WELLA WELLA WELLA!



Look who's back on the internet! It's MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Right on, right on.

Obviously, it's been a little over 2 weeks since I got around to updating this thing, but I've been busy as FUUUUUUCK. Is that an excuse? FUCKING RIGHT IT IS. There's been a lot going on these days, and to be honest, this is really the first chance that I had to sit down and really get back to typing on this old keyboard, sitting next to Danielle, while we catch up on some TV that we've had saved up on the DVR since we left last week.

For those of you who don't know, I picked up a second job last week at the EB in Bedford, which is pretty sweet. I started last week on Saturday, I learned the basics of the job over the course of a few hours. I've had a lot of retail experience before, so it's not like it was a major task for me to learn the basics of the computer system, and how to do most of the tasks required to help out customers. It's taken me a few days, but I'm now able to do pretty much everything, and I've learned it so well that the manager bumped my status on the computer system from "temporary" to "keyholder" (although I am not a keyholder, and I know my time there will be temporary) so that I could do things like check store quantities, and receive stock. It's pretty cool, but I guess the other temp guy is sloooooooooow and can't be left alone because he's still working through how to ring someone in. It's not really his fault though. I mean, he is 60-something... and he handed in his resume in pencil-and-paper format... and he's a black belt... and he's also crazy as shit. The store has been consistently busy every time I'm in, which is kind of surprising, seeing as how a lot of the customers I'm talking to are doing their Christmas shopping. It's early (I know, I know, I'm one to talk), but I really do think that it's better to start to get things out of the way before it's too late. In terms of where I work, buying early is better because some most of the hotter items we sell probably won't even be available to buy come mid-December. So yeah, that's the new job.

So, Danielle and I (up until last night) spent the last week in Bedford "house-sitting" for my Mom (see: eating free groceries). We basically ran everything out of the house for a week, which was great for me once I started up at EB. Danielle only had one day worth of classes while we were there, so that made it easy on her too (at least I'm pretty sure). While it was nice to stay in Bedford, it was pretty stressful at times too. My sister can be a TOTAL shit to look after, but it just took a tonne of patience to deal with her. It's not to say the week wasn't without it's crazy points, but I'm going to get to that story later.

I guess it's time to go back into the PAAAAAST. I've got some photos to post from that last couple of weeks (although, not many... I'm kind of falling behind on my personal promise... I've got to get into it... next time you see me, ask where my camera is) that I'd like for people to see.

So, before Halloween, we had a bit of a pumpkin carving party here at the house. Omar, Chuck, Alice, Sean, and Maria all came out for the festivities (although Chuck and Alice did not carve anything), and we just kind of dove into it, especially Omar.









I'm pretty sure Danielle is looking for a steak...





Nobody would carve a Steve Irwin pumpkin...



GUTS







Sean was really working away...



SEE??





Poor poor pumpkin.









Danielle's pumpkin was cute (like her)...



Sean was really just getting started after everyone was finished...



Rudeness... hahah





All guts, no glory...



So, after we did all the carving, we lit everything up for the PUMPKIN SHOW

Sean's pumpkin:



Danielle's:



Maria's Jesus pumpkin:



Line up (Omar's is in the back, all the shots I took close were too blurry):





Obviously, I became obsessed with both Sean's and Danielle's pumpkins:











That night was so much fun, it was great to just sit around and chat and make a mess (then clean it up). After everyone left, and Danielle went to bed, OMAR AND I PLAYED LITTLE BIG PLANET until super late. OH GOD THAT GAME IS FUCKING AWESOME. I honestly don't know how I got by for a whole week without playing it. Perhaps I got through it by simply selling ANYBODY that had a PS3 that came into EB a copy of the game. I just want people to see how fun a video game can be. Baah, I can't talk the damn thing up enough.

But in keeping up with the theme of things, I've also got some shots from Halloween night! Danielle dressed as a Loufa (shower foamy ball thing) and I dressed up as soap suds. We were pretty damn awesome. Here are some of the shots we took before we left the condo...











Omar was a mexican trying to get over the border:



"OH MY GOD HE DOESN'T HAVE A GREEN CARD!!!!!":



Anyway, we had a few drinks to warm up, and then headed off to Queen St. for a bit of a party. There was a whole lotta people there, and of course my camera died the second I got there. After a while, Danielle and I headed up to shoppers for some batteries, and then back to the party. It was COOOOOLLLLLLLD. I gave Danielle my towel. I looked so cool in my shorts. Ha! There was a lot of METAL being played, and it was really loud, so a few people found refuge in a bedroom. It was pretty fun, we all hung out and talked and drank. It was pretty fun. Here are the rest of the pictures from that night!

















STEVIE WONDER! AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

















This one rules





















On the Sunday after Halloween, I had to head over to my moms house for supper. And also, to fix (or at least try) my old dell desktop. It was on it's last legs, and I guess my mom's friend who replaced the fan a couple of months ago said that turning the thing off could be the end of it. Of course nobody told me, so on Saturday I got curious about upgrading the ram and turned the thing off. This was after I went through the trouble of transferring all of my sister's pictures from my portable hard drive to the old dell. Anyway, after fiddling around with it, I tried to turn the thing on, and BOOOM! That was it. All I could hear was beeping. I couldn't figure it out. But I decided to leave it until the next day (we were planning on going over for supper) to fix. I had to enlist the help of Omar and Barry's son, Colin. We opened up the case, and quickly decided that it was the best case ever made. Look at it!



As you can see, it SWINGS open and stays in one piece, but keeps all of the components separate and easy to access. DAMN! Sorry, I had to nerd out for a second there. After testing things out, we discovered that it was 100% for sure that the MOBO died, which fucking suuuuuuuucks. It would cost my mom more to buy a new MOBO than to buy a new computer, so that looks like what she was going to do.

But that wasn't the problem.

We needed to figure out how we were going to get the data off of the old computer so that my sister could go through it and make up a portfolio so she could apply for school. We tried some various techniques so that my mom could still have a computer, so we first tried to swap the hard drive into Danielle's old computer tower, which should have worked. Of course, it didn't because there were too many hardware conflicts or something, so we thought it'd be fun to try running the dell drive as a slave to Danielle's drive. THAT didn't work, because HER operating system was *shudder* windows Millennium Edition. BAAAAAARRRRRRF. FUCK.

So we took road trip number one, which was to get OMAR's tower, because it'd be more compatible. Being XP and all. So we tried running the drive alone on Omar's computer, which half worked, but the drive always crashed from trying to figure out what the deal was with the new hardware, so we couldn't drag any files around. FUCK. Oh by the way it's about.... 8:30 at this point. We try doing the slave thing again, but it doesn't work because we're either too tired or we're doing it wrong. Here's how it looked (sort of) before we started hitting our heads with hammers.



So we all but give up. Then I call my mom's friend and he suggests the best idea we never had all day: a hard drive enclosure.

So began road trip number two. We drove into Halifax to drop off Stephanie (Colin's wife), and then into Dartmouth to pick up the enclosure. We got back at 10:00, and got ready to hook the dell drive into the enclosure. BUT IT WAS TOO BIG. FUUUUUUCK. Okay, so we put stuff together on the outside of the enclosure AND IT WORKED!



Once we made a connection, it was time for a break and some beer.

Of course, once we got to trying to get the files off, we ran into a MAJOR problem: we couldn't access some of the more important files (we were using Omar's computer). I tried everything to fix it, but we were all but frustrated. So, I consulted the INTERNET! While we were waiting for responses (used my lappy to communicate with an army of nerds), we talked and hung out. So I took some shots of the operating room.

Here's my frustrated face:

















So, the solution came in, and it was to "take ownership of the files" which we couldn't do on Omar's computer. So WE DID IT ON MINE! MINE! Oh God the relief. So we celebrated while the transfer worked it's way through, we had a beer and a laugh and then FREAKED OUT WHEN MY BATTERY WAS ABOUT TO DIE. We needed those pictures that night, so WE DROVE back into Halifax for the third road trip to pick up my power cable. We got back, and finished the transfer. We celebrated again, and after it was all done with, we headed home. I was in bed around 2:00. FUCKING HELL.

At least it's over with now.

Here's what the final setup was while we waited for the transfer.



I was going to write more tonight, but this little story took me longer to describe than I thought it would. I guess I'll have to put together another update next time I get some pictures to put up. I'm working on it, I swear. I'm working tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning and then again at 3:30pm. So that's it for tonight!

GFY,

Tony I