Mark_Logan's Xanga

The modern world can kiss my ass

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:07:27 GMT

Yes, that's what I'm opening with. I realize that I haven't written in a long long while. It's because I have been busy, really busy, stupidly busy and the times when I haven't been busy I've been in the mountains hiding from the interconnected lifestyle that is the modern world.

I have 2 cell phones, 6 email accounts, 3 chatting services and an average of 25 text messages that come in daily. No, you haven't seen me online in a while, that's because I'm no longer logging in to MSN, gtalk, ICQ, facebook chat etc etc. Guess what? None of these things interest me at all. If I wanted to talk to you, or you wanted to talk to me, we'll go for tea. But if you send one !@%^ing text message I'm probably going to snap.

Big business can kiss my ass too. I've had it with the muscle of the huge shops squashing everything in their way. Wal-mart is the obvious target but Apple, Future-shop, Safe-way, Save-On, Sobeys, you're on my radar. There was a time, when we were all cheering for Apple, cheering for them to take down Microsoft as the only "choice" in the PC market. Well, that has happened and now where are we? We've given them too much support, now they are the biggest music distributor on the planet. Future-Shop and Best Buy... A) You're the same store. B) I have no idea where any other electronics retailer is, but I know where 8 future shops are. C) You're selling musical instruments now? You didn't have enough money pushing the smaller electronics stores out of the picture, you need music shops now too? There was a time when Wal-mart's low prices were helping create competition, now they've just wiped out all competition. The places we buy our food are an endless abyss of "made in china". That bag of baby carrots you're eating? It says made in China on the back. That pepper your looking at? Guatemala. Meanwhile we bitch about our local farmers getting hand outs from the government.

And don't even get me started on Facebook.

The time I enjoy most of all in life is when I am out of cell range. The time I enjoy most in life is when email piles up in my inbox un-read and un-answered. The time I enjoy most in my life is a time that my watch barely ever sees, that makes me grumpy, and that's why the modern world can kiss my ass.

A reason to celebrate

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:45:17 GMT

Currently, I am re-tooling the entire freemail project so it's a more modular approach. It's pretty nuts as is. It's a lot of work, a lot of code time getting a PBX talk to a database that is then edited, searched and whatever by a session driven web session! If that went right over your head... you're not alone! I was where you are not too long ago.

I have to tell you though, every time I "finish" a module for this project I feel like confetti should rain down from the heavens. It's really quite draining, but... I am learning a ton of stuff throughout this project.

For more info on the freemail project or "The homeless voice mail project" you can check out the web page that my partner hates but refuses to do anything about! :P

http://thefreemailproject.org

Hilarity Ensues

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:54:23 GMT

So, not one but two blog entries for today, aren't you spoilt!?

This morning, blogged from a moving bus as it went down the highway towards Red Deer. My Dad picked me up, we went for lunch, went to home depot. Checked on my ailing card and then watched some Sopranos. It seemed that nothing was wrong with my car after-all and the most likely cause of the EXTREME vibrations was ice on the drive shaft. That all being said, I was happy to have my car back and started on my way home.

Now, just a few hours later I blog from Edmonton... however, I am in the parking lot of an automotive exhaust place about 6km from my house. Why? Well, would you drive around dragging your muffler that inexplicably came loose on the highway causing some serious noise and a hail of sparks much to the delight of the people following you, I sure would but only until I got to an exhaust place. I mean, that would be the... well, it wasn't really responsible. All things being equal I should hav called a tow truck. But, I refuse to have some dude screw up my AllWheelDrive system because he's never heard of an AWD 1990 Civic Wagon. I mean, it's not my fault people aren't well versed in the awesomeness that is the Honda Wagovan... is it?

Anyhow, maybe some pictures to follow, and a report about how much it costs for exhaust works in the capital city...

Update!

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:33:42 GMT

Alright, so... once again I have been neglecting my bloggin' duties. So here's a little update.

Christmas was great, I got a wonderful present from my wonderful girlfriend Jess, a 22" samsung flatscreen monitor to replace my pre-historic sony CRT. I got a TV as well, it was free on "free-cycle" of all places. Also for Christmas, my father took us (my brothers and I) to Palm Springs, it should be noted that none of them were aware that Palm Springs is more commonly refered to as "America's Gay Oasis". I'm happy that no-one in my family is a super-homophobe. It was cool just hanging out with my brothers in the pool and at the house. It was also cool to re-visit where we lived when I was a kid. It's funny that I knew exactly where we lived when we rolled into our old... "gated" community.

I've been working on a few small projects but nothing too too note-worthy. Work has been busy, mostly just silly little things but Friday I got a call at 2:45am to fix something, then took most of the day off and then came in at 4pm to sit around and look at a test set for a test that never got completed. That was a long ass day. I'm banking my OT in preperation to return to Chile this summer, I miss Chile and think about it every day. I really miss Chile.

I am currently writing this from the "Red Arrow" bus. The best way to travel in a bus. Cup holders, tray tables, wireless internet and only three seats per row. So, if you do the smart thing and pick the single seats on the one side, life is awesome. You also get express service with only 4 points. Ft. Mac, Edmonton, Red Deer, and Calgary. 1:45minutes travel time. I remember once I took a Greyhound from Lacombe to Edmonton... it took like 4 hours. I wanted to die. That's it, that's all. Bye!

Tree v2.0

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:58:50 GMT

The webserver for the tree locked up when it hit 100% CPU usage for 24hours straight... go figure that would cause an issue.

Anyhow, the new webserver is http://thetreesgoingstrong.com/

Yay! GO TREE GO!

Christmas

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:36:53 GMT

Decorating has never been my... "thing" but I do have a Christmas tree.

You can check the live feed here. It's a live tree. I couldn't bring myself to pay 20$ to purchase a tree that has been killed for no real reason, other than decoration. So... I spent 10$ on a potted tree and $10 on a string of lights powered by 4AA batteries. The only question now is... how long will the tree stay alive?!

I just wanted to scream

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:16:33 GMT

I saw this picture and wanted to scream. Damn, I wish I were camping.

Late nights

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:21:52 GMT

I haven't been getting too too much sleep lately, and I haven't blogged since August. Why you ask? Because I am really busy and it's not stuff that has really produced anything noteworthy. However, hopefully soon, something that I am doing will catch on. Lemme tell you about some of the projects I am involved in right now and where they stand.

1.) The Freemail Project
Although the website drives my business parter nuts, the actual product is a lot cooler and way less template based. The user base has grown to over 130users from The Bissell Center alone! The Youth Emergency Shelter in Edmonton is using it too and hopefully we will be getting some more people on board as well. Recently it has been featured in ASET (Association of Science and Engineering Technologists) magazine and, as of yesterday, "Techlife" magazine. Hopefully this will generate a little more buzz for the system, because... I mean, I have no idea of how to market it.

2.) MainMenu.ca
This is the kind of stuff that happens when you and some old high school friends get together and you attempt to conceptualize ideas when you have no idea of how much work pulling it all off actually is. Anyhow, the idea of MainMenu.ca is to put as many restaurant menus online as possible. Starting with Edmonton. So far we have two places committed to our site. But, our salesman has only gone out two days, so... there is hope!

3.) Privada.ca (currently updating DNS, just finished the project.)
This is an idea that I had a while ago when I was talking to a friend. It seems that when you sell something using the classifieds section in a newspaper, people keep on calling... even after you've sold it. I mean, you have no way of removing your number! The goal of Privada is to allow people to register for extension numbers on a local line on a web page. Then, when you are finished selling the item, you can just erase the extension. In addition to this, all extensions are automatically removed 30 days after they are first created. Calls can only last for 3 minutes so as to keep people from using it as some sort of poor mans calling card service. Finally, I have blocked anything that is not 10 digits and blocked all those offshore area codes to keep racking up long distance. Finally, in order to decrease its use as a "prank call server" I have made it so that you have to call in from the phone you are forwarding to and authenticate the account with data given to you at the time of registration. Hope that's not too nutty sounding. Anyhow, you can try it out.

4.) Work.
Need I say more?

5.) Something really awesome I can't tell you about just yet. Gimme a while to get it all up and working.

39C

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:54:50 GMT

My brothers wedding was in Vernon BC this weekend at the Japanese garden in Polson park. It was hot. How hot? 39C (102F). So there I was, standing there, feeling okayish, if not a little hot... in a black suit. I was drinking water by the bottle. One bottle, two bottles, three, four... sweating through the wedding and the pictures. The limo came, we hopped in and had a couple drinks, maybe 3 or 4. We got to Kelowna, I did my little speech about how pretty the bridesmaids were. Then, I got heatstroke.

Things started to spin, really really bad. The kind of spins you might get after 10 or 12 beers. Then came the vomiting, and passing out, face down on the table. I was in some good shape. Luckily, after my dad was done getting BCAA to unlock the car so he could get the keys out of the trunk, where my brother left them, he was able to drive me back to the hotel where I slept in a nice cool place with a toilet that I could puke in all morning.

Davis, beautiful wedding. Ashley, beautiful bride. Mitchell, I can't believe you puked in the limo, and locked the keys in the trunk. Stephen, nice job losing your keys. Davis, nice job leaving your keys in my van! Dad, thanks for everything.

I still feel dehydrated. Blech...

Travel and travellers

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:40:19 GMT

I keep clicking my facebook app which tells everyone what countries I have visited. It sucks because every time I do I am reminded that I have only been to 7% of the countries on earth. Oh, it also reminds me that I am not activley doing anything about it.

As I was driving home last night in my Bell company van I spotted an unusual site on Whyte (unusual may not be the word for it.). Two guys under the rear hood of a VW westfalia. I continued past and though, "they might be just checking the oil or something." About an hour later I went on a bit of a bike ride and upon passing down Whyte the van was still there, so was the owner. I asked him what was wrong with his van and he said something about it running low on power. It seems that the van had just had some work done in Vancouver and now all that goodness has worn off and the van is running rough, hot, and without power.

So, it's about 10:30 in Hawrelak park when I finally get to checking the compression. ZERO on cylinder 4. All other cylindes 120ish. Well crap, your compression is shot, you can't keep driving like this, you need to get it fixed. I called every shop in town and no-one either works on VW's or has room in their shop :'(

So, best of luck guys. I'll see your band tonight at O'byrnes.