Posts under ‘Toys’

Ottawa got hit with a 5.6 earthquake yesterday afternoon. It was the strongest quake, and the second for that matter, that I’ve ever felt.

Granted, the first one felt more like a large truck passing by, and at the time, that’s all I thought it was. This time, things flew off shelves, and generally made a mess of my home office. Not that you could tell right away

It was all over the news yesterday, people fearing for their lives and whatnot. I thought it was a little overblown, but I suspect it was a slow news day. The next big local story is when the city is suddenly covered in this white fluffy stuff and there’s chaos on the streets.

But that’s Ottawa, not much happens here that isn’t government related. And I’m sure there’s some people blaming the government on this

With the baby on the way, we’re trying to organize and purge a lot of stuff from the house. We already sent a car load of stuff to the Sally Ann, and we have a lot more to go. This includes my toys. Not all of them, but at least some of them. And you know, I think I’m ready to let them go. Now, sure, most of the ones I want to let go I’ve had for 10 years, and really, they’re just taking up space. So I think I’ll start with the smaller stuff, see how that goes, and then maybe move on to a few larger things.

This includes some of my unbuilt Gundam models. I won’t get rid of them all, but I’d be fooling myself if I thought that I’ll actually get around to building them all. I thought of this some time ago, as in selling them to make some extra cash, and I don’t think I have as many spare models as I thought I did.

That being said, does anyone want some Gundam models? I’ll see what I have and present a list, and whomever wants them, can have them.

Assuming anyone wants them

With the toys, I guess I could put them up on Ebay, but that’s a lot of effort, and I’m not sure it’s worth it. Mind you, what the heck, why not? But I’ll just do toy lots I think, give them a reasonable price, and then let the masses decide. If nothing goes, it’s off to the Sally Ann with them.

I think it’ll be good for me to purge some stuff, there’s things in my closet that I’ve been lugging around for years, and I really don’t need them. I should try and transfer stuff from video tape to DVD one day though. I have a lot of tape stuff.

I think.

I don’t know what it is about desktop toys that fills me with glee and suddenly makes me notice that 5 hours have gone by, but there you go.

Windows 7 has a very nice minimal desktop if you let it. The task bar is great even though they got rid of the quick launch(but replaced it with something better) and it’s all nice and clean and crisp. So I tried to keep the rest of the desktop just as clean. This might seem like an easy task, but for those that know me, I’m a bit of a slob when it comes to desktops(both computer and real life).

But using some nice apps, I think I’ve found a way to do it.

The two main apps that I’m using are:

-Star Dock Fences

-Rainmeter

I found Fences some time ago via LifeHacker and just loved it. In a nutshell, what it lets you do is create an area of your desktop to hold things. This is a silly explanation, let me try again. It’s like a visible folder. You can create a ‘fenced in area’ and it will hold as many icons/whatever as you like, and never get larger. It will create a scroll bar if you need it. But it will also keep other icons/whatever out so things, when they download to the desktop, will kind of wrap around it. Hell, go to the website and see for yourself, it’s a lot easier.

What I’m using it for is two things; a place to keep folders, and a way to keep things from not going on top of other things.

The other things in this case is the RainMeter stuff. What does Rainmeter do? It monitors things. But in a really cool and almost helpful way.

And it has plenty of cool themes, so that’s kept me busy.

When I first installed it I just used the basic stuff, which, really, is still very cool looking. Then I found a few other things and now I think I have a good desktop. And a clean one.

Next step is backgrounds, and that’s what 4chan is for. Beyond the porn, they have a lot of really good, high res pictures that are great for backgrounds.

So that’s what I do. Download and put into rotation.

Windows 7 does the whole rotation thing automagically, which is also cool.

So here is the first desktop with all the toys(caution, the pics are big):

And after some tweaking, and some additional downloads, here’s the new one, and the one I’m currently using. That’s not to say it won’t change, that’s just the way I am:

And as new themes/skins emerge for Rainmeter, I’m sure this will change.

Anyway, that’s enough random noise, back to work with you!

For awhile now I’ve been thinking of what I want for my birthday.

Tara kinda kicked this off with the suggestion of another dog, and I think we ran with that for a little while.

Then the cons started to pile up faster than the pros.

Don’t get me wrong, the idea of having another dog is totally awesome in most respects and is not off the table, it’s just not really feasable at this point in time. There was a lot more to consider than just having a dog, there were things like:

-food and vet expenses

-crate training

-general training(because I’ve done such a bang up job with Quanuk)

-how Quanuk and Ringo would adapt(I suspect one would be more open than the other )

And a few other things, so it’s off the main table but still an option for the future.

So now I have to think of something else, and I kinda suck at it. I generally don’t ask for big things as, well, I don’t want people to spend a lot.

The problem is that I’ve gone into this psudo-pragmatic mode over the last little while. I say psudo as I look at the wall of toys behind me, but I really haven’t gotten anything new in a long time.

It’s just that I have a lot of other things that I want to save for and spend money on later that are a lot more important than a birthday gift.

I was playing with my brothers iPod Touch and it’s cool and affordable, but I have a perfectly good 4gig MP3 player that I already don’t use that much

I was thinking of a nice little ACER netbook…but really have no use for it other than having one.

Tara joked about a PVR…we don’t have cable

I could get a few new toys, but that’s what Anime North is for.

I mean, how hard is it for me to find something in a certain price range and ask for it? Apparently, really hard.

In all honesty, the one thing that I think would be best is a new bike. I mean, the one I got from my Dad is fully working, but it’s a little heavy and starting to wear a lot.

So maybe a new bike. I mean, I’d be using it every day, so at least that’s something. But I don’t think it would have the ‘new toy’ feeling. Mind you, that feeling is pretty fleeting.

And the netbook would be cool for Anime North….or the iPod for that matter.

Arg!

I’m heading into the first of 6 meetings today. People wonder how I get any work done.

I wonder too

Dress shopping last night with Tara was interesting. It’s not really shopping for a dress, as the title might mislead you.

It’s outfit shopping, which includes handbags, jewelery and shoes.

But it’s ok, she bought me the Darth Vader Mighty Mugg

So it’s all good.

Tonight we’re signing the contract for the wedding photographer. We’re bringing my parents along in case they want anything extra, as you get a 20% discount when you choose at the time of signing.

Sneaky, but it works.

Other than that it’s just Thursday.

How’s your Thursday going?