April 29th, 2009
It came as a surprise to me that the SpiralFrog music service was shut down two months ago without any notice whatsoever. They just unplugged the servers, it seems.
I only found out about it earlier this week. I tried to play some of the songs I had downloaded from there, but they refused to play due to the DRM license being expired. Marvelous. 
Oh, well… I did get to try out a few albums before buying them, and also listened to a few songs that I would have never wanted to buy. A lot of albums these days only have one or two good songs and the rest of the album is garbage / filler. They should spend less time trying to force a song to be a radio hit and work on developing all the songs on the album instead.
And they wonder why record sales are down… 
Posted in Technology
April 24th, 2009
I spent some time last night setting up the emergency air conditioner, since it was supposed to get a bit hot this weekend, and the central air conditioner will only be replaced early next month. Good thing I got this thing last year when the central air conditioner failed at the end of August. It’s going to be more useful than it was expected to be. My room is already starting to warm up today, so I’m running the air conditioner already.
I’m still quite tired now. I didn’t play much guitar in the past few days, or really done much of anything. I either got up late, or had to take naps all the time. I’m tired of being tired…
Posted in Health, Lair, Life
April 20th, 2009
I decided to cook some spaghetti at 1AM. It almost turned into a disaster, but I managed to get things under control in the end. It seems that my can of sauce was a bit too old, so I had to go find something else to use. I found a jar of sauce in the basement, but when I got back to the kitchen, my noodles were starting to stick to the pot.
So I ended up with too much sauce, and to go along with that, too many noodles.
I ate so much spaghetti that I was really tired today, almost like I was about to go into hibernation. I think it was about 5:30 PM when I fianlly got up. Wheat always does that to me, for some reason. It’s always difficult to get out of bed the day after eating pasta. But that also means that I sleep very well… 
Posted in Health, Life
April 18th, 2009
This morning, I watched the Italian Job. I do love movies about robbing, and this was no exception.
While this film was based on the original The Italian Job from 1969, it’s not a remake. It does have some of the same key elements from the original, most importantly the gold robbery and the mini Coopers. The roberies and escapes were very clever and original. Very well done. I really liked it.
Posted in Loot, Movies
April 17th, 2009
I got a couple of new DVDs yesterday. My parents went shopping, and my mother saw some movies on sale that she thought I might like, so she phoned home to ask me about them. I was still in bed when she called, so she let the phone ring for about 5 minutes.
My mother’s first choice would have been Goodfellas. I already had Goodfellas, so it’s a good thing she called. She looked a bit more and there was also Donnie Brasco and the Italian Job, which I didn’t have… so she bought them for me.
I watched Donnie Brasco this morning. A very interesting gangster movie. An FBI agent infiltrates the mafia, and goes along with them while they go about their business… including snuffing rats and having a party on a boat owned by the FBI. There was also a scene where one guy was given a lion as a pet. 
Posted in Loot, Movies
April 14th, 2009
Well, Easter went well. I had dinner with my parents, and got some chocolates; a box of Ferrero Rocher shaped like a bunny, and the movie Sahara on DVD.
So I watched Sahara on Monday morning. Sahara is very interesting. It’s a bit like Indiana Jones, but better than the new Indiana Jones movie for sure… the new Indiana Jones movie is so weird.
I was really tired yesterday, I got up late and didn’t really feel like doing much online. I just didn’t have the energy. It’s difficult enough for me to communicate when I feel okay, but having zero brain power makes it extremely difficult.
I played a bit of guitar last night, but not for very long. I had to really force myself, and my playing refelected that. But that’s not so bad, as I played quite a bit the other days.
Posted in Health, Life, Movies
April 11th, 2009
I finally made some progress on the vampire story. I had been trying for about 4 months to get a key element to fit into a scene early on in the story, which after writing almost 100 pages, is not an easy thing to do. So that had been killing my inspiration to write, and along with brain fog. I hadn’t made any progress at all until now. I’m really glad I was able to get this done. Now I can focus on the rest of the story. I will still have to rewrite a few parts a bit to follow theses changes, but that shouldn’t be too bad.
I watched A Beautiful Mind this morning after finishing up my writing. Very interesting movie. It shows how even the most brilliant of minds can be overtaken by mental illness.
I guess I should consider myself fortunate to only have Bipolar Disorder and not something like the paranoid Schizophrenia portrayed in the film, or the severe obsessive-compulsive disorder that was portrayed in The Aviator. But it still hasn’t been fun for me, especially when my depression became a nightmare during 2006 and 2007. Things are much better now, but I still get depressed quite easily.
And of course, medication doesn’t always help as much as most people would think. Sometimes it doesn’t help at all… and that’s why I take vitamins instead.
Posted in Health, Life, Movies, Writing
April 9th, 2009
I caught another cold. It’s getting ridiculous now.
So, I watched The Phantom of the Opera this morning before bed. It’s a pretty good adaptation of the play, which I had seen at the NAC when I was about 10 years old with my school. Let’s start with that play first…
What an experience it was! Although the play was in the afternoon, we were brought downtown by bus in the morning. There was a presentation, followed by lunch at the nearby mall. I couldn’t eat anything at all, my stomach was in knots. So I ended up spending my lunch money later in the day on a souvenir pen during the intermission.
Someone, I can’t remember now who it was, had told me that the famous chandelier would fall. And then I noticed where I was seated…
I was seated almost front row center, I think it was the third row, with the famous chandelier hanging right above me. That made me nervous… but when the time came, it wasn’t so bad. Isn’t waiting for something the most stressful thing ever?
As for the movie, it does follow the play quite well, there are some differences, but it all works. I did enjoy watching it.
Posted in Health, Life, Movies
April 7th, 2009
I just got back from the Chiropractor. My neck was very subluxated, and the worst it has been for a long time, apparently. I didn’t feel too bad, though, except for the cold that just keeps going like the Energizer Bunny. That made me have some trouble sleeping – or sleeping too much - for the past few days, and that’s never good for my neck.
It actually snowed a bit today, it is just below freezing outside… winter is fighting to return, but won’t win.
As for Railwolf.com. The new design is a success. I’m glad I made the switch to WordPress. It makes it much easier to post, and I will be doing more of it now. Oh, and the comments are working, of course. 
By the way, if you don’t like the avatar that was generated for you, you can sign up for a Gravatar. Make sure you use the same e-mail address you use to post here for that.
Posted in Health, Life, Railwolf.com
April 6th, 2009
Every time I look, my e-mail program has some wonderful junk mail waiting for me. Some of it gets caught by the junk mail filter, some doesn’t. This leaves me wondering a few things…
What the hell is an “Acai Berry”?
Why would some (overly generous) banker overseas want to just give away millions of dollars left there by some important dead person to me?
Why would I buy prescription drugs I don’t need from a “Canadian Pharmacy” when I actually live in Canada?
And why would I want to get a million dollar advertising contract for my “business” from some stranger?
Who are these people who actually buy products or services from the evil doers who bombard us with unsolicited e-mail messages? Do they really think they’ll be receiving exactly what they expect?
They should have their computers confiscated for being accomplices.
Bonus points go to anyone who answers those questions. 
Posted in Life, Technology
