ReidNews > 2004

Stargate SG-1

Posted by rae in entertainment
at 5:06 pm on Sunday, 29 August 2004

Being sick, I have time to watch a lot of TV. Recently, I’ve become more interested in Stargate SG-1.

I really liked the movie, and when the show started, I watched several episodes. However, it failed to hook me, and I didn’t watch it for a long time.

A while ago I watched a recent episode, and it intrigued me. So I watched another episode.. and another. Now I’m sitting through all the episodes in order. I’m up to the 11th episode of season 1 so far.

It’s fun seeing familiar actors showing up, and how the writers try to explain why every planet looks like the back woods of Vancouver.

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Ugh.. not feeling so great today

Posted by rae in family
at 4:02 pm on Saturday, 28 August 2004

We were the first to leave the LAN Party last night, partly because I was feeling not too great. After we got home I started feeling worse, and ended up sleeping on the couch last night.

Ronnie wasn’t in great shape this morning either. Maybe I got this from him. Well, hopefully it will go away quickly.

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LAN Party at Hrire’s

Posted by rae in friends
at 2:49 am on Saturday, 28 August 2004

Hrire’s basement — full of computers

Michael and I went to Hrire’s place tonight, bringing along a table, my PC and some board games. We expected to trade off playing on the computer and playing board games, but as it turned out neither of us got a chance to play any board games! I brought along a bunch of games, including “Doom 3″, “Unreal Tournament 2004″, “Halo” etc. However, we ended up playing mostly Serious Sam 2 and Unreal Tournament (no 2003 or 2004!). It was a *lot* of fun.

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StarFest 2004

Posted by rae in science
at 9:37 am on Monday, 23 August 2004

The moon, taken with my Olympus D-510 through Jeff’s telescope. Click picture for larger version.

We’re back from StarFest. Quick summary: Friday night was cloudy, Saturday night was excellent but I got sick, we came back Sunday morning.

The sun. Click picture for larger version.

Saturday was definitely *The* *Day* for the ‘Fest. The seeing was excellent, and people stayed up until past 4am.

The sun through an H-Alpha filter, so you can see the prominences. [sp?] Click picture for larger version.

Unfortunately for me, something in the air was causing me no end of grief. I haven’t “had allergies” for most of my life, but in recent years I seem to be getting sneezing fits now and then. This was much worse, as it included both the runny nose *and* a powerful headache. I managed to stay up Saturday night until after the moon set (it was really bright) and saw the Andromeda galaxy, the Triffid nebula and various other nebula before hitting the sack around 10:30pm. Even then, I had a very hard time falling asleep because of the headache. Probably one of the worst times I’ve ever had trying to fall asleep.

A panoramic view of the tent village at StarFest, with Jeff and Michael next to a telescope. Click picture for a very much larger (11,244 x 936, and 1,269k) version.

Jeff was checking out a certain brand of scopes because he is thinking of getting that brand. Jeff and I bought new pairs of binoculars, Bausch and Laumb 7×50’s. They have excellent light-gathering and really brighten up whatever you look at. Not just stars — in the middle of the night when I c ould barely make out the silouhettes of people, I was able to use the binoculars and read the badges people had on their coat arms. Very impressive!

All of my StarFest 2004 pictures are under one directory, so feel free to browse through them.

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Getting ready for StarFest

Posted by rae in friends
at 2:18 pm on Tuesday, 17 August 2004

Michael and I are heading off to StarFest 2004. As a consequence, I am checking out the tent to make sure all the pieces are there.

Click to see more tent shots

It seems intact, although a bit smaller than I remembered. I’ve booked spots for Michael and I for 2 days, as well as access to an electrical outlet (although we are warned to bring extension chords). I’m hoping to bring a computer and use it while there. Andy pointed out that I hardly need fear theft, as there are thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of telescopes surrounding us. I’m still undecided whether I should try to bring the G5 or just the iMac.

We need to go buy some red filters for flashlights, computer screens etc. Astronomers (quite understandably) get upset at white llight ruining their night vision.

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Wetstock 2004

Posted by rae in friends
at 6:50 pm on Monday, 16 August 2004

Peter prepares for an attack from Ronnie, above

This year was a relatively quiet one at our annual water party. We’ve decided to call these events WetStock. There was a flurry of activity in the early hours. People were shooting others and diving away from water bombs in a frenzy of activity. Usually after a short rest time, the activity starts up again, but not this year. Maybe we’re all getting old, or maybe it was the smaller number of people than usual.

Andrew and Jenny

Happily enough, Andrew and Jenny were in town and came to the party. Andrew managed to get a bit wet, while Jenny enjoyed staying dry, watching the 2004 Olympics (in Athens this year).

Luisa on the attack

I had to stay dressed in my “dry clothes” to go pick up Andrew and Jenny at the subway, but Luisa was quite aggressive and threatened to douse me on the way to the car. Even when I was in the car (and I had foolishly rolled down the window to talk to her), she gave me a big squirt right in the face! I peeled out (perhaps a bit more aggressively than I had intended) to get out of range as fast as I could!

Ruth enjoying a swinging time..

Ruth seemed to really enjoy our “Sky Chair” (as Luisa has since reminded me it is called). We learned that our sister-in-law, Val, hurt her back when her SkyChair (bought at the same time as ours) broke, and she landed badly on the ground. Good thing Ruth didn’t stay on too long!

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Added more blogs to the journals page

Posted by rae in friends
at 7:12 pm on Friday, 13 August 2004

On my journals page I’ve added Chez PLJ, Michelle and Tanya’s journals, joining the other journals already there: Luisa, Debbie, Harald, Micki, myself and some ‘Net people.

Just f.y.i. …

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New Rogers lineup

Posted by rae in entertainment
at 6:09 pm on Thursday, 12 August 2004

Rogers has added “timeshifting” channels to digital cable. Here are the new ones:

Timeshifting Channels
Channel	Station	Channel	Station
214	City TV Toronto (Ind.)	233	NBC Seattle (KING)
215	CBC Toronto (CBLT)	234	FOX Seattle (KCPQ)
216	Global Toronto (CIII)	235	PBS Seattle (KCTS)
217	CTV Toronto (CFTO)	236	Prime West
220	CBC St. John’s (CBNT)	237	Comedy West
221	ATV Halifax (CJCH)	238	Showcase West
222	ASN Halifax (Ind.)	~~239~~	~~YTV West~~
223	Global Saint John (CIHF)	~~240~~	~~Teletoon West~~
224	CTV Winnipeg (CKY)	241	Family Channel (Western Feed)
225	CBC Halifax	242	CHEX (CBC) Oshawa
226	CBC Calgary	243	CKCO (CTV) Kitchener
227	CBC Vancouver (CBUT)	247	CBC Winnipeg
228	BC CTV Vancouver (CIVT)	248	CTV Calgary
229	Global BC (CHAN)	249	Global Winnipeg
230	Citytv Vancouver (Ind.)	250	Global Calgary
231	ABC Seattle (KOMO)	251	A-Channel Winnipeg
232	CBS Seattle (KIRO)	252	A-Channel Calgary
		253	Newfoundland TV (NTV)
		254	CH Montreal
		256	CH Vancouver
		259	W West

Update: We don’t get all the channels, and I am striking out those we don’t get. Oops.

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Went downtown yesterday

Posted by rae in Reid
at 11:25 am on Thursday, 12 August 2004

I met Luisa and some Rogers people for lunch yesterday. Afterwards, I sauntered over to Bakka and bought some books by noted authors Michelle West (”The Sun Sword”), Tanya Huff (”What Ho Magic!” and “Relative Magic”), and Neil Gaiman (”American Gods”).

I was planning to head down to Dundas & Yonge to check out HMV and World’s Biggest Bookstore, but a couple of doors down from Bakka (which I need to remember is on the *west* side of Yonge, not east) I ran across “Grey Region“.

Now, back in university I went down to Queen Street West a lot to buy comics and books. I would usually go to the Silver Snail for comics, but one day a new place showed up called “Grey Legion”. I checked it out, and being the new kids on the block (almost literally — they weren’t much older than 18), they offered all sorts of promotions and discounts to woo people from the Snail. So I bought stuff there and then went to the Snail for anything they didn’t have (usually Cerebus, Love & Rockets, Stranger in Paradise — non-mainstream stuff).

After a couple of years, they moved the store. Then it was under construction or something, and then they moved again (I think). I heard at some point that they had to change their name. So.. I wondered if this “Grey Region” was related. I asked the guy behind the cash about it, but he just said he didn’t think so.

Then someone using one of the rental PC’s they have piped up and explained that ya, the store used to be called “Grey Legion”, but they got sued by the Royal Canadian Legion or something so they changed their name.

I don’t know why, but I found it kind of funny that both Bakka and Grey ..Region have moved to a new location, close to each other. There were a number of other bookstores around too, so I guess that is the area to visit when you are looking for rare or used books.

While I was there, I checked out their section of old D&D books. They had an old “Deities and Demigods” on sale for $49.99.. and it was the revised, non-Cthulu edition, too. I wonder how much my Cthulu-powered edition would go for these days? [TSR got sued by the estate of H. P. Lovecraft when the original edition hit the streets, so TSR removed the section and recalled all unsold copies, replacing them with the updated one]

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Ronnie has glasses

Posted by rae in family
at 1:34 am on Tuesday, 3 August 2004

Ronnie’s new glasses

Oh, forgot to mention that a week or two ago (the day after we got back from Wasaga, actually), Ronnie visited the eye doctor and then got some glasses. I think they look pretty good on him!

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Stargate SG-1

Ugh.. not feeling so great today

LAN Party at Hrire’s

StarFest 2004

Getting ready for StarFest

Wetstock 2004

Added more blogs to the journals page

New Rogers lineup

Went downtown yesterday

Ronnie has glasses