Author: gfox (old content)

Barber Chances

I found a decent barber that I go to that is near work. He does a good job, has a decent price, and is close to work. He has a helper that doesn’t do a very good job though. In fact, I’ve been to the helper three times now, and all three times I’ve felt like he butchered my hair.

This place doesn’t take appointments, and is first come first served by whichever barber is free. I try to go on days when the helper isn’t there, but that isn’t always successful.

Yesterday, there was a bigger problem I faced when I showed up in desperate need of a haircut. The barber shop moved recently, and the barber I like wasn’t there when I walked in. The helper I didn’t like, and some other helper I’ve never seen before were working.

I couldn’t just turn around and walk out. I didn’t want to take a chance on the new person, and I hoped the regular helper wouldn’t butcher my hair. I sat and waited my turn, and ended up with the helper I don’t like.

While I was getting trimmed I learned that the shop owner was on vacation, and I also learned the shop is way busier in their new location. This means there will be a greater chance of a helper working there whenever I go to get a haircut.

The question is what do I do? Take my chances each time I get a haircut? Should I ask the shop owner when the best time to go and get him would be? Should I try to find a new place to get a haircut? A place that takes appointments?

I know, maybe I should be like Sox and only get my hair cut twice a year!

Truck Character

A friend is staying with us for a few days while she is in town for a wedding. I haven’t needed the truck, so our friend has been using instead of renting something.

Well, the other day she was in Oak Bay, and someone opened their door and scratched and dented the truck. When I first heard I thought it was a joke, but then I checked it out. My initial reaction was that of anger and disappointment, but then I started thinking about it.

My truck is a 98. It already has a few small dents, lots of scratches, and certainly isn’t a new truck. I convinced myself to let it go. Sox called the people who left the note and told them not to worry about it. I love my truck, but it is time to accept that it isn’t new, and that I can’t baby it (not that I do that anyway). Anyway, I am not interested in making someone else pay for a paint job. Getting one quarter panel painted would make the rest of the truck look funny. I don’t want to screw up their insurance either.

Any way. The truck has a new dent and a new scratch. More character I guess.

Cleaner Rocks

Last weekend I was out at PetSmart getting a few supplies for around the house, and I decided to get another fish. I only had one Cory left, and I wanted another cleaner fish so I looked through their stock a bit before I found what I was looking for.

I chose an Otocinclus. This fish attaches itself to the side of the tank and eats the algae. Occasionally it swims around to another location, but most of its time is attached to the tank.

I also cleaned the tank this week. After moving one of the decorations, I caught a glimpse of a teeny, tiny crayfish. It is still alive. Cool. Hopefully it makes it. Right now the crayfish is about a centimetre long and dark like the rocks in the tank. When it doesn’t move, you can’t tell it is a living creature.

Brizzly Inline

A long time ago I discovered TweetLens on Boris Mann’s site. I was looking for a web based Twitter client that allowed me to synchronize my reading between computers. Tweetlens offered this and was pretty slick.

Tweetlens has a long list of features that I love, but recently something happened on the site, and I started having problems logging in and getting content. It was unavailable for a while, and when I could login, it seemed a lot slower for some reason. The creator of TweetLens has also moved on to other projects and put the source code up on GitHub. I took a peak at the code, but it didn’t think it was in a state where I could figure out how to install it on my own domain.

I started to look for something new.

I quickly discovered Brizzly on TechCrunch. I’ve been using Brizzly for Twitter reading for about a week now, and although I miss a couple features from Tweetlens, I don’t think I will be going back.

First off, @Brizzly just looks a lot nicer and more polished. I may not be able to mark items as read, but the site tells me when there are more tweets to download, then after I retrieve them they are highlighted in yellow.

Brizzly allows me to quickly and easily switch between multiple accounts.

I can create groups of tweeps. Handy for getting common topics together. What I also discovered is that you can add people you don’t follow to a group. There are some people I like checking in on once in a while, but they tweet too much to follow them. I have a group for people just like this.

When scrolling down through the tweet list, they have a never ending scroll feature that is just awesome. When you reach the end, the page requests the next set of tweets and displays them inline. I don’t have to click a link to refresh the list.

Their DM’s are more like IM’s which is cool too. Url’s are auto expanded for you, twit pics and youtube video’s are displayed inline, you can save draft tweets, you can mute people, and more. Read their help page for a better list of features. Also, Brizzly uses OAuth for authentication, so you never have to give them your password.

Downside is that they are still in Beta, and you need an invitation code. Mine arrived a couple days after requesting it. They also seem receptive to suggestions and bug reports which is nice.

Overall my switch to Brizzly has been a good one.

Deadbolt Brilliant

When we moved last, one of the things we did after moving in was get a locksmith in to change all the locks. The main reason I wanted this done was I wanted a keyless deadbolt.

We picked out the Schlage Plymouth model in the satin nickel finish.

This thing is simply brilliant.

No worrying about locking ourselves out of the house, or getting locked out by the kids. When walking down for swimming lessons or to get groceries, there is one less thing to carry. No need to copy keys for guests, dog walker, house cleaners, family members, neighbours, etc. Simply program in a new code. When Sox goes for a run, or takes Yoshi for a walk, she can just go and I don’t need to leave a door unlocked for her.

It is easy to use, and the keys light up so you can see in the dark. The only fault I know of is that they key is hard to use in the deadbolt (you have to get a couple things lined up properly).

I love it and highly recommend it to anyone. I just noticed that Schlage even has their own twitter account.

Daredevil Dude

This past Saturday I had a movie night at home. Sox was having a sleepout in the back yard with Sprout so I had the house to myself (mostly)

I broke out a DVD that I got for myself at Xmas. The movie was Daredevil.

I hadn’t held out any hope for the movie and was actually expecting it to be pretty lame. Shockingly I enjoyed it. I don’t know the comic storyline, but the movie plot was pretty good. They introduced the characters well enough for me to get who they were and what they did.

Ben Affleck actually did a good job in this role. I don’t see him as an action movie star, so I was anticipating a train wreck. Jennifer Garner played Elektra well, though the character didn’t get enough screen time. Colin Farrell played Bullseye really well. A very psychotic dude with lots of little idiosynchracies.

I was time well spent.