I haven't been writing as much the past month or two, most likely because nothing exciting has been happening. So here are some updates probably worth mentioning:

Back Yard Adventures

Billie and I have been slowly working on our new back yard to make it a little more presentable. This weekend we finished staining the old and weathered patio and patio furniture. It started out kinda fun but turned into a monotonous job by the end. I got sunburned which was NOT FUN. We also finally cut the grass for the first time this summer (it was overdue) and gave it some much needed fertilizer. Our new satellite dish is mounted on a tripod at the end of our yard, and the tripod is just sitting on a few cinder blocks. It looks incredibly hick-ish and stupid, but we're planning on making it prettier.

Kitty Kwest 2009

We've been getting visted by a local stray cat every day for the past month or so. Her ear tips look frozen off, so unless she has REALLY AWFUL owners, we're confident she is definitely a stray. Billie thinks she has kittens, so we've been leaving out little bowls of cat food. Now we're worried that when the summer's over, she'll have to survive the harsh winter again. So if you or anyone in the Edmonton area wants a really cute and friendly kitty, let me know???

TOP SECRET

I recently started somewhat of a secret web project. I haven't been working on it very long, but I am pretty excited for it and I think it will be fairly impressive when it's done. That's just about all I want to say about it right now. I have the domain bought and everything!!!

Look out world here I come.

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This is a story about how I often take the more complicated route when trying to achieve an otherwise simple goal.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about an authentic retro 80s boombox that I got from my grandparents' basement. I thought it would be fun to record a bunch of albums onto cassette just for the novelty of it, so the first thing I did was look at what kind of audio input plugs it had. I found out that the only kind it supported was this weird thing called DIN which basically looked like a larger S-Video plug except it had 5 pins. I did a little research on this mysterious 5-pin DIN audio cable, and I found out that it's an old German standard that I guess has been long abandoned in North America, except used rarely for some brands of keyboards (the instrument, not the computer kind).

I figured my only option at this point was to find some kind of 5-pin DIN to RCA or 3.5mm adapter much like this one. I checked the obvious retailers, Best Buy, The Source, but nobody had the adapter I needed. My next stop was eBay. There were a small handful of people selling them, but all at ridiculous prices. After some searching, I actually found somebody from The Republic of Cyprus that was selling the exact adapter I needed, and for a reasonable price. I bought it, and it came to about $12 CAD after shipping. Then I waited.

Finally, yesterday, it arrived. I immediately ran upstairs to see if it worked. I set the tape deck to line-in mode, connected my Zune, and turned up the volume. I heard music. It was awesome. I grabbed one of the blank tapes that I had nearby, put it in, and pressed record. After about 30 seconds I pressed stop, rewound the tape and pressed play to see if it worked. Silence.

My only guess was that the line-in mode is meant to be used as kind of an auxiliary system, so you can use the speakers with another audio device... But it doesn't actually let you record using it. So then I was back at square one. Today at work, though, I was reminded about a relatively simple and common piece of technology that could help me. A tape adapter.

It was so simple, I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. I've used tape adapters since I got my own portable CD player back in '95 or '96, but instead of this simple solution, I decided to order some archaic cable adapter on eBay from The Republic of Cyprus. So on my way home from the dentist today, I stopped and picked up a cheap tape adapter from Zellers for ten dollars (I had to laugh when the packaging said "compatible with iPods"... Oh, marketing). When I got home, I set everything up again, this time my Zune hooked up to the tape adapter which was inserted in the first tape deck, along with a blank tape inserted in the second deck. I pressed record and waited. After a few seconds I rewound the tape to give it a test. This time I heard music.

All this trouble was for nothing, though, because I'm assuming since the unit itself is so old, parts have been worn out and things don't move quite as smoothly as they used to. As a result, anything I play back in the deck ends up sounding just ever-so-slightly too slow. There is also a significant amount of distortion that can be heard on the tape, which pretty much destroys any enjoyment you can possibly get out of listening to music. On the plus side, I do now have a cable that lets me hook up my Zune or any other audio device so I can listen to it through the unit's speakers. The radio works pretty good, too. Now I just don't know what to do with 10 blank cassette tapes and a tape adapter.

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I went to my grandparents' house with Billie today, and while exploring the basement we came across a genuine ghetto blaster from the 80s. I've wanted one for a long time, but random visits to Value Village always resulted in disappointment. I found a modern one that you can buy online, but there is no way I am paying over $100 for something that just plays tapes.

On my way home I stopped and picked up a 10-pack of blank tapes from Zellers along with a tape cleaning kit. I plan on creating a few mixtapes, as well as recording a bunch of classic 80s albums just to keep it legit.

To my dismay, the only line-in jack that it supports is some 5-pin format called DIN, and of course all modern electronics either use a plain 3.5mm jack or stereo RCA cables. So I have to find a place that will sell a 5-pin DIN to 3.5mm audio jack if I want to record directly from my PC or MP3 player. By the time I found this out, the only place open was London Drugs, but they didn't have it there. I'm going to try Radio Shack or The Source tomorrow.

I did get a chance to try out the radio, which sounds very clear and actually packs a lot of bass. I expected it to sound very flat and junky, but I was actually completely surprised at how good it sounds.

Oh, and IT HAS LIGHTS:

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It's been a fun ride, guys. I've been thinking about this for a while and I finally think it's time I throw in the towel. I'm not cut out to do this anymore, in fact, I'm not even interested in doing this anymore. I've told my boss that I'm quitting. It's not about the money. I've just lost all desire to continue down this path. I told Billie that I have to leave, and after a few hours of discussion, she agreed.

I'm going to be selling most of what I own. My car, my electronics, CDs and DVDs, and I am just going to take off. Everything else can stay here. I haven't decided exactly where I am going yet, but it's not important. Somewhere overseas, for sure, though. I'll buy a plane ticket to France, maybe. Then take a train to Italy. Then hitchhike to a small town or village and start a new life. Get lost, forever.

I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people that will scoff at this idea, but it doesn't matter. I know it's going to be hard, but what isn't? I know I'll still need to work somewhere, but I don't need to earn a lot. Just as long as I can make enough to eat, and find a place to sleep, I'll be happy.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
- Carl Sagan

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When I got my new cellphone a few months ago, I had to manually add all of my old contacts into the new phonebook. As you can imagine, there were several that got lost or forgotten in the process. Skip ahead to just a couple weeks ago, I received a seemingly random text message from a number I didn't recognize. I was secretly wishing it was a stranger who accidentally sent a message to the wrong number, but after asking around, I found out it was actually from somebody I knew whose contact information got lost during the transition to my new phone.

This gave me the idea of sending text messages to random local numbers, asking them questions when I am having trouble making up my mind. Much more fun than asking somebody you know. So I set about making up five random local numbers, and sent them all the same message: "What should I have for supper tonight?".

I got two responses:

Me: What should I have for supper tonight?
Them: Who is this?
Me: Just wanna know what I should eat
Them: Well I think you cant go wrong with lasagna

Me: What should I have for supper tonight?
Them: Beans. Green beans.
Me: Thanks.

Two out of five ain't bad for a first try. I saved both numbers in my phonebook as "The Oracle".

People always tell me that I am too indifferent. Not anymore.

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