Who is reading this??

I'm delighted that someone is getting some use out of my blog despite the fact that I haven't posted anything new in forever!

Installing Windows 7 x64 on my MacBook

I'm sure many of you will think this is blasphemy, but I like Windows 7 better than OS X.  I've been running Win7 x86 on the fella's old 13 inch Blackbook for about half a year now, and it works relatively well.  I just got upgraded the RAM, though, and since 32 bit versions of Windows can't access all 4 GB I figured it was time to upgrade the OS.

The Windows installation was smooth, no problems at all.  When it came time to install Boot Camp drivers though, I ran into some trouble.

I started off trying to install the Boot Camp drivers that came with the Blackbook, but running Setup.exe just came up with an error:  "Bootcamp x64 is unsupported on this model".  After some Googling, I found a workaround that allowed me to install the drivers.

The driver installation went... OK.  It got most of the way through, until it got to the 'Intel chipset' portion, and then it seemed to freeze up.  I waited a good 15 minutes, but it just sat there doing apparently nothing.  Checking the processes actually showed three instances of the installer running, taking up 100% of the CPU, but it wasn't going anywhere.  I ended two of the three processes, and the last process finished up 'successfully'.

I then tried to install the Boot Camp 3.2 upgrade, but it required 3.0 at a minimum and I had only installed 2.0.

Sooooo, I tried running the Boot Camp installer from the Fella's Snow Leopard CD, using the same workaround above... and it worked like a charm.  I then had to install the 3.1 upgrade, and finally 3.2.

Boot Camp is right up to date now and working great!

...and there's Rosie, the robot maid!

Actually, her name is Rosalita after the maid from Goonies.  Santa brought us a Roomba for Christmas, and she's keeping our condo spic and span!

My cat Oscar isn't such a big fan, but I told him we can get rid of Rosalita when he starts vacuuming.

University of Calgary Impliments a No-Idle Policy

The U of C is going to be cracking down on all vehicles left idling on campus, which I think is a great idea.  There's absolutely no reason to let your car sit idling when the temperature is above -10 C.

I was surprised by the amoutn of CO2 that actually gets released while idling a vehicle.  From the article:

The average mid-sized Canadian vehicle emits 2.3 kilograms of greenhouse gases when idling for just 10 minutes.

I'm looking for most of these

Any takers?

Writes of Passage

Gay.com has been doing a project for National Coming Out Day called "Writes of Passage" where they've asked gay celebrities to what they would say if they had the opportunity to write a letter to their younger selves.  The timing works out really well, since this is a great compliment to Dan Savage's new and worthy YouTube channel, It Gets Better.

If I was going to write a letter to the younger me, it would look a lot like this:

Dear Greg,

It's 2010 now, and I'm living the life that, right now, you don't believe you'll ever have.  I have a job I really enjoy, a solid group of fantastic friends, and the most wonderful man to share my life with.  I'm the happiest I've ever been.

You have a long journey ahead of you but soon enough, you'll get here too.

I only have one piece of advice:  COME OUT NOW.  I have very few regrets in my life, but at the top of the list is waiting so long to come out of the closet to those who are important in my life.  And here's the scoop:  your family will still love and support you, your friends won't ditch you (and for the few that might, you don't really want them around anyway), and you'll feel a million times better without having to lie to those you love.  The girl you're dating will be disappointed that her vision of the future isn't going to pan out, but she deserves to know the truth and you'll both be much happier afterward.  And your cat won't care either way.  I know it doesn't feel like it now, but being honest with the people in your life will be much easier than you think, and it's the most liberating feeling in the world!

I wish I could impress upon you how important this is, but I suppose everyone comes out when they're good and ready... and it's going to be a while before you feel like you are.

I'll see ya when you get here.  :o)

Things I Learned At The Hospital

Well, learned probably isn't the right word, since I already knew a few of these.  Perhaps reinforced would be a better word.  But I digress:

• Knowing what's actually wrong is much better than imagining all the horrible things it could be.  I've never really understood people who avoid the doctor because they're scared of what he'll tell them.
  
• The L.A. Times crossword puzzle is harder than the New York Times crossword puzzle.  Or at least, it was on August 16, 2010.
  
• No matter how bad things seem, chances are they could be worse.  The fella's eye was oozing and gross, but at least we weren't as bad off as crying, puking girl.
  
• I am desperately in love with my boyfriend.  Spending 7 hours in various waiting rooms of the hospital while I waited for him to get checked out certainly wasn't fun, but it also didn't feel like I was going out of my way or being inconvenienced; really, I couldn't have been anywhere else.  Holding his hand while we waited for the first round of intravenous medication to finish was a high point in a long day.
  
• Edmonton actually does have some hot cops.  And they all hang out in the Emergency room at the University Hospital.  There's no shortage of hot paramedics either.

This is as far as I could make it in my crossword puzzles without cheating.  Not bad, if I do say so myself: