bananas on toast

With everything happening in today’s browser market one can’t wonder why all players seem to be missing one major hitpoint with all their attempts to gain market share. In my opinion there is one large component that is being missed by browsers today and it should be reasonable easy to develop. What I’m talking about is cross-platform, cloud-based integration. I’ll explain as I go.

Firstly let me make my point by explaining my current browser setup. At home I run a Mac and at work I use a PC. On both I have Firefox as my browser of choice, but due to the necessity of my work CRM I also use Internet Explorer 6/7 on both. I use several plugins to try and sync as best I can between the computers, but inevitably it’s all just a fix. Okay, so now I will try and make my point.

Google released Chrome today which has some interesting features. Tighter integration to applications is great, but is it enough to win the browser war? Better security is always a good thing, but in a market where most computer users don’t even know which anti-virus they’re running, does it really matter? In fact, most of the features are aimed at techies and not the people who actually need enhanced functionality from an out-of-the-box browser.

Imagine a browser that worked like this… You launch the application and you’re greeted with a login screen. You enter a username and password and the browser works it’s magic; it downloads your bookmarks, it loads your plugins, it downloads your saved passwords, it downloads your form information, and it also loads your history.

Now imagine the same thing can happen on any computer you’re using, with the same features and plugins, even if you’ve never used that computer before. Simple huh? How easy would your life be, honestly?

So many plugins have tried to make this happen, but it’s never truly been seamless and it’s never been 100%, especially when it turns to cross-platform. This would be, as Tolkien would say, “One Browser to rule them all, One Browser to bind them!” Think about it.

Yesterday at work I had the pleasure of sitting with the managing director and various interested parties at work to discuss the future of technology. One of the really interesting parts of this discussion was the fact that I was constantly able to speak of the technical aspects and our MD would always bring that back to business realities.

During the meeting we watched an amazing video called Shift Happens and also Shift Happens 2.0 which raised a lot of interesting points about globalisation. The video is very US-centric, but realising the implications on Australia is honestly quite eye opening.

If you haven’t seen these videos already, I strongly suggest watching them. If you’re in a business that is potentially effected by the statements, I even more strongly recommend considering what this means to you and how this will effect your life. Because it will effect your life.

In a world of outsourcing, our lives change daily and the effects of growing economies such as India and China are effecting our lives all the time.

Ask yourself…

• Can I be replaced by someone overseas?
• Am I costing my company money, or making my company money?
• Are there necessarily advantages of having me sit in my seat in Sydney?

Over time people have become famous for a lot of different things. Stella Liebeck was immortalized for all-time and given her own, albeit tongue-in cheek, Stella Awards, based on the ridiculous lawsuit she took out against the McDonald’s giant.

But these days with the internet anyone can be famous, even if it’s just for a day. There are an almost limitless number of ways you can make yourself famous on the internet. Majority of those ways involve making a loser out of yourself on YouTube, or getting in trouble over some poorly thought out MySpace photos, but it’s all fame nonetheless.

Wil Wheaton is/was quite famous from his blog on being a post-childstar. Maddox made himself very famous by abusing people who in most cases deserved it and some cases didn’t. Creating a bit of a ruck at a senator’s speech’s made Andrew Meyer famous for a short time. Even Paris Hilton managed some time in the light when her sex video “accidently” found it’s way onto video and file sharing networks.

And off the internet I have even less time for Big Brother throw-back, Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, who’s barely intelligible and definitely not funny commentary of Big Brother are only aided by the severe lack of both personality and intelligence of co-host Bree Amer. And please don’t get me started on the acting career of ex-BB housemate Blair McDonough or the singing meager careers of people like Australian Idol winners Casey Donovan and Kate DeAraugo.

I could literally go on forever over the shitty ways people have become famous, but what makes my mind boggle is how Chris Crocker is now allegedly going to become famous because of his internet video clip title LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

“Like… Double-Ya Tee Eff, mate?”

To be perfectly honest, as much as I’ve loved all the internet bagging of this complete joke, even that is a little too much attention for this absolute drama queen effort.

Personaly I would like to see the fat kid who sang Numa Numa make it big as the next poster child for Subway. I am thinking that MTV spends loads of money to get him thin, put’s him in Britney’s dancing crew to make her shitty efforts of entertainment seem slightly less dull by comparison, and follows him across the country as they terrorise children and crash cars.

In fact, here is my list of 5 internet “almosts” who should be made famous before Chris Crocker even gets a look-in:

• Ask a Ninja – just funny, perhaps he could do commercial appearances?
• Star Wars Kid – heavily ridiculed after his internet embarrassment, give the kid a break and perhaps a Wilson golf club endoursment.
• Justin of justin.tv – already part-famous, but now completely overlooked for Justine Ezarik. Give the guy a break, he invented that little wheel!
• Anyone who blogs regularly about blogging.
• Anyone with a pulse and an internet presence.

I mean, seriously, is there no one else we can give a little leg-up to except the internet Freak of the Month September, 2007? Is the talent pool of America, and the greater world for that matter, really so low that we have to resort to such desperate measures as making this token-loser some kind of “new kid on the block” at MTV?

Apparently everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, but surely this Queer Eye reject has already had his. I hope I get mine by doing something really cool, however I know that I will probably get my name on the board for a few lousy moments for growing a large turnip or a bizarre incident involving a midget. But I can tell you what it won’t involve: me, ponsing about on YouTube, crying for a has-been superstar, and making an absolute twat of myself.

James Blunt’s "music" is actually popular somewhere?, originally uploaded by Mitch Malone on flickr.com.

Some may remember the post I wrote called James Blunt Sucks. In fact, if you ever read here, you should definitely remember it because it caused a hell of a ruck.

Anyway, after not having heard much from James Blunt in a little while except for a murmur of an album, I looked at my favourite news site this morning and noticed that “songs from James Blunt’s 2005 debut album Back to Bedlam are the most popular at weddings and funerals.”

Wow, I totally eat my words about any horrible thing I’ve ever said about James. Wait, no I don’t, this just goes to prove two points.

1. James Blunt’s music is most appropriate for already depressing occasions.
2. Brides are hormonal and know jack shit about music, and still have too much control over weddings. Grooms, stand up for your right to have testicles.

James Blunt – please put yourself out of my misery.

Okay, firstly I am well aware that the deviantART administration will, most likely out of spite, take away my membership as a senior member of their website, but this must be said.

It was a long time ago that I first noticed deviantART on the interweb. In fact, as of writing this post, it was 3 Years and 154 Days ago. At the time I was doing freelance design work and wanted a space that I could post some of my photography.

Now let’s make one thing clear, I pretty much suck as bad as anyone on that site, but don’t shoot me. The thing that kept me around wasn’t the warm comments from every user on the site and it wasn’t the fact that was popular, it was because it was just an easy way to do something I wanted to do.

Later I became an administration on dAmn, then latest still I had to leave the administration because I didn’t have enough time to give to what they were doing. No hard feelings, it’s just something that happens.

Last night I wanted to upload some photos to their website that I had taken recently. Now, these weren’t any better than the crap I’ve always uploaded, but I was proud of these photos and wanted them displayed.

Nothing could have prepared me for the ass-ache of uploading these photos.

At a guess I would say that it took me 5 minutes to work out the process. I consider myself very geeky tech-savvy and I can’t remember the last time it took me 5 minutes to do anything on a computer.

Clearly, the term “usability” has completely escaped the guys at deviantART.

Then, the mother of all, the absolute crowning glory, the mother of all… adCast

When I was a regular member and user it was not uncommon for people to abuse the site, spam the hell out of it just to get clicks to their page. But now for just a few dollars, you can get 500 pageviews. That’s right kids, don’t spam, just pay. We here at deviantART know how hard it is to fit in and be cooler than the other deviantART members, now just steal a credit card.

Okay, so I am sure the administrators/owners/site-thiefs don’t really want to see kids stealing, but I have never been more appalled by how commercial deviantART has become until tonight.

I am sure °jark can barely believe what he sees when he goes to a site he poured his absolute heart into for such a long time.

Mitch. Disgusted. Over and out.

Before I begin I would like to make the following statement: I completely support the employers to choose which websites and activities are banned within the work place and I believe that as an employee of said workplace, you should adhere to these guidelines. This being said, the rules don’t apply to me, so leave me alone while I have a little rant.

My colleague who sits opposite me fields calls from his on-again off-again girlfriend several times a day, is nagged by her for a whole bunch of unimportant stuff, hangs up and complains to me. This equates to, approximately, an hour to an hour and a half of his day, every day. Not only this, but the same colleague has several lunch’s, spends significant time singing to himself and generally being unproductive.

Another colleague of mine is a heavy caffeine addict. She makes several cups a day, coupled this with numerous visits to Starbucks, plus the additional time spent at the thermos collecting hot water and chatting. She also has a boyfriend who likes to phone a few times a day. I know this, because when I get coffee she is always there and tells me so.

I raise these two points not as issues, but I think they illustrate that there are only so many hours that an employee can be productive. I think if you spend 10 – 12 hours a day in your office space working, there come periods in your day that to maintain your productivity, and sanity, you just need a break.

Until three weeks ago I would occasionally log on to Facebook and check messages once a day, which usually takes around 10 minutes, I’m not a very popular, and I’d do this once a day. Also, I may log on to MSN via meebo.com once or twice a day to arrange my evening with my girlfriend/friends and/or catch up with a few friends from back hom.

Now thanks to my good friends down at MimeSweeper I no longer have either. You see, as a business decision my company has decided to block these websites due to the fact that it’s a time wasting sites and it promotes a lack of productivity.

I tend to think the fact that during my 10 – 12 hours a day, the fact my mind wanders for an hour a day is pretty insignificant, especially since I don’t even break for lunch. Is it impossible to fathom that these websites are a pretty minor distraction in the work place and that letting staff send the occasional message to plan their weekend/evening, rather then letting them worry about it, could actually be more productive?

Consider it.

Every lunch time I log on to the Sydney Morning Herald and read a few articles, just to make sure I am keeping in touch. I do CNN a few times a week, but SMH is a daily ritual for me. Today when I logged on these were the top articles:

• Man charged over murder plot
• Armed drug addict on the run
• Man ate corgi on air in royal protest
• Woman charged with stabbing murder
• Girl, 12, goes missing
• Mother hangs four daughters, baby survives

Apart from the article about the guy eating the Corgi, which is mildly humorous in a really sick way, this isn’t exactly loaded with good news. It’s not exactly inspiring to read these headlines when you log on to the website.

Is this just a sign of “good news doesn’t sell” or is it the gauge of the kind of world we live in these days? And personally, if I read one more “Technology” news article that focuses on Microsoft or Google I will go over the edge, that isn’t technology news it’s snippets from two companies!

Slashdot posted an interesting article about a guy who is being sued for publishing a commonly known workaround for the Javascript that disables the right clicking inside a website.

I’m no legal expert and wouldn’t be able to comment on the implications, but personally I find this kind of Javascript invasive to a persons home computer to take control of their browser. If questions must be raised, it should be as to why companies are still allowed effectively hijack controls on their users/customers computers.

One thing I really hate about people (read: YOU) is the etiquette at pedestrian crossings. The world is in chaos people and only you can stop it. Nothing pisses me off more than standing waiting for the Red “don’t walk” sign to turn into the Green “you’ve got 2 seconds, move it” sign, and someone walks up and presses the button.

What makes the person think I didn’t hit the button already? And not only do they hit it once, they hit it a few times to make their point heard. I’m sure as they approach the crossing they casually think to themselves, ‘just in case this guy (who seems to look like he is in a hurry) thought he might stand at the lights for an hour, I am going to press the button…. 8 times!’

The next time you approach the lights and there are 5 people standing there. Yes YOU, I know YOU do it! Don’t press the button. Seriously, don’t do it. It’s been pressed a million times this week and 31 times in the last minute. The sign knows there are people waiting, it knows you’re in a hurry to get your latte and 3 sushi rolls for lunch while booking in a hair appointment for your boyfriend, Brent. It knows!

Show some patience kids!

Spam is a funny thing in a day like today, it makes one wonder about the point. With spam filtration so paranoid that when I send a photo to a friend via e-mail it gets sent to their hotmail spambox, how spammers hope for their e-mail to be read really makes one wonder. I receive, on average, around 100-200 spam e-mails a week to my G-Mail account and approximately 1% actually make it to my inbox. With statistics like that I honestly wonder why spammers bother and what kind of possible success they hope to receive from it.

This morning I looked in my spambox and checked that nothing important had been caught and noticed the trends happening in trying to get the spam e-mails received by the recipient. Things such as “Re:” at the beginning of the e-mail would probably work on a bad spam-protection system, but G-Mail is obviously smart enough to know that the originating e-mail wasn’t sent, so therefor a reply would be impossible.

The next trend I notice was a little dash of l33t-sp34k (elite speak). Obviously no one wants an e-mail about “viagra” but “v1agra” could possibly get through some low level spam scripts. The obvious flaw with this is the fact that most people don’t understand l33t-sp34k and therefor wouldn’t read the e-mail.

Dear Spammer,

No one cares. Take the hint.

Love always,
Mitch

Just a quick question for anyone who comments: Just hot long has it been since you opened a spam e-mail by accident and then you were stupid enough to click a link? Have you ever?

A few years ago when I registered my first domain name, digitalheroine.com (no longer in use), I received a letter that really got to me. This letter was from a rival domain registrar to Dotster, the company I have chosen to manage all my domains through. This letter offered me “cheaper” domain registration, even though it was in fact far more expensive than the registrar that I was already using.

This morning a letter arrived from the US and I thought it was going to be another similar letter. I studied the envelope carefully and considered throwing it out until I took a close look and realised it was from America Online (AOL). Some will remember my small gripe with AOL (October 23, 2005) after they closed down Mailblocks, the mail service I had used and trusted for quite some time.

One of the things that came about during the time when I was pissed off was a promise from AOL to refund what I had paid for my “Pro” account. I went through the steps, filled out the form and never believed for a moment that the day would come that I would actually see my check. So this morning when I go through my bank statements, open up my new books from Amazon and find the letter from AOL, I realize that I’ve don it! I FUCKING WON! I BEAT AOL! I have a check in my hand for $24.95 and the feeling is so satisfying that I am not going to cash it. I will keep it for all time, a tribute to the occasion I managed to get something out of AOL. The bastards.

   
   

Now don’t judge this entry before you read it, it’s actually about a very important subject: James Blunt really is the most pathetic artist to ever make a hit. Besides, I haven’t been this blatently horrible since I spoke about Big Brother, so I deserve this rant. How this whingey, whiney, piece of crap ever got signed is beyond me, but the fact that some people seem to think him crying about some kind of lost boyfriend is even more mind boggling.

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while but my respect for other peoples musical tastes has held me back I’ve been too busy, however I can stay silent no longer. If this is some April fools joke that is brewing in the back of the mind of some musical talent agent (i.e. “Hahaha, I knew that I could make the world public actually listen to this tool!”), I think it’s safe to say the joke is over.

Today I was walking around the office and overheard the latest awful hit from this crybaby crooning across the speaker system. “Goodbye my lover, goodbye my frie–” I punch at the skip button and I am never so grateful for the rancid sound of Lifehouse. Now, to clarify, I am not a big Lifehouse fan, but hearing them honestly makes me want to dance.

Now before you hit the comment button and type something in his defense, have you seriously listened to the song You’re Beautiful? This song describes a girl he saw on a subway and apparently “shared a moment that will last till the end.” I am sure that when 16 year old girls listen to this song and see some super hot Blunt-like guy on a subway somewhere staring at their tits and call it a moment. But in all seriously, he just likes cleavage like most guys, sorry to break your heart.

I think that the song Goodbye My Lover would have to take the Worst-Song-In-The-Top-40-For-At-Least-The-Last-6-Times-Mitch-Has-Listened-To-Radio award. I would honestly rather watch Ashlee Simpson make a fool of herself on Saturday Night Life (big link, huh?) while having a cannibalistic midget perform fellatio on me then listen to this shit. As if it’s not bad enough that he has to sing, it’s even worse that he has to use this whining tone. I doubt he could sound any more like a crybaby if he tried, it makes me sick.

Go download the album from Napster, Bittorent, eMule, WinMX, Limewire or whatever downloading tool you use, just don’t buy it (I wouldn’t wish that kind of dissatisfying purchase on my worst enemy). Keep it in your C:\Music\Kill Myself Playlist folder, just in case you ever feel suicidal and ever need the push over the edge. Either that or you can just listen to it and tilt your hat to whatever marketing genius actually brainwashed people into listening to this shite. You choose.

Disclaimer: I hold no responsibility for James Blunt driving any reader of bananas on toast to suicide. I also do not condone this listening of such appalling music. Furthermore, I cannot be held accountable for any guys going sterile from the complete lack of quaility in this album, it’s just not my fault.

Update: Due to the fact I have better things to do with my time than argue with whiney James Blunt fans I have disabled commenting. I guess if you have something further to say on the matter you’ll have to start your own stupid website.

Clearly Amazon are spending their money in the right places when you get e-mail like this.

Mitchell Malone, Amazon.com has new recommendations for you based on 12 items you purchased or told us you own.

We recommend Just a Geek
by Wil Wheaton
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/059600768X/ ref=pe_ar_A2DUBGPKKJKM__x1059600768X

List Price: $24.95
Price: $15.72
You Save: $9.23 (37%)

Looks normal right? I already have the book. Where did I buy it? Amazon. Good going Amazon!

At the risk of being seriously cliché and hating AOL, I just had to say it. Fuck them, fuck them in their stupid asses. I have used Mailblocks e-mail services for a long time and even invested in buying the pro account, which after conversion to US dollars, cost me quite a bit. I did so because I loved the spam protection they had to offer.

Well about 6 months ago, AOL acquired Mailblocks and said that they would keep the service and maintain the website. As of about 2 weeks ago I have been informed this isn’t the case and I am downright pissed off.

My email address has been MitchMalone [at] mailblocks [dot] com for almost two years now. It’s easy to remember, most of my friends have it and it’s mine. Now I have to settle for the next best alternative username provided by AOL’s terrific system: MitchMalone08398@aol.com. Why don’t they just assign me the email, WeTookYourMoneyAndYourEmailHAHAHAHA_PWNED_LOL@aol.com. Pricks.

Now I am off to configure SpamAssassin and hope for the best. Wish me luck my fellow spam haters!

I realize I have become a net-cynic lately, but what is with those lame TickerFactory things? They are so pathetic and cliche that I am not even going to link their site. So in the honor of their lameness, I have made my own!

Today I had the pleasure of opportunity to play with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30K, one of their latest digital SLR cameras. It tries very hard to bust into a market that is predominantly owned by Canon and Nikon, that market being low to medium range SLR digital cameras. The camera itself didn’t impress me at all and a lot of it really disappointed me, but a few things made me laugh.

The first thing is that it claims to be an SLR (single lens reflex) camera, however it uses an LCD to display the viewing image. The second being some of the more exotic scene modes including; Portrait, Sports, Food, Scenery, Night Scenery, Panning, Night Portrait, Fireworks, Party, Snow, Baby, Soft Skin, Starry Sky, Candle. What the hell is with all of those? Do people honestly take so many photos of candles and “soft skin” that they require their own shot mode? I doubt it.

In honor of their wonderful scene modes, I made up a few of my own. A few that have some practical uses in the real world and people would actually use. Panasonic, if you read this and use my ideas, I don’t ask for much: One… Hundred… Billion… Quabadazillion dollars! Okay, so here goes, Mitch’s scene modes.

Porn mode – Pretty obvious, it enhances the skin, makes dicks look bigger and helps your girlfriend look less like she is faking it. Also has an advanced image stabilizer that adapts to your sexual rhythm and allows you to take better shots.

Perv mode – All the lights outside go off and all sounds deactivate. The Sunglasses (sold separately) use a laser to “paint” the target in order to locate it, the camera does the rest. No more awkward moments on the beach when your aunt asks you if you just photographed her nude!

Bitch mode – You’ve just run into your girlfriend who insists you are still friends and you “just have to get a photo together!” Bitch mode will have her looking like an ugly trollop and have you looking like Don Juan Delanooch! Please note, the camera improves the looks of the person holding the camera, make sure you take a self portrait or you too could have egg ass on your face.

Dick head mode – No, it’s not the male equivalent of the bitch mode. Simply put; your taking a photo of the guy who gate crashed your party, it puts a dick on his head.

Spew mode – While taking photos of vomiting friends at parties, the camera listens for the token “HUUEAAAHHH!” and snaps a shot the instant the carrots fly! No more getting angry because all you got was a set of bleary eyes and a puddle that looks like a dropped pie, catch every spew shot at your next kegger!

Teen shot – Whether your 16 or 17, you are bound to be taking photos of your eyes, tits, bits and pieces, lame shoes, stupid hair, “emo” looks, pasty white boyfriends/girlfriends, angsty drawings, animals that weight less than a kilo, or a billion other things. This setting will make sure that your shots turn out grainy like a webcam shot at a crap resolution and all ready to be uploaded to your latest online “rate me” site.

Today was the renewal date for my Mailblocks account. If you hate spam, I could recommend no service more than this one. The point of this short entry is that in the year I have owned my membership I have had 5507 spam emails blocked. Isn’t that so damned ridiculous? If you average that out 5507 / 365 = just a little over 15 spam emails a day. So sad.

…it become so cool to be weird, strange, odd, “random,” scary? I mean, when was the last time you looked at any kind of online profile that belonged to someone under the age of 30-35 and didn’t have to spend a paragraph reading why they are something out of the ordinary? I’m sorry folks, but when everybody’s weird, you all become normal!

When I was growing up, and probably still now, I was considered slightly different. I didn’t sniff underwear, eat glass or anything like that, but some of my tastes were a little off center. It never was a big enough issue for me to cut myself or write hate poetry, mostly it just made me laugh and most laughed with me. I think one of the things I liked about myself was a small touch of non-conformity, but now it seems that I am more “normal” than ever. Have I really passed into the realm of “cool”?

Well it’s Thursday night and rather than my usual binge drinking I plan on spending the night writing. Nothing for my site, nothing for my book, just words in OpenOffice to delete when I am done. Words I would never speak out loud and words no one will ever share.

P.S. Your weird. I’m crazy. She has funny feet. Get over it.

It’s no secret how much I hate Big Brother and other such reality television shows. The sad part is that they get so much airtime and attention that I actually know what is going on without even watching the show. Since I had to put up with the wanky twats for months, I will take a moment to bitch them off a little. No tears guys, okay?

Greg – One of the twins, possibly the only cool people in the house, but still a knob because he kissed Christie.
Angela – Boring.
Christie – Dead set loser. So hyperactive it’s beyond a joke and her jumping around dance made me want to be sick. I think Greg will one day realize that it was a bad judgement call to go getting into her pants.
Constance – Lied about being single to stay in the house. I think Big Brother only believed it because she is clearly not the catch of the century.
David – Similar to Greg, but no shockers with the ladies. Had the balls to tell it straight.
Dean – Head up his own ass, and sadly, seems to like the smell.
Geneva – Spent entirely too much time complaining about her appearance and, with a gym at her disposal, entirely too little time doing anything about it.
Gianna – Did nothing but talk shit about herself and her accomplishments. Three words sums it up; full of shit.
Glenn – Tried to get a root on national television and failed. Verdict: bonehead.
Heath – How long did he last? 24 hours or some shit? Yeah, what a twat, expericially since Rita outlasted him.
Hotdogs – At least he started some shit now and then, but still a bit up himself.
Kate – I won’t say anything bad about her, because the poor lass had to spend weeks and weeks being chased by old chicken lips himself, Tim.
Melanie – Hot.
Michael – The guy just looked like a told, what else can be said? Loved getting his wang out, which was probably bigger than mine so I won’t kid myself, but it was pretty un-f**king-necessary.
Michelle – Almost knbbed Glenn, but not quite. Prick tease.
Nelson – Hahaha, this tool got busted lying and then tried to act tough by saying he was “only in it for the goodies.” What happened? Evicted! Knob.
Rachael – Hot and at least she got the norks out. Pretty sad when she was singing all by herself in the hot tub, she should have got the ladies out again.
Rita – She’d have been the best in there if she was bound and gagged.
Tim – Just an all-round dickhead. Tried for way too long at scoring Kate, who is sub-par at best. How he made it to second last I just don’t know.
Vesna – Voice like a siren, complained more than any human should and gained weight at an alarming rate from entering to leaving.

It’s funny how age, size and years of experience change your perception of things. I remember visiting my childhood haunts last year and thinking how small everything looked. The last I saw my first primary school, the “big rocks,” and valleys I used to run through, they just seemed so large and so important. These days, the things that seem important seem very far from the valleys I used to ride my BMX through as a child.

I think one of the biggest changes in perception is the way I view friends now, as opposed to when I was growing up. When you are very young, your friends are any person who you can invite to your birthday party or supplies you with food. Then when you hit the middle years of primary school you befriend anyone who seems fun and plays with the same toys you play with. In later primary and early high school you will hang with people who like the same music and the same girls and later high school it’s just the same girls.

When I got to university, I cemented some of my greatest friendships and it made a difference to my life in so many ways. Michael and Steven were two friends who came from high school with me who I still count (even if Steven doesn’t return the feelings) as terrific friends. I also made some great friendships with some friends from different sports (rugby, soccer, etc) and made even better friends with the guys that I lived on the same floor with. Ryan, who occasionally comments on this journal, still counts as one of the best friends I’ve ever made even though we don’t keep contact as much as I know we’d both like.

My friends from the end of high school, the guys I made friends with from university and the guys I hang out with here are the best I’ve ever made. The friends I spend most every day with, and the ones I don’t see that often alike, are like brothers to me. I am in a very good place in life and everything just seems like it’s on the up-and-up. My only regret at the time that while my professional and social life seems to improve, my creative life is suffering immensly. It’s not secret that I have hardly touched my writing in ages and my photography over at deviantART hasn’t progressed in quite some time. Sometimes I wish I had 30 hours in a day, enough time to do some of everything.

This article took a tangent, but the point is that I am far pickier with my friends now as I was as a child, young or old. I’ve learned to read people and learned how to choose good friends. The last thing I want in my life is a fake friend or people I cannot trust and majority of the friends I have these days are what I used to call “best friends” – friends I could trust with anything and everything. So to all my friends, I hope you know how much you mean to me.

A special mention goes to Kevin; a friend who can fit into no other category than one of the best advice givers and most trustworthy people I have ever met. He has always guided me in the right direction without pushing, he has always given me terrific advice and no one has ever offered an ear as often when it was truly needed.

A special apology goes out to everyone who reads this; it’s late, I’m tired and the entry probably makes very little sense.