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Hey, so I was on a trip of my own and couldn't respond to this, but I'm totally happy to give some advice and echo what others have said now that I'm back home.

 

This is terrific; thanks, Spenny!

 

Try and get yourself some poutine. Smoke's or Poutiney's do a good one.

 

I just checked and Poutiney's does indeed have vegan Poutine, so I'll be able to be my insufferable vegetarian self!  It looks good!

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Well, I'm at least glad that there's someone else out there who sees the Star Wars series as "6 ok movies" rather than "3 works of genius and three abominations".

 

I'm in a difficult situation, because I see them as "2 bad movies, 3 ok ones and 1 pretty good one" but I will never love Star Wars the way I love Indiana Jones, or Looper or Inception.

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Can't believe I'm allowing myself to be drawn into Star Wars, but here we goooooo...

 

It's much more about cohesion and a competent story than it is that half the movies are brilliant and half the movies are garbage. Empire is a legitimately good* (*insert plaudit here) movie. A New Hope is a classic form executed well. The first three movies were, for better or worse, very genre defining. The second three did not push that forward, build on the foundation of ~20 years of interim movie making, or frankly tell a fun or interesting story. I thought the 3rd one, The Assassination Of Mace Windu By The Coward Emperor Palpatine or whatever it's called, was a passable movie but by then its momentum was far too mired by the politics and general poor film making from the previous two to be anything of consequence.

 

And then NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :(

 

 

But really it comes down to the fact that I like and enjoy the first trilogy, warts and all. The second one didn't have the heart of the first and did nothing for me. That's much easier to pick apart.

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See like that! That's what happens!

 

I know why people like Star Wars! I just don't care. It does literally nothing for me.

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Well, Star Wars, for better or worse, is important culturally and is important personally to a lot of people. I know why it happens!

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This is terrific; thanks, Spenny!

 

I just checked and Poutiney's does indeed have vegan Poutine, so I'll be able to be my insufferable vegetarian self!  It looks good!

 

Happy to help. You should ask if they can do you one with vegan gravy but real cheese curds, cheese curds so good.

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Tegan: As far as Patreons go, we've liked it for our podcast. It helps to know that every month we're going to get a sum of money. However, I think Patreon is heavily structured around a particular project unless you're good at selling yourself as personality. I was thinking of suggesting to you a GoFundMe type thing first just so you can get out of your living sitch (not sure if you have one or not) but Patreon in the long run is a nice thing if you're good at producing content regularly. 

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I had an usually frustrating week because I couldn't perform an incredibly simple task at work.

The department I'm working in right now uses these pen devices to record their meetings. You hit record and the pen starts recording audio, then remembers at what time in the meeting you wrote notes in the pad so that if you want to jump to a part of the audio where they talk about something, you can do that really easily. It's super cool and useful!

One of the higher ups wanted the audio pulled off the pens, wrapped up in a PDF, and sent to them for reference. The proprietary software that comes with the pen is supposed to be able to do that, so it should be really easy to do that! Sure thing, boss!

One of the pens went off relatively without a glitch -- the only problem was getting authorization to install the software on my computer, which is just standard office stuff. Got it done in no time at all!

With the second pen, things started falling apart. For whatever reason, the audio and notes were no longer connected in the database and there was no way for me to get them together. I email the person that wants them and ask if they just want the notes and audio separately and they say they only really need the audio, just make sure to title it so she knows what's what. Alright, groovy. So I start exporting the audio -- and end up with 5 minute long m4a's instead of the 2 hour file that plays in the proprietary software. I spend an afternoon with tech support and their solution is "download audacity and fix it yourself." Frustrating, but whatever, I do it.

The last three days have been spent on and off the phone with their customer support just trying to get data off a third pen. It uses different proprietary software that has to interface with a third party, and it's impossible to get it to load files directly onto your computer EVEN THOUGH you have the option to hook it up to your computer to sync the data on it to a remote server. Between Wednesday and today -- with most of every day being committed to talking to customer support about the issue and trying a million different things -- no progress has been made.

I finally broke down today and got abusive to the customer service rep I was working with's supervisor, telling him off about how the frontline cs reps were incredibly undertrained and had nowhere near enough knowledge or resources available to them, that his company should be ashamed of the joke of a customer service department they're running, etc, etc. I felt kind of bad about it, but at least I made the rep I'd been working with laugh when I said, "I'm so frustrated that I need to chew someone out. You've been really nice and these failings aren't your fault. Please escalate my ticket to someone in charge immediately."

Just argh. At least I got off early when my boss came over and was like, "You are too nice to get that mean easily. Go home. I'll pay you through the end of the day. Have a good weekend."

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I've always been vaguely interested in LiveScribe for the reasons you detail I haven't gotten one. Also, I think the latest version only syncs with Evernote (which I think you mentioned) which is alright because Evernote is fine but I'm not enamored by being locked into a single service.

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After an exhausting amount of setup, everything seems to be working well. If you always have the pen and notebook on hand, the terrible software isn't a problem, and some people have the complete opposite experience from me -- they plug it in and it just works.

I finally got everything up and running on Monday, and the notes and audio from a meeting in Tuesday just showed up on my computer immediately when it was over. LiveScribe is great when it works, but apparently when it breaks down, boy does it ever break down.

I'd say just get an Echo if you want to do anything with LiveScribe. Their wifi stuff isn't easy to deal with, so as long as you don't mind that you have to plug the pen into your computer, it's the same product with fewer features and less hassle. Also with 100% less Evernote.

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Yeah, it's a real shame. He had the most insane life though. Apparently his autobiography is incredible. He also has great quotes like this when filming Twin Towers (which I'm sure everyone knows about):

 

When I was shooting the stabbing shot with Christopher, as a director would I was explaining to him what he should do"... "And he says, 'Peter, have you ever heard the sound a man makes when he’s stabbed in the back?' And I said, 'Um, no.' And he says 'Well, I have, and I know what to do.' "

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Christopher Lee was one of my favourite actors. I'm gonna have to watch a couple of his movies today.

 

He spoke a billion different languages, which is something I've always wanted to learn.

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It's a shame it's quotes like the one Squirrel linked that always gave the impression he was a total professional and Wicker Man is one great little film, especially on the 1st time you watch it.

 

In more crappy (but this time it's personal) news I found out i'm going to have to pay the tax man a couple of hundred quid fine because i made a mistake on a form a few months back. I'm hoping my appeal might be accepted though since I was far from well when i did the filling in. It's frustrating though because I've been trying to put a little bit of money aside for a new office chair for a while now since my old one is causing issues for me when i have to spend the whole day at the computer, and now that's out of the water.

 

Taking comfort however that although i can't afford the big thing, i can still afford to get myself a few new small put practical thingsi've been meaning to get for a while to cheer myself up, so plan to go searching for a nice new backpack to work as a gymbag on the weekend.

 

so any recommendations of a good backpack for gym use (specifically one which can hold trainers, gym kit & sweat towel, plus swimming kit & bigger towel)would be deeply appreciated 

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I just got called in to the principal's office today and was told that they wanted me back next year. Same school, same grade, same everything, just the word "permanent" at the beginning of my contract. Pretty good deal!

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I just got called in to the principal's office today and was told that they wanted me back next year. Same school, same grade, same everything, just the word "permanent" at the beginning of my contract. Pretty good deal!

 

That's really good news! It's been pretty cool seeing your posts over the last couple years go from nervousness about graduating and getting a job to getting your foot in the door to finally landing a permanent position. Congrats on making it all happen!

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I just got called in to the principal's office today and was told that they wanted me back next year. Same school, same grade, same everything, just the word "permanent" at the beginning of my contract. Pretty good deal!

 

That's great news and a long time coming, Miffy!

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