theMediaman.com

Ok, another bit of a pause between journal entries… I seem to have my peaks and troughs when keeping up to date. However, since getting my new computer this weekend (and it’s FAST!) other things have happened. I’ll focus on that.

Friday night I was to join Laura and crew for her birthday fun at Jack Astors. It started snowing shortly before I left work, and by 9:00 there was three inches of snow on the ground and it was still falling. I might have considered going anyway - using my extensive Barrie Winter driving expertise to guide my path. However, the 404 and all other highways had cars in the ditch and there was no sand/salt on the ground being the first accumulation of the year. Most importantly, while I’m somewhat confident of my own driving ability in the snow, I’m very skeptical about the average Toronto driver’s skills. So I just stayed at home and watched some TV.

Saturday I got to spend with Simone. I picked her up late afternoon and chatted with her mom, sampling some baked goodies along the way. We drove to Etobicoke to pick up my new computer. After I did a basic tidy I was able to fit the new 17″ monitor on my desk beside my old system. I booted it up and in less than 60 seconds I had a desktop - all Windows XP.

…and this thing is FAST! I got massive benchmarking scores in 3D tests and I haven’t even tweaked anything yet. I have a very high-end heatsink and fan running on the CPU to dissipate heat, so I should be able to over clock my system to get it going even faster.

Despite the attraction to a new computer, Simone and I went to East Side Marios for dinner and Oceans Eleven afterwards. This is a sweet film. There is nothing I love more than a good heist flick, and this is it. Plenty of twists and turns that the viewer just doesn’t expect. I wouldn’t say that it’s a film that you have to go out and get the theatre experience, but definitely see it when you get a chance.

Sunday I went to Kitchener-Waterloo for a visit with Syl, and a meeting with Reg. The website is still moving forward, and I’ll be very excited to add this to my portfolio. I also got to see Ruth for the first time in AGES… she and Sara were making a Casselman Sisters gift CD for their parents (I’m giving away the surprise since there are low odds that Ruth and Sara’s parents actually read my journal). Sara’s talented fingers in concert (hee hee) with Ruth’s angelic voice mixed on Reggie’s desktop media monster was producing some beautiful music…

…I’m tempted to take up a singing career again. Maybe something Silverchair-ish.

Last night I drove to Ajax to see Frederick on his first day. I took pictures ,^_^.

Hopefully I’ll get photos of my other new nephew, Robert, up online soon too.

There is a new Clark and his name is Frederick James.

Frederick was born this morning. I haven’t talked to the parents, Alison or David yet, but I hope to have photos when I go to visit them all in Ajax tomorrow. He was born 8 lbs 13 oz. - it doesn’t sound like a lot relative to Erin’s birth weight of over 10 lbs, but I’m sure Ali would disagree.

My brother, Dave, now has a boy. Odds are that it’ll be only a short while before he’s rummaging through Canadian Tire to find a baby-sized tool belt. Now that Erin is the only one of her Clark cousins that is a girl, it looks like she’ll be a rose amongst the thorns. However, on her mother’s side of the family, she’s got two girls to play with… and she’s always got her Crazy Uncle Stephen and his Magical Bubble Wand…

…I’ve already mesmerized Erin with my charm. Now I need to start on Frederick. When Dean and Robert come back from Japan, I’ll have some catching up to do - but I’m positive that I can pull it off. And before you know it, I’ll have compensated for not being the cutest one in the family anymore with being the most powerful over all the new generation of Clarks!

Until then I’ll just enjoy the blowing bubbles and the playing with toy cars.

Welcome, Frederick.

OK, so Rogers Cable Internet access is up again. However, the incoming and outgoing e-mail servers are non-existent. I can still receive e-mail from theMediaman.com and my ancient SGCI account, but my @rogers.com account can’t be reached. That’s not such a problem since I don’t really use that e-mail address, but it is a problem that I can’t send e-mail. Even if I want to send e-mail through my theMediaman.com account, I have to send it through Rogers’ server.

Last night I couldn’t find the server - it literally didn’t exist. I tried several networking tricks to find it, but only found the POP server - which means that I can now receive e-mail from stephenclark4448a(at)rogers.com (stupid arbitrarily assigned e-mail address). I still can’t send e-mail.

After about half an hour running through retard steps on Rogers Tech Support with a guy who would not listen to what the problem REALLY WAS, he finally told me to call the main tech line instead of the e-mail configuration tech line. Fully aware that the queue for tech support is a 10 minute wait and it was already 1:30 in the morning, I begged for him to find a way to transfer me right in. Considering the fact that he couldn’t configure a custom e-mail account without immaculately detailed instructions to save his life, my confidence that he would be able to do so was limited. And I was right. He gave me a phone number to call and sent me on my way.

…oh, and the dude had a periodic cough that he would pleasantly share with me without warning. My ear still hurts.

I hate humans.

Rogers went up and down all weekend… well, more down than up. When I was able to connect, only a few connections would work and only for a few minutes before outright dying. The good thing is that I hardly noticed since my sleeping patterns were so screwed.

At work on Friday I was coming off the end of a cold. Really, I had a couple of stomach cramps early in the week that I attributed to my own poor cooking, but my body was definitely flushing something out Friday. After four hours of sleep when I got home, I woke up to a message from Hwan asking if I wanted to join in on the weekly LANparty. Despite my better judgement I spent the night playing Starcraft. Luckily Hwan, QYV and a2chow are wicked players and more than made up for my newbie lack of skill.

Around 8:00 AM I went home, slept for much of the day, woke up and worked on the Clark Family Calendar 2002. Right now I’m just doing the layout and templates. The new computer (still unsure what it’ll be named) will be here next week and with more processing power, and with it comes the ability to handle large graphics without waiting ten minutes to see the effects of my touch-ups.

Went for coffee with Simone - she’s crunching her way through exams right now and needed a break. It timed well with my own break from the calendar. Simone has the same kind of mind as I do where it can sporadically jump from deep, political insight to a two dimensional analysis of Timbits to a third-person point of view on the media industry. Imagine my rants in verbal form and the smell of Tim Hortons coffee and you get what this part of the evening was like.

Returned Simone to her studies around midnight and returned to the calendar for another five hours. After a sleep that took me clear through my weekly session of “Coronation Street”, I woke up and headed to Barrie. Several things accomplished there; scanning photos for the calendar, pulling half a pound of knotted hair out of the cat with a brush, unsuccessful attempt to install USB into Dad’s computer, home-cooked meal and, of course, quality time with my Mom and Dad.

Well, my Rogers connection is back and my new system is only days away. Hence, the end of my productivity.