Just a quick note, but I am heading down to Bellingham today for a picture and blog adventure. It should be a blast! I will take some pictures, and do some blogging and see what Linux is doing these days.

I haven't played with Linux for a few months and I am sure to return with all kinds of computer projects to build. I am such a nerd.

PS: And, they use Drupal to run their event site.

I ran across this by accident this morning. It is the A to Z of the Star Wars Universe.

Oh, and it is from Scotland. Only a drunken Scot could come up with this. (Just kidding!) Now, where's my morning beer...

A – is for Aliens. The Star Wars galaxy has hundreds – from the tiny cloaked chuckling Jawas with black faces and glowing amber eyes in the original Star Wars, to the worm headed Twi’leks in Return of the Jedi. New alien species in Revenge Of The Sith include the horned Togrutas, the wrinkly skinned Pau’ans, the folically challenged Umbarans and the amphibious Nautolans.

B – is for Bounty Hunter. These shady characters track down the galaxy’s most wanted for cash. The most famous bounty hunter is the helmeted Boba Fett. In The Empire Strikes Back, he watched as Darth Vader froze Han Solo in something called Carbon Freeze. Boba then took the frozen Han back to the palace of grotesque slug-like gangster, Jabba the Hutt.

C – is for Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), a former Jedi whose exciting lightsaber battle with Yoda provided one of the highlights of Episode II – Attack Of The Clones. In Revenge Of The Sith, Dooku causes problems for the Jedi with his specially-created droid army.

Anyone excited even a little for the new movie?

It appears Australia is starting upright burials. Several countries around the world have already chosen to bury people upright in order to save space. But Australia? I never picture Australia as being a country in need of space.

If you choose to be buried standing up, here is what happens:

1. You are wrapped in a biodegradable body bag.
2. Buried standing up with very little room to spare.
3. When the land is filled, the entire cemetary is covered and replaced with grazing land.
4. Cows relieve themselves on you.

Okay. Sure. You're dead. You've passed on. Would you really care if cows walk all over you? Probably not.

But, angry-hungry-flesh-eating zombies would!

A couple of days ago, this would have been my post about my war with Toshiba Canada and Staples Canada. Unfortunately, I am forced to take it all back because, as I was writing the following post, I was on the phone with Toshiba Canada and they changed their mind:

Over the past seven or so weeks, I have been at war with Staples Canada and Toshiba. We purchased a couple of Toshiba laptops that were on sale at Staples (yes, I know, I wouldn't normally order something from them but the deal was just too good!) and they were new machines. So, we bought them.

One of them had a problem on the screen, so, I happily sent it in for repair. It was fixed and I got it back. The keyboard on the second laptop had some sticky keys. I sent that in for repair. It didn't come back because it was not in warranty.

"What?" I said.

"It expired last year." The nice technical repair guy said.

"What?!" I said.

What followed was not pretty. When I get screwed, I like to make sure I have a good time - so, one must watch out when they sell me something and you are a huge corporation that spans the globe.

I called Toshiba.

They said: "So, what is the problem?"

I explained it calmly...almost.

Toshiba, three departments later and a call to the Staples store, said: "What?!"

Anyway, it has been resolved now, but I will never buy anything at Staples again. Why? Because it has been discoverd by myself and Toshiba that the sales people were not selling stuff "above board". It has all been deception, lies and plain stupidity.

I also must make mention of DTM Systems, a company that has been holding on to my poor machine and tolerating this whole mess. They rock! Thanks go to Barry, Paul, Wayne and Dave - without their help on this matter, I might be stuck.

And, Toshiba, bless their hearts, has taken this all in stride and supported their product regardless of this situation....

Shane's post trailed off.

But, now, I take it all back. Toshiba mentioned to me that everything would be taken care of. But, at the last minute, a decision came down from Toshiba's head office to deny me anything. They feel they fulfilled their promise and they had no further obligation to satisfy me.

I called Staples.

They said: "Toshiba and Staples have an agreement that their product, not matter when sold, is covered under their 12 month warranty. No problem. They are violating that agreement in this case. We will sort it out, you don't need to worry about a thing."

So, Staples has regained their standing in my book. I hope that Toshiba can do the same.

I received this from friend of mine today. I must tell everyone right now that I do have a lot of respect for Vin Diesel. He may be this "action" star now but if you see his films from the earlier part of his career - he actually can act and, more importantly, he can write. Check out his IMDB information.

Conan: You have this image right now, of an action star, tough guy, but there is, for lack of a better term, maybe a slightly nerdy side to Vin Diesel, is that fair to say?
audience: *laughs*
Conan: Please don't rip my head off, reach into my neck, and pull my heart out, but... You can do that later, but.., let's just say a side of you that people might not expect.
Vin: I spent a lot of years playing a game called Dungeons and Dragons.
audience: *laughs*
Vin: Very few people know that I was rolling 20-sided dice and talking like a half-orc
Conan: You would talk in the voice when you played the game?
Vin: Oh, we completely role-played, yea.
Conan: *laughs* you're kidding?!
Vin: (in the voice of a half-orc) "How dare you!?"
Conan: That's amazing! (in a nerdy voice) "Fear not, Gandalf is on the way!"
audience: *laughs*
Conan: That's what I would be, if I was playing with you. You would not let me play with you, probably. You'd be like "that guy's too nerdy, he's gotta go."
audience: *laughs*
Conan: So you played this for like how long?
Vin: For like 24 years.
Conan: For 24 years?! *laughs* I know...
audience: *laughs*
Vin: Now I call it the training ground for imagination.
Conan: Right, well that's very...
Vin: But this was before video games. I started playing in the 70s. And, this was, I mean, I could have played Risk, Monopoly, or D&D.
Conan: Right, which was probably the cooler of those games.
Vin: I think, yea.
Conan: And you created a character for youself, didn't you?
Vin: I created a character... No one knows this, but in Triple-X, one of the tattoos, right above my belly-button, or below my belly button, I don't know why I'm saying this *hoots from audience*, was the name Melkor. And that came from a character that I had, uh..
Conan: That you created in Dungeons and Dragons?
Vin: that I created. That was a Drow witch-hunter. Double-specialized witch-hunter. but this is all
Conan: There are so many nerds watching right now who are just thrilled. Cause you're making them cool, suddenly. All these guys are watching going "Go, Vin Diesel, Go! Go!" All hail, Melkor, you know?
audience: *applause and laughter*
Conan: I think that's neat though. See that you did, see that you'll talk about it.

I think my level of coolness has gone up d20+2.