Geek Living : the clean space conundrum

Back to school time is almost upon us all!

Not that I've noticed as it's been school, school, school for me for most of this calendar year.

Anyway, with the advent of cheaper school supplies and office goods, it got me scouting for organization and home decor solutions in order to help me when I start the most despised task of cleaning my home.

I mean, have you ever tried cleaning your room, home, whatever, and found yourself discouraged because you don't have a place in mind to put a particular item?

It's a killjoy, and it ruins a mood that only rarely comes to most people outside the germaphobes.

An urge to clean.

And as someone whose entire mood is driven by a need to organize, it definitely does not leave me in a good place, in that I stop and simply give up on the attempt.

Which is why my home is more often than not, half-clean, with bits and pieces here and there in better shape than other places.

My biggest challenge right now (compared to every other problem here in my place right now when it comes to home decor) is finding a spot for my school supplies/papers related to work, school and life. For awhile its been piling up and collecting dust on my desk, then on top of my giant 4x4 bookcase, and now, in an attempt to force myself to really focus on a final solution rather than these temporary ones, it is now in a box to the side, waiting for me to go through it in order to organize it.

So the plan, for starters is to get one of these:

It's a 3-shelf bookcase from Walmart in black oak. It's similar to the BILLY bookcase from IKEA except its shorter and costs $27 dollars compared to IKEA's $79 dollar price tag.

I've been looking at it for awhile as a potential hallway piece to organize my shoes, keys and mail (which is another organizational problem entirely) but the issue of the papers have kind of bumped this on the wayside.

The plan right now is to place it next to my desk facing outward and place my printer and router on top of it. That stuff is actually collecting dust on the floor right now.

So really, this bookcase will kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

There is going to be one major change to this set up though. I'm going to dump the third shelf, so that instead of a 3-shelf bookcase, it will be two shelves. Part of this is because of the binders I have for school and other things will need more space than 3 shelves can allow.

The other is because I think two shelves look better and cleaner. At least it does to me.

What else is a part of the plan?

The desktop file (in brocade white) from The Container Store is not only stylish, but a must for me. I've been trying to decide how best to file certain necessary papers that can't quite be hole punched and placed in binders (legal papers come largely to mind, mot to mention job related papers) and the filing book I have right now just doesn't do it (and it's a tad unsightly to boot). As soon as I get my bookcase, you can bet I'll be ordering this.

Then there's the DOKUMENT letter tray in pink by IKEA. Of course, I don't think I'll be keeping it in pink as that bright colour would really stand out in my decor. The plan will likely be to trot outside and spray paint it either a minty green or a nice blue.

As for the coloured boxes, those will likely be the last purchase made for the shelf decor and those would likely be purchased at the dollar store. I'm looking for a colourful look that appeals to my decor and I'd probably be keeping stuff like business cards and other assorted office supplies in there.

Keep an eye out for back-to-school sales all around and don't forget, a more organized space makes for a more organized mind. Or whatever...

Geek'd: a diving disaster

I like diving. A lot.

It's a complicated sport that is also rather simple in observation.

A big splash is bad. A tiny splash is very good (provided you go in head first of course. You'll understand why later)

Anyway, since one only really gets the chance to watch diving during an Olympic season, I spend a lot of time watching it.

So today I was following the Men's 3m Springboard preliminaries on the CTV Olympics website as part of work (I'm a multi-tasker. I was doing several other things at the same time) when, in the second round, a string of 0s came up on the board for Stephan Feck of Germany. 

Now for those of you who don't know (or don't understand diving), a 0 score by any judge basically represents a catastrophic fail in diving. A dive so bad that it can't even be called a dive.

So I of course had to find out what happened. 

After fiddling around with CTV's World Feeds (which at that moment decided to magically bug itself into oblivion) I finally found the dive at 14:31 of the feed.

How catastrophic was it?

It was so bad I had to show my neighbour next to me. Then my supervisor was shown, who overlooked the fact that I was watching a sport other than the one I'm supposed to for the sheer awesome of the failed dive. Who then announced it for the video team to cut a clip of the dive for the website. Which prompted everyone else to want to take a peek at the video.

Why was it so incredible?

Well, for starters, every one of us has done one of these. It's embarrassing, it's painful, and frankly it makes us rethink attempting a dive later on.

But these are the Olympics. 

One would think that to get to this level, one would be able to avoid this kind of "splash" in a literal sense.

And while we feel for the athlete and his very human error, still one can't help but react in awe and humour at the mistake as well.


Diving may not look like the most strenuous sport out there, something that appears more acrobatic than athletic.

But don't be fooled. A lot of pain, and ability to manage said pain, is involved in this sport.

As Australian veteran Loudy Wiggins said after she competed last week: "I'm pretty sure it is a young person's sport for a reason. You travel at 60km/h and the water feels like concrete when you hit it."

Then there are the divers who actually hit the board, or the platform, on the way down - Canada's Alexandre Despatie did it. He was concussed, which caused some to wonder whether he'd even be able to participate in these Olympics after all (General side note, both Despatie and fellow Canadian Francois qualified for the Men's Semi-Final)

If that seems careless, then consider that the closer a diver stays to his or her launchpad, the higher the score from the judges. They are encouraged to take risks.

It depends how you hit the water, really, according to one Australian diver. 

"You get this big sort of burning, stinging sensation. A bit of bruising, some blood vessels can pop, but overall that's sport."

Geek Media: recrimations of a multimedia monopoly

At least they live up to their company
line. They simply won't stop...

The other day, on my way to work, I received a phone call.

It was Rogers. Again.

Once upon a time, I had three Rogers prescriptions - cable, internet and cell. Or at least I did through my parents.

Since I've flown the coup and is now on my own, I've gone elsewhere for internet and cell phone services.

Now I only get cable through Rogers.

Somehow, that alone gives them the right to call me.

And not once in awhile. Not a few times a year.

Try several times every time they decide to survey me. Which is once every two months.

Now let me make this clear...  in my humble opinion, the worst job in the world isn't the janitor who cleans toilets, or even a land-mine inspector. After spending years listening to my dad screaming at many of these over the phone, my belief is that the worst job is call centre representative. No one has to put up with the kind of verbal abuse they do and still have to remain polite throughout (at least, sound it) than these guys.

And because of that, I generally try to be polite with call reps. I won't say no to doing surveys (time permitted and depending on relevance) and I generally try to keep my tone modest.


But this was the fourth time so far this year they've called me, and about pretty much the same thing - "How can we improve your experience?"

And this isn't a one-off "If she answers, we'll ask her, if she doesn't she's off the list."

No.

They keep calling. It's four times, or five times a day, until I bloody well pick up the phone only to hear, "Hi this is so-and-so from Rogers and we'd like to ask you how we can improve your services today."

I mean, the first time they called, I answered their questions politely and no, the service I had was more than satisfactory and fine. I don't need more channels for an additional $11 dollars, or a home phone, or a cell phone service.

The third time, it was "Well, we see you don't have an internet service and... "

No, thank you. I use Teksavvy to supply my internet needs, and unless you guys can get me better than 500GB of bandwidth a month for $45 dollars, it's not worth talking to me about.

(Note: The equivalent internet coverage via Rogers is nearly $100 dollars)

This time around, I didn't even let the poor woman finish. It was "No, I don't need any improvements or promotions. My service is fine, this constant need to call me is not however!"

I'm sorry. Once a year, twice a year I can deal with. But once every two months makes me want to cancel my one and only Roger's subscription.


I've consciously made my decision to avoid Rogers for the essentials (cell and internet) in my own home for many reasons.

Mostly because after spending a good number of years getting ripped off on my cellphone bills and watching my poor, hapless mother get ripped apart with the cable and internet bill, I had enough.

I mean, I was paying close to $40 dollars for a bare minimum service, which later ballooned to over $100 dollars over a three month period, at which point I threw a hissy fit at them for them to fix the problem.

I finally booted myself out over to Virgin once my 3-year contract came to an end, I had had enough of them and the headache they gave me.

As for the internet, I simply couldn't stomach paying $50 dollars a month for a third-world quality internet service when Teksavvy provided much better for an equivalent price when I got my new apartment.

It's not like I need Cable television or anything. It's a luxury for me, a plus for working stupid hours some days.

And frankly, if they call me one more time this year, I may just tell them I don't need it anymore.

Or I can switch to Bell. There's always that option...

So...

Dear Rogers,

Stop calling me. I've had enough of you and your "ways to improve my service." If I want more, I'll go looking for them. On my own and in my own time.

No love,

Grace Im

Geek Living: geeky coaster creations

I am looking for coasters.

And these, pictured, would be the ideal purchase in that category. Because Lord of the Rings book cover is a genius concept in which to set my cup upon.

They are made and sold by the etsy seller myevilfriend. Her store, called Tara's Dinos 'N More actually have an amazing set of geeky-themed ceramic tile coasters. From Ghostbusters to Star Wars to Doctor Who, one can purchase and use these amazing looking pieces for a relatively pricey (for coasters), but not exorbitant price of $12 USD for a set of four.

Which would be solid, if not for the $13 dollar shipping price to Canada from the USA (Des Moines, Iowa to be exact). There is this note that indicates that "with another item" the price of shipping would be $2.50 only, but I am uncertain if that has to be from within the store or is it etsy-wide.

It's something I would like to know.


It's amazing. Despite everything you can find at Dollarama (an amazing chain of dollar stores in Canada), coasters are not one of them! One would think a solid set of  (albeit plain) cardboard coasters would be available there.

No such luck, though I did look at IKEA and found this and this set of coasters for $2 CDN. Granted, the plain and colourful set is a set of 6 while the one with the tree pattern upon it has only 4.

Anyway, reason why I'm looking for coasters is because my coffee table is barely 2 weeks old and it is already suffering from some rough treatment.

I do... just about everything around it and on it. From watching television to eating breakfast to simply vegging, my home at home is currently my couch and my coffee table.

But because of it, it's suffering from having my laptop set upon it and shifted around constantly, which has been scratching its black polish surface. But most damaging is the numerous cold drinks I tend to enjoy while utilizing my couch for my enjoyment.

Besides the coasters, I am also looking to get a table runner for the coffee table to minimize the amount of damage the table will suffer from use as well. But I haven't yet had the chance to seek out and really find (or make) one. I am thinking of a pattern, either a vibrant blue along these lines or even a multi-coloured pastel stripe like this one on Buy.com.

And no, this isn't because I haven't yet found a geeky-themed table runner anywhere (yet) that I'm going with these concepts.

Not, it's because geek works better when its an accent piece. Too much geek, and things can clash and become a little overdone.

After all, even Sheldon and Leonard's apartment on the set of The Big Bang Theory isn't loaded up with items from geekdom. It's a nice balance of shabby chic and geeky/science-y items.

(All things considered though, the decoration is likely largely due to Mr. Leonard Hoffstaeder's design parable, as Sheldon is likely one who simply does not care about how the place looks as long as he can find his stuff)

Geek Media: it's a hobbit trilogy revelation

It's official. The Hobbit duology has become a trilogy.

And while 12,000 people on the internets seemed to "Like" this announcement (at least, on Facebook they did, which was where Peter Jackson made the announcement of his decision) I'm not one of them.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED the Lord of the Ring trilogy. As far as I'm concerned, Peter Jackson handled that classic brilliantly. So much so did I love it that I have all three extended editions and they get pretty frequent use when I'm of a mind to write or be creative.

Don't ask me why, but it really does get my artistic juices flowing.

But I'm a Tolkienite, and a purist to boot. Even when I write LOTR fanfiction, I keep things canon.

And I accept and totally agree with the idea that the Lord of the Rings movie could not have been done unless each of the three books was an individual movie. It was over 1000 pages long. So relatively speaking, 333 pages per movie.

And even with 3 movies, it was unable to incorporate many events that occurred in the books, such as the meeting of Tom Bombadil and the scuffle at the Barrow Downs, not to mention the Scouring of the Shire.

But the 310 page (more or less, depending on the edition and the font size) Hobbit? Compared to the LOTR movies, in page terms it can't be longer than one standard 3-hour movie. So even the duology was a bit of stretch for me.

But I was able to accept it. Mostly because I figured the second movie would be 50% Battle of the Five Armies, which anyone who have read said book knows, that battle was all of around 10 pages worth, and that was because it was told from Bilbo's point of view, who was knocked out at the beginning of it. And having seen what Jackson did with the Battle at Helm's Deep (turned a one chapter narrative to a 1.5 hour odessey in the Two Towers) and knowing his love for those huge, epic battles (and the Battle of Five Armies is one of the bigger and badder battles in the Third Age of Middle-earth) he wasn't going to settle for 10 minutes of that fight.

But now it's a trilogy, and it has me throwing a bit of a fit.

Yes Peter Jackson states without doubt that they plan to use that extra time to incorporate more material spoken about in the Appendices of the Lord of the Rings that does touch upon a number of things that occurred during the these events.

But it's not enough to fill a trilogy. A duology yes, but not a trilogy.

Which has me wondering if this may be Jackson's (and the studio's) attempt at a cash grab. I mean, they already have a dedicated audience in Tolkien fans from around the world, but even those who could care less about Tolkien or Middle-earth would probably go out to watch this movie. And because once people watch and enjoy one, they tend to want to finish what they started irregardless of how crappy the rest of the movies are. One only has to look the the Toby Maguire-led Spiderman trilogy in addition to the Matrix to know this to be true.

Why not increase your profit by another half by extending the series into a third movie? Even if by the end of it people are frothing at the mouth?

Which brings up another issue for me. Precisely how much artistic licensing Jackson will be taking with these movies as a result?

And then I get worried.

I will probably still go out to watch the first movie this Christmas. But I may choose to watch Les Miserables first as a result all the same.

No that's a lie. I still like my Tolkien. Even if it becomes bastardized. But then, who knows, maybe Jackson is a genius and he'll find a way for this to work?