Night shift! Except, that should read Night shift! with one of those upside down exclamation points the Spanish language has which means the opposite of ascited. I'm sure in Spanish it means something else but only being half-Mexican I can only be half sure about such things. Tomorrow night, New Year's Eve, is not a statutory holiday so I am required to go to work! All night long! Think of me when you're having some bubbly! (where the !s are all understood to be upside down)

I keep meaning to do this experiment, but for logistical and lazinal reasons I haven't yet- I want to turn on my two iMacs at the same time and see which one gets on the internet faster. I truly suspect my circa 2007 17" 512 MB of RAM clunker that's still working off of whatever came before Snow Leopard (Housecat?) would win the race over my brand new 27 incher with 8 gigs of RAM running Lyin. I mean, Lion.
I know, there's me with the anti-Apple negativity again, right? But I love Apple, as much as I can say I love any corporation. You should see all the Apple hardware I have in this house. That ancient iMac I mentioned? Pallas uses it as her personal DVD player and it works great for that. My getting-to-be-ancient iPod Touch still works great, though it is too old to accept iOS 5.
It's because the expectations are that much higher. Apples aren't supposed to suck! So when they kind of do first you have a bit of defensive denial and then you're kind of gobsmacked. Each update comes and you think it'll get better. Not so far though. Wouldn't bother me if these updates weren't more or less forced down your throat if you want to keep updated with all your iOS stuff. (But I showed them- my iPad is still running iOS 3! Heehee!)
Is it too soon to joke about praying to Steve? Maybe, eh?
Well, here's a wish list for the next round of bug fixes and whatever:
Faster please.
You know that little icon that shows you when your iPod is done charging in your iTunes sidebar? Bring it back! Why you would take that away is a little baffling. It was there just last week.
That "fix" that was supposed to take care of webpages flashing white every now and then? Didn't work.
Is there any way to make the computer itself run cooler just by tweaking software? I doubt it but if so, make it so.
Make google stop changing gmail. Oh, right, enemies now, I forgot. Sorry.

8 Skeins of Danger tagged me and seeing as how he was instrumental in getting that meme I started going (ie he recognized the memetic potential and turned it into one) I thought I should play along. I did a similar one some years ago with Metallica so I thought I would do my other favorite band, The PIxies. Back in 1991, a bemulleted Homie Bear sat next to this really cute proto-goth in grade 11 English. We talked bands and though she didn't care for Sepultura and Death and Obituary as I did, she managed to turn me onto this cool band called The Pixies. Possibly on the very day they broke up, who knows. Though to be fair I think they broke up in 1993. The ticket stub held up by FX-7s is for one of their first shows after reforming. And I saw them again earlier this year performing Doolittle start to finish! Anyways:

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.
Try not to repeat a song title.

Are you a male or female:
Here Comes Your Man

Describe yourself:
Gigantic

How do you feel:
Where is My Mind?

Describe where you currently live:
Planet of Sound

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Isla de Encanta

Your favorite form of transportation:
Levitate Me

Your best friend is:
Crackity Jones

You and your best friends are:
Dancing the Manta Ray

What's the weather like:
Stormy Weather

Favorite time of day:
Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons (so like, 6:35)

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Debaser

What is life to you:
Blown Away

Your relationship:
Monkey Gone to Heaven

Your fear:
Break My Body

What is the best advice you have to give:
Distance Equals Rate Times Time

Thought for the Day:
La La Love You

How I would like to die:
All Over the World

My soul's present condition:
Oh My Golly!

My motto:
I'm Amazed

I'm gonna be ascited!!!!! That's how Pallas says she's eagerly anticipating Xmas. And this year has been absolutely magical watching her truly get into the spirit for the first time. She sprinted to sit on Santa's lap when it was finally her turn. And what did she ask him for? Presents!
I tried explaining to her the naughty/nice concept as a subtle way of hopefully influencing her behavior for the next few days. She listened solemnly and when I asked her if she thought she had been naughty or nice, she without hesitation asked, "But how Santa can come out from our chimney?" This is her biggest concern, of course, since our fireplace is one of those sealed gas ones that doesn't have an actual chimney. Even at not quite 3yo, Pallas can plainly see there's no way for the fat guy to pull that one off.
"Well, you know, Santa Magic."
And that's the heartbreaking aspect of all this Santa magic- that we are telling her these egregious lies, all in good fun, that she is wholeheartedly believing. I always thought I would be the parent who wouldn't teach his kids about Santa and all that, but somehow we just did almost by osmosis. Yeah, it's magical and soooo cute, but part of me really feels actually guilty.
I wish there was actual magic in this world that I could give you, little girl. I do.
At least I have something even better to give you- love.

Tobogganing!
Tobogganogganing!
Tobogganogganogganogganogganogganing!

Yesterday was Naia's first birthday. It's crazy how fast the time goes. We had a small family gathering in her honor. Though for Pallas's first birthday we made bookmarks and magnets and graven invitaitons . . . well, Naia doesn't care, she liked her cupcake just fine.

Speaking of babies, earlier this week my sister gave birth to a cute little boy so I have a nephew now. He came over yesterday for the birthday party and he's pretty stinking cute.

Been a busy week, just got back from Calgary for the weekend and now I'm in Hinton for dayshift starting tomorrow. How was nightshift? It was alright. I got to drive an ambulance (in a blizzard) for a guy who wasn't hurt or anything, just off food and meds for a bit too long. And here's a video I took of a loader loading a kress truck, basically the two jobs I do the most at the moment. Dark cause you know, night shift. But looks kind of cool in that post-apocalyptic way that pretty much defines my work environment.