:: W4B photography's companion blog ::

:: Saturday, January 01, 2005 ::

So I did what?
Personal stuff: So you know I didn't do Christmas. And decided to low profile it at New Years too this, uh year, as well. So what did I do? Well, for starters, I read some books.

I started off with Wil Wheaton's Just A Geek. I had wanted to meet him and get him to autograph it when I was in Cali in November but he didn't respond to an email I sent to that effect. I wasn't surprised. But hay, it doesn't hurt to ask. The book is not so much about him being a character from TNG, as much as how he deals with the aftermath of being a character on TNG. And being a writer, and a step dad, and an actor. Lots of page turning stuff. I am not normally into biographies, but I tell you I read it cover to cover in about two days. For those of you not in the know, I read very fast.

Next I turned to Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. It deals with crypto and intrigue at the NSA, the super secret agency in the US that some say whose acronym stands for No Such Agency. This turned into some torment for my peers at work as I created some simple cyphers (Ceasar's Boxes of differing sizes mainly) that and emailed them around. To their credit, with a couple of small hints they solved them. I was also able to crack the cypher that is in the book itself. I won't explain how I did it as I loaned the book to Ka and she is reading or will soon be reading it and the thrill of solving it would be lost on her should she chose to tackle it. I emailed Sher at about 2am one night after spending some 90 mins to two hours working on the various permutations of it that I thought it might be. Very pumped when I solved it. for someone who doesn't really like math or puzzles like this normally it had me sucked in from Page One.

Next I started to read Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal. It is dated now, written in the late 1980s, but it certainly shows how busy he is and how and why he does what he does in terms of deals and real estate.

Currently I am reading the DaVinci Code, also by the aforementioned Dan Brown. I am about 100 pages into it after starting to read it this afternoon. Deals with conspiracies, secret societies, crypto and hidden symbology in Christian religion. I found the first chapter a little weak but it is now quite fast paced. No one is who they appear to be. I learned that from Digital Fortress.

I also spent some time reading just general stuff and pairing down what I have at my apt. I have way too much stuff and I set about cutting down the number of magazined. So I went through about 30 or so with a sharp knife and extracted what I wanted to keep and tossed the rest.

Laundry
Personal stuff: I also had a nice coffee with Mor at the Laundromat Cafe and showed her the trip pictures from the Grand Canyon and Cali. I thanked her for the Christmas present she gave me and told her I am really thinking more and more about writing seriously again. I know that the blog counts as writing. The number count of words might tell you a different story, but it isn't the fiction I like to write. Though turning this blog into something profitable or more of a full time - heck even a part time - gig would be cool. Anyone want to pay me to write, you just email me and I would be happy to help you with that... :)

On New Year's eve, I spent it all quiet like and avoided all but the last few minutes of the ball drop in NYC on CNN. I watched Ferris Buller's Day Off, Alien, American Flyer ( a moive about cycling made in the 1980s), and Blade Runner. A nice assortment of movies. And today I watched the Much Music Fromage '04. Ed the Sock, the puppet and host of the show provided this commentary regarding one of Britney Spears' videos: "Her voice is so altered she could really be Stephen Hawking." Made me laugh.

And today as a last activity I spent about 90 mins or more looking for a cheque book (that's check book for our American readers.) I only write cheques for rent. Nothing else. Has been that way for probably nearly ten years now. Canada's banking system is one of the more advanced onces in the world and allows you to make most, if not all, payments of bills online through the actual bank web site without using a third party clearing house. So, about every four to six months I hunt for a cheque book to write out some rent cheques. And I never find one. This time was no exception. But it took me a helluva long time to find one. And my place looks like a fan from a movie set used to sim storms blew paper everywhere. "Damage control team to the Bridge." I would much rather put my money towards a place of my own instead of paying down someone else's mortgage, but I don't really want a house for myself alone. Any cool condo's available that people know of here in London?

Carpe Diem

:: Mike Wood 20:17 [+] :: 0 comments
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