the daily snivel

  A note on bigjuicybrains.net

It's pretty amazing how much bandwidth this site uses up (an average of 10 megabytes of traffic downloading pages and images every day), and even more amazing how stingy the good folks at directnic.com (my domain name registrar) are in furnishing bandwidth to their hosted websites. You get 2 gigabytes of transfer bandwidth, or a year, whichever comes first. I tend to need to buy more bandwith 2-3 times a year, and having just received a notice yesterday that I'm once more running out of bandwidth for my popular little website, I'm getting a little tired of it.

So, two things will be happening.

First, and most disturbingly, I'm going to run out of bandwidth soon. The site will still be here, but it reverts to "banner mode," which means you'll be seeing banner ads at the top (and bottom) of the page. I assure you this is temporary.

Secondly, I'm going to be moving the site to a new host, like godaddy.com, which provides a lot more banbdwidth and a LOT more storage space for my buck. The address won't change, but there might be a few technical difficulties until the hosting transfer is complete, so bear with me. This will happen in the next couple of weeks once I have some money on my overtaxed credit card.

Meanwhile, please be patient. I'm getting ready for a move and must buy a car and much of my time and money is currently tied up. 

  More on the vroom vroom, honk honk, whaddya -- whaddya mean gas is $1.00 a litre?

So the first thing I did yesterday at my driving test, when the examiner told me to get started whenever I was ready, was hit the turn signal, check my left outside mirror, check my rearview mirror, check my right outside mirror, and finally my blind spot, before gently pressing the accelerator to begin the examination.

And then the motor roared and the car did nothing, and I realized that the car was still in park and the parking brake was still on.

Duhhhhh...

After apologizing profusely to the examiner, who mercifully didn't deduct any points, and remarked that it was just the usual nervousness of being tested, we set out on our way. The test is done partially on an enclosed course, and mostly on the roads around the centre on Walkley Road here in Ottawa, but they start you off on the enclosed portion where you drive around on some intersecting little roads and observe the traffic signs therein before doing a three point turn and then a parallel park behind a concrete block that represents another parked car. I'm pleased to be able to say that both of these manoeuvers were performed without any errors on the test (as I was able to discern from the corner of my eye whenever I had a free moment to casually glance at the examination form). After that, it was time to hit the road.

The rest of the test was fairly straightforward -- turn right, drive along, turn right again, proceed straight, turn left, proceed straight, take a right, approach a yield sign, yield, turn right, turn left at the traffic lights, and so on, and in the end I pulled into a space at the Ministry and shut down the car, whereupon I was asked what direction I would turn the wheels if I were parked on a hill facing downhill (I would turn them to the right, for reference, based on my dumb but helpful mnemonic, "down right, up left" -- downright and uplift, get it?), and with a satisfactory noise the examiner informed me that I passed.

For the record, I passed with a score of 86, according to my helpful Young Drivers driving instructor, who informs me that the cutoff for a pass is 70 (as the more mistakes you make, the lower your score out of 100 is). The major comment he had for me is that I'm a bit too cautious, such that I tend to want to stop and look around before making a turn or enter a parking space from time to time, when what I must learn to do is look well ahead and make judgment calls well in advace. Advice well taken, but I'm still immensely pleased right now.

I took care of the virginity thing at 18 and now at 29, I've got my driver's licence. I am truly a man today.

The next step is buying a car. I've still got my heart set on the Toyota Echo Hatchback (a red one, I should think), and even ordered a brochure so that I can pretend I know a thing or two when I go to look at the darn things ("So, of course it comes with standard anti-lock brakes, and naturally I'll be wanting the LE package with power steering and extra speakers... harumph!"). I'm just waiting for a confirmation of my salary and employment from the firm I'll be articling at so that I can sweet talk my way into getting a lease even after the good folks at the Toyota Dealership get a gander at my student debt. 

  Licenced to Ill

This morning, at 8:30 am, I had my driver's test, and I'm pleased to say that I got my licence. Then I had a Public Law exam, which I also think I passed. Not too shabby.

Sorry for the brief update -- busy, busy, busy.