BNJMN

The buttons arrived! I forgot to take advantage of a promotion that Six Cent Press was running. Not only did they apply it, split the 50 free buttons between the two styles that I would have wanted. Very much appreciated! Also, I found a book that I made in grade 2. I just know you want to read it... Click the cover page below!

For the first time in what feels like ever, I haven't anything to do. Well, I have an interview to edit, a case study to complete, exam material to study, an article to write, presentations to prepare, a website to populate... but nothing that is absolutely required for today! Friday was the final school-related presentation. It went well! Above, Sarak is ready to sleep not too long after. Despite the slow start, it's going to be a huge week. But for some reason, all I want to do is buy books! I'm not sure what Malcolm Gladwell did to me, but I have a number of books in my Amazon checkout (where you can get Airmiles, so I discovered) and I do want to read them. But I have to finish Blink first. There are a few pictures I've rustled up from various memory cards. My American quarter set, which is nearing completion, some Disney frogs, perogies, a parking lot, and nap time.

My blog has moved! There were lots of fancy terms involved, including migration, canonical, cname, and propagated, but it was all very simple to do (thanks largely to Google's Blogger team). now instead of being at benjaminwood.net/blog, they will be at blog.benjaminwod.net. HUGE difference, am I right? School is beginning to wind down, after some huge, but successfully completed assignments. Only one presentation to go, plus exams. Speaking of presentations, I gave one about product placement yesterday, and have made it available at on my site ( www.benjaminwood.net/presentation ) because it's so cool. I basically took an iPad picture and made it interactive, included video, and made little apps to go from one slide to the next. And I guess while I'm gushing about site-related business, I made a few minor updates, including a new picture that I use for my site's main navigation. I can't wait to have more time to add more content to my site. And play videogames. Ph...

I attended one class this week - the first class of the semester, as it turned out. And it was a busy one. It's almost overwhelming how much work there will be to do before April rolls around. But once it does, the question becomes, what to do then? Fortunately, I have well over a hundred days to figure that one out. I did make a logo, though I had surgery on Tuesday. Talk about a strange experience... One minute you're playing with the heart rate monitor in the operating room, trying to lower your heart-rate, the next a man walks in and plays with the IV unit... and the next you're struggling to make out one of any of the several clocks that adorn the recovery room. And your throat is beyond dry. And it hurts to move. Then when you make it home, it's as if very little has even happened. "the pain's not too bad," you say, "it's been worse before!" And then you wake up the next day. Pain killers have been a good friend ever since. But not one ...

So the OC Transpo strike started a year ago. And looking back at it all, I still have these annoyed feelings about the fact that it happened, and they didn't really get anywhere, since the reason for it ending was originally on the table as a way to prevent it. And lately, I've been getting more and more annoyed with the service. I actually called and made a complaint about an issue, but that doesn't go far enough. Maybe I'll write them a letter old-person-style, stamps and all. That first day of the strike wasn't unlike today - blizzardy. It felt like the first true day of winter - just in time for the Christmas season too! And only 9 more days until I'm done school for the year. Then a bit longer. Then what? I do have some ideas, some of which (unfortunately) involve even more school. We'll see what grows to fruition. Speaking of school, here's a sequence I worked on with my teammates for one of our final projects: Dave, our model, is part of an ad cam...

The conference room at NewCap radio, home of Hot899 and LiVE885, have very comfy chairs.I was there yesterday with my fellow group work team for a school project. It was a wonderful experience... I secretly wanted to see the actual offices and recording areas, though, possibly to make funny faces at John Moran while he's on the air. Or, you know, not. I finally backed up my Disney photos to a dvd, so that I could finally delete them off my memory cards. I didn't want to risk losing them to technological snafus, even thought they are on two different hard drives. I did have a hard drive die on me, after all. But I bet losing all those pictures would give me a great reason to head back! Supposedly, Halloween is pretty fun 'round those parts, and then the next day, like magic, it's Christmas. The other pictures, above, are various ones from the summer. Yes, I finally had breakfast at Cora's! It was quite delicious, and so big that it was worth my while to take the rest...

School + work + work is starting to get very crazy in those proportions. School + work + work + new tv season... I don't know how I'm still alive! I wonder if I can summarize what I think of the following shows in 10 syllables: Heroes Bryan Fuller put great things in motion. How I Met Your Mother Soft start to a funny season, I hope. Castle Less murder, more Beckett... ok for now. Bored to Death Have to see more to see where it will go. Community Strong pilot, funny could live, or could die. Big Bang Theory Oh no they didn't! Plus Star Trek spoilers! Survivor Season 19 started off pretty great. I probably won't watch survivor anymore though because it gets boring after 2 eps. I'll need to watch Dollhouse everntually, too. Most of these shows I might have to just watch all at once in the winter, though, because school is going to be tonnns of work. The Source, in my opinion, has the best mobile internet stick deal. You get the stick for $0 on a 1-year term. I wouldn...

I never did catch up on the rest of my Disney trip blogs. I meant to, I just haven't yet found the time. Over the past month and a half (has it been that long?!), I've talked to many people about it, and I'm pretty sure I lit up each time, except where I talk about missing Carl and Russel (Up characters) by 6 days. Up, by the way, is fantastic. Go see it now if you haven't yet. Time won't be an issue soon, so I'll catch up on all kinds of pictures. My last class for the summer is tomorrow. My last shift at Disney is Friday. It was a month ago I found out that the store is closing, and each day since then has been increasingly difficult. I may have only been with the company for two years - one of which was actually with Disney (the first year, the Store were owned and operated by The Children's Place), but in that time, I've felt I've found somewhere I belong. It's a company that I would love to continue working with, certainly in a position at a...

It's been cold walking to school, today in particular. Lauren Stone of Live 885 warned me at 6:45 this morning that it was -39C with the Windchill. Skin can freeze with 10 minutes of exposure at that temperature. As I snuggled the warmth of my bed, I wondered if it was really worth it to walk to school, a trek that could freeze my skin five times over. "Damned bus strike." Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of bed and spent the next half hour deciding exactly how to dress. Before stepping out the door, I had the following: Boxer briefs Long johns Black Pants Socks More socks T-shirt Long sleeve t-shirt (Nightmare Before Christmas, if you were wondering) 2006 (07?) CANADA Olympic Hoodie Headband Scarf Winter Jacket Gloves I learned this morning that I have as much experience wearing scarves effectively as I do tying a Windsor knot, possibly because I never wear the darned things (both ties and scarves). Despite this, the scarf was instrumental in keeping me warm for my 50-m...

Over the years, my wallet and my bus pass have developed a great relationship where they stick together. This help me, since I always know where my bus pass is (unless of course, I don't know where my wallet is, which happens on occasion). It also helps my wallet and bus pass, since the two of them can talk and cuddle in my pocket. I've only recently decided to split the two up, if only to protect the pass from accidental loss or cold-related fracturing. Plus people make fun of me when they see it! Turns out that my leaving it behind wasn't premature - Transit workers voted to reject the city's offer. I've had an inkling since the beginning that this strike would last a while, but I'm really starting to get scared at how long it may be before all is well. To add to my troubles, my laptop needs to be sent away for servicing. Supposedly, my laptop has a fan, and that fan is not spinning at the speed that it's supposed to be. As a result, my computer can becom...

Thursday. Thursday is the day we find out how much longer this transit strike of ours will last. There's a small part of me that is crossing his even littler fingers in hopes that the wonderful drivers, maintenance staff, and others will vote (thanks to some federal intervention), to have their say on the city's most recent offer, in favour of the offer. this means buses, after multiple inspections and revving up, will be back within one and a half weeks from now. The bigger part of me, ever sceptical, knows that the vote will ruin any chances of getting back to travel normalcy and that buses won't be back on the streets until the better part of January - at the earliest. A little Transit Union-run website has this lovely message for its members: BREAKING NEWS - January 4th, 2009 Forced Second Vote On City's Latest Offer Details Known Dear Brothers and Sisters, The vote ordered by Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose and conducted by Canada Industrial Relati...

My Brain Hurts.

School is done for yet another term! I celebrated this crowning achievement by cleaning my room. It was in dire need of a garbage bag and a bottle of Febreeze, or something to freshen things up. It's almost the way I like to keep it. I can't wait until we have little robots that know how you like your room and their task is to keep it tidy for you. And if it encounters something it doesn't know, it sends you a text message asking you what to do. Kinda reminds me of Wall-e to some extent. Today, I used a fandangled piece of plastic to pay for things without money. I think young whippersnappers (wow, I love how my spell check knows what a whippersnapper is, but not fandangled) of today call a credit card. It doubles as a Student Price Card (Canadian retail discount card for students). At Yogen Früz, I saved 28 cents (10%) only to have to pay a 25-cent debit transaction fee. In a world of plastic, I need to learn to keep actual money on me. Actually, I find it interesting that...

Building Christmas Shirley Temples Fried Art 1408. Scary. OooOOoOO. Long line of laptops. Creative foot positioning Guitar Hero is a game for "everyone"... but song on their slowest setting sound terrible. The snow is falling! A made a snowman in 2 minutes at Cat's suggestion. The random snow-dirt on the bus reminds me of Santa's sleigh. That is a sidewalk. William Shatner is everywhere... Pirates lamp. Expensive. Not for me. Naturally, light bulb is not included. Winter seems to be here. I was sceptical after the first bit of snow that we got, but since then, we've received a fair amount. Probably the same amount that we had by February last year. Then again, last year was a bit lacking in the whole frozen precipitation department. I just want the snow to be sticky enough to start sculpting! School-wise, I'm in the home stretch. By this time next week, this first term of the new program will be behind me. To prepare for exams, I'm not working from Saturda...