As some of you following me on Twitter and/or on FourSquare, you already know that I got an iPad for LovelyWife last Friday.

How sweet is this?

I originally didn’t plan on getting LovelyWife (or myself) an iPad, but as I walked past the overflowing Rideau Centre Apple Store, I casually asked one of the Apple Dudes** if all of these people were in line to buy an iPad. I mean it was ridiculous, I couldn’t even see the back of the store.

He said no, that all these people were just “browsing”. He then asked me which model I was thinking of getting, handed me a card that had a picture of an iPad and waved over an Apple Dudette*** that looks just like OhSarahJoy used to look. CloneFromPastSarah took me to the back of the store, parting the sea of “browsers” before me, handed me a box, swiped my credit card and wished me a great week-end. I was in and out in less than five minutes**** with a brand spanking new 32G Wi-Fi iPad.

For LovelyWife.

I’ve already said that I’m not part of the target clientèle for the iPad – I got a laptop that I carry around all the time and an iPhone – but I gotta admit that’s a pretty cool toy to have.

The screen is brilliant, the weight and feel is awesome. The apps are pretty cool, but I already knew that from the iPhone. I think it makes a lot of sense for an in-house use and replaced the older laptop LovelyWife was using to browse the web, read the news, watch some tv on the computer or get recipes.

Let’s not forget Sudoku.

So I’d say this is an all-around great buy. I’m guessing it’ll get even better as we discover new ways of using the device.

Now if there was only a user-facing camera integrated. That will be the second generation iPad. That one will be mine.

__________

*I figured that I’d get the “pad” joke out of the way as quickly as possible.

** I know they’re called Apple Geniuses, but really the Dude was just handing out business card sized pieces of paper identifying the model of iPad you were buying. I’m  sure he’s not really a Genius.

*** Dudette did a little more than the Dude, and did it efficiently. Closer to a Genius. Almost.

**** This setup is for BluePaintRed. I owed you at least one, Blue. How’s that chin of yours, BTW?

No words needed

It’s no secret that I take the bus to work.

I don’t know why it might be a secret, or why it would make sense that it’d be a secret, but it seemed a good sentence to start this post, unlike this one.

So anyways, I live on the blue dot and work on the pinkish dot. Every weekday I use a combination of taking the bus and walking while following the green line to get me to work.

Normal bus/walk route

This takes me to work in about 50 minutes or so.

Yesterday, the bus made a slight detour – I didn’t know why at the time.

Wednesday’s detour.

I didn’t really mind, because even with the detour, I got to work in about 50 minutes or so. Today, we took a different detour.

Today’s detour.

You wanna guess how long it took me to get to work today? I’ll give you a hint: I took me 1h35 minutes to get to work. Sigh.

Maybe I’ll try some of that winter cycling tomorrow…

Yesterday I played pool with LW and her coworkers.

It gave me the chance to play with Splash of Color on my iPhone, and watch both the Ottawa Senators game and the Montreal Canadiens game. Ottawa lost their game, and Montreal won theirs. I guess that makes it a good night.

Yes, even in my leisure time I’m multitasking.

I think I’m getting screwed by Channel 4.

That’s Channel 4 on lo-def.

That’s Channel 4 on hi-def.

I mean the picture quality is much better in HD. But what’s the deal with all the bottom of the text missing? Did Channel 4 think that I would be so mesmerized by the picture quality that I wouldn’t  notice that half of the ticker is missing? What should I call this, Faux-D?

But that’s not the thing I like the most about the HD experience. It’s when the Cable Company pulls something like this: They take a regular picture like this one…

And magically turn it into the ultimate viewing experience just by doing this:

But if only it was this simple. Because my TV is in the 4:3 format, the HD actually looks like this:

But then again, when watching “Conveyor Belt of Love”, I guess that could be considered a plus.

Did anyone say I need a bigger TV?

…But I did killl the Captain.

I’ve recently started RPGing again. This is really cool because I was really missing it.

Were using the Savage World system, and we’re playing a bunch of pirates.

The Savage World system is a funny system, that uses all the dice and playing cards and story cards and paper clips and bennies. The paper clip thing might just be our group, so don’t let that freak you out too much.

Plus did I mention the other guys are pretty laid back? Awesome.

Anyways, they let me play their captain and I manage to kill the guy – while in a duel – on my first session playing him. Sigh.

Live and learn. Well, die and learn really.

Guess I’m making a new character. Any suggestions?

So yesterday was our last full day in Orlando.

We went to New Smyrna Beach, and had food at Chases on the beach. It was cool.

We had planned to go back to Seasons 52 for a fancier dinner – and really those indulgences are just to die for –  but we decided to go hang out with Avitable  instead, as part of the clean-up crew. Adam did feed us pizza, chocolate and all the booze we could drink. As you can see, we had fun tearing down the decorations and making the house look like a house again.

We had an awesome time in Orlando, and meeting all the bloggers who came down was awesome.

Today we’re flying back home. If all goes well, we should be home by 20h30.

Remind me again why I’m going from 80F degree weather to 30F? Sigh.

Riding my bike to work, I get to think about a lot of stuff.

After all, I don’t have the radio to listen to, my Blackberry to play with or anything like that. Sometimes I’ll sing songs to myself, sometimes I’ll think about work and sometimes I’ll think about weird stuff.

I thought about the differences between the 8 year-old me biking and the 38 year-old me biking.

• When I was 8, helmets were for motorcycles.
  • At 38, helmets are mandatory.
• When I was 8, I would bike everywhere regardless of any severe denivelations along the way.
  • At 38, I study detailled maps of the city in order to avoid any and all inclines on the way to work and back home.
• When I was 8, I would do sliding power breaks à la Big Wheel.
  • At 38, I’m aware of the cost of bike tires.
• When I was 8, I would jump at any opportunity to jump a curb, go down a flight of stairs, zig-zag, do a wheelie.
  • At 38, I aim for the shortest possible route between two points.
• When I was 8, I would sometimes jump off the bike and run inside while the bike kept on going on the lawn.
  • At 38, I baby my bike more than my youngest child.
• When I was 8, shocks were a cool stylish addition to the bike.
  • At 38, shocks are a necessity.

But the main difference? Thirty years.

Before

After

After After.

Notice any difference? Which one is your favorite? I warn you: It’s too late to say one or two.

Biking to work is going to be… interesting.

Edit: Well, apparently I was so excited that I published the wrong post, the one without a title. This was the planned post:

The Good, the Bald and the Ugly.

I’m thinking of making this my new banner. What do you think?

I don’t get insulted easily.

I mean, I do get insulted sometimes, but never to the point where I’m speechless. I’m always quick with some sort of clever comeback or witty retort. I swear. I tend to brush these off as fear, dumbassery or just plain lack of communication skills. I strongly believe that people are entitled to consider me a dumbass, an idiot or a jerk and voice that in some way. I recognize that some people are better at expressing this than others. In all my life, I have never cut all lines of communication because of one single insult.

Until now.

Now, I won’t get into many details – I’ve been writing and re-writing this for the past hour or so –  as this person would easily be identified by people who knows me IRL, and yes this person reads this blog, and I hope he or she recognize himself or herself.

Yesterday morning, I have been insulted like I’ve never been insulted before.

As I’m riding my bike to work, I see this person that I know, waiting to cross the street at a crosswalk. That person is also riding a bike. So I pull over besides that person and say hi, smiling. This was the reply I got:

“So you ARE riding your bike to work. I thought you were lying about that.”

I thought “WTF?” but I said… Nothing. The light changed, I said goodbye and we went our separate ways. And that’s the last interaction I’ll have with this person.

I guess I really don’t like being called a liar. I guess that’s funny since I make stuff up all the time on this blog, and I’ve been known to tell and embellish stories all the time. I like to think that people are smart enough to get the difference between me saying something like “I have X-Ray vision” and “I ride my bike to work”. I know, I have issues. I’ll go work on that now.

Goodbye, old “friend”. You’re a dumbass.

And FYI: I do have X-Ray vision.

Note to the reader: If you don’t live in Canada, specifically in the general Ottawa region, if you don’t know me IRL, if you don’t ride a bike to work, if you didn’t see me and talk to me on  Thursday morning around 7:30 – this post is not about you. And yes, all those conditions are cumulative. It’s not a parable in any way shape or form. I really did see someone I know, and we really had that verbal exchange. This only applies to one person.