Month: November 2007

The gym

I haven’t been having much luck convincing myself to get to the gym.

I’ve gone a few times, but I’ve never managed to work it into a routine, or get over the feeling of anxiety and dread every time I think about going in there. So it hasn’t worked out so well.

I’ve been thinking that I should sign up for a personal trainer, on the theory that if I have an appointment to make, I’m more likely to make it, and also if someone actually gives me some idea what the hell I’m supposed to do in a gym, I might have an easier time seeing myself going.

I’ve been procrastinating on that for an awfully long time, though. A significant part of me envisions dealing with a personal trainer to be incredibly awkward and unfun.

Much cheaper and less awkward than a personal trainer is [this little key fob thing](http://www.columbialakehealthclub.com/fasttrack/personaletrainer/) that they have. Computers. That’s more my speed. I signed up for an orientation session for the things. Maybe that will give me some idea about what to do next.

I was supposed to go tonight, but they had some meeting or something so I moved it out to Wednesday. Which is fine. I had better things to do anyway.

Doctor Who’s 44th

I don’t want to fall any more behind, so I’d better post…

Today is (or was, I suppose) Doctor Who’s 44th anniversary.

In my plan for how this whole NaBloPoMo thing was going to work, I had it set out that I’d write a wonderfully reminiscent post about Doctor Who in my life and why it’s totally the best show ever. And I think i could pull it off. I just don’t feel like writing that post tonight.

At least in part, it’s because [Verity Lambert died yesterday](http://www.dwin.org/blog/archives/000279.html). Verity Lambert was Doctor Who’s first producer.

She, along with Canadian [Sydney Newman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Newman) set out what Doctor Who would be. She was perhaps as much responsible for the Daleks as [Terry Nation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Nation) was. Sydney Newman wanted Doctor Who to be a show that taught kids about science and history in an entertaining way, but with no bug-eyed monsters whatsoever. Verity Lambert, however, knew nothing about science, so instead commissioned a story about mutant monsters surviving a nuclear war.

There’s a line in the Season 3 episode “Human Nature” where the Doctor, as the human named John Smith, mentions his parents “Sydney and Verity”.

I want to write more, but I’m fighting to stay awake. I have people over and we’re going to have a Doctor Who party tomorrow. I am very happy about that, but right now, I need some rest.

Squash

Deep-fried squash chips are surprisingly good. A little bit of salt and it’s wonderful. Even with a bit of the stringy inside bits… That stuff crisps up really nicely.

I’ve never been a big fan of squash, but I probably didn’t have the right sort of experiences. Not like a squash-tasting party.

I really liked the Delicata squash. The Butternut squash was really good as well. Buttercup squash, I wasn’t quite as fond of, although I admit is was better steamed than baked.

Baked squash seeds were nice as well. Again, the Delicata wins out. They had a surprising sweetness to them.

And you know, puréed butternut squash with maple syrup and blueberries makes a really nice dessert. I’d never have guessed.

NaBloPoMo: An Update

Well, I’m two posts behind and don’t feel much like writing today.

This sort of thing is probably normal. I was home most of the night last night and couldn’t bring myself to update then either.

At least today I’m writing a post about not wanting to write a post. That has to count for something, even though I’d prefer it didn’t have to come to this.

As a follow-up to the TV post, I got my Visa bill the other day and realized my financial situation isn’t quite as good as I thought it was (having made that impulse Wii purchase late last month). Not that it’s really all that bad, mind you, it’s just not in the $1000 impulse purchase range. Especially considering I just spent $500 on dealing with the raccoon (more than I strictly needed to, but this way it’s less likely other critters will find their way under my porch) and am about to drop $1500 on a laptop just as soon as they start shipping with a draft-n wireless option.

See? More buying stuff.

I’m going to post about the laptop thing later. I’m just not there yet.

Oh yeah, and a rock took a chunk out of my windshield on the 401 on Sunday. That’s a whole ‘nother thing I don’t particularly want to talk about.

I’m hoping tonight gets better.

TVs (or, I Only Ever Talk About Buying Stuff)

I came *this close* (holds up two fingers *really* close together) to making an impulse [LCD TV purchase](http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10084416&catid=23244) today. *This close!*

I actually still might go ahead with it. My TV situation is kinda crappy. And I’ve got people coming over this coming weekend to watch Doctor Who. It’s the 44th anniversary, after all.

Currently, I’ve got two TVs. One is a 20″ SVGA computer monitor (which I bought for $1000 more than a decade ago because it could scan down to Amiga scanning frequencies, thus allowing me to work in resolutions higher than 640×200) that can double as a television. And it doubles as a television very well, except that it’s 20″. 20″ is not very big for lots of people watching stuff.

So when my parents upgraded all their TVs to LCD HDTVs, they gave me their 27″ Sony Trinitron, which, honestly, wasn’t working very well. But hey, free TV. So I lugged it to Waterloo, got it hooked up and it worked great!

It worked great for two days. Then some utility workers were messing around with the transformer thingy in the middle of my cul de sac and cut my power. When it came back on, the TV came on too, oddly, and the top of the screen is kind of squished in and pushed down two inches.

At least you can see the whole picture. I played pretty much all of Super Paper Mario that way.

I’ve been hoping the TV would fix itself. Something similar happened to my parents (prompting them to consider upgrading TVs in the first place), but the TV fixed itself eventually. It’s been almost a month now and I’m not optimistic.

I’ve been holding off on a new TV because I really haven’t been watching stuff, and my goal for having people over is to build a home theatre room in the basement. That, however, has gone almost nowhere. So maybe I should just give into reality and get a cheap, decent LCD.