I think that the graphic looks quite good, but I was waiting until I had something good to post before I said anything.

I guess I'll just ask everyone what they are going to do for reading week. What are all of you doing for reading week? If you can't post on this web log, feel free to phone me @ 203-5653 or write me a letter at 702-1540 29th st nw, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4M1. I'll check the mail box in a few days for letters, but I'm not very confident that anyone will mail me a letter. My contact info has been on my personal webpage for like 2 years and I haven't gotten anything from that yet.

I'm seriously thinking about being a wedding photographer this summer instead of getting a real job. I'm just a little nervous about it. I'm deciding yes or no over reading week, and if I decide to go for it, I'm putting ads in the Gauntlet for the rest of the school year. I'd also be deciding on my price by then too. That way I would have enough time to get a bunch of bookings/deposits and I would know if I'd still need to get a real job as well.

I upgraded our title into a graphic, but I think it still needs work. In other news I am in the middle of my WSI program and I'm quite bored. I may be able to get a job out of the deal though. One of the other students in the class works at the Ramada and said they might need another lifeguard. He told me that he will take my resume down there for me tomorrow. I'll be happy if I get the job.

Anna's play opens on Tuesday. They are practicing like MAD! (Mad - crazy not Madd - Mother's Against Drunk Drivers).

The Xbox party is over. It was the first time we hooked up 4 Xbox's but although we had the equipment we only had enough players to fill 12 spots. That means that next time I'll have to invite more people to play. Xbox is great.

Tonight my post to the blog is going to be short and simple. I'm getting ready for an Xbox party and it's going to be sweet. I just talked to Geoff Vaz and they are going to be here soon.

One other thing, my room mate has been eating my food. That pisses me off. For one thing - if you are going to steal some bread from someone at least have the courtesy to close the bag afterwards so as to not dry out all the bread. When I confronted him about some missing dried fruit snacks (like fruit roll-ups but real fruit) he just said that, "Yeah I ate a few of them" (I only had 6), "I just saw them there and was hungry so I ate them." (He just saw them in the cupboard where I keep my food and where he does NOT keep his food). He said he's going shopping soon and that he'd buy me some more, that doesn't seem to make up for the fact that I'd like to go eat a sandwich right now but I'm out of bread. He also drinks my milk but I guess I'm supposed to be thankful that at least he asked before taking a box of my macaroni the other day. Don't even get me started on the pile of dishes in the sink.

Jeff you should have had your other armpit waxed just for symmetry. I mean it might help with balance and stuff.

I went to my one and only MGIS 333 lab today, and I was half an hour late, but that was ok, because I think it took them that long to get everyone to start MS Visio and to download the templates, and so I didn't miss too much at all. Visio is really easy to pick up, especially if you have used a lot of MS products in the past. The class worked out a licence so that we all get 30 day full trial versions free. Apparently you can just reinstall it every 30 days if you want. I am just kicking myself, because I actually had the full version, but I didn't bother to install it or burn it before I had to take the cd back to one of my group members. I guess it wouldn't be too hard to find it again anyway.

One last thing I really haven't mentioned, besides my almost bizarre love of little kittens, is that the real reason Tracie isn't missing the chocolate is because one of my resolutions was to kick it up a notch in the sack. Now I know why life is like a box of chocolates.

This year my new years resolution was to give up one of my all time favorite things...you guessed it, chocolate! I really like chocolate, in fact, I find it almost impossible to refuse, but I was really feeling up for a challenge. Anyway, I'm proud to report that it's already a week into February, and I'm showing no signs of withdrawal. (My eye twitches every once in a while, but I'm not convinced that the two are related).

I haven't seen Anna's play so I don't know exactly what she is going to be doing except that it is somewhat sexual in nature. (I believe something to do with a pig troll rutting on stage). All I can say is you wouldn't catch me in such a compromising roll. On a side note, Anna had her eyebrows waxed in preparation for the show.

I just saw one of my professors walking down the hall and thought that now would be a good time to comment on his strange choice of names: Anonymous William Smith. I just call him Wil. I guess one day he decided that he would "spice things up" by changing or eliminating his middle name and then adding Anonymous as his first name. That's the name he uses for all his art and whatnot. I thought I would have more to say about that, but I guess I don't. I'll just let you think about it. From the sounds of it he is smarter than "Things and Stuff" lady.

In other news I qualified for Junior Nationals for swimming. The times are faster than Canada West but slower than the CI's. I don't think I'm going to go though, because none of the other team mates that qualified are going - and it is $250, not to mention it's over reading week - which I'll need to use to catch up on my homework.

Just remember, libary, it's pronounced libary.

I was going to a panel discussion entitled "Libraries are important" and the lady who was at the door asked me if I was there for the libary discussion! I couldn't believe it. Here I was at the door to a room full of well over 35 librarians and this lady couldn't even say library. I felt like saying, "Please spell libary then spell library then look for both of them in a dictionary."

Maybe she is a lesbian. I heard that they have a hard time with their r's.

ps. The lisp only shows up sometimes. I always sort of figured you were doing it on purpose.
pps. ROTFL!

When did I ever use Alien Farts font and how did you know that I downloaded it onto my computer? Are you actually a game show creator ... er I mean secret agent that is spying on me? Anyway I am supposed to be superimposing one picture of myself onto another picture, but instead I'm posting on the blog.

Yesterday I was telling Anna-Maria that I talked to a guy on the phone about coming to see the room. I said I thought he seemed very slightly gay sounding on the phone and then she said that I might - to some people, sound a little gay. WHAT? She explained that I had an ever so slight bit of a lisp. Needless to say I'm confused about this - if I have a lisp how come nobody ever pointed it out to me before. So I'm forced to ask myself, do I really have a slight lisp?

Last night I visited with Anna and some of her friends while they had breaks in between ques for rehearsal. There are some strange characters in that play and when I say characters I mean actors. Anyway afterwards Anna-Maria and I drove one of the girls home and I asked her if she thought I had a lisp. My worst fears were confirmed when she hesitated. Damn-it I knew it. I have a lisp. Although she said that as far as speech anomalies are concerned mine wouldn't even make a blip on the radar for speech anomalies.

I want my money back too.

Tracie and I went to see confessions of a dangerous mind last night. It was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. I mean you wouldn't write home about it, but you might discuss it on your web log. It's the (maybe true) story of the guy who invented the newly wed game, the gong show and the dating game along with a whole crap load of other game shows that you've never heard about. Anyway, he gets recruited by the CIA to become a hitman. I liked the fact that it was different from most other movies that I have seen. The main drawback (for me at least) was that it showed him as a tv producer some of the time, and as a hitman/spy some of the time. Both were entertaining, but in trying to show both, it did an exceptional job of neither sides of his life. Sometimes it tried to be a comedy and sometime more of an action drama.

The only thing I can think of for this blog, is to continue on posting. I don't think Jackie will be joining, but maybe we should reinvite her with a little tutorial of how to work the site. She may or may not have any good stories anyway. She never emails me. I didn't even know she was going to California until Mom told me. Maybe Anna-Maria Onomatapia and Tracie will get their act together. Secretly, I'm hoping for a juggling act.

I'll leave you with a little bit of wisdom I've picked up along the way: Use ordinary fonts. Fancy fonts, like "Cosmic" or "Alien Fart," will make your story seem more interesting at first glance, but they don't actually make it any better.

Anna-Maria and I rented the Borne Identity last week. Anna was fairly critical of it, but I thought it was a great show. Ironically I thought it looked dumb to begin with meanwhile it was Anna-Maria who wanted to rent it. Anyway The Borne Identity DVD is now a week over due at Video Update and I'm thinking maybe tonight would be a good day to return it.

Now that I have posted the movie of myself dunking and the new comic parody of Gary's comics, I am at a loss of what to add to this site. I've been telling a few people about the site and I'm thinking what this site REALLY needs in order to improve is more people to post on it. Jackie is in California now working as an Au Pair and probably has lots of things to whine - errr um I mean write about. Mom and Dad still don't know how to use the internet so spending the time and energy involved in inviting them to post and following up with them would most likely be futile at best. Tracie's posts have been few and far between and even Anna has been slacking on her posting responsibilities. So what ever are we going to do? I don't know but while you're thinking about that I've got to run and pick up Anna-Maria from her play practice. Have a nice day.

Today I went to my first New Media Faculty meeting. It was pretty long but nevertheless I think I'm glad I get to go. They did spend an overly long time discussing really boring things like what to do about the situation of how to hand students back their papers at the end of the year because the teachers don’t have much time at the end of the year and the faculty secretary is too busy. Actually I was stumped too, because if the teachers were refusing to let students pick them up at their offices and the students couldn't just pick them up from a pile somewhere because someone needed to be there to verify identity for F.O.I.P reasons, then what really could they do? The Faculty is also thinking about bringing some keynote speaker from Ontario. I can’t remember his name but he's the guy that wears a camera on his glasses and is convinced of the future of remote conferencing / technology to solve all our problems. Anyway they are going to pay to have him speak at the University - but here's the catch, he's going to web cast it. Yep - they are paying him to do the speech at the University but from wherever it is he works / lives in Ontario. All in all, I'm sure it will be interesting and at least the guy practices what he preaches.

I read Dad's email tonight. It definitely was from Dad. Here it is:

Be sure to check the attachment photo to see a picture of the latest
pie I made. It had mackintosh apples in it and it was sure good. The
feeling it gave when you were eating it was what I imagine would be
similar to the feeling you get when you snort cocaine. If the food and
drug administration knew about it they would have come and tried to
confiscate it. They would have had to be right there though because we ate
it pretty much at one sitting.



Oh one other thing. I asked a complete stranger to use the video camera I borrowed from the library to tape me dunking the basketball. I'll download the video footage tomorrow and get a link to it similar to the one Gary has, so that you can all compare our dunking skills. (If you are wondering who I mean by you, I mean if you are reading this, then YOU ARE the person I am talking about.)

Today my things and stuff prof. got left and right mixed up. Twice. Nobody said anything, but I think there was at least one other person who noticed.

I want my money back.

The other day I got an email from the professor of my multimedia 2010 and 2030 classes. His name is Anonymous Smith. Yes really. But anyway that's not the point of this blog. I'll comment on his strange choice of names later. He relayed a message that the Fine Arts department is looking for two student representatives to attend faculty meetings and then it's their responsibility to relay anything important that happens back to the students. Well I didn't think too much of it at the time, but then in class the professor asked if anyone was interested. As an impulse decision I raised my hand - you know I was a T.A. rep back at Hat High. So anyway to make this mediumly long story shorter, I had the first multimedia student I found nominate me and next thing you know I and some third year student are both elected by default. So now that I am the new Student Rep of New Media (formerly known as Multimedia) I expect you all to bow in my presence and say in unison - "All Hail Mighty Lord Jeff the Student Rep of New Media!" or at least, "congratulations" if that's all you can muster.

Things and Stuff. I hate things and stuff. I have a teacher who is losing all her creditablity with me. She does a few things that to me as a student are very dumb. First of all, she gives the appearance of not knowing what she is talking about. That's one of the worst things about her. She doesn't seem qualified to be there. I mean, I could probably do a better job faking teaching the class with the class manual than she is. Quite often she will work something out on the board and ask the students what the answer is. Imagine, for example, that "2+2=4" was written on the board. She asks what the answer is and waits for some on to say, "4". It is so painful I want to gouge my own eyes out. Since she asks stupid things like that, no one answers even when she asks good questions, not just for things off the board. It's a horrible 3 hour class where no one talks. One time she asked us, "As users what would you like to see in an information system at your company?" A few people answered, and I'll sum up what they said.

There are some things that I like about the system we have now. There is also some stuff that I don't like about it. I would take the stuff I don't like about it and do things to change the stuff to make something that would be better than the old stuff that was complicated/didn't work/was cumbersom. I would also take the good stuff and do things to make it better. If you could do stuff to think outside the box, it would make things more synergistic and we would be more comptetitive in the e-economy and we would have more b2b and b2c business.

I hate Things and Stuff.

ps. To Anna and Jeff, I don't have very many good pics of you, so if you have a favorite, I'm more than willing to change the photos as soon as you post/send them.

I came across this Dave Barry blog link on plastic. I especially liked Dave's Lord of the Rings review.

I found a message on my answering machine the other day from Don at Memory Lane Computers. Apparently he is upset that I have been using my http://www2.memlane.com/jmilner/ address to post my "web portfolio" and I guess he wants me to take it down. I guess it's no big deal now that I have http://www.milnerdesign.com but it still somewhat ticks me off especially not only working there for those 3 or so years, but also because he was so rude about it on the phone; not to mention that I have been giving them business by sending my clients to them for hosting. But whatever - I've deleted it now and I don't plan on looking back. But I probably will not purchase my next computer from them.

I was taking pictures at a panel discussion about what the future of computing will be in the next ten years, and all of the sudden a cell phone rang. Everybody looks around, and guess whos phone it was. It was the speakers! His own phone rang during his part of the discussion.

Then the next day, I was sitting in class and a cell phone rang. Everybody looked around to see who's it was, and it turns out that it was the teacher's own phone. I guess that students/audience members aren't the only inconsiderate ones.

Anyway, those were my two funny cell phone stories.

How does everybody like the new profile pictures. Just ask me anytime if you want me to change them. I might need you to send a pic because I don't have very many of Anna or Jeff.

The swim meet was great. I had personal bests in 4 out of my 5 swims. As of this posting the site is not updated but I should now be ranked in the top 70 of all Canada. This time the ranking will be more accurate because most of the Universities will have posted their swimmers times.

I didn't take my own camera to the swim meet because I forgot it! Yes, I didn't remember to take it when I rushed out the door to catch the bus. Speaking of the pictures from this weekend, do you want me to send that link out to my swim team - that will probably give your site some substantial traffic - ok like 40 hits, but there are lots of pictures that don't really apply to them and they are all really small. I think I'd just like the originals zipped, and then I'll go through and select which ones to post ect. BTW I liked the edit of Brock's shirt. Nice work Gary.

One last thing, I am probably not going to Calgary to see Jackie off. I have things I need to do here including another Swim Meet (or is that the weekend after this?) Either way I'll have to check. If I don't have a swim meet I'll have a training course for Water Safety Instructor. Also do you think you could get a better picture of me - I am sick of the kayaking one. Actually the kayaking one is probably better than some other random picture you might get of me. I guess thats life.

The swim meet ended, and I have a website completed for it. It's all the digital pics Jeff and I took over the weekend. It sort of surprised me that he didn't bring his camera, but maybe he didn't want to lose it. I made the website with photoshop, and it automatically made all the thumbnails, and coded all the html pages for me. It's pretty nice, but I'm sort of disappointed that it made all the larger images so small, I guess that's what it's set at, but whatever, when I get around to it, I'll make a couple of zip files of them all. (There are 64 megs of pictures). Right now, people will just have to be satisfied with what there is.

I had a pretty good time at the swim meet, and it made me wish I was still in swim club. Unfortunatly the first rule of my swim club is to not talk about my swim club. I'm pretty excited to see the pics from my film camera. I'm pretty sure that I got some really good ones. Surprisingly enough, I didn't take many digital pics of Jeff, but I guess that's ok.