After just over 3 months off work I finally started my new job today. Things went pretty well. I spent the first half of my day disassembling, then reassembling my computer, assembling my desk and putting together my chair. Much of the afternoon was spent installing software. The new HP computer that I got has WIndows Vista installed on it and today was my first experience using Microsoft’s latest OS offering. I have to say I was underwhelmed. As a Mac user I can’t help but compare the experience to my experiences setting up a new Macintosh. The initial boot up into Vista seemingly took forever. I used it for about 3 hours and already want to disable all the crippling security alerts that plague the system. When working at my previous job I had begrudgingly come to the point that I could tolerate Windows XP, since I used it day in, day out. Vista may take awhile to get to that point.

Where I work is right downtown Guelph and I’m already ticked about the parking. It cost me $10 to park downtown for the day. That seems absolutely outrageous to me. Everything is metered on the streets and the public lots don’t cut you much slack either. I’m not from the area, so I’m kinda at a loss for what to do aside from show up earlier in the morning and park a couple blocks away on one of the side streets that allow parking. Anyone have any secrets they might be willing to share? Parking aside, downtown Guelph seems pretty great. There are a wealth of options when it comes to food, which is something I’ve never experienced, since my previous 2 jobs were located in industrial parks that really didn’t have much in the way of food in the near vicinity, so that is a change.

The environment is pretty relaxed and fun to be there. As I mentioned previously, everyone working in the office at one time or another worked at my previous place of employment, so it’s a nice situation to be in.

I finally was able to track down a Wii this morning. And just for shits and giggles I am posting this message from it. I found out EB Games was getting a shipment in this morning, so I showed up for when they opened and was first to get one when Purolator showed up, just after they opened. Happy days.

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If you can read this, you have succesfully installed a version of [[tt:Pivot]]. Yay!! To help you further on your way, the following links might be of use to you:

• The official Pivot Homepage.
• The online documentation at Pivot Help should be of help.
• There's always people willing to help on the Pivot Forums
• If you're looking for a new template, go to Pivotstyles.net.

And, of course: Have fun with Pivot!

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After months of messing around trying to find a solution to fix my non-functional Xbox I took it to a professional. When originally trying to sort out getting my Xbox fixed I had investigated my options for getting a chip installed for me. This proved a tough task, as I could only turn up a few places and none were local and they were pricey. Then yesterday as I was leafing through the Pennysaver I saw an ad for a guy from Brantford who does modding, so I gave him a call. An hour later I took my machine in and dropped it off for him to take a look at. This was exactly what I was looking for in the first place, some shady guy who would do the work. I’m working on the assumption that he’ll be able to fix it and it’s some flaw in the way Kevin and I did the soldering. So hopefully it will be all sorted out by the end of the week and I’ll be able to play some NHL 2K6, as I’ve had a severe jonsin since the hockey season started.

After getting the Xbox dropped off Corina and I went on a bit of a photography excursion. For quite awhile I had been meaning to take some photos of some derlict old factories in Brantford. Where we went was to Eagle Place and to Brantford’s infamous brownfields. There are lots of old industrial factories that have been waiting to be demolished and have the sites cleaned up for years, but lucky for me they haven’t been yet. I think the photos turned out pretty decent, and I will be uploading them to flickr later today here’s the flickr gallery if you want to check them out.

I ate lots of food on the weekend. It was excellent. I’m excited by the prospect of hot turkey sandwiches tonight. Corina and I had 2 Thanksgiving dinners and an anti-Thanksgiving dinner over the last 3 days, but my hankering for turkey is still here. I’m making turkey soup tonight as well. Turkeylicious!

As I haven’t linked to any music in a bit, here’s some mp3 love. vanmega has released their monthly mp3 compilation, get it while it’s hot.

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So October has started and with it the whirlwind of fall goings on. This weekend Corina kept it on the downlow, watching a few movies and cleaning out our apartment. We have too much stuff and it really makes our apartment a bear to keep on top of. So we went about cleaning a bunch of junk out. We dropped a whole wack of stuff off at Value Village and many things made their way to the dumpster out back. We still have lots of stuff to get rid of, but we’ve at least got a start to it all.

This coming weekend of course is one my favourite times of the year, Thanksgiving. I love turkey. It is definitely up there as one of my favourite foods. And in keeping with tradition, T-Dogg is hosting the annual Anti-Thankgiving dinner. The premise behind this dinner is to have a potluck style meal comprised of entirely non-Thanksgiving type food. In the last few years it has definitely yielded some awesome eats. I’m looking forward to Kitchen’s Mom’s pumpkin pie, as it is truly the best pumpkin pie I have ever experienced. Then that of course is followed by a Thanksgiving dinner at Corina’s parents on Sunday and my parents on Monday. Turkey-rific. I find this time of year appeals to both my turkey eating side and the side of me that loves to cook.

Tommorow is going to offer the same conundrum that crept up last year. The Toronto Maple Leafs will be facing off against the mighty (H)ottawa Senators to kick off the NHL season. The only issue there is that it runs counter to watching the season premier of Lost. I’ve also started watching CBS’ new show Jericho, so Wednesday is going to be packed. Speaking of Jericho, it’s worth checking out. The show’s premise is essentially following the aftermath of an apparent nuclear war. This show kinda reminds me of Lost in that they’ve setup a premise involving an isolated setting after a disaster where the characters try and piece together what happened. I can already tell they’re going to string out the answers to questions in this one ala Lost. If you want to see the previous episodes you can watch them on CBS.com.

As I mentioned previously, Corina and I are planning on having a Halloween party again this year. I have changed what my costume will be away from my original idea. As usual it’s a top secret project, so you’ll have to wait until Halloween to see the pictures. Corina and I are planning already, so I expect this one to be even better then last year.

And weirdly enough I neglected to mention that I signed up for soccer last weekend. Kevin managed to find a league in Ancaster that was still accepting teams, so we got in on that action. It’s going to be a totally different game then playing at Doon. The field is longer and narrower and features 8 foot nets, so we’re expecting loads of scoring. Should be lots of fun. Now the task for me is to get back into game shape. I’ve been hitting the gym and doing lots of cardio to get my legs going again. Though I think either way I’m going to be dragging my ass out there. We aren’t fielding a co-ed team, so I’m pretty much going to have to jump into the water and see whether I sink or swim. Good times.

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I’m starting to get worked up about Lost again. I found over the summer I managed to push the show out of my mind, but given it starts again a week today I’m pretty excited. I was reading the summary on the CTV website and it does a pretty good job of getting you up to speed with what’s going on heading into the the premiere.

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The final details for the Nintendo Wii were announced yesterday in a press conference in NYC. Nintendo used the long, drawn-out tactic to keep people talking about their newest product, withholding the price and launch date at E3, which in turn led to rampant speculation. And as with most rampant speculation, it often leads to disappointment. Here are a couple of areas I thought it to be a let down.

Price Point
The Wii will be priced at $250 US, which will make it cost in the range of $280 canuck bucks. There was lots of price speculation before the official announcement, some speculating at a sub $200 US price. This was mostly derived from the fact Nintendo made lots of cost cutting measures in the creation of this machine. They didn’t include a next generation HD media drive, sticking with the regular DVD-9 format. They cut out high end audio by excluding Dolby 5.1 and going with just stereo output. They didn’t include a hard drive, instead opting for cheaper flash memory with expandability via an SD memory card. They didn’t opt for a screaming fast processor that would increase the price and development cost. Adding all these together led lots of people to speculate that a lower price point was easily attainable. I had been thinking I wanted to get a Wii at launch, but they have seemingly priced the unit outside my impulse buy comfort zone. While it’s still reasonable for a next generation console I probably won’t be getting one from the get-go.

Launch Date
The Wii will be launched on November 19th, exactly 2 days after the PS3. For a very long time, Nintendo maintained that they would launch around the same time as the PS3, but in reality many figured they would launch in early November or even late October as a way of beating Sony to market. Now it looks to be a similar scenario to the launch of the original Xbox and the Gamecube, which also launched in November of 2001 within days of each other. This will create a cacophany of overlapping media coverage in November that will surely confuse regular consumers, especially parents looking to pick up that perfect Christmas gift for their children.

Accessories
The Wii will launch with the customary 1 controller and a bonus pack-in game Wii Sports. If you’re like most people you’d probably want to buy a second controller, which is going to hurt. The Wii has a 2 part controller, a remote-type wireless piece, then a nunchuck-like piece that attaches to the first piece. They allow for free movement and what Nintendo hopes is a revolutionary gaming experience. The only problem with this is that these controller parts are sold seperately, with the remote selling for the typical controller price of $39.99 and the nunchuck selling for an additional $19.99. So, in essence, if you want to deck out your Wii at launch with 4 controllers it will set you back an additional $180 US, or roughly $210 CDN+taxes. Ouch.

I find the part that stings the most about this is how Nintendo spent much of it’s time pitching how it’s a second alternative to the Xbox 360 and PS3 that everyone could afford. If you’re figuring in buying a Wii($280), additional controller($70), SD memory card($30) and a game($60) it’s going to cost north of $500 CDN to have one of these in your living room. While that may be the norm for the hardcore videogamer to spend that kind of money, it strikes me, as a casual gamer, as less then a budget option. Nintendo has always been a shrewd company and it’s still true today. While it seems ideal to have an affordable next-generation console, Nintendo is still in business, meaning they want to turn a profit. And according to reports the Wii will be selling for a profit right out of the box, which is a stark contrast to Microsoft and Sony who are selling their offerings at a loss. This is nothing new. Nintendo, even though selling the least amount of consoles at the lowest price the last generation they still turned a profit, something Microsoft is still waiting to achieve. Nintendo has been in this business for a long time and plays the game like a seasoned veteran.

With all of that said, I really don’t want to rag on Nintendo too badly. They did also announce some cool, new features for their consoles involving it’s internet connectivity which seemed pretty interesting. I’m just a little miffed I won’t be getting one of these out the gate anymore.

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This was all the free crap Corina and I snagged at the Virgin Festival

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Rockstar is finally drawing to a close tonight. I’ve got my money on Toby. He’s singing Karma Police by Radiohead, which is a song he can hit out of the park. Dilana decided she wanted to butcher another Police tune, choosing Roxanne. Lukas decided to sing Fix You by Coldplay, which I suspect will be his death knell. Seems anytime someone has sang a mopey downbeat song they’ve been bounced from the competition. I missed hearing what Magni will be singing tonight, but call it a feeling, but I just don’t see him having what it takes to be the lead singer.

I’ve liked Toby in this competition for awhile now, ever since he did Burnin Down The House by The Talking Heads. He just has that tangible it factor that JD had in that incarnation of this show.

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I made this observation awhile back that it seems like the weather is a month early this year. Around here we had a short spring that heated up real quick to summer temperatures. Then in July we experienced what would typically be an August heat wave, and now in August we’ve been getting cooler, almost fall like temperatures. I saw a couple trees with their leaves changed colour last week which seemed quite early for this to happen.

Anyhow, over the weekend Corina and I went to Niagara Falls with her parents and a couple of relatives who were visiting from Manitoba. It was a good time. We did the whole behind the falls and Maid Of The Mist bits of the experience which was quite fun. If you’ve ever been on the Maid Of The Mist you could probably relate to this. The experience is simultaneously awesome and pointless at the same time. Corina and I opted to go to the top-front level of the boat and got full on drenched as you would expect. It was quite fun, but I mention pointless mainly because you’re going to get up close and personal with the Falls and when you get there you can’t see shit. I had to keep my eyes closed most of the time so my contacts wouldn’t float out. Either way, it’s still cool to be able to get close to one of the great natural sights of the world. For dinner Corina and I went to this place called Coco’s Terrace and Steakhouse, which was in the Holiday Inn. This place was awesome. They had this outdoor Pizza Bar that was right on the patio. So basically you sit down and order then your thin-crust pizza is cooked in a stone oven right there at the bad. In about 6 minutes your pizza is ready and served to you piping hot. And the pizza was to die for. I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity.

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