A Perfect End to a Not So Perfect Week

September 3rd, 2010 Thomasso

Well, I am glad that this week has come to a close. Actually, I am very glad, no, make that super happy that this week is over. With a sore foot, tons of preparations to do before next week’s start to the last semester, and some unexpected garbage from an ex-friend, the week could not have come to a close any sooner.

I will embrace these next seventy-two hours. The first thing I am going to do tomorrow morning is not get up.

Here is today’s sunset from my front yard. What a way to end the day with–a warm evening, no flies and a sunset.

Maybe the whole weekend will be like this. Although the weather station said it was going to rain on Sunday, but they are notorious for being wrong!.

Posted in Bitching about weather, Bitching about work, Diatribe, General, Photographs | 1 Comment »

So, Now We Are Back To This – Rain

August 22nd, 2010 Thomasso

I guess it is kind of nice to have the rain back, but it sure feels, umm, normal, again?

From one extreme to another, this weather sure has its surprises. Heat-wave to cold in just a matter hours.

So, I made some cheep animations of rain with a program called Ktoon. This took me about five minutes to create, and was fun to do. The instructions that I have, however, are in Spanish, so it was a learning curve at first. It does make sense once you get familiar with the buttons. It is undoubtedly cartoonish, eh?

Posted in Art, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs | No Comments »

My Day Told in Pictures

August 3rd, 2010 Thomasso

I don’t know why, I just had the camera with me the whole day. I wasn’t the best of days, the weather was sunny, then stormy, then sunny again, and the attitude from everyone was one of “I want to go home and continue with the long weekend.”

Anyway, we all got through it.

So, here are some photos of my day, so far, as it is not over yet.

Life at 5:00am. It is weird that the sun is still getting up the same time I do. In fact, this whole picture is weird because the I only see the sun this early for less that two months our of the year–I’m not used to this. I’m usually long gone, and  off to work, before the sun starts to shine along the horizon.

The mid morning Moon shot. I was originally taking photos of the clouds because a storm system was rolling in, but this shot took my fancy. The Moon looks really cool in this image, I think, so I thought it was worthy of being posted here in the blog. Note: from my course in astronomy, on the Solar System, I know that this phase of the moon is the third quarter, soon we will have the new moon.

And then there is the library at the Surrey campus. I just took this one as I was typing this out (about 2:45pm). The architecture looks really cool, especially when there is little light outside (like late at night) and all the flood lights are on, but this only happens during the winter months when it gets much darker earlier in the day. In the summer, the sun turns everything a gold colour inside the walk-through area. You literally walk in from 30C super humid heat, into 20C super dry cool air from the A/C.

Next was the two group meetings that I had, which took me from 3:00pm until 6:30pm, just before my 7:00pm evening class. So, eight solid hours of campus! My butt was sore from sitting for so long, and when we took our breaks it was like walking on glass my legs hurt so much.

There is still so much work to do until the very end of the semester. Less than ten days to go! Oh we need more time to polish these presentations.

From the above image you can see that our energy levels are running out from the input on these brain storming session. This is our last presentation we have for our communications class, where each of us gets only 2:30 minutes to speak. Every second counts in these presentations!

After class, on the way out from the Admissions Building I took this shot(s). I was there so late! I want to curl up on the bench and stay the evening–I didn’t want to move.

I watched the fountain at the turtle pond – it was hypnotizing. It was peaceful. The flash had a nice effect on the water too.

Here we go – the end to a perfect day. OK, it wasn’t that perfect, but it sure felt like when I sat down and took this photo. I could have slept on the bench I was so tired.

Good night.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Photographs, University classes | Comments Off

Putting the Blog Up on the Pedestal-Social Networking and My New Employer

July 25th, 2010 Thomasso

Graduation is less than twenty weeks away, and the countdown between no more classes and the search and choice of who my future employer are starting to gain momentum. Time is flying by now. At last check, I have three weeks left this term and 14 for the next, plus the couple of weeks in between semesters called the breaks and finals. I am writing this post to tell you all that I have embarked on a huge social Networking plan, at the request of a few agencies who are very interested in having me on board their teams. That last phrase was code for employers are asking me to come in for job interviews and a job market looks very promising with them–but they want more.

This networking blitz gives me a chance to show off my technical skills and all the lovely education that I have amassed over the last six years. Added to this that I have a fully functional web site and active social networking do-dads all over it now, I think I am on the right path.

With over 1250 posts to view, anyone who reads this will see that I am very active in the community and with networking.

This is a graphical representation of what I think the shiny new blog looks like now, the golden “T” is the new look behind the scenes.

Posted in General, Photographs, University classes | Comments Off

Reflection, Refraction, Redirection and the Turtle at the Surrey Campus

July 23rd, 2010 Thomasso

I was walking back to the “G” building, and the path took me by the pond in front of the “D” building, which is where the turtles live. In the corner of my eye I spotted one of them. I unloaded my books, laptop and took out my camera to get some shots.

While I took a few shots, I decided to sit and just watch the reptile laying there catching the sun. He/She was obviously enjoying the heat becuase for ten minutes as he/she did not move from the piece of wood floating on the water.

The pond was so relaxing. The wind blew nice cool air from off the water and from where I was sitting there were other more interesting looking species walking about too. There were some smoking hot human females too checking out the pond, and I am sure that if it were not for the slime, they would have jumped in the water to cool themselves off. I can only imagine that hundreds of male humans from all around would have converged at the pond too for the sights.

I had the pond all to myself; just me and the turtle. There was peace for me, however, I can not Imagen what the turtle felt with a human watching its every move and a camera–”damn voyeurs.”

Posted in General, Photographs | Comments Off

Nothing Really to Write About

July 19th, 2010 Thomasso

The last two days have being uneventful. This is nice because they were very stress free and I got a lot done around the house. I can honestly say that having a hum-drum couple of days were almost a prefect way to enjoy the summer days of July.

Even work was at a minimum, which is a nice change from the chaos and pandemonium that it has being over the last few weeks. With the near cataclysmic death of the forklift, the dead server and mysterious worker who wrote a letter of criticism that caused some to run for cover, the last couple of weeks were hitting new records for highs and lows. Between Friday until today, work has been really nice and peaceful.

So, what did I do over the weekend with new found time? I started my last term paper for my human rights class, and began work on my final group project in my communications class.  So I kept busy, stayed out of trouble and read a few high impacted books that I otherwise would have never have read in the course of my normal life. Oh, and I did a little art and graphic work too for my personal enjoyment on the computer. Hard to believe that today is only Monday—like it.

Posted in Art, Diatribe, General | Comments Off

Now I Can Say, “I Told You So, So Take Your Credit and…”

July 17th, 2010 Thomasso

As you have read if you are frequent visitor to my blog, then you know my stance on the Banking industry, and how much I think they are bunch of parasites, and that they have lost their one primary function which is help you store your money – and even that is something to question. Well, from an unlikely source, I was given an email last night that came from my University. What was interesting was the direct comment they used on spelling out the high cost of a service called a merchant’s account. The email said that after August of 2010 they will no longer take payments for tuition by domestic credit cards, and that you now must pay in other ways. I personally like cash, but that is me.

A merchant’s account is the credit card user account that a business must have to use and process credit cards from customers who enjoy spending on credit. The customer then pays later on to the credit card company to settle their debt. This is based on the rule of convenience whereby the customer does not have to carry around large sums of money, and has some form of security when being robbed. However, the card holder is “dinged” twice by the credit company for the use of this plastic instrument of debt. First, by an interest rate applied to the balance if you carry the debt over a certain period of time, and second, and service charge for the point-to-point transaction. Some accounts work differently, but this is the basic charge that the customer gets. The Merchant gets a charge also for using the card. It is like a back-end fee for taking the card as payment—and the Merchant is not allowed to pass that fee back to the customer! Funny, eh, how both the user and end user are charged a fee?

Sadly, the credit card, or merchant’s account user has depended on the “card” as a lifeline when faced with limited income, and who wishes to make a purchase that is well beyond the means of their income. This is where the term credit debt, or personal debts comes in. So credit cards are believed to have caused of the super fast and high economy leading up to 2008, and the consumer side of the of the 2009 downfall with massive credit debt.

Here is a copy of the email I received last night:

Kwantlen Polytechnic University will no longer accept credit cards for domestic registration fees and tuition payments starting for the Fall 2010 semester.

If you planned to pay your domestic student registration fees and tuition by credit card, you’ll need to do so before August 3rd or choose one of the many other available payment options we offer.  We will continue to accept credit card payments for many other fees and purchases.

Each year Kwantlen pays a significant amount in transaction fees to credit card companies. The change is aimed at reducing operational costs at Kwantlen without cutting services or programs for students. In fact, $250,000 expected from the savings will be put towards additional scholarships and bursaries for students this year.

For more details, other payment options, and Q&As, visit: Kwantlen.ca/creditcard

Some final words.

I have no idea how much this will effect some students. I know for myself this will have little effect as I have never paid using credit. But this story speaks volumes as I see it as the writing on the wall and the state of our economy. Not only has this card made monsters of debt out of all of Canadians, but it is also part of the cost of business that is sucking all of us in like a black hole.

I applaud the University for taking this initiative and mandating this tough decision. I know many businesses who are very reluctant to give up their merchant’s account because that is all the disposable income that their patrons have to buy with. They would go under if it were not for the credit card industry. But some day everyone will have to pay that

Posted in Diatribe, General, Photographs, Social economics, University classes | 1 Comment »

The Weirdest Sleep Last Night – It Was Too Real

July 10th, 2010 Thomasso

I do not know if it was the heat, or the supper amount of stress I am going through with classes right now, or the exotic food I ate for dinner, but man, did I ever have a weird sleep. Right now it is 5:30am and I am looking outside at the first bit of sun light hitting the horizon and my body feels like a million dollars: unbelievably great. My brain, on the other hand, feels like a water balloon full of thick gooey sludge. I think I might have a head cold that is going around?

It was a welcomed sight seeing the high clouds roll in last night. I know the heat was killer, and everyone was feeling it, but we only had three days of it. According to Environment Canada’s definition of a “Heat Wave,” you need to have three consecutive days of 32C, or hotter, weather to constitute that title. We only broke that temperature for two days, so we can not use the term Heat Wave until the next high pressure weather system moves in.

So far, the heat seems to be trapped under the clouds and it does not appear to any threat of rain, but the clouds are moving away as I can see clear patchy skies. The night was warm, which is unusual from the last few days where the temperature dropped to 15C at night. We had our share of rain for far too long, so I think we might be back to some more glorious sun shine which I am looking forward too.

Well, I think I might throw on some coffee and start preparing for the first of two papers due this week. I hope you like my Sun Shine Man drawn on InkScape.

Posted in Art, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs, University classes | Comments Off

Getting Evolution Working With ShawMail Under Ubuntu 10.04

July 4th, 2010 Thomasso

This is a very bare-bones How-To guide for getting Shaw Mail to work with Evolution, the default email program that comes stock with Ubuntu. I am using Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid and Evolution 2.28.3 for this guide. I highly doubt that these settings are going to change that much between each version.

Before you begin you may need to find the long address of your server address with Shaw. This depends on what area you live in around Western Canada, and can be found at this link on the Shaw web site. Just find your city, and copy and paste it into the field as shown in this guide. Shaw Server Names.

If you are using the start-up wizard, or you are adding a new address, the steps are pretty much the same. Shaw uses the POP and SMTP for email. Evolution is just as basic as any other proprietary software is, so these steps should be easy follow.

Also, you should have your email account already set up with ShawMail through their online web mail support page, including your email name, password and address. Evolution will not do that for you; you can only set up what you have already with Shaw. If you have Evolution set up, say with another email account, then these settings can be found in Edit -> Preferences -> click, and highlight the email account that you want to edit, or start a new account, and choose Edit.

Step 1.

Your name is really what you want displayed by Evolution. This is not something that you have to have set-up with Shaw. However, your email address is critical, as that is what you should have set-up with Shaw.

Step 2.

Next, set up the POP settings, which is how you download your email from Shaw. Where you see the field called “Server,” that is where you will paste the long address from the link at the ShawMail web page. And for the User Name field, that is the first part of your email address before @shaw, in my example it is different from the Figure shown in Step #1.

Step 3.

This is optional. You can set this for however long each time Evolution checks for emails. You can even set up a wave file to go off when it downloads an email, alerting you that you just received an email.

Step 4.

Setting up the SMTP, for uploading emails that you are sending. Again, paste the long address that you got from the ShawMail Web Page. You need to check off the “Server Requires Authentication” check box, but you do not need to check off the “Remember Password,” unless you do not like typing in your password each time you start Evolution.

The User Name field under Authentication in this Figure is just the name of your account that you listed for Evolution, not ShawMail. This has nothing to do with what you entered with ShawMail, but this name should match what you have entered in “Account Information” field in Step #1.

And that should be it.

The most common mistake I see is when the incorrect information is written down from what was typed in on the Shaw Email Website during the creation of an email account. The user name, pass word and email address must be correct or you will not connect to the Shaw Server.

I really hope that this guide helps anyone out as I know getting good support from any ISP on Linux based operating systems is something less than perfect.

Posted in General, Linux, Photographs, Software | Comments Off

The Foot Hurts Like Hell

June 24th, 2010 Thomasso

While at class this afternoon, I stubbed my toe. Sure, you are thinking to yourself, big deal, but I did not realize how bad it was until I got out of class and sat down at the park on campus and took off my sock to have a good inspection. I put a good size gash on my big toe—it hurts. Actually, I think it hut more when I looked it than it did while I was sitting in class thinking about it.

A thought about why, nearly four hours after the accident, my brain told me that the toe now hurts beyond a normal pain threshold of stubbing ones toe should. The more I thought about it, the more it made me wonder just how much effort I was putting into thinking about my toe. Survival mode seemed to have kick in at that moment because I started wondering if the injury could been worse than it really was, and would this mean going beyond the band-aid solution and actually heading down to the medical clinic to seek a second opinion, or a bigger band-aid.

I took the male macho option and dealt with the pain as is. I drove home, favouring my toe all the way. My solution was to drive barefoot and let my toe “breath,” perhaps allowing it to heal faster, but it did ease the pain a little.

I kept thinking how I got the injury, and how I could have prevented it. I stubbed in on the stairs while walking up them between the second and third floors of C-building. I was carrying a full pack of books, probably about 5 Kgs in weight, and my lap-top, another 3 Kgs, in my right hand. So I formulated my problem out in a simple flow-chart.

a) I should have taken the stairs. Should have thought about taking the elevator instead, it is obviously safer than the stairs. Screw the health and fitness idea.

b) As soon as I stubbed the toe, I should have stopped and tended to it. Maybe ice, band-aid at that point would have made my time sitting at the desk in the classroom better and more bearable.

c.0) Should have gone home and used my injury card. I never left a class before, ever, using that one.

c.5) Grin and bear it! Let the pain flow through. Enjoy the pain—it tells me that i am alive.

No matter which way I think about it, the toe hurts.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs | Comments Off