Current Mood: Alarmed

So I was getting into Lara’s car the other day.  I was in a bit of a hurry due to the wind and snow so when I got in I wasn’t taking the normal amount of care.  When I closed the door there was something in the way:  the pocket of my jacket…with my iPod Video 30GB in it!

With a sick feeling in my stomach I switched it on.  Sure enough, the screen was cracked, creating a black slash down the left-hand side and blurring the rest of the screen.  It looks like every second horizontal line is missing:

The Future Shop extended warranty (I made sure to get it after my last iPod died just after the basic warranty expired) doesn’t cover accidental damage.  I’ll call Apple, but I get the feeling they’re not going to fix it.

The iPod still works and the case itself is undamaged; it’s just the screen inside.  I won’t be using it for video but it’ll still play audio files fine.  Guess that’ll have to do for now.

Current Mood: Borg-like

I started up my ICQ account waaaay back in the days of dial-up and have used it until a few days ago.  Now I’m getting Russian spam every day, and I’m tired of it.  All my friends are on MSN so I’ll be using just that from now on.

End of an era…

Current Mood: Cool

So for those who are unaware, I got LASIK’ed a couple weeks ago.  I had been putting it off while I was the breadwinner for the family, but now that I have full control of my money I figured out I could afford to pay $100/month for the next 4 years (ouch though).

It was at Iris in Langley.  The procedure itself only took 10 minutes.  Lara waited outside the operation room, poor girl…she can’t stand to think about things being done to eyes (best not to read further, if you’re the same).

They put numbing drops in, put a shunt under my right eyelid to keep it open, then the machine pushed hard until my sight went out in that eye.  A whirring noise started as it cut a flap of the cornea away, but they didn’t wait long enough for the drops to do their job so I FELT IT…gaaah! Luckily it had numbed somewhat, but it was quite alarming.  When my sight came back I had to stare at a light pattern, which the laser uses to keep properly focused on my retina, then they lifted the flap and it went all blurry.  The lab technician kept telling me how long each step would be, which helped as the laser did its thing (I couldn’t see it, just heard whirring), then the flap was folded back and I could see again.

Then they did the other eye.  The drops had fully taken effect by that point, thankfully.

I could see better almost immediately.  My old eyesight was 6/60 (20/200 for you non-metric folks), which means that anything 6 metres away is as blurry as something 60 metres away for people with perfect vision.  My eyes were understandably sensitive, however, so I donned the shades I was given and sat down in the darkened recovery room.  A half-hour later I was in the waiting room, my right eye feeling extremely scratchy, and my vision in that eye pretty blurry.  They sent me home an hour later.

My right eye continued to be a problem for the rest of the day.  It really felt like I had something on it and I wanted to rub it, but that would have been VERY BAD(tm).  In my post-op appointment the next morning they found that some dust had fallen into that eye and gotten covered with mucous and it lodged itself right at the edge of the healing flap.  It felt so much better after they got it out!

They found that my left eye was better than 20/20 but the right eye continued to lag behind, and became scratchy again.  It wasn’t until about a week later that things settled down, and now all I have to do is keep putting eyedrops in.

So, all in all a successful use of the frickin’ lasers in my eyes.  No more contact lenses, and no more stupid glasses.  Instead of stomping on the glasses I decided to donate them, but it was a close thing.

Current Mood: Happy

Most of my friends already know, but for the past little while I’ve been seeing Lara. She recently posted about me in her blog, so now it’s my turn.

Lara’s wicked smart, has a great sense of humour (well, she laughs at my jokes anyway), and is one of those rare women who can go without makeup and still look hot. Our personalities are compatible, so much so that each of us has described the other as who we would be if we were the opposite gender. Our brains sometimes reach the same conclusions at the same time, so we often find each other immediately agreeing with whichever one of us opines on a given subject first. With so many differences between men and women, let me tell you: it’s great that we’re so alike.

We are even in the same field of work: software testing. One of us will complain about salespeople overselling the product or programmers who can’t code their way out of a paper bag and the other will totally understand.

We’ve seen a lot of the same movies and TV shows, and are geeky about a lot of the same things such as Ender’s Game, Star Trek or Harry Potter. We’re not 100% synced, but she’s catching up on Dr. Who now.

Looking back I see we’ve only been going out for a little over 2 months but it seems longer (in a good way!)…I’m totally in love with a lady who I just “click” with. She “gets it” when it comes to geeking out. My close friends have spoken, and accepted her readily. She’s even been on Jeopardy, which gives her mondo geek cred.

Things are going great.

Mood:

Tonight when I got to my ex’s place to take care of the kids Geoffrey asked me to take him to a park. Because they generally eat around 6pm we normally don’t have enough time to do that beforehand, and after dinner it gets dark, we normally can’t.

Dinner was going to be late so I said we could go for a half hour. Because of the limited amount of time I asked if I could leave Emily behind so that Geoffrey could ride his bike there and back. Both Grandpa and Uncle said okay, they would keep an eye on her.

When Geoffrey and I got back almost 45 minutes later, Emily was nowhere to be found. I rushed about the house to see if she perhaps went to have a nap or out to the swings in the back but she was GONE.

I was just starting to freak out when Uncle Steve flagged down a police car. Over a half hour earlier they had picked up a little girl IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET wanting her grandma, but nobody knew who she was. They took her to the police station and had patrolled until they found some frantic parental-looking people. Emily was soon back home, and probably not understanding how absolutely freaked out we all were.

HOLY FUCK. She’s two, and is already showing this level of independence! She was found with her hat, pink rubber boots and a backpack on, about a half block down the street, on the way to the park.

They’re definitely going to set the chain on the door from now on. Good thing they live in such a good neighbourhood!

Mood:
The company I work for is having a fundraising pub night at the Jolly Miller on Friday, Sep. 14 from 6-10pm. It’s $10 to attend and the money is going to help a family at Christmastime. If anyone would like to come please let me know and I’ll get you a ticket (just get me $10 at some point). The ticket includes a burger, salad, fries and a drink, which would cost about that much anyway (if not more), so it’s win-win.

Mood:
My housewarming/freedom party went well. Had a couple last-minute cancellations, but they were the ones to miss out on Wii gaming, good music, naked jell-o wrestling and the 5′ tower of cheese! (At least one of those things didn’t happen, but if you weren’t there you will have to guess!)

A good time was had by all, reportedly. People who didn’t know each other — or not very well — beforehand were chatting up a storm as the evening went on. The last folks went home a little after midnight and the cops were never sent for, so all in all a successful first party hosting for me!

Mood:

You Are Pretty Happy

You generally have a happy, fulfilling life. But things could be a little better, and deep down, you know it. Maybe you need more supportive friends or a more challenging career. Something is preventing you from being totally happy. You just need to figure out what it is!

Mood:

Your Kissing Purity Score: 54% Pure

For you, kissing isn’t a casual thing Lip to lip action makes your heart sing

Mood:
So say this guy has a female roommate that he likes very much (as as friend) and she says she’s going to meet with some guy she met online who is only in town for a few weeks. Not a date, but as friends. They’re going to get a coffee and maybe play minigolf. Guy indicates that he’s concerned and she tells him she’s not going to do anything stupid.

Three hours pass (10pm). Roommate guy text messages gal to ask if they need to send out a search party. No response. Another hour-and-a-half passes and guy calls gal’s phone, getting her voice mail. He’s pretty upset by this point, as she hasn’t responded to the text message, nor has she called to check in. She could be raped and left for dead by now for all he knows.

4am rolls around and she replies to the text message, waking guy, saying she’s on her way home.

Should roommate guy be pissed off at her irresponsibility at being out for 9 HOURS without word, given that she already knew he was concerned? How about for sending a text message at 4am, when she knew he’d be asleep?

Is roommate guy overreacting?