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Summer and still no decisions on my vacation. I have given thought to taking every Monday or Friday off for a month to at least use up the days. Even then, how would I spend the time? Is this what a mid-life crisis looks like? A loss of direction, a mule pulled toward every promise of hay? O.K., I'll allot some time to think about this. I saw Amy Schumer and friends at Massey Hall, part of their "Trainwreck" tour. A fun, funny night: Vanessa Bayer likeable and passable; Mike Birbiglia polished, his material barely worn; I didn't care for Colin Quinn's jabs at the environment, cheek or no; Dave Atell remains that dirty uncle, no subject safe; Judd Apatow pleasantly surprising. And Schumer satisfied, quick and smart and completely comfortable. I will however note three annoyances: 1. The tickets were $100, which I thought a bit high; 2. The seats were in MH's balcony section, which are too thin, too shallow, too hard AND too far; 3. The show gave proceeds to...

I see only the mistakes Yeah, I guess I really like archery. From what I've tried it's rather a lot like golf in that one's form, at least in the beginning, is a lot more important than hitting the target. Consistency over accuracy. I got my first real taste a couple weekends ago, when I drove out to Kitchener to celebrate Andrea's birthday with her and her crew. If I find the time I can see myself taking this up, I really do. My time since my last entry is mostly taken up with karate and FutureLearn. Gosh I just really do enjoy those on-line classes. I suppose I've been up to other stuff too -- installed and put a few hours into Heroes of the Storm, the new Blizzard online RTS arena game. Yeah, I guess some things never change. I suppose you're wondering how work is, and the answer is that it's complicated. I still feel at times lost, my routine for the past ten years thrown out of whack, swimming upstream against a current of training, administrati...

Woo, it is getting warm out there! Summer doesn't start for another 3 weeks but they're already forecasting 32 degree weather for tomorrow, yowza! Let's see what's been going on... Well, the day on which I last wrote , I ended up going to a Blue Jays game with Stephen and Simone , who were nice enough to provide me with an extra ticket. It was a very fast game, maybe 2.5 hours? The seats were great, in any case -- fourth row, right behind first base. A fun escape, but I could only watch maybe a game or two a year really -- my interest in baseball has fallen way down with age. That was Thursday, and on Friday I went to Bar Wellington to attend a co-worker's birthday gathering. Some drinks and lots of TVO and public television talk. Ah, Force Five , so deeply ingrained in my childhood memories! I love all those shows so much, dearly so. Saturday was the beginning of the long weekend, and I, well, I had a date during the day. More than that I shan't speak of here...

The product I'd been working on has finally been released . And yet, after all that toil and trouble, I do not feel much better than before. Perhaps I'd grown used to the stress of a deadline looming over me. Indeed, I seem to recall saying something to that effect before but cannot be bothered to look that up now. Having it out there in a mostly usable form is a relief, certainly. As a sort of reward for myself I purchased, and have since played, Dragon Age, the new BioWare RPG. Ah, that age old system of pausing battles, telling all your little dudes what spells to cast or action to take, unpausing to let them do it, and then pausing again. Artificial turn-based combat: delicious. Reminds me of my experiences with Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate, which is a good thing. No news on the housing front. I'm averaging about 1 acceptable property a month, so it's slow going. I'm in no particular hurry and do my best not to get worked up about it.

Work.. it consumes us, surrounds-- no, that's not how I meant to start. I have been pouring myself into work, a mould I am familiar with: staying late, stressing about deadlines, focused in my coding and procrastination. So many lines have passed through my mind and fingers, but to what end they will achieve is yet to be seen. I am not (yet) proud. I am a little worn. Movies! Lessee... Where The Wild Things Are (2009). I liked it. Not for kids, I'd say, though sure they'll enjoy parts. The look of the film is wonderful; I couldn't imagine it done better. Paranormal Activity (2009). Awesome. Enjoyable. Made me laugh at how good it was. Even now I smile thinking of how masterfully they've managed to tap into fear, to draw it out and run with it. Dude, just go see it. Some Like It Hot (1959). Pretty funny! Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon. I did find that I get uncomfortable watching beautiful women climbing over each other. How very o...

So, like, what's the word, boyos? Tired of writing, that's the problem. No, gosh, what an awful start. I was thinking of putting down some thoughts on the recent Michael Bryant cycling incident , now that some more details have been leaked. The cyclist had left his girlfriend/ex-girlfriend's apartment less than an hour earlier, with police called in to handle the domestic disturbance. He was also possibly drunk, and may still have been drunk and upset at the time of the incident. Bryant or his wife, the passenger, made a 911 call during the incident. The cyclist likely died of injuries received while hanging on to the side of the car, although it's possible that he was also run over at some point. What I wanted to say is that the situation is not that black and white. People panic in high stress situations, especially if they're not used to it. Perhaps Bryant's flight instinct kicked in, wanting to protect his wife from a belligerent stranger. Maybe ...

A busy week it was. Firstly, big news from work -- they're outsourcing my job! But.... they are also "promoting" me into development. The quotes are there because no-one's mentioned anything regarding a pay raise. I might be getting one, I might not. A lot more work, a lot more responsibility. However it is yet to be seen. Moving from customer support to development is a major transition and I'm not sure I quite know how I feel about it. On the one hand I'll get a chance to fix all those bugs and issues I'm always having to log. On the other: meetings, schedules, and projects, oh my! Also, my days of getting into work at 10 are pretty much over. Tuesday was karate, not much to say there. Wednesday I saw Up and really enjoyed it. I've only seen a handful of Pixar films and they have all been rather excellent and Up continues that trend. I found it spoke especially to me, an old man in my own mind. Thursday was a social with some of the ...

Curse this weather! Until the day I howl for a cooler time I find these -24 windchills quite upsetting. Thankfully today is the last day for this zaniness, at least for the foreseeable, forecastable next few days. The cold troubled me yesterday during a workout, my ankles locking up as I stretched. It could just be the old in the them but I'm going to blame the chilly walk from St. Clair to Eglinton. St. Clair being where I participated in a group interview to volunteer for a camp counsellor position, something I kind of rashly (after much goading) decided to try for. I enjoyed myself enough, though I do wonder if my quiet (i.e. shy and introverted) nature appealed to the interviewers any. That reminds me, I need to look up what it'll take to get my Bronze Cross recertified. Hmm, it's changed since I took it. Which admittedly was back 1993. The new office is fine. Did I mention they moved me to a new office? Well they did, it's on the floor beneath the ma...

When you use the bathroom to wash your hands, do you often find that your bladder decides to, er, chime in? Is it because I know I'm in a bathroom, or is it maybe the smell that triggers some response? If I enter a room that I don't think is a bathroom but has all the trappings of one upon entering, will my peeing instinct kick in? Just got back from riding around that Humber Bay Park East area , sticking around the bridge to watch the sunset -- pastel purples, pinks and blue. I could barely perceive the shadows moving across the Toronto skyline, which I'd not seen before. A bit of exercise to take advantage of the lovely, very reasonable weather. Enjoying post-pill fruit I did go to work today, an otherwise pretty quiet day. Nice to be able to tinker on long put-off side projects, without the constant grind all up in mah grill. Yeah. We did have strawberries and champagne, which was nice. OH! Last Wednesday my miracle fruit delivery finally came in, and on Frida...

Dear customers who write in to support, Here are a few simple points that I, as a technical analyst, have come to appreciate when hearing from you. It makes our job a lot easier, and in turn you'll get a faster response and a quicker resolution. 1. Do not threaten us with "Tell me the answer to this, or will I go to your competitors." That's an excellent way to piss us off. We do not need business with jerks. People like you who think you're the center of the universe are generally more trouble than you're worth to us. We will not care if we lose your business. 2. If I suggest something to you, THEN YES TRY IT. I do not have the time to build an entire project based on the vague description you've provided me with. If you are too scared to try my snippet of code, go to Jail and do not collect $200, because chickenshits like you obviously have no business in this game. Life is harsh; programming, doubly so. 3. When I ask for your code, please do not send a ...

At work I am constantly having to create, move, and manage directories and files, tasks that while mundane can be a bother when using Windows Explorer. As such, I'm so pleased that I instead use zabkat 's, "xplorer2". Two panes of directories, sorting by extension (instead of "Type", which is utterly useless), double-clicking whitespace to navigate up, and oodles of hotkey options. It's one of those "I didn't realize I needed it until I used it"-type applications, and whenever I use a computer without it I find file management unwieldy. Now there's an awkward word. So we've been more adventurous of late with our lunch options. We've tried Sadie's Diner , over on Adelaide. The menu had some very interesting options, but the kitchen was SUPER slow the time we went, a huge strike against them as we were all quite ravenous with hunger. It was a while ago, so I can't quite remember what I had. I think it was chicken quesadill...