Archive for January, 2007

Hello to everyone out there in geekdom

Here is the official reminder for everyone to tune in to CRNC Radio 90.1 FM The New Heat today at 4:30pm EST.  For me it's literally in exactly 2 hours!

If you are not near Welland Ontario Canada and can't tune your radio dial(who uses dials anymore) to 90.1 FM.  Head on over to the CRNC Radio website and tune in over the Web!

You need either iTunes, Winamp or XMNS to tune into the Online Stream.  The IP address is:   http://72.38.7.118/listen.pls

Tune in, email us any questions you have and make sure to check out our website at thisweekingeek.net for all show notes or join our myspace at myspace.com/thisweekingeek

Tune in!!!!  Please?

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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I'm am sooooo excited for this that I'm giddy at 2am. Hehe

Here is the “official press release”
There are few landmarks in the history of Geekdom, such as Han Solo shooting first, the Atari 2600 and of course, the advent of such wonderful things as the Super Nintendo and the evolution that is the XBOX 360 but we bring something a little different….

We are “This week in Geek”

The hosts are Michael “The Birdman” Dodd, a refugee from some weird place whose name is lost to the mists of time. Joining The Birdman shall be Steve “Snowball” Saylor whose elite skillz make even the most elite weep at his feet…. together these people are the force behind what is destined to become the greatest geek show in history

The show will focus on all aspects of the culture which bubbles just underneath society, the world of the electron and the switch, the roleplaying game and the first person shooter, and well you get the idea.

Week to week, the hosts will entertain, educate and feature a wide variety of topics ranging from the latest comic book releases, Dvd’s, video games, the happenings in the Mac and PC world and of course, what geek show would be complete without the classic Dungeon and Dragons reference….

That’s not all….giveaways and trivia contests galore

So add us at www.myspace.com/thisweekingeek

and vist our website

http://thisweekingeek.net/

Stay tuned for all sorts of cool stuff

till then

Lower your shields and surrender your listenership

Listen to us @
http://broadcasting.niagarac.on.ca/crnc.html
and click the listen link
I really hope everyone will listen in on Wednesday. It's going to be a blast

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Hello from Toronto!

Yes that's right Snowball is in tdot and I'm in the Lab Rats studios or technically Andy's apartment.

So as your trusty Lab Rats blogger, guess what I'm going to do.  I'm going to be Blogging live while I'm here.  So stay tuned to this blog for all your Lab Rats Live Blogging needs.

1:53pm – We are currently setting up the set.  The cats are having fun wandering around and pizza has been ordered.  I just realized that I brought the wrong cable for my digital camera.  D'oh!  Pictures will have to come later.

2:24pm – After a bit of a WiFi issue, I'm back online!  Woot.  pizza is here.  Great timing!  Maybe I might have a video post soon.  As soon as I get my camcorder up and running.

2:27pm – Sean is getting his makeup on

2:30pm – Andy and Sean test their mics

2:33pm – Gary Marriot and Steve Huntriss are discussing Super Users

2:35pm – Sean looks bored as he waits for shooting to begin.

2:39pm – Biff and Boo meows.

2:41pm – Andy is having some problems with the Vista computer.  Ah Vista.   Oh wait it's fixed now

2:45pm – Shooting has begun!

2:50pm – Andy and Sean are talking about helping grandma with computer problems.

2:56pm – I just created a video post.  Video is exporting now.  Will have up in a few minutes.

3:00pm – Video done.  Trying to upload now

3:03pm – And now a commercial break!  Buy Techsmith!

3:07pm – Andy and Sean is doing a wrap up of Show One.  Video is still uploading

3:10pm – Show One completed!

315pm – Video still uploading.

3:19pm – Gary and Steve are now talking about hacking databases.  Ah to be in the presence of geeks.  I love it.

3:21pm – Three..two…one!  Show two has begun.

3:23pm – At total count, Andy has plugged his book 4 times…wait 5 times!  Buy Andy's Book The Absolute Beginners Guide to Security Spam and Spyware

3:29pm – Andy is showing some new security features in Vista

3:34pm – Andy still talking about security stuff.  Pretty easy going episode.

3:38pm – Another commercial break!

3:42pm – Show Two done!  We're rolling now!.

3:44pm – Video uploaded!!!

Lab Rats Behind the Scenes – Whacky Voices

Right click and click “Save As” to download “Lab Rats:  Behind the Scenes – Whacky Voices” video
3:55pm – Small break while we switch tapes in camera

3:59pm – Another mic test, ready to start Show three.  Last one of the day

4:01pm – Show Three has begun!

4:04pm – Andy and Sean are talking about sandboxing with a mac…..mmmmm parallels *Insert Homer Simpson drool here*

4:10pm – Running Vista on a MacBook!  Sean shows all the geeky goodness of parallels.  Andy sings, “Parallels is fun!  Parallels is fun!”

4:12pm – Woot a Snowball mention from Sean!  Sean rules!

4:16pm – Sean is installing a new OS in Parallels.  Andy sings again, “Parallels is fun!  Parallels is nice!  50 bucks its going to cost you.”

4:22pm – Show three done!

4:44pm – I finally have some photos!  Thanks Maurice for the cable and the camera, and him taking the pictures.  Here is just a few, more will come later.

Here's some more for ya:

Well that's it for me!  Thanks for reading!

Let me know what you think of this new live blogging thing.  Did you like it or didn't you like it.  Leave comments below.

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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So uh yeah, yesterday?  Don't get me started on yesterday.  Not a good day for Snowball.

First I missed my first bus in the morning to go to school.  I thought no problem, I'll catch the nest one which would've gotten me to school half hour late for a 3 hour class, but I thought no problem.  Bus issues happen.  I could easily explain that.  But no I missed that bus as well.  Why?  Well, I caught the right bus to go downtown no problem.  I was on my way, everything was going great.  But as soon as we got to the downtown bus terminal so I could transfer to another bus, that bus was leaving.  Suffice it to say I did not catch it.

This is very bad.

I know what you're saying, “Can't you take the next one again?”  Sure I would be a little bit more late than usual, but that would work if only there was another bus going to school.  Oh yes my friends, that bus that drove away was not going to come back until 4 hours later!  Yeah, Welland Transit system, kind of doesn't like me at the moment.

So, I thought might as well come home, no use staying at a bus terminal to wait for a 4 hour bus that would've gotten me to school an hour after class ended, and that was my only class for the day too.

So I wait by the right bus stop at the station for the next bus to go home.  The bus drives up, I get on, surprised that it's early, but didn't think much of it.  The bus leaves, I notice it's going in another direction.  Not opposite to where I was going, but in a different direction.  I scramble around in my brain to figure out which route it was going to take, I conclude that the bus was going still in the sam direction of my house so I thought as soon as it gets close enough I'll get off and walk the rest of the way.  No biggie.

Wrong!  Big BIGGIE!

I notice the bus takes a quick left turn…..onto the HIGHWAY!  Oh crap.  I now figure out where this bus is going.

TO NIAGARA COLLEGE!!

But don't you go there?  Why are you still mad?

Yes, that is true I do go to A Niagara College.  Just not THAT ONE!

So, I'm sitting on the bus, after leaving my house around 6:40 am it is now 9:30am.   This is just not my day.

To make a long story short-er, I talked to the bus driver, he takes me back to the terminal after dropping people off at the College and I wait for the RIGHT bus to get me home.  Keeping always on a closer eye to see the sign on the bus telling me where it's going to go.

I get home around 10:30.

Phew!

Not quite……

As I'm about to sit down on my computer to email the professor letting me know of my absense, I notice the computer is off.  I thought odd, because I didn't turn it off when I left this morning.

So I turn it back on again.

Nothing.

I try again.

NoTHING.

I try again

NOTHING!

The computer turns on!

Woo Hoo!

No Woo Hoo!  Bad Woo Hoo!

Hard Drive won't boot up.  No Signal on Monitor, CD Drives won't open.

Yeah, after talking to Tech Support Services at Best Buy(which is where I got the computer from) that said it might be a power supply issue, but they are not sure.  It's going to cost me 40 bucks + whatever parts need to be replaced to get it fixed.

I don't have that kind of cash.

So I'm now sitting here 36 hours later with no main PC, sitting on my iBook blogging about this, and I'm still not sure what the problem is with my computer, and I can't bring it in until hopefully tomorrow.

Yeah, not a good day.

Steve “Sad Snowball” Saylor

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Smallville – The Complete First Five Seasons

In which fictional world/universe/land/city would you most like to live?
Submitted by glenn is the new chuck.  

DC Comics universe.  No question about it.  I would live in Metropolis, work at the Daily Planet.  Just so I could hang out with Clark, Lois and Jimmy and Perry.  Dude that would be sweet.  Plus also, if anyone from Smallville is reading this blog.  I would love the opportunity to have a small part in the show.  Maybe Freak of the Week, but anything would totally rock!

*End transmission of Snowball PSA*

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Step

….one giant leap for his publishing career.

Oh yes my friends, I am no longer a person who says they want to be a writer and pretends to be a writer and when asked if I am a writer I can say with a coy smile, “Oh yes, I am a writer.”

As my new Editor told me in an email I just received not five minutes ago, today I just lost my publishing virginity..

And before you ask, oh yes it was good for me.

What started as a somewhat New Years Resolution for me to become a paid Published Journalist/Writer is now one step closer to realization.  As Neil Armstrong was stepping onto new territory, new worlds, I so am stepping into new territory and new worlds.  No long I am sitting on the sidelines of life saying “I wonder if.” I can now pick myself up run onto that field and be a part of the game.  I may not be the Quarterback, but hey at least I'm not a Sub sitting on the bench.

How is this feat possible you ask?

Well, for the past few weeks there has been something brewing on the Snowball home front that I've been dying to tell everyone here on Vox, but I didn't want to talk about it, if for whichever reason it was not going to happen.

As I mentioned before I got a volunteer job writing the blog over at labrats.tv.  I love it, so far I have made a total of 10 posts since the 8th of December and I'm happy about that.

Now cut to a few weeks later and I'm thinking about trying to become a Freelance Writer.  After sending emails and applications up the wazoo applying for Writing jobs, no nibbles.  Nothing.  I felt like a lonely fisherman saying he was a fisherman but catching no fish.  There was only one hope and that was my friend Andy Walker.  He owns his own Technology help site called Cyberwalker and he has articles about how to make the technology in your life that much easier.  So, I email him up, seeing if there was some suggestions he could make as to how to go about being a freelance writer.  I even asked if Cyberwalker was needing writers.  He told me that although he could not right now recommend any particular job at the moment he did recommend working for Cyberwalker and then at least that will get me started.  So I took him up on his offer.   It's not paid, however a person has to start somewhere.  Now, I just need to keep on writing so that by the end of this year I can write on this blog that I am an official Paid Published Writer.  Won't that kick a little ass?

Cut to to the present with a flashy Cross Dissolve and as of today, January 17, 2007 my very first article as a Tech Journalist is now online!!!!!!!!

You can check it out here and see for yourself.

Now as my editor Peter just told me in a response to the email he sent me five minutes ago, I must go and write, write and write some more, eh?

Wow, this is a hawesome feeling!

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Mike Mcgee

So I was crusin' the Interweb's time wasters, and I found this post from my friend Amber.  She went to a Poetry Slam event in Toronto where I found about this guy named Mike McGee.  He is a Slam Poet Extraordinare.  Even now I don't really know what Slam Poetry is, but if it is anything like what Mike performs, well I'm definitely interested.

Sometimes I found people like Mike and I am amazed at what a creative people we meat sacks of humans are.  Plus the effect that one creative person has on another is to me really intoxicating.  Oh yes, I get high off of creative minds turning.  The hamsters on the wheels of creative minds spinning round chock full of creative goodness…..I need a moment.

Ok, I'm good now.

Where was I?  Oh yes, Creative people.  It's people like my friends Shane and Brian that I love hanging out with because they have that creative mind too.  As you know Shane, Brian and I are writing our own books(which BTW Shane got his preview copy of his poetry book in the mail the other day.  Woot!), and with that we always get together every week and write stuff.  We throw ideas back and forth, ask for feedback, comments, and help if needed.  It really keeps a creative mind motivated.  This week I really needed that because for the past few weeks with Christmas, Exams, and such I've been lacking in my creative outlets such as writing.

So Thank God for Mike that his stuff is out there on the Tubes that gives me that creative push on the ice to keep my skates moving.

Thanks Mike, if you ever read this.  You have a new fan like two likes three and four likes six (because, five has issues).

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Do you ever get that time where there was a perfect Kodak moment that you wish you could take a picture or a small video clip and you don't have a camera on you?

Well that's what happened to me today.

Man, I definitely need to get myself a cheap small digital camera that I can carry in my pocket because this was missed Kodak moment was priceless.

Picture this, I'm at school, I'm waiting for a bus to take me home so I avail myself of sitting on some couches that are in the hallways which is close by to a Wi-Fi access point.  So I start to log on not really paying attention to whats around me when all of a sudden I hear this low grating noise.  It starts slow and quiet then starts to get louder and louder.  I look over to my left and sitting in a very comfortable postion is a guy sleeping with his head resting on the back of the couch.  His Sports cap is resting comfortably over his face, obviously he intended to sleep.  Thing is this guy is snoring up the wazzo!  I mean it is so loud that as I'm writing this someone just walked by listening to this and he comments that he could hear it down the hall!!

I couldn't believe it!  I immediately searched for a camera in my bag…nothing.  Camera phone?  Battery dead.  Damnit!  So what do I have?  I have to capture this moment.  So I think of the only thing I can do.  Record his, uh, audio bellowing.

So I did, and I now share this with Vox.  Enjoy.  You can really hear him around the 28 second mark.

Snore

Oh crap he just woke up.

Wait now that I think about it, it's probably a good idea I didn't have a camera.  Just the audio recording alone is worth it.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Well, it's officially been more than a week since Christmas, and silly me I didn't even tell anyone about it on Vox.  Man, I'm not living up to the Voxionary name this week.  But granted it was the holidays, so I do have a bit of a good excuse right?

Christmas 2006
3 comments

Well at any rate, the Snowball Family Christmas went off with a bang.  It started with my birthday obviously and it didn't even stop.  The biggest enjoyment I had was being able to spend Christmas Eve with my close friends and family.  Our family had a “Christmas Eve Open House”  Where we invited people over and they can come and go as they please.  Normally our family tradition was to have Christmas Eve dinner, which always consisted of Meatball Subs.  Trust me you have never really had a Christmas dinner without gorging yourself on Meatball Subs.  We only really eat them one time as a family throughout the year and it is usually Christmas Eve.  I don't know why that is, but trust me they are good, and great on the wallet too.  We also usually after dinner would grab a whole bunch of snacks such as Chips, Cheese, Cabassa, Candy Cane Ice Cream, etc, and we would watch either “It's a Wonderfull Life” or “A Christmas Story(which happens to be my favorite Christmas movie, because I seriously look and feel like I'm Ralphie Parker)”

Now that is normally our family tradition, but for the past two years the Open House replaced that.

Matt Devine, Summer 2004

Which brings up a good story.  Last year when we first tried this Open House concept, I had my friend Matt over and he really wanted to play Halo on my XBox in my room.  Well for those of you who haven't been to my house, I literally live in the basement of the house.  I have a Rec-Room(which is where the big Home Entertainment system is hehe) and I have a bathroom, and a laundry room.  So I basically have a basement apartment except no kitchen, and no shower in the bathroom.

So anyway, the night wears on, and it starts to get late.  The majority of the guests have left except for my brother's girlfriend and Matt.  I go upstairs to the Living Room while Matt is still playing Halo.  I'm sitting upstairs talking to my family for nor more than half an hour and all of a sudden the conversation stops for a second, and all you hear coming from the downstairs is this loud, “YESS!”  My Dad then asks who that was, and I said it was Matt.  My family laughed so hard because they forgot that Matt was still down there and didn't even realize it!!!

If that doesn't tickle your funny bone, well I guess you had to be there.  It was funny okay!

Anyway, moving on with my Christmas recap….

So after everyone had gone, and all the guests were accounted for and left.   We all went to bed and woke up around 9:30ish on Christmas morning.  It was really weird for our family to be up at that time because we are up so early Christmas morning that it is usually still dark outside.  This time, bright and sunny.  “Wow, so that's what the sun is like in the morning,” I thought.

So, after all the crinkling of wrapping paper and the obligatory, “How did you know's,” “I love it's,” and “You got what I wanted's,” was said and done, Christmas was done.  But now with the added bonus items we can now store in our rooms and play with for a long time.

IPod

My main gifts this year was:

- 30 GB Black Video iPod – Yes I finally replaced my now dead 3G iPod.  Boo freakin ya!  However, I can still use my old iPod as a 10GB Hard Drive.  That is totally worth it.
-  Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0 (Upset that it is only half the season, but hey that's the Distributor's fault not my parents)
- A 12″ Walking Robosapien
- A Superman Calender
- A Superman remote control Monster Truck
- Plus many more small little things that are too many to mention.

Superman II – The Richard Donner Cut

On a side note though, the gifts that my friends got me I definitely cannot go without mentioning.

- From Brian =  Superman II:  The Richard Donner Cut – This has to be my now all time favourite movie.  Plus one of the best gifts I have received this year
- From Shane – Lewis Black's book called Nothing Sacred, and a book on how to be a Superhero(Which both Brian and I got because we are huge Superhero fans)

So all in all Christmas and a fun New Years Eve with my friends really put a good ending period to a great year.  I will never forget 2006.  That will be the year I will look back on and after telling my Life Story, I can conclude by saying “…and that's when it all started.”  I love those kinds of years.

Well, I hope you all had a good Christmas and a great New Years, and now let's move forward into 2007.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

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Happy 2007!

Well, it's official 2007 is finally here!!!!!  Well at least for me on the east coast. 

I wanted to say to all my neighbors that it's has been a beautiful year, and the next one will be even better!

The Holidays were awesome, and I'll have a full recap of it later today.

This past year has meant a lot to me more so than any other year.  I mean lets face it, you have Call For Help and getting into a College Broadcasting Program all in the same year, plus being able to hookup with new friends and past friends that have now become my best friends, you can't really top that.  2006 was the beginning of my path into a career and adulthood, and it's not as scary as I thought.

But enough of this sentimental bull hooky of reflections and feelings!  Who needs that?!

*hands out virtual wine glasses and pours wine/apple juice(gotta look out for the kids) to all my Vox neighbors*
Here's to 2007.  May it bring hope, happiness, joy, love, peace, and prosperity to all.
Down the hatch!

*Hickup*

Tood*Hickup*les!

Steve *Hickup* Saylor “Snowball”

*Hickup*

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