Category: Uncategorized

Last night I walk away from my computer.

It’s 10:59.

I walk into my bedroom. The alarm clock reads 11:19.

I check my wristwatch – it’s 11:00.

Clearly, my alarm clock is messed up. This is the SECOND time this week where the time is messed up. I have no idea why.

I change the clock time. I set my alarm for 6:25.

I wake up at 6:25, do the usual stuff and then when I reach for my cell phone and watch, I discover that the time is…6:25.

As in, I just spent fifteen minutes in the shower, and it is now only the time where I woke up.

What the heck?

I believe I am going insane… I had a migraine headache the other week and ever since then, weird, silly things have been happening like the inability to type a sentence, or my clock times changing randomly.

In terms of the clock time changing last night, logic would dictate that it really was 11:19 when I went to bed and both my computer and wristwatch were off…but that doesn’t really make any sense.

So…I’m going insane I think. Or my alarm clock has a glitch.

Speaking about bettering oneself, I’m finally going to go to a doctor to get a physical. I’ve never been to a doctor since I was a kid, and I met a Doctor while in Europe who was saying how I should think about getting checked out before I’m 30.

I’m not worried about something, but it’s good to go to a doctor to get checked out just in case they can prevent something.

So, word of advice for the day – Go see a doctor! They are there to help. Contrary to popular belief, they are still accepting new patients. At least the one I found is.

You all know me, I’m an easy going guy. Nothing really rocks my boat.

But when the dreaded Friday approaches, I cringe.

Sure, I’m happy that it’s the end of the week. I would be stupid not to. Work seems a little more slack on a Friday…it’s like I am the leader of a zombie pack and I am a zombie myself.

But, the one thing that irks me, is the following conversation that happens with people.

Me: “Hey, how’s it going?”
(Random person): “It’s Friday!”

ARGH! I know it’s Friday! Everyone should know it’s Friday. Friday is not an emotion. I know these people are only trying to say “Hey, I’m doing pretty good. The week was hard but it’s the end and I’m looking forward to relaxing this weekend.”

But give me something with substance here people! It irks me when they use a day of the week to convey their emotions. You know it wouldn’t even be so bad if someone replied:

(Random Person): “I’m doing pretty good. It’s Friday!”

Hey, I can relate. I hear ya man. Good times are a-coming, especially when you have plans to see the Jeff Healey Band tonight with some friends. Can’t complain.

But when you just say “It’s Friday” it irks me. Especially when the same people do it. It’s like ‘their thing’ to say when Friday is coming up.

I’m going to try out the ‘It’s Tuesday’ for awhile and see how that treats people. What will people think? Will they think I’m happy because it’s new release day for most different forms of media (aka new CDs, new movies, etc.). What about if I said “It’s Wednesday!” Does that mean that I’ve made it to hump day and I’m good to roll down the other side of the hill. Maybe if I still collectec comic books this would show that I’m glad it’s Wednesday because there are some new comics on the rack.

Oddly enough, I don’t have this feeling when it’s Monday. I think there are a few people who say ‘It’s Monday’ and I just don’t bother to care either way. Maybe it’s because I’ve led my pack of Zombies from work on a Friday but still am a Zombie when I return to work on the Monday.

Happy Friday People.

A stroke of ambition hit me late last night and I decided to test out the TV tuner card Mike lent me to see if I could digitize my old videocassettes.

Success! Sort of?

The thing works…I started recording a Smashing Pumpkins: Intimate and Interactive concert back from…1998? It records in real time so I figured it would try and tape the entire 6 hour tape. I left it running overnight and when I awoke, I found it did in fact tape the 2 hour long show, but didn’t bother capturing any other footage on the videocassette. Another drawback is the fact that this 2 hour long MPG file is 8 gigabytes large…I would need a dual-layer DVD to put this onto.

Granted, this is after setting it up for 45 minutes and letting it run overnight. I’m sure this weekend I will find the answers to the following questions:

• The resolution of a TV set is 320×40. But if I record at 700+ it turns out to be less in size. What’s up with that?
• Is there a way to bring down the size while recording? When trying to create the DVD, it does start talking about how it’s WAY too big for a conventional single layer DVD and attempts to downgrade the quality, but it only shaved off 500MB. So two options appear: 1) Figure out a way to record it into a lower quality to begin with. 2) Use a program to downgrade to a nice 4.7GB size (perhaps DVDShrink? Does it work with MPGs?)
• What do I do with all the old videocassettes afterwards? I’m talking EVERYTHING. I want to first transfer any home videos, as well as stuff I’ve videotaped off of TV. Then I will ahead and tape actual movies. But afterwards, should I just chuck them in the garbage? In essence, I have converted the videos and they will be on a nifty DVD. I have heard that DVDs degrade over time, but so do videocassettes…
• Can I make a business out of this? Someone told me that a business charges $75 per hour of video that they convert to DVD. That is insane. I mean, I haven’t gone through the whole process of making a DVD yet, but I don’t think it will take too much of my time. MAYBE if I have to search for different scenes and make a menu and whatnot.

While reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (I just realized that I haven’t hyperlinked much text in the last while…I suppose it’s just a little extra time out of my day whereas you can just Google anything your heart desires…) I came across this interesting concept where a teacher didn’t provide grades throughout the term which pissed off people at first, but then it changed the way students approached the learning angle – they actually ended up producing better work and paid more attention in class (as opposed to the end of term slump where everyone knows their marks anyhow and they don’t really care). It shows that students should be in an institution of education to learn and not to get a grade.

This was an interesting concept as it ties into the whole theory that you should be educated because you want to be, not because you are told to. Granted, this doesn’t work for children…they wouldn’t know any better. Or would they? While reading Race Against Time I am finding that as soon as gov’ts eliminate school fees, 1000’s of children are coming to school because they wish to learn. This is hard concept for a lot of people who have grown up in the education system we have here, where everyone gets an education…my prof mentioned that it’s funny to see that University courses are the one thing in the world that you pay a lof of money for, but are ecstatic if it gets cancelled one day! Imagine an opposite scenario where you had to give the Prof $100 each class you attended for a three hour lecture. No wonder the universities take their tuition up front!

Anyhow, I feel that I am now entering the point in my life where I am wanting to be educated, and not for grades. I recall when I decided to return to University, I was driven by the fact that if I didn’t have a degree, I would probably not be able to become a Director one day. That was my driving force. I didn’t even really know if I would enjoy Communications…the only reason I took it was because it was a 90 credit course.

But I slowly realized that I enjoy going back to class as I get to learn something. I put a lot of actual thought into the essays I’ve written and it’s something I actually care about. I look at what errors I’ve made and where I can improve. This isn’t the Palmer of yesteryear where he just cared about his grades…this is the Palmer of now where I am more concerned of what I take from the class.

Prof. Lowes says that the best students don’t get the best grades. I am starting to see why he says that.

Check this people…today we’re going to go into a little technology lesson Palmer style with the introduction to (insert those mighty sounding trumpets right about…NOW!)

Mod Chips.

Whoa whoa whoa buddy…don’t we have Wikipedia for all this stuff?

This is true. For the real scoop on things and not just the way things are observed by yours truly, log onto wikipedia.org for the real deal.

Anyhow, let’s give you a little background on some forces that played into my ordering a mod chip.

• My DVD player is ancient and so if I watched a burned DVD (such as a kickass Smashing Pumpkins concert), it’s all choppy.
• I have media galore – music, vids, you name it.
• Mike has media galore also.
• Video games are cool.
• NINTENDO video games are cooler.
• I had to sell all my old Nintendo games when I was kid to purchase the Super NES. My parents didn’t understand the concept of owning TWO video game systems at the same time. Oh my, if they only saw Benoit’s place.

To solve all these problems, I looked at my XBox which is sitting there and decided not to sell it, but to overhaul it with semi-legal (what?) mod chips. Pop one of these puppies into your XBox and you can do whatever you want with your XBox. For example:

• I can use it as a DVD player and it will surely be better than my existing one. No more choppy video.
• It can act as a storage for all my digital media…if I want to check out my pictures on my digital camera, voila, it’s there. How about my music? Voila, it’s there also.
• I can have emulators (basically, programs that emulate the functions of an actual gaming system such as the NES) which can play all the games I ever wanted.

Voila! Presto! I’m done. I think it will be cool.

Read this previous entry here.

The other day I pass by a new poster up on the Ottawa U campus with 100 mugshots of students celebrating International Diversity Week or something like that (cleary, I did not really stop to look) and thought that there is no way Vero would have made it onto that poster considering she isn’t from another country.

I was wrong. Vero told me she found herself on another poster?

What can I say about this beautiful, photogenic person I am involved with? Should I say I feel privileged to be around such a star or should I begin to get scared that I will be left with the life where I sit at home watching the Golden Globes while she walks down the red carpet with Lenny Kravitz?

Maybe I’m looking into this too much. If you’re at Ottawa U, look for her face – now appearing EVERYWHERE.

Bob and Jethro go Japanese.

Download here.
Original Airdate: December 4, 2001
(11.2MB MPG File)

Got my Rogers home phone line yesterday.

A little history/techincal lesson for you all here.

Phone lines by Bell are powered, hence, you get phone service even during a blackout.

Rogers doesn’t use the Bell phone line (they are not allowed) so how do they get by this problem?

Follow my thought process here:
– They plug a wire into your TV cable outlet.
– Said cable enters this magic box (not really a magic box but for illustrative purposes I shall call it a magic box) which is also plugged into the electrical outlet (important point for later)
– Out of the magic box comes a phone cable which connects to the rest of your phone lines in your house
– Voila, you now have phone lines in your house!

Now, as you may have read, I did not bother getting a VOIP line (aka phone over the Internet, which is cheaper because…heck, on the Internet, there IS no long distance) because if the power went out, I would lose the line, and also 911 if I needed it.

Well, as soon as I see this magic box controlling my phone lines, I had the sudden realization that I have entered into the same problem.

If the power goes out, there will be no phone!

Here comes the brilliance which is this magic box.

It has a 36 hour battery in it in case the power goes out.

Awesome.

Now…tell me, oh geniuses over at VOIP land…why couldn’t you offer me something with a 36 hour battery on it?

I predict this happening in 2006 and I will be switching to it in 2006.

Until then…

iplaying: To Forgive (live) – The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellow, Jolly and and The Infinite Madness

Bob speaks with Marysol, the French exchange student.

Download here.
Original Airdate: November 30, 2001
(12.8MB MPG File)