Most of my posts seem to consist of “hey, I made this site look better again.” These messages tend to go up every 6 or so months, so why stop the trend now?

Check out the simplified http://seanouimet.com/ featuring a list of my big projects, and a slightly updated bio/resume. The site mostly serves as a portal to all of the other things I am working on these days.

The blog itself needs a few touch-ups (mostly the top navigation bar) to match the now narrowed down focus of my main site, but this can wait for another late night.

And perhaps one of these days I will use my blog for, uhm, I dunno … blogging?

All I can show is this for now: http://www.skeptographers.com/

More to come soon…

Your’s Mysteriously,
@SkepticSean

So my MacBook’s magsafe power cable fell victim to the frayed power cable issue. This is a common complaint among those who’ve purchased them through Apple’s own website.

Bad News: Newly exposed wires were beginning to make my power-cord not work if not perfectly positioned to work; looming fire hazard. A new magsafe adapter is $99.

Good News: I found new power adapters on eBay for under $50 with shipping. Fairly quick shipping is promised from Hong Kong and I already had the perfect amount on my PayPal account (with about $0.40 to spare.) Should be in later this week.

Bad News: The next day Apple finally made this an out-of-warranty covered defect, meaning those adapter cables not seen as being broken due to user neglect would get replaced. (Apple Support Article via TUAW ) Why bad? I just spent $50 on eBay, no refunds on working products…

Good News: I made it over to the Apple Store (West Edmonton) around 8:30pm tonight after my cord began to smell of burning plastic. I exchanged the crapped out cable for a shiny new one very quickly (and with no hassle at all.) Good job Apple for finally making this a free replacement program (though from the sound of it, this has been long overdue.)

Once my eBay purchase does arrive Rachel and I will have a spare magsafe we can use when out and about, and I’ll likely keep the other one plugged in at the desk ready to use when at home (no more crawling under the desk when I am in a hurry to get out the door.)

To all of the non-smokers out there:

I’m sure you’ve been asked one of the classic questions from smokers in need: “hey, can I bum a smoke..”, “got a smoke I can buy off of you”, “yo man, you got a light?”, etc. (For me, I seem to encounter this question the most on late night walks home from the LRT.)

My automatic response tends to be “sorry, I don’t smoke,” and I often wonder why I had used those words for the next part of the walk home. Why? I’m not at all sorry that I don’t smoke! I am proud of the fact my body and wallet haven’t fallen prey that horrible habit.

With today’s knowledge of smoking I am amazed that anybody starts. (I realize that those of older generations than I are now facing the nicotine addiction issue … but people under 30, cummooon! What were you thinking?)

Going back to the issue of language I need to rethink my response:

• “I’m sorry to hear that you smoke, and I don’t, so buzz off” — this is likely to get me in trouble, though I do still say “sorry” in there…

• “There’s a 7-11 down the street”- though it should be fairly obvious already…

• “Here’s some nicotine gum … I keep it around for when smokers ask me for their next fix.”- not quite right and it would involve me spending money…

• “No”- Hmmm, I think this one would work best: short but effective, and it doesn’t involve me getting chased down the street by an angry smoker.

So I surprised myself this week by getting a public library membership ($12).

It turns out that the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) goes out of its way to make the whole borrowing process as easy and convenient as possible. Say there’s a book that I want to read that is available at a branch across the city: I can simply put a hold on it and they’ll ship it to whatever branch I request. Once it arrives I have a whole week to pick it up. The same process happens with already signed out books… as soon as I am the top person on the city-wide hold list for a book (and a copy is returned at any location) they will ship it to my branch and email me to come pick it up.

As you are able to have multiple books on hold (25 items) I would imagine it is fairly easy to keep a good flow of books coming in.

Other conveniences that impressed me:

• Loan from any city location, return to any city location
• Online account management: place and edit holds, easy renewal, online catalogue, request materials, “to read” list (things I am not ready to put a hold on yet)
• Free internet for my iPod touch when at Londonderry and Churchill (and likely other places too.)
• E-mail reminders for renewal/due-dates, hold statuses
• Hours mostly match that of the mall near my house (Londonderry branch)

One final note on the detail that inspired this post: I noticed that the EPL didn’t have a somewhat newer book that I want to read in their city-wide database. I filled out a quick request form yesterday and by today they had already put it on order (and consequently I put it on hold so I will get to read it first.)

For $12/year it pays for itself after one book… now all I need to do is actually sign out a book.