I’ve always thought it would be fucking cool to be caught in this situation:

You’re walking down the street all by yourself, and are coming toward an intersection. You look one way, you don’t see anyone coming, so you cross the street. Right then, seemingly out of nowhere, a car comes racing at you from the other direction. You can barely turn your head to see what’s happening before it’s almost at you. You have less than a second to react; what do you do?

The ultimate solution for this problem would be to hop onto the hood of the car, jump off the windshield, watch as the car passes underneath, land safely on the sidewalk behind it, and just keep walking like nothing happened.

If someone was to see this happen, they would instantly think that you are the coolest cat in town, and that you have some impressive ninja evasion skills. I wish someday that someone will try and slaughter me vehicularly so I can put my idea to motion.

Last weekend I was in the family van, enduring another two hour drive up to the lake to enjoy the fine weather at the beach. I was sitting in the back, and I had my laptop open on my knees. We stopped for gas at a place along the side of the highway, and as I was zooming the cursor around the desktop in a phase of technological boredom due to the lack of an internet connection, it seemed that the Web gods were watching. Suddenly, the tiny red X that was sitting fixedly on the wireless icon in my system tray disappeared, and a happy blue notification box told me that the internet was connected.

Was I dreaming? Had my Buick Terraza suddenly sprouted a dish and began receiving satellite internet signals? Pushing the thoughts of ‘why’ and ‘how’ out of my mind, I alt-tabbed open Launchy and fired up Firefox to check my feeds before this miracle decided to leave.

Just as soon as it had appeared, it was gone, and I was back to fingering the track-pad absentmindedly, still wondering what had happened.

In hindsight, I realize that it was obviously the gas-station that offered free Wi-Fi to the lonely truckers that were laying in their cabs in the parking lot (don’t overthink it…) . But despite knowing the answer, I couldn’t get an idea out of my head. An idea so excellent and marvellous that it makes me look to the future with a kind of excited apprehension for what could be possible. I haven’t put these ideas to paper or to a patent office, but I’ll see if I can explain them as best I can. I call the idea ‘The Layer’.

I just tried explaining it via text, but realized that it’s too hard to formulate an accurate portrayal with just words. This means I’m going to have to turn to Photoshop and put together an entire presentation. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but I will put it way up near the top of my To Do list so it doesn’t get forgotten.

Stay tuned, this is going to blow your mind.

Finished my last final (Math 30C) about an hour ago.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

“Hey baby, how’s it going? … Oh, well that’s good to hear … Haha yeah I guess so, right? … Ahh, anyway, there’s something I need to talk to you about … No, well, I dunno … Please, don’t be worried, just let me talk to you, okay? … Okay, here it is, plain and simple: this isn’t going to last; I’ve found someone else … No, … C’mon, please, just let me finish … You have been the center of my life since October 24th, 2006. It’s been awesome; I have absolutely no regrets. But, you see, there’s someone better. … No, no, I know better is a harsh word, but it’s the right one. I’m just trying to be honest with you … Her name? Fine, I guess you have the right to know. Her name is Firefox 3. … Yes, I know that you two have met before … Younger? What does that have to do with anything? … Please, stop crying, … No, I know … Just let me finish … We were introduced a while back, and it’s like ever since then, I haven’t been able to get her off my mind. All those new features an- … No, your features were great too, don’t get me wrong, there’s just these little extra touches that make her so much more appealing. Plus, she is so nice on memory, it’s awesome … No no, I’m not calling you high-maintenance … C’mon now, you’re putting words in my mouth, … Cheated? Cheated?! … I have NEVER cheated on you, and you know it! … WHAT?! RC1 and RC2?! … Yeah, sure I was eying them up a bit, but that doesn’t mean I used them, … Fine. I downloaded RC2, but I never installed her … I swear to God I didn’t install her! … Oh please, Firefox 2, don’t cry … How can you ask that? You know that with FF3 around I won’t need you anymore. I know it sounds blunt, but it’s true … Shh, it’ll be alright … Of course I won’t forget you … No, of course not. You will always have a special place in my heart … No? How about I keep a picture of you on my blog? … No, I’m serious. I’ll put it in its very own post and everything so I can look back and remember you … I know it’s hard, but don’t worry, everything will be okay … of course we can still be friends … Yeah, she’s coming over on Tuesday, … Yes, I’m sure you and FF3 will get along fine; you already have so much in common … Okay, sounds good … Yep, … I know, I will … Okay, I’ll see you around. Please don’t be sad. … Alright, see you … Bye.

Click.

Graduation is in two weeks. I think it’s weird how people have such different viewpoints on the same affair. In my class of about 40 people, I’ve seen two major perspectives:

1. “Thank God school is almost over. I want to get out of here and never come back. I’m so sick of school.”

Above is a very common phrase I hear in the hallways. It seems to me that people bottle up all their hatred and contempt for school, then choose to release it only during the last couple months of Grade 12. People that I’ve gone to school with for 12 years that have been normally happy and content have suddenly grown horribly opposed to school, and have the urge to leave and enter the ‘real world’ as soon as physically possible. Whether that’s actually what they feel like, or if it’s just a kind of a ‘mask’ that they put on to make themselves seem more mature and adult-like, I don’t know.

2. “Awuh! I don’t want to leave! I want to be with you guys forever! Let’s all fail so we can stay together!”

This phrase isn’t heard as often as #1, but it’s definitely still present. Spoken by those who have a hard time coping with change, and would like nothing more than to keep doing what they’re doing for the rest of their life, even if it’s Math C30 and Calculus. I’m not sure if their desire is to stay with all their classmates, or if they simply don’t want to deal with life outside of High School.

—

Those are the two most widely expressed opinions that I’m aware of. As for myself, I don’t think I would put myself in either of those two categories. I think that I’m glad that High School is almost over, because I’m looking forward to University and studying something I actually enjoy (Computer Science). However, at the same time, I’m friends with pretty much every single person in my class, and once school is finished, everyone is going different directions. I just doesn’t seem fair that you spend 12 years of your life making friends and building relationships, then once Grade 12 is over you never see the majority of those people again. I think it’s this fact that I have so much trouble coping with.

Thank God for the miracle of technology, and thank the series of tubes for the invention of Facebook. It sure is a hell of a lot easier to keep in touch via Internet compared to snail mail.

I’ve finally chosen a Graduation quote.

I say finally, because picking one has been a long, horribly paved road I’ve traveled down. This quote is the one that they will read right after my name as I walk into the hall and onto the stage, therefore this is the quote that people will associate not only my name with, but my person as well. For example, if my grad quote would have been ‘White power.”, it would be assumed by hundreds of audience members that I am an active member of the KKK and believe that Caucasian is the greater race. I think it’s obvious why that wouldn’t be a very wise choice as far as quotes go, but you can see how people judge you. This is the reason why it took me so long to find a suitable one.

I went through quite a few before I found ‘the one’. There were a couple different ones by Douglas Adams that I enjoyed, and a few others from other honorary figureheads. However, none of them really seemed to fit. They were all either way too deep and serious, or they were meant to be funny and stupid. It reminded me briefly of the song Bicycle Race by Queen :

“I don’t want to be a candidate for Vienam or Watergate, ‘cuz all I want to do is BICYCLE, BICYCLE, BICYCLE…”

That expresses my feelings toward the choosing of my quote. I don’t want something that turns me into a philosopher or world leader. All I want is something easy-going and laid back. So, with that song stuck in my head, I got to work browsing pages upon pages of quotes, along with several different tags, but all returned little to no quality results.

Finally, I became bored of reading quotes and pointed my browser to Youtube. This is what I watched:

After the video was done, I had made up my mind. Monty Python, in all their brilliance and comedic wizardry, revealed to me the perfect grad quote. Light, optimistic, and funny (for those who are familiar with the comedy group); just what I was looking for. Those who get it will laugh, those who don’t will appreciate the simplicity, and those who are old and deaf will smile and nod in the knowledgeable sort of way that old deaf people like to nod.

This week I took a big step. I decided to finally jump on the Internet-news bandwagon and try out RSS. I know, I’ve been on the Internet for many years, and only just now I’m using RSS; it probably sounds pretty lame. In my defense, I had technically tried it out before, but I never really got into it. Up until now, I’ve had my most-visited site’s favicons as bookmarks toolbar in Firefox, which worked well, but it was a lot of clicking and page-switching.

So, after testing out a couple different RSS readers, I finally settled on Google Reader. As a big fan of Google, Gmail, Calender, Docs, etc. I figured that Reader would be just as good.

I was right.

It only took me a few minutes to get the RSS feeds from all my most visited sites, and soon my Reader was chock full of tech and gaming news. Also, after a very quick Google search, I found a nifty little Firefox plugin that gave me instant Reader updates just like the equally-handy Gmail Notifier.

As of now, I have 24 subscriptions in 4 different catagories. It’s nice to have all my news in one spot, but I think my productivity is going to take a nose-dive since I’m constantly clicking on the ‘new feed’ icon.

I’m a pretty avid movie-goer. I like to see the latest action production, and I always have upcoming movies marked on my calender to keep me reminded. However, there’s one thing that really saddens me, and that’s the representation of technology in movies.

I did a bit of research, and I found that the majority of movie watchers are aged 12-25. Now, this is a very large chunk of the population, and for the most part, a very tech-savvy age group. So why, why, WHY do movie producers try and bullshit us with their ridiculousness when it comes to computers and technology?

** POSSIBLE IRONMAN SPOILERS AHEAD **

Take Ironman for example. Overall, it was a kickass movie; I absolutely loved it. However, there was one part where I actually shed a tear. When Pepper was sent to Tony Stark’s office to get the incriminating documents, why oh why did the folders have to be named ‘Top Secret’, ‘Ultra Secret’, etc? You’re filming a multi-million dollar movie, primarily aimed at an audience of geeky superhero fans (myself included) who have at least once in their life chose not to go out in a social situation because they wanted to stay at home on the internet/computer (once again, myself included); why do you do this to us? If I was a big tough guy with a mean beard and I had files that could land me in prison or killed, I would be a little bit sneakier.

To those who have seen Ironman, I know that you can sympathize with me. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was stellar, but that one, tiny part really hit me hard. I want to see a movie where instead of the hero having to ‘hack into the corporate server mainframes and decompile the target-omega code, all in less than 15 seconds’ , they are forced to Google their problem, find a good forum that actively discusses similar problems, ask for help, then after a couple solid days of researching and troubleshooting, find a practical solution to their initial problem.

In the song See You Again by Miley Cyrus (or her alias, Hannah Montana), there’s one part that blows my mind whenever I hear it. The subtle mixture of bass and vocals makes me shiver with happiness whenever it comes on. It’s like Jesus himself is dishing out these almighty drum beats. If you want to listen to it in context, it’s from approximately 2:33 - 2:36.

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Miley. My attraction to the three seconds of one of her singles is purely coincidental; it could have been any song by any artist.

Quickly, take a look to your right (if you leave the screen, you’ve gone too far). Before your eyes should sit a gloriously orange RSS feed icon. With a simple click of the image, you can subscribe to all my boring posts, allowing you to be instantly alerted whenever I decide to update the blog!

It sure sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? The first person to subscribe will win a free air guitar, signed by yours truly!

You would have to be an idiot to pass this up!