The Three-Year Anniversary Explosion

The computer that I've been using over the past month turned three years old on the second week of January. On this special occasion, its warranty also expired. You can guess what comes next.

I was minding my own business yesterday evening. I was casually surfing when a bubble popped up on the taskbar which read, "A network cable has been unplugged."

I hadn't done anything unusual, but suddenly the computer lost its conenction to the internet. I fiddled around for a few minutes, but couldn't see any real reason why this had happened. I was going to keep messing around with it when it was suggested that we call Dell. A very wise decision, since I shouldn't be messing around with other people's computers with my very limited knowledge.

Surprisingly, we weren't on hold very long, and an agent was taking us through a few solutions. Nothing helped and we were told that we needed a new motherboard. The next sentence was, "Your warranty expired three weeks ago."

The agent was nice about it, and put us on hold while he went to check if there was anything that could be done. He returned and agreed to repair the motherboard free of charge.

It doesn't take a genius to deduce that Dell has been having some difficulties with their ethernet adapters creating motherboard problems. I find it hard to believe that a telephone tech support agent can conclude that the motherboard needs to be replaced as quickly as ours did. I find it especially hard to believe that Dell would replace the motherboard for free considering that the warranty is expired.

So now we have to go through the ordeal of sending this laptop from Iqaluit to wherever Dell repairs its motherboards. Not a big deal from any major city in the country, but quite a big deal from the Arctic where mail service is frequently suspect. Mail is delivered, but it does take time. It will be very interesting to see how long it will take to sort this whole thing out.

Our disposable society strikes again. It's as though technology is secretly implanted with a timer that is set to three years and when time runs out, "Pop," technology breaks down and we magically have to buy the latest model at the highest prices.

The whole thing makes me very sad. Sad that companies don't seem to care to make quality products, sad that children make the crummy products we have now, sad that there aren't better options for consumers, sad that the cycle of consumption continues, sad that landfills are full of the plastic skeletons of expensive poorly-made technology, but most especially sad that we as consumers as powerless to do much (if anything) about it.

I'm Sorry H.S.

I was listening to The Vinyl Cafe this morning and there was a story written about a note that was found which simply read, "I'm sorry H.S." It wasn't terrific, but got me thinking about dear, dear Homer.

I was in the movies a few weeks ago, and saw Blood Diamond. I thought the movie was all right, but was mostly devastated by the sign that I saw for the upcoming Simpson's movie.

I'm worried about The Simpsons. I can put aside the fact that recent episodes have been weak. To be honest, I haven't watched with any regularity since around the ninth season. I remember the episode with Homer's pet lobster being one of the final nails in the coffin of my regular Simpsons watching routine.

If I was afraid that all that was once good about The Simpsons will be tarnished by the series dragging on after it should have ended, I'm horrified now that the movie will utterly destroy it.

I take solace by looking at the Beavis and Butthead and the South Park movies. They managed to make a nice transition from series to feature film. It seemed that they both managed to make thier movies when they were at the top of their games. I don't think that this is the case with The Simpsons.

I've been watching the sixth season on DVD and listening to the audio commentaries. There isn't much point in watching the episodes since I know them all inside and out. It was interesting to hear about them talk about the animation. They made a switch from cel animation to digital ink and paint during season 12. It was around this point that I really tuned out. I'm not sure if it was because the animation changed, or simply because episodes like New Kids on the Blecch (featuring 'Nsync) and I'm Going to Praiseland (featuring Shawn Colvin) were so wretched that I couldn't bear looking forward all week to watching and being so thoroughly disappointed.

The movie's trailers don't look promising. The animation is clearly digital and I'm afraid that the film will simply be a continuation of the show's current fare without any of the comdey gold that made the Simpsons what it is. Leaf through any DVD set from 4-9 and you'll find episodes that have become a part of a generation's lexicon, but try nursing a gaffaw out of recent efforts.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I really question the movie version of television shows. Some shows have been successful, of course, and I want The Simpsons movie to be everything that it can be. Unless the writers make an effort to remain true to the glory days of the show, I fear that the impact of the show will be irrevocably stained as a troubled franchise tries to cash in on its last shreds of credibility. Rolling Stones and Queen... I'm looking in your direction.

Still Kickin'

I have had several pleas for my return to the blogosphere. I'm not sure if they really care one way or the other or if they simply like to laugh at all the stupid stuff that I do and have qualms about telling the world.

Today is the anniversary of my mother's death and I watched 5 episodes of Six Feet Under. I was sad, but I talked to my Dad and my sister and spent most of the day relaxing and thinking about things. My life has changed so much in the last year. I'm sad about my Mom, but I am happy.

It was a beautiful day here today. It was -12 with no wind. We went out to the grocery store and were pleased to discover that they had a special promotion. Each customer received a brown paper bag. All the groceries that you could put in the bag were 15% off. We saved $18.85 which was a nice surprise. It was nice to be outside walking and enjoying the nice weather. One of these weekends we're going to get out on the land and do some skidooing. It would have been amazing today, but our friend with w sled was working on a play that opens tonight so we couldn't do it today. Maybe next weekend.

We had two blizzard days this week. A blizzard here is quite different from blizzards in the south. It's so cold here that fresh snow doesn't stick and so if the winds are high the snow just blows around. On Tuesday, the winds were gusting up to 90 km/hour and so the visibility was about 5 metres. It's very dangerous to go outside because you can get lost so easily and if you get into trouble you could easily freeze to death, so people just stay indoors and wait the blizzards out. I have been told repeatedly that Iqaluit is not known for its blizzards, and that places like Igloolik, and Arviat have blizzards that have 1 metre of visibility and last for 6 days.

So things are about the same with me. I will try to make time to blog, but I've been a little gunshy lately.

Fr-Fr-Fr-Fr-Friday!

Hot dog!

I've had a busy week this week and, again, now fully understand the thrill of Friday afternoon. I'm waiting a couple of minutes for a voicer to be recorded and then we're heading over to the Store House for an evening of celbratory drinks. From the way things went here today, I expect that some people will be having a lot of drowning drinks instead.

Only one more day until Hockey Day! I'm having a lazy morning tomorrow and then am going to zip over to the airport to look at the Airbus A380. It arrived this week for cold weather testing. It's -36 right now and in the high 40s with the wind. I guess it makes sense for them to be here. I'll catch the hockey games throughout the day, but will likely avoid the feel-good fluff pieces throughout.

Broomball is tomorrow afternoon. We missed Tuesday's edition and so I'm anxious to try again. My legs have finally recovered from all the sprinting.

We're going to have dinner over at Iqaluit's version of Martha Stewart's house so it should be a great evening. Tomorrow's bingo night too so that'll be fun.

Sunday is a question mark right now. I expect that there will be at least one shared meal and maybe some laundry.

I'm off to the bar!

M.I.A.

Sorry about being off the radar for the last little while. You would think that in a place with very little to do that you would have a lot of time for diversions, but that just one of the things that's unusual about Iqaluit.

I've been working all week. I was supply teaching on Monday at the high school and worked at one of the elementary schools yesterday and today (and will be there for the rest of the week). I won't bore you with the details of my subbing days, but it's nice to be back in the classroom again, and it's nice to be working in a system that values it's employees and treats them with the respect of a returned phonecall or a face-to-face conversation.

We don't have a lot of spare time here, because people make their own fun. This past weekend was terrifically busy. On Friday, we went to a lecture by an old Hudson's Bay manager. Gordon Rennie grew up in Newfoundland but moved west, and later, north in 1947. He had incredible insight into the history and life of Nunavut. Saturday was broomball at 4:30, and then we went for dinner at a friend's house. On Sunday we went for brunch at another friend's house, spent the afternoon doing laundry and then later on in the evening we had people over for dinner. There are a lot of shared meals here and most free time is spent together.

I've been busy and now that I've been working everyday, I've been tired in the evenings. I haven't made time to blog and I apologize for that. Hopefully, I'll have a chance this weekend (maybe during Hockey Day) to write a few more interesting things.

Toe Tuesday

We watched the horrendous special Tuesday night Hockey Night In Canada presentation last night. I found the Steve Yzerman ceremony to be some of the most boring television I have seen in quite a while. The first period of the game some 90+ minutes later wasn't much better.

During the evening, I was walking into the kitchen and stubbed my toe on the edge of the couch. It hurt like crazy and I felt like I was going to pass out, but I managed to keep it together. My little piggy that went wee wee wee all the way home was sore all night and made it difficult to sleep. I tossed and turned for much of the night because of it (also because it was so warm-- an uncomfortable -18).

I woke up this morning with a strange looking bruise on the top of the toe. It was very swollen and hurts to the touch. It is difficult to gauge whether or not I can move it since the little toe isn't very mobile when it is 100% healthy. I've never had a stubbed toe that has hurt so much for so long. It made a terrific cracking sounds when I hit it and the other people in the room winced when they heard it happen. I'm not sure if it is broken, but it might be. I can still walk, but I'm no doctor.

I'm going to have it looked at this afternoon. It should be very interesting to experience Nunavut's health care system. With luck, they'll laugh and say, "Just give your toe a couple of days for the swelling to come down and it'll be back to normal, you big baby!"