Feel like...

I'm sitting in the computer lab at work waiting for my students to show up. It's a Friday afternoon class and, with the wind chill, it's -22. I doubt anyone will actually come. I know I wouldn't, especially since they didn't have class this morning. There were only two people in my morning class (out of a possible 9).

EDIT: They pretty much all showed up.

I've been thinking about how to teach PowerPoint and I've come to the conclusion you've got to teach how to organization a presentation first. The tools you use to actually create a presentation is fairly easy. So now I'm getting them to read articles online, answer questions, categorize those questions and finally create a presentation. Hopefully they'll see the process and use it in the future.

Shiny and New

Got a new refurbished laptop to play with. The keyboard lights up! Used the Windows easy transfer to get all my work documents on to the thing. Might even put all my music on it as well! New days ahead. And I got the slightly larger hard drive because... they didn't notice? Not sure but not going to a gift horse in the mouth.

Holiday Project - Day 9

I'm typing this post on an Android tablet I purchased on Boxing Day. It's a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (8 Gb). Not top of thr line but for an online stuff it works pretty well. Won't replace my iPhone but around the house it works. I'm still getting used to the slightly different features it has (like the back button). Got it because I wanted to try an Andriod device and this one was only $150. I could work with that. Might still return it. Got two weeks to test it out. Won't leave the apartment so should be good. 

So I'm finishing this up on my iPhone since trying to edit the same post on two devices doesn't really work. 

EDIT: I returned it. Wasn't my cup of tea. Probably just save up and buy a "new" laptop in the coming months. 

You're no rock n' roll fun

There's almost nothing better than listening to records through a good pair of headphones. I've purchased lots of headphones over the years. I try to take good care of them, so right now I've got four working pairs (and a fifth that's currently not working).

• I've got the old and new versions of iPhone ear bud headphones. These are handy because they're small and you're able to control the volume/playback with them. The downside is the sound quality isn't the greatest and they hurt if worn for extended periods of time. Also since they're ear buds they don't block out external sound well. 
• I've got a pair of $20 over-the-ear JVC headphones. These are my go-to transit headphones. They're loud and do a decent job drowning out external noise. I've worn these headphones for several hours without pain. 
• My newly purchased Sennheiser HD-201 headphones. These are perfect at home headphones. Good dynamics for the price point. They're not loud enough to use on transit. 
• An old pair of Sony noise-cancelling headphones. The detachable cord was busted two years ago and I haven't wanted to pay the $35 dollars to get a replacement, which would be the second replacement cord I've purchased in the seven years. These are great headphones, but the damn cord keeps breaking. 

I've got almost as many pairs of headphones as I do laptops (there are currently six laptops in my house, five of which work well and three are for work. The sixth works but is just a little old and super slow). 

Every Everything

Everything is connected and this is a problem, especially if everything is connected on your phone.

Hola!

So I'm using Hola Unblocker to watch US Netflix and stuff on Hulu. It's fantastic but makes me sad that this content isn't available to us in Canada without finding a work around. Personally, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I pay monthly for the Netflix streaming service. So what if I'm streaming from the American library instead of Canadian one. There's so much more content readily available. As for Hulu, I'm watching the ads so again, I doesn't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. As I write this post I'm watching the second season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! which is as strong as the first season. Nice way to spend an afternoon.

Last night I watched the new Fox show The Following. It seems like a decent enough show but mainly it piqued my curiosity regarding Edgar Allen Poe. I haven't read anything by Poe but I do have an interest in detective fiction. I thought this started with reading Raymond Chandler but I realize I've been reading mysteries my entire life. When I was a kid, my parents used to read the old Hardy Boys stories to me (never the new ones, oddly enough). We must have read TONS of them. Like a two or three a month for at least two or three years between the ages of 4-7. Then, I would read Encyclopedia Brown. Man, I loved those stories, especially since you could actually solve the cases if you knew enough / read carefully. So today I bought a book of Poe's Dupin detective stories. Excited to read it eventually.

Also I got a copy of Hacking the Xbox. Got an old Xbox I'm thinking tinkering with so that should be fun.

Walk Like A [insert gender]

So I tried to see Zero Dark Thirty this afternoon but it was sold out. This hasn't happened to me in a while. I usually prepare by doing things like getting to the theatre early, not going during peak hours, avoiding opening weekend, etc. Today I broke all those rules - opening weekend, arrived at fifteen minutes before the start, seeing it right after it got nominated for some awards, etc. So I'm going to try again tomorrow.

Otherwise, this winter cold is kicking my ass and I can't seem to shake it. I wouldn't care too much except it's also affecting my hearing. Due to spending my teens and early twenties playing in a rock n' roll band, I have lost a lot of my hearing. I have to accept it but this cold has made it worst. That worries me a bit. Stupid throat being connected to the ears.

I work for a non-profit. Things are difficult these days, with funding being cut left, right, and center. While I haven't lost my job, my hours have been cut back temporarily. There's little I can do fix this. Why I'm sharing this information is to alleviate my frustration. I thought I was "on my path to success" but now I realize that I can't think of my jobs like that. I doing something I feel good about and that should be enough. Making a sustainable wage would also be nice as well.

Wow, this post went negative quickly. I originally intended to say, "Man, I didn't get to see Zero Dark Thirty today." Yes, I've had a cold and Yes, not having good hearing sucks but it isn't that big a deal. Sounds worse than it is. And the job thing... well, probably should have left that for my diary. So let me end this on a positive note: I built a computer last week to act as my personal home server.

Congratulations! & Fixing My Own Mistakes

I'm helping get my workplace's new website ready for its launch on Tuesday. Friday was the test run. It failed. Over the weekend, I tried "fixing" the problem and only made matters worse. Yes, I "deleted" the site. Well, really I just redirected the URL to a non-existent page and BOOM! WordPress stopped working BUT it seemed like I had deleted it. I freaked out a little. After reading several support forums, and trying a variety of solutions, I got it back online. I'm proud of finding the solution but I'm also a little upset that I create the mess in the first place. I should have read more before trying to make the change. Well, live and learn.

In other news, I got my nice and shiny new phone. That was overshadowed because on the same day my friend had a beautiful daughter. While that has nothing to do with me, I'm very excited for her. She'll be a great parent and that's one lucky baby. It's also the first of my close friends to become a parent. Won't lie, makes you think about the big questions.

Congratulations!

One Week Down

First week of classes have gone well. So far nothing too dramatic has happened but there have been some bumps. It's a learning process, especially for me. I have a lot to learn.

So the iPhone 5 was announced yesterday. Seems like an improvement but I think the new connector is a strange move (read more about it here). My issue now is do I wait a little bit and get the 5 when my contract comes up OR do I buy a second-hand 4S? Also want to try an Android phone for a bit but probably won't do that because I fear having to re-buy my favourite apps. My 3S is looking a little worn these days. Don't know how much longer it is for this world.

In other news, I also went to my first canning workshop yesterday. We canned pears. It was organized and run by the West End Food Co-op, of which I've been a member for a couple months. This is the first workshop I've taken with them. It was nice. Very inviting and educational. The instructor explained everything very well. I don't know how confident I feel about canning my own food at home just yet but I'm certainly open to the idea more now than I was.

This has been a busy week but a very good week. Let's hope tomorrow goes well. And let's hope now that some of my former co-workers know about this blog they are nice and awesome about it.

P.S. Between Taylor Swift's new single and that Gangnam Style song pop music has been taking over my internal jukebox. Neither song is particularly good but they are certainly catchy.

Fly in my Tea

At work the other day, I spilt tea all over my laptop. Luckily, the damage was minimal (some of the keys stick). I was a little worried because I hadn't done a back up in two months, which meant I could have lost all the work I had over the summer.

But this weekend I'm going to Fan Expo. I don't think I've been to this convention since 1999.

In other news, to this fall's college freshman Kurt Cobain has always been dead.

Security Blanket

Seems like every couple of months there's another story about passwords getting hacked and how bad people's password choices are. Recently, I've had first hand experience trying to educate people about how create secure passwords, but I get the same response; "it's hard to remember [insert number] unique passwords." And I agree. My solution has been to create super unique passwords, changed at random intervals, for the most important sites I visit regularly (email, bank, Facebook, etc.) and for everything else I store in a password manager like LastPass. I used to rely on Firefox's password manager but since I've started using Chrome along with Firefox, it doesn't work as well.

I'm including a link to a presentation I created on Internet Security along with the embedded viewer. It isn't perfect (a little wordy and full of jargon) but it's a good start. I'm working fixing it because it's something that needs to be addressed. I'll probably try to include some worksheets with questions like "what words should be avoided?"

 

Constructive use of my free time (?)

I've been playing around with the design of the blog A LOT recently. Don't know if I'm making it better or worse, but every couple of days I'm changing some thing about it. Today's major change wasn't about the look of the blog but about looking more, I don't know, professionalism isn't the right word since this isn't my professional website. Nonetheless, I'm using Google Apps to give me @hiroshiryan.com email addresses! Next step: create a contact page that uses a form so people can email me questions and stuff.

Walking After You

Quick post via the mobile phone. School year is done. Wrapping everything up by writing reports and administering tests-which-aren't-called-tests. It's really hard to write using the iPhone. So I'll this post with a picture of me in my favourite hat

Deciding between SkyDrive and Google Drive

So this is the type of things I do at work. Create worksheets for people to learn about things like Youtube EDU. We've recently shift away from Google to Microsoft. Some people didn't take it well. Personally, I'm Google person but personally I can see why using Microsoft would be better for who just want what everyone else is using. I do like how Microsoft Web Apps have the same layout as Office 2010. Makes teaching people about it much easier.

I'm going to hold off posting the final version of illustrations until I get the final version. It's been an exciting process as you could probably tell by the amount I've been posting and discussing it.

Sudden Changes

So, two of my co-workers didn't have their contracts renewed so they don't work with the organization after last week. It was surprising to me but at the same time I'm glad. I don't want to be actively involved in the gossip aspect of my current employment. It's dominated previous working environments and I'm glad to just go to work, do a good job, and then come home (to do more work). I was just caught off guard... but maybe I shouldn't have been. After all, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I was informed that my current contract was extended.

I don't use Instant Messenger Programs any more. There was a time when that was how I mainly talked with people, especially when I was living away from them. I've regressed to email. It allows people to get back to me on their own time. I installed Pidgin on my laptop, and I don't think it's been used but seems like an interesting program. Guess this is a product of getting older where I don't need to know where all my friends are at any moment.

Still trying to decide on what domain name to purchase. Not exactly sure what I'd do with it. Biggest question I have to answer first is would it be personal or professional? Would it be a portal for this blog or a professional page with contact info. Seeing how a .ca domain is relatively cheap (less than $20 a year) I might have to do something about it soon. Probably a good idea in general to own real name's domain, even it's just the .ca.

Remix

RIP! A Remix Manifesto is a fantastic documentary about the current state of copyright, which is incredibly relevant in Canada right now since the government is about to pass legislation similar to the awful stuff from USA. Many people, including Cory Doctorow and Michael Geist have written extensively about the issue, and a couple of advocacy groups have also tried to get the message out (none of whom I can recall at the moment). With a majority government, it looks like the bill will pass without many changes. Now, there are good parts to the bill but the digital locks provision seems to cancel it all out. Seems we need to have change, and it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult. People adapt, change and learn to make a living off their works. Why can't large corporation do the same? Technology makes our lives easier.

Also, why would you SUE your customers? Doesn't make a lot of sense. Then again, I've got a Creative Commons license on this blog so I guess my thoughts are pretty obvious. FYI, it's really easy to get a something that covers the simplest copyrights. I don't mind people quoting me or even "stealing" what I've created since I take images from the web all the time with crediting who created it. I hope, and I guess this is a horrible assumption, when readers see a professional image that I didn't take it. Sadly, since so many people do what I do, it's hard to find who to credit. When I do find the creator, I credit them (at least I will from now on).

Okay, I'm done.

Doing the dishes in the bathtub

The title of this post isn't a joke. I really did do my dishes in the bathtub because my sink is broken. Don't know what's wrong but my neighbours were doing something to the pipes this afternoon and now my kitchen sink isn't draining properly. 

On a positive note, I got my contract extended at work, meaning I won't be unemployed this summer or next fall. 

I'm also learning how to use Sky Drive. My office just transitioned from Google to Microsoft so now I've got to leave my beloved (and well known) Google products to learn more about Microsoft's web applications. So far I'm unimpressed but then again I travel with my computer all the time. 

The Internet is the best

In four hours this afternoon, I was able to create two presentations on the history of the modern computer.

Actually, I'm still working on them right now. My favourite discovery is Computer History Museum and it's lovely exhibitions. Saved me so much time!

wireless mouse, internet and other things

So I borrowed a wireless mouse from work for my notebook. It's completely different from a wired mouse and I don't know why. I've been using a track pad for so long on my notebook it's completely different experience. Can't explain it.

In other news, Fallout: New Vegas is consuming my entire life. There's something about the Fallout games that I really enjoy.

Also, got a pinterest account and... yeah, it's not for me. I don't spend enough time searching the web for images to actually it worthwhile. Twitter, on the other hand, is pretty sweet.It's all about text over image. I privilege the word over speech, image, and video. What can you do?

All in One Day

Finished all my holiday shopping yesterday. Don't have many people to buy for so that makes it easier. Now all I've got is nothing but "free time."

EDIT (12/21/2011): Used the Blogger iPhone app to write this post and like most things written on a smartphone there were tons of mistakes. As is my policy, I corrected the grammar so that it makes sense. There should be more of these small updates, almost like another form of social media.