My glasses broke the other day. Just like that, no warning, no provocation, I was even cleaning it, and it just broke. Now I'm glasses-less, and everyday I'm having to wear contacts. I hate it.

I need to set up an appointment (with an optometrist in the VSP network), and get my eyes checked so I can get new glasses.

My left pinky also hurts from time to time because I use emacs, and you use the ctrl key a lot with the emacs commands. So now I have to try and adjust the way I type, so I don't further injure myself.

Yes, I have problems.

Pictures from the Metric show, the Hip show, etc.

Some favs,

Emily Haines in action
Hair flying
Calm
Hiding
Cheering for the Hip
Nat hiking with an umbrella

It seems as though every time Apple makes a small incremental change for the iPod, the whole world gets up in arms over it. Think about it, from 1st to 2nd generation, they added a touch wheel. From 2nd to 3rd, they moved the buttons, and added on-the-fly playlists. Then came the mini, but that should really be considered an entire new product line, not part of the normal iPods. From 3rd to 4th, they changed the buttons to a click wheel (ala the mini), and increased battery life. Now there's the photo iPod, which is essentially a 4th generation iPod with a colour screen, and an advanced earphone/video-out plug.

What I'm trying to say is, aside from minor cosmetic changes (except for the colour screen), and some firmware changes (which they refuse to incorporate into older versions), there has not been a dramatic leap forward. The new photo iPod is not some new idea that Apple came out with. mp3 players with photo viewing capability have been out for a long time. In fact, the current iPod, and the new video one, is probably one of the players on the market with the least amount of features. There are players out there that's about the same size with radio, recording, video, photo, and acts as a USB host (which means that you don't need an extra widget to upload photos to the player). Yet those players get almost zero press coverage.

Of course, there are merits to the iPod. The wheel is one of the most successful and useful UI for its purpose, and they have a patent on it (although my wireless keyboard also has a wheel to control the volume, so maybe prior art?). The design is sleek and modern/minimalist with almost no protruding buttons/switches. Their customer service is great if you have a problem (which I've had, and frustrating it was).

But what Apple has most succeeded in is the almost viral marketing. Everyone knows that iPods are cool. You almost can't escape the silhouette ads all over the walls and the mock copies all over the internet, or the people walking down the street with the poor-quality, yet distinctively white earphones, or the celebrities touting them around in their daily escapades. In fact, Apple is only adding (minor) features every few months just to generate buzz again, simply because they can. And each time they add a feature, they will be featured in every tech discussion group and mainstream news media, and they perpetuate their "coolness". That's why they don't even need to stay competitive with the competition.

As a side note, here's what the iPod would have if it actually had to keep up with the rest of the market:

• play more formats (like .wma and .ogg)
• receive radio (could be done via a remote)
• record radio
• record voice (without extra widget)
• longer battery life
• colour screen
• display photos
• play video (on the player, or via video out)
• not having to use a proprietary upload method (i.e. just move the music files into a /music directory, videos into a /video directory)
• USB host (so you don't need a extra widget to upload pictures)
• multiple dynamic playlists
• more as I think of them

Yes, I know, some of these features are already on the iPod. But them rest of them are not dreams, they're actually implemented in many players, it's just that no one knows about them.

Last night I went to the Metric show at Neumo's. Opening for them was Midnight Movies from Los Angeles (album). I was really impressed by them, with the lead singer also playing the drums. It's a different setup, but her voice was soulful, and yet distinctly rock. I should have bought their album from the show, since it costs more on amazon.

Metric was amazing. Emily Haines is so energetic on stage, dancing and interacting with the crowd. At one point I was about two inches away from her face. They played most of their songs from Old World Underground, and some new ones I think (they don't seem to be from their EP). I'll post some pictures when I'm not so lazy.

My comments don't seem to be working.Update: I've made a temporary hack so the comments work, but there are issues with apache that need to be worked out. I still blame Matt Goyer.

I signed up for my 401(k) plan today. As far as I know, this is the US equivalent of RRSPs in Canada. I'm having them take off 15% of my pre-tax pay directly. This will result in a big pay cut, and way less disposable income, which is probably good, because otherwise I might find a way to spend it. As Matt pointed out, it's also good to set it up from the beginning, that way you don't get used to the extra money, so hopefully it won't be as painful.

Robin was here over the weekend for a conference on operator theory. Don't worry, I don't know what it is either. But we all hung out, as usual, and went to the usual haunts, with the exception being Saturday, where we went and saw a Thunderbirds (hockey) game against the Vancouver Giants. Since there's no NHL this year, we'll have to satisfy ourselves with live WHL games instead. Then we went to Ozzies, but no one sang. It was probably a good idea.

Sunday we (and by "we" I mean Cormie) threw around plans to go hiking, but that never got off the ground. Then we (and by "we" I mean me) cooked a big dinner with roasted chickens and mashed potatoes and fresh veggies, and saw a movie called The Dreamers. Matt now has his movie picking priviledges revoked until further notice.

We went and saw Sarah Harmer at Neumo's last night. I've never seen her play before, and I must say that she was amazing. First of all, I wish I can play the guitar like her. She has a very lively and folkish style when plucking. Secondly, her band is amazing, and they kept on switching up on the intruments, including a weird recorder thing (that you blow into) that had keys (like a mini piano) and sounded like an accordion. Lastly, her songs are musical (harmonic?), and it complements her voice rather than taking it over.

Sarah opened for Josh Ritter (but I have an inkling that he might have opened for her while they were touring in Canada).

One note from the concert -- they all liked to use acoustic guitars, and rarely used picks.

On a side note (and a shameless plug): if you want to work at, or know someone who wants to work at (with the proper credentials), or have some ideas for amazon.com/.ca/.co.uk/.de/.fr/.co.jp, I want to hear about it.

People at work who change the subject line when they reply is really breaking my view-as-conversation arrangement of emails.

Being in the US for perhaps the most important election in my life up to now, I'm trying to follow what's going on. Here's an article in the NYTimes Magazine that highlights how Bush seems to make his important policy decisions based on his faith and "instincts", but not analyzing the details in order to come to a logical conclusion, and how no one in his administration bothers to doubt his choices (try using the login/password mingsfriend/mingsfriend, if that doesn't work, you'll need to register at the NYT site).

Here are some choice quotes from the article ...

Talking about possibly sending peacekeepers to the Israel/Palestine area

''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''

Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.

Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''

The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.

On talking to Mark McKinnon, a past media advisor to Bush,

''You think he's an idiot, don't you?'' I said, no, I didn't. ''No, you do, all of you do, up and down the West Coast, the East Coast, a few blocks in southern Manhattan called Wall Street. Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times. And you know what they like? They like the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence. They have faith in him. And when you attack him for his malaprops, his jumbled syntax, it's good for us. Because you know what those folks don't like? They don't like you!''

Here, they're talking about the proposed arctic drilling in Alaska,

[Bush:] ''Do you realize that ANWR [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] is the size of South Carolina, and where we want to drill is the size of the Columbia airport?''

Pardon my ignorance, but apparently in South Carolina, they are required to serve liquor out of mini bottles instead of regular, full-sized bottles. This means that the average drink there is 1.7 ounces of liquor, which gives you more bang for the buck, so to speak.

Now there will be a referendum come voting time on whether or not they should amend their constitution (yes, it's been in their constitution for 30 years) and allow them to serve from big bottles. The things I learn from the Daily Show.

The League of Little People is protesting on grounds of discrimination.

The flies were here yesterday too, they keep me company. I'm not sure why there are so many, but they seem to be fascinated by the window, so they don't bother me, except the occasional buzzing. But I get used to it. There are also ladybugs that sometimes crawl on the outside of the window.

By next week all the flies should be dead, considering they only have an 8 day lifespan. Hopefully by next week I'll also be able to do some real work, considering I still don't have my linux account set up, my outlook name shows up as "Ming Fei" instead of "Ming Li", and I have to file a ticket to get that fixed, except I can't log into the website, and I can't call helpdesk because my phone still has no ringtone.

But at least I have a window, with a view of the stadium, and the sound, and 1/5th of the Olympics across the water, and the flies to keep me company.

And I'm home at 2:30. They did have my laptop ready for me at orientation, but I don't have an account. I don't have a chair in my office either, although I am the only one in my office (thus far), and I have a (small) window with a view of the stadiums. My mentor also wrote Mason, so I guess I'll be learning a lot of perl, and maybe participate in some open source projects.

I never knew having a full-time job also involved so many decisions. Which medical plan do I take? How much do I invest in my 401k? Do I need a financial advisor? Real-world life is so much more complicated than school.

Last night we went to see The Hip at Showbox. Sam Roberts opened for them with their usual songs, and it was pandemonium when The Hip finally showed up. People were pushing, jumping, a couple of guys beside me almost got into a fight (there was a lot of pushing and shoving, and one guy was wielding a beer bottle). The show was very energetic, and I love the way Gord performs, his ramblings during the solos, the opulent amounts of sweat. Good show.

Kevin and I ventured out to Bomber last night after a delicious dinner at Jane Bond with Lauren and Jen. I haven't been to the Bomber since Grad, and the people there are so young. A lot of them are also dressed as if they are going to a club.

The Bomber is not a club.

But if they want to wear skimpy tops and short skirts, who am I to discourage them. The Bomber staff's outfits have also improved greatly. Instead of the regular t-shirts, they're now haltertops for the female bartenders. As usual, other than Kevin, Heather, Leo and Liam, I didn't know anyone, but my favourite waitress was there, so it was all good.

The 24 hour Tim Horton's has opened up in the SLC. Why couldn't they have had something like this when I was in school? I still remember the 1:45 am rushes to Williams before they closed just so we can get our last cup of coffee in while coding in the real-time lab. This Tim H would have made my life a whole lot easier.

Why didn't I know about this? I would have stayed longer in London. Leave it up to the Brits to come up with good stuff like this.

I'm in a mad dash to get all my stuff ready for the move. Booking the flight, organizing my crap, transferring car ownership, worrying too much.

Anyone have any suggestions on what (not) to say to an immigration officer while going across the border on a TN?

The results of my trip.

One staple diet that's kept me going on this trip has been the gyro (or donner kababs). Gyro stands are so prolific and widespread that it doesn't matter what country or city you're in, there's always one within a 5 minute crawl. Different places also have different versions of the gyro. Some will wrap them in flatbread (the type we are familiar with), some will wrap it in a tortilla shell, while others will have a bun. But invariably, they will all have lettus, tomatoes, onions, and yogurt, along with lamb meat from a giant block. I guess one reason it's so popular is because lambs don't offend that many people.

Oktoberfest is absolutely crazy in Munich. It's just like a big fair, complete with ferris wheel, merry-go-round, roller coasters and carnies. But lining the main road of the fair ground are also gigantic beer tents, each capable of filling thousands of people. These aren't like the hockey-arena-turned-beer-halls we see in Kitchener. They are all right next to each other, they all serve a different brewery's beer, and they're all free to get in. The tents open at 10 am to 10 pm everyday, and they're usually full at opening time. By 12, people are standing on the benches yelling and singing and spilling some of their litre steins of beer (which are 7 Euros each). Those who do last to 10 pm are usually so plastered that they can barely walk home. Just think about it, if you drink 8 of those steins, that's a regular 24 of beer. The first night, we were sitting beside two locals, and before they left, they told us that their ages were 15 and 17 respectively.

Needless to say, I didn't do too much touring in Munich, although I did see the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz, and went to the Deutsch Museum.

I also missed my plane for the first time ever, and I've been on a lot of plane rides. My night train from Munich (Munchen) to Prague (Praha) was supposed to arrive at 08:15, with would have left me with 55 minutes to get to the airport before the check-in closes for easyJet. Well, it was 15 minutes late, and after a mad dash through the subway and getting on a bus, I missed the check-in by about 5 minutes. So I had to wait another 6 hours at the airport until the next flight. It was super boring.

On a side note, I've also decided that Virgin Atlantic is much better than British Airways for the following reasons:

• on VA, you can pick and choose your movies, and play them anytime you wish; whereas with BA, you can pick and choose, but must follow their schedule of when the movies start
• there's more legroom for economy class on VA flights
• the emergency instructions card on VA planes are funnier
• VA gives names to their planes like Lady Penelope
• the VA flights (of which I've been on two) were full of young and pretty female flight attendants while the BA flight was primarily male

It's really a shame that Virgin doesn't fly from Toronto anymore.