Tuesday 26 February 2008

the big drive

in just under a month this is the drive i'll be doing...


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Sunday 24 February 2008

swiss life

This past week I've played hockey every night except Tuesday. When not playing hockey, of course, I'm working. When I find time in between the hockey and work ... I sit here and blog! Does anyone read? Probably not. Do I care? Nah. This is somewhat therapeutic to sit here and ramble on about nothing much. Well, that's not true.

--- maybe the goldfish is still alive. 1 week old. i have since renamed him to a name i really shouldn't post online. let's just say he looks like a german dictator from the late 1930's-1945. I'll post photos and you'll understand. He is responding well to the name change. I've also decided to make him the fattest goldfish in the world. He now enjoys multiple multi-course meals of fish pellets daily. He's acting strange like a deranged psychopath hell bent on taking over the world. Could be the moustache. Could be the illegal fish bowl. Either way, if you don't hear from me for a few weeks...suspect the fish.

Last night I played hockey for the first time with the team I will be travelling to the Czech Republic with at the end of March for an ice hockey tournament. In total there are six teams. The following countries are represented (from what I recall):

Switzerland
France x 2
Russia
Czech Republic

Yes, I realize that makes five, not six. Sue me. Anyways, the game went well. We only had three substitutes on the bench which made it tough. Honestly though, this was my fourth game this week and all the games we only had 3 substitutes on the bench. Needless to say, my new skates have been broken in a little bit ahead of schedule. I like them.

In the next few weeks I'll hopefully be playing with "Android" -- Google's sponsored cell phone operating system. That or getting back into some java programming. I have a few ideas and starting to have free time during the nights and evenings. As always, I'm brewing up some new schemes on how to take over the world through investments in Nutella.

Post ya later!

Friday 22 February 2008

week in review

it was great.

Friday 15 February 2008

a quiet valentine

For those of you who know me ... even a little bit, you'll know that i think this valentine's day is a complete waste of time and a commercial scam. I would suggest that the world have a Dolgy day. It's as good as an excuse to spend money as this Valentine thing. If you want to buy someone roses, why not do it when you want...not when someone long ago decided that February 14 would be the day of days...

I spent my evening watching prison break.

Now, the reason for this blog. I found it quite amusing and cute. I was given a gift. It wasn't a valentine's day gift. Just a gift from one friend to another. I am very difficult to buy a gift for. If I want something, I go and buy it. Clothes, toys, books (except the last one...), etc.

I was given a goldfish. I've never owned one in my life. The goldfish has been named "Maybe". Why? Well, again, if you know me...I rarely commit to anything until the last minute. It's easy to say maybe...just incase. Never know what might happen.

Also turns out that in Switzerland, a normal glass fishbowl is illegal. Apparently it leads to depression in fish. Funny that.

Anyways, I now have a fish decorating the house. Hopefully it lives without trying to kill itself from depression...

Thursday 14 February 2008

Home sweet home

Last week, as some of you know, I travelled back to Toronto. I left Switzerland on Thursday and arrived in Toronto that night. Spent a quiet sushi / sake filled evening with my brother, sister and her boyfriend. Friday night, for those of you who were brave enough to venture out into the nasty elements gripping toronto, I had a fun time at Gretzky's. Saw lots of familiar faces and faces from a life long past. Was great. Especially that burrito at 2am.

Thoughts about Toronto? At one point, it was -28C and in total, the entire time i was there, 45cm of snow fell. I don't miss it. I the friends, I miss the family ... but overall, I do not miss the city. It's my home town, and forever it will be just that.

Now, I'm back in Switzerland. Of course, British Assways is consistently horrible and managed to lose 2 of the 3 bags I checked. They did arrive today, less then 24hrs after I landed ... so i'm not that upset. Amused more then anything.

Saturday 2 February 2008

drink with a dolgy?

For those of you unlucky enough to
  1. live in toronto
  2. be in my address book
  3. speak with me
I have emailed you an invitation to come for a drink Friday February 8 @ 8pm. I'm posting here for everyone else who i haven't invited, who may not live in toronto and most probably do not speak to me ... yet continue to stalk me online ; ) (Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears I know you're reading...!)

Email me if you want more information.

Things have been super hectic and truth be told, i'm looking forward to the 8 hour flight back to Toronto. Gives my brain a bit of a rest and leaves me with no control. Just sit back...wait.

Hockey is going well. I play this year on three teams officially. Nestle "A" and Riviera are two of the teams and are in the CHIP HL. The third is Nestle "B" team. We opted this year to set up this team for people who wanted to have fun playing in an atmosphere that isn't as competitive as the league the Nestle "A" team plays in. There have been some weeks where I've been on the ice 5 out of 7 days. I enjoy it to no end but my body is starting to suffer. My right wrist of which I have had many problems with over the past 10 years has gotten increasingly worse. Making a fist hurts my elbow! Same problem as years ago. That is on my list of things to do in February. Have a doctor look at it and advise. Hopeful that a third operation isn't necessary. March I'm off to the Czech Republic for a 1 week tournament and then in May, I'm back to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong International 5's ice hockey tournament again.

Now, onto the geek stuff. On my home computer I have been trying when I have spare time to maximize my download speeds so that perhaps I could watch streaming high definition video. I found that on my desktop I was getting max speeds of about 200kbps download and 151kbps upload. That's crap when I'm paying for 200mbps! On my laptop running some tests it reports my speed to be 5329kbps download and 451kbps upload. Better, but still shit given what I pay.

Turns out, if i use a program on my desktop that isn't java based (Azureus / BitTyrant) i get a huge speed increase. I'm not close to the 5329kbps that my laptop reports, but I am doing around 900kbps which is much much better. Why is it like this I wonder. Maybe when I next have free time in September...

The car is fine. People here keep kicking their car doors open when they exit their car...leaving nice scratches all over it. There are now 2 additional A5's in the office parking lot (sorry jerks, i was first) and two black S5's (still...i was first).

That's all...back to tinkering with speed.