Wayne D's Blog

I forget where I heard about it but I stumbled across live.yahoo.com. Part webcam, part chat room it seems likes a very interesting idea. Yahoo used to have user created text chat rooms which eventually were shut down because they attracted an undesireable element and you can already use your webcam in Yahoo chat so this seems like a natural devleopment. I found the site strangely compelling, this afternoon I watched a couple renovating a storefront space for their new gallery. At one point the man stopped working and juggled in the middle of the room. The woman spent 30 minutes painting the door and talking on her cellphone. Later on another woman was singing requests in a deep sultry voice. Perhaps I need to find a life but I think I'll be back to see what develops.

I've decided that instead of mixing two topics in a posting I'll stick to one and do more posts. This assumes that I don't run out of ideas. I'm kinda' pissed at Google right now, they haven't updated their index for my stuff in over a week when they used to do it every day. Darn, I think I just mixed two topics in a post, so much for that idea.

For many years Bonus.com linked to my Snakes and Ladders java game. I finally got around to checking my server logs and noticed that the traffic to that page had really dropped. It used to be the most popular page on my website but around September of 2007 its traffic dropped. When I went to Bonus.com I found out why. They have changed the focus of their site away from a collection of links to games hosted on other sites to games hosted locally. I guess I didn't make the cut since they didn't contact me. They seem to have skewed the site more to the over 13 demographic where my Snakes and Ladders game is more for very small children. I wish Bonus.com the best of luck with the new format, I expect it will be more lucrative based on the number of ads on the site.

One quick whine, I was just watching Bones on Global and the audio level on the commercials was more than annoyingly louder than the program content. Come on Global, get your audio act together.

On the internet everyone can be a celebrity, for better or for worse. Cell phone cameras mean that your next faux pas could be all over Youtube before you know it. I received a key chain camera as a stocking stuffer for Christmas. Is it realistic to have an expectation of privacy anymore, or has it been erased by technology? My internet privacy is long gone, but I don't identify my wife and kids by name on my blog anymore. I've decided that it's up to them to decide how out there they want to be. Am I at risk for identity theft? Perhaps, but I'm not excessively worried about it. Maybe I should be. My celebrity status is such a dim flickering flame that I expect that no one pays me much mind. Right now it's time to brave the mountain of snow at the end of my driveway and put out the trash, musings about privacy must wait for another day.

The weather in Florida was great. Usually when I go there they tell me that it's unusually cold, this time everone was saying it was unusually warm. It was 80 degrees most days, the last day I was there it was even sunny. Unfortunately spending most of my day in the Orange County Convention Centre meant that I didn't get much chance to enjoy the weather. One night I did go for a swim in the pool while my clothes were in the washer. It was about 9:30 and the pool was deserted. I've been in bath's that were cooler. I was staying at the Marriot Grande Vista with a room that overlooked the golf course. The picture at the top of this post was taken from my balcony. One night we went to Nick's Grill for dinner. We were hoping we could eat on the terrace but they wouldn't serve us out there. When we asked they said that the mosquitoes prevented outdoor service at other times of the year. I didn't see an insect the whole time I was there. We didn't press the point but it seemed a bit strange that in Toronto there are patio's that spring up outside most restaurants when the snow melts but in Florida they seemed to be very rare. We did manage to have a drink or two at various pool bars.

While spending interminable hours on the show floor in Orlando I was sucked in by the sweet older ladies who were selling glycerin filled insoles. They would invite you to sit come into their booth and take off your shoes. Then they would slip their magic, massaging insoles into your shoes and invite you to try them out. What could one say, while gently rocking back and forth? How much are they? Thirty bucks? It's easier to buy them than to sit down and remove them from your shoes. They seem to make my feet feel better so what the heck. Using sweet old ladies to sell your product should be against the law.