Andrew Underwood

I’m in Vienna Venice

I’m alive and well in Italy at the moment, this is the first time I’ve been able to get to a computer with an internet connection… I have 7 mins left on here. I’m using the computer at a youth hostel and it’s 1 € for 15 mins. Right now we are in Venice which has no roads at all, there are no automobiles. You can walk or take a boat but that’s it. Last night Jared and I got really really lost here, it’s incredibly convuluted with bridges and small allies that take you all over the place. It was like playing a computer game. Tomorrow we are heading up to Slovenia and after that Croatia probably. We hear it’s really cheap there so our money will go farther. Travel and food is pretty cheap. Now I have to go though, I’ll post pics if I get to a library where I can affort more comptuter time.

Convincing ourselves it’s summer

This week Adam, Meaghan and I ate lunch outside and did homework a couple of times. This was in quad, the grassy area at the centre of the University. My face actually got a bit red from the sun. Most of the snow is gone but the grass is still brown unlike Lethbridge. The first day we sat at a picnic table. The second day Adam got smart and brought a big blanket, which attracted friends. To conclude, the weather here is great!

And a short video from the day before.

Still selling my car

My car didn’t hit the reserve on Ebay but I didn’t really expect it to sell on there. Not many people would want to buy a car that is a quarter of a century old without looking at it first. So I’ve made up this 11 x 17 flyer to put up on some boards.

The pic’s link goes to the full size.

Cheese

I left my shredded cheese out overnight by accident. Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and put some left over rice in a bowl and sprinkled pizza mix cheese over it and put the bowl in the microwave. Heading back to my room to enjoy my midnight snack, I forgot to put the bag of cheese away. So do you think it’s still good? Can it go bad without having mold on it?

Which brings me to another thing. You can get mozzerella shredded cheese and you can get cheddar shredded cheese. With the cheddar, you know it’s gone bad when it develops white spots, which progress into green spots if left long enough. Now I can’t help but think I’ve eaten much moldy mozzerella cheese since the preliminary mold is white, the same colour as the cheese.

Low on fuel

Well I spent this entire week working on a project for my operating systems course. In the process I managed to get a sore throat, mostly due to stress I think. It lasted 3 days and now I feel great! As a result of this I’ve neglected the cleanliness of my place which I’ve kept spotless since Brianne moved out as to show potential roomates. On that note I should have a roomate named Chad moving in around the 20th, so alas my time of living alone shall end. So as for this weekend it’s:

1. Cleaning my place so much that the Queen could visit
2. Going for some bike rides and running (friends welcome to join)
3. Guitaring, I plan to expand my Slayer and Metallica songs. Songs to learn suggestions?
4. I’ve really got to get groceries. On the plus side of not having much food to eat, I finally get around to eating the things I neglect to eat. Who would have thought zatar on toast would have been so good!

Also, I had an awesome time with Kyla and co on the weekend, going to the Japaneese Village and then to her place where we played the hilariously outdated “Isaac Asimov presents Super Quiz”. I hope you had a happy birthday on Wednesday!

Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

I stumbled upon this site while looking at jobs in CAPS, at first I thought it was a joke: Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence.

I’ve played alot of guitar the last few days, hours probably. Finally I’m getting around to learning some heavier Metallica type stuff.

Dying young is overrated

Today I cooked one of those big shank hams in my oven. Sure to last far into the winter.

I had quite the time getting my computer up and running, it’s never simple. There were some complicated aspects of this particular installation I had to deal with stemming from my power hungry video card. It actually draws so much power from my power supply that it browns the power connector. As a result I only had one working connector left and I needed to use it for my floppy drive which I needed to get XP setup to use my RAID array. So I had to take out my video card for the installation. Then I had to format my new drives, that took a really really long time, about 2 hours. Luckily my old drive is working so I am in the process of moving everything over. It hasn’t died yet which I’m glad of, usually my data is taken from me, never to be seen again.

The Dentist

So I went to the dentist thismorning, 7:00am appointment, what was I thinking? The thing is, I hadn’t been to the dentist in over three years. Last time I was there was before I went to Scotland. Usually when I’m there they tell me that I need to floss more and they ask me if I know how and ask if I want a demo. I say “fool, you know I floss good, and like it’s all up in my mouth and junk, it’s all good.” ‘Cept this time they were like “wow, your gums are really healthy and stuff (healthy being a key word here seeing as how it’s flesh). So the lady did my cleaning and told me that fluoride isn’t covered under my insurance but she thought I was cute so she gave it to me free, right in the dentist chair. After that I watched TV for a while until another dentist underling lady came to give me X-rays. It was one of those panorama machines where it pumps you full of high energy photons and you hold on to bars and lean back… It feels like you’re water skiing actually. It circles around your head and makes *wirrrrrr*ing sounds. Best thing evar! Finally after that I watch more TV, CBC Newsworld, it’s not too often I get to watch cable. I had a good time flipping through the morning programming until I realized that it’s not really that entertaining unless you’re hopped up on coffee or enjoy puppets. So finally the dentist comes and he greets me with a hand shake. And I ask him: “Is I bling?” He says “yeah man”, takes a look in my mouth and says “this is going to be quick, you have really nice teeth.” He continues “your teeth are really nice and your gums are in good shape.” He goes on to emphasize that I have good genes and that I should thank my Mum and Dad for them. So thanks Mum and Dad for good genes and insurance!

Shaw called

So Shaw, my ISP called me yesterday. I thought I was going to get told off for over use of bandwidth seeing as how Azureus records 58.07 GB downloaded and 60.26 GB uploaded, not to mention normal Internet browsing and other activities. Turned out they just wanted to offer me cable TV for $10 a month, but I declined. As much as I’d love to have cable, I don’t have time to watch it. Plus I just got those awesometastic rabbit ears for peasant vision. After that the Shaw guy said he could give me a free month of the high speed Extreme Internet. I’m sure you guessed that I agreed. Anyways, I can report that there isn’t a huge noticable difference so far. What I have noticed is that my upload speed had doubled for uploading things to my web server from 60 kb/s to 120. Also in online poker the cards get dealt out like a machine gun where before it was more like a casual flip… flip… flip…

Are all men from the future loud mouth braggarts?

I vacuumed today, with a new (to me) vacuum. When my roommate left she took her vacuum so my parents got me another one. I’m not sure where they got it, but it seems to work well despite being old. I’m not sure how old it is but I imagine it dates back to the 70s or 80s indicitive by it’s “shag” setting option. The only date I can find on it is a patent date of 1951. Anyhoo, I like it because it’s retro tech. Much like these rabbit ears from the seventies I bought from the Junque Cellar on Whyte. It’s really stylish and feels solid, a feeling far from any other set I’ve ever laid hands on. It’s a Zenith Chromantenna, I adore the loops at the top.