Moving

Exams are now done...boy does that feel good. I walked out knowing I should have studied more, but I knew that walking in. Now I wait to see what my marks are. I'm sure they'll be fine - I'm not worried about failing a class - but I had wanted to improve my GPA from where it was last semester. I think my resolve held out till earlier this week, when I started flipping through the Internet to discover all of Google's many projects (here, be sure to check out Google Labs). When I was planning my move, I didn't realize the amount of time it would take. I guess I figured I could walk in, and walk out. But it didn't happen that way in the least. I spent two or three hours yesterday putting all of my stuff into boxes and into the car. At that point, it was closing in on midnight, so I called it a night and went to visit a couple of friends. They were Bar-B-Q-ing chicken wings over charcoal, which were very delicious. As we sat there eating, the Northern Lights came out to play. It means they're very bright when you can see them through the city lights. It's always amazing to watch the green bands dance across the sky. I ended up coming back this morning to do the cleaning and spent two to three hours at that too. I'd hate to think what I would be like if I had a bigger place to move. The other thing I was reminded in this all is that paper is heavy. After lifting my two boxes of books and papers, my 19" CRT (computer monitor), which weighs 50 lbs itself, seemed rather light. But now that's all done and I get to settle in to my new quarters. I'll leave you with a fun quote:

Duct tape is like the force - it has a light side, a dark side, and it hold the Universe together! - Carl Zwanzig

I Should be Studying

I have a couple of exams tomorrow, but I find myself drawn here instead. I guess I already knew I spent too much time on the Internet. I really haven't been on that long today, but I've still found some interesting things, including:

• Airlines taking the polar route to Asia
• Addictions drain the Canadian economy of $40B/year
• JoneSoft's File Splitter
• a potential "miracle pill" that started with figuring out how pot works

I guess I want to put up polished things, so I won't have time to look at these until probably Friday or next week. I would like to think that someone is coming across this, so if you stumble across this, just leave a little note (a comment, click on the link below this post) saying you stopped in. Anyways, I'll keep typing, even if I'm just talking to myself.

The History of Blogs

I feel like I spend too much time on the internet, but every so often I do come across something interesting. Whether it's interesting for you is something you'll have to decide. I'll probably post such web sites as I would want to some day come back to, or tell someone else to check out. Today as I surfed around to learn a little more about blogs, I came across this history of Blogs by Rebecca Blood (here). I thought it well written and easy to read. In a nut shell, she says that originally (circa 1998), weblogs were basically a collection of links that provided you with the web in a sort of "pre-surfed" fashion. About the time Blogger.com came out, blogs exploded onto the web and many moved to being personal journals of sorts. That's what happens when you don't have to know any HTML to put up a blog. Now there's so many blogs, it as confusing to find something useful out of them as the internet as a whole. As for me, it is just a fun hobby and a way to express a few thoughts, so I guess I fall into the second class. http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

Start with a Home Page

I set up a personal home page yesterday with Google, and wrote this:

This is, obviously the Home Page... the site is currently under construction, so I'll add more here soon. The question with any online presence is how much can I say, without giving away who I am...They talk all the time about the need for keeping your personal information safe on the internet, and this page is very much public. I think for now this will basically be a little hobby, something I can play around with and see what happens. I'll keep looking in to options, but maybe a blog is more what I'm after. I'll have to post a link if I go to that. One of the biggest reasons for moving may be that I can get people's feedback without having to give out my email, and I think you can run Adsense off your Blog too, and a little pocket change is always nice.

So I decided to try out this blog thing. We'll see how it goes, and maybe I'll end up using the two together.

If you want to check out the website, it's at minchinweb.googlepages.com.