XBox Media Centre is here!

Got my modded Xbox back yesterday and it simply rocks! For the uninitiated - the Xbox is basically a computer which can play games. When Microsoft sells them, they lock things up so that users can only play CD/DVD based games on it. Modding it means that you unlock the computer features and can use the system to your heart's content. Most people use it as a Media Centre to play music, DVDs, Video files and photo slideshow machine.

The XBMC (X-Box Media Centre) software is unbelievable. Slick, professional looking, powerful and user friendly. I upgraded the hard drive to an 80 GB one and spent a few hours sorting through some video, music and photo files last night.

Oddly enough, I wasn't able to locate the Radio station software on it. Maybe I need a different version of the software of a new program for it. I'll look into it today. I am having trouble hooking it to my network (half of the time, I get an error message when I try to connect to the PC Hard drives through the router). It's a question of time before it works.

I have a good collection of old Emulators on it already including MAME so this should hold me up for a while. I haven't peaked on the net to see which games are available on Torrentspy yet. I'm more excited about the Media Centre features for now anyways.

Administration Fees??

Ferda just stated an interesting Rant on the previous post about administration fees.

Many companies charge rediculous fees for administrative BS which often doesn't account to any work on their part. My favorites in this department are phone and cable companies.

My latest Rogers experience:
I just changed cell phones over the holidays. I bought the new RAZR. This meant: me walking to a Rogers store, buying the phone, putting my old sim card in the new one and paying the Rogers employee at the video store counter. No more. I kept the same phone number, same package, same everything.

Next bill comes along and they tack onto it a $35 fee for the switch. Why? ADMINISTRATION FEES. My question: For what??

They were both my own phones! I didn't upgrade or change the minutes package I was one... nothing! They did nothing on their end! Rediculous! When I called them about it, I was told to go back to the store where I bought the phone and explain the situation. On my next store visit: nada - they can't do anthing, I have the call the main number again. A little grumpy, I called again and this time they told me that they don't typically do this but that they would credit my next bill. Come-on, thus was too easy. "Dont typically do this????". Because people let it slide - that's why!! There should be a recourse for this kind of BS.

I then get into these questions with the telephone operator about new plans because I have been going over my previous plan over the last 2 months - I may need to upgrade to another one as I am busting my day minutes. He then proceeds to tell me that he can put me on a 3 free months of local calls because I bought a new phone. WHAT?!?

He tells me that this could have been activated when I bought the phone but now I can start it for the next3 months and decide what to do when new Summer package come out. What a bunch of @#$%

Ever notice how sometimes better deals come out or lower prices come into affect and Rogers or Bell just keeps charging you the previous fee until you tell them to change it? You can dispise the mogul. It's allowed.

Weekender Report: 24.02 to 26.02

Cottage country for Artoo this w-e. No other plan. Just a few Episodes of 24, and some quality R & R time at my parent's cottage. It's nice to get away from it all sometimes and relax a bit. Gros merci à Mom et Pop pour m'avoir reçu à Val-des-bois.

I also finished watching 24 Season 4. Wow! What an awsome season. Much, much better than Season 3 (which was good - but no more). I won't get into details - wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone. Thre words: intense, solid and intense!! Watch it.

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I sent an email to my university prof before I left in order to rectify an answer on the mid-term answer sheet. I had an issue with him saying that there are millions of people at one time in a single MMORPG game (such as World of Warcraft). I cited the Blizzard website with the answer 9They devide the games into guilds in order to avoid overcrowding). I got an answer today saying that I would get the right answer but that his answer would stand as these games have the capacity to host millions in one game. Are there any examples of MMORPGs with a million players? In my research - no. Maybe i'm wrong.

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Interesting experience today. I did groceries at Maxi in Hull and I tried the "do it yourself" lane where you ring in your items yourself and bag all of your groceries. Interesting experience. I must say that it can get a little confusing when punching in a potato and you have 5 different kinds on the screen. Funny how they didn't give me $6.85 for my hour spent in the store - after all, I moved some produce, did cash and acted as a pack-boy. Go figure!

Mini Movie Review: War of the Worlds

What could one say about this film... Lemme try: Steven Speilberg, Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, HG Wells novel, dead bodies, John Williams music, aliens, nice CGI tripod space alien ships, bug juice, cool zapper beams, blood mists in the air and the extiction of the human race. Don't kid yourself, you know this story quite well. A nice effort to re-tell what has been told a few times before. I could easily see another incarnation of this story in 10 years.

Visuallty, it's hard to get anything better. ILM did a fabulous job updating this classic. Story-wise, Cruise is believable and did alot of running in front of a green screen for this one. All in all, a good pop-corn movie. Not your typical Speilberg film though. 7/10

Largest Windows Error Message

(Smile!) Check these two pictures out. They were taken by a tourist visiting Times Square in New York. They apparently were on the side of one of the screens on a building.

Mini Movie Review: Madagascar

Saw this on Monday night. Did not like it. I think I am finding that everytime I watch a DreamWorks Animation film, there is something that is lacking. I had high hopes for this one as the trailer really made me want to see this a year and a half ago. I can't quite put my finger on what is missing. Voice work is fine, animation is beautiful, characters are cute, story is... well actually, maybe this is what didn't do it. Humour was okay but I didn't laugh as much as I did with some of the Pixar films of recent years. There is a certain magic with Pixar films that pulls everything together. This film was like this was an unfinished piece of furniture. Plans were solid, execution was there, It looks good, it's solid enough but there is no varnish finish on it.

I rate this one a 5.5 out of 10. Cinful one gave it a 7.5.

Apple to hold special event Feb 28

OK, any guesses as to what the announcement will be?? The real iPod Video maybe?? :)

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In other iPod video news... NBC offers free pilot on Itunes... I hope this becomes the norm. What a great marketing move :

NBC is offering the pilot episodeof its new legal drama “Conviction” for free on the iTunes Music Store nearly two weeks before the show makes its network series premiere. NBC is also offering a music video by The Gabe Dixon Band and a behind-the-scenes look at the show. The hour-long show, currently being heavily promoted on air, will debut on the network on Friday, March 3.

The only issue here is that they might kybosh their ratings the first time the show airs as many will have already seen it.

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Does anyone know if there is a site out there which offers old public domain tv shows for download? It seems to me that this may be a cool addition to iTunes content. I have seen free cartoons in one video podcast somewhere but there must me more free content out there.

Up, up and awaaaaaayyy!!

I guess I will join in the fun, my X-Box is off to get modded... Should be back to me in a few days. I bought an extra 80BG HD for it of on the w-e at PCCyber. This XBox Media Centre (XBMC) seems like the way to go.
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In other news, I am really enjoying watching the black and white 1952 TV Series The Adventures of Superman. It stars George Reeves as CK and Sup'. The stories are solid so far and there is this cool Film Noir element to the storylines. Lots of detective work and many mob stories. Pretty cool stuff. A great complement to Smallville and a good view in preparation for the upcoming Superman film. It's fun to hear at the beginning of every show:

"Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet, with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!"

Also worth noting that when the Lois and Clark show was on in the 90s, they used the sub-title, the New Adventures of Superman.

Feb 17-19 Week-Ender Report

Pretty quiet w-end.

Fri
Chilled. Ate at Cinthia's. we took the ice off her car for a good 30 minutes. Talk about Mr. Freeze action!

Sat
Was out much of Saturday. Picked up Lois and Clark Season 2 as well as Moonlighting Season 3. It was a gift exchange so I had to pick up something from the store I was in. I'll watch these later.

Claude came by on Saturday night and we played a little Xbox. We only have a few levels to go to finish that Lego SW Game. We are trying to get every mini-kit in the game so it's taking some time.

Sun
Went to this tiny little church in the country. It was really cold in there. The still believe that the priest was wearing a ski jacket under his robes. Funny thing, this priest improvised many sections of the event. It was a little odd. Some of us looked at each other a few times during the mass. We saw 5 babies get "welcomed by their brothers and sisters" into their new family... sounds like an episode of The Sopranos or something as I type this... After the baptism, they were all laid onto an altar and circled by 20 or so adults wearing sunday clothes... this could be a little scary if one walked in and didn't know that this is pacifist religion... anyways, i digress... Then a prayer was said and we were off to go eat some munchies at someone's house. Interesting.

After some groceries and a little more food, we watched some Smallville and some "24" in the evening.

Ok... about this iPod Video rumour...

So what does the rumour say? The new iPod video will have a 3.5″ display covering the entire front of the player. The panel is touch sensitive and you navigate by using a brand new digital click wheel. Read all about it over at Think Secret.

I still don't think i'll go for it right away... It does look slick and could have potential, but I'm more excited about the Nintendo DS news that came out this week. Oh, and that one is not a rumour, it's a fact.

• Opera Web Browser for DS
• 4 GB HD Media player for DS
• TV

Are vegerarians better lovers??

Two models of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organisation demonstrated this week (for Valentine's Day) in Times Square (NY). Their claim: "vegetarians are the best lovers."

I don't know what to make of these... Greenpeace has benn known over the years to pull off crazy stunts in order to get attention to their causes but it just seems that more and more of these groups turn to radical messaging to shock to bring attention to them. I guess it's like the marketing saying: any publicity is good publicity. Some of these are getting rediculous.

As much as I have KFC (sorry Trish), you don't have to show me a picture of slaughtered chicks - which are tortured from the day they are born in KFC chicken fat farms - for me to get the message. There are more subtle ways of getting a message across.

There must be a better way in today's society to get the public's attention.

Here is another interesting one: Milk Gone Wild Watch the hilarious Super Bowl Commercial while you are at it.

A bunch of Peta Girls in action. See pictures of some of the stunts pulled in recent years.

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Well, the CMN Exam came and went. I think it went well. I guess we shall see next week when we get the marks.

Coolness from Toy Fair 2006 in NY

Artoo on All Fours (OK, i'll play along too...)

Taken from Ryan who got it from Ferda, who took it from someone named Jen who stole it from someone else named Jill who i'm sure got it from someone who... you get the picture... I call this the six degrees of the Fours list. Anyhow, here I go:


Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life
1. Dairy Queen Ice Cream Guy
2. Student Employment Officer
3. K-Mart Clerk
4. Inventory guy

Four Places You Have Lived
1. Gatineau,
2. Hull
3. Ottawa
4. in my own little world... (sorry..ran out of places)

Four Music Artists You Can't Hear Too Often
1. Keane
2. Coldplay
3. U2
4. Kylie Minogue

Four Favorite Books
1. The Da Vinci Code
2. Star Wars: Thrawn Trilogy
3. Tintin au Tibet
4. Supercade

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. Cinema Paradiso
2. Bridges of Madison County
3. Star Wars: A new Hope
4. Infernal Affairs

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch (currently)
1. Prison Break
2. The Adventures of Superman: Season 1
3. 24: Season 4
4. Smallville Season 4

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. Poland
2. New York
3. Montreal
4. Toronto

Four Websites You Visit Daily
1. rds.ca or tsn.ca
2. gizmodo.com
3. tvshowsondvd.com
4. dvdtalk.com

Four Of Your Favorite Foods
1. Mashed Potatoes
2. Chicken
3. Pizza
4. Rasberry Pie

Four Hobbies
1. Video Games
2. Listening to Musc
3. Watching Movies
4. Collecting DVDs and Classic Video Games

Use the Energon Cube Luke!!

OK, I like Star Wars and as a kid I loved Transformers but... Whaaaaa???




I saw these at Silver Snails this week-end... I don't get it.... the ship looks kinda cool in that it's not too distorted but...

What maketing genius thought this one up?? Uhm, where is my Star Wars Mister Potato head then? Oh.. Ok... uhmmm... How about a Star Wars Monopoly then? Oh. I see. Star Wars themed Risk? Uno? Chess?? Legos???? I got it Trivia Pursuit?? I give up.

Weekender Report: 10.02 to 12.02

"Fri" day
Not much, a bit o'cleaning. I was at home and didn't feel like reading that comm book. Watched a little bit of the Olympics opening ceremony. Always spectacular but when I see a world stage event, I always, in the ack of my mind wonder if there won't be a terrorist attack -- as all the world is watching. Nothing happened.

"Satur" day
T'was our valentine's day night. We decided not to do it on the 14th. For the last month I had been hiding little valentines with clues about our day all over Cinthia's appartment, coats, inside her car (at first they were going to be mailings but there are problems with the great Canada Post service in Hull). I had made reservations to Sushia Garden, on Albert. It was pretty nice, I had reserved a little private room downstairs.

The only little incident that hapened was that one of the shushi that was ordered was not the right one. We were greeted by a pair of eyes and antennas on our place. Uhm.... different! Dinner was great nonetheless.

For dessert, I had bought 3 kinds of chocolates and some fruits. I made a nice chocolate fondue. I also had some nice port to go along with it. Mmmm, mmmm goodness!

I received a cool wooden boardgame called Quorridor as a gift! :)

Day of the "sun"
not much to report if you read my previous post. I have a Midterm for my Communications class this week so i spent all day reading... oh and I watched a few eps. of 24: Season 4.

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Today's work day ended on a nice note. Around 4pm, I headed to Portage to puck up a few things that I had left behind (Ok, yes Ryan -- 2 lamps!) when I changed jobs. I went over to chat with my old office folks. On my way out, I decided to go say hello to my old director (I had missed him on my last day on account of him being off-site at meetings). Anyways, after a little chit-chat, I told him goodbye and he proceeded to say that he knew we would stay in touch and that he would keep an eye on my from afar... Kinda cool for him to say that as I know that they were a little surprised and disapointed when I told them I was leaving. He didn't have to say that but it made me feel good to know that he appreciated my work even after i left.

If Pavlov would have had TV shows on DVD...

vs.
I am submitting myself to a little experiment today.

Fact: I have this long communications book to read for my university midterm this week.

Fact: We started watching "24" Season 4 on DVD last night.

Fact: As you all know, these shows are the devil! You can't stop watching when you staer as each episode is wond up so tightly with the previous one.

Fact: I have restraint when it comes to these things... ok, well sometimes.

The experiment: for every 100 pages that I read, i will reward myseilf with one episode of "24". The book is 308 pages long. By the time i go to bed, I should have seen 3 episodes and finished the book. Off to put my lab coat on...

Retro Artoo Strips: Artoo Builds a Pac-Man Cabinet

As some of you know, in the Summer of 2004, I worked with my dad on a project that is very dear to my heart. We built a replica of an old 80s Pac-Man arcade cabinet. Yep, we built it from scratch. I had always dreamed of owning my very own Pac-Man arcade machine. You know, the ones that stant upright and you can put quarters into. Well, that summer, with the help of my dad (and many ideas from my mom), I built one. Here is in pictures how we did it. (note: you can click on an image to enlarge it).
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Funny -- Afew weeks ago, Ryan and I were chatting about worldly posessions (houses, cars, movies, cds, books). We came to the conclusion that as lucky as we are with all the things we have, there isn't much that isn't replacable. We have alarm systems, fire detectors, etc. but other than our friends and loved ones, there isn't a heck of alot on God's green earth that means taht much to us.

The conversation ensued and it got me thinking about things i own. If I had one thing that i could save from a fire (other than a loved one or animal) what would that one thing be? my answer: this arcade cabinet - not for what it plays or the hardware that is inside but for what it means to me.

Joke of the Month: Modern Sex

A little boy goes to his father and asks "Daddy, how was I born?"

The father answers: "Well, son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe.

We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a blessed little Pop-Up appeared and said:

You've got Male.


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Mini DVD Review: Milion Dollar Hotel


Forgot to mention that we watched the film Million Dollar Hotel this week at Trish's. I found the flim interesting. Not mainstream t all.. well Wim Wenders films rarely are. the flick was based on a story by Bono or U2 fame. If anything it was a good character study on a group a freakish beings who live under the same roof. Well acted and some nice background scoring by U2. CD might be worth picking up someday.

Quick Flick Review: Storytelling

What can I say about this film. Don't you just hate it when you discover a new film director, love his first film and then loathe the next one. Well, this is exactly how I feel about Todd Solondz right now. I loved Welcome to the Dollhouse. It was witty, funny, cultish... We just watched Storytelling and I really didn't like it. It seemed as though some parts were useless and should not have been present while others were incomplete and underdeveloped. Recommendation: Skip it!

Artoo Strips: Artoo's First Football Game

This week, we debut a new feature on Artoo's Space called: " The Adventures of Artoo". This week's episode is called: Artoo's First Football game.

This strip was done with iMac's new Comic Life program. Pretty Cool eh? (Disclamer: This comic is "girlfriend-approved". No boyfriends will be harmed following the publication of this comic-strip.)

The tale of the absent minded pizza eater

Have you ever wondered how the human brain works? How it is that one minute one is able to process hundreds of variables and make these complicated decisions factoring distance, weight, judgement, force, emotions, time, etc... and then one goes in the kitchen after waiting for 25 minutes for his pizza to bake and he realizes that half an hour ago he went in the kitchen, took the frozen food item from the freezer, turned on the oven, set the timer and went back in the living room and FORGOT TO PUT THE BLOODY THING IN THE OVEN!!!!

Just wondering...

Feb 4-5 Week-Ender Report

Friday Night Report
Strange, as I write this, Friday night is a complete blank for me. I can't, for the life of me remember what we did. I know I slept at Cinthia but beyond that *pouf!* My memories of this evening are blank. Hummmmm...

Saturday Report
After I woke up I went for o'bit'o'shopping in Hull/Gatineau. Picked up the film Storyteller for 10 bones at a pawn shop. THey were having a Tintin sale at Librairie du soleil so I took advantage of it and bought Tintin au pays des savants; a nice coffee table book.

Since we are done watching Smallville Season 3, I was on the lookout for Season 4. Trird store I hit was Loisir des usagers and bingo, it was there, only problem is the box was all messed up. Boooo! I shall be patient. For some single DVDs, I sometimes don't care if the box is all messed up but these new carboard ones, I prefer having them in good shape as they can't be reproduces easily.

We ended up going to Dinner at MJ. We ate and played a little New Tetris on her Playstation. When I say New, I mean an old 1997 titled called New Tetris. It's a twist on the classic masterpiece where some of the blocks in the Tetris shapes are different colours and when they fall down, they sometimes break apart and melt into the lower blocks creating cascading rows. I sucked at it and didn't like the new rules. The whole point of Tetris is that you are given a puzzle and have to make be with what you are given. This one didn't follow these rules at all as the shapes broke apart. Makes you wonder: why mess with a classic.

Sunday Report
Spent some time with the iMac and designed a CD cover for my late grand-father's CD. My father was able to tranfer some old folklore recordings of him on his computer and we are making a CD out of the recordings. It's pretty cool. Can't wait to listen to it.

We took a walk to Blockbuster to get rid of a few DVDs and found out that they don't give a $5 minimum anymore when they buy DVDs. Boo! They must have found out that some of the disks people traded in were bought at Hellmart for $2.88 sometimes! I trated a few anyways and ended up buying season 1 of the old 1950s show Adventures of Superman. I wastched 2 eps in the evening and found them quite enjoyable. It's really cool to see in the first show how they introduce the tale of the Origin of Superman (Kripton scenes and all).

iMac update
I was able to network the imac and the PC together via my wi-fi router. It works really well. I can access everything on the drives on the PC now. Only snag I have to figure out now is that I have to re-map those shared drives everytime I turn off the computer. They don't stay on the desktop. Strange.

I played a bit with Powerpoint for the man and with the basic 512Mb of Mem in the iMac, I found out that it's a little slow. I will try to install the open source office clone and see how that program performs tonight. I will most likely want to upgrade to 1.5GB of mem soon anyways as I want to encore DVDs with the machine.

iMac is still my friend. It's really strange how I notice Mac mentions everywhere now that I am a member of the Mac family. It's everywhere (podcasts, news, tv, etc.). There IS an alternative to Windows based machines!

In other Mac news, Steve Jobbs became the primary share-holder of Disney this past week in the Pixar deal. File this one in the
"Things that make you go Hummmm...." file.

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So far, the new office is cool: 4 walls, my own door, own light switch and everything. Sweet!! :)

2006 CD Discovery #6 - The Watchmen: Slow Motion

Artist: The Watchmen
Album: Slow Motion

The skinny: Latest release by The Watchmen - One CD of greatest hits and one of new offerings. I liked this 2 CD set. I found the new set more interested that the old stuff because it seemed to gel together a little more. They have some cool classic tracks but I found it odd that i recognized many tunes off this CD while never realizing that it was this band that played them.
All in all a solid CD set which will stay on my iPod playlist a few more weeks.

Day 2 of Artoo's relationship with his iMac

So far...

I was able to network my PC with the iMac so that the Mac can use and access all of the hard drives on the PC. This is sweet as it gives me full access to my pictures, videos and music that is on the PC.

I was able to find a Mac player that reads and plays all the file formats for my videos.

I still need to move over the Itunes library to the iMac.

A friend of mine lent me some Mac software but I found out that most of it was pre OS-X ; this means that I won't work strait out of the box. I shall have to explore what the Torrent world has to offer for the Apple universe.

I can't believe how clean and crisp the colours on the iMac is.

Football fans, technology is with you!

This week-end's Superbowl broadcast will feature:

1,000,000,000 worldwide television audience
130,000,000 US viewers
70,000 fans at Ford Field in Detroit
720p HD standard of the broadcast
500 monitors in control trucks
400 crew people for production, technical, administrative and support
100x optical zoom of the longest Canon lens to be used
180 frames per second of Sony’s new experimental super slo-mo camera
90 inputs on the video switcher
90 miles of cable for cameras and microphones
60 microphones, including 12 on-field parabolic mics
54 cameras used by FOX at last year’s Super Bowl, but not all were HD as they are this year
40 digital video instant replay units
36 TV cameras
36 seasons of ABC NFL coverage, of which this is the last season and last game
29 mobile vehicles
25 degrees, forecast temperature outside the domed stadium at kickoff, a concern of ABC technicians
20 “hard” cameras (stationary as opposed to hand-held)
10 television production trucks (not including the infamous horse trailer)
10 commercials bought by the game’s biggest advertiser, Anheuser-Busch
7 handheld cameras
6 robotic cameras
6 super slo-mo cameras
5 million dollars per minute to buy a commercial
4 announcers: Al Michaels, John Madden, Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber
3 60-second advertisements (the rest are :30), bought by General Motors, Burger King and ESPN
2 operators for SkyCam: one cameraman, one “pilot”
1 director, Drew Esocoff, his second Super Bowl as a director

Impressive!!

Behold!! The new IMac and Artoo meet

You read the header correctly, I have just made the plunge. I just picked up a brand spanking new IMac by Apple. I do realize that there will be a learning curve to this new baby but so far, this thing is sweet. I figured that most of the things I use my computer I can easily do it with a Mac (mp3s, videos, DVD editing, web surfing). All of this is doable on a Mac - some of it apparently work better on a mac than on the PC platform.

More in the next few days.

Excited Artoo

Bye Bye Portage Phase IV office!

As some of you know, I am starting a new job Monday morning downtown Ottawa. I will be working at the corner of Kent and Queen. I can walk to work and it will take me 3 minutes!!! I chose to move to this new job in order to do something that I missed dearly (direct interaction with stakeholders and private sector business). I think this new workplace is going to give me a chance to play into a territory that is not totally unknown to me yet new in the sence that that it is a government program which I have never worked on.

In no particular order...

What I will miss most about working at Place du Portage in Hull.

• Cool lunchtime conversations with some good friends.
• My cool office (although, rumor is that I am getting a closed offine at my new workplace).
• Terri-Q sushi and The Deli's mashed potatoes.
• Witnessing first hand the wisdom of Mike Perry (my fav story : Mike trying to lift up a bolted chair to bring to our lunch table).
• Star Wars Trivia with Claude and Ryan.

What I won't miss about working at Place du Portage:

• Walking across Portage Bridge in the winter months (brrrrr!)
• Policy work
• Bad shopping mall (let's face it, that place sucks)
• The smell on the 4th floor (sorry Trish, the hallway near your office stinks)
• Bad Subway artists in the food court.
• The lan team folks. (I am at your office and can help you right now but for that you have to open a ticket by calling that 1-800 number first.)
• The unsafe environment for bikes.

Unsolved mysteries of Place du Portage.

• The locked mystery door in the men's bathroom that does not appear anywhere on the floorplans of the 4th floor.
• Why do they keep a library if no one ever goes there (there must me a librarian or two that has som pull over in phase IV).
• Why does the Terri Q guy give me a timy paper cup for my sushi when they won't fit in there.