The next post will be a few printed pages in length, as I will be going into detail about my entire trip to Jamaica, from Start to Finish. (Yes, I will go over the entire thing even though most of you already know the start of the trip from what I wrote about just getting to Jamaica).
Ok, so, I get off the phone with work and they say “Well, Good Luck!” and, shortly thereafter I find out I’ve misplaced my Exit Visa to return home on the weekend. Great.
So, just when I think everything is as bad as it can get, the IT guys say “Well, it can’t get any worse right? Good luck with that”… and now I can’t get a hold of them to do my part of the swap.
Please no more “Good Luck” or similar well wishes, they’re only making things worse.
OH, and, I now get a rash from the sun-screen. Awesome. Can’t go in the sun without sunscreen, can’t wear sunscreen, am in one of the hottest/sunniest places. Yay me.
As many of you know, my adventure to Jamaica started out early Monday morning. What most of you DON’T know, is the hell I went through to get here.
My plane was late arriving in Toronto since someone in Atlanta had left one of the service doors open. The plane set to leave before mine, was also delayed, but for a different mechanical problem. My gate was in complete chaos, but the stewards told us that connections after 2PM in Atlanta would be fine and they wouldn’t change any of us. My connection was at 2:45PM so I thought I was fine. Boy, was I wrong.
My flight finally got off the ground, but several hours late and of course, I missed my connection. But, not before running to the gate and arriving at 2:45 PM. On time, but too late. Flight had departed, they had given away my seat. So, on to the service desk. Raymundo was helpful, without actually being helpful. I couldn’t get a flight out that night, and had to wait for the morning to get a flight to Miami, to get a flight to Jamaica. Crazy eh?
So, Raymundo gets all us strandees hotel vouchers and calls ahead to the hotel. They have enough room for the 20 of us, and we get on our marry way. The hotel was alright, nothing special, but nothing horrible. The nice staff there got us a ride over to a nice restaurant and we got to have a real dinner, which was nice.
I didn’t really sleep at night, but I did end up washing my clothes I had with me in the sink using the supplies from our overnight bags. Unfortunately, because we were’nt at our destination, we didn’t get our luggage. It wasn’t too bad though, since our shuttle back to the airport was SUPPOSED to be at 4:30 AM for our new flight. I emphasize SUPPOSED to, because, the driver never showed up for work. We then had to wait until 5:30 AM to get a ride back to the airport.
Once back at the airport, we all wanted good news, and we got some: we ONLY had to go through Security, since we had done customs. We all planned to meet back up in Miami for breakfast, which was nice. In going through Security, I got red flagged and had to go in the ’special white gloves’ line. What fun. I survived. That’s all I have to say about that.
Our Miami flight left on time, and we got to Miami on schedule. We met up for breakfast, and ended up eating Burger King. Then we had to go through Security again since we were on a different airline. What fun. Once again I get selected for that ’special white gloves’ line, and again I survived.
Our Jamaican flight was running a little late, but it wasn’t that bad. At least we were finally going to make it to Jamaica. And, we did. This is when our group split up and went our seperate ways. I quickly found my bags, and got in line to go through customs. Luckily, that went through without a hitch.
Now, my manager had arranged for me to have somone pick me up at the airport, so I wouldn’t have hassles. And someone was there, with a sign, with my name (of course, spelled incorrectly). So, I met up with them and they got me into a taxi. But, I didn’t have any money on me other than a few Canadian, and a few American. It turned out I had JUST enough for the taxi, $30 split between US and Canadian.
I said thanks to the Taxi, got out, and went to go find my reservation. Turns out though, the person who arranged my taxi, sent them to the wrong hotel. Sent ME to the wrong hotel. Luckily, that hotel was nice enough to get me ANOTHER taxi and get me to an ATM. So, I took out some money so I could get to my next location.
It turns out, noone has receipts, or change. So, I’m now out the taxi money, which is a pain. But, I’m at the right hotel, so it’s good. Or, so I think. It turns out, since I was a day late, my reservation at the hotel had been cancelled. So, they had to make me a new reservation, and, now I was responsible for providing a credit card. MY credit card. I had them call up my on-site contact, and he said I needed to cover the bills. So, I then set up my room and asked about getting someone from my office to change the card to a Corporate card, and they said it could be done.
So, I get to my room and get a call: it turns out the hotel is footing the bill afterwards and I need to go down there and get everything sorted out. I hang up the phone, and a second call comes in: the person that arranged my taxi calling to apologize. I hang up the phone and it rings once again: my on-site contact is ready to meet me.
So, I meet up with my contact and get a quick tour of the site. And, that brings me to now.
I’m glad I made it here alive and in one piece, with luggage.
Now let’s see what the rest of the trip has in store for me.
Oh, and, please stop wishing me luck. Every time someone says that, something goes horribly wrong.
Ok, so as many of you know, I was one of the first people to purchase my Zune on June 13th from a Canadian Retailer. I have most of the accessories (I’m missing the leather case), and I love them all.
Of the things I really love about the Zune, is that I can now stay up to date on all things going on around me just by letting it wirelessly sync every night in its dock. I’m hoping the new stereo I bought also allows it to sync, but this is only my first night so we’ll see if it goes as planned.
When I wake up in the morning, I have fresh content fed to it in the form of podcasts and the odd CD-Rip (CD’s I own, not borrowed). Since I have the 80GB Zune, I don’t seem to have any problem with running out of space; also, most of the podcasts are set to be removed after I’ve listened to them, just to clear up some space.
First thing in the morning, I head to the gym, where I can luckily plug in the TV-Out cable and watch a short vidcast such as Diggreel, Command-N, etc. After I’m done at the gym, it’s time for work. Luckily, that trip is covered and I can listen to an audiocast or some music via the car tuner (which is nicely magnetized to keep the wires out of my way).
At work, I often just stick in my headphones and listen to a few songs if I have the chance. At lunch, I try and sneak in another podcast of some sort. After work is done, I head back home and go chill with friends. While I’m waiting, I boot up some Marblets or any other game and just play that, which is a nice time-killer.
Then at night, I plug the Zune into my Xbox 360 to watch a couple more videos or just for a change in soundtrack to whatever game I’m playing. After that’s over, it gets put back into its dock and gets more content pushed to it for another long day.
Seriously, I’ve had a couple of MP3 players before, but none that have received this much abuse. Poor thing never gets to discharge its battery though, since it goes from being on its dock, to being charged by the car kit, to being charged by the 360, to being back on its dock again.
Now, to just break down and buy a second Zune to do some multiplayer XNA programming…
So, I go to install the Spore Creature Creator trial, and I check the System Requirements, and I appear to have everything needed.
I install it without a problem, and go to the Games folder, and see that EA thinks my machine doesn’t meet the requirements. Whatever, I’ll try and launch it anyway.
It launched, and crashed. So, I go through and find out that Data Execution Prevention was killing it because of SecuROM. I hate SecuROM just as much as I hate EA.
So, I disable DEP on the application, reboot the machine, and I get a fair bit farther into the loading screens, but the application still crashes. I decide to run the Analysis program that is embedded, and it runs and tells me to send the details to securom. Well, No. I’m not going to provide them with my system details. Why do I hate SecuROM so much? It’s made by Sony. You know, the same Sony that made XCP? You know, that little rootkit installed with your music? Ya, THAT Sony.
Here is another reason why I hate them:
How do I remove SecuROM from my machine?
To remove all SecuROM related files (except the license data stored beneath the registry keys (see FAQ No. 5 above)) please follow the uninstall instructions below.
Before you start the uninstall process, close all programs which are running in the background, especially be sure that no instance of the Windows Explorer is running.
———————–
Emphasis mine. How do you expect me to remove it if I’ve closed down Windows Explorer? Explorer is the main process on Vista/XP, and closing it down means that I’d need to NOT have any File Manager windows open, which means I can’t run the steps.
So, Dear Will, I’m sorry that Maxis was bought out by EA. I will NOT be buying your game, sorry.
So, recently I decided to go on a huge “Social Media” and Web 2.0 kick and joined a whole bunch of services, and gathered a small army of stalkers followers.
I joined services that published my ‘status’, connected me with my ‘friends’, tracked what “I’m listening to’”, or provide information about “where I am”, and also brought my pictures online and put them into my ‘”mesh”.
I’ve Dugg things, Pownced files, Flickr’d my images, Tweeted my status, prepared for Upcoming events, and found my old friends in a FaceBook.
Needless to say, I’ve done alot on the Social. But the real question is, how do I keep up with it all? Sure, things like FriendFeed and Plaxo help others get all the information they want about me, but how do I get their responses back?
Luckily, many of these services provide mobile updates to my cell phone, but what about the ones that won’t? Is there a use for a service that can’t provide mobile updates?
Comment here so I can find it.
[Originally posted at http://blog.just2bdifferent.com]
So, after going to the Gym the other day, I haven’t updated this, I’ve only been microblogging over on Twitter instead. Why? It’s been a hectic week and basically everything that I was doing to try and change into a more healthier lifestyle went out the window.
At work this week, we’ve had network failures, our email server crashed and email was lost, our phone system wasn’t properly sending people to the voice mail system so callers couldn’t leave messages, 3 servers and 4 workstations went belly up and that’s only SOME of what went wrong.
So, needless to say, during this, my nails all got ripped off, I ate meat (chicken wings), drank coke (you have to if your eating chicken wings and your not drinking beer), I did do some exercise, but that was in the form of Tennis and we lost a few balls to the road.
Tonight I plan on relaxing and going to see Don’t Mess With The Zohan and just taking it easy. It has been a high-stress week and I really just need some time to cool down and get things back on track.
As for the contact lenses, I might not be able to get them if the next session doesn’t go well. I gave myself a nice black eye at the last session because my eyes aren’t really that big, and I can’t get the contact to stick to my right eye; the left eye was no problem though.
As you might be able to tell, I’ve started to code a bit in my off time as well, and semicolons (;) are sneaking their way back into my typing. More people really need to start using them in writing before they go extinct.
Hopefully today shapes up to be a nice relaxing day; I’ve already had an XL coffee and I’m waiting for the next manager to bring me another. At least the Brooklyn Spring Fair is this weekend.
Well, wish me luck! I’ve got to get Monday’s work done before I leave today.
Ok, today I started my fitness tracking and I went to the gym for a bit after work. I didn’t want to stress myself out, so I only did the treadmill for 45 minutes.
The stats:
45 Minutes - 2.1 Miles - 220 lbs - Heart rate is 102 bpm at rest, 125 bpm at 3.5 mph.
I ended up lucky enough to get a working TV AND got to watch MythBusters. I can’t wait until I get the Zune and can start watching my TV shows instead of stuff I’ve already seen (Mythbusters was a repeat).
On a side note, the optometrist called my parents house to attempt to schedule a fitting for my contact lenses. Hopefully they fit properly and all goes well since I really want to move on from these old glasses.
Last night was the Toronto ComingZune Party being hosted by Vice Magazine, Dice.ca, Red Stripe Beer, and of course, the Zune team.
My friends and I arrived in Toronto a little early so that we could all meet up before hand and have a nice dinner and chat with each other, since we knew we would probably all break up once we got to the event.
We arrived at the Gallery a little early and had to wait in line until they were ready for us to go in. Once in, we camped out a little corner where one of the Zune Girls was hiding. She seemed really nice and she was really into the Zune. Since a few of us have a bit more Zune knowledge, we demo’d to her some of the features that she hadn’t really had a chance to play with. She learned quickly and when a group of people came over, she was so excited to show off what she had just learned.
Like any event, I have taken a bunch of photos and placed them on Flickr. One thing you will probably notice in the photos, is that the crowd was an extremely mixed group of people, who you would normally expect to not get along. But this wasn’t the case. People from all walks of life were all socializing and having a great time.
At 11PM the band Quest For Fire took the stage and the party really started to move. Unfortunately, I had to take off around 11:30 PM to get back to the train station so I could get back home, but I had an awesome time and met a whole bunch of cool people.
So now it’s the big 2-week wait for the launch and I have to say, I’m really excited for the next social. I hope more of you are able to make it out, so we can get the party really going!
As you may or may not already know, lately work has been getting to me so I needed some time off. Luckily, I had saved up a couple of vacation days over the last couple of months and thought I’d love to have a nice long weekend when everyone else would be working.
In the past, I have made the mistake of taking days off only to be stuck with others taking the same days off and ruining my relaxation. Not this time.
Starting today at 4PM EDT, I will be on vacation until I return to work on Monday at 8AM EDT. I have a few plans, but they are all pretty loose.
Here is a list for my stalkers:
Wednesday May 28th, 2008 -
5 PM - ?? BBQ with the friends. I will be a little loose around my diet, but will still be sticking to the vegetarian / no pop or juice part.
Thursday May 29th, 2008 -
Morning / Afternoon - I will be working on code. Pure code. And maybe sneak in a video game or something.
Evening - I will be going out with my friend Dejan for a night on the town
Friday May 30th, 2008 -
Morning - I will be doing some finances and attempt to go to the Optometrist to see about getting contact lenses.
Afternoon - I will be heading out on the town with a couple of friends to help them with their job hunt. I have a few contacts that might be able to hook them up.
Early Evening - I will be out playing Tennis with a buddy to try and work off some sweat, we will probably also be checking out Oshawa’s Premier Fitness to see if we want to join.
Late Evening - I will be heading out to the Toronto ComingZune party for the rest of the night.
Saturday May 31st, 2008 -
Morning - If I have decided to join Premier Fitness, I will be at the Gym, otherwise I will be out looking at the other choices.
Afternoon - I will be hanging out with a couple of buddies, either playing Tennis or going for a nice long bike ride.
Evening - I will be spending some time at the mall, looking for some new clothes that fit.
Late Evening - I will be attending the Rides Again / Theory of a Dead Man concert at Le Skratch (if tickets are available)
Sunday June 1st, 2008 -
Morning - I will be relaxing and enjoying some sun.
Afternoon - Will probably be out in Oshawa somewhere doing something outside weather permitting.
Evening - Dinner at the Rentals house.
I will have my cell with me at all times and will be tuned into Twitter, so feel free to @ message me anytime if the service is working.
Recent Comments