ql-25.com :: because every cynical asshole needs an outlet.

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noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:39:00 +0000

as the title suggests, im feeling rather pensive tonight, and have been thinking about a lot of things. so, in the spirit of fairness, im offering everyone not interested in my nonsensical ramblings an advance warning to simply skip this post. there is no news. no comedy. not even a rant. just the blatherings of a 20-something that had a long day, and too many intoxicants.

basically, i feel somewhat lost in the world right now. i feel as if ive missed the flight somehow- im going through the daily motions but to what end? im reminded of words i heard when i was younger: "always move forward, going straight will get you nowhere." i feel as if theres something i should be doing, or somewhere i should be; some destination or purpose that eludes me.

its a really lame feeling. im hoping that the onset of fall semester is going to be a solution to this problem- giving me a sense of purpose, and making me realize im very quickly becoming an adult, with a real career.

...scary shit guys.

my arm and bank account hurt.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:26:00 +0000

so i finished up the lasonic tattoo today. looks amazing.

colours look a little wonky right now, but thats due to scabbing / redness. give it a day or so, and it'll look fantastic. we did all the cross hatching in the speaker grills as well. super detailed.

i also scored a SICK pair of reebok hexalite pump highs, in a teal / white / orange colourway. SO sick.

only 100$ for the kicks. so all in all, 150$ = finished tattoo, and sweet kicks. good day.

vaio woes.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:05:00 +0000

so my roomates vaio completely borked. his harddrive became irrepairably corrupt. and i was completely unable to fix it under any circumstances.

vista (installed) rescue dvd? nothing

xp SP3 rescue dvd? useless.

ubuntu live cd? (gparted has saved my life before) nothing.

as far as his laptop, and anything i throw at it is concerned, his harddrive no longer exists.

im open to suggestions, but im fairly certain hes boned.

seriously? seriously?

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:23:00 +0000

have we seriously stooped this low? are men completely incapable of shaving themselves now?

thing fucking looks like a rebreather. kind of like some cybernetic ninjas facepiece.

but no, no- its a shaving accessory.

this is pathetic. besides. real men grow beards. BEARDS.

winpwn updated.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:51:00 +0000

ah. apparently the root partition needs to be resized for both installer AND cydia to pecefully co-exist with the appstore.

a little bit of heads up on that would hav been appreciated cmw!

in the least, im now running a rock-sid 2.0.1 firmware, with both 3rd party installers, as well as the official appstore enabled. hello apps. lots and lots of apps.

fucking winpwn

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:32:00 +0000

why oh why doesnt winpwn 2.0.4 work? ive been stuck getting error 6. this, in normal terms mean my phone is a brick.

a $500 really flashy, BRICK.

gay,

holy shit! an update!

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:49:00 +0000

wow. its been a while huh? its dusty in here even. but yes, finally, finally- i am updating ql-25 again. it seems my work schedule has been impacting things further than id really like it to. im working late hours, spending my time after work (my mornings, as it were) with jackie, and basically sleeping away the better part of the day.

wash. rinse. repeat.

but now, with the onset of classes and fall semester looming on the horizon, im forcing myself to get in gear, and actually wake up at a decent hour. in theory, this is supposed to make me tired, but here i am updating my blog at 530am, so we can see exactly how well this works.

***

so, what exactly *is* new in ql-25 land lately? its been a damn long time since i updated- so actually, a good amount. abridged points to follow, than (possibly) explanations, and than (most likely) a diatribe about something that really only matters to me.

jackie and i are now officially 'something'. it was going on what, 3 months of us being 'nothing' so we figured its about time that we figured out what 'nothing' we were. turns out 'nothing' was 'something'. you follow?
im a linux user. yes. i am now 99% a linux user. (until itunes runs perfectly smooth in wine, i need XP to sync my iphone. but thats really it. i promise! hell, im even posting THIS from within linux.)
im 100% mobile. again. i sold my desktop (which was initially supposed to be a substitute for the lappy while she was being fixed, turned into a sandbox pc that i for some reason just kept dumping upgrade after upgrade into. i poured more money into that than i do into drinking. and my alcoholism is staggering and unwavering. i created a "base station" of sorts, consisting of a keyboard, mouse, external 500gb HD, and a lovely 19" LCD (one of the pair the desktop used) so when im at home, i retain all of the functions the desktop had, except i can unplug at any moment and go mobile. sweet deal.
i may be moving! moving. i know. sheesh. but as luck would have it i found a gorgeous bachelor apartment, with a sweet loft- so my bedroom isnt intruding on my personal / visitor space. the price is right. im heavily considering this.
i work far too much. 5 and 6 day weeks about to become 5 and 6 day DOUBLES. fuck me. but hey, fuck me all the way to the bank!
i finally started using the itunes store. like, what the hell. hy am i so behind the times? i only started using RSS like 3 months ago, and now im automatically downloading and syncing my regular podcasts to my iphone. im horrible with technology sometimes.
this list is long, and i hate numerical lists.

so there you go. a bona-fide update. i think im going to find myself a schedule, and settle in to that. expect more frequent updates after september 8th, when classes have started and im not working the bar every goddamn night. sound fair to you?

as an added bonus, im including a lovely photodump.

the new setup, dubbed "home base."

can your OS do this?

on TWO screens simultaneously?

the loft / kitchen section of the apartment i checked out today. i think it looks pretty sweet. almost classy even.

freshly done hardwood makes me happy. the room is larger than that, it actually extends past the loft stairs. not by much, but whatever. its a cheap bachelor.

this is where the magic happens. i call this one "the stairway to heaven" (read: i have sex up here.)

pink neon

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:15:00 +0000

so today i had my first experience with the itunes store- and suffice it to say i am NOT pleased.

i had hopped on in an effort to snag an album that (to the best of my knowledge) was NOT available online. so i proceed to click download on natalie walker - pink neon. itunes starts the download, than magically crashes. i restart, and resume the download. itunes proceeds to skip the firs 3 tracks of the album, and only download the last 3. now, i paid 4.99 for the full album. i deserve it. but to no avail. i RE download the album, and it (once again) skips the first 3 tracks, and downloads the last 3. i am now pissed. i am forced to download the first 3 track for 99 cents each, totaling 3$ for the first three tracks, when the whole album was only 4.99. not to mention i downloaded it TWICE, bringing my grand total up to:

-album purchases (2 @ 4.99 = 9.98)

-track purchases (3 @ 99c = 2.97)

TOTAL SPENT:

$12.95

12.95, for a 6 song EP valued at 1$ a track, or 5 bucks for the entire album. i am NOT pleased itunes. not pleased.

***

but seriously: natalie walker kicks ass. go buy her music.

[[NATALIE WALKER DOT COM]]

sorta kinda update. ish.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:44:00 +0000

omg. amazing day. will post more tomorrow.

stoned.

explanations abound!

...my bank account hurts.

thoughts on 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:44:00 +0000

alright. finally. nine days after its initial release, i was finally able to upgrade the iphone to software 2.0, basically the first milestone in the jesus phones' one year domination.

the install went fairly smoothly, as did the hacking (thank you dev team. pwnagetool 2.0 was everything we expected) and the end result? sadly, is mixed at best. overall im incredibly pleased, but there are enough kinks to almost make me yearn for 1.1.4, and a bug free existence.

appstore
smoother, more refined OS
push email / calendars (more on that later)
itunes remote
various other under-the-hood improvements.

auto-setup of EDGE data via carrier (i somehow used 3MB of data without actually DOING anything. thats about 150$ by the kb.)
twinkle crashes (rock solid in 1.1.4, buggy as fuck in 2.0)
lack of "illegal" 3rd party apps. (logical. re-writes as software dictates)

the edge data was enough to piss me off. apparently rogers has locked down the data, not allowing us non-paying users to enter bogus data, or clear it entirely, thereby rendering our data useless. i had to physically call rogers and have data services shut off on their end.

the big win for me is the addition of push. now the calendars in thunderbird are syncing live with google calendar, and ALSO syncing live wit my iphone's internal calendar. the result? one calendar to update, and all data pushing to all three devices simultaneously. amazing.

***

but, after a solid 8 hours tinkering with my phone, i think i need some sleep.

tomorrow i begin the 8 day workathon. woo!

christfuck. ow.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:30:00 +0000

so. how did YOU spend your thursday? i was in pain for 4 hours. turning this:

into this:

four hours later.... it looks pretty solid.

(all work by aengus @ sinkin ink hess)

crazy evening.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:34:00 +0000

has everyone seen 'do the right thing'? because really, im starting to believe in the premise of that movie more and more. the humidity lately has been absolutely opressive, and as a result i am miserable. why? well, for one - the basement of my house has taken on a strange... well, musk. it smells somewhat moldy. im chalking it up to humidty and basements, but nonetheless- ew. also, it sees my neighbourhood has gone absolutley insane. i mean moreso than usual. for 5am, there are an awful lot of people awake, and in the streets. i witnessed a domestic disturbance, saw a breakup, and am nearly positive i saw two prositutes take a single guy for a ride; all over the duration of one cigarette.

lets not leave work out of the equation either. im fairly certain today we exceeded our food sales for any given day, over the course of a couple hours. it was absolutely insanely busy. but hey, at least i wasnt bored as i usually am.

my real problem with the opressive humidty? the effects it has on my body. number one - i sweat. alot. (again- ew.) and the air pressures constant fluxuations leave me with raging, unstoppable, hurricane force migranes. and lucky me, i forgot my codeine at home. double lame.

so yeah, mother nature; fuck off already? just give me my falltime weather. cool breezes, crisp air, and the ability to leave my house in more than a t shirt and not feel like a ugandan.

yeah, i said it- fuck uganda.

pwnage 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:14:00 +0000

well, its that time of the year again. where we all sit around and constantly hit F5 on the dev teams web page in eager anticipation of the release of the new pwnagetool, which will basically allow all of us grey market iphone users to bask in all the goodness that is 2.0 firmware upgrade.

this time, i am prepared however. you see, i am now aware PRIOR to the release that the tool will (most likely) be OSX only. so in preparation, i have installed a virtual machine on my computer, allowing me to run the program, and thusly pwn my iphone.

i think its somewhat ridiculous, that i need to download / install / setup and entire OS virtually, so that i can run one simple program for 5 minutes. unfortunately, i dont know anyone that has a mac. which leaves me kind of fucked otherways.

oh dev team, when will you understand the world still runs on intel?

in all three glorious g's

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:08:00 +0000

alright. i know youre all sick of hearing about it- but i need to talk about the iphone 3g for a bit.

frankly, im a little shocked at apple regarding the 3g launch. this has seriously been one of (if not the)most hosed-up launch day i have ever witnessed. first off, people blew it way out of proportion. generally peaking, there is no real reason to upgrade from the existing GPRS iphone. i suppose if you really honestly do a lot of data browsing, it would be important to you. however, i find wifi to be prevalent enough that im not really suffering. the camera hasnt been upgraded at all, and truth be told, i hate the form factor of the new device. curved back? plastic back? WHITE? come on. this is gross looking.

than we come to rogers outlandish data / voice plan pricing for the iphone. seriously guys, 120$ for 2gb? thats ungodly. its 20 bones in the states for unlimited data.

than we come to the crux of the argument. the second coming of the so called jesus phone, is actually pretty similar to the second coming of jesus himself. lackluster, boring, nowhere near as cool as the fist coming, and actually kind of depressing. (as a raised xtian, yeah. easter is fucking lame. nowhere near as cool as xmas) heres where i rag on apple - the servers simply couldnt handle the upgrade.

you see, apple also released the 2.0 firmware today, to correspond with the 2.0 firmware present on the new 3g phones. so basically, all us early adopters, and gprs users still get all the sweetness that is the appstore. apple just failed to take one small matter into account: we were ALL waiting at 8:01am to upgrade our firmware. couple that with massive influx of new apple activations on 3g phones, and yeah, the server sort of ate shit.

behold the beauty of the fail whale. in this case represented by apples itunes servers. epic failure.

(img gracefully stolen from twitter, who ironically is also experiencing server issues. i blame heccubus. wholeheartedly.)

***

so whats my final take on the subject? well, im pissed that im sitting here with a GPRS iphone, on old firmware. i couldnt update now if i wanted to, since the servers are busy giving blowjobs behind wawa. (there is the small issue of the pwnage tool needing to be released as well... but more on that in my next post) so, we have a shittonne of 3g iphones sitting useless, since they cannot connect to itunes, and on top of that - we have a clusterfuck of OLD iphone uses, with unusable bricks, since the software upgrade also cannot be completed at this time.

frankly apple, im a little pissed.

(but i still love you iphone. sweet, sweet iphone)

scribefire test post

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:15:00 +0000

if this shit works, i think i officially got rid of windows live writer.

firefox 3 ftw, apparently.

***

its 513am. i think i need to sleep. sigh.

pimp my post

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:51:00 +0000

todays update is a short one, and in fact does not even appear on ql25. i managed to condense my entire rant into 5 simple syllables.

so sit back, and enjoy the almost daily haiku show, and please pay extra attention to the ql-25 videopost at the end of the haiku.

everyone check out my co-worker and fellow blogger stuartthegold, creator of the almost daily haiku show.

OMG I DID IT. I DID IT. I DID IT.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:55:00 +0000

i finally, FINALLY, FIIIINAAAALLLLLLLY got dual monitors working in ubuntu 8.04, 100% perfectly.

sweet jesus its good to be back in dual monitor land!

i KNEW i stayed up until 7am for a reason!

AMAZING!

i may just make the switch yet!

www.stugold.ca

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:19:00 +0000

everybody go check out my boy stu at www.stugold.ca.

stu is the other (totally awesome) cook that i work with at my bar. and goddamn, do i love that kid. he *is* the haiku master. plus hes giving mad props to the whole ql-25 crew. so i urge everyone to go check him out.

and unfortunately, i was unable to purchase a camera today. i know i promised i would- but im going to be more apt to on wednesday. so expect the first ever video podcast of ql-25 wednesday night. i sincerely hope not to disappoint.

the night in brief:

worked until about 1.

got drunk promptly thereafter.

smoked weed with a friend from toronto.

missing dj electrogirl. hardcore missing dj electrogirl.

***

also, hardcore shopping trip with greg from wrk on thursday. tdot here i come!

Coming Attractions

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:57:00 +0000

fear not ql25ers, i have not abandoned you. yes, updates are getting fewer and further between, but i can promise you, we have big plans on the horizon.

namely, after taking some inspiration from stuartthegold, hamiltons own personal haiku master- i have decided to definitely follow the video road to blogging. not every update, but i definitely think video will become prominently featured here on ql25. this of course requires me to purchase a camera, but hey- why do you think im going out tomorrow? also- we still have unfinished business with alex over at audiovideodisco. there is pot to smoke, and videos to make.

there are some other surprises and developments in store. im just busy lately, so implementation is taking longer than expected. but believe me- big things are popping. big things.

Another Apology

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:17:00 +0000

hello ql-25ers!

i know its been over a week since i updated last- but it was my birthday week. as my good friend heccubus says, i dont actually have a birthday, i have a week of debauchery and cirrhosis .

but yes, it was my birthday week. so i was really busy. really busy drinking. and hanging out with a certain someone. yes, dare i say it blograts, i think ql25 may have actually found someone. i dont want to jinx it early, or go into details; but when heccubus approves of a girl, you definitely agree its a good thing.

also, as luck would have it - i seem to have come down with some kind of gnarly stomach flu. basically, its REALLY not a pleasant sight.

there is much to update, however- and it will come tomorrow. possibly from work, provided i can swing bringing in my laptop for business purposes. if not, expect a 4am blog update.

but really- when it that unusual? especially for ql25.

***

coming soon: the orbit room. the enigma that is dave. my endeavors into the linux world. and possibly even some hints at the female ive been spending so much time with. until than.

Sunday Funday Mega Update

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:15:00 +0000

im sure youve all seen some changes recently here around ql-25 camp- most noticeably the rather large chat-type box in the right sidebar. whats up with that? that- is just one of the killer features in digsby.

[[digsby]]

digsby is a multi client IM software, and than some. so much 'some' in fact, that it lead to my actually switching completely from pidgin, my previous IM client. whats so great about it? well for one, that embedded chat window over yonder will send messages directly to my home client. which is pretty fucking sweet. oh, did i mention it does social networking as well? all you crackbook junkies, and rabid tweeters (like myself) should love the built in support for some popular social networking sites, as well as all major IM clients. so yeah, hit the link, and check it out.

***

today was my birthday. it was spent out in the sun, on a patio. i really couldnt have asked for more. except maybe i could do without the tequila heartburn ive got going on right now. gnarly. highlight of the evening? tiki, dallas and jes having an ass showing contest, asking me to judge them, while on the phone with my father. quite priceless.

***

im also about to embark on a journey. ive decided to experiment with binaural drugs. that is, specifically designed sounds, tones and pitches, which are supposed to cause all sorts of crazy shit to go down inside the brain. some trigger endorphins, some can help with relaxation or dreaming, hell - theres even one thats supposed to mimic the feeling of a port orgasmic-glow. i dont really know how i feel about this (or if i really even believe) but hey, its worth a shot. besides, im pretty sure that if these sounds dont work, i can hit the bong and trip balls nonetheless.

binaural drugs (via VBS)

wish me luck!

i know i havent been posting.

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:25:00 +0000

but im really having a bitch of a time configuring my desktop pc.

it would seem that while linux picks up on pretty much everything right out of the box, its having trouble with my dualhead video. (which is strange, since heccubus reported that of all things working right away.) so, my efforts have been pretty much focussed on getting both monitors functioning properly.

i think you can all agree that a working setup is pretty important, and thusly you understand!

at least tomorrow is my last day of work until friday- gives me a few solid days to fiddle with this, as opposed to the wee hours of the night after shift

addendum to previous post

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:01:00 +0000

as cited on my twitter,

i am officially a linux user, full time. (a backup install of xp is being saved for the rare chance i need to use a windows app, and wine doesnt suffice.)

so like, welcome to the counterculture, or something.

its enough to drive a man to use linux

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:53:00 +0000

so. working on my laptop upstairs. everything is fine.

come downstairs. reboot laptop.

MASSIVE VIRAL INFECTION.

best part is, i didnt actually DO anything in between 'okay' and 'fucked up' stages.

seriously. linux, here i come.

just a quick thought

noreply@blogger.com (QL-25) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:13:00 +0000

sometimes the human body amazes me. last night, i had about 4 pints of beer, and was a complete and utter shitshow. thats fine, all well and good- it happens on occasion.

but here i am at 3:10am, ive been steadily drinking beer since about noon. (its my day off. sue me) i killed a good 16 beers with my favorite lesbian in the world, than had about 3 more with a classmate. out of boredom, i than stroll over to my bar and proceed to down two more pints, as well as a shot of vodka.

the end result? im sitting here, drinking yet another beer- stone fucking sober. someone please explain to me why last night i get wrecked off of nothing, and today im virtually untouchable.

my liver probably hates me. sorry for the overtime buddy. come september well be back on schedule of early nights and little alcohol, i promise!