dogriver: (Default)
Others are allowed to get angry at me at their leisure. If I dare defend myself, it will be pointed out to me that I misunderstood, misinterpreted, or was selfish, and my self-defense is invalid. If I dare to get angry with anyone else, heaven for bid, then I am instantly a bad person for that anger; the resulting self-defense on the part of the other person will invariably reveal that my anger was not founded and I was way out of line for feeling the way I did. This, you see, is how the world is set up. I am not sure why it is so consistently so, however, the fact that it is seems clear enough to me.
dogriver: (Default)
As many of you know, yesterday I took off for Fargo, North Dakota, to visit [livejournal.com profile] kittytech. When I got to Fargo, the plan was for me to use the bank machine. I tried, but the thing was out of order. So I called Caroline, and she did have some cash, so I took the cab over to her place and she paid the driver. Some knight in shining armor I am, huh?

So yesterday afternoon and evening were terrific. Caroline greeted me with this amazing peanut butter chocolate cookie thing, right out of the oven. Yummy, delicious, fabulous, and ... and ... stuff. Thencame the main course, after I'd given her the farmer sausage and jars of honey dill sauce I brought over for her. The main course was pizza burgers. These were hamburgers with pizza sauce made into the patties. She had pizza cheese and sauce on top of that. No ketchup, but for once, that wasn't an issue with a burger. There was some leftover pizza sauce afterwards, so for a nighttime snack, my beautiful sweetheart made pizza buns with the sauce and cheese on the remaining hamburger buns.

Breakfast this morning was the traditional continental breakfast: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a glass of milk. High society eats breakfasts like this all the time. Lunch was toast, because we had to try out the new toaster Caroline got.

Today happened to mark the 1-2/3 year mark since we started going out, so for dinner I took Caroline to Ruby Tuesdays. I've never been there before, and I loved it. We each had steak. On top of mine, I poured a generous dose of that incredible flavor-enhancer, ketchup. My steak was an aged prime sirloin. Caroline chose filthy rotten fungi on her sirloin instead. Some people's kids! The appetizers were chicken tenders and chips with cheese sauce.

It is wonderful being here, just spending time with Caroline, laughing with her, being together, listening to old-time radio, basically doing whatever fancy strikes us. Since we're both self-professed computer nerds, we've both been online pretty much the whole time. I am very happy, and I expect this happiness to continue. It's a beautiful thing.

Christmas

Dec. 8th, 2008 09:50 am
dogriver: (Default)
Well, here it is, December 8. In many ways,t his has been an absolutely
horrendous year. I haven't had the ability to post wordst to that effect
in this journal, but it really has.

Christmas is coming up, and I don't know when I've looked forward to
going out to Altona, my home
town, more than I am this year. For a few days, I can leave the world
behind. I need it, I need it so badly.

Appearances

Nov. 4th, 2008 07:51 pm
dogriver: (Default)
Always in the search for an LJ style that works well with screen readers, I recently went and changed the appearance of my journal. Hey, it sounded great. Headings in all the right places, bla bla bla, I thought I had it made. But no, 'twas not to be.

Today a friend of mine e-mailed me privately and told me, as tactfully as it's possible to say such a thing, that my LJ had a girly appearance to it. Which is fine if you're a girly. But I'm a boyee, so this was not what I wanted. And so, dear reader, I hope my new appearance, or at least my journal's new appearance, will straighten this thing out, and rest assured that I am not dealing with some mid-life gender identity crisis or anything. Just to prove it, I'll go look for something blatantly obvious not to notice.
dogriver: (Default)
I was sleeping beautifully last night. Then I woke up at around a
quarter to five, feeling fine, but couldn't get back to sleep. By 7, I
was tired and ready to go back to sleep (of course), but of course I had
to leave for work at that point.

All through the ride to work and beyond I've been feeling increasingly
naseous. This is not pleasant.
dogriver: (Default)
So yesterday, I was eating my dessert at one of our fine local eating
establishments, Smitty's Family
Restaurant
. I realized I still had a piece of veal left over from
the main course. No, veally, I did! So, ever the adventurous type, I
thought, how would the combination of veal and ice cream taste? No,
veally, I did. Oh wait, I used that line already. No, veal ... I
digress. So, anyway, I tried it. You know what? Is's actually very good.
I recommend it. What do I call it? I know, vealnilla ice cream!
dogriver: (Default)
Hi all,

I want to welcome all those who have added me to their friends lists
over the last few days, thanks in no small part to the LJ Idol
competition. I do plan to add you back, but unfortunately my work has
blocked LiveJournal, meaning I can no longer work on such things during
my breaks. The timing couldn't be worse, as my intentions this year are
to participate in green rooms and so on during the Idol competition much
more heavily than I did last year. So if I am slow to respond with LJ,
please humor me as these circumstances are beyond my control.

So what's up today? We have a meeting this morning at work ... I forgot
my melatonin, so will likely be awake for it. Bleh. After work I am
getting together for supper with my pastor. Tomorrow evening I'm
planning to have some friends over for pizza and a Bomber game. I am hoping our
glorious Bombers can extend their earth-shattering winning streak to two
games. Pregame show is on CJOB
starting at 5:30 PM Central, with the game to follow an hour later,
called by the world's best football play-by-play guy.
dogriver: (Default)
We couldn't find the Canadian voice post number for LJ, so I whipped out my handy-dandy cellphone, an old cellphone, and used the sound recorder on it. This was recorded on the Paddlewheel Queen, a river boat here in Winnipeg. You are more than welcome to listen to the recording here. I dare anyone to try transcribing this.
dogriver: (Default)
My building at work isn't the easiest building to park at. Basically you
have Portage Avenue, which runs right past it, and is one of Winnipeg's
main thoroughfares.

So this morning, I'm sitting on the lefthand side, the traffic side, of
a van. We stop in front of my building, and instead of having me slide
over to the passenger/curbside side of the van, the driver opens the
door next to me. I know I have to get out quickly and out of traffic,
but of course my headphone cord tangles up in the seatbelt. I get that
undone, get out of the vehicle, the driver gets my twelve-pack of Coke,
and thankfully, I make it onto the curb and out of harm's way. Still,
not a pleasant experience. Fitting, though, I suppose, given the
unpleasantness that was my weekend.
dogriver: (Default)
IMPORTANT NOTE: This message is written with tongue firmly
in cheek and is not to be taken seriously.

[livejournal.com profile] kittytech and I have reached a point in our relationship
where I am not sure if she can be forgiven. Just how does one forgive
the utterly, totally, and absolutely unforgivable?

For the last several weeks, she has been including links to the daily
trivia sampling from FunTrivia.com. If you haven't
checked this out, you may wish to add yourself to our little group and
have your daily scores compared withours. I've gotten two ten out of ten
scores, of which I am immensely proud. But I digress.

So one of the questions in today's quiz was as follows:

No, wait, on second thought, if you want to find out, you can check it
out for yourself. Go to [livejournal.com profile] kittytech's LJ and follow the trivia
link in the most recent entry. The question she actually got wrong,
horror of horrors, is #2. How could she? And after all we've been
through together? The pain is unbearable, to think that she would have
gotten that question, of all questions, wrong! It really hurts. Can I
forgive her? Is reconciliation possible? My heart aches with grief.
dogriver: (Default)
So for most of the night, I keep waking up with a start, convinced that
I've just heard the alarm. Then I realize that since I'm not hearing Bob
Irving blaring out a sports report, I must be wrong. Then I fall asleep
again, only to have the cycle repeat itself.

Then I do wake up to the alarm this time, I know it. I get up, and
man am I ever struggling.Forty minutes later, in a panic, I've got my
pants on and I'm stumbling to the closet in search of a shirt. I am
still overwhelmingly tired, and this time I detour past my table with
the clock radio on it, because I want to see if I am in any danger of
missing my ride. I find out that not only am I not late for my ride, but
it's an hour earlier than I thought it was. Turns out I hadn't awakened
to the alarm after all, but that I had again only thought I had.
So I remove the pants, fall back into bed, and of course, now I sleep
like the proverbial baby, only to be really awakened by the alarm forty
minutes later, complete with Bob Irving blaring out a sports report. So
there's my news for the day, something you'll probably never hear about
on CJOB, unless they get incredibly
despearate. I wanna go back to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dogriver: (Default)
Well, I'm planning my trip to Milwaukee in December. I'm looking at
leaving on the 27th and coming back on January 3rd. This one's going to
be expensive, probably around $800. I'm thinking of making the booking
on Friday.
dogriver: (Default)
Since Monday, not a greatdeal has happened with respect to my computer. Freedom Scientific has not replied to my e-mail. this is disappointing but not surprising, since they made it clear to me that they would only help me over the phone. Unless I get sick, I will have no holidays until July 1, Canada Day. I also have an e-mail in to Serotek to see if they can help me. It's only been just over a day since I sent that in, so we'll see what becomes of it. I don't know if it's this Catalyst Center or something else, but I can't imagine it's a hardware issue. I'd think display driver, but SAToGo apparently has nothing to do with the display driver. But everything else non-screen-reader I've tried seems to work, so I just don't know. This makes no sense. I appreciate the encouragement people have given me on this issue.
dogriver: (Default)
Here's the latest on my new computer. It appears to be only screen readers that do not work with this machine. I've tried SAToGo, Window-Eyes, and my screen reader of choice, JAWS. Other programs install without problem. I'm both getting better and better at using Narrator, and hating it more and more, simultaneously.

It must be something with the display adaptor, it's the only solution I can come up with. If I can ever figure out how to re-enable the integrated video card and disable the ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro, I think I'll try that.

Caroline is really emphasizing that she feels I should brave trying to deal with Dell tech support. What are they going to know about screen readers? I've got an e-mail in to Freedom Scientific, in which I have told them everything I can think of that might possibly be relevant. I can't call them from work, and besides, they work during the same hours I do, basically. This really sucks. First I unknowingly buy a computer that can't be expanded with the goodies I bought for it, then the thing won't even work. It's enough to make a grown man cry, but as it is I feel like such a bungling fool, utterly unable to get the slightest thing right. I feel very much like a money-wasting failure.

God is Good

Jun. 5th, 2008 08:17 am
dogriver: (Default)
There was a time when the computer trouble I'm having would have consumed me, quite literally. Despite my not beingable to change it, it would have consumed me and prevented me from thinking clearly about much else. But I have made a concerted effort to put this whole situation in God's hands this time, and asked Him to not allow me to be consumed by that over which I have no control. I must say, He's been coming through big-time, and I praise Him for that. Of course this thing's still bugging me, I simply don't have a clue as to what could be causing this problem. But it's not consuming me. Thankfully, I haven't been taking it out on [livejournal.com profile] kittytech, or at least I hope I haven't. I saw one suggestion on an e-mail list that looked promising, but unfortunately that wasn't the problem.

But the important thing is that God has really helped me to not be controled by my frustrations. It's only a computer. I have the laptop for talking to Caroline with, until this gets straightened out. I could even use the Pac MAte, if it came down to it. God truly is incredible, and I give Him the glory.

Fun Day

Jun. 2nd, 2008 07:58 am
dogriver: (Default)
Yesterday, I took [livejournal.com profile] kittytech to church with me. It was the first time she'd been to my church, and it was terrific. We had a baptism and a communion yesterday. These are not every-week occurrences.

For lunch, my roommate made us pizza pops. We spent the afternoon listening to some old radio, some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I'm sure there was something else which escapes me.

My roommate and I struck up a deal for dinner, and we went to the Elephant and Castle. I paid for the cab, and Rod (my roommate) paid for the meal. We headed out of the hotel in which the restaurant presides, and there was this limo parked outside. I decided to hire it. Turns out it was Rod's first limo ride, so he spent the time flirting with the driver and I spent the time flirting with [livejournal.com profile] kittytech. I got the better deal, though Rod doesn't think so. This is all as it should be, I daresay. We spent the evening listening to Treasure Island Oldies together. This has become sort of a Sunday night tradition for us.

How can one man be as blessed as I am?
dogriver: (Default)
Well, when I bought my new Dell, I didn't realize that it is one of these slim cases. There is no room for the second hard drive I was going to install, the second CD-ROM drive I was going to install, or the sound card I was going to install. I am determined not to let this get to me, though. I'm wondering if anyone in the know knows if it's possible to get a new case for this unit and just transfer the innards into it, so I could at least have a second bay for a second hard drive.
dogriver: (Default)
First, I want to wish [livejournal.com profile] imafarmgirl a happy birthday. May 30th is the best day to have a birthday. Did you know that we even share a birthday with Mel Blanc?

My roommate bought me the best birthday present I've ever gotten so far.

I'm sitting in my chair after work. Rod says he has to go down to get something, a surprise for me. So I wait. He comes up and says he wants to give me my gift early, but I'll have to go over there to get it. So I get out of my chair and walk toward his voice .. and straight into the arms of my beautiful Caroline, [livejournal.com profile] kittytech. What an incredible, wonderful gift, and what a wonderful way to spend my birthday.

Still Here

May. 29th, 2008 10:43 am
dogriver: (Default)
I'm still here. I've just been very tired lately. Monday was a bad day,
but the rest of the week has actually gone by quite nicely, no
complaints, just tired. I'm taking tomorrow off for my birthday, and I'm
taking Monday off as well, for an extra-long weekend. I hope I'm still
pulling my fair share of the weight in the apartment and elsewhere. I
just need lots and lots of rest.

FYI

May. 28th, 2008 12:14 pm
dogriver: (Default)
I'm hungry. I thought you'd want to know. As long as I'm being removed
from several people's friends lists these days, I might leave with a
bang. Or at least a growl from my stomach.

Profile

dogriver: (Default)
Bruce Toews

May 2022

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