I hope blogger works this time. I've gotten 'Page Not Found' since yesterday which of course happend after I had already blogged about Richard Harris. Nothing sucks more than hitting Post and Publish only to have Blogger crash.

Here's a question for you that my grandfather was talking about a couple weeks ago: Do you think technology has advanced because of the imaginations of sci-fi writers and tv shows? Frankly, I was quite floored that my grandfather would even bring up such a topic because it's not really his cup of tea - or so I thought. But I've since discovered he actually reads quite a bit of sci-fi. Rick was there when he brought it up and we were talking about it later and I'd gotten into my head that it was Rick who mentioned it but no, good old grampa and his occasional comments that make you go 'Woah'. I do wonder though. Those writers have been dreaming up technological advances for years and lo and behold, someone somewhere is working on a flying car. We have video phones and well, just look at everything the Internet does. Anyway, something to ponder.

What's on the agenda for today... Let's see, I have to somehow configure our online employment application form to look exactly like our paper version. That should take me forever. I also need to find some sort of decent website statistic software for the hospital to use fairly soon because my boss is going to want reports soon. Rick showed me his but after I downloaded it and went cross-eyed at all the Unix-ness, I decided it was a bit over my head for now. I may try and look at it again because I did like the output, but I know jack about compiling and I'm not really even sure I've got the right platform for it. Maybe I'll call the ISP and ask them for help.

I think the trivia-meisters on TCZ should check it out and use some of that site on the K-LAG radio station they broadcast their quiz shows from. I, myself, have had to retire from trivia on TCZ because I kick everyone's ass at it and so to be fair, I've decided not to play anymore and let some other person win - hehehehe....

Anyway, it's October 23rd and it's bloody snowing outside. Perfect day for a bit of light surfing. One of the links I've added to my site is my cousin's beer site, Beerme.com. He was in town last week and it was good to hook up with him after so many years of not being in contact all that much. Anyway, I got a tiny bit of a beer education from him as he's a professional brewmaster and beer quite literally, is his life. Now, I am not a huge fan of beer but I will admit I've really only ever had your basic American swill tempered with the odd Guinness at the insistence of an Irish boyfriend. So at dinner at a local brewpub, we did a sampler thingie of about 6 of their beers and he showed me how to kind of judge them. You have to look at it in the glass first and study its colour, check the haze and the head, then you sniff it and try and detect any spices and aromas that might emanate from it. Rick was smelling all kinds of stuff in these beers that I never would have picked up on my own, eg. cloves, coffee, things like that - however I did wonder if I could only smell them *after* he told me they were in there. Hard to say. Anyway, next you take a sip and sort of umm, suck it up. I can't really describe this bit except to say if your kid is doing it with their milk, you usually tell them to cut it out :) But with beer, you're giving yourself a chance to take in the aroma while you taste it - it enhances the flavour. And after you do all that you rate it on a 20-point scale with a certain amount given to each 'section' of the beer (aroma, visual, taste etc.).

So three of the beers we tasted were so bitter I had to chug some root beer to kill the taste. Apparently Rick likes 'em that way but *shudder*. One I liked though was a (I'm going to spell it wrong, I just know it) Hefeweizen, and I think that's a wheat beer (could be wrong) and it impressed the hell out of me when he said there's a banana flavour to it but not from any flavouring they added. It was a natural product of the process. I think that one was my favourite. I can't do the bitter beers though, sorry Rick ;)

Wooo that was a lot of beer talk. Anyway check out his site sometime if you're a beer enthusiast (or even if you aren't). He's catalogued close to 4500 beers from all over the world and judged them on that 20-point scale. His site was one of the first beer sites to appear on the Internet - it's been around for a looong time. Maybe it will give you an idea of what to try on your travels. I'm looking out for other sites of interest to stick on my site as well so if you stumble across something, let me know about it - you can use the handy-dandy comment system in here :)

Ugh this section of our building is inundated with these weird little black flies. I see a little carcass of one on the edge of my desk *shudder*. Hate them. There, now it's on the floor and today is hoovering day by housekeeping. Muahahaha.

So I've been practicing making panoramas. I'm going to be making them throughout the hospital so I figured I'd better get good at making them. So here's my office: http://webpages.charter.net/melia/office/MelOffice.html. According to my friend Joey, it's a mess and too 'girly' but he's a techie and his office is too boring for colour TV so *phhbt* to him. I love it in here (apart from the flies). I have a girl behind me who seems pretty cool and doesn't seem to mind if my tunes get a bit loud and that's it. I did a bit of DIY in here one day when our networks were down and I couldn't access my files. Serves a purpose though because the Education department has a sort of closet in here aswell and they often don't make it to it, opting instead to dump all their crap on the other side of my office which irks me no end. So I've begun filling up that side of the room with stuff so they'll cut it out.

I have another one I made of my living room but I won't be linking it. My daughter decided she wanted to be in it so she sat very still as I made it. I don't put pictures of her online though so all three of my readers will just have to wonder what my living room looks like ;)