Out of the dark

Today is the Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In Eesti I found the lack of sunlight in the winter to be one of the most difficult things to get used to, I was tired from November to the end of February and all I wanted to do was sleep. In Toronto I don't feel nearly as tired, we get an extra 3 hours of sunlight here but it isn't really as cloudy and the sun climbs high into the sky which makes a big difference. Strangely this years weather has been unseasonably warm both in Toronto and Tallinn ruling out much hope of a white Christmas.

A little comparison on December 21st:

Toronto (43° 63')
Sunrise: 7:47
Sunset: 16:43
Daylight hours: 8h 55m
Today's Temp: 6C

Tallinn (59° 22')
Sunrise: 9:16
Sunset: 15:18
Daylight hours: 6h 02m
Today's Temp: 7C

Picture of the day

I wonder what the fine is for illegally parking your horse?

I'm it!?

So I've been tagged. You're probably asking yourself "what the hell is he talking about?", which is a totally acceptable question to ask since few people know what blog-tag is. I'll steal a synopsis from Jaanus since he's the one who tagged me:

“blog tag” is a game where you get “tagged” by someone and have to share five things that others (at least on the internet) don’t know widely about you. And then you tag five more people and the game continues.

Now, I usually write in this space not even thinking that anyone actually ever reads it but I've hung out (and continue to hang out) with enough computer people that I eventually get suckered into things like this. But not wanting to be one of Jaanus' friends who doesn't join I will continue the game.

1. I once quit a job after working only one day.
2. I can touch my nose with my tongue (that's right ladies, you read that correctly). :p
3. I've driven without a valid driver's license for a number of hours. It was under extenuating circumstances which couldn't be avoided, I wasn't happy about it but I did it.
4. I got a massage from a man named Sergei, and enjoyed it.
5. I used to play the viola, I thought I was pretty good, at least my mom said so.

Unfortunately I don't think I have 5 friends who blog so in the spirit of the holiday I'll spare anyone else from being tagged.

Separated at birth?

It's a good think Sasha Baron Cohen didn't pick Eesti to make fun of, we've already got a president. :)

Venice Project

I've been reading up on NZ and Janus' next venture, the Venice Project. Anyone have a invite to the beta testing that they'd be willing to share with me? I'd love to test it out.

UPDATE: I got an invite to the Venice Project and have checked it out a bit. I'll post a review later this week after some more testing. Unfortunately I don't have any invites to pass out atm but if you want one let me know and I'll send it out when I get some more.

"Ma'am, we're not going to go down there and enforce your western bacon cheesburger"

I heard the funniest tape today on the Stern show, a women in the US (California?) called the police because she wasn't getting the right order from a drive-thru Burger King. She goes on and on about how the order has been wrong 4 times and wants the police to come down and make sure it's done right. It's just cracked me up, never underestimate the stupidity of the average person.
Have a listen to it if you want by downloading this clip.
"What are we protecting you from? A wrong cheesburger?"

Blatant advertising

I started looking for a new laptop and Dell has a promotion going on where there giving 20-100% off laptops randomly. Anyways, as a complete self service I'm posting this link to get more ballots and try and get 50% off a laptop. Click away. :-)

http://www.holiday-frenzy-online-game.com/EN/index.php?Plink=L1165265531742832146

Dead

I officially proclaimed my laptop as being dead this weekend, while it's 2 years old it still was pretty fast and fine for my needs so I'm sad to see it go. I started running into problems with it in August, once in awhile it would 'freeze' on me, I could hear the CPU still running but screen was frozen and nothing worked. I was forced to restart and then usually it worked. It got progressively worse and worse to the point where anytime I picked the laptop up or moved it a bit it died and then even if I didn't move it it could freeze up after 20-30 minutes of use. I used my limited skills to try and diagnose it, I formatted and re-installed the OS to see if it was a software problem, I opened it up to see if there was any visible sign of damage but to no avail. This weekend I took it into a shop where they ran some diagnostics and basically told me that the motherboard was shot and the options were to either replace the motherboard or get a new computer. PCs advance so quickly these days that I don't see much point in replacing the motherboard.

So, anyone know any good laptop deals?