Wednesday, July 16, 2008

In-transit

I've left Anguilla heading back to Barbados and find myself in a familiar departure lounge. Antigua but so far so good, they say my flight is still going to be on time unlike another connecting flight from the one I came in on which is going to be delayed overnight! Now that is some rubbish, its 5:41pm and they are leaving 6am tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm going to try to enjoy the lil stop over and relax until my flight comes, back to school fete tonight.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Firefox 3.0

Mozilla is trying to break the record for the most software downloads in 24hrs with its new version of firefox. Surely enough it is a hit and that hit broke their servers long before any records.

At the time of typing this the mozilla site has crashed but there are mirrors up such as this one for windows.

Update:

That mirror is also swamped so best of luck in getting a download.

Friday, June 13, 2008

My Siblings go 'Up and On'

Life is filled with moments of unparalleled pain and joy, ironically the two go hand in hand. If my father were still alive its arguable whether or not when I found out my sisters passed for The Combermere School I would have been as emotional as I was.

Plenty of statements starting with "if he were here" and "he would have been" floated around and in the end I'm just so pleased that the hard work that I saw my siblings put in at lessons and in their homework payed off.

All sentimentality aside I am very happy with the result my sisters acheived!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

EURO 2008: Group of Death

So I watched both games yesterday and the France v Romania game was horrid, as the commentators like to say, as a spectacle it just didn't come off. The ball would be 3 or 4 yards off the Romanian penalty box and there were 8 or 9 players, excluding the keeper, between it and the net. The French just weren't inventive enough and poor Ribery was made to run around for nothing.

Good, that is out of the way.

Italy vs Netherlands is an almost comical clash of 2 complementary colours the blues indeed took on the oranges. After the first goal I was excited because the Dutch scoring first meant the Italians had to open up a bit more than they like to and with Cannavaro out it seemed like the back line might not hold as well as it normally does making for some spill and thrills.

What I didn't anticipate was Wesley Sneijder growing eyes on the back of his head and poping the ball over his shoulder to make it 2-0. At the half I felt for the Italians as the same sluggish midfield that I saw let Milan slip to the UEFA Cup was struggling again. In the end though, the game wasn't lost for a lack of opportunity it was for a lack of finishing. Luca Toni spurned a few chances that could've made the difference.

In the end though the better team on the day won and it was, for the most part, good football. I enjoyed it.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Quick note: Went to St. Maarten



Went back to St. Maarten over the weekend and got 95% of the stuff I wanted but was so tired I didn't get to play tourist properly, photo compliments Cami.

Did get new sneaks, work clothes, socks etc. oh and Wiimote/nunchuck so when I get back to Barbados I'll be able to whoop my sisters in Wii Sports tennis. :-)

Phantom Hourglass Completed

I beat the Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and my general impression was that it wasn't difficult and the overall game was enjoyable but they didn't do the best job with the back tracking, item switching was a pain, the combat system wasn't fully fleshed out and some parts of the game felt like filler. Filler I don't mind as long as it is side quest filler.


In the main temple where you spend like 30% of the game when you backtrack with new items its easier to get past certain floors or you can practically skip floors all together but in most cases, for me, because of the save system the risk of burning up your time in the temple to find an easier route didn't feel worth it. I'd spend 5mins in real life or 2mins on the clock in the game figuring out how to save 1min on the game clock and like 3 or 4 mins in real life and if I wasted too much time and reset the game I had to start from outside the temple which was just a pain.
When things did go right though it felt good.


The touch screen combat could've tended toward Ninja Gaiden type combat moving from enemy to enemy swiftly. Instead you mostly had to clumsily switch items and then have a fit on the touch screen to kill enemies and bosses alike. Speaking of the boss fights, they were brilliant. All of them were different, made good use of 1 item (which was essential to not going mad trying to switch) and had a big feel to them even if they were pretty easy after you figured out what was the trick.


The last boss fight however felt a lil disconnected; partially because you had little to no idea what really motivated this thing to be evil. I mean "it was born evil!" is all well and good but unless you are talking survival horror the creature coming from nowhere and having no logical weakness isn't really acceptable. That and having zero personality, the story of the true enemy could've been told through out the game but instead it was a few cut scenes. Still, finishing it it off was pretty satisfying. You can knock FF games but you can't help but something when you whack the person that has been tormenting you from the first time you selected attack.

As I said overall it was a good experience but they couldn't done alot better, you don't really expect good when you play a Zelda game you expect excellent.

Deal, or No Deal?

I LOVE Deal or No Deal and this comes from someone who generally things game shows are stupid and wishes reality TV would go back where it came from and Scifi could have like 3 or 4 channels just so I could swap between episodes of Stargate.

Deal or no deal is fun to watch for one simple reason, its the closest thing you will ever get to "Ha Ha your poor!" a game show envisioned by a comedian on Comedy Central where the Contestants bet their own money and no one leaves until someone is poor! The thing is that they choose the most animated people that act so excited about everything that when they eliminate the million dollar briefcase I can't help but fall off my chair lauging as they (a) meltdown and continue choosing cases in hopes of winning big still while destroying their chances or (b) TRY to act excited when they win $40K when they had $200k on the board the round before.

The last episode I watched had a guy who came from humble beginnings and his wife to be and best friend as supporters. The best friend, on every round, is like "GO For it bro" meanwhile the chica is like "Deal, we can buy a house and get married". When the dude says no deal to $212K his lady is ready to eat him for lunch, and believe me she probably could, and then when he opens the case and the prize money drops to 189K his girlfriend is visibly pissed but his best friend is still like GO FOR IT MAN. Me? I'm on the floor splitting my side that he is even considering opening another case.

At this point I'm dying laughing but they add something to the deal and he comes to his senses and says deal. Turns out he was holding the $300 case...lucky him eh? Was still funny to watch, but not as funny as the guy that won $10 then got a second chance and won $400.

Monday, June 2, 2008

A New Hope for me and Linux

Well this year is shaping up like I could fully return to the Fedora, maybe Ubuntu, on my home PC. I had switched back after software incompatibilities and all the issues with Java on open source plat forms. Additionally OpenOffice still didn't meet the grade and the net is still an IE friendly place which meant not having IE available, short of a VM, was also a problem. The final problem is a real alternative to outlook because at work we use an exchange server and when in Rome, it is wise to do as the Romans.

Now this year IE8 and Firefox3 are on the way and IE8 promises to adhere to web standards so essentially IE and FF are taking their next step together which means I won't be missing out when using FF3.

OpenOffice 3.0 seems to go a long way in terms of bridging the gap between itself and office, added to the fact I don't like Office 2007 where as with 2003 it was fine but I just wanted an alternative.

The OpenJDK solution that Sun is putting forward and is now integrated into the release of Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 means the Java headaches (while not completely gone) are practically a bad a memory.

Finally the Thunderbird email client now supports a calendar plug-in and the office email supports IMAP4 now. I still prefer Outlook since it is a more tightly integrated and functional email client/organizer however there are still things like Scalix and HP Openmail that have promise to them.

So basically by year end I could have a satisfactory Office, Browser and Email combination on an open platform for me to make a switch.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Viva la Vida

Studying has been gobbling up my time in front of the computer and I haven't been getting here to blog even though there were things I wanted to sound off on. Such as more of the DNC Primary Election, "Deal or no Deal" (which I enjoy watching for ALL the wrong reasons), video games etc.

Even thought the motivation was there I still wasn't getting on to blog but today is different, its different because I've discovered that Coldplay has two singles off their new Album released. 'Viva la Vida or Death and his friends' is the album title and Viva la Vida (translation: Long live Life) and Violet Hill are the 2 releases.

Lately I've been listening to Parachutes, particularly track 1 'Don't panic', the phrase "We live in a beautiful world" have been resonating with me recently. Now comes along Viva la Vida and I love it, really puts me in that place where you are remembering an event or situation when you were in control but then you lost it and you realise you are reminiscing about something past and the phrase 'but that was when I ruled the world' really sums up how you feel. Its a bittersweet feeling because from the disappointment you gain an opportunity (if you can find it) but the song just captures that sorta exaggerated feel those situations have.

Dido's next album comes out later this year and possible another Keane album so I'm excited about music again as should any right minded person who enjoys music in this vein. Why is it so many words have e before i if its i before e except after c? meh!

Viva la Vida

Friday, May 23, 2008

Week 8

Its the 8th Friday I've spent here working and its 5 or 6 left depending on my return date.

The time hasn't passed the way I thought it would and it sure could've been more productive but thus far its been a good experience. Before I arrived here cooking was really a pseudonym for frying or microwaving. The only spices I added to my food were black pepper and salt, usually after the fact. I'm not chef material and there is still quite a bit for me to come to terms with in the kitchen but I know I've got various forms of Pasta down, rice to some extent since the pot I have is too thin and tends to burn the rice at the bottom before it dries out.

Its also changed the way I view my diet, so now I think starch, protein and veg/vitamins. I don't snatch what is necessary the tastiest thing off the shelf but I take my time and look at what I'm going to be shoving down. So by and large its been a positive experience in that respect.

With regards to house keeping I now have a full appreciation and confidence in my ability to keep a house from smelling like hell while living in it. Of course it all comes down to getting certain things into a routine and maneuvering to keep the routine in tact. Laundry day, garbage Days, cleaning days. Of course the place still looks like crap but who's perfect?

I'm alot more mellow, the lack of things to do afforded me time to catch up on my gaming abit and do some studying I needed to do, but not enough of it. The 12 day visit from the other half was also a good experience kinda got to know the things I like/don't like about the living arrangement which presents things that can be worked on and improved.

So 8 Weeks in I know the only things I need to work on are keeping the house looking decent, keeping up my routine and doing more reading.

Congrats to Manchester United

Manchester United won the 2008 UEFA Champions League Trophy in nail biting down to the wire fashion. The game wasn't the best mainly due to the field condition, which was wet, slippery and a bit unstable but it was a tremendous game with regards to effort. Hargreaves did his usual work horse routine Lampard was quiet in the first half and then scored a classy equalizer. C. Ronaldo did his bit using his height and pace to get in his goal and it went all the way down to penalties.

Of course there was the Drogba red card that kinda put a dramatic spin on the proceedings and while I agree a red card was deserved I don't understand why Tevez was only given a yellow when he clearly shoved another player, on dead ball and with full intention. He brought the game to stop and allow for the escalation and while I think Vidic was cutting it a bit close as well if your going to be dishing out red cards you can't give the one red and share out yellows.

In the end a penalty shootout always has a cruel end where 1 or 2 players will feel they were directly responsible, in this case it was Terry and to a lesser extent Anelka; very nearly C. Ronaldo.

Man U did play great football all season and the squad has the depth and strength as well as the potential to be a force next year without any major restructuring so I congratulate them.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Phantom Hourglass

So I had half written off The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I had cleared the third temple and already I was sick of back tracking to the main temple and how just very tedious sailing around from island to island had become. To be honest though its still handled far better than Wind Waker, thinking back it seems like just yesterday I wanted to throw the game through the window for making me change the direction of the wind just so I could sail for 5mins to another location.

The scenic route is fun sometimes and to be honest there was something very enjoyable about galloping across the plains in Ocarina of Time. This feeling of enjoyment, however, is lost with sailing and now that you set a route and then shoot anything that moves it feels like a routine chore between objectives.

So basically the boat and the back tracking were about to turn me off a Zelda game but then I forged on a bit farther and they made up for it by giving me a halfway point in the re-occuring dungeon and with some genuinely clever gameplay aspects. I've been won back over and I think I shall make it to the end.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Water Proof Cell Phone

I LOVE technology, there is something so satisfying about going "I wonder if they have a..." and finding it online, for sale and in different colours!

For me today that was going "I wonder if there are water proof cell phones?"

To my pleasure I found two, a Sony and an LG, but they only are sold in Asia so then I found this watch phone with bluetooth and a touch screen that comes in Black and Red.

If they were cheaper I would try to sell some this Crop Over!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Iron Man...For Real

Cute in terms of timing...real cute this video (sucky buffering you may just be better downloading it) shows an exoskeleton capable of enhancing strength etc. I don't have much to say but the second comment on this website made me at least smile.
I had come across this blog which I think spewed enough hatred toward Macs and the ridiculous television advertisements that I would never have to say anything about it. I was sorely mistaken because new ads keep coming out and they just get more and more annoying.



Seriously, somebody needs to just stop this.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Dear Nationnews.com

It occurs to me that this website has been up for sometime and like a monument to the 'old' ways of infantile website design it stands as a testament to commercial commitment and rigidity in the face of a new dynamic information age.

Long story short it look old and stink.

More ads than content, content placed haphazardly around the web page. Its a down right shame and someone needs to catch a clue and rebuild that website from scratch. Implement a content management system of some kind, migrate it to a blog engine; do whatever is necessary but do something please.


Regards,




Person with a headache from your cruddy site

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality doesn't really, in my opinion, get the press it deserves. Here in Anguilla I use Caribcable and I've had a host of problems with my internet when I've done things other than surf the internet. When I called the first person I spoke to said, quite adamantly, no we do not restrict connections etc. but I'm not an idiot (most of the time) so I asked to speak to an engineer who then said well yeah we 'manage' peer-to-peer traffic. He said this was in an effort to curb illegal file sharing.

So I said to him, well I want to download things using Utorrent that don't infringe copyrights and more importantly I purchased 2 gaming consoles both of which use P2P connections for online gaming. Neither of which work because of your restrictions, the gentleman said he would monitor my connection and see what could be done. One week later nothing had been done, so I called back and got another lady, one who seemed aware of the restrictions but seemed fine with BSing me. She tried then to explain to me, which I find rather amusing, that people can hack my files using P2P and give me viruses and to protect me they need to restrict my P2P connections and bandwidth. She informed me that this protection is relaxed between 11pm and 6am.

RUBBISH, this is where net neutrality comes in, they should just provide the connection they advertise and I pay for. No one is paying to surf the internet, if all I wanted to do was browse web pages I would expect I'd pay a lower rate to have my connection severely gimped. The simple fact that these restrictions are removed off peak tells me that its a bandwidth conservation method more than anything else. I mean if it was to stop piracy and protect me from viruses as they seem to think I'd believe then why remove the restrictions at all?

If it was my home that I lived at that connection would be gone in a hurry but I have no choice in the matter so I'll call them back again and try to reach that engineer, to see if I can have something done.

Update:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/charter-will-monitor-customers-web-surfing-to-target-ads/index.html?ref=technology

This is the type of Garbage that just needs to STOP.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Democratics (You need to a be a lil Bush Fan to get that)

A long 3 day weekend and a cockroach have deeply disturbed my sleep cycle, *note to self* if i'm sleeping, stay asleep.

I've said on a few occasions I thought the American process for electing a leader was a good one; since it separated the election of a leader from the ruling party. At home I felt (why can't these people read a fricken promtper?...re: the horrible penis enlargement ad currently eroding my brain through the television) as though choosing the representative for your constituency and by extension determining the ruling party was a conflict of interest. I mean, your constituent could be an idiot but represent the party you want to vote for.

I realise now, however, anything to simplify the process of voting is a good thing. I've been following this American election very closely and it makes very little sense. I just get annoyed at how stupid the coverage/opinions are.

Intro one of my new favorite quotes:

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." - Winston Churchill

Oh and Comedy Central is it.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Well Played Barcelona

Manchester United 1 : 0 Barcelona - Aggregate Score.


No complaints, both matches were a joy to watch Messi and Ronaldo never got off and Scholes in the end did what was necessary. Barca made a mistake and they capitalized, it was still a brave showing but Rijkaard must learn his lesson from this. Eto'o up front seemed to have been given a mandate, he took so few shots and played more a centre attacking player than a striker, which is when I feel he plays his best football.


Now AC Milan are fighting for a qualifying position in the Champions League. Maybe a year in the Cup wouldn't be the worse thing for them while the rebuild. I back them 100% in the derby against Inter but if they draw or even loose they have come back well.

I've seen enough english football and while I think Man Unt are the best squad in that league, their style of play just isn't something I can say I'm a fan of, I'd have to say that I think Arsenal are the team in the league I can follow and enjoy watching. So next season I hope they continue with their style as I'll be following them.

Milan look to make some changes and this season they weren't their style wasn't all there with the team aging but with Pato, Kaka, Gourcuff (if he stays) and maybe a 2 or 3 new faces they could be back to normal. Or at least be able to maintain the form they have had recently.


Two big big derbies approaching and summer transfer season, I think Rijkaard is going to be going but I hope they let him stay as I think he has learned alot. Still, with the team he had this season Barca shouldn't be a second season without silverware. Maybe he does need to go? I don't know but if Mourinho is his replacement, then I can be happy with that as long as there is a composite of his controlled still and Barca's passing and movement. Maybe they will play with more width, who knows.


Well Played Barcelona, I enjoyed every minute of the game even if I wore a frown from the time Scholes put that beauty into the net.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Operating Systems

Been on a wee bit of a break, Shari's here so I've been otherwise pre-occupied. Of course however,when I find something sufficiently infuriating I do need to vent onto the mighty internets. WHAT was Microsoft thinking when they stiched Vista together. Now I was fairly pissed when I saw Fedora 7 I was kinda disappointed. They dropped the 'core' name I really expected the package management system to be tightly integrated and more user friendly. Alas, it wasn't to be and I think for my next home distro of linux I'll be joining the Ubuntu faithful.

Back to the point, I've been disappointed by operating systems before, they are the pretty eyed women of the night who promise so much and then leave you with so little. Vista...I'm looking at you.

Firstly, I can't find anything, why was the window with network connections buried. I mean the links on the left are useful but they are in no means intuitive, I find too many things that are useful are tucked away out of sight. Generally I find the re-arrangement of sections hasn't been for the best.

Secondly, why does it use so much freaking resources...800mb of ram, no seriously. Ready boost is a nice touch though, I like it its very practical.

Thirdly, software support...Symantec whats the big Idea, people plunk down cash for symantec 10 and for vista you need endpoint 11. Talk about moving the goal post mid game! I know this is unfounded but I'd like some sort of evidence that symantec 10 coulnd't be patched up to work on Vista.

Finally, I'm being overly harsh and I know it but for the time it took, the money it costs and the emphasis being put on it I expect a little more than DX10 and easily scheduled disk defragging.

Blah! My wishlist for an OS:

Simple CUSTOMIZABLE interface - Easy for begginers but those who know can modify it to their needs. Look at what happened to office 07, the ribbon system is nice but its not for everyone so why force it?

An intuitive learning curve for the OS, not the user - No, do not enable every fraggin service at the start. Enabled the basics and as services are requested enabled to more harmless ones and give a brief basic explanation of why I should full time enable the services.

Open source - The code need not be community developed but give everybody a level playing field in terms of access to information and people build tightly integrated solutions. Then again that would be great for software in general so if one body produces their own custom service/dll for acheiving a goal multiple apps could use it rather than everybody launching their own assault on system resources.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Remove Facebook's People You May Already Know

*UPDATE*

None of the below methods currently are working, for me at least, if/when I have some time to look at this again I'll try again and update.

*/UPDATE*


Yes so what is the point of complaining if you're not going to act?

Here are two methods for removing this module if you are a Firefox user.

The first, and the one that I used, is to run a small script on your page that blogs the content of the section.
  1. Install the Greasemonkey Add-on.
  2. Go to this page.
  3. Hit "Install This Script", as you'll see it says it was written my majatt so need to fear.
Once its installed the header still appears but you don't have to see anyone you don't like.

The second method, which is simpler to execute but I'll be upfront and say I haven't bothered to test. Get Adblock Plus and add "*facebook.com*friend_sugge
ster.js" to the block list.

For a good laugh, go search "people you may know" in facebook and check the groups, its quite funny.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Just a few pics


The Office Parking lot at 5:30pm...


The main entrance


Me before a meeting.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Avram Grant: Once a Football Manager now a Comedian

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=662580

Messi and Kaka? Riiiiight, keep dreaming buddy.


http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=663403

Pure. Gold. The last bit was too funny, has to be the most uncomfortable interview ever and I hope it ends up on one of those new fangled video-on-demand services like youtoob.

Privacy just aint what it used to be

This is taking a joke too far. Software that creeps into a p2p network and tries to find and locate people downloading content, in this case child pornography, they deem illegal.

Hang on a tick, did I just say "deem illegal" and mention child pornography in the same breath? This will give you an idea as to why, someone being prosecuted for child pornography for taking pictures of fully clothed teenagers.


With regards to tracking people my issues are just that IP addresses can be masked, hidden and re-directed. This software claims to be able to find the person's PC and identify the very computer itself rather than just some ID your Internet Service Provider gave you.

They make a reasonable argument but what happens if they decide that people who download certain kinds of music are inclined to be violent and start tracking your activity? Its one thing to try to protect people but once who can tag someone on the net via their IP correctly you follow them around. See what they bought on amazon that day, what websites they visited and what email provider they use.

Even worse is this statement
It's able to help investigators conduct undercover operations involving peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, chat rooms, Web sites, and mobile telephones.

What's next?

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Night Note - Construction

Construction on my apt, well fine. As long as the water doesn't go out more often and there is space to park my car, whatever. Construction work going on after 9PM? Now that is going a bit too far.

More Food

Yes, I am pleased as punch with the fact I haven't poisoned myself (yet). Baked Chicken, Rice and a small tossed salad. Cooking is time consuming but I get what I want when its done, gotta love that.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Media Control - Kinda Follow up

Not alot to say, just wanted to repost this video that was linked to in a comment. Its an hr long buts it is very interesting.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428

Monday, April 14, 2008

Side Note: Surprises

How nice it was to come home for lunch and have no electricity and low water pressure as a result *sigh*. I love my lemon tea and honey is wonderful.

Media Control

I saw a video on TV last night that really struck a cord, this guy on youtube was saying his biggest concern about the election is how much the mainstream media controls the process. The guy is spot on, I mean besides the fact that there only a few news distributors for global news (how many articles site Reuters, AFP or AP as the source of their pictures or stories?) the companies that distribute the news own the TV and Radio stations. They own the major websites and they effectively control the vast majority of what we see, hear and read.

His take was focused on the presidential race in the US and how the mass media can pretty much exclude a candidate and remove them from the race. They decide who is popular (who will generate more attention to the media) and push them. They feed off the issues and can blow anything out of proportion and focus on a negative story until a candidate looses momentum.


It goes alot further than that here is a classic example, the story by the BBC which clearly states that
temperatures have not risen globally since 1998
but here is the adjusted article that came out a few days after to replace the original. Now they both say the same thing but the adjusted one puts in a different light, and moves that statement way down near the bottom of the article. Most people will absorb the reasoning that temperatures are on the rise which is in line with all the media putting out. Its also interesting to note that the rise in global temperature in '98 was attributed to el nino. As the person that sent me that info said; that would mean weather systems have a far more adverse effect on temperature than any man made threat.

The thing is night in and night out I see more and more adverts saying that green house gases are raising the temperature but thats just what the mainstream media portrays. Why? I don't know maybe environmental lobbyists I don't really care who it is because I'm glad they are making companies operate cleaner but its being done in an almost brainwashing manner.


What is the scariest part is that the media is never accountable. Look at Barbados, 2 News Papers, 1 TV Station and 3 main Radio Broadcasters. If the Nation, CBC and 98.1 run a story it could as well be fact and if it isn't no one is held accountable. Good journalism requires sources and filters but no matter how factual the base of a story is, using a few words can completely change the context to whatever mandate an editor is given.


The sad thing is that the only solution I can see is for people to pay more attention and be more conscious of what the mainstream feeds them. If Mikey J allegedly touches another kid during a tense period of War in the Middle East and the media pays more attention to that than people dying in a War. People should be able to filter out the subterfuge and focus on whats really there. Vote on whats really there, money on whats relevant and time on what's important.

I guess we're as good as doomed then sigh.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Officially Settled In...I Think

I think it's safe to say that I've officially settled in. I've got my washday, diet, daily and weekly routines down. I know where most things are and I've bout everything I need to be comfortable. For the first time since I arrived I had to put in gas and while I believe self serve is fairly inefficient clearly it has the cost saving merit, oh if I never mentioned it all the pumps here are self serve.

I've fully launched into my exercise routine and I'm inching towards being able to keep up with the people in the video...but we will see. Oh! today I went a lil extra with my meal.



Penne Pasta with baby shrimp, stir fried vegetables and a home made Alfredo sauce. Went down pretty good :-).

From here I should be able to rant on random things...as usual :-).

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

White Rice and Shrimp

Wow, been kinda busy trying to build this web server on Solaris, if nothing else it has been educational. So many tiny mistakes you can make that will have adverse effects, I guess my luck hasn't been the best either.


What else has been taking up my time? Well I've started back exercising and I've taken an interest in my nutrition. People have always bagged on me eating cereal nearly every morning but these new health cereals really do pack a punch in terms of your daily supplement.

Of course if you are reading this, as I will be someday...someday soon, you will be wondering why I have the title as it is, and its fairly simple. Its what I cooked this Sunday gone. It was a bit annoying since the shrimp I bought was not 'de-veined' as I thought it was. Not any more annoyed however than finding out a shrimp's vein is actually a euphemism for intestine. Large or small...thats nasty. Anyway I'm positing the recipe for good measure.

So I got a free lesson in removing shrimp 'veins', small slit on the concave side from head to tail and pull out the dark vein like string.


Required:

1 Cup of Rice
6-8oz of Shrimp (precooked & deveined)
1 Tomato
1 Sweet Pepper
1 Onion
Ketchup
2 Garlic Pods
5 Tsp of Butter
Limes
Seasoning
3 cups of Patience (very important)


Rice:

Wash the rice.
Bring 1 & 1/2 - 2 Cups of water to a boil in a small/medium pot with heat on high.
Add rice, lower heat to medium and cover leaving space for steam to escape.
Monitor the rice and when craters start to form (i.e. the water is drying out and the rice is pulling together leaving air spaces) turn the heat to low and cover tight.
Leave for 10-15 mins but monitor it.
Fluff, good to go.

Gravy:

Small frying pan on medium-low heat; add 2 tsp of butter and spread it around the pan.
Toss in 1 chopped pod of garlic, 2 onion rings and sweet pepper...half the amt of onions or if ya really like sweet pepper the same amt. Stir them around but not too vigorously and when they just starting to burn add about 2 tbl spoons of ketchup.
Stir.
Add in about 1/2 cup of water and stir, at this time you can add some black pepper or seasoned salt. Keep stirring occasionally and allow the water to boil out, once it starts to get thick taste it and see if it need more ketchup, pepper or w/e it is you like. If you taste it and its good, then take it off the heat and let it cool.


Shrimp:

Completely cover the shrimp in water.
Add lime (2-3 Squeezed Limes).

2-3 tsp of butter depending on the size of the pan and this size of the pan determined by the number of shrimp you'll be doing at once.
Add 1 chopped garlic pod.
While the butter melts wash off the shrimp.
Add the shrimp into the pan.
Add Seasoned salt, black pepper etc to taste.
Fry til the shrimp look cooked (start to shrink and change colour a bit) or for about 4mins.

Add it all together and You have what I ate Sunday!

(props to Shari and to Mums)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Hungry's!



So some things are cheap in Anguilla and something aren't btw, those prices are inline with normal eating. Rice, Fish and Salad is $10-13US. Oh well.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Rice and FIsh

The water stayed off for quite some time but that issue, thankfully, is now resolved. I did however try my hand at cooking rice and baking some pre-seasoned fish. Pics below as evidence.



Friday, March 28, 2008

Camera or Cable? Do I care?

So I've moved upstairs into the new apartment and I feel alot more comfortable, it is just so much cleaner (props tot he previous tenant). So today was a fairly productive day, got some wacky calls which tested me but now that I've gotten through them I feel alot more comfortable and confident.

After moving up, I whipped out the old Olympus DigiCam and took some pics, I remember when I thought the flash was super fast, but now it feels like ages between photos. Whats more I plugged it into my PC and the PC refuses to see the mem card on it and I don't have a card reader for XD cards.

I wanted a new camera but now I'm sure I'm getting one, its just when. The issue with the PC could be the cable since it also is used for my MP3 player and that too is having probs connecting to the PC but 3.2MP, slow ass flash, no optical zoom and XD picture cards...I want a new one.

If you haven't guessed no, no new pics.

Temp Apt Pics

Link to the pics of the short stay apartment, pics of the perm one to follow later.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Ready for the final move

The other guy leaves tomorrow which means as of about 2pm tomorrow I'm on my own in Anguilla and will be changing apartments. Not very exciting but at least I'll be able to settle right in since where I will be shall be my location for the next 3 months.

I feel alot better now, the medication works quite well if not leaving me a bit light headed. I've also discovered that Vodka is obscenely cheap here so I'll try to smuggle bottles back during my stay, lol.

Hopefully I'll be able to put up some pics tomorrow.

Day 4 - Finding a Rythym

So I'm pretty much settled in for now; I'll be uprooted one more time when I move over to the other apartment but that is no big deal I should think. I've gotten my tour of the island and a tour of the office so things are a bit more familiar to me and I was planning on going over to St. Marteen today but I'll hold that off til next weekend to facilitate the move to the other apartment.

I've already found myself busy with a few things; blogging of course has come back to full force, some ideas I always wanted to flesh out and now I have some time and studying is picking back up but I'm not into the zone yet. I also want to start back with morning resistance training, maybe I'll join a job for a 2 month or maybe not. I would like to get back into running but we will see.

One thing about here though is you really appreciate the value of water. In BIM its kinda like whatever, oh I've got a leaking pipe I'll fix that in the morning. Here its like "my pipe is leaking I need to get this fixed now!". In Barbados I would have drink a glass of water and pour the rest down the drain but now I buy my drinking water so wasting a drop is out of the question. In this respect its been a bit of an eye opener.

Anyway back to work.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Hospital

Ok, I'm done being negative in any form or fashion.

So yesterday I had a dull chest pain all day, I checked the net and the typical cause was heartburn and I knew my Father had that issue alot and he always talked about it so I figured it was just my turn.

I bared with it through the day and bought some anti-acid, got home had some dinner and took that anti-acid. The only problem was I still didn't feel any better. Then I tried to go to bed, all of a sudden the dull pain is far stronger and breathing is hurting like crazy. No time for games and I went to the Hospital. Which was ok ya know the nurse was nice enough and I was the only person in the waiting room then 1 other family joined me.

The doctor was cool enough and they gave me some medication to take that night and prescription to be filled the next day, which I did this morning. I'm just glad I'm ok, and I'm here to enjoy another day.

Overall however I'm pretty bummed about my health of recent, breathing problems and the super back spasm. The flu knocked me clean off my feet, things will get better soon thought I'm sure.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Subway!

Had a crab meat sub, it was wonderful...simply wonderful. The warm toasted bread and sweet crab meat made my day.

Day 3

It dawns on me, as morning breaks, that someone up there is just having a laugh. Woke up this morning sweating, which makes no sense I'm sleeping with the ceiling fan on...wait...its off? Odd...oh well I'll just turn on the bathroom light and get my morning started *flick*...no light. Wait, no Power? Surely you jest, I'm almost afraid to wake up tomorrow.

Anyway, power came back on a little while ago, good thing I ironed my clothes last night, so I'm going to stop complaining and finish getting ready.

I can't wait to get into the supermarket later today.

Monday, March 24, 2008

No Water? (Day 2)

I woke to find the water in the house off and thought myself fortunate to have some bottles of water (of unknown age) that I could boil. What is this? I don't have any bottle gas left? How shocking, at least I can get on the Internet isn't working. I could chat on MSN but I couldn't surf, what the hell is going on? Tried to use the TBB DNS to see if that would resolve the issue, no dice now I can't get back onto Messenger.

All I've got to eat is that horrid Chinese food in the fridge and now I've got nothing to force it down my throat with.

After the stop over in Antigua, the delayed flight and the annoying child who kicked by chair from every angle up until his biscuit crumb riddled younger brother walked up to me like I was his long last father. I figured maybe, just maybe today would have been an ok day by contrast clearly someone has set out to prove me wrong.

I want to go back home.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Trip to Anguilla (Day 1)

So the Liat Flight 754 was on time, it boarded quite quickly and the flight was bearable. Lots of turbulence but the landing was pretty smooth. I even had a human being sitting next to me on the flight with whom I could conduct an intelligent conversation.

All was well until I landed in Antigua. I was supposed to get on 314 to St. Kitts and then onto Anguilla on 128 but upon arriving in Antigua the gentleman told me I had been switched to a direct flight. "GREAT!" I thought, this is just getting better; until I arrived at the in-transit desk and found that the lady seemed perplexed by me getting a direct flight to Anguilla. "Oh!" she exclaimed, as she proceeded to explain the flight to Anguilla was in the evening and I wouldn't be arriving until 7pm tonight.

At least there is free wifi and I got a voucher for some free food.