Today I managed to learn about the process of applying for a coat of arms in Canada. I hadn't actually considered before where all those crests for universities and towns came from. I'm not clear whence came the family crest that I got on our trip to Ireland; I don't have a sense that my ancestors were particularly combatative. We received in the mail a document with a crest and alleged back story. The name came from Mac An Airghann (or something like that -- I don't have the document on hand to check the spelling), which I gather means I'm distantly related to someone who was something along the lines of a church benefactor. So I suppose a respectable position like that might merit a coat of arms.

 

These days, however, any Canadian citizen or corporation can petition the Canadian Heraldic Authority for a coat of arms. You just need to provide them with a biographic background, proof of citizenship, the names of two references, and $435 (+gst). If they deem you worthy (based on your bio and references, I guess) then they provide an artist who will work with you on designing your crest for another $300 to $1000 for the initial design. I'm not sure if they would turn anyone down after dropping $460 on the application fee, but presumably if you have enough money to throw away on this endeavor, I bet someone can make the case that you've done something worthwhile enough to warrant a crest. Unfortunately, it appears you don't have the option of saving money and getting some satisfaction out of designing your own crest. The upshot is that, if you want a government sanctioned crest, it's going to cost you quite a bit of cash, because the final letters patent document will run you another $600 to $3300 on top of all that. I think I'll just stick with whatever crest the Ireland geneology folks came up with for 50 euros, even if they totally made that sh!t up. Speaking of making things up, I took what they sent me and elabourated somewhat.

So with my normal desktop computer in the shop (still), I've been trying to make myself at home on my other computer, which has thus far just been acting as a file repository, mostly so I can access my mp3s and have peace of mind from knowing that such mishaps as whatever has sent my computer to the shop will not wipe out my music collection. The first step was to upgrade from Fedora Core 4 to Fedora Core 6, which didn't go super-smoothly, as it introduced a bug with the Eclipse IDE, which I wanted to use to do some Java programming. The solution was to cleanly install the OS, rather than use the upgrade option. The project I want to work on would be of limited interest to those other than Alan, Kevin and OJ, though perhaps those interested in linguistics might find it interesting because it involves understanding a very limited vocabulary with a very precise grammar -- it may not even be feasible, though if I actually get around to solving the problem, well, I can probably retire right after I contact Hasbro to tell them I have obsoleted the programming department for one of their products.

 

One of the reasons I have had another gap in my posts is because MS has used a non-standard form for their windows live blog writing space. Normally, if you want to use a webpage to submit some information, you use a form, which has form elements like textboxes to accomplish these tasks. The area in which I am writing right now doesn't use a textarea form element. Near as I can tell, it uses some hidden form field instead. Because it's not standard, browsers that prefer to adhere (adhese) to standards have problems with this. This is the case with Linux.

 

Sorry for writing about computer crap all the time. I don't mean to alienate anyone. Fortunately, I'm not trying to impress any girls with my blog. If I was, I'd talk more about how I'm making dinner right now, and I totally know how to cook. That makes me a good catch. Eat your hearts out, ladies.

Hey. I'd have updated earlier, but circumstances consipired against me. Last week I had to present my brown bag, so that ate up a pile of time. Good thing I gave a practice talk to the gang. Also a good thing I was nervous and probably spoke quickly, as I ended up being 10 minutes overtime. I don't know, for some reason my last two brown bags have left me feeling like I was kind of 'meh'.

The other thing was that my desktop computer, the one that runs windows, or at least would if it wasn't perpetually rebooting, is still in the shop. The guy said he couldn't find any problems with the hard disk or the RAM, so that leaves the software (it also leaves the motherboard and cpu, but whatever). So he wants to reinstall the OS and do a burn in test. I'll lose everything, but then, it's not like I could access anything on it anyways. Still, what a pain in the ass to have to reinstall things all over again. MS Office doesn't work on it either, and was causing it to reboot before it went into perpetual reboot mode. Windows Live Spaces was conveniently designed in such a way as to not work with the browser on my linux computer, which is why I haven't updated prior to tonight. I tried, but I couldn't type in this window. I bet it was deliberate.

So over the weekend I completed the book rack for the pokester. It's not glued up yet because I had to bring it home unassembled. Also, assembly will require those nylon strap clamps that put even pressure on things like chairs when you're gluing them up. It's not the even pressure that's important, it's the fact that the shelf is 3' wide, so I'll need some pretty big clamps otherwise.

Before I go, I wanted to bitch about something. TV advertisers. Are you guys retarded? Seriously, you are all morons. Some while ago, some genius realized that by making an ad louder, it would attract attention. So the tv program would be at a certain volume, and then his commercial comes on even louder, thereby attracting attention. That was a fine idea at first. Now everyone does it. Everyone. Guess what, dumbasses: your commercial doesn't stand out. In fact, now because everyone's commercials are so flippin' loud, we all mute them. Good play.

The Carolyns is over for a visit because Andrew is off snowmobiling ... again. She likes visiting with the pokester, which is just as well because she's going to be his godmother (her godparents doted on her, so doting on him will come naturally). They're going to go to Chapters shortly, and then they'll return, and perhaps tackle the Ikea dresser we bought for pokey. See, we stopped off at the Burlington Ikea on the way back from the conference. Pokey needed a new dresser because the vintage one we currently have is broken, and I don't know whether I can fix it. We also picked up a toybox to clean up all the toys we have. If you've ever put together Ikea furniture, you'll note that those clever Ikeans make lots of use of fasteners that use an Allen key. In fact, pretty much every piece of furniture comes with an Allen key of some description. Though they make fine fasteners, tightening the damn screws can get pretty tedious. My solution several years ago was to take my Dremel to one of the surplus L-shaped keys from a previously assembled piece of furniture, cutting it at the bend and leaving me with a long hexagonal shank. This shank fits nicely into a cordless drill, and is my preferred means of assembling Ikea furniture. That makes me clever.

 

Okay, this guy on the radio right now is annoying as hell. City and Color seems to be the band name -- either that or it's Dallas Green. I just googled the song lyrics from the song apparently called Save Your Scissors. Save them so you can cut the strings on this guy's guitar so maybe he'll shut the hell up. What a whiny tool.

I haven't posted in a few days, partly because I was out of reach in Niagara Falls at the L.O.V.E. conference. Rebecca and teh Pokey came-with. Considering the small size of the conference, the number of babies present at the Love Affair (3) seemed pretty high. We went down to the falls in lieu of one of the talks, given that I had already seen the talk when the speaker came to UWO to talk about synesthesia. The early checkout also made things difficult because a baby needs a home-base. After checking out, there was no longer any place for feeding, changing, etc. So we left after the walk by the falls.

 

I apologize for the poor composition. It's rather scattered, and not especially interesting. But I have some actual work to do this weekend. Driveway needs shoveling, the house needs tidying, and I have to start on my slides for my brown bag presentation for this Friday. Eeek!

I am writing this entry on my laptop, as I sit in bed beside the pokester, who is sleeping. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the pokester has a fit when he wakes up alone in the bed. The second reason is that my windows desktop computer is pooched. Now all it does is reboot itself. That annoys me because I had just reinstalled everything. I swear I have to replace something on my computer every year.

 

So this past weekend was high in the fun quotient. I did many of the things I said I would. I didn't do the shelf thing though because I had somehow forgotten that it was superbowl sunday. I didn't put together the tablesaw either because, even in the shelter of the garage, I felt that there would be a substantial chance of experiencing great discomfort from the cold. Games night at Miranda's was fantastic. Not too happy she put a hit out on me though. Daniel is a jerk.

 

The other thing that was interesting was that all day Saturday morning, it seemed to be like psychology day on CBC radio. There was something on the program And Sometimes Y about word ownership. That's one of my pet peeves: when some authority figure tells you how you can and cannot use language. They interviewed some brand manager guy from Xerox, for example, who explained why they would have a problem if you used the Xerox as a verb to describe the process of making a photocopy. I now have a better understanding of why they do it, but I still think the whole enterprise is misguided. Later, on Quirks and Quarks, there was a segment on Locked In Syndrome, which sounded like a horrible thing to have happen to you after some kind of brain injury. If you're familiar with the Metallica Video for One, that's basically what these people have going on. By all appearances they appear to be in a vegetative state, but they're actually fully aware, and just can't do anything about it.

 

What a downer. In other, happier news, if you recently purchased a computer with, or installed Windows Vista and found that your Microsoft Windows Messenger would not run because the new Microsoft Vista security features felt that it was a security risk (as happened to my pretty sister Carolyn), you may be happy to learn that Rebecca was alerted to an updated version. Perhaps this version will run on Vista. Amusing? I think so.