I vote for a weekend of horror movies. I'll supply the "Dawn of the Dead" remake and "Alien Apocalypse".

I'm becoming my parents! >-|D:{

Messing around in SQLite and probing my data with SQLite Manager in Firefox. Nifty!

It's the middle of October, which means University students are in mid-term mode. I've been out for 10 months and don't feel sorry for them!

Rawking out to "Rhyme Torrents Halloween E.P."

This just in: Mice Run Amok in Office. Hilarity ensues.

Rawking out to Beefy. http://ping.fm/iJFXJ

Still Here

With the purchase of a website and hosting, as well as living on other sites such as Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, etc. It's kind of hard to find a purpose for Blogger. It's dear to my heart, my first blog.

So here's the occasional update saying, "I'm still alive". And I'm still trying to find my purpose in life.

OH HAI!

I haz a website!

So I'll probably export my blogger and archive it for history.

The bigger the tool...

It seems that the bigger the blogging tool the more work it takes to update. Mostly true only in the sense that Blogger allows one to type an almost unlimited number of letters/characters. Twitter restricts the user to 140 characters and Pownce, while not strictly limited, allows a much smaller viewable post than Blogger but still slightly more than Twitter.

So it follows that I update my Twitter the most frequently, followed in turn by Pownce and the least frequently updated is my Blogger account.

http://twitter.com/kdnewton
http://pownce.com/waggy

And for those with even more curiosity,
My flicker page.


Socially networked. Giving in a little at a time.

-Kyle

Blogged with Flock

From the desktop of... Flock

Yeah, I'm testing out this nifty new web browser. You might have heard about it. It's called Flock. You know, no big deal.

Actually, it seems that it will be a big deal. I'm really enjoying this whole integration of media and social tools into a web browser. Sure, everything that is done here in Flock can be done in Firefox with the use of plugins, but it's nice to have something working out of the package like Flock.

Blogged with Flock

Wii commercials

Crazy that Nintendo is considering pulling Wii advertisements because the system is selling so well. I purchased mine in April of this year, and that was after almost three weeks of searching.

Engadget has the story.

To do

Things to get done:

1. Complete the story line to The Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion


2. Move on to the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion


3. Purchase and complete Bio Shock


4. Purchase The Orange Box to play through the rest of the Half Life 2 episodes

Introverted

Digg recently brought this article to my attention. It's about people who tend to keep to themselves. People who are introverted. I liked it.

the cost of support

Holy crap!

For lack of a better exclamation. Yeah! Holy crap! The kind of holy crap that's brown and sticky, like a stick. What have I been learning during my training at work? Well, I'm not sure I can say too much. But I've learned that in the first half of a work day there easily 400 calls placed for tech support. 400 people in the first half of the day (and I've heard it can get up to 8000 in a single day) willing to pay $39 to $69 for someone to uninstall and reinstall a freaking piece of software! And that isn't even the business rate! That's the personal home-computer rate for regular people. I understand not everyone has a daughter's boyfriend who can troubleshoot their computer for them. But get this, I'm paid to search through the product websites support page. Yes, that is right. Most everything available to me is available to the public through the product support page. Look here, I've done a search for "blue screen" and come up with lines I can feed the customer over the phone. For $39~$69 per troubleshoot I think I'd look into fixing the problem myself.


-I'm fine with helping people, I just don't agree with the outrageous fees

More flair

Like Jennifer Aniston's character in the movie Office Space

I don't have enough flair. I mean this in regard to how I write my blog posts. I don't even want to read them myself. Regardless, I begin my training tomorrow as awesome expert-tech support for Symantec's Anti-Virus software. I will keep you posted. And maybe have a little flair. If I make fun of the customers who call then that might bring a little something extra [Edit: I meant if I make fun of them here in my blog. Not on the phone!]. T-Minus 6 hours 30 minutes until I need to wake up (yes, 5am) to get ready for work.

-Totally wicked awesome phone answering guy

how to ace an interview

How to ace a job interview.

I'd been looking for work this last week and a half. Usually I'd be working with my professor at the University I attend, continuing the research I've been working on since summer 2004. My professor didn't get the funding she was expecting this year so I've had to look for work elsewhere.

I thought I'd try my luck with emailed resumes this year. It's worked. Monday morning I email a cover letter (forgetting to attach the email) at 9:30am (mere moments after waking up ~ my laptop is set up beside my bed). I get a phone call at 10:25am to set up my assessment and interviews for Wednesday.

How do you ace your interview? Apply somewhere you will be comfortable working. I'd applied at a technical support call center. I'll be working on a computer and telephone speaking with people about something I (for the moment) am interested in. So I showed up at 10:55am and was calm. I smiled and shook hands and dressed to impress. I had written my application and 45 minute assessment and had my first interview within the first half hour. I was asked to come back for a second interview at 3pm and unofficially I had the job. The 3pm interview lasted less than 5 minutes and I was off back with the first interviewer congratulating me on my new employment.

Apply somewhere you will be comfortable working. You'll come across naturally in your interview and make a lasting impression (at least I hope so, I'd like a raise already) on the people you meet.

-Will be looking for a real job for January 2008.

sea monkeys

Raising countless little creatures

I had a great weekend. Most notably, I'd like to reminisce over Saturday. My girlfriend and I visited every single pet store in town. We were hunting. We were looking for artemia salina and we found them! $10 for a 6 gram bottle of suspended brine-shrimp cysts (eggs). $3 for a hefty box of sea (aquarium/rock) salt. $3 for micro-food (egg powder), all found at your local aquaria store. I can only estimate how many brine-shrimp (Sea-Monkey) eggs are contained in 6 grams but I'd guess it is well above the 100,000 mark.

Of course I didn't drop them all in at once. No! Here's what I did.

1. Measure out 1 litre of room temperature distilled or stale water.
2. Fill glass container with the 1 litre of water.
   
3. Mix in at least 2 teaspoons of aquarium salt until diluted.
4. Since the eggs stick to the lid of the egg bottle because of static I did the following:
1. Close lid, shake bottle. This gets eggs stuck to the inside of the lid of the bottle.
2. Open bottle, hold lid over the water and flick the lid, knocking the eggs into the water.
5. Do step 4 one or two more times.
6. Poke at the eggs floating on the surface so they stop floating and start sinking (use a clean spoon or something).
7. Wait 24 hours before you start seeing little white things (countless white things if you flicked eggs in 3 times) swimming around.

I've done sea-monkeys in the past, but at $10 a shot every time you want to follow their steps 1-2-3 isn't economical. Now I've got sea-monkeys possibly for life and for only$16 too!

Wii!

We also went hunting around for a Nintendo Wii. Tough luck with that. I've seen Playstation 3 consoles for sale but I have never found a Nintendo Wii available for purchase. Everywhere in a 70km radius sells out their shipment of Nintendo Wii in less than an hour of shelving the units. So I'm on the lookout for them. I've got a keen eye set out and I'm ready. I'll leave school early to get one. Yeah, we're really looking forward to some kinetic fun.

DS Homebrew

Tonight I also purchased a Nintendo DS kit for some extra fun with my DS. Just thought I'd point that out. I need more entertainment like I need... Well at this point I really don't need anything. I should be focusing extra effort into finishing up the last 2 weeks of class and last week of exams before summer starts.

-Hoping to finish my research this summer

Late-Winter fun

So the bars and clubs people my age go to are usually pretty quiet around this time of year. So I haven't been out dancing/drinking in a while. Last night, however, my girlfriend and I decided to change that. We went out with another couple, first bowling then wandering around WalMart and then out the a local pub, Monashees. We drank, we danced, we went for icecream afterward. It was good fun. Here's a particular quote I remember at the end of the night as Mark, of the other couple, was scooping some icecream from a container his girlfriend Deanne was holding:

M: Ack! I was going for it and you made me pull out and now I've got it all over myself.
All: Hahaha
M: Now I've got a sticky hand.
All: Crying from laughing so hard.

-Reading/Spring break coming up soon

The Watchmen

w00t! Here's to another awesome episode of Heroes

My girlfriend and I love that show. People with super powers coming together to save the day. But what about the people with mediocre powers?

You never hear about the person who never has to sleep or the person who can go without ever having to eat. "Hey, Bob. What's your power? Want to know mine? I'm totally immune to warts."

I suppose the story is where the super powers are. What's so exciting about the mediocre power to stop the growth of your hair and finger nails? The power to sprout zits all over your body. Hey, in a universe populated with people who have special abilities, any of these are possibilities.

-I think there's a graphic novel related to this called 'The Watchmen'

Sleep versus Eating

My girlfriend and I at times debate what would be the preferred power: To never have to sleep or to never have to eat. These are the situations; you can choose to sleep if you like, but you can go without it and still feel like it's the afternoon after a night of 8 hours sleep. Likewise, when you have the power to not eat you never starve. You can eat if you like, but if you go without you still have the satisfied feeling in your stomach like you at a healthy lunch only half an hour before.

With the power to go without sleep, your body never tires. You are never exhausted and are probably in a better mood because of it. You are awake at all hours of the day unless you choose to sleep (even though you don't have to, but it might make your significant other feel better if you do). In being awake you can get so much more accomplished. You'd have so much more time to spend learning that you'd probably become a genius. You can spend your knowledge working from your own home on things in the information technology path. Granted, in being awake all the time you'd probably have to eat more due to a higher metabolism but the money made from your personal home business could offset that.

You might be able to tell I really like the idea of not needing to sleep (though having the option to sleep at any time if I like). The power to go without food, in my opinion, has only the benefit that I'd save that much money in not having to buy groceries or go shopping for food. I'd never have to stop to eat which at times is an inconvenience. I could still choose to eat if I like, and enjoy social time eating with friends, but it doesn't grant me the extra time in the day that going without sleep could provide.

-I had a train of thought but it derailed