Blog of a 'net addict :: Chris

New Blog

2006-07-01T19:02:00.000-02:30

No more posts after this. all on the new blog.
http://kai-thelife.blogspot.com

New name

2006-06-25T23:48:00.000-02:30

Im now going by the name Kai. The name Chris is too common. Along with the new name comes a new attitude. Check back in a while for a link to my new blog.

One to go...

2006-06-20T19:40:00.000-02:30

One and only one test to go....
Should be happy...
Why aren't I?
Physics.
There is so much I didn't pay attention to in this course. I love physics, the knowing of how we determine how things work, and all the restrictions of the world, or your materials.
However the teacher that teaches it on CDLI that I have this year, is monotoned. There is never any expression in his voice. Therefore everything he says is boring and very hard to pay attention to. This isn't just my opinion, the 2204 students this year from this school have the same teacher and same opinion.
So for a while I was learning everything from the book on my own (really good book too!) But that didn't last long, I got lost in other things. So for the next 4-5 hrs I'll be practicing formulae and stuff, hoping to get enough to pass the test. (public exam course, pass the test, pass the course.)

English... BAH! dahmeryo!

2006-06-12T23:34:00.000-02:30

Well im here working away at my english portfolio, due in 9.5 hrs, and i had to write a few poems. I figured this one was pretty good, and quite suited to the blog, seeing as how its the blog of a 'net addict :P
You might see better versions in the future, cause i kind of like it. ;)

The Internet

Inevitably growing to no end

The internet connects people

It connects computers

robots, fridges and toasters

A time is coming

In which nothing will be apart

All will be connected

Into a vast network of everything

Today, it is a game

It is a telephone

It is an assistant

a videophone, a mailbox and a library

It shall become so much more

But it is already more

The internet grows,

and stops for no one.

Many get left behind

Many get lost

The only true rulers of this world

Are the ones that know when to unplug.

Finally an explanation

2006-06-08T09:28:00.000-02:30

Well a lot of people (even my parents, linux users) often ask me why i use linux, untill now i didnt really have an answer for them right off the bat, i had to come up with complicated ones....
Well it struck me when signing into msn here on my CDLI computer... an answer to that question:

I want things to "just work", or at least have my efforts to make them work actually produce a result. And i want things to not break themselves. Windows has given me countless hours of trouble in the last while, driving me insane, because much of the strife came from some windows updates or something similar which i HAD NO CHOICE but to do when i reinstall. And in windows when you try to fix these problems, they go so deep and oddly into the system, they cant be fixed.
Now for linux..... Shit takes time to get working in the first place, but it stays working unless YOU screw it up. Thats it, end of story.

Now if i could only randomly come up with an answer to the statement "linux sounds great, i want to try it" when it comes from someone who wants things to be as simple as possible.

W00t?

2006-06-07T14:17:00.000-02:30

Ok, I've been "in danger" of failing my French, and thanks to a unnamed principals method of sorting out classes, I need that class to graduate. Now for anyone reading this, you probably think I'm an idiot. But I am not. I just don't give a shit about French, so I didn't do any of the assignments... Well I did a few but still, not many at all.

Today it was confirmed for me by the counselor here by calling someone at the school board, if I pass the final exam, because its a "public exam" course, I pass the course. So no worries at all, but I will study a bit, I intend on concentrating more on my English public exam, which is on the same day, because I only need to pass French, I need a 60+ in English to get into the course I am enrolled in.

And its the last 2 days of classes! YEA! Damn it feels good, but its not over yet. 2 days and 4 publics, one final, then its all done. It seems like highschool went so fast... I hope college is the same, because at night when I listen to music (and I always listen to music) I cant get my mind off the move to Japan.... So if college flies by, it will be all the better :D

Unhappy.

2006-05-31T19:32:00.000-02:30

Well mom's lightly allergic to the cats. She had the blood work done today, and they have to go.

I spent a while thinking on it, very upset that smokey had to go, and thinking about how he would do... He's a very skiddish cat, and I'm worried for him.

I thought about other solutions, like having someone else look after the cats until I move into an apartment that allows them when I move to start college. But I had to look further than that before I realized, this had to happen.
Remember Japan? Yea, I'm moving there in about 3-3.5 years. I had thought about taking smokey with me a few weeks ago when I zoned off one class. There was no way I was going to put my poor skiddish cat through the torture of flying to the other side of the planet, in a tiny kennel, while being handled no better than any other luggage. It would be too much on my conscience to know that my cat was below my feet, scared as hell, cooped up with no breathing room in a kennel. No fucking way.
After remembering that train of thought, I realized, if I don't part with him now, because mom cant keep him, I would have to part with him when I left for Tokyo anyway! And it would be worse then. I have only been attached to this cat for 8 months right now. Sure, I raised him from a kitten, I still wish he was tiny enough to sleep in the palm of my hand like he could when we first got him, but if I were attached to him for 4 years, and then had to part with him, I wouldn't be able to do it. I would call off moving just because of my cat.

And so, I don't know when exactly they will be going to the SPCA, but I'll be trying to make it be after exams. Just to have a little longer with my cat, a little longer for me to convince myself he'll be ok. I will be trying to set up a system with the SPCA though so that I get informed when he gets adopted again, not who adopted him, or anything specific. Just when it happens, I want to know. Or, if he doesn't get adopted, I want to know if/when they have him listed as to be put down if not adopted in X days, at that point I'll be going nuts to make sure he gets adopted. Wasting every resource I can just to keep that cat alive, and get him into a family that will at least provide him a life he can be happy (for a cat) in, I don't care if he's pampered to no end, just that he's happy for a cat, that is if he has the food he needs, a place to crap, and a warm bed he can waste his life away in, as any cat does, and attention when he wants it. That's all. If I know he wasn't put down, I'll be fine. But if I hear absolutely nothing I'll go off my head.

Bandit I still care about too, I'm just not attached to him the same. I don't want him put down either, however I am not so desperate to find a home. I think its because he's a lot cuter than smokey, being a long haird cat that's very sociable, so I think he'll be adopted just fine. Smokey probably will be too, I just cant stand the notion of the possibility.

Well, all will be well in the end, I just don't know what I'm going to do for the next 3 years. I have always been a cat lover, and I will be getting a cat as soon as I can in Tokyo, but I cant get a cat for the next 3 years, or keep one I have, its too much to loose them. I've lost too many cats in my life, I cant be separated from one by choice. Well, we'll see what happens, I have this blog don't I? I'll find something to put my attention into.

Long needed update

2006-05-29T14:38:00.000-02:30

Well just to conclude the last post, i recovered from that just fine. Still dont know if it was caffeine or the flu/cold.

Recent news: one thing after another. On monday (may 22nd) i was moving a filing cabinet, and needed to take a break before we went down the hill to the basement, it was heavy! So i put it down a little fast and CRUSHED my finger between it and a rock. Untill yesterday it was swollen to twice the size and black. Then yesterday it bled off 80% of the swelling, really deep red blood because it was dead. No decent pictures, And right now its bandaged up in case the other 20% decides to come out i dont get blood everywhere.

Well grad was fun on saturday, i was nervous before but it flew by. Party was fun but would have been better if there were more people.

Now just for the next 9 days of classes, and then finals. Fun stuff, considering i have a major art project: an animation in 3D that hasnt been started yet, and is fairly long, that i only have 11 days to do it. I hope we (2 person group project) can get it done. its gonna take a lot of days staying after school and transferring files via jumpdrives to and from home.

Caffeine deprivation = bad.

2006-05-16T18:53:00.000-02:30

Ok, background info:
I HATE the taste of the water here, unlike everyone else, who prefers our water. I prefer well/city service water.
therefore I only drink the water if its diluted with something that has a taste, ie: canned drink mix, or something that doesn't use the water at all, bogwater (pepsi, cocacola, cheap knockoffs of either).
Recently all I've been drinking is bogwater.. I've practically become immune to caffeine, or so I thought.

Well today I had an energy high, then an extreme low. Right now I'm extremely tired, no appetite, headache, freezing cold. Similar symptoms to a cold/flu, I know, but its not. I'm positive its not, given the fact that I've come OFF of caffeine for the past few days, almost half a week.
Well mom bought some more bogwater today, so I'm back on the caffeine. I hope it kicks in before tonight, it seems its working already, but I don't know yet.
Still a remote possibility that its a cold/flu, but I doubt it.

Just a picture

2006-05-12T12:33:00.000-02:30

NO hes not pissed off. hes yawning.

Serious plans for Japan

2006-05-11T13:54:00.000-02:30

For a long time i have always wanted to go to Japan. To live, not just to visit. Thanks to some curiousity last night, i know now thats no dream, it will soon be a reality.

I checked the price for airline tickets to japan, thanks to cheaptickets.ca, and found out an approximate cost for 2 tickets (good friend is planning on going if shes still around) 1-way, from St. John's to Tokyo... came out to be about $5200 plus taxes, and of course some larger personal items would have to be shipped along after we got there and in an apartment. so it would cost about or less than $7000 to get there, for both of us.

I have 3 years of colllege ahead of me, and i intend to be working part time for the entirety of those 3 years, except the summers, full time then. Screw getting a car, or going nuts building computers gallore, if i save right, i should have enough money to go, with money to spare, by the time im finished college.
Whats more is the program i am taking in college is more or less industrial automation, so i am almost garunteed work in that feild in Japan, if not that feild, then some other. I still want my degree, though i could skip it and go to japan, probably within 1.5 years if i wasnt going to school. I want my degree.

So the planning starts. For now my planning is going to be purely for college, with this whole notion of moving, if the cost is less, i might stay in residence on campus rather than go and split an apartment with someone. More money i save the better, because adjusting to Japan is not going to be cheap.

Update again soon!
20 days! and 16 days!

21 Days!

2006-05-10T13:14:00.000-02:30

Still counting the days down. 21 days of classes left, possibly only 20, still waiting on word about getting 2 days off for may 24 rather than just the standard 1. Would be a help for me, I am working at a park that weekend, and probably wont be going to school that Friday because of it, extra day off or not, it will be for me either way.

Work work work... Plenty of it, but I have it planned out on this sheet of paper in front of me, it doesn't look like much.
Got my letter of tentative acceptance to college yesterday, yes, tentative, if I fail I obviously cant get in, but I'm not going to fail :P
So many fees that have to be paid, and I still need some money to spare for grad night, can't wait, only 17 days until that.

The biggest thing that's going to eat up time is my major art project that I have to do with my friend in the class. With about 28 days left before its absolute deadline, 21 days optimal end time, all we have is a previsualization of 10 minute movie done on a whiteboard in stop motion. We are going to be doing this in a 3D program, and we both are completely new to 3D modeling, so production wont be starting until at least Monday. The final product will be posted on-line for anyone to watch, even if it is corny.
The other big thing for me is my French teacher was generous enough to re-open almost all assignments for submission from the entire year, considering I missed about 90% of them, I intend to get at least half of what he has re-opened done. If not for the grades, then for the practice for the public exam. (about the same as a SAT in the U.S.) All that is due by the 19th, which is convenient for me because its a little over a week and its also a week before grad, so I cant get two and two mixed together in the same time allotment.

Update again soon, right now all I can think of is work, so nothing really interesting going on in my head, maybe the next time I post I'll have something of interest up.
*clicks spellcheck button*

Weeee....

2006-05-01T13:11:00.000-02:30

I finally got off my lazy ass and posted here again.

Spring break has come and gone, along with a week to spare... Only 28 days of classes left for me... For all of my highschool days!
Also finally got a decent site up at Boxnode, for those of you that dont know, if you use irc or are thinking about it, Boxnode is the place to go. irc.boxnode.com is the irc server, boxnode.com works too, visit the website and click the chat now button to check it out, quiet in there sometimes but the more people come, the better the community gets. If you are looking for a non-strict network, thats the one.
Also finally picked a program for post secondary, not even considering university, I can get the marks but its too damn late to apply with the lower end of the range of acceptable marks for there.
I'm going to be taking Electrical Engineering Technology: Industrial Controls at College of the North Atlantic... From the descriptions... Awesome course.

Grad is in 26 actual days, the 28 days is weekdays excluding 1 holiday. Can't wait for grad. Or the end of the school year.

I'm working May 24 (Victoria day (Canada thing, but not celebrated as Victoria day, just called May two-four)) at the local park, only a small bit of cash for doing it but I've been spending time there since I was a kid when my parents did it every year, so I know the ropes, and its an excuse for me to get my deep cycle battery to lug around for my laptop. I intended to get the battery anyway, but not till this summer when I'm working on what we call "the projects" full time... ("the projects" include work around town, at the coffee shop, and the park, all students, minimum wage.)
Some electronics experts on irc.freenode.com ##electronics helped me by doing the calculations, I should get about 8 hrs of juice for my laptop from the deep cycle I'm getting, and that's at the max drain my laptop can drain. That only happens when the cpu is at 100% use, among other things being used at full capabilities. So I should easily get 12 hrs of juice with my speakers running too. (7 watts, sounds crappy, but you have not heard these speakers, they are awesome.)

That's all for now, I should start paying attention, I'm in french class right now. Oh and, for those who don't know, ie: CARA..., a deep cycle is a battery about the same size as a car battery, at least as heavy as one, that you can drain a lot more than a battery you would put in a car. If you drained the normal car battery as much as you could a deep cycle, sure it would give you about the same time of power, but it would probably NEVER charge back up, you would have killed it.
This random useless bit of information brought to you by Google and Wikipedia.

Boring days...

2006-04-12T11:47:00.000-02:30

Well, spring break starts tomorrow, im bored out of my mind now, even though i know i have school work to do, cant imagine how im going to wasted all these 10 days off...
Last night i backed up my laptop and smoothwall (computer in the closet that handles sharing the dialup between my computers and dads, and lets me use dialup without wires...) and reinstalled the stuff on both of them, stuff all works now, but that leaves little to do. I have to finish my changes to my room and thats pretty much it... nothing to do again...

Catastrophy averted

2006-04-07T11:06:00.000-02:30

Well things like these make people believe in a god... but not me... i will be puzzled however how the hell these things lined up the way they did...

In this area theres always at least one excavator around, but not yesterday or the night before... biggest thing around was a bobcat. And that was useless to move a transport truck, we tried. Time after time, person by person, the equipment wasnt in the area, but then we got a loan of a 20 tonne bottle jack.

After about 2 hours of jacking the front, moving crushed stone under the wheel, dropping it, raising the jack, repeating, then giving the back wheels grip, the ones that actually do the turning, trying it, repeating, it finally moved, be it forward, it moved. There was no other way to go, and we had inched the truck a safe distance away from the house, so my brother in law had just gotten so frustrated that he said the hell with it and tried going forward, and bearly got it right, theres a shed across the driveway from where he was stuck. Then he was able to back up again and quickly get turned to line up with the driveway, because any hesitation would have meant it would sink again.
Then another peice of that series of events that makes you scratch your head, there was a thunderstorm moving in, and when we were on the road trying to get the excavator, it was pouring down rain, but while we were working, it bearly even misted. Then when it was out of the hole, it poured down rain and stayed that way for most of the night. Weird, Eh? I still dont believe in god. But man it was a relief to see that truck out of that mud hole. And as edison said "i didnt go wrong 1000 times, i just found a 1000 ways not to make a light bulb." We found about 10 ways not to get a transport truck out of mud without any heavy equipment, and one way to do it. A hell of a lot better than his boss getting a $1200+ bill to have it lifted out.

Catastrophy

2006-04-06T01:19:00.000-02:30

Well my brother in law was cleaning out his truck (transport truck), so he had parked it next to his house... all was well.. it moved a little gravel but nothing serious....

Then when he went to drive out of the driveway, yea.... not so easy... make that impossible.
The truck had gotten itself in an odd grade on the ground, and the weather had become a little damp. So the truck got kind of.. stuck... its the way this particular volvo is designed to have forward power... one of the two rear axels gets off even ground and if it isnt moving good enough to go on over the uneven-ness, it comes to a halt.

Now, normally its no big deal, a half hour or so at max to get out of... but remember i mentioned the weather had gotten damp? well the driveway had become about the consistancy of silly putty in the spot the truck was, and behind it.
We tried EVERYTHING to get it to move, it would make an inch progress here and there, and then sink more. We called around for help but all the real heavy equipment that would have done the job wasnt in the town, they were doing work outside of town, and it was 10:30pm. A 4-wheel truck couldnt help, and almost got itself stuck. The same guy had a bobcat, so he brought that, it too nearly got stuck, and made little to no progress in helping the truck out.
Then the guy says "wait a minute, aren't there fuel tanks on both sides?"... everyones expression changed, and i handed my brother in law the flashlight, he looks and the thing is on the ground. We had to stop right there and then, it hadnt leaked or been damaged... YET. but if we continued, it was almost inevitable that it would rupture, leaking a hell of a lot of fuel.

So here it is, 1:30am, and im beat to a snot, and worried that problems could get worse. I can only imagine how crazy my brother in law is going... He is worried for his job, but me and my sister keep reassureing him his boss isnt that bad at understanding. I'll be going back in a few hours after we all catch some sleep, We are hoping that a local construction businessman will be able to take the time to send an excavator and a worker or two over to help by lifting the thing up, one end at a time, and laying it on stable ground. I'll miss some school but im sure that my teachers will understand this kind of situation... its not every day that a family member gets stuck in this deep... litterally.
Sorry, no pictures, i was too busy, i might try to take some tomorrow but i give that a 1/20 chance... its gonna be busy enough there.

I hate coincidences

2006-03-27T10:56:00.000-03:30

Well it wasn't the ram, the laptop started throwing fits again.. So I backed up and filed another service request, they said they'd be here today (Monday) But on Sunday I got ticked off, the unit wouldn't turn on, and it had the demo of roller coaster tycoon 3 in it, and being on dialup, I couldn't just download it again.. So I started taking out my anger on the laptop.

Luck assisted me in locating a spot where a hit actually made it work... So I got the rct3 demo copied out, tried it, then went back to the laptop which had... stayed on?..

The fact that it had stayed on for the whole time I had been playing rct3 on dads computer surprised me, so I ripped it apart and began investigating the area that I had hit.. Sure enough I found a couple of bits that could have shorted stuff out. One bit looked like a strand out of a stranded wire, and then on a chip the pins were bridged by some kind of thick dust.. I cleared that out and for the first time in 2 months, the laptop stayed on overnight, in fact its up to 17 hrs right now. Tomorrow night I intend to rip it apart again and do more thorough checks on that area.. but for now, I'm just happy its working.. And I fixed it myself! I cancelled the service request this morning.

Laptop is back!

2006-03-23T11:14:00.000-03:30

Well I got my laptop back on Tuesday, worked great for a few hours, but then started what it did before it died last time. According to the sheet they sent back with it, they flashed the bios and replaced the cpu... I've been tweaking the heatsink relentlessly, thinking its been doing the trick, as its been staying on longer every time I do it, but now I'm not sure, it might be the ram...
The unit would NOT turn on even after tweaking the cpu heatsink... So I swapped the ram between sockets.. and poof.. it worked again. It's hard to say if that actually did it, or if its just another coincidence... But the ram is directly below the touchpad, on the other side of the board, and the touchpad gets EXTREMELY hot sometimes even when the ram isn't getting a workout... Now its nice and just warm again.. So, do the math. I've been intending to get a Linux compatible wifi card for this thing, and upgrade the ram to 1 GB, but haven't gotten around to it, I might now...

Really great idea...

2006-03-20T00:28:00.000-03:30

Well i read a bit about Sealand/Havenco tonight, and a really really great idea crossed my mind, an ingenius idea for a company I and another could start, that had very little to do with Sealand/Havenco, besides indepandance.

Just one problem.
The idea crossed my mind. Thats all. its still in there somewhere but i only knew what it was for about 4 seconds. So i'm sitting here writing this in hope tomorrow i'll read this again and remember that idea.

I hate these things. I get these ideas all the time, but this one seems to be the greatest yet. If i could only remember them all. Anyway, right now, i want to remember this one, and only this one. Something in my head is telling me its too important to loose in what a mess my mind is.

The new case

2006-03-18T20:53:00.000-03:30

Well just a quick post with the new case in it, i plan to mod it this summer with lights and fan controllers, the good stuff.

wait, is that smell toast or ciruit borads?

2006-03-18T18:03:00.000-03:30

Well, tests FAILED. i poked and prodded at that old mobo without its stuff in it, just bios chip and power... tests turned out ok till i turned on the power... damn thing got hot in the same spot and burnt my finger while it was at it. nice bit of smoke but the house is still standing. i did these tests without the cpu/ram/pci cards in it.

On one side it sucks that its dead. On the other its good cause now i have the incentive to sell the parts from it, which the money will be used towards my new system. with all the junk i have to sell, and these parts added (ive gotten that cpu up to 700mhz but the board couldnt handle it past POST, so its worth a bit, and theres 3 128mb DIMMs there too) i should be able to get my psu, tiny amount of ram and a .. ugh.. dare i say it.. sempron processor... but hey its a start and i can resell the proc when i get a better one.

I'll add the pictures to the previous post shortly.

That wonderfull smell of burning circuit boards...

2006-03-18T00:07:00.001-03:30

Well today i kicked off the start of building my new computer. Got a new case, didnt get the power supply with it, dont need it yet. well i might now...

put it all together, and just now went to turn it on to figure out the lights connectors on the mobo. well i turned it on, and i hear this little crackleing noise, i figured it was the cats... seconds later the computer sets out a beep code and i look down, to see the start of a few sparks and a flame!
I yanked the power cable as fast as i could. the flame went out, was only small, but still charred my brand new case.

sorry that the pics are blurry, neither camera here takes good close ups at night.

Now, WTF happened? i know this powersupply is cranky sometimes but i dont think that was it. the thing went off on ONE and ONLY ONE screw, the top left one. its an older smaller ATX board. i used the new insulator red little rings and the screws and risers from the pack of screws in the case, and looking at the thing, thats not what went poof... it was on the other side, the side that touches the riser... but... that had no probs before... and theres no pathways there, just the silver ring thats on all the spots... but why did it happen to just that one screw?

well im still lost about that. i'll post some pics tomorrow, i took them just now.. but i wont be powering that thing back on for a bit yet. i dont think anything is damaged, unless thats what started this. that is i dont think this has killed anything. just wont sleep well with that smell lingering in my room....

Oops..

2006-03-15T13:41:00.000-03:30

forgot to post again... i need to make it a habbit to post once a day or so, i have lots of thoughts that need to be posted, but forget them too quickly.

Anyway, a little update...

After waiting 4 weeks for acer to send purolator to pick up my laptop, i called them on thursday. Seemed a little strange, i didnt get any menu items or anything, just patched right to a customer rep. She looks at my request and says "hm, its not marked as needing pickup..." so she got my address and said "ok, they'll be there today" ... they were at my door at suppertime.
Yesterday i got a notice via email that they had recieved it. Can't wait to get it back now.

And in the weather ;) RAIN! yea w00t rain. Finally the snow is melting. Maybe now Alaint will finally give us highspeed.

Anyway thats all for now, should update this more often now...

Snowboarding = THE sport.

2006-02-21T19:35:00.000-03:30

Well i would have posted yesterday but i was really tired...
Yesterday, for the first time in my life, i got on a snowboard. I have to say it took me quite a while to get used to the control, because i thought it was like a skateboard. But i and two others who were the last ones tieing up the instructor, knew we could get it eventually. Well to the point when we left i still sucked. But i have a love for the sport, i might be learning slowly but im mastering one thing at a time. I wish i could have gone back today, but i had to go back to school. Perhaps next year when im in university i'll have some spare money on the holidays and be able to go back to the resort...
Be sure to watch the 2010 winter olympics ;) you might see me there! (yes, i love the sport that much!) gonna be tough training that quick :S

Still waiting....

2006-02-17T13:45:00.000-03:30

Well its been about 2 weeks now since my problems with my laptop started. For those of you who dont know, my motherboard died. I sent in a request for service to have them pick it up and everything.. they were supposed to be here last friday... never came. Here it is one week later and still my laptop is sitting in a box by the door. I'm growing impatient.

On another note my project to set up a system using Linux to automate the local school's bells via the PA is up and running. Just not sitting on the network yet, i either need to get an old switch working or make a crossover cable to complete that. On the custom web GUI for it (only accessable on the LAN) is nowhere near done.. bearly started.

The push to get highspeed might yet work, perhaps when Aliant recieves the petitions they will stop being lazy and bear with the cold for a few days to get the lines to North Harbour up. Or to at least put the unit in here. I'm sure that once they explain to the residents of north harbour how close they are to completeing the project there that they will be fine with the unit for here being installed now.

Blog started

2006-02-10T09:42:00.000-03:30

Well the blog might not always be here on blogger, i intend to switch to wordpress or something, but for now this will do nicely.