Monday is the new weekend.

Driving back from work today, I had the radio on, as I do just about every time I drive back from work. Or drive at all for that matter of fact. And as per the usual, I was listening to country music, the only music I ever listen to. I won't make this post anything on the values or pros or cons of music, country or otherwise. The Wooden Duck preserve us, what a horrendous topic to make a post about.

But while I was listening, this one song came on, by someone I don't know, singing a song I don't know, with lyrics I don't know. I do remember though a couple dozen lines going on about how hard this person worked. I think that might even have been the story in the song. It went on about how she got up early, stayed late, and collapsed in exhaustion on the weekend, how Friday night were something or other. Blah, blah, blah. It was, I am sure, a decent enough song, all country and emotional.

It got me thinking though. This isn't the first song that I have heard about the average blue-collar job, and all the romantic burdens it entails, foremost of those being a Monday to Friday shift. The general media public still has this as the staple for such jobs, but really, is that the case anymore?

I know from personal experience that bottom of the pile jobs are not typically Monday to Friday. In fact, having a shift like that is a sign of prestige and rank. Allow me to offer an example. In the yard where I work, there are four of us, the foreman, the two drivers, and myself. The schedule is made up by the foreman. The foreman never works on a weekend, unless there is a sickness or booked day off. The two drivers alternate weekends for the most part. In a four week cycle, they usually work two and half weekends. I, the lowest on the totem pole, as it were, work typically three out of four weekends, even four out of five.

Now consider other blue-collar jobs, in fast food joints, in Wal-Marts, janitors, street cleaners, etc. Most of these jobs entail working the weekend. And I will be willing to bet you that the higher-ranking employees get fewer weekends. Jobs where the pay is presumed to be better, and the work more prestigious tend to be the ones that close on the weekends. Banks are a prime example, as well as most if not all of the financial area of things. Even the trades, which can pay fairly decently, are typically off for the weekend.

The end result? If you get the weekend off regularly, you are more likely to be in a higher end job. Our culture though seems to be behind the times in this. If what I learn from country songs is any indication at least. If those that create the media wish to be more relatable to those of us further down the line, then they might want to think about this. And maybe we should start thinking of Monday as the new weekend.







Just a note though, I don't in any way mean to belittle anyone's job, whether it be a Monday to Friday one, or weekends only. I'm just observing something, and do not intend to be judgemental about anyone's station in life. There is more to life than a job anyway.

One is better than the other.

Either men are better than women, or women or better than men. That is the message that one can take from the Olympic games. They are going to be happening in my homeland in two days time, and like all good Canadians, I am down on bended knee praying that we might get at least one gold and so redeem ourselves in the eye of.....ourselves? Something like that.

I don't know, for I am not particularily enthralled with what will be going on. I'll probably watch an event or two if I am around and have the time (by around, I mean around my TV). I'm mildly interested if my nation can live up to it's cold reputation and do well in winter Olympics. Though I really have to wonder just what is so wintery, or even sporty, about bobsleding. I'm pretty sure no Canadian kid grew up with a bobsled run. But yeah, not going crazy about the Olympics.

Though it's definately been a good thing for the economy. Right?

The one thing about the Olympics that catches my eye though is the complete segregation of men and woman. I can imagine that there might be some reason to have the more...physical sports seperate. Supposedly the men are better at hockey then woman...right? I don't know, but that's what they tell me.

BUT! Surely some of the more...gravity oriented sports could be merged. I mean, really, why couldn't a woman participate in the men's ski jumping thingy? So far as I can figure out, there is no unfair advantage that either side would have. And even if you could have some vague reason for that, there is one sport that you simply cannot argue against being merged. Curling. I just can't see why men and woman couldn't play this sport together. How does the act of throwing a rock down a sheet of ice, or doing a bit of sweeping required such effort that a man could do it better than a woman? Or visa versa? It just doesn't make sense.

So clearly, the Olympics are trying to tell us that one is better than the other. Which is better? Who knows really? Just consider all the sports where the reason for segregation isn't immediately obvious (next to all of them) and if you can find the reason why, then you have your answer.

Cheers Canada.

Rest in peace math.

You know, it's funny; the next two days after I wrote that post, I spent all of work shovelling. We were graced though to have two weeks of above freezing weather right after, so the shovelling actually did something, and the yard actually got a little cleared. Crazy stuff.

I have come to realize that I learned very little in high school. Now more than two years since I graduated, I have next to no memory of math. I could maybe do a bit of the simpler algebra (I had to just recently get clarification on what algebra was exactly) but forget all that geometric stuff. Though to be fair, I think I purposely erased that information. All that triangle stuff was just....bleah!

So here I am now, blissfully unaware of imaginary numbers. They apparently exist, according a friend versed in such things, but I don't believe it. If they were real, then all the other things I imagine should be real too. And if there were true, I wouldn't be in this apartment typing a blog post. Me and my imaginary (and real) friends would be enjoying some extremely expensive entertainment and refreshments.

Maybe I should have learnt all that math though. Then maybe all my imaginary stuff would come true. Now there's a thought. I always wondered what those mathematicians saw. Perhaps that way lies the moon bagels.

And yet, I don't think I'll lose any sleep over it. Just a brief glance at my friends simply math stuff is more than enough to blow my mind. And as I enjoy an un-blow-up mind, I'll stick to where I am.

I think I am psychic.

So today I hung out with a friend for the last time before he goes back to college. With his holidays over, the final, final vestiges of Christmas have been swept away. No more carols (I have mixed feelings about this), all my Lego I got for Christmas is built (except for the set that I already own and have no desire to build a second one, not at this point anyway), the parent's house's decorations are down (I never put any up at my apartment, since I spend all my free holiday time at the parents), and the world has become cold and miserable.

All my co-workers are back at work, and even though business is still slow, things are back to normal, which means, I have will probably have to shovel snow. Sigh.

It is very interesting to note though, that in the two weeks or so in and around Christmas, I didn't have to do much snow shovelling, and I was pretty much the only guy working the yard that time (in other words, the only one in the entire store who would shovel). Being alone isn't really that bad, since business is slower than Canadian mail. It also gives me more opportunities to not shovel.

Which in all honesty, I hate. But even more so than shovelling, I hate the thing that must be done along with it, ploughing. See, in the lumber yard that I work at, whenever it snows, all the lifts of wood have to be shovelled off, and all the snow pushed at least two feet away from all the lifts. This amounts to a huge amount of shovelling, but said shovelling can only be done if the snow will be removed fairly soon after. If it isn't, then it gets in the way of customers, gets packed down and causes huge ruts, etc. So if any shovelling is to be done, ploughing must soon follow.

As I said, I hate, hate ploughing. The reason being is that all we have for a plough is a poorly designed scoop mounted on the front of a forklift. Dumb! Forklifts have completely bald tires, completely open cabs, are not designed at all for pushing, and get stuck so, so easily. What is more, if you are ploughing, a slow and mind numbing job, you are liable to get really, really, really cold. With the cab open to the oh-so lovely winter elements, and with your body just sitting there, you get cold. At least when shovelling you stay mostly warm. Every time I can, I let one of the other co-workers plough while I shovel. I'd rather stay warm and active, and get a free workout in. And boy what a workout! It takes two of us two days to get the yard clear, assuming we have a relatively uninterrupted day.

So, like I said, I managed to avoid this over the Christmasish holiday time. The main reason of course being that we haven't had any major snow dumps since before the 20th. But we have still had a couple small ones, and even if there is only an inch or two fallen, we have to shovel it up. However, at the start of the holidays, Christmas Eve, I am alone for the first time and do a bit of ploughing, on a remarkably warm day, and since we closed early, not much time was spent doing it. Come Boxing Day, I get back on the plough, and work away for an hour or so. Whilst doing so, I am thinking to myself how miserable the next week is going to be by myself, with nothing to do but shovel and plough. Well not long after, as I am dumping a load, I see that a bracket that holds a wheel that feeds a hydraulic pipe is bent under the forks. This being way beyond my mechanical expertise, I bring the forklift inside and leave it alone until it can be looked at next week. By the time it is fixed, four days have passed!

So we have the forklift running for a day, do a bit of snow removal, but nothing major. The next day, New Year's Eve, my last day of work before my three day holiday, I get up out of bed, see how really cold it is outside, and get real depressed at the thought of all the ploughing that needs to be done at work. I go to work and sure enough, first thing I am on the plough. As I am ploughing, I think to myself how much I wish the forklift would break again so I wouldn't have to freeze my fingers off using it.

Wonder of wonders, not half an hour later, it just suddenly stops working. I thought it ran out of propane, but even with a new canister, it still won't go. So we haul it inside and send it away to be fixed. Yay! It only got back the other day and I have yet to plough or shovel snow this month. Here's hoping for more shovel free days.

The lesson to be drawn from all of this? Clearly, I am psychic.

Done, finally.

Well, after a long and bitter haul, the time has finally come that I can bid goodbye to......building my Classic Castle Contest entry!







All three items are part of my entry into the training a knight category.

The story behind it is thus.

In the land of Bethel, young men selected to become knights under go a three stage training regime. Stage one is preparation, where as a page they are taught to overcome basic fears, like heights, heights over sharp rocks on a swaying bridge.

Stage two is selection. When a page reaches a certain point in his training, he is selected by one of the three Houses of Knights to become a squire to.

Stage three is education. The squire is then training in more complex parts of a knight's duties, such as diplomacy.

I am so, so glad to finally be done this entry. It took over a month to build, and I had some serious builder's block inbetween. Then there was taking the pictures. I hate taking pictures, it's just something that I do not care to do....plus my battery died a third of the way through....it was not pleasent. Never the less, it is done and submitted, and with a whole two days left (as of the time I submitted it).

Brickshelf should be shelved.

So if anyone noticed, most of the links in the last post are broken. That is because the website that hosts them, Brickshelf is down, and has been down for a few days now. The general conscensious of the population is that it's down for repairs. This can neither be confirmed nor denined, as the guy who runs it, Kevin somethingorother has, as per usual, made no annoucement at all as to the reason behind it. This is Kevin's usual method when Brickshelf gones down. No forwarning, and no explaination.

I can't really fault him though. The site is completely free, with absolutely no fees or requirements from the users. Still, considering that people are willing to use the site over others, it would be nice if he would have the courtesy to make a quick note as to the reasons behind the offlines.

This aside, my main point is that I think Brickshelf should be completely redone, or else shelved for the time being. While it does provide a very needed service to the online Lego community, it is outdated, and slow, and awkward. Apart from the unschedualed, and unexplained, and somewhat regular breakdowns, the largest reason people don't use is that there is no comment feature on it.

I'm not completely sold that that option needs to be there. It would allow for many creations that are not posted elsewhere to recieve some feedback, but at the same time, distract the point of the site, which is to provide a spot to host pictures, nothing more. Brickshelf is not intended to be a table, around which people hang out, but merely a shelf, on which to store items. (Hence the "shelf" in Brickshelf)

The problems I would like to see fixed, apart from the downtime, are a) The uploading procedure. At the moment, all you can do is either upload each picture individually, or upload a zip file with all of them on, and both ways are rather slow and ponderous. b) Update the whole layout of the site. It looks far too much like those homemade sites from way back when the internet was new, very ugly. c) While I understand the ads on the site are necessary to keep it running, I would like to see a better management of them, to put them in a more, out of the way corner of the site, as it were. d) A better manner of sorting the pics, and a better search engine.

Where I would like to see the whole site go would be to a split version. On the one side you have a site much like flickr, with commenting, updated look, etc. On the other side, you have a site with absolutely nothing but the ability to upload pics. It would be even more basic than it is now.

Let us hope that the Brickshelf guy does at some point do something with his site. The absolute worse thing he could do would be to leave it exactly as it is.

MCC Winners!

-Copied from a Microbricks.-

Well I finally got around to judging the Mini Castle Contest. The entries, some of which have already been shown here were just incredible.

Okay, so here is the list of winners.

In the Miniature Set category, the two runner-ups were:

Nanuck95 with his version of 6073 - Knights Castle.



Griffon with his version of 6080 - King's Castle.



And the winner of the category was Bartosza6m with his version of 6081 - King's Mountain Fortress.



For the main category, the runner-ups were:

Marcosbessa with his Running up that Hill:



Wunztwice with his Micro Lego Castle:



Mahj with his Temple:



Third place went to TooMuchCaffeine with his Kingdom in a Box:



Second place went to Darkspawn with his Firbolg Keep:



And First place went to Weasel47 with his Castle on the Lake:



Once again the contest was a sound success with many great entries. There were also many other great MOCs entered, be sure to check them out at the contest page. I look forward to next years.

One man's crutch is another man's cane.

I find canes an incredibly cool thing. That is why I bought a wooden one at a garage sale, and made another out a branch (it was going to be burned!). Every now and again the fit will take me and I will walk around the house with one of them. I haven't yet had the courage/lunacy to go outside with them.....yet.

Though, when you consider that I have had this current cane spout for several days now, it might well escalate into a trip outside.

Why canes you won't ask? Well, it's just a strangely cool way to walk. And I have been watching several discs of House episodes back to back. Nothing puts one in a more caney mood than that.

However! I did always like canes even before I knew of the tv show. Call it my older brother, who loves canes, suits, and pipes, rubbing off on me. But hey, I was young and foolish, and since he was my older brother, he obviously knew what was cool. And if he thought canes were cool, then who be I to disagree? Especially if disagreeing was dangerous for my health.

One of the reasons my current cane binge has gone for as long as it has is that it helps drain some of the tension my neighbours give me. I can relax a bit when they are playing their ----- tv too loud by thinking of myself as a grumpy cripple who has no problem telling them a piece of his mind if it gets too much. That the theory anyway, or least, I think it is. Either way, canes are a cool thing.

License to Post.

After a period of uploading, uploading, and more uploading, I finally got my video from BrickCon up and running on youtube. It is really weird being a member of youtube. Not that I am actually going to do anything with my account. It was solely created so as to make public this video.

Seb at BrickCon

So here we have Sebastian Arts, from the Netherlands, Aliencat as he is known online, doing some advertising for the castle layout at BrickCon 2009.

Enjoy.

I gotta say, if a moon bagel was anywhere at the con, this might have the most likely.

I was framed!

So in that last post, I totally forgot to mention one of the most interesting events that happened to me at BrickCon. And I am not referring to the free Spongebob SquarePants Lego set I got, which, by the by, I shouldn't complain about, for Steve Witt would probably repeat himself and say, "I'm sorry your free stuff isn't perfect."

Anyway, I figured I might as well address an entire post to this topic. So on Saturday night at BrickCon, they had the blind build, where 20 people try and build a small set without being able to see it. I had my name down for it and was one of the ones selected. It was a cool thing to be in, with my adrenaline level rising every minute. We had half an hour to finish in, and for some unbelievable cool reason, I finished first, by a good 20 seconds too!!!

Unfortunately, I didn't win. Why you may ask? Because the next closest person had fewer errors than I did. For every misplaced piece you received a 10 second penalty, or something to that effect. This includes coloured pieces as well. So basically, the reason I didn't win was because I couldn't tell by feel if a piece was red or orange.

It makes perfect sense really. Why, all of the great builders can tell the moment they touch a piece what colour it is. I simply haven't master the craft enough to tell.

*Insert calming breaths*

Whatever, it's water under the bridge I guess. I'm not that sore of loser to complain on and on about not winning.

Still!

I do know that if I ever hosted a contest like that, I wouldn't make misplaced colours a time penalty. To me, doing that means that the outcome of the contest is determined as much by luck as by skill, which makes the whole point moot if you ask me. Why not just have the contestants randomly put pieces together, and whoever happens to come closest to the real thing win? Or why not just draw lots? If there was a tie, I could understand using the colours as a tiebreaker, but nothing more.

Sigh, perhaps I am a sore loser. But with as much right to be sore as any loser had. Oh well, such is life.

Thursday after BrickCon, (close enough)

So I guess I have no excuse not to post, now that BrickCon is over.

*Sob* BrickCon is over! (Insert many a tear here)

My flickr link to the pictures I took. Linky The pictures, especially of the people, are more than iffy, as to why, I can only speculate. My camera is just one of those relatively inexpensive credit card ones. For whatever reason it will only take stable pics on a tripod, regardless of what the iso is set at. It's weird. It does its job of taking pics of Lego well enough, but try and use it for it designed function and it sucks. Maybe next year I should borrow a higher end camera from a relative.

I did take a fair bit of video, which I am in the process of uploading, and provided I can figure out both youtube and how to rearrange my video, it will be posted online.

The pics save me any necessity of talking about the creations there. I will say though, that just like last year, I am inspired to build better and bigger again. Though I more than quadrupled my displayed area at BrickCon, as compared with last year, I still was a tiny contributor, when compared with some.

Socializing was way different than last year. I actually knew a few people beforehand, had a couple of planned events where I knew I could hang around, (CC supper, driving to the Lego store, picking up Beckie at the airport) plus, I shared a room with four other attendees. Two of whom, Aliencat from CC and his wife, I hung out with for a great portion of the Con. I must say, beforehand, I had more than a few misgivings about sharing a room, with other people period, much less a strange couple from Holland that I had never met, or for that matter, I don't think anyone had ever met in person. Yet, it was an unbelievable blast hanging with them. Also met a few more castle people who I hung out with, some of them quite frequently. I imagine the fact that I had already been to a Con helped out immensely with the hanging out aspects.

Spent a ton of money at the Lego store, both my own and the family's. Gonna be building sets for awhile. The drive up and down was pretty much a copy of last year's. Got varying amounts of sleep...stayed up later than I should have often as not, but I think I was more rested over all than last year. Maybe it's just because I didn't have the stress from driving in Seattle that I had last year. This time I knew which way was North just about all the time, and found the parking stall for the Con on the first try, and didn't have to loop around any. I also made my way to the airport, and back, hazard free. Much better than last time. I also wasn't as disoriented coming over the mountains. My sense of the north, and the compass's usually agreed with each other. And coming back to Kamloops on Sunday night, there was very bright moon that gave me a general idea of what kind of country I was traversing at the time.

Sigh, I can't believe it's over, and I really, really, really wish it wasn't. The wish made all the greater because when I went back to work, it was snowing. And it was snowing today, and I expect it to be snowing tomorrow. There was also a horribly cold wind, and just general suck. Winter has arrived, with no Autumn at all. Two weeks ago, we were breaking heat records left, right and centre. In Seattle it was nice weather, mostly sunny, and you usually didn't need a coat. I come back, everything looks fine. I wake up for work, and it's snowing and freezing my fingers off.

Sigh.

Oh well, that's the way it goes I guess.

Makes next year all that more anticipated.

Huh? Are we still on?

It's been awhile, but my excuse is good. I've been building for BrickCon. It's pretty sweet stuff too, if I do say so myself. And I will probably not post again until sometime well after BrickCon. Maybe I should think about writing shorter posts. Anyway, it is really amazing how much I have been in the building groove. I spent just about most of yesterday building and I was so into it that I spent the entire night in a fitfull, half awake state, dreaming I was building still.

Perhaps not the greatest, but it attests to my building binge.

On a side note, check out the Forbidden Cove's roleplay/progressive story. I'm a small contributer and have my character and the lead character falling in love. It's pretty sweet.

Poorly planned.....perhaps.

Okay, so I hardly post on my Blog at all excuses being both reasonable and not. Now I make a quick reappearance, only so I can inform people that I am likely not going to be posting anytime soon.

Long story short, my apartment is finally all back together, AND! I have unpacked everything and gotten my Lego set up and ready to be built with!!!

So there you go, as reasonable of an excuse as you are likely to get. I will be building to BrickCon, and will not have time to write stuff here. There you go, perfectly legal excuse to vanish and not feel guilty.




I feel guilty.


On a side note, the landlord was quite good in getting everything repaired and eating the bill (probably close to a grand, all told). He came over the other night, to make sure it was all up and running, and asked if I would be willing to pay anything. He said it was up to me, that I didn't have to, but that it wasn't his fault, and it was a lot of cash. I thought about it, and decided that in the end, I would give him a bit of money. Not much, nothing to dent any plans of mine. But something. I feel it was a worthy cause. I had no obligation, but I think that it was money well placed. And I did my bit of charity for the year.

It seems fated.

Well, just when the bones tournament was over, I was almost finished unpacking, life was getting back into a routine, and I was about ready to start building for BrickCon. And then the washing machine broke and flooded water all over my apartment. And now my floor is torn up, my possessions stacked haphazardly in a corner, and I am spending the nights at my parents. I guess it has just been fated that I will not get any sort of head start on building. If I am lucky, mid to late next week I will be able to start, though knowing me, I suspect it might not be until the beginning of September. Which is all right I guess, I mean, that’s when I started last year. However, last year I only built one 32 stud by 64 stud creation. This time I am building way more. I actually have some ideas this year, and it's really, really, REALLY annoying that I can't get at it, since I actually have the urge to build.

And the urge to build doesn't come all that often to me. I need to capitalize on it when it comes. But I can't! All because of that (insert words not commonly spoken in polite society) washing machine. If only I had gotten up off the couch earlier.......oh well.

So yeah, this is another reason why blog posts will be, and have been, in short supply. I spent the first night after the flood at my place, but it was a lousy, very lousy night. Between just thinking about it, and the fan that the guys had put in to dry it out, and everything, well, I was a zombie at work. Last night and tonight I spent at my parents, because I just couldn’t stand staying at my place, and I needed a real rest. Of course this means a 40 minute commute to work. And my truck is almost ready for its oil change, and all this extra traveling is going to make it happen sooner. And I am going to get a guy to show me how to actually change it, but if it were closer to BrickCon, so that when I make the trip, the truck is in peak condition, it would be better. Which reminds me, I have to get the guys at the shop to fix my steering wheel, which always goes a bit to the right, I think. It’s funny though, on the way back home tonight, it was windy enough that it almost balanced out the problem. Okay, end ramble.


Now, I must go and pace frantically until the floor is repaired.

Is it too late?

It would appear that I haven't posted in this here blog for awhile. Evidently. Yeah.

IN my defense, things happened. For one, my phone company is the biggest waste of space ever to haunt this galaxy. I was without the net for something like a week or two. Then there was the bunnock tournament, and I am still unpacking (let us hope I finish in time for my sister's arrival), hmmm, and there must be some other excuse for my silence.

I guess this is just proof that once one gets out of the habit of doing something, it can be hard to get back into. Which is strange since you would think habits are the easiest thing in the world to return to. I guess writing this blog isn't a habit, so much as something I have to force myself to do on a basis of dubious regularity. Yeah, if this was a habit, I don't think it would have been a month between posts. Still, with this post, let us hope that the dubiousness of the regularity goes down somewhat.

So, with all the excuses out of the way, lets figure out what to make this post about.

Hmmmm.


Um.





Yeah.


There's this I guess: Lego Star Trek funny movie that I got randomly linked.

Uh.





Yeah.

Well I guess one brother did want to know some stuff as what’s happening at the new place, with the move and all. I dunno, not much to say. I really hate talking about my place, partly because that’s all I seem to end up talking about, and partly because I really don't like the place. So for any relatives, they can wait until we meet in person to talk. To any non-relations, I guess you'll just be in the dark. Sorry.

I will say this though. My Lego room, is almost ready. All the furniture is set up, and most of the containers have been given their places. I can't wait until I can build again, I have been most eager (well some eager anyway) and with Brickcon approaching far too quickly, I really, really need to get building. I have nothing built, and little over a month to build it.

Crap! I need to go and get at it.

Expect a real post some other time.