Blast From The Past

Today was an interesting day. First Adrienne (old friend from elementary) texted me to ask me what I was up to for the weekend (I gave her my number earlier in the weekend when she dropped by my work). I told her I was working the weekend, but was off today. So we decided to hang out tonight. In the meantime, Brian (guy I dated back in University) messaged me on Facebook and mentioned he bought a house and that I should come see it. That it would be "fun". Last I heard he had a boyfriend, but I checked his Facebook status and there was no mention of a relationship, so I guess that is over. And we were texting today and he was telling me he was horny. Now I haven't gotten any action in a while, so it is tempting. At the same time, I don't really trust Brian. Anyhow, so after chatting with him on Facebook I went to Starbucks with Adrienne (the one at Hurontario & Harborn) and we hung out there for a few hours. We talked about all sorts of things: people from Kenollie, politics, food, etc. I think we'll hang out again soon and go for food. I'm in the mood for going to Thai or Indian sometime soon. Maybe try out some of the places she mentioned. She also loves Cora's. God I love Cora's! Anyhow so it was good to reconnect with an old friend. She doesn't really talk to other people from Kenollie; nor do I. I guess that's expected when it was such a small school, yet Mississauga is so big. Though I guess you never know!

New Photoblog!

I have just started a lame photoblog. The URL is http://dansmoblog.blogspot.com/ i.e. Dan's Moblog. As you all know, a 'moblog' is a mobile blog. So I'll mostly be posting pictures from my phone on there. Granted, there's not too much of interest there so far. Mostly pictures of myself, food I've eaten, stuff I own, etc. But perhaps in the future it will be more interesting. Just something to keep in mind. This will always be my original blog though :-)

Five What The Frak? Moments From The BSG Finale

Listed in no particular order:

1. Adama barfing on himself--WTF?

2. Tyrol breaking Tori's neck after learning what she did to Cally--WTF?

3. Doral going bat-shit crazy and starts shooting in the CIC--WTF?

4. Cavil swallows a bullet when he realizes everything is going to shit--WTF?

5. Starbuck disappears after saying goodbye to Lee Adama--WTF?

My First Mobile Post!

Not exactly groundbreaking. But now I'll be able to post from my phone whenever. Right now I'm at home, but that's beside the point :-)

Random Thoughts on the BSG Finale

So Battlestar Galactica has come to an end. It's hard to believe it's over. I started watching back when it first aired on CityTV many years ago.

I was upset that Boomer died. I had hoped that she and Chief Tyrol would end up together in the end. I was also upset that Chief reacted so violently to Tori's betrayal. He ruined their chance at creating a lasting peace with Cavil and the enemy Cylons. As soon as Tori was dead, Cavil knew they would never get resurrection again, which I understand is why he shot himself, but I still thought he would have put up more of a fight. Even still, there weren't even any enemy baseships in the area where the Colony was. So there's more Cavils, Simons and Dorals running around.

I am left wondering what happened to D'Anna though. I know they left her on Earth, and some believe she died there. I guess the question is, how long can a Cylon live without food? I didn't like her just staying on that Earth to die. The Rebel baseship could easily have jumped back to Earth to pick her up and bring her to our Earth.

And Starbuck. What the frak? She just disappears. Some have called her a Gandalf figure. I guess. But that doesn't make her "destiny" any more satisfying to me. I like more answers. Especially with regard to the Head People. They're doing God's will are they? Okay, we knew this from the miniseries. They haven't really answered anything!

Adama & Roslin's ending I liked. It was touching. Six and Baltar ending up together again made me happy as well. Ellen and Tigh ended up together as they should have as well.

But I always thought Lee and Starbuck should end up together. It's been hinted at the whole series long. And the flashback showed they almost slept together with Zak in the same room, which is kinda weird. Maybe if Starbuck hadn't disappeared they would have. Or more accurately, if she hadn't died in the first place. And why on Earth she was so gung-ho about getting herself killed I don't understand. It's not like leading them to the 13th Colony Earth helped them at all.

I'm sad that Anders never woke up. Although it was touching when he told Kara he'd see her on the other side.

The part with Laura sleeping with a former student didn't do anything for me. Nor did Adama's scene getting interrogated for a desk job. Although I guess both decisions led to them being on the Battlestar Galactica when the Twelve Colonies were attacked (Laura joining Adar's team and eventually becoming Secretary of Education; Adama remaining on board Galactica rather than taking a desk job).

Lee wanting to go and climb mountains was good. It was better than angsty Lee that's for sure. I feel bad for Dee for killing herself when they found Earth though. If only she'd waited a little bit longer, she would have found happiness on Our Earth with Lee.

I really wish they'd shown more of Leoben. It was interesting to see trigger-happy Doral. I'm glad Boomer made the right decision in the end. Though I was surprised to see Helo survive his gunshot wounds. I thought he was a total goner. But I guess we had to have happy Athen and Helo and Hera family. And Athena is just as crazy as Boomer, if not crazier. She killed Natalie just for saying hi to Hera. She killed Boomer for a little more reason, but it was still wrong.

And I was really happy that Baltar did something selfless for once. I loved his line to Paula something like "they're yours now Paula. Enjoy!" LOL. It made Caprica Six love him again and feel proud of him. Though it makes the whole Caprica-Tigh plotline kinda dumb.

Tori got what was coming to her though. She was a real bitch since she found out she was a Cylong. Tyrol is alone now though. Really sucks to have lost Boomer once, then Cally, then Boomer again. Boomer was really sad. Her projections especially. I wonder if Tyrol knew what she did for them in the end. I also liked Boomer's flashback. And how she told Adama she would make it up to him someday, when it really mattered, and she did. And I just hope Athena or Starbuck or Helo told him that Boomer was heroic in the end.

Only thing that would have made the last Starbuck/Adama moment better for me would have been if it had bene raining. It didn't seem right for it to be in a sunny sky. I know it's not supposed to be literal rain, but I still would have liked it better.

Outrage Over AIG Bonuses Justified

My understanding of "bonuses" is that they are for a job well done. The problem is, AIG as a company would have failed if not for the federal bailout money. So why are its employees being rewarded for this with bonuses ranging from 1 to 4 million dollars? It's outrageous and incomprehensible. I'm glad Obama has decided to fight these bonuses any way they can. I just hope they're successful in getting that money back. I can only imagine the smug satisfaction of the AIG employees for getting the government to bail them out and basically pay them for ruining the company. The government should take back all that money and just let the company fail for all I care. Blatant disregard for the public like that just sickens me.

On the other hand, it's a good wake-up call to Washington to be wary of these federal bailouts and to place conditions on them so that it own't happen again. Any company that gets help from the government should have the salaries of their top executives capped in my opinion. If you need help from the federal government, then clearly you haven't done your job well, and your salary should suffer. It's not like these people are going to be living in abject poverty if they don't get their $1 million+ bonuses this year.

I'm Not a Good Person

So I spent some time with Kyle at Tim Hortons tonight. We talked about the usual stuff. He talked about Eric. He brought up the time when Mike came over to their place when Ken was having his Party Party back in summer 2007. Kyle didn't know that I knew about it, but Ken had told me later that year. Of course I had been shocked, as I hadn't known Mike came, but Ken and Kyle kept Mike out and away from me. I assumed Mike was just there to cause trouble, but Kyle thinks that meant that Mike still had feelings for me at the time. Apparently even their mom thought so. It's small comfort, almost two years later. After all, Mike never contacted me again after that, nor did he ever reply to my emails where I wished him the best of luck with his new boyfriend, and one time I could have sworn I saw him at Crews, and he gave me a dirty look. So whatever feelings he may have had for me back then, they're long gone now. That said, I harbour no hard feelings toward him. Yes I was hurt by all of what happened. And I've accepted that it was mostly my fault. I was, after all, the disloyal one, not him. I was the one that cheated on him. I'm not a good person. I screwed up my relationship with Mike. I also screwed up my relationship with Brian. If I keep sabotaging relationships, I'll end up with no one. So it's probably good that I'm with no one right now. If I was, I'd probably end up hurting them. One way or another. After all, cheating wasn't my only flaw. I know I can be a bit of prick. Asshole. Snob. Arrogant. Lovely words I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bad person. I don't smoke or do drugs. I can be nice to people. I can be friendly. But whoever I'm with will have to recognize that I do have those flaws, and be mindful not to take them too personally. And also be straightforward with me if I'm treating them like crap. Because sometimes I do it without even realizing it. We're all flawed creatures. I guess we just have to deal with each others' flaws. I know I need to be more accepting of other people. And I have to try harder to be a better person. Kind of like I always would say I would try to do after going to Confession, back when I went to Confession. I really do miss being with a person, even knowing that there's the very real possibility of getting hurt, just as there's the real possibility of really caring for that person. I can live with that.

Paid off My Car!

So today I officially made the balance on my credit line = $0, which means I've finally paid off my car (2002 Acura RSX) which I bought in the middle of July 2008. It's such a weight off my shoulders that I can finally start saving money again. Put my high interest savings account to good use. I love pay days. They're also pay bills and do finances days, but I love dealing with income and expeditures, so it's awesome. I just wish my car insurance wasn't so high ($210 a month)--darn State Farm Insurance. My brother has a new car and he pays slightly less than me! And my $210 a month includes our family's multi-car discount--4 cars! My mom's BMW, my dad's VW, my sister's car and mine. My brother is with a different company, otherwise it'd be 5. Now you may squawk about my family's carbon footprint, but I don't drive that much, to work and back 5 days a week (approx 7-8 km each way) and to Ken's house once or twice a week (2 km each way). So it's not that much really. I'm a green person! ^_^

So Long Dystopium.net, Hello Dystopium.com

So I got an email last month from Yahoo informing me that it was renewal time for danperz.com (one of two of my domains) and it came to my attention that the renewal price was $34.95 (USD). My other domain, dystopium.net comes up for renewal later in the year, but it would also be subject to the new, higher fee. So in total that'd be $70 for my two domains for one year. That's just too much money in my opinion, especially when the original price I paid was $10/year each. Yahoo raised their prices threefold (300%). Unacceptable.

On a related note, I got an email at my Yahoo account where I have my domains that dystopium.com had recently been released and blah blah if I was interested in purchasing it--that was from some automated company. I can't find that email right now though. So I remember checking online to see if it was available, and it wasn't yet or something. Anyway, on January 29 I got an email from shawnwilson50@googlemail.com that read as follows: "Hi, I wondered if you would be interested in buying the .COM version of your domain name dystopium.net for $195 ? Let me know. Shawn." I kindly replied that, no, that's a ripoff (I'm paraphrasing here).

To make a boring story longer, today I initiated the transfer of danperz.com from Yahoo to GoDaddy, and also took the opportunity to register dystopium.com, which I noticed was free to purchase. So I saved $185 by not helping out that cybersquatter. Not that he was squatting really. When i originally decided to get dystopium as a domain, I wanted the .com, but it was unavailable, which is why I had .net all these years. But now I can cast that off finally.

Really it goes to show how much the .com bubble burst all those years ago. Gone are the days that you could buy a .com and expect people to buy it off you for a profit. And now there's this new recession/depression. And I'm sure that helped.

Point is, to emphasize the change, I've added .com to the title of my blog. And can now say I'm the proud owner of dystopium.com. If anyone wants dystopium.net, go ahead. I cancelled my Yahoo plan for that one :)