if only because it sounds much less teeny-bopperish. I am tempted to compare her music to Avril Lavigne, but I think I will refrain – Lavigne’s new album is better in my opinion. However, if you like Michelle Branch, Jessica Simpson, and similar artists, I think you’ll like Ashlee Simpson.

For the record, shes pretty good looking and the sister of Jessica Simpson. Need I say more?

[Listening to: Pieces Of Me – Ashlee Simpson – Autobiography (03:39)]

Gallery Now Available!

As you can see, there is a new link on the menu above – Gallery. I now have an image gallery for all of my pictures, including the MSN Messenger display pictures that I create. It has some cool features like allowing you to leave a comment, rate a picture, and subscribe to a gallery (rss).

Enjoy!

ICubed #1

Welcome to the first ever ICubed! What the heck is it, you ask? ICubed stands for Interesting Internet Information. Basically I find a lot of interesting things and I have decided to start posting them on my blog so that I know where to find them in the future, and so that I can share with all of you. Good idea huh? Enjoy 🙂

Network Change Complete!

The network configuration change we began a long time ago is now complete! Special thanks to Martin for helping us get the excellent firewall/router. We are now secure, fast, and redundant!

I am sure I missed a couple configuration files somewhere, so if you notice something isn’t working correctly on one of our websites, please let me know. Otherwise, everything should be speedy now, with no refresh required!

If you want to host a website, you should talk to me or Dickson. If you’re nice, we might even give you a deal!

Only the lawyers win!

Now that three provinces and one territory allow gays and lesbians to wed, I think its only a matter of time until the rest of them do as well. Yet you would think if they were going to allow same-sex marriages, they would have thought about allowing same-sex divorces too!

Apparently two women in Toronto are seeking a divorce, but the Divorce Act still defines “spouse” as “of a man or woman who are married to each other”. So after a five day marriage (kinda kills the whole “same-sex marriage is going to work because they have been waiting forever to get hitched” argument) the two women, who had been in a relationship for 10 years before tying the knot, are stuck together.

Is it just me, or did the governments make a big mistake here? And why are the women only referred to as “M.M.” and “J.H.”? Do lesbians not have names? And why do these women want to separate anyways? Did it take five days of marriage for them to realize they cannot have children together?

Anyway, its a good time to be a divorce lawyer – the floodgates will open soon enough!

RE: Caffeine Alertness Comes at Cost of Word Recall

So that’s why I have a poor memory! Really interesting article at FuturePundit that explains the results of a recent study found in the APA’s Behavioural Neroscience journal. Basically, caffeine will help you recall information that is related to the current train of thought, but hinders when the information is unrelated.

Think of caffeine as a drug that reduces distractability. Get on one chain of thought. Then encounter a distraction that requires you to shift to another chain of thought. Caffeine will inhibit your brain’s ability to make that transition.

Obviously, this is a trade-off. The ability to resist distractions is a plus in some environments. But that is not always the case. Other environments require frequent attention shifting.

All we have to do is figure out how to harness the power of caffeine! I just KNEW all that Coke and Starbucks was good for me 🙂

Read: FuturePundit