It’s been a busy week, that’s for sure. Last Sunday was of course New Years Day, bringing us into 2006, and I neglected to post any notes (actually I probably missed the week before that too!). Anyway, here are the first of 2006:

• I returned from Inuvik on Monday night, and promptly went to Starbucks and then Denny’s. It was a good trip north for the holidays, nice to see my parents and get away from the city for a while. Here’s some pictures I took.
• Google released a new product called Google Pack. Basically it’s a collection of “important” software that is updated regularly. Google has also been the subject of some interesting stock price gossip as of late.
• I went to Kim & Mark Corie’s wedding reception last night! They look so great together, it was really beautiful. Megan took some pictures with her new digital camera. Congratulations Mark & Kim!
• I wrote a guest post for Dave Lucas this week – check it out!
• My brother arrived back in town on Thursday evening, and we went to the inaugural game for the Edmonton Rush, our new lacrosse team, on Friday night. It was great!
• Kim arrived back in Edmonton tonight, and has an 8 AM class tomorrow morning – sucks! Speaking of class, I am registered for two so far, and I need to find a third (hopefully a night class).
• Lots of really great Microsoft rumors lately! First there was Microsoft buying Yahoo, then there was Bill Clinton joining the company!
• Tom, Sharon, Dickson and I went to the Edmonton Oilers Superskills competition today at Rexall Place. Only $5 for tickets and $2 for parking (unless you get ripped off like Dickson). It was really cool, we were four rows up from the ice. I never would have guessed it with guys like Bergeron and Stoll on the team, but Chris Pronger clocked the hardest shot at 102.9.
• The coming week is back to school and really, back to work. I can’t believe we’re a week into January already!

Here are some notes for Monday, since I didn’t get a chance to post anything last night.

• del.icio.us is down, apparently from a power outage. Back on December 2nd I wrote about Malware and Web 2.0, but my comments apply just as equally to other negative things, like power outages: So what happens in a few years when the vast majority of our data is stored online?…All of that data needs to be proactively protected from attacks, it needs to be backed up in case of a successful attempt, and it really should be available all the time.
• I leave for Inuvik on Friday! I did a ton of shopping yesterday, so I’m getting closer to being ready to go. You can see Inuvik’s weather here.
• PayPal more cost effective than the credit card services? Interesting article from the New York Times.
• Last exam of the semester for me is tomorrow morning.
• Is Google ready to take a stake in AOL? Not everyone hopes so.
• Was there a tech product you wanted this year that never shipped? Vote for it in Wired’s Vaporware 2005.
• As much as I don’t like the cold, I wish it would just snow and stay here for a while so I don’t have to keep washing my car!

Here are my Sunday notes, a little late, but posted nonetheless.

• I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia on opening night, and came away quite impressed. The best part of the movie had to be the casting – the actors and actresses who played Lucy, Edmund and the White Witch were brilliant.
• Bad time to go to Denny’s: Saturday night, 2:30 AM. Good time to go to Denny’s: Sunday night, 4:30 AM.
• If you haven’t turned on ClearType, or if you don’t know what it is, read this!
• It was a crazy week as far as weather is concerned. First we got tons of snow, then it was incredibly cold, and now there is no snow and it’s above zero again.
• As Dickson pointed out, classes finished on December 7th. I’ve got two exams left and then the semester is finished for me.
• In case you missed it, podcast was word of the year for 2005. Tis the season for lots of “best of 2005” or “2005 in review” type posts, TV shows, articles, etc.
• Remember the Wikipedia problems I talked about earlier? Turns out the guy who posted some of the false information anonymously was tracked down and has apologized.
• Christmas shopping isn’t going so well for me – I need to get started!

I know I have become soft compared to when I used to live in Inuvik, but man is it ever cold out today! I could really handle a vacation to somewhere tropical right about now.

• I gotta say as far as remix albums go, Britney’s new one is pretty damn good. I especially like the new track, “And Then We Kiss”, which is a Junkie XL remix. Speaking of music, Lindsay Lohan’s new album is a much better effort than her last, I’m quite enjoying it.
• I finished reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near this week. I won’t say too much as I intend to write a proper review, but it is an absolutely fascinating book and I really enjoyed it! I have also started reading Freakonomics, and the first chapter was very intriguing. I also like that the authors maintain an active blog on the book’s website.
• As promised I spent a little more time playing with Dave Slusher’s AmigoFish. While I’m not blown away yet, it works fairly well. I really wish there was a way to eliminate podcasts that don’t publish very often. When I look at the predictions AmigoFish generates, I want to see podcasts that publish often, not once a month! I assume the algorithm would catch on to this eventually, but there should be a way to explicitly say “give me only frequently published podcasts!”
• I spent most of yesterday working with Visual Studio 2005 – learning the subtle differences, testing out conversions of old projects, looking at the designers, etc. I must say, I am falling fast and hard for VS2005 and .NET 2.0 (if I can say such a thing about a technology that is). I’m really impressed with almost everything! (It runs a little slow, but I guess my computer is getting pretty old.)
• Ah more music stuff! Ever hear of the band 10 Years? They are fast becoming my new favorite band. Their album is amazing! Unfortunately, they don’t have any upcoming Canadian tour dates.
• This past week saw the Conservatives offer to lower the GST here in Canada. Any predictions on what the upcoming week will bring? I hope there’s a similarly outlandish idea – makes for a good blog entry!
• As you are undoubtedly aware by now, I changed the colors of my site this week. Thanks for all the feedback! I may change it again for Xmas…we’ll see.

It felt like a relaxing week, but it was still quite busy in retrospect. That time of year I guess.

• The big news of the week has to be that I got my Xbox 360. Be sure to check out my initial review. The 360 is great!
• I discovered the group chat feature in MsgPlus tonight. Basically it will group all your windows into one window that you can then use to switch between them using a toolbar, or CRTL-TAB like other applications. Not sure if I like it yet, but good idea.
• Lots of you probably knew that Friday was called “Black Friday” – the day retailers turn a profit for the year, but how many of you knew that tomorrow is considered “Cyber Monday“? It’s the day retailers start a marketing blitz and introduce heavy discounts for their web operations.
• It was a busy weekend for Edmonton sports teams. The Rush had their training camp yesterday, and the Eskimos won the Grey Cup today!
• LiveMarks is a cool page for watching what people bookmark at del.icio.us in real time.
• Larry questions whether content is really king or not. He then states that the value of content itself seems to be declining. I’m not so sure that’s the case. I would argue that content has never been king – information is all that matters, and more specifically, the ability to derive some sort of knowledge from that information. That’s why newspapers are dying while Google is soaring – it used to be that newspapers were best at providing knowledge but lately Google and others like them do a better job. Same goes for blog aggregators.
• I am actually going home for Christmas this year (it’s been a while). I leave Edmonton on the 23rd of December with Tom, and return on January 2nd. It’s gonna be damn cold and full of snow. On the plus side, my parent’s TV is HD ready for my Xbox 360 😉
• For everyone who watched the Grey Cup today – what did you think of the halftime show? I could have come up with a dozen better acts than the Black Eyed Peas. I like BEP, but they are definitely a “listen to on the CD and watch the video on TV” kind of act. Darren didn’t care too much for them either.

Traveling really does a number on your schedule and routines, which
meant that I didn’t end up posting any notes last week. That’s okay
though, it’s probably good to have a break from the norm once in a
while! And the Expo went very well for us too.

• I’ll never learn my lesson. I did a 10-page paper, a programming
  assignment, and a presentation all at the last minute on Thursday and
  Friday. Fortunately, I think they all turned out quite well!
• Some data has started showing up in my Google Analytics
  account now, but I haven’t had the time to look at it in any detail.
  I’ll have to check it out this week and see how good or useful it is.
• Does anyone know where I can buy Diet Coke with Splenda? Is it even
  available in Canada? I read about it in Business 2.0 this month, but I
  haven’t noticed it anywhere. The press release only mentions the US.
• I went to see Derailed tonight with Megan, and I quite enjoyed it. Totally didn’t see the twist coming.
• There’s lots of really cool podcasting stuff happening right now. Check my list of links for more!
• My interview with CJSR
  last week for Humanities 101 went okay. They had some scheduling
  issues, so I was the very last five minutes of the show, though they
  did say they’d like to have me back. Haven’t heard anything to that end
  though.
• I hate when cops (or any emergency vehicles for that matter) put
  their lights on just to go through a red light. I saw one do it the
  other day and couldn’t help but feel smug when I got to go through the
  next light and he got stuck behind a bunch of sheep.
• I also have a beef with Destiny’s Child right now. I really like
  that new song “Check on it”, but it’s on the #1’s album (with two other
  new songs), not the Destiny Fulfilled album which didn’t come out that
  long ago really. Is it so hard to put the three new songs on the NEW
  album? I think putting new songs on a greatest hits album is stupid. If
  you’ve already bought all of an artists’ albums, don’t you feel ripped
  off when they put a new song on the greatest hits just so you’ll have
  to buy it too? I mean good marketing move, but shitty deal for fans. I
  guess Destiny’s Child is no more so they don’t really care anyway.
• My xmas/birthday present for this year is the Xbox 360
  (thanks M&D!) and I get to pick it up early. Best Buy in Edmonton
  doesn’t open until 8 AM on Tuesday for the Xbox 360 launch, so I guess
  I am not lining up at midnight like I planned! If you want to join me
  early in the morning though, let me know!

UPDATE: I found out over beers at the PowerPlant from Megan
that Futureshop is open at midnight tonight (and I just called to
confirm), so I am back to lining up tonight! Same price as Best Buy
too. Being the same company, you’d think they would have their hours
more in line!

And just like that, we have snow! I guess I shouldn’t complain too much; after all it is already a week into November.

• My Mom was in town again this weekend, on the way home. It was good
  to see her again – I only see her once or twice a year! We had a really
  nice dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory last night…thanks Mom!
• I finally replaced my phone this week! I got a new Motorola V710. It’s been working great, I’m really happy with it so far. So much more useful than my old phone!
• Went to Denny’s tonight as Ylz is back in town for a few days…good times!
• The Podcast & Portable Media Expo
  is coming up really soon! Dickson and I are excited to go, but still
  not ready. As you can see, sleeping times are completely out of whack,
  as are blogging habits!
• Did you know there was a fish processing plant here in Edmonton? I didn’t until I saw the CEO of Experience Gastronomique give a presentation on Wednesday evening. Apparently they have been quite successful, despite being completely landlocked!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention it, but my blog turned two years old on Sunday, November 6th!

One more day until November and still no snow – I like it!

• Just got back from the Matthew Good concert at the Starlite. I went with Megan, making this like fourth time we’ve seen him perform I think. He played a really great set tonight, and he even played my favorite song, Weapon (he didn’t play it the last time I saw him).
• My new favorite day of the week is Thursday. Why? Because there are $2 drinks at Lux!
• Sharon wants to buy a portable CD player to replace her old one, and so I gave her my little speech on how she sould be buying an MP3 player instead. It fell on deaf ears, so I called her a luddite, and to my surprise she didn’t know what that meant! For once I knew something about the English language that Sharon didn’t!
• I started reading Ray Kurzweil’s new book The Singularity a few days ago, and I am completely enthralled. It’s so interesting – it makes me want to go to sleep for twenty years and wake up when the good times are rolling!
• Looks like the Telus strike isn’t going to end anytime soon – the union rejected a tentative agreement today. Very slim margin though, with 50.3% voting against the agreement.
• It has been almost 24 hours since I last ate, so I think I am going to head home and have a bite to eat before I go to sleep. Oddly though I’m not hungry.
• Happy Halloween!

I can’t believe it’s almost November! Here’s my weekly notes:

• My Mom was in town on Saturday night! She was on her way to Toronto for some training for her new job, and she’ll be back here in two weeks on the way back. I hadn’t seen her in over a year, so it was great she could stop in Edmonton!
• Tomorrow (or technically today – October 24th) is United Nations Day – the day the UN officially came into existence when it’s charter was ratified by the majority of signatories. This also happens to be the UN’s 60th anniversary.
• I went to see A History of Violence tonight with Sharon and Megan. I can only describe it as deliciously violent.
• Sharon’s sister asked me to sponsor her while I was there tonight too, so I did. I gave her $10 towards her run. They are raising money to build a school in Africa.
• I really like the Hypnotiq Beach at Earl’s – so yummy!
• When I was a kid, our family had an original Atari 2600. I never knew what happened to it until recently, when I found out my parents still had it. I was quite interested, so my Mom brought it down with her last night. There’s lots of games and controllers – only the power supply is missing. I won an auction for one on eBay a few hours ago though, so we’ll be playing Atari in the Paramagnus office soon enough!
• I am tempted to listen to 96X this week just to see if anything came of the boycott. If you hear anything, leave a comment!

Winter is definitely coming – so cold out today! Or maybe it was just me. Here’s my notes for this week:

• Last night was the Chinese Grand Prix, the last race of the 2005 Formula 1 season. Newly crowned (and youngest ever) World Champion Fernando Alonso won the race. Not such a great year for Ferrari, but here’s to hoping they bounce back next year!
• Midterms for me this week and next. Hopefully they go better than my SOC midterm a couple weeks ago (which I still have not gotten back).
• One thing I hate about surfing the web is that sometimes you click a link only to find out that it’s not a webpage, but a PDF file instead. Then you have to wait for hours while Acrobat loads. Happened to me all the time, until recently when I found the PDF Download extension for Firefox! Basically if you click a link to a PDF file, it will give you some options like opening the file as HTML. Highly recommended if you use Firefox!
• Here’s an interesting live search page I found, called Inquisitor Instant Search. Hard to explain what it does, but give it a shot!
• Work is moving along for Paramagnus! We’re trying to get everything ready for the Podcast & Portable Media Expo in November. More to come on that later!
• If you like a challenge, check out my Dad’s daily trivia. See how much useful stuff you know!