Carnivale - oh, how I love this show. I don't think I've enjoyed a program on TV this much for a long, long time. In fact, Carnivale occupies the approx 1 hour of time per week that I set aside specifically to watch TV. It's like an infection spreading through my body - engineering my thought process in a way that has me crying out "The Final Battle Draws Near" in the middle of the night, as I wake up in a cold sweat after confronting visions of Brother Justin's black eyes burning into my unguarded soul.

Am I being over-dramatic? Maybe. The point is it's just that damn good.

Getting screwed out of money...

is something that we all try to avoid - with varying degrees of success. I fear though, that I've been seriously lacking in success lately.

My EI claim back in December is the first example. They sent me a letter saying "...we cannot consider the Small Weeks provision when establishing your benefit rate because the small week(s) you indicated are not within the rate calculation period...". It seemed harmless enough, by my understanding all they were saying was "This set of information is irrelevant, and thus your benefit rate will not be affected by the aforementioned week(s)". So I waited for my benefits, and they never came.

I wasn't particularly concerned though, because I went back to work after only 3 weeks off, and the work was steady up until the start of February. So at this point I revisited the EI office, and at the same time as I applied for benefits again I inquired about this "Small Weeks" Provision. The lady said that because they didn't have the exact dollar amounts for the "Small Weeks" included in my claim, they couldn't process an exact rate. Because I would have "deserved more money". Their solution? Give me nothing! It makes all the sense in the world.

Perhaps the most amusing aspect is that they had the information the entire time. The Small Weeks she was referring too are from back when I worked at FLR - and since I was paid weekly, my ROE listed the exact sum I was paid every week. So, my benefits were cancelled because they didn't have the information that was right in front of their faces.

I'm just waiting to see if they give me any problems with this round of benefits. I honestly expect it.

The second case I wanted to bring up was this years Profit Sharing. In my years working for PF I, along with everyone else (who meet the requirements) have been recipients for a yearly profit sharing cheque for a few hundred dollars. A very welcome bonus for the hours of toil in a ball-sweat environment.

So I worked for the company for over 6 straight years, before I quit when I moved to Ontario. It was approximately 11 months between the time I quit and when I was asked to return, so I did (A portion of the intervening time was spent at FLR, another portion spent in Europe). By now, in total, I've logged about 7 years of service to this company. But did I get profit sharing? Not a chance.

The official reason is that I "haven't amassed the necessary hours" to qualify. I suppose being gone for 11 months negates any hours put in over the previous 6 years.

I get the feeling I'm being played the sucker here. And it's not like I'm flat broke without enough cash to put food in my mouth - obviously not. But things like this are just frustrating.

Look! He's almost dead!

A heartless statement, perhaps. But taken in context - the context of what is very much an inside joke - it's absolutely hilarious.

(And no, I'm not going to say who it is I'm referring to.)

Canadian International Auto Show - 2005

Went to the show yesterday, and posted a series of pictures - as promised. There were a lot of great cars, my pictorial representing only a fraction of those on display.

Unfortunately, in a turn of events the left me incredibly disappointed - the Saturn Sky wasn't present. I was informed by a representative that the Sky was on display for the first two days, then was shipped off to Chicago. Of all the terrible luck, I show up on the third day and it's gone. Sigh.

But at least there were a lot of other great cars. It was also quite nice to, almost immediately after walking in, see the model search booth and the very fine looking ladies getting their pictures taken.

Now that's how you get things started right. Enjoy the pics!

One last Vette picture - what can I say? It's sexy as hell.  

Crazy-looking BMW hydrogen concept - capable of 300km/h 

Porsche Carrera GT. $444,000 price tag.  

Saturn Ion Rally Concept.  

Volvo S40. Never been a big Volvo fan in the past, but this is just a really nice car.  

They didn't have an XLR-V, but the XLR is so damn sexy - how could I not take a picture?  

Cadillac STS-V. 440HP V8. 

BMW M5. 500HP V10 - the first in a production model for the company.  

Solstice from the back. Damn I really like that car. 

Pontiac Solstice roadster, due out later this year. 

Z06 rear. 

Corvette Z06 - 500HP - Love it!

The new Mitsubishi Eclipse. 

For anyone that's interested, this is the new Dodge Charger. It's pretty large, and to be honest didn't impress me much.  

I've been bad lately, in reference to my blog. I apologize. I've been wrapped up, so to speak, in a game of immense entertainment value. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. I have to say, that in spite of a few glitches here and there, this game kicks ass. Anyone who scrolls down to my Xfire banner can see the evidence of how I've been possessed by KotoR II.

And I've completely neglected to make any mention about the NHL (My bad!). Yes, the season is cancelled. Yes, I'm pissed off. No, I am not surprised. The problem is that both sides seemed absolutely set on not seeing eye to eye. The owners, determined to create a system that can protect them from themselves - with a players association that insists they have no right to protect themselves from their own idiocy. It's not framed in that way, but strip away the crap and it boils down to something very much like what I've painted. The worst part is that, with things the way they are, I fear the season will be at the least cut short next year as well. If it isn't altogether cancelled again. Do any of us think they'll hit over-drive on the negotiations now, or anytime this summer? I'm not sure Bettman feels he's made enough of an impression on the NHLPA yet. But we can still hope...

In other news, I've discovered that Audioslave plans on releasing their second album this June. I've very excited about this. The first album, released in 2002, was positively brilliant.

Going to the Auto Show in Toronto tomorrow. Can't wait to see the new Z06 up close! Look for pictures tomorrow.

Niagara Falls - November 2003 

I really, really like the Saturn Sky.

It is my intent to visit the 2005 Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto this month - so be prepared for a barrage of car pictures in the coming weeks.

Valentine's Thoughts

At the beginning of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carrey makes a comment about Valentines Day.

"The day is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap."

While I wouldn't say I necessarily subscribe to such a belief - I mean honestly, not everyone feels like crap on Valentines Day. I think it's more of a statement coming from the set of individuals undergoing an unpalatable state of emotional desiccation on this particular holiday. Not that it's unusual; it's a similar person set that sinks into untenable stupors with the advent of the Christmas season. The primary feeling? Loneliness. With such satellite emotions as Bitterness, Resentment, and Self-Loathing, to name a few.

One could argue that it's not really the onset of any holiday that leads to such states of dejection. Instead, the feeling is a characteristic of the human condition. We are lonely, by and large, and resent the shroud that covers the eyes of those who claim to be in love - thus ordaining for themselves an antonym state to our own.

Truthfully, I wouldn't consider myself a member of either aforementioned group. I would instead sort myself into the class of individuals who tend to ignore the holiday and consider it yet another day - as it pertains to our own interests. I could look at the bright side: "At least I'm not wasting money proving my 'love' to someone who should already be aware of it." But that's a sentiment dangerously close to the resentful mindset of the angry lonely folk. Valentines isn't supposed to be about money, it's meant to be an opportunity - for expression. "I want to express my caring for you by showering you with gifts on this arbitrary day." Because, it seems as though we require a reason to be expressive - day to day living, and the common acts of love, generosity, and kindness involved - just aren't effective enough.

So all of you couples out there, go out and enjoy yourselves - express your appreciation on this day. At the same time, do yourselves a favour and take special note of the rest of the year too. It seems silly, at least to this man, that Valentine's Day should be the only day to recognize and appreciate your union.

For myself, I think I'll spend the evening with a new acquaintance of mine. One that I've been getting along with famously. Havana Club Rum.

Today I'm going to post the virus fix that I used on my computer. As I said in my last post, I had come to a stalemate in my efforts - at the moment, it seems as though the virus is removed. Evidence being I've loaded into windows without a single problem for the first time in a week. I've also managed to run for as much as 5 hours without a single peep from AVG or MAS - another landmark.

The primary culprits appear to be horseserver.com and klikfeed.com - at least in reference to a lot of the IE problems. I've read a lot of posts online in reference to the virus I had, most of them seem to offer half fixes - or at least in my case. The solution I'll be detailing includes sort of a mix of a lot of fixes found on boards around the net, as well as a few of my own discoveries. I've heard that Symantec has recently posted an alert about a virus named HaxDoor that shows a lot of the symptoms I'd been having - HaxDoor already comes in various strings as well.

Onto the fix.

- First, be sure to use a reliable virus scan with the latest definitions downloaded. As well, make use of Spyware removal programs such as Microsoft AntiSpyware, Ad-Aware, SpyBot S&D, and/or HiJack This. Update as necessary. Finally, head to windows update and make sure you have all the latest security updates.
- Boot into safe mode.
- Turn off System Restore.
- Open Explorer, Goto C:\Documents & Settings\(Your User Name)\Local Settings . Completely empty out both the Temp and Temporary Internet Files folder.
- Next, Goto C:\Windows\System32 and search out and delete the following files:
- a.bat
- SVPHOST.exe
- klo5.sys
- Klogini.dll
- mszx23.exe
- tempf00/01/02
- drct16.dll (This one wouldn't delete, so I changed the name to xxx.yyy)
- p2.ini
- vdnt32.sys
- i.a3d
- In the Start menu, hit Run, type in Regedit. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE search out and delete any instances of the above file references. Easiest way is to right click and hit find, then type in the name. I found and deleted at least a dozen references to SVPHOST.
- Close Regedit. RUN ALL SCANS, multiple times if need be.
- As an added precaution, run msconfig and be sure to uncheck any suspicious startup items. SVPHOST was in my list. Happily, it is now gone :).
- Reboot into normal mode.
- Run scans again - hope for the best! :)

I hope this saves at least someone from the bouts of hairpulling I was forced to experience.

I've spend the last few days doing battle against a very pesky set of virus'. A Trojan DownLoader, Trojan Dropper, and Trojan BackDoor. Their purpose seemed to be to cause my computer intense discomfort in its nether-regions.

Lucky for me, I was running 2 virus, and 3 spyware programs, so when it hit, at least I was aware. The unfortunate part is that even though my AVG scanner was able to catch and delete the virus', it was unable to track the source and eliminate it - the result was my virus vault filled with about 30 variations of the same 3 virus' by the end of Day 1.

I attempted the usual fixes; loading into Safe Mode and running my scans, as well as disabling system restore. But every single time loading back in normally resulted in a renewed attack from the offending malware. So I copied out the names of the virus', and went searching the internet for information. Oddly enough, not Symantec, Trend Micro, or Grisoft (The makers of AVG) had any info on the particular variation that had invaded my computer. So I scanned the registry for any files that had a name bearing any resemblance to the infected file names - it was a long shot, and a waste of time.

Finally, I downloaded yet another program - Microsoft AntiSpyWare, and I have to say: This program kicks ass. At the same time AVG was slapping down the trojans that kept popping into my system, Microsoft was eliminating the five browser hijackers that had managed to install themselves (Not Adaware, SpyBot, or SpySubtract were able to do that). Then, it surprised me again by popping up with a warning everytime it attempted to install again, warnings that coincided with my AVG smackdowns. But where AVG failed, Microsoft won the day. It took special note of .bat files attempting unauthorized installations and other such activities. With that information, I was quickly able to find and delete the offending programs.

Unfortunately, I still haven't won. Things are fine so long as I keep the computer running, but when I restart, it comes back for another round. I can beat it again, of course, but it's annoying and wastes my time. At the present time, I've gone into msconfig and eliminated all but the bare minimum of items from my startup list. As well, I'm keeping an eye out for any processes in the windows task manager that I don't recognize. I will track it down, I swear, and eliminate it for good.

In other news, it's snowing. And for some reason I can't fathom, I spent a small chunk of cash on new clothes. That's all well and fine usually, but considering I was just laid off - it seems almost foolish. I know I'll have my job back pretty soon, but that's not the point. The point is I really hate spending when there isn't anything coming in. But it is a nice set of jeans, and the tshirts I picked up are simple, yet nice. I can't say I'm completely unhappy.

Allana, James and I had a picnic in front of this castle in Aurillac, France. Allana proved to be a wonderful hostess to the two of us.  

LAN Party :) 

We had another LAN party today, this time with Budd Park serving as the location. It ended up being the same group of 6 players as came to my house a few months back. Boki though, had another engagement in Toronto, so for the majority of the day it was just 5 of us - Adam, Paul, Derek, Tom, and myself.

It was a great time though - we played Unreal Tournament 2004, Aliens vs Predator 2, and Command & Conquer Zero Hour. I think I did fairly well overall - even though I was teh suck at C&C at the start when the cobwebs were more than obvious. They washed away after a few sad matches, and then I was able to deal out some ass-whippin of my own - including making use of the same sneaky strategy they used against me. Hah! We tried getting StarCraft running, but unfortunately it just refused to connect us up :(. But I managed to procure for myself Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow, a game I've been really quite eager to try out.

There was also an enjoyable interlude when we snuck out onto the indoor soccer field and played soccer in the near-dark.

Anyhow, looking forward to the next one :D

This is really cool!! I can't believe I've never heard of it before. I want to know what treasure resides within damnit!

The NHL takes a big step. Will the NHLPA follow suit?

Manchester United 4 - Arsenal 2

Brilliant. Now we really need to do something about those Chelsea jerks.

On the road from Montreal to Ottawa.