The ‘real’ tree in the Great Room
Yesterday was a long day.
In the evening I drove down to St.Catharines with KK and met up with a bunch of friends for the visitation honouring the passing of a friend’s dad. Mike seemed deeply moved by our presence. I don’t think anyone had the right words. Sometimes there was even silence. But it was clear it meant a lot to him. I wouldn’t imagine missing the opportunity to help such a great guy through what must be a very difficult time. We stayed through the ‘Rosary’ ceremony which was in both English and Polish. I guess I’m bias, but although I don’t speak Polish it sounded like a beautiful language. Some softness to the tones. Not harsh sounding like Russian or German. I hope Mike fares well today. A sad passing.
After the visitation the guys (Captain, Joeyicus, KK, Ding and Brad) gathered for a beer, reflection and toast to Mike’s Dad. The drive home was interrupted by the rare closure of all lanes of the QEW. It seems like it was a bad night for other people as well.
It was uplifting to come home and see bdot had lit up our ‘Great Room’ tree. Apparently there are over 1200 lights. Phew.
Samsung S4 vs. HTC Desire
Sometimes people wonder why you would upgrade your phone. Above is a comparison between my old phone, the HTC Desire and my new phone the Samsung S4.
It really is remarkable the jump in tech in four years for cell phones. First off the OS, the Desire is a full 2 version behind. Ouch. I can’t even drag and drop folders. The jump in resolution and pixel density is incredible. The Camera on the Desire is practically useless unless the conditions are perfect. I’ll report back on how the 13M camera fares on the S4. The CPU speed is nearly double, the RAM quadrupled and battery life nearly tripled!
More power means the phone can do more… and the Desire is really show its age lately. Strange to think it was a top of the line phone four years ago. I’m sure I could do a similar comparison with the S4 in four years. We shall see.
Bdot starting the Christmas tree cutting
Bdot was away Saturday. So I had the evening to myself. The dog was velcroed to me the entire weekend. If you are thinking about getting a dog and want a breed with high independance, don’t get a Vizsla. Good lord… It seems the reno has scarred the dog. She now has a high sensitivity to noises within the house. She will often lay on our bed which is above the garage. Now when I’m rooting around in the garage, not even making that much noise, she’ll jam herself under the bed and hide. Which is brutal. She scratched her nose yesterday and ends up shaking like leaf in wind storm. We’ll have to work on desensitizing her, it is pretty sad and unfortunate, and it certainly explains the reaction the day she damaged her teeth. Le sigh.
So I had a pretty quiet night. Hockey, gaming, Sons of Anarchy, delicious take-out Fish and Chips. (Which I also had for breakfast. Which was awesome…)
I met bdot at Drysdales in the early afternoon Sunday. After goodbyes to the MacFamily we were on the annual quest for our Christmas tree. Unfortunately due to exams my sister and JP couldn’t join us for the ritual tree cutting. Still it was fun. We were surprising efficient finding a big ass tree, with helpful direction from the staff, in about 20 minutes. The breaks with the staff continued with the pricing… The tree is easily 8 feet, likely pushing toward 9… and the dude took cash for a 7 foot tree saving us a bunch of coin… therefore we will return again to Drysdales next year. It is the same guys every year that evaluate the trees. There is always a lot going on at Drysdales… singing, fires, wood carving with a chainsaw *smirk*… we got some food as well. I don’t recommend their burgers… the burgers we got were cold and clearly store bought… The fries and onion rings were marginally better. Overall a successful afternoon, the tree is now up in the great room waiting to get decorated.
Should get my S4 today. It is listed as On Vehicle for Delivery Today. Woo!
Found an interesting and simple way to grab youtube videos… simply go to savefrom.net pop in the youtube URL and it figures out all the available formats and gives you download links. That’s easy! Brilliant!
In sad news one of my friend’s father’s passed away a few days ago. My thoughts go out to Mike and his family in this difficult time. This is the first father amongst my friends to pass away so it has resonated deeply with me.
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