actually boxing day

I thought it was kind of funny that I'm actually putting things in boxes on boxing day. I don't think I've ever done that before. Of course, it has nothing to do with Christmas and everything to do with the fact that I'm moving in 4 days.

As a side note, though, I did participate in the hysteria that is Boxing Day in north america. I went out shopping for a nice recliner and ended up buying a leather couch. It was a screaming deal, and a cool design. It's not often that I see couches that I actually like, so when I find one that's well designed and affordable, I'm all over it. We'll have it in time for our Cardboard New Years party. cool!

bms
PS: I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. We certainly did!

the gift of music

I just finished polishing off an updated edition of my Music Sampler DVD. I'm giving a copy to a friend at work who I think is going to really dig this stuff. I set it up as a disc with two directories: Sampler and Albums. The Sampler has about 40 songs in it that I hand-picked to be sort of representative of each artist on the disc. Then, in Albums, I have one (or more) albums for each artist in the Sampler. Hopefully it's an easy way for people to scout out what they like and dislike without accidentally tossing a great artist aside because they happened to stumble upon one of their weaker tracks. Without the Sampler, it's a bit daunting to really get into this thing, because there's 4 gigs of music on it!!!

Anyway, I love introducing people to new music. I think it's just because I personally LOVE it when someone else gets me hooked on new tunes (huge thanks go out here to my brother, Matt, and good buddy Pete, both of whom are probably my biggest influences).

So, if anyone wants a copy of this bad boy, just let me know!!!

Highlighted genres/artists on this edition of the Sampler are:
Instrumental funkiness
Greyboy-Freestylin-07-Lite_Bake.mp3
Stanton Moore-All Kooked Out-04-Blues for Ben.mp3

Can you say "modern new orleans funk?"
Galactic-Crazyhorse Mongoose-07-Change My Ways (Pt. 2).mp3

Big/Breakbeat electronic goodness
Salmonella Dub-One Drop East-06-Ez On.mp3
10-pendulum_-_hold_your_colour-boss.mp3

HipHop minus the bullshit
Jurassic 5-Power In Numbers-06-A Day At The Races.mp3

hiphop meets other genres
01 - Mind Control.mp3 (by stephen marley)
G. Love - Lemonade - 08 - Thanks and Praise.mp3
01 radio free dc (feat afrika bambaataa and king kamonzi).mp3 (by Fort Knox Five)
Bullfrog-Bullfrog-14-Nice Try.mp3

achhh... moving!

I.

Hate.

Moving.


*sigh* but it must be done. This place has been pretty good to me: it started off as an 'easy out' when my lease at the old condo on Cook became non-renewable, but it turned out to be a nice, cheap, central place to live in while I spent a year at UVic. Now that I'm back at work and trying to change things up, a move seems like a logical thing to do. Of course, sharing a place with matty is going to be cool (if weird-I've lived alone for almost three years now).

Anyway, the move is next weekend and already I'm starting to organize and do some preliminaries. Took all the empties to the depot today. I'll be giving away some clothes and starting to pack up non-essential stuff pretty soon. The landlords at this building are really nice, but they have a pretty demanding 'move-out' checklist, and it's costly if you don't comply with all the points on the list. Damn.

Anyway, I'm still in a good mood overall and looking forward to Christmas, then the Cardboard New Years party that Matt and I will be hosting. I bet that by 6pm on Dec 31st the last thing I'll want to do is host a party, but by 10pm I'll be stoked about it. Can you say Red Bull and Vodka???

bms

today...

today I feel very christmassy. I have some great friends and family around me, and seriously, what more could you want?

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you're all having a blast these days!

cheers,
Mikey

Daily Grind

I came back from my trip full of energy and determination. I was going to change things up, get out of the old groove. Well, I just got home from a tiring day at work to an apartment that's messier than it should be. I should make dinner but I don't really have the energy. Yikes! What's going on here! This is not what I planned!

Fortunately Christmas is coming, so that means a bit of fun. Also the move to new digs will be a major change. I think matty and I are both looking to shake things up a little, so hopefully we can help each other accomplish that. Things on my list to do/try:
- find some damn shop space and get the welder going again!
- go for an indoor rock climbing lesson (I think that would be fun)
- go kayaking (this could wait for the spring maybe)

I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

cheers,
bms

debit card fraud

There's a lot of talk lately about debit card fraud. Pin pads are being swapped out and replaced with units that transmit the card information and PIN to criminals via bluetooth. They're talking about it in the papers, on the news, all over the place. Solutions like security software, steel cable locks, etc etc are all being thrown around.

Why hasn't anyone suggested simpler solutions? One article pointed out the potential signs of tampering: popped screws and ill-fitting seams due to all the extra components stuffed into the hacked unit. So if the 'scam' pin pads are full of extra crap, why don't we simply manufacture all of these items using clear plastic???

You can't expect the Chevron kid to double check the serial numbers on the pin pad every hour, but you CAN expect the kid to notice when all of a sudden the device is full of extra electronic stuff that wasn't there the day before!

bms