Duke Fistman, Freelance Hero

The End of An Era

2010-06-25T18:09:00.002-04:00

After much reflection, I have decided to close down this blog. I still want to write, but I want to focus my efforts on writing humorous travel articles. I just don't have enough writing in me to keep up two blogs.*

Hence, I have created the travel blog Here There Be Dragons.

It would make me very happy if you would read the articles there and tell all of your friends about it. I promise that I will be funny, or you can throw things at me.

Seriously, though - any and all feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks, and hope to see you there!

*Some of you would accurately argue that I didn't have enough writing to keep up this blog. Let's try to do something about that, shall we?

Facepalm

2010-02-11T09:42:00.002-05:00

Them: "So, the order confirmation will be sent to you via e-mail. What's your e-mail address?"

Me: "Such and such at hotmail dot com."

Them: "Oh, do you have another account? Many of our clients who use hotmail find that our e-mails go to their junk folder."

Me: "Don't worry about me. I always check my junk."

Them: "..."

Me: "Wait, that came out wrong..."

Happy Birthweek!

2009-12-08T09:39:00.005-05:00

Dad: "Happy Birthday!"

Me: "Um... actually, that's tomorrow."

Dad: "Oh... well, better a day sooner than a day later."

Me: "That's true."

We discuss Christmas for a bit.

Dad: "Well, have a great day. This is your birthday call!"

Me: "Thanks!"

I'm not sure which is more amusing - that my father felt the need to spell out that this was my birthday call (and not to expect one tomorrow) or that I'd gone into his Blackberry years ago to correct my birth date, previously a day late, thereby making myself indirectly responsible for this phone call.

To conclude: If I ever forget your birthday, I blame genetics.

It's 33 C, and it feels like 36 C...

2009-06-25T16:23:00.000-04:00

The only cure for this is a pint of Erdinger.

High School Reunion: Update

2009-06-16T08:35:00.002-04:00

General observations about the night:

- It seems like almost everyone in Calgary is working in the oil and gas sector. Which isn't really that surprising.

- Only a small number of people had gotten fat. Most of them seemed to be looking after themselves.

- At least five people told me that I'd lost weight since high school. Really? Since high school?

- I went up to talk to someone I thought I recognized, and then realized (two days later) that she was not, in fact, the person I thought she was. This would explain why that conversation was so awkward.

- There are still people who go to the bar with the sole intention of getting right liquored up.

- A significant amount of my time was spent looking at people and thinking, "You look vaguely familiar, but I have no idea what your name is." But, then again, that's how I spend most of my life.

- Many of the people who I'd liked to have seen weren't there....

- ...but, I was glad to catch up with some of the people who were there that I hadn't expected to see.

In closing, it's probably best that no one tried to hug me - otherwise, I would have been tempted to pinch my friend Robyn and push her into the girl's bathroom, just to complete the row.

High School Reunion

2009-06-05T23:44:00.002-04:00

By sheer chance, I ended up being back in Calgary the same week as my high school reunion. In anticipation, I made this:

Resigned

2009-04-20T18:28:00.002-04:00

My, my - how quickly a year goes by.

The three of you who still read this blog may recall that it was about a year ago that I decided to take a year-long leave of absence from my job to pursue a charitable side-project on a full time basis. And now, that year is up.

I'd had a number of grandiose ideas when I took this year off. I would establish a new charity, improve my work-life balance, become a published author, turn the charitable project into a paying job, and finally beat Fantasy General. Well, I'm proud to say that I've completed 3 of the 5 goals I set out for myself - though, unfortunately, none of the 3 will help me buy groceries. And then my year was up. So, I quit my job.

And now, those other two goals (either would be fine - I'm not particularly picky) are much higher up on the priority list. I actually do feel like I'm very close to turning this into a paying gig, but a year's a year, and that's all you get. And, sometimes, the gods demand a sacrifice...

If nothing else, I've had a lot of time to reflect over the past year. Though I may have to put paycheque before passion at some point in the future, that day is not today. I love what I'm doing, and am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to spend my daylight hours the way that I do - hanging out in my condo, helping to run a women's school in a warzone.

You know, when I'm not reading Terry Pratchett or playing Mario Kart. Which is what I'm going to do right now.

It's the little things in life...

2009-04-01T09:25:00.001-04:00

This makes me very happy.

Broken

2009-03-30T15:23:00.002-04:00

I did my Battle Fitness Test last weekend, which consisted of a 13 km rucksack march and a 100 m fireman's carry. I had intended to have gone for a few more practice runs prior to getting out there and actually doing it, but could never seem to find the time. Besides, I'm in the best shape of my life these days! Surely I'll be able to do one quick little march!

And I did. It was a little over 2 hours of marching around in a circle with 55 lbs (including helmet, rifle, tac vest and small pack), but my body was able to handle the demands of the march with relative easy.

My feet, on the other hand... well, let's just say that I'll take a bit more time to toughen my feet next time. And I'll wear proper socks. And use the summer boots, instead of the wet weather boots. And, in general, be less of a dumbass. If there's one thing that helps a lesson stick, it's a healthy dose of pain.

This means that I'm more or less tethered to my condo for the next day or so, which gives me sufficient time to write an update. Here's what I've been up to over the past month or so:

Off to the Cottage for a few days: February isn't the best time to be out the cottage, but it's as good a time as any to drink beer, play Call of Duty, smoke cigars, eat three pounds of red meat, and polish it all off with a midnight showing of Dog Soldiers.

Science Fair!: I was thrilled to hear that Golden Words has brought Science Fair back, and it proved an excellent rallying point for the Haz-Beenz of yesteryear. I thoroughly enjoyed being a judge, and have placed my flame-adorned lab coat in the closet should need arise. Although I recognize that things change over the years (despite the many, many times I started a sentence with, "Back in my day..."), the one tradition that I will dearly miss is that of the drink tickets. How do you have a Science Fair without drink tickets? But I digress...

Went to New York for a weekend: I stayed with a friend for a weekend and got to see what it's like to live like a New Yorker for a few days. If you ever get the chance to stay with a friend who lives in New York, do it. I learned the following: bars in New York do not close at a set time, so you can very easily end up staying out until 5 am; New Yorkers do not cook and if you offer to make them a home cooked meal, they will look at you as though you just offered to make them a suit of armour; it can cost upwards of US$6 for a tall boy can in a foam sleeve; and there is an Australian meat pie shop near the East Village that sells the world's best post-drinking food.

Renovate Closets: We decided that we no longer wanted to have all of our stuff in huge piles on the bottom of the closet floor, and so we spent this St. Patrick's Day (top o' the practical storage solutions t' ye!) having our closets redone. I don't know if anyone who reads this (if anyone still reads this) has a condo, but I'll say that custom closets are a great investment for anyone looking for more storage space. Unfortunately, my suggestion to turn the den closet into a walk-in humidor was politely declined.

Watched lots of Top Gear: For those of you who haven't heard of this "motoring" show, it's excellent. Go watch it. It's not in any particular order, so you can start with a recent season and work your way back. Season 12 was perhaps the best I've seen yet, but season 11 definitely had its merits. Curious? You can check it out here.

Yup, that's been about it... that and work, of course. (It's going well, BTW.)

Penny Pinching

2009-02-18T10:56:00.003-05:00

On first impression, I might not strike you as someone you'd call "frugal" - I have a fondness for scotch and cigars, drive a luxury car, enjoy travelling, etc. - but I'm something of a penny-pincher in other areas of my life, which helps to cover the defray the costs of Cuban robustos and single malt.

I'm always on the look-out for new ways to save money without making sacrifices. So, I'd like to share some of my cost-cutting strategies and would invite you to post yours, as well.

1.) Skype: Although I've only started using Skype recently, I'm absolutely hooked. The best feature by far is the $3/month dial-out service, which covers unlimited calls to anywhere in North America. Based on this, I've been able to trim back my Rogers cell phone plan by another $17, plus tax.

Savings: $15 per month x 12 months = $180, or the cost of a very fine dinner for two at AquaTerra.

2.) Insurance: When it comes to car insurance, I like my coverage low and my deductible high. Having a $2,000 deductible vice a $500 deductible saves between $200 and $500 per year - though I am careful to ensure that I do have liability coverage of at last $1M, which actually isn't that expensive.

I'm also careful to read through the cardholder agreement for credit cards, so I know whether they cover additional warranties, car rental insurance, travel insurance, and so on. I've saved at least $700 in hotel and restaurant costs as the result of travel insurance, alone.

Savings: $1,200 per year, or a week-long trip to Costa Rica during the low season.

3.) Rewards Points: I'm careful to compare the different Visa cards and the rewards they offer. When I switched to a RBC Avion card from the CIBC Aerogold*, they waived the annual fee and gave me 15,000 travel miles, or a free $350 plane ticket (tax incl). If I put on another $15,000 on my card over the year, that's $700 in free travel.

Savings: $700, or three boxes of Cuaba Exclusivos and a bottle of 16 y/o Lagavulin.

4.) Low-Cost Banking: All of my banking is either done at PC Financial (which has no fees) or with institutions where I have the minimum balance to avoid monthly fees. StatsCan says that the average Canadian spends $15 per month on bank fees, or $180 per year.

I also don't allow my credit cards to carry a balance. I've said this before, and I'll say it again - credit card debt is the financial equivalent of a sucking chest wound. It's nature's way of telling you to slow down. I don't even want to think about what average credit card debt is, but I've seen estimates of around $2200 per person, which sounds about right to me. That's around $400 per year, just in interest.

Savings: $580, or enough to purchase sufficient premium gasoline for 5,400 km in an SUV.

5.) Brown-bag Lunch: Before I worked from home, I was one of the few people in my office to bring a lunch with me. Even those who did bring a lunch usually brought some sort of frozen dinner. I'd estimate that the price difference between a cafeteria and a brown-bag lunch is around $6 per meal. It doesn't take long before that starts to ad up in a big way.

Savings: For an employee who eats at the cafeteria every day for 49 weeks a year, you're looking at an annual cost of $1470, or 80 pounds of gourmet, fair trade, shade-grown coffee.

Okay, your turn...

*For a while, I quite liked CIBC Aerogold - then Aeroplan waited four months to inform me that my reward flight had been cancelled, thereby causing me to lose my hotel deposit. When I confronted them about this, they told me to pound salt. When I explained my situation to RBC, they very kindly offered to waive my first annual fee and give me the points for joining.

My favorite part was when I cancelled the CIBC card and they - quite naturally - asked why. At the end of my tirade, all they could say was, "Oh, I see."

Back in the Blogosphere

2009-02-13T14:14:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time since I last wrote anything here. In fact, I probably wouldn't be writing anything right now had I not partaken in a comical ice-induced wipeout while leaving an elk farm, thereby negating my ability to exercise this afternoon. So, I'm going to blog instead.

This has been going around, so I figured it would be a good way to get back into the game...

Do you like blue cheese? Yes. I like it best crumbled atop a nice hunk of filet mignon, preferably with some particularly strong red wine.

Have you ever smoked? I have two humidors full of cigars, but I rarely smoke them any more. I do still enjoy a pipe on occasion. As for cigarettes - and I'm not proud to admit this - I have occasionally pretended to smoke them to facilitate hitting on smokers of the lady persuasion at bars. But I never inhaled.

Do you own a gun? If you mean, do I have a firearm that I have purchased for personal use? Then no. If you mean, is there an assault rifle under lock and key that has been assigned for my professional use, should the national security of Canada require it? Then yes.

What flavor of Kool Aid is your favorite? Kool Aid is perhaps one of the last things I would every drink, somewhere between Clamato and a rain puddle with a fine layer of gasoline on top.

Do you get nervous before dentist appointments? Nope.

What do you think of hot dogs? Tasty, but it's hard to think of something worse that you could ingest into your body. The one exception would be the Buddha Dog in Picton, which does a mean gourmet hot dog (with a wide range of cheeses and sauces to choose from).

Favorite Christmas movie? Elf.

Favorite thing to drink in the morning? Francesco's Coffee, Guatemala French Roast, with proceeds going to my charity.

Can you do push ups? I don't think they let you become a Sergeant in the Forces without doing your share of push ups.

What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My grandfather's watch - though I don't know if you could call it "jewelry".

Favorite hobby? Travelling. I like planning the trip, exploring the country, taking photos, writing about it... all of that.

Do you have ADD? I usually have pretty good focus. Not all the time, but usually. When I am distracted, it's because of my tendency to procrastinate, rather than ADD.

What's one trait you hate about yourself? My tendency to procrastinate.

Middle name? John.

Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
1. Why did I slip on that ice? The guy even warned me on my way out the door. I'm going to have a wicked bruise.
2. I'm hungry. I should go have some pita and hummus.
3. The damned cats better stay away from the flowers.

Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Coffee, Water, Wine.

Current worry? The usual - that some lunatic will attempt to take out the school, our Director, our students, or some combination thereof.

Current hate right now? Said lunatics. Though, to be honest, it's more of a pity than a hate.

Favorite place to be? Floating in an innertube at the lake, beer in one hand and cigar in the other.

How did you bring in the new year? At the condo, celebrating with a few good friends.

Where would you like to go? Andrea and I are putting together an around-the-world trip for next year.

Name three people who will complete this. No idea.

Do you own slippers? Not really necessary.

What shirt are you wearing? My favourite golf shirt - the blue one I picked up at Barba Roja in Costa Rica. It has a picture of a Jolly Roger with a red beard and a pipe.

Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I wouldn't mind it, but I prefer cotton.

Can you whistle? Kind of.

Favorite color? Dark green.

Would you be a pirate? Not so much a pirate, more of a privateer sailing under a letter of marque. It has all the romance of being a pirate, but I'd still have the sense of serving some sort of grander purpose. (Clearly, I haven't given this any thought at all...)

What songs do you sing in the shower? You know... a little Ludacris, every now and then.

Favorite girl's name: I really haven't given this any thought.

Favorite boy's name: Same. But I would like to see my Grandfather's name (Kenneth) continue on.

What's in your pocket right now? Nothing.

Last thing that made you laugh? This is actually a little embarassing - http://www.slatev.com/ch_wwit.html

What vehicle do you drive? A 1999 Mercedes-Benz ML430 SUV. It's about as politically correct as punching an orphan in the kidneys.

Worst injury you've ever had? 3rd degree ankle sprain I suffered during basic. It was pretty nasty.

Do you love where you live? I love our condo, but I wish Ottawa was a bit more lively.

How many TVs do you have in your house? One. That's enough.

Who is your loudest friend? I think I have to give this to a collective - my immediate family. Whenever we get together, we always try and talk over one another, gradually increasing the volume as we go.

Do you have any pets? Two cats - Whiskey and Socrates (a.k.a. Socks)

Does someone have a crush on you? No idea.

Your favourite book? Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein.

Do you collect anything? I like picking up entertaining golf shirts when I travel.

Favorite Sports Team? The Team Canada Hockey Team. Otherwise, the Calgary Flames - but I'm not a huge sports guy.

What song do you want played at your funeral? Troublemaker by Weezer.

No Words Required

2008-12-05T10:37:00.000-05:00

What's your sign?

2008-11-24T18:57:00.004-05:00

This was in the horoscopes for today (emphasis mine):

"The starry vault is delivering an encouraging message. The power of Uranus is reaching a crescendo. It suggests the chance to wipe the slate clean and start again in an area of life where lately things have become both too complicated and stale."

Ah-HA-hA-haaa-haaaa-haaa-haaa*gasp*haaaaaaa!

Sigh. I'm about 6 years old.

Maestro...?

2008-11-06T11:20:00.003-05:00

I'm looking to expand my musical horizons. I consider many of the regular readers of this blog to have excellent taste in music, so I'd like to ask for suggestions. What new (or old) albums should I pick up?

Half Way

2008-11-01T16:07:00.005-04:00

It's been six months since I began my leave of absence from my previous job. Today, I'm taking stock of how close I am to reaching the goals that I set out for myself during this time off.

1.) Further develop my charitable project.

As expected, this is what's taken up most of my time and borne the most results. I'm very happy with where the project is at right now - we have a great group of volunteers, our funding situation has improved, and our local partner is helping more people than ever before. Even though this now my full-time gig, I still really enjoy the work I'm doing.

Verdict: Success.

2.) Become a published author.

This was perhaps not the most realistic of goals to try to accomplish in a year, particularly while going after #1 at the same time. I might as well have added: 2.) Become an international rock superstar or 2.) Learn how to turn lead into gold. That's not to say that I haven't spent more time writing - I've been taking more time to write in my journal and (intend to) spend more time blogging. But a full-length novel or work of non-fiction? Not this year.

Verdict: Deadline extended.

3.) Turn the charitable project into a paying job.

Once I gave up on the idea of becoming a published author by May 2009, I started to consider other ways in which I might pay the bills. Sure, there were plenty of options out there - I could join the circus or participate in medical testing, just for starters. However, I decided to take the lazy route and consider what would need to happen if I wanted to draw a salary from my current full-time engagement. And the verdict? HaAhhhHaHaHaaa! That's a good one.

Seriously, it could happen, but not the way things are set up right now. Regardless of whether I'm getting paid, this project needs to become self-sustaining at some point, and the same changes that would make this possible could also provide a salary. So, it's possible - just not by May 2009, that's all.

Verdict: Deadline also extended.

4.) Improve my work-life balance.

Back before I took the time off, I read a news story about a guy in Japan who actually worked himself to death (the Japanese even have a word for this: karoshi). The guy was working something like 90 to 100 hours a week. I remember thinking to myself, "Hmm... that's not that much time at work." I knew instantly that I needed to improve my work-life balance.

This was actually harder than I thought it would be. In my rush to prove to myself that everything was just fine and I could still earn a living while on my leave, I took on a whole whack of work with the Army. For a while, I was pretty much back where I started - except with less money. After a few weeks of this, I managed to convince myself that I could actually not earn a salary for a while, and that money could come out of bank accounts as well as go into them.

Since then, everything's been tickety-boo. I was the kind of guy who would renew his license plate three months too late. I would've been late for my own birthday, assuming that I'd actually remembered to write it on my To Do list. Even six months later, I'm still getting caught up. But at least the pile is shrinking instead of growing.

So, the work week's back around 40 to 50 hours per week, and I actually have time for fun again. Oh, and my health has improved to the point where I no longer consider aerosol cheese to be one of the five basic food groups.

Verdict: Success.

5.) Beat Fantasy General.

Not yet. Those damned Ogre Centaurs keep routing my Samurais, and I can never seem to bring up my siege engines in time. But I'll get it one day, I promise you that.

Verdict: To be continued...

I suppose it's time to deal with the obvious question: What will I do six months from now, when the leave of absence comes to an end? The answer is: I don't know. Or rather, I do know, but I don't know whether I'll make the same decision six months from now, when it's for real.

Although I quite enjoyed my previous job, I find that I like this one more when all things are considered. What's more, I haven't really taken the leap of faith yet. It's one thing to take a leave of absence, but it's quite another to quit your job in the pursuit of your dream.

Sometimes, the gods demand a sacrifice. I have a feeling that, before they'll let me have what I'm looking for, I'll need to haul my nice, fat, secure job onto the altar.

And you know what? I'm okay with that. I may not be able to spend money like I used to or be able to answer succinctly when asked, "What do you do?", but I don't care. Of all the stuff I could be doing, this is what I want to do the most.

Prague

2008-10-27T20:15:00.000-04:00

Andrea and I went to Prague last week. If you don't have a lot of time, I'll leave it at this: If you go to Prague, bring sensible shoes.

Still with me? Okay, let's carry on.

In case you don't hate us already, Prague wasn't our first choice. We originally booked a first-class trip to Belize with Aeroplan points. About three weeks before our flight left, we got a call informing us that our flight was no longer 'economically viable', and had been cancelled. Oh, and all the money that we'd spent on our hotel? Yeah, that was down the tubes.

In case you weren't aware, Aeroplan can cancel your flight at any time, and all they have to do is refund your miles and your cash. My favorite part - and, of course, no one at Aeroplan told me this - was that our flight had been cancelled in May, but that Aeroplan didn't see fit to inform us of this fact until September. When I pointed out that this was a rather lax view of customer service, they told me to pound salt.

So, here's my recommendation: if you currently collect Aeroplan miles, switch to something else. Anything else. Personally, I'm going for the RBC Avion card. Also: I have so not given this up.

To add insult to injury, we had a week that we needed to fill, and still needed to fly somewhere. So, we had to suck up our pride and go back to Aeroplan to get our flight. After much trial and error, we found a flight to somewhere interesting that didn't have a $600 fuel surcharge hanging on for the ride. Destination: Prague.

We decided to spend the whole week in the one city. A.) I wasn't in the mood for death-travelling, and B.) It's the kind of city that you can take a week to see. Oh, and C.) Pints of beer cost less than $2.

We left this past Thursday at around 2:00 pm. Andrea left work early, while I'd spent the day packing and tidying up around the condo. (The joys of being "retired".) The flight was more-or-less a straight shot, Ottawa to Frankfurt overnight and then a quick hop to Prague on Friday morning.

I don't mind transtlantic travel - the drinks are free, and those new entertainment centres are actually pretty decent. I drank a few Heineken, watched Get Smart, and promptly fell asleep until around 8:00 am. Unfortunately, due to the time change, that meant that I only got around 3 hours of sleep that night.

The flight from Frankfurt to Prague was decent. Lufthansa knows how to do in-flight food, that's for sure. None of this triple-reheated, dehydrated, rehydrated junk they serve you on most airlines. For breakfast, they served two small pieces of bread with a slice of cheese. And you know what? It was tasty. Unlike the tomato-sauce-and-whipped-beef mixture that Air Canada served the previous night.

We stayed at Hotel Sonata, which is between the New Town and Old Town, out by the National Museum. It was a four-star boutique hotel but, just like Cuba, four-stars in Europe are not like four-stars in North America. The decor was orange but stylish, and they served a pretty good breakfast. Also, despite being just off a major road, it wasn't very noisy.

As far as the hotel staff was concerned, they always seemed to give the impression that you were bothering them, and that they had more important things to do than talk to you - like surf the Internet and stare at the floor tiles.

Our first meal was a disaster. I asked for a nice local restaurant that served traditional fare. What we got was over-priced, dried-out Czech "specialties" served by someone who might well have a degree in hucksterism. But, we learned our lesson - in the future, we would read the menu posted on the outside of restaurants, and I'd stay away from the Becherovka - and the rest of our meals were great.

If you go to Prague, be prepared to walk. A lot. Andrea and I would spend as much as nine hours walking over the course of a single day. Over the course of the week, we probably spent more than two full days walking.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, seeing as there's a plethora of delicious, sugary, fattening foods and cheap pints to be had. Walking's also the only real way to explore Prague, as the best parts of the city are not to be found in some guidebook, but are found in that cafe or restaurant tucked into a side street that no one's ever heard of.

Don't get me wrong - the touristy stuff is actually pretty good. There's beautiful architecture in the square, and the castle is beautiful. The beaten path has terrific stops on it, like the Reduta Jazz Club and Cafe Louvre. But, you know what? I'm going to miss the mulled wine they serve out of carts, Godmother Pizzeria, a mug of Grog at the Last Call, and the locals assuming (against all odds) that we're just a couple of Czechs sitting down to a meal.

The week came and went much too quickly.

Well, enough of that. Time for the photos.

The National Theatre in Prague

2008-10-27T20:13:00.001-04:00

A Small Orchestra Performs in one of the Castle's Churches

2008-10-27T20:13:00.000-04:00

One of the Churches at the Castle

2008-10-27T20:12:00.001-04:00

The View from the Mini-Eiffel Tower

2008-10-27T20:09:00.001-04:00

Prague Wall Art

2008-10-27T20:09:00.000-04:00

A Cart That Serves Both Mulled Wine and Sausages - and Happiness

2008-10-27T20:07:00.003-04:00

The Main Drag, as Seen from the Museum

2008-10-27T20:05:00.000-04:00

Obligatory Tourist Shot Blocked by a German

2008-10-27T20:04:00.001-04:00

Obligatory Tourist Shot

2008-10-27T20:01:00.002-04:00

Still Weighting

2008-08-18T18:18:00.004-04:00

For pretty much as long as I can remember, I've always been a few pounds overweight. Just how overweight depended on what I was up to at the time - mainly how much time I was spending at the gym and how many miles I was being made to run by the Army.

Of course, a person's weight is based on more than just how much time they spend on an elliptical machine or being chased by an angry Sergeant - it's also based on nutrition. Unfortunately, I happened to have some of the world's worst eating habits.

For example, I don't eat vegetables unless forced to do so at gunpoint. I'm also highly suspicious of a large number of sauces. Friends once played the game, "What will he eat?" and came to the conclusion that the easiest way to answer the question was to rephrase it as, "What will a four-year-old eat?"

My weight-wrestling was further complicated by a vain attempt to try the quick-fix diet that best fit with my food preferences: the Atkins Diet.

I'm going to say right now, for the record, that the Atkins diet is a horrible idea. It essentially forces your body into starvation mode, something that is next to impossible to maintain for a significant period of time.

Hence, when you come off the Atkins Diet, your body packs on the pounds like crazy, because it thinks it's just been rescued from a plane crash in the Andes. Also, you need to burn carbs for fuel, so your performance at any kind of physical activity suffers dramatically. All in all, it's bad stuff.

Why did I do it, then? Well, it was successful in knocking off a crazy amount of weight in a very short amount of time. Unfortunately, I gained it all back soon after going off that ridiculous diet.

As I've gotten older, I've noticed that a fair number of my friends are starting to take their health more seriously. Guys who wouldn't balk at the idea of eating two breakfast burgers in rapid succession are starting to slim down, and it got me thinking about my health, and the way I'm going to look as I get older.

Sometime around the start of the summer, I started watching some of the shows that Andrea had been watching on Slice for a while - shows like Last Ten Pounds Bootcamp and Bulging Brides. Amazingly enough, it turned out that exercise had to be balanced off by something known as "nutrition" to be effective. It's scary to say that I've learned all of my nutritional awareness on television, but that's exactly where I've learned it.

Armed with this new-found knowledge (and a Wii Fit), I set out once again to lose weight. I forswore cheese cake in favour of yogurt, chips for fruit, and cheeseburgers for chicken breasts. At the same time, I spent around 30 minutes a day on the Wii Fit, balancing and yoga-ing my way to a thinner Mii.

Wouldn't you know it? Diet and exercise actually works.

The thing that surprised me once is that now I actually crave health food. I get grumpy if I don't get to eat my fruit, chicken and yogurt. That isn't to say that I don't occasionally indulge myself, but at least I have an awareness of what it is that I'm actually eating.

So, now to see where all of this new-found knowledge actually leads. I don't think that I'll ever have an eight-pack or compete in the Olympics, but I do think I can reach a normal, healthy weight. And if that means that I can only have breakfast burgers once every month or two, then so be it.

(Though, alternatively, I could just use extra-lean ground beef, skim mozzarella and a whole wheat bun.)

Dilemma

2008-07-13T20:23:00.004-04:00

My writer's block has been essentially immobile for the past few months. It's not that I couldn't break it if I tried, it's just that I really haven't tried. The volunteer project is so much easier to work on that the temptation is to work on that instead. Unfortunately, the volunteer project doesn't pay any money. So, to ease the drain on my bank account, I go back to Army for additional hours. The additional hours that I spend with Army further reduce the number of hours that I spend on writing. Cue vicious cycle.

I should have known that this was coming. When working full-time, I was putting in a minimum of 60 hours per week, and in some cases 80 hours per week. Subtract a full time job that takes 40 hours per week, and you're left with... 40 hours of work, without increasing the hours I'm putting on the volunteer project or Army. Seems like starting with a full work week as my base state and piling more work on top is a good way to get myself back where I started.

I love my job with the volunteer project. I mean, capital L, full-on LOVE. I would be happy doing this work - or some variation thereof - for the rest of my life. I love the freedom, the challenges, the need for creativity, the sense of accomplishment... pretty much everything about it. This job makes me happy. Except...

Except that not only are people not exactly lining up to pay me for this job, but I question whether taking a paycheque wouldn't actually change the nature of what I'm doing. I mean, part of my credibility comes from saying, "I am not taking a salary to do this work." One of the reasons that we're an efficient organization is because no one in Canada is taking a salary. Considering we're still struggling to cover costs, I don't think I'll be taking one any time soon.

This all seems ridiculous now. It's like I said to myself, "I know, it's just too easy to become a published author. Why don't I try to manage an international charity at the same time?" Brilliant.

Don't get me wrong. I don't feel as though I've made a mistake by doing this. I do feel as though I'm on the right path. But, I'm also seriously concerned that I'll get to the end of this year without having a way to earn a living, and have to choose between giving up the charity and going back to work, or leaving my job permanently and being unable to pay the bills.

Well, at least I'll have The Fear to keep me motivated.

Restaurant Review: Big Easy Seafood and Steakhouse

2008-07-07T16:41:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, Andrea and I went for dinner at the Big Easy Seafood and Steakhouse on Preston Street in Ottawa's Little Italy. Aside from a brief note in the Ottawa Citizen, there weren't any reviews online - so I've decided to write a brief review of our dining experience.

The Big Easy re-opened in early June 2008 to minimal fanfare at the endof Italy Week, apparently because the kitchen wasn't quite ready. There were no signs of any problems when we arrived in early July. The (apparently quite expensive) renovation looked to be worth the money, and the bar area looked particularly appealing. Not being huge fans ofthe tall chairs at the tables near the bar, we instead opted for the main dining area.

As you may have imagined, the Big Easy goes for a New Orleans feel. The restaurant still feels a little bit straight-laced and stark to belong in the real Big Easy, but the use of high-grain wood, period light fixtures and limited edition art prints are putting the restaurant on the right track. Decorating themed restaurants can be something of a slippery slope, so better that they erred on the side of caution. The noise got a bit much later in the evening, but it could've just been our location in the restaurant or the other diners.

The men's bathroom isn't particularly large, but it is well appointed. I quite liked the disposable towelettes they provided, which were so thick that I almost mistook them for cotton towels. Nice. Despite the crowded dining area, we were served promptly. Our server was friendly and engaging, but did not linger too long. The cocktail list looked a little pricey, but the wine list was quite reasonable. The steaks are built around a choose-your-sides Ruth's Chris-style, and both the choices and the prices were appropriate.

We chose to share the grilled calamari and crab cakes to start. The seasoning and sauces used in the appetizers were excellent and the portions were very good, as was the presentation. Both were moderately spicey, but I'd give higher marks to the calamari. However, you did get quite a bit of crab meat with the crab cakes, including large portions of the claw. We also shared a 2006 Waterstone Pinot Noire and a bottle of Pelegrino. The wine was good throughout the meal, and became stronger once it had the chance to breathe a little. This worked well, as it didn't overpower the seafood in the beginning.

Our entrees were 6 oz filets mignon, served with mashed potatoes, mushrooms and grilled shrimp. Mine had blue cheese as a garnish, and Andrea's had a brandy peppercorn sauce. The steaks were quite good for the price point, but had a bit more fat than usual for a filet. We'd also asked for medium rare, but received them rare. However, these are small points that will likely sort themselves out over time.

The side dishes were outstanding, and the potatoes went extremely well with the blue cheese. The mushroom serving was quite large, and were very well cooked. Both side dishes were large enough for sharing. If I had to object to anything, it would've been the shrimp - they were quite large, but not particularly seasoned and required some peeling. At $9 for three of them, they just weren't good value.

The Big Easy does not yet have a set dessert menu, but did offer choices between two desserts. We chose to share a flourless chocolate torte. Why they don't just refer to the damned things as brownies, I'll never know. In any case, it was nice, rich and came with a gourmet vanilla ice cream. Very tasty, and a great way to end an excellent meal.

Overall, we would highly recommend the Big Easy for a romantic dinner or just for drinks and appetizers.

Riverboarding

2008-06-19T12:21:00.002-04:00

Andrea and I went riverboarding this past weekend. For those of you (probably all of you) who have never heard of riverboarding before, it's like white water rafting - except instead of a large inflatable raft and a paddle, you get a large foam board and a pair of flippers. You then proceed down white water rapids.

If you would like to simulate riverboarding, grab a pair of flippers, a boogie board, and a friend. Put on the flippers, lie on the boogie board, and have your friend grab a large rock. Now, put your hands on a dock and start kicking.

If you stop kicking, your friend gets to club you over the head with a rock. Every ten minutes, your friend should flip over the boogie board and, if you don't get back on in less than 18 seconds, they get to club you over the head with a rock. Now, do this for about 6 hours.

Needless to say, I'm feeling a little stiff right now.

I also have the world's most ridiculous sunburn - I was wearing a Farmer John wet suit, and I neglected to apply sunscreen to my upper arms and shoulders. This was about a week ago, and I'm still putting on aloe about twice a day.

Anyway, if you are in Ottawa and want to go riverboarding, we went with Esprit. They did a really good job, and I'd recommend them in the future. If you have wet suit booties (you'd have them if you do SCUBA or snorkelling), then I'd recommend you bring them.

Also, there's absolutely no shame in admitting that you're tired and getting the hell out of the water. You spend a good portion of your time (A.) fighting the current so that you can get into an eddie and (B.) fighting the eddie to get into the current. It tends to take a lot out of you.

Every time you reach a rapid, your guide gives you a briefing. Most briefings tend to go something like this:

"Okay, the next rapid is called Bus Killer. Off to your right, there is a massive whirlpool about the size of a bus. Whatever you do, don't get trapped in the whirlpool. To your left are rocks, so don't go too far left. You want to start slightly left, and then end up slightly left. Then, go to the eddie that's off to the left. Whatever you do, don't continue down the river, or you'll enter a class 4 rapid and die."

The problem is, it's very easy to get tired and miss the eddie. Then, you need to find another eddie before the class 4 rapid. So, it's important to be well aware of how tired you are. By the end of the day, 3 of the 5 riverboarders were in the safety raft, including someone who was a white water rafting instructor.

If you're looking for a good way to celebrate the end of a successful day of riverboarding, I recommend getting take-out from A Light of India and watching CSI: Miami. No matter how much you eat, I guarantee you'll be unable to make up for the calories you burned during the day.

Good for Me

2008-06-16T09:29:00.004-04:00

Six weeks into my year off, I've noticed a distinct trend in how people respond when I explain that I work full-time running a small charity - they almost always say, 'Good for you!' You might think this is a nice thing to say to someone, but what it really means is 'Better you than me.'

To illustrate my point, please answer the following multiple choice question.

1.) Which of the following statement are you most likely to respond to by saying, 'Good for you!'
A.) I am an investment banker.
B.) I am a model.
C.) I am taking a six-month 'round-the-world vacation.
D.) I am going to spend a year toiling under 40C heat in Uruguay, helping to build roads for orphanages.

I'm guessing that you chose D.

As someone who's said 'Good for you!' before, that's what I would choose.

My objection to being told 'Good for you!' is it implies I am some sort of self-suffering martyr, and that the only reason that I'm doing this is because my compassion for others outweighs any kind of sliver of self-interest that I may possess. This assumption does not bode well for charitable work, as there is only a small number of people who are willing to make such self-depricating gestures. Moreover, in my case it's simply not true - I'm having a great time, and am doing this for myself as much (or more) as I'm doing this for others.

There are so many personal benefits to this kind of work that I'm not going to try to list all of them, but here are just a few: sleeping late, being able to pursue my own interests when my mood suits, being able to have a beer and a cigar while I work, setting my own hours and judging my effectiveness by what I accomplish and not by how many hours I put in.

Lastly, there's also the most important benefit of all: it gives me the chance to create something meaningful. I take pride in my work and I enjoy what I do. That's no reason to say, 'Better you than me.'

Balcony Time

2008-06-08T21:20:00.003-04:00

I'm on my balcony now. I practically live out here these days, except for any time between the hours of 2:00 and 5:30 pm, when the sun wreaks its evil havoc against my pasty whiteitude. There's just enough foot and vehicle traffic to keep me from gorging my need for novelty consumption on failblog.org and icanhascheezburger.com, but not so much that I would actually be prevented from doing whatever it is I'm trying to do whilst on the balcony. Right now, I'm trading a few e-mails with assorted organizations regarding the school project.

So, how's that not-working going? Well, someone asked me the other day whether I was getting the itch to return to work. The answer: Not so much. I think I expected that there would be a bit more of an adjustment period, but the truth is that I really enjoy what I'm doing right now. I still end up working about the equivalent of a full work week, but it's done at my pace, when I want to work. If I get up tomorrow at 6:00 am and want to start sending out e-mails, I can do that. If I want to sleep in until 11:00 am and watch Godfather II, I can do that instead.

I've been a procrastinator for so long, it's hard for me to realize that I'm not really procrastinating any more - nothing really needs to be done. Ultimately, it's all optional. For a procrastinator, that's a scary thought. That's like skydiving without a parachute. It's like that old joke: Why's the sky blue? Because if it was green, we'd never know when to stop mowing. Well, how does a procrastinator know when to start working if nothing's ever due? Won't he just keep playing Guitar Hero forever?

Surprisingly, no. I think I've managed to short-circuit the procrastinating. That doesn't mean that I don't play the aforementioned Guitar Hero or check out the latest on Stanely Bing's website, I just do so with the knowledge that whatever I'm doing, I'm doing it because, of all the things in the world I could be doing, that's the one thing I want to do. If so, great. If not, then I go and do whatever it is that I'd rather be doing.

Right now, that happens to be working on my balcony. It's odd to think that I'd want to work at 10:00 pm at night on a Sunday, but when you enjoy what you do...

How's that not working thing going?

2008-06-04T12:28:00.002-04:00

Some of you may be wondering how my recent career change is working out. Well, aside from the fact that I can't seem to stop staring at this site (mostly safe for work, but not always), it's going swimmingly.

Time Magazine: Another Cog in the Controversy Factory

2008-05-23T09:43:00.016-04:00

I read a lot of news from many different sources. One of those sources is Time Magazine, which I consider to be more of a "big picture" news outlet. They may not be the most cerebral of publications, but I consider them to be reasonably respectable and a good place to look when I'm more interested in broad strokes than specifics. That is, until they seemingly succumbed to the epidemic of yellow journalism.

Let us take their current issue, which features an article on children's vaccines. Let's start with a look at that cover. First, there's "The Truth About Vaccines" in gigantic letters. Also, don't forget the scary, giant-ass needle and a frightened looking baby.

Just looking at this cover (even from a distance), what impression are you left with? Well, I can tell you what impression you're not left with - that vaccines are virtually certain to protect the health of your child. No matter how many subscribers Time may have, I can guarantee that it is a mere fraction of the number of people who will merely glance at this cover and walk away with a misguided impression of vaccines.

"Surely," you say, "The article itself must be a well-balanced piece of journalism." And the answer: No.

There are simply far too many phrases that stir up controversy simply for the sake of controversy, including: "When the immune system of a baby or young child is just coming online, is it such a good idea to challenge it with antigens to so many bugs?", "Have the safety, efficacy and side effects of this flood of inoculations really been worked through?" and "Since the 1980s, the number of vaccinations children receive has doubled, and in that same time, autism diagnoses have soared threefold." Only rather belatedly does Time acknowledge that, "In 2003, a 15-person committee impaneled by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health analyzed the available studies on thimerosal and its possible connections to autism and concluded that there was no scientific evidence to support the link." That's yellow journalism at its finest.

So, whether you simply glance at the cover or actually read the article, odds are good that a significant number of people are going to have a misguided view of vaccines as a result of this article. Some of these people have children or will have children that will require vaccines. Some of these people are going to seriously question whether they should allow their children to be vaccinated. And I think we all know what happens to unvaccinated children when the come into contact with the diseases they were supposed to be vaccinated against.

Thanks, Time. Was selling a couple of issues worth the cost of spreading the myth of unsafe vaccines? Certainly, no such article can be explained by journalistic merit. If a single document case of vaccine-related health problems deserves a feature article, Time's next cover should read: "Death by Meteorite: Is it safe to leave your house?"

Pros and Cons of Life in the Slow Lane

2008-05-16T09:08:00.003-04:00

Pro

Sleeping and Dreaming: Now that I don't have to go to bed at a set bed time, I can actually get the amount of sleep that my body needs, rather than the amount prescribed by an alarm clock. Also, I've started to have extremely vivid dreams that I actually remember when I awake. That's something that hasn't happened since - well, since I don't know when.

Con

Nagging Feeling of Laziness: I can't help but feel that I'm nowhere near as productive as I was before, and that this is somehow a Very Bad Thing. I think this feeling will go away with time. At least, I hope it will. Moving from Overburdened and Stressed to Guilty and Lazy isn't exactly a step in the right direction.

Pro

Work is What I Make It: One of my major goals for this down time is to be able to start writing again. Technically speaking, that means that writing this blog post is a productive activity. Sweet.

Con

Money? What Money? : The second Wednesday of the month just came and went, and there was no direct deposit to my bank account. For someone who's still accustomed to throwing money at his problems, that hurts.

Pro

Pennies Saved... : With more time to think carefully about my purchases, I'm finding new ways to save money without feeling as though I'm making sacrifices. Case in point: I'm planning to sell Mercules (a 1999 Mercedes-Benz ML430) and purchase either a Volvo Amazon or Volvo P1800E. If I can find a suitable Volvo Amazon, I'd save the equivalent of $4000 a year in depreciation, gas and insurance - or more than a month's take-home pay at my previous job.

Con

Video Games: I rented Guitar Hero III for the Wii earlier this week, and played it so much that I actually managed to strain my left eye. It's now back at the rental shop, where it can't hurt me any more.

Pro

Cats: We have two. They are hilarious. Whiskey is trying hunt insects on the other side of our windows, while Socks is curled up - and snoring - on the top of a tower that he hasn't actually fit on since he was about 6 months old.

Con

... I think that's about it for cons.

Pro

The whole reason I'm here: Being able to choose, day to day, what it is I want to work on; having complete freedom to pursue my interests, accountable only to those whom support my charitable work. This is my chance to find the golden mean - to be productive at something I love and still have time for family, friends and fun. It's a gamble, but worth giving up a paycheque for a while.

Procrastination

2008-05-13T08:13:00.002-04:00

Here's a great article on procrasination on Slate. I'm not as bad as I used to be, but I'm still a rather rampant procrastinator. Some of the suggestions in the article sound pretty good, but I find that sometimes I just need to get my lazy ass out of the chair and do what needs to be done.

Question for the audience: Do you procrastinate? If so, what is it that finally shakes you out of your web-surfing, Zood-playing stupor?

Change of Pace

2008-05-12T13:49:00.004-04:00

Last post I talked about how I'd managed to dig myself into a pretty big hole, work-wise. I had been spending pretty much all of my waking hours dealing with work in one form or another, and was about ready to burn out. It was pretty clear that I needed a change.

I'd been thinking about what kind of change I needed for some time. In the end, I decided to take a risk and leave my day job to focus on my charitable work and writing to see if I can make either a paying proposition, while making my work-life balance a little more reasonable. May 2nd was my last day.

Now that I have free time again, I'm starting to realize just how much trouble I was in before. I literally have no idea of how to relax. I woke up today with the ability to do absolutely anything I wanted and I ended up spending the entire morning surfing the web and playing XBox. Oh, and I spent more time working.

I'm just not used to living my life consciously like this - being busy is a lovely anesthetic that numbs you against reality. You don't have to ask yourself any of the hard questions because there's always something immediate that requires your attention. Well, that anesthetic is starting to wear off. If I spend the morning eating cheeze puffs and watching Dr. Phil, I have absolutely no one to blame but myself.

But enough whinging. I'm sure that things will settle out, once I've had a bit more time to adjust of my (non) routine. I can find a nearby cafe where I can work on my writing, trade Mercules for a fun yet sensible classic car, spend more time at the cottage and do all the things that I haven't been able to because of work.

It'll be great. And I'll get to that right after I lead the Master Chief to victory against the Covenant.

To Do or Not to Do

2008-03-23T11:15:00.002-04:00

I've taken on far more than I should have over the past few months. Between my job, second job and volunteer job, I'd estimate that I work between 60 to 70 hours a week. This isn't something to take a perverse pride in - this is just perverse, and I have no one to blame for it but myself.

I'm not very good at "being" these days. I feel the constant need to set tasks for myself and then knock them down, one by one. Even right now, when I'm trying to be reflective, I'm persistently checking my e-mail and thinking about all the things I should be doing. I'm not sure what would happen if I tried to have a mug of tea and watch the world go by. My head would probably explode.

What's worse, I'm becoming dull. The daily events of my life used to provide a steady stream of anecdotes. I'd recount, for example, the time I helped Costa Rican hookers evacuate their worldly belongings as a fire swept through their tin shanties.*

Now, most of my stories revolve around e-mails, conferences and proposals. I can see people get more and more drowsy as I speak, and yet it's like I'm powerless to stop it. I have to force myself to not speak to people while they're driving, or else I'd cause the world's most boring accident.

I don't believe in New Years' resolutions, as I think they're an excuse for having 363 resolution-free days. So, I'm going to make an Easter Resolution. Here it is - I resolve to bring my work week to under 50 hours and make my life anecdote-friendly once again.

Anyway, here's a question for anyone who still reads this: Have you found that your life became more dull as you entered the working world and fell into a routine? If so, what have you done to keep it interesting? And if not, how'd you manage that?

* This happened.

Update

2007-12-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

The holidays have now begun in earnest. I took Friday off work, then flew back home to Calgary on Saturday. I've since purchased the remainder of my presents, thereby completing my Christmas shopping. Otherwise, the past few days have been a blur of family, baking and multiple mini-Christmii. It's been fun. I have a niece and a nephew, and it's been fun to be "Uncle Wy" again.

Today should be fairly calm. Fingers crossed, my grandmother will be flying into town this afternoon, but we'll likely have a low-key evening in preparation for what promises to be a busy day tomorrow. Following that, I'll be meeting up with some long-time friends over pints (or the several mini-pints that make up a wheel o' beer), and generally trying to sleep in as much as possible.

Ah, the sleeping. That's a bit hit-and-miss at the moment, being that I seem to be stuck on Eastern time. I was up at about 5:15 am yesterday, and 5:45 am this morning. Given that I've been going to bed at around 9:00 pm, that's not too bad - at least eight hours sleep - but what I probably need to do is catch a nap so that I can start going to bed at a more reasonable hour.

Beyond family and friends, the part of the holidays I like the best is being able to have a bit of time alone with my thoughts to reflect over all that's happened this past year. I typically keep a pretty busy schedule, so it's nice to have time that I can dedicate to this sort of thing, and this year I'm off for a 12 day stretch, which is the single largest break I've taken since I started to work full time. Long walks, journalling and reading books may not be very exciting, but at least I'm excited.

As far as the actual Christmas holiday is concerned, I'm thinking that next year I may declare a unilateral cease-fire on the whole "gifts" part of the holiday. Oh, I still intend to do nice things for people, but these nice things will be an reflection of the depths of my consideration rather than my wallet. Oh, except for nieces and nephews, of course - I'll still spoil them rotten.

I found shopping to be stressful this year. Moreover, most of the people I saw while shopping also seemed really stressed. I think the main reason for that is that most of the people I know are entering a phase in their lives when, if they want something badly enough, they'll just go out and get it for themselves. I know that I certainly have far more stuff than I actually need, or can find appropriate use for. I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the gifts I'll receive this holiday, but I really am equally impressed by the thought that goes into an inexpensive present as that which goes into an expensive one.

We'll see if this sentiment lasts until next year, but I hope that it does.

On Climate Change

2007-12-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

With the international community meeting in Bali to discuss the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, I thought I'd mark the occasion by sharing my own thoughts on climate change. Of course, I have no reason to consider myself an expert, considering that I've only recently begun to take global warming seriously and continue to drive a SUV. To those who say that makes me unqualified to hold an opinion - may he without sin cast the first stone (Read: Unless you're living in a cave, subsisting on celery and clothing yourself in pine boughs, you are also part of the problem).

In any case - and please correct me if I'm wrong - the general gist of the Kyoto Protocol was that nations, particularly developed countries, agreed to cut their rate of carbon production to before 1990 levels. For Kyoto's successor, the major issue seems to be the extent to which developing countries should also shoulder the burden.

Developed countries argue that, for example, China is close to / has surpassed (another point that's up for debate) the United States as the leading emitter of carbon, and thus should be shouldering a large portion of the burden. Developing countries note that their rate of carbon emission per capita is much lower than that of developed countries and that the developed countries have been creating carbon for centuries, not decades, and are therefore largely responsible for the current problem.

My feeling on the matter is that any product that results in a significant emission of carbon (such as gasoline, coal-generated electricity, plane tickets, automobile, etc.) should be subject to a carbon tax. The rate of tax (per CO2 gram) should look a little something like this:

[(Nation's GDP per capita / World Average GDP per Capital) x Agreed Cost for CO2 gram = Tax]

This way, developing countries would still have to pay in, but in a way that's proportional to the wealth of their citizens. Multiply that by several billion citizens, and you still end up with a significant amount of money. Because developed countries will pay more, it'll still work out to roughly the same amount of money as if the tax was applied equally to all emitters.

So, what would we do with all of this money? Well, we would establish short, medium and long-term funds that would help encourage the use of clean technology.

Short-term funding could be used to subsidize the use of existing technologies, such as wind farms and solar cells. Medium-term funding could be used to improve emerging technologies, such as fuel cell cars and hydrogen infrastructure. Long term funding could be put towards researching fusion power - which, incidentally, could potentially power the earth for thousands of years, carbon free.

How does this differ from Kyoto or the proposed successor? Well, no one gets a free ride - there's no threshold (eg. 1990 levels) underneath which you get to skip through without paying. Also, instead of "buying credits", you actually buy something that's worthwile - hard technology that can actually solve the problems we face, rather than forcing everyone to move to the celery caves (and no, hybrid cars are just not good enough - especially considering that vehicles are only responsible for 14% of all carbon emissions).

But will our policy makers accept this idea? I fear not. More likely, any proposal that calls for both sacrifice and vision will be shouted down amidst the blame game. I'm not sure where that leaves us, but if you need to find me, I'll be googling the rates on high-altitude real estate.

A Fairly Typical Rant About Work and Money

2007-10-21T09:09:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day since October 9th that I haven't been working or, in the case of three of the days, working a day and a half. I'm helping put together a course for the Army, which means that there are more demands on my time than usual.

I still love the work, but there are definitely times when I wish I had a 36 hour day. Or, failing that, that I could start sleeping whenever I have an extra 5 minutes to spare. I mastered that particular art when I was away on leadership training, but it seems that one of the prerequisites is having only slept 4 hours during the previous week. I'm tired, but not that tired.

The condo is really coming along well. We're still missing a fair bit of our furniture, but I suspect it won't be long before we'll be able to book a house warming party. The kittens seem to have adjusted, though they were none too pleased when we took them for their annual check-up. In a surprise move, the vet made no mention of brain trauma - I guess they're just like this normally.

I intend to make today a proper, lazy day. That means that the only way I will be changing out of my fleece pajama pants is if we decide to play tennis. The only thing that I will be getting caught up on will be my XBox games, or possibly some Robert Heinlein dystopian fiction. I will be drinking coffee on the balcony up until 12:01 pm, at which point I will switch to Boddingtons. I will finally have a listen to the Cake CD that I've been unable to play in Mercules. And I will be in bed by 9:30 pm, so that I can get up bright and early and walk to work the next day.

Speaking of time off, I wonder when it'll be that we'll actually realize that, in our modern day and age, working 40 hours a week is just a little bit silly. I mean, think about it - were you to have an extra day off each week, and were all the shops and office to be open at that time, think of all the money you'd be able to save by being able to comparison shop, haggle, repair, or simple do yourself.

I'd be willing to bet that, in many cases, you'd end up ahead of where you were before, even with 20% less cash in your pocket. I certainly tend to throw money at problems to make them go away, even if it is done in a carefully researched, semi-frugal kind of way. And think of all the benefits - the part of your income that you're giving up is the part that's most heavily taxed, and the extra hours you're giving up are your least productive. There'll be 20% more work to be done, which means that there'll be more jobs to go around.

Of course, it'd never do. Everyone needs the latest laser-powered super iPod (now with sparkles!), and lives from paycheque to paycheque in order to pay for it all. But that's not the worst of it. The real problem is that we know that, by only working 80% of the time, we'd be committing career suicide.

Who knows where we'd end up if we showed anything less than cutthroat ambition this early in life? We'd probably be cleaning out the ashtrays in airport limos. Or living in France. I'm not sure which is worse.

Update!

2007-09-25T19:13:00.001-04:00

Now that the dust has settled slightly, I figured I'd fill you in on what's happened in the past... uh... 3 months.

- My good friend Sean came down to visit me in Ottawa for Canada Day long weekend. We spent a lot of time hanging out at "The Works", the notorious Ottawa burger restaurant. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to play the ponies at Carleton Raceway. Next time, though. Sean is now plying his trade as a geo-physicist on an ocean-going vessel. I told him that if he starts seeing anonymous henchmen in blue jumpsuits, then he should try to swim for it.

- Jenn, Rudi, Sofia and Noah came for a visit, and darned if my niece and nephew aren't growing up quick. We went to the Perth Road Village Fish Fry, but left before the fist fights started, which apparently happens by the end of the night. The fish, however, was all shades of awesome. Sofi got to spend some time with "Uncle Wy", though not as much as we'd hoped - but I'll be going back to Calgary for Christmas, and should have a week to engage in further uncley activities.

- A bunch of us spent Labour Day weekend out at the cottage, and were fortunate enough to have some pretty fantastic weather. Jess and Peter have bought their own place out there, and we were on hand to help my sister break in her new porch. I'd estimate each person ate, on average, 3 pounds of meat over the course of the weekend - but at least we had some Cuban cigars the size of our forearms to aide in digestion.

- Andrea and I bought a condo - yes, just like that, faster than most people would buy a car, or even a new pair of shoes. It was the first place we saw, and we knew it was the place for us pretty much right away. We still went through the formality of seeing a few other places, but end up putting in an offer less than a week after we started looking. The deal closed in the first week of September, and we're now in the process of moving in.

I hate moving, but it does give me a good excuse to get rid of some of the junk that's accumulated over the past few years - I'm donating a full suitcase to charity, and will likely have more to drop off once all's said and done. So, that's right - a childless couple living in a loft condo close to their respective workplaces. All I need is an eliptical trainer and annoying laugh, and my ascension into Yuppiedom is all but assured.

- Andrea, myself, Brian and Joanna went for a vacation at an off-season ski resort in Utah last week. It still feels odd telling people that I went for a vacation at an off-season ski resort, as it sounds like the kind of place you'd tell people you visited when what you really did was join a cult. Really, though, it was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time hiking, sightseeing, swimming, riding mechanical bulls, and otherwise being active, and spent the rest of the vacation eating, drinking and lounging by the pool.

One highlight was chartering a rafting company to take us about 6 miles up a river that we then floated down on tubes, whilst I smoked a fine Costa Rican cigar. The second highlight was the Alpine Sled, a flimsy plastic contraption that hurtled down a concrete track at about 80 km/h. I never managed to quite figure out how to break, and smoked the pylon at the end of the track twice, and barrelled into the safety pads once. Good times.

That's it for now. Andrea and I still have a lot of moving to do, but we should be done by the end of the weekend. Then, we just have to wait for the extra furniture to arrive, and we'll be all set. Visitors are welcome, but I hope you don't mind sleeping on the inflatable bed. Don't worry, we're reasonably certain that our kittens lack the means of detonating it with their claws at 3:48 am.

Tonight We're Going to Party Like it's 1867

2007-06-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted in a long time, and this isn't going to be a very long post. I just wanted to see if anyone else was going to be up in Ottawa for Canada Day. My buddy Sean's coming down for the week, and we're going to have a few friends over on Saturday for drinks. There are no plans for Sunday yet, but it will likely involve some combination of BBQ, beer, fireworks, and pan-galactic gargle blasters*.

* If you haven't been to Zaphod's, you really should go. If you can drink four pan-galactic gargle blasters in a single night, you will officially be my hero.

Blogging Again

2007-04-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a little over a week since my laptop's keyboard had an unfortunate run-in with a glass of port, which has since kept me from blogging. Thankfully, I was able to purchase a wireless keyboard and mouse that seems to have solved the problem, but it doesn't change the fact that it's time to purchase a new computer.

This will be the first time that I've purchased a computer since 1999. I'm currently on my third Compaq, which is the most recent in a line of Compaqs that had a tendency to fail catastrophically in a way that was conducive to receiving a new computer under warranty. I'm not sure what warranty coverage, if any, this Compaq still has, but I'm willing to bet that it doesn't apply to accidental port spills.

While I may have found the least expensive way to secure full health benefits*, Andrea has the best line in on low-cost computers. In a few short days, a new (to me) ThinkPad will arrive.

Here are some of the impressive features that the new computer will feature, relative to the Compaq:

- Computer will not briefly freeze approximately every 7 seconds.

- The music produced by playing compact discs will exceed the noise produced by the CD spinning in the drive.

- The computer's fan will no longer wheeze to life at random intervals and shudder hard enough to vibrate an entire bookshelf.

- The battery will last longer than 0.001 seconds.

- Computer's screen will not lock in place, forcing me to choose between never ever closing the screen again and shattering the screen's hinges.

- Internet will no longer stop working when computer comes out of hibernation, when wireless peripheral becomes too hot to touch, or when attempts are made to access the Internet.

Exciting!

* As far as I've been able to determine, the least expensive way to secure full health care is to take a 1/2 credit correspondence course from a university, and then opt into the student health plan. You get a full year worth of prescription, health and dental coverage for $600, and that includes the cost of the course. Score.

On Happiness

2007-04-01T21:56:00.000-04:00

I just read a really good article about the link between material wealth and happiness.

The crux of the argument is that it's changes to our life situation that we respond to with either happinesor sadness, rather than the life situation itself. Based on my foray into the psychology of rational choice and decision making, there are a number of situations where that's actually the case. For the math geeks, it's the "delta" that causes the reaction.

This makes a certain amount of sense sense, particularly from the material side of the equation. After all, it's not like we're a thousand times as happy as people who live in under-developed nations, despite having over a thousand times as much wealth. Nor are the wealthiest people in Canada 100 (or 1000) times as happy than their poorer counterparts.

However, I don't buy the argument that it's only the change that matters. We also rate our happiness based on our relative achievements (or assets), as compared to those around us. That is to say that someone with $100 to spend when everyone else has $5 is more apt to be happy than someone with $200 who's surrounded by people spending $500.

This may serve to highlight the dark underbelly of the Internet and globalization. Whereas once you could be the best storytellers (or singer, or musician) in your town and make a decent living, now that role is increasingly reserved for a few talented storytellers (or etc.) whose work can be exported around the globe with ease.

In short, all the "small ponds" that the relatively "big fish" used to enjoy inhabiting are now flooding together. For a business-based example, think about all the corner stores that Walmart's put under over the years.

In many ways, our emotions are like compass needles that tell us where we should be going. The compass points towards food when we're hungry and towards bed when we're sleepy. If the needle always pointed towards happy, then we'd pretty much be stuck in the same place, doing the same thing.

From an evolutionary standpoint, we'd probably not still be around. After having outfitted our caves with a few pelts and some mutton, we would've just stayed there forever. That's fine in the short term, but tends to be problematic when the cave floods and the snows arrive. Hence, we have that urge to move ever forwards in our quest towards a better life.

One of the most interesting facts about the human brain is that our mental fuctions are highly localized. That is to say that if you were to lose 10% of your brain, you would not become 10% dumber. Instead, you would lose whatever abilities that 10% was previously responsible for. So, you might lose the ability to control your aggressive emotions or make new memories or tie your shoes or put together simple shapes to make complex objections or any one of thousands of other potential consequences.

All that is to say that our brain is broken down into many semi-separate parts, which all have a specific job to do. This includes the sections related to happiness and sadness. So, in the pursuit of happiness, one should avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Whereas we soon grow complacent with the hardwoodedness of our floors or the number of horses under our hoods that high-powered jobs made possible, we should perhaps ask ourselves if our extra hours wouldn't be better spent improving our relationships with friends and family, reading good books, helping those in need, pursuing unique hobbies that will fulfill our sense of creativity and achievement, and so forth.

In essense, I'm proposing a theory of multiple happinesses (that's so not a word) to stand alongside the theory of multiple intelligences. I'm not even sure what all of these different happinesses are, but I would wager that each have a different half-life, different triggers, and degrade if different ways. So, while the change ("delta") may affect material happiness, I'm willing to wager it doesn't affect social happiness in the same way.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that they fell into the following groups:

- Basic needs happiness: "Happy to be warm and full."
- Social happiness: "Happy to have family and friends."
- Romantic happiness: "Happy to be in love."
- Competitive happiness: "Happy to be number one."
- Creative happiness: "Happy to be creating something new."
- Material happiness: "Happy to have nice things."
- Altruistic happiness: "Happy to make a difference in others' lives."

I could see some arguments for certain mergers (ie. overlap between material and basic needs, social and romance), but overall I think this covers all the bases. Bottom line, your overall happiness depends upon addressing each different type of happiness, and cannot be addressed by focussing on a single form of fulfilment.

I'm interested in what people think about this. Please, post a comment if you're so inclined.

Update

2007-03-19T23:09:00.000-04:00

I had grandiose plans of writing an elaborate post this evening. Unfortunately, time seems to have slipped away from me. So, I'll keep this brief.

Some of you may have noticed that I've removed the link to my most recent project. I'm not going to go into it here, but suffice it say that I have my reasons for doing so, but the project is still alive and well. So, if you checked it out in the past, I hope you'll do so again in the future.

I'm heading down to Kingston for the Golden Words 40th anniversary this weekend. If anyone else is going down for that, we're making brunch plans for Sunday, and you're welcome to join us. Just let me know sooner rather than later, as the reservation is already fairly large, and I don't want to add another 5 people without giving them at least a few days notice. Otherwise, I'll see you at Clark on Saturday. I'll be the guy double-fisting Chocolate Banana Monkeys.

That's it for now. I'm going to get a drink of water and watch some more Robot Chicken before bed.

Monkeys Fight for Control of Park Sign

2007-02-26T20:13:00.001-05:00

I've joined the multitudes on YouTube. Here's a video from our trip to Costa Rica in 2006. It involves monkeys fighting with each other. And if there's two things we all love to watch, it's monkeys and fighting.

Life Maintenance

2007-02-11T20:24:00.000-05:00

Andrea and I went out to the cottage this weekend for the first time in a while. It was good to get out there, but it seems as though there's never enough hours in the day. We didn't get out there until late Friday night, and left for skiing early Sunday morning. Skiing was a blast, but the cottage time ended way too soon.

We're looking at booking some vacation time soon. I think we're going to put our globe-trotting on hold for a bit, and do something close(r) to home. At the moment, we're looking at Florida, with equal amounts of time to be spent at Disney World and the pool. I can live with that.

Tonight has been spent trying to get caught up on the basic life maintenance I tend to ignore unless absolutely necessary. That is to say, mail, recycling, various insurance claims, laundry, budgeting, etc., etc. Really, I'd rather be sleeping. It doesn't help that my cheeks are warm from sunburn and windburn, and both kittens are stone cold asleep, draped across pieces of furniture as though their batteries suddenly ran dead.

Fortunately, I did most of the work on the project shortly after dinner. Health care lessons started earlier this weekend, and are soon to be followed by lessons in business management, computing and English. Establishing the women's internet facility did a lot to help our credibility, but there's still a ways to go before we're properly accepted as a genuine charity.

I've been finding it difficult to find material that's blogworthy recently. I don't blog about work, so that's out. Most of my family stuff is either too personal or uninteresting. There's a lot going on with the project, but it's already got its own blog, and that's enough. Short of publishing tasting notes on various scotches, I'm at a bit of a loss. But hey, here's my post for the next few days, so that buys me a bit more time.

With that, it's time to put the clothes in the dryer.

Andy Rooney is going to be pissed...

2007-02-05T18:46:00.000-05:00

I was doing a little Googling through the toolbar, and found something interesting when I tried to punch in Andy Rooney and 60 Minutes.

Wow. I had no idea that Andy Rooney was such an asshole.

(Now, watch for "Andy Rooney asshole" to make the list...)

Where do you get your news?

2007-02-01T21:35:00.000-05:00

Where do you go to get your news? And when you do go out for news, what kind of news do you usually read? Or have you given up on the whole formal news thing, and stick to first-hand blogging and such? Or do you just not like news at all?

I'm personally a big fan of BBC World. I usually scan the headlines, and then check out each region individually. Toronto Star is also pretty good, and usually carriest most national level stories. Reuters is excellent, but a little bit heavier than most news services. I mainly hang out in the international section, but will spend my fair share of time in Oddly Enough as well. If I want to see a particular region in greater depth, then I check out the UN's ReliefWeb, which has a lot of information on the developing world.

That's pretty much the circuit. Okay, your turn.

... I'm not actually dead

2007-01-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last wrote. I don't have any kind of real excuse, other than general busy-ness. I think I've gotten things back under control, though.

The kittens are doing well. Socks is chewing on the blanket, and Whiskey is likely asleep on the bathroom floor. The apartment doesn't exactly have great insulation, so the floor in the bathroom has a tendency of heating up during winter. Between that floor and the radiators, the kittens have turned into little heat sponges. They both have a tendency to fall asleep straddling a radiator, getting up only when approaching dehydration.

I watched Little Mosque on the Prairie again last night. I have to say it's a pretty funny show. While it is a bit cutesy, it does occasionally veer in the vague direction of the Line, regardless of whether it ever gets within visual range.

All the same, a vocal sub-section of people have been criticizing CBC for not taking the "threat of Muslim immigration" more seriously. To these people, I say this: While making sweeping generalizations may save you the colossal effort of having to think for yourself, it does not prevent us from concluding that you're a raving idiot.

Think I'm kidding? See for yourself. (Page 2, Fred Smuts)

In any case, time to do a bit more work on things and then call it a night. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep is one of the world's finest luxuries.

Modern Counter-Insurgency Campaigns, as Explained by Stickmen

2007-01-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

This is how to win the war in al-Anbar, Iraq.

I love this premise. I may have to use something similar with the Afghan School Project.

Post-Christmas Sleep Fest

2006-12-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

wThis is the third time I've tried writing this post. It's probably going to end up shorter than I'd originally intended.

It wasn't until Friday that I felt as though I was ready for the holidays to begin. By the time I got in through the door on Friday afternoon, I'd finished most of my shopping and was ready to start packing for my flight that evening. About an hour after I got in, I received a call from Air Canada letting me know that my flight to Toronto had been cancelled due to freezing rain.

Try as I might, I was unable to reschedule for another flight that evening. Fortunately, it turned out that I was covered by CIBC's trip delay insurance. This meant that I'd have $500 to spend on food and accommodation. Living in Ottawa, it meant that I had $500 for food (both solid and liquid) that had to be spent in five hours, lest it be taken away from me.

I was fortunate enough to get ahold of Jake, and 45 minutes later we were properly suited up and in a cab bound for Hy's Steakhouse. After five hours and numerous steaks, lobsters, and scotches, we were within $20 of our goal.

I awoke five hours later, and was mildly surprised to learn that I was absolutely hammered. My flight left in two hours, and I had yet to pack or finish wrapping presents. After a very comical 20 minutes worth of staggering and stuffing, I found myself in the back of a cab, bound for the airport.

I've often said that there are few things as wonderful as slowly getting drunk during a good meal. Well, there are few things quite so horrible as slowly sobering up in an airport line-up.

The flight to Toronto passed without incident, and I had a lovely day with Andrea and her family. Our kittens are doing well, and with the exception of a small unfortunate incident (which shall be blogged about later), they are recuperating quite well from their special operations.

Andrea was kind enough to drive me back to the airport early on Christmas Eve, and from there I flew to Calgary. We had a lovely Christmas, and the whole family was there, including my niece, sisters, and their husbands. Sophie's getting very big these days, and is incredibly cute. She's still not very talkative, but she is very sharp and learns very quickly. We spent this afternoon playing hide-and-seek, and took a trip to a nearby park.

I have no real plans for the next few days, apart from sleeping late, reading books, listening to music and going for walks. I'm excited about visiting with a few buddies, and spending some time with the fam. It's nice to have a vacation where there's no real schedule that needs to be followed. The two priorities for this trip are to visit the Cattle Baron and the Willow Park Liquor store, which has one of the best scotch selections in the world.

Two-Six

2006-12-10T19:12:00.000-05:00

I turned 26 this past Saturday. It was a really good birthday - we kept things low-key, had a couple of nice meals, and generally took the weekend as a chance to rest up after an otherwise eventful couple of weeks. It looks as though I'm going to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, which would be a nice way to start off the new week.

26 is just a bit of a weird birthday. I'm not going to rant and rave about getting older, but it does feel a bit strange to see my late twenties looming in the immediate future. I don't feel old, but I am now the age that I once regarded as ancient. It's just surprising how fast time goes, you know? Like when you were younger, and waiting an hour for something seemed like an eternity, but now weeks can pass in the blink of an eye.

Personally, I'm a fan of the Perry Bible Fellowship comic on the subject of birthdays.

The First Annual Gentlemen's Weekend at the Cottage was excellent. Plenty of meat and beer were consumed by all, and I was introduced to the Settlers of Cataan. Excellent game, and one that I'll need to pick up myself before too much longer.

Also, for anyone who has not seen the extra features at the end of Team America: World Police, then you need to see them. Watch the movie right now, and then watch the extra features. You can thank me later.

Not much else is new, other than that. Recently finished the Mohammad Yunus book "Banker to the Poor", and hope to get through the stack of books that I still haven't read, dating all the way back to last Christmas. Im hoping to get some time in with Mr. Tom Robbins or perhaps Mr. Neil Stephenson once the holidays roll around.

Speaking of which, I'm presently looking forward to a three-stopover nightmare on Christmas Eve. Saving some money and booking the trip on points seemed like a good idea at the time, but we'll see how that actually works out for me. I could be writing a post on the 26th describing how best to enjoy your holidays when stranded in Thunder Bay.

Me Night

2006-11-30T21:31:00.000-05:00

Tonight is a Me Night. Andrea's flying out to visit friends on the east coast first thing tomorrow, and the 1st Annual Gentleman's Weekend at the Cottage doesn't start until Friday evening. Tonight is mine, all mine.

Once I'd taken care of a few errands that I'd been meaning to get around to, I proceeded to cook up a massive steak and some mashed potatoes, then sat down to some Dr. Phil with my heart-attack-on-a-plate and a cold bottle of beer. Next on the agenda is a little music and reading, to be followed by a solid hour of pirate-related video gaming. By the time I was hired at the new job, this was pretty much what I was doing every night, so I was getting a little sick of it. Now that I'm busy again, this is a real treat. The circle of life, it moves us all.

It's taken until around now to get everything squared away for the weekend. Jake was kind enough to offer to check in the kittens. This is critical, as the little geniuses regularly spill their water bowls and manage to get themselves stuck behind the fridge. Sometimes both in the same twenty minute period.

I've been trying to get over a bad case of the Office Plague for the past few days, and it seems to be on the mend. It no longer feels as though someone's stuff a regulation softball inside my sinuses, so that's a huge improvement. I'd originally planned to combine my pirating with a glass of scotch and a cigar, but something tells me that office plague and tobacco smoke won't play nicely together.

I was hoping that we might have more unseasonable warmth for the upcoming weekend so as to make the porch-going experience a bit more pleasant, but the weather for the next week appears to be crappy with a chance of horrible. I don't think I've actually seen "ice pellets" on a forecast before.

Fortunately, most of what is planned for this weekend can be done strictly indoors. It includes beer-swilling, steak-eating, cigar-smoking, poker-playing, and whiskey-drinking. Not necessariy in that order.

I'm out... have a good night, and I'll have more on this after the weekend.

Some Thoughts

2006-11-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

It feels as though someone has stuffed a large grapefruit into my sinuses, but aside from that it's been a good weekend.

Once the dust settled from the renovations at my apartment, things ended up looking pretty good. The wine-stained green, spangly counter top in the kitchen has been replaced with something low-key, tasteful and, most importantly, stain resistant. I'm starting to grow rather fond of my apartment, even if it does have, ahem, "character". (Read: Stalactites on my living room ceiling.)

I was thinking the other day about the kind of charities I'd like to see out there. Not to disrespect traditional methods of delivering foreign aid, but I think that if you deal with the overt symptoms (ie. hunger, disease, malnutrition, etc.) but not the root causes (ie. economic disadvantage, inadequate education, poor security situation, oppressive political environment), the aid you deliver won't actually change anything.

What I'd like to see is an adaption of micro-credit lending that would give micro-grants to local organizations that are working towards political freedom, basic human rights, gender equality, conflict resolution, and economic and educational opportunities.

I'm thinking of something sort of similar to the online auction model, where you can browse based on your price range and interests, and then pick a project that works for you. Regardless of whether you wanted to vaccinate Romanian orphans or provide office supplies for Puruvian womens' rights advocates, you'd be able to find a project that worked for you.

The one issue is accountability, but I think there are ways around that. In almost any given country, you have diplomats, journalists, travellers, writers, government officials, etc., etc. Similar to the way you'd ask a local professional to vouch for you when you apply for a passport, the aide recipients could get local and international officials to vouch for an organization's credibility.

There'd be several benefits to setting things up this way. First off, you'd be supporting some very important work around the world. It's not a pleasant truth, but there are many individuals and organizations who do not believe in democratic government, human rights, or freedom of opportunity for the impoverished. Those who do support these goals deserve support that they don't often receive.

Next, you'd be providing a forum for people with similar goals and interests could share ideas. Rather than having to reinvent the wheel a hundred times over, people can learn what works and what doesn't, and change what they need to make it work in their own setting. If it works, great. The results are evident, and the group gets more funding. If not, then it's back to the drawing board - with even more incentive to get it right the next time, lest someone log some negative feedback.

I totally got off on a tangent here. Other than bandying such thoughts back and forth, the weekend was really good. Very relaxing. The grapefruit in my sinuses appears to be shrinking.

I'd appreciate commentary on this idea, and not just the hearty-backpatting variety, either. If this kind of stuff is a priority for you, is this the kind of model that you'd consider using? Why/why not? What sort of things would you do to improve it? What sort of guarantees would you want? I know there are a lot of you out there who have experience, or at least an interest in this sort of work, and it'd be good to hear from you.

That's it for me. I'm sleepy.

Thoughts

2006-11-21T22:57:00.000-05:00

I've been enjoying the swimming lately, although I haven't had the chance to get out there as much as I'd like. Hopefully that changes, as it appears as though Army will not be taking up my weekends for a while, at least. It's been a while since I last slept late, and woke to freshly made cinnamon buns and coffee that could take the paint off a battleship.

The rest of the post is about resolutions. I don't believe in New Years resolutions. I believe that resolve is something that is not time-dependant. Now that I feel like I'm getting settled into Ottawa, I think I'm going to make the following resolutions:

- Swimming. Do that more often.

- Reading. Make the time to enjoy the intellectual books (and the not-so-intellectual books) that have been gathering dust on the shelves.

- Projects. Once I start one, I should see it through. If I can't see it through, I shouldn't start it.

- Honesty. I wouldn't call myself a dishonest person by any stretch, but I've been know to respond to direct questions with versions of the truth I felt were more pleasing to the ear than others. Next time someone asks an honest question, they get an honest answer.

- To become a man of action. If I want to see an idea become reality, then I'm going to have to be willing to stand up behind it and put in the hours. Not to say that a little creative complaining doesn't do wonders for the soul, but let's be honest here - solving problems without implementing or communicating the solution is little more than intellectual self-gratification.

- Silliness. More of that, too. Does that even count if you put "silliness" down as a resolution, like it's something on a 'To Do' list? I'm not sure, but it's probably better than not having it down at all. So, down it goes.

Wiped

2006-11-19T23:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a long weekend. I was working with the Army this weekend - I'd have to say it's probably my first full weekend since I started with my new job - and I definitely have a new respect for long-term Reservists. It takes a lot out of you to work all weekend, and then be set for work again on Monday. It was a really good exercise, so I'm definitely glad I was there, but I don't think I could do this every weekend.

Andrea and I saw Casino Royale. It was gooooood. Just don't go see it down at the South Keys in Ottawa. The projector broke down with about five minutes left to go in the movie. We were not impressed.

As far as content is concerned, though, very good film. Definitely gives a lot of the James Bond back story.

Okay, it's time for bed.

Update

2006-11-13T17:19:00.000-05:00

The weekend's winding to an end, but its job is done. I was able to play no less than four hours of Sid Meier's Pirates!, and I gathered sufficient will power to stage a foray into a commercial shopping emporium for over an hour. This will likely not occur again until December 20th.

I was at the Remembrance Day ceremony down at Beechwood, and I have to say that it was a very nice service. The weather was far from ideal, but it was appropriate for the occasion and was not able to soak through our thick wool uniforms.

Andrea and I went to see "Death of a President", the 'documentary' that's based on the premise that President Bush was assassinated in October 2007. I'm a little surprised it didn't run longer in the major theatres, as we had to go to a no-name cheap theatre to track it down. Overall, I'd say it was a very interesting movie, and did not go out of its way to take any particular side. Just a very interesting instance of, "What if...?"

I'm still trying to plow my way through "The Invisible Man". Although interesting, this book should be prescribed for coffee-addicted insomniacs. I get about three paragraphs in and then, the next thing I know, sunlight is streaming in through my windows.

I wish I had more exciting things to write about. I'm quite happy with the way stuff is going, but it makes for some tedious blogging. I'm more or less certain that none of you care if I enjoyed swimming on Sunday, or if I made pizza on Friday evening. Eh. I'd like to tell you that this blog hasn't just jumped the shark, but you'll have to make that decision for yourself.

Okay, time to rescue my long-lost uncle from the clutches of the evil Baron Von Montbatton. Or something to that effect.

I heart Brazilian spam

2006-11-08T17:42:00.000-05:00

I got an odd message from an e-mail addres with a Brazilian extension:

"Oieeee, primeiro eu vou pedir para você mil desculpas.. rs

Você tinha me pedido para achar aquela foto lá, e fiquei de ver para você, só que acabei me enrolando aqui nas minhas tarefas e acabei não tendo tempo.

Mais espero que você me desculpe, e me diga senão valeu a pena esperar só esses diazinhos :-).. rs

Só não vai deixar aquela pessoa ficar sabendo que te mandei essa foto, senão ela vai acabar me matando.. rs

Bom confio em você, só em você, e espero que você me perdoe.. e goste muito do presente.. rs

Eu não consegui enviar a foto para seu email diretamente, então para não demorar mais ainda, guardei ela no meu fotolog, é so você ver ela por AQUI

Se caso não funcionar aí, é so clicar AQUI

Beijões e manda um abraço pro pessoal ai. Lu (só para os intimos) A. Garcia"

Once Altavista's BabelFish has had a crack at it, it looks something like this:

"Oieeee, first I go to ask for for you a thousand excuses. rs You he had asked for me to find that photo there, and I was to see for you, that I finished rolling itself here in my tasks and only finished not having time. More I wait that you he forgives me, and he says senão to me was valid the penalty to only wait these diazinhos:-) rs He does not only go to leave that person to be knowing that I ordered this photo to you, senão it goes to finish killing me. rs Good I trust you, only you, and wait that you it pardons me. e likes present it very. rs I did not obtain to send the photo for its email directly, then not to more still delay, I kept it in mine fotolog, is so you to see it for HERE If in case that not to function there, he is so to clicar HERE Smacks and order one hug pro personal ai. Lu (for we only intimos them) Garci'a"

I hate it when I finished rolling itself here in my tasks, and only finished not having time. It's okay, A. Garcia, me it pardons you.

Update

2006-11-07T13:01:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy couple of days. Elena and some of her friends were in town this weekend, and we threw an impromptu party here at the place. You never know how these last-minute things are going to turn out, but this one was a blast. Elena and her friends have some damned hilarious stories, and I had a few laughed-til-I-cried moments. Good times.

I'm starting to feel as though I'm more settled into Ottawa. I think I've got a bit of a routine going - nothing that I'm tied down to, but something that lets me keep on top of errands, work and exercise while giving me time for fun, socializing, movies, side projects and XBox. It's hard to find a good balance, so who knows how long this'll last, but I'm enjoying it while it's here.

We had a beautiful day yesterday - after a pretty gross week, temperatures spiked in around 10-15 Celsius. I had a lot of errands to run that day but I found time for a walk, and I'm really glad that I did. I've also started swimming on a fairly regular basis (2 x per week) at the nearby community centre, and that's really helping. I hate exercise that feels like exercise, but swimming is a good way to unwind after a long day.

I've been on a Amazon.ca blitz recently, and am particularly proud of my recent order. It included two new Presidents of the United States of America CDs, the second of which I'm currently enjoying. The name may not immediately ring a bell, as they were big about ten years ago, and then seemingly faded into obscurity. For the longest time, I thought they only had a single CD. Oh, how thrilled I was to find out that they had many more...

Their music is silly, fun and irrelevant, without trying too hard to be funny. It's enjoyable music even if you never pay attention to the lyrics, but if you do have a close listen, you'll find most of their songs are dedicated to things like peaches, kitties, the Death Star, candy, Tiki gods, etc. So much fun.

Seriously, if you haven't heard the Death Star song, go find some way to have a listen. It's hilarious.

Andrea and I are going to see Borat later tonight. We're excited - I've been a fan of Ali G. and assorted characters ever since I was introduced to him by my brother-in-law two or three years ago. Borat is, by far, my favourite character. I have big hopes for this movie, and hope there's a good crowd in the audience tonight.

Question: Do you like the Presidents of the United States of America? If so, do you have a favourite song?

Update

2006-10-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

Weekend's winding down, but it was a good one. Had a training day with the army on Saturday (set up / tear down a modular tent), followed by a full, proper day off on Sunday. Didn't do much of anything - slept late, played video games and watched 'The Sentinel'. Just what I needed.

The kittens are doing well, and starting to show more of their personalities, now that they're getting settled in. They're still destructive little brats, but they haven't destroyed my ottoman yet, so I'm happy.

I started playing Sid Meier's Pirates! yesterday, and I can tell that it has the same potential for addiction as most of his other games. You may scoff at this, but I had a roommate at university who lost two years of his academic live to Civilization 2.

Rumour has it that it's going to be another mild winter. Living in Ottawa, I'd say that the news is welcome, but I'd still like to get some skiing in at some point or another, which is something I was unable to do last year. Hopefully I can make it to Tremblant at some point or another.

We've elected to keep the cottage open throughout the winter, so perhaps there will be some cottaging going on in the not-too-distant future. This is dependant on kittens being able to sustain themselves for a weekend. Considering they regularly get themselves stuck behind large items of furniture, it may be a few months before we're ready to leave them to their own devices.

Oh, and here's something to consider - if you've recently graduated and don't have health benefits as part of your job, consider taking a correspondance course from a university and opting into their health plan. It works out to cost something like CAN$600 for health and dental, whereas you're lucky to get Blue Cross for under a grand.

I'm going to bed. Starting into the H.G. Wells. Finished The Time Machine, starting Invisible Man. All in all, I'd say I'd prefer The Time Machine, but we'll see what the rest of Invisible Man has to offer.

Sins of my Past

2006-10-20T19:27:00.000-04:00

You ever get the moment where you remember something really bad that you did years and years ago, like it just happened about three milliseconds earlier?

The Gothamist did an interview of GW-editor-turned-Internet-superstar Jay Pinkerton, in which he described an incident that got him hauled in front of the Dean during his final year of university. The article in question? Oh yeah, that was my little bastard brainchild.

Uh... wow. And oops. Wowoops.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Obligatory Kitten Photo

2006-10-17T20:48:00.000-04:00

Here are our little brats. Whiskey (a.k.a. Baron von Whiskers) is on the left and Socks (a.k.a. Socrates) is on the right. This is the one shot out of about thirty where I could actually get them to sit still. The secret is tapping on the side of the camera while taking the photo.

Update

2006-10-17T20:03:00.000-04:00

I decided to clean out my links. I'm actually a little ashamed, but I found it really hard to do. It was like I was taking your little digital avatars off life support - as though the one to two hits a month you got from me were sustaining you in some dark hour.

I was ruthless when I came up with the criteria, which was to retain the active blogs of people I've met in real life. It seems a bit arbitrary, but I think it makes sense.

I totally feel as though I should apologize for taking people off my links section. That's kind of strange, but at least I'm resisting the urge. You know I love all of you, regardless of whether or not I elect to wipe your digital existence from my memory.

Sigh.

Kittens are doing well. They're cuddled up now, after a long day of wrestling and driving me crazy. Whiskey has learned how to leap from her scratching post to the bed. It's amusing to watch from the living room, as it appears as though a kitten is hurtling through the air at about chest height, with no particular origin or destination.

Any way, time to cook some dinner and then play video games. Shrimp curry + Splinter Cell = Awesome.

Kitten Update

2006-10-15T23:32:00.000-04:00

The kittens (Whiskey and Socks) have arrived at the place in Ottawa, after having spent a few weeks at Andrea's mother's place. They've come a long way from what they were like when we first picked them up.

They no longer feel the desire to disappear for hours at a time, so scared that they hide inside the hard-to-reach bits of furniture. Now, they race through the apartment and use their little kitten-claws to climb everything and anything. Come to think of it, I kind of miss the hiding.

They're brother and sister, and play together constantly. They have a habit of waiting until the other lets their guard down, and then conducting a kitten sneak attack. They're still small enough that they can squeeze under my bookcases.

Both of them manage to get into everything and anything. The house is slowly being kitten-proofed, only to find that something that we thought to be harmless to kittens is actually well within the grasp of their little claws. Case in point - trying to sleep when a kitten has decided that the zipper on your suitcase is a dangerous animal that must be slain at all costs.

All in all: very cute, very happy we adopted them. Pictures to appear in the near future.

Philosophical Ramblings

2006-10-12T22:15:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some soul-searching over the past few weeks, trying to figure out what kind of work I see myself doing way on down the road. That's not to suggest that I don't like what I'm doing now - far from it, I think this is probably the best place I could be right now in terms of gaining practical experience and learning more about the world around me. But I knew from the start that I was unlikely to remain with my present employer for the next twenty years.

As near as I can figure it, here's the big question: is it better to be out there doing a job, or inspiring others to go out and do it themselves? In my particular case, the job in question relates to international affairs and conflict resolution, but I think the same holds true for pretty much any would-be do-gooder.

Before you can do either, it's pretty obvious that the first step is to get to the point where you know what you're talking about. That's where I am now - learning the biz, and getting myself in a good position to do a Master's a few years down the road. This, perhaps, to be followed with a bit more practical experience.

But what then? Do I join the United Nations or the Privy Council Office and work there, or work to encourage Joe or Jane Westerner that it's in everyone's best interest to read a newspaper and write their elected representative? Heavy questions, for reals.

Ultimately, I think it'll work out to be some kind of a balance. That is, working with an organization that enlists the aide of Joe and Jane Westerner to tackle the root causes of conflict at a grassroots level. But how will I get there? I'm starting to think there should be some time spent as a teacher, but how much? And when?

As an aside, if you're the last kid on your block to hear about the $100 laptop, check it out here. Assuming this thing does half of what it says it can do by the time it hits the street, this thing's going to change the freakin' world.

Finally: I think I've figured out what I'm going to do, charity wise. I'm in the process of tracking down the contact information for the Laroo school for war-affected children in Uganda (article here). Seems like a worthy cause, and by giving directly to a local NGO, I should be able to skip a lot of Western-real-estate-and-salaries overhead. The only thing I won't get is a tax rebate. Booo. Still, something tells me those war orphans and former child soldiers need it more than I do.

Okay, that's enough goodness for today. Don't mind me - I'll post something heartily offensive in the next day or so.

Obligatory Airplane Photo

2006-10-01T21:17:00.000-04:00

This is the view of the Andes as we flew into Santiago. As tacky as it is to take a photo through an airplane window, I thought it was a pretty good shot. Apparently, there's still spring skiing at this time of year. We decided to pass, as I still have not learned the Spanish equivalent to, "Can you please collect my legs, and then take me to a hospital?"

Nature Sanctuary

2006-10-01T21:15:00.000-04:00

Here is the entrance to the Cascada de las Animas nature sanctuary. We were a little surprised to see that the gate was locked, until we learned that it was to keep the pumas in the park.

Rio de Maipo

2006-10-01T21:10:00.000-04:00

Here is the Rio de Maipo river. It's the river the borders the resort - we had a chance to travel down it via whitewater raft. Nothing inspires confidence like receiving a safety lecture from someone with whom the only common language you share is the word "bathroom".

Cascada

2006-10-01T21:05:00.000-04:00

This is the famous Cascada de las Animas for which the resort is named. It's a beautiful waterfall, but they recommend that you not go underneath it, and not just because it's so cold that your reproductive organs will lodge in your trachea - apparently, rocks occasionally fall off the top of the waterfall. That's a good way to ruin your vacation.

Mmmm... piscolicious

2006-10-01T21:00:00.000-04:00

Here is the bar from whence so many pisco sours sprung.

The house that Don Toro built

2006-10-01T20:59:00.000-04:00

Here is the manor house of Don Toro, the founder of the Concha y Toro winery. They have a very long and detailed history, most of which I don't remember, thanks to five or six glasses of vino tinto. I'm pretty sure that Don Toro lived in Chile and that he made wine but after that, things get a little fuzzy.

Barrels of Monkeys... well, barrels that will turn you into a monkey

2006-10-01T20:51:00.000-04:00

I think we stumbled upon Donkey Kong's strategic reserve.

Fiends!

2006-10-01T20:49:00.000-04:00

Here are the secrets of the Concha y Toro winery. As you can tell, the directions are incomprehensible to anyone who may lay their eyes upon them. I believe they've used some diabolical encyrption scheme to keep their competitors from figuring out their secret techniques. Fiends!

Tasty!

2006-10-01T20:45:00.000-04:00

Our guide prepares our first wine tasting. Note: subsequent photos may become more and more blurry.

The Cellar of the Devil

2006-10-01T20:43:00.000-04:00

Here is the specially aged bottles of Concha y Toro. In the background: the devil. Oooh, scary.

Restaurant

2006-10-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

This is Cascada de las Anima's restaurant. They served a pretty good queso y jamon (ham and cheese) sandwich, and one mean pisco sour. It's spring, so things were pretty quiet while we were there - most nights, we were the only guests in the restaurant.

The Cabina

2006-10-01T19:05:00.000-04:00

This was our little cabina that we rented while in Chile. It had a nice little woodburning stove, and a fairly comfortable bed. The extra privacy was nice, as was the kitchenette (which we didn't use) and the complimentary spiders. Seriously, though, great place to stay, and there weren't an unreasonable number of spiders.

Our Little Chevy

2006-10-01T19:01:00.000-04:00

This is our little Chevy Corsa, the rental car that took us from the Santiago airport to our little cabina at Cascada de las Animas. We got a bit of an odd look from the guy at Alamo when we asked for an economy model, but it managed to get the job done. I'd have to say it was a pretty good rental - the mirrors didn't fall off, nor was there any tragic monkey-related autobody damage, so it was definitely superior to my previous car rental in Costa Rica.

The View from Halfway

2006-10-01T18:59:00.000-04:00

This is a view of the Andes, taken when I was still more interested in photography than I was in praying that my horse didn't fall off the side of the mountain.

Our Guide

2006-10-01T18:56:00.000-04:00

This is our guide, Leo. Although he spoke no English and we spoke very little Spanish, I think we got along well. By way of a phrase book, we learned that he had been working with horses since he was a young child. I also think that he told us that there were many Russian women in Chile and that there are lots of French people in Argentina, so perhaps my translation was a little off.

Rio de Maipo Valley

2006-10-01T18:52:00.000-04:00

Right at the bend of the river, there, is where we started from. Yes, it's as far away as it looks.

The View from the Summit

2006-10-01T18:50:00.000-04:00

Here we are at the summit. I think this is about 1600 metres - about 1000 metres higher than when we started. Any higher, and I think we'd need some horsie space helmets.

Ryan in Chile

2006-10-01T18:12:00.000-04:00

Here I am, during our lunch break from horseback riding. Not evident in photo: me thinking about how badly my ass is going to hurt the next day.

Update

2006-09-19T21:51:00.000-04:00

Back in Ottawa now, and trying to get everything taken care of in time for our trip to Chile on Friday. Well, Saturday. For some strange reason, it was several hundred dollars cheaper for our fight to have a 24 hour stop-over in Toronto than it was for us to have a two hour stop-over. Oh, and a direct flight from Toronto? Way more expensive than either option.

On Saturday, we'll be picking up kittens that I (we) are adopting. That is to say, I'll be the one formally adopting them (Andrea's place doesn't really allow pets) but we'll both be looking after them. They'll be staying at Andrea's mother's place until we go back there for Thanksgiving. We've decided to name one of kitten Baron von Whiskers, and the other Socrates. Whiskey and Socks, for short.

And I don't care what any of you think, I'm posting pictures of kittens on this blog. Learn to like it.

Not much else is new. We were back in town for Homecoming this weekend, and had a really good time. We stayed out at the cottage, so it meant that we couldn't drink as much as usual, but I think that actually turned out to be a good thing. As I was walking between Main Campus and West Campus, I couldn't help but wonder why I didn't feel like death wormed over. "That's right!" I eventually realized, "I'm not drunk and hung over at the same time."

After the football game (which Queen's lost, albeit not by much), we made our way to the Portsmouth Tavern (a.k.a. "The Ports"), where Queen's Band was celebrating. We didn't stay for long, but did stay long enough to find out that our friend Kevin is the new Boohoo the Bear (the Queen's mascott), and that he had cupped some Principal Hitchcock bum at the end of the Homecoming halftime parade. Way to go, Kevin!

We met up with some friends for dinner, and then went out to a keg party shortly thereafter. We were on the outskirts of Aberdeen, in case anything went terribly awry. I'm glad to say that nothing did - the police presence, although numerically greater, was much more low-key than last time around. The students, for their part, seem to have learned there lesson. The live-and-let-live policy seemed to work out well, and no more cars were flipped and set on fire.

On a related note, the "Save a car, flip me." T-shirts were a great idea.

Other than Homecoming festivities, we managed to make our way to AquaTerra no less than three times over the weekend. Dinner on Friday and Sunday Brunch had been planned for weeks, but Andrea didn't find out until recently that her father would be in town on Sunday. When asked what restaurant he wanted to dine at, the answer was immediate: AquaTerra.

Not that I'm complaining. If there's one restaurant that I would elect to have cater my life, though, that'd be it. Assuming you could roll me out the front door in the morning, that is.

On an unrelated note, now that the year is a little closer to winding down, I'm trying to figure out which charity should get my annual donation. There are a few I like. Amnesty International is one that I have a lot of respect for, but so is the Red Cross. I've also thought about donating to the International Crisis Group, a non-profit that advocates strategies to resolve international conflict, but think it might be better to hold off on that a bit, until I can donate a significant amount of money.

The charity that's looking the most likely for this year is the People Bridge Foundation. Basically, it's a smaller charity that works on small-scale projects designed to create opportunity for people in need.

This is a good fit for me, as I think it's easy for charity to either get lost in administration, or go to programs that pose a risk of dependance. Food aide is a good example of this - strategically applied, lives can be saved. In the long run, however, it takes away the incentive for people to produce their own food. For the larger charities, even the ones that are well run, you don't really get much feedback in terms of what your money is doing. I mean, you could look at an ambulance somewhere and think, "Hmmm... I probably paid for its last oil change," but I'd like to know where my money is going.

The People Bridge Foundation is a small charity, and deals with much smaller projects. So, good way to know where your money is going. What's more, their projects are specifically to breed economic independence. Neat.

Okay, it's late. Time for bed. Parting question... any charities that you'd like to recommend?

Homecoming

2006-09-10T19:29:00.000-04:00

Andrea and I are going back to Kingston this coming weekend for Homecoming. We're coming down for dinner at AquaTerra on Friday, we're attending the football game on Saturday, and we're going to brunch on Sunday. Other than that, our schedules are open. We'll be staying at the cottage for the weekend.

So, those of you who are either Alumni or students of Queen's, what are your plans for the weekend? It'd be good to catch up. It's been a while.

Labour Day

2006-08-30T20:37:00.000-04:00

There's less than two days until the Labour Day weekend, and I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't damned happy for it to get here. Andrea and I are head out to the cottage on Friday afternoon, and we're not coming back to Ottawa until Wednesday.

We'll be joined by a few friends for part of the weekend, but the lion's share of our time away will be with just the two of us. After starting to feel as though I'm suffering from information overload over the past little while, I'm excited about losing the internet connection in favour of a good book. It's been a long time.

Really, I've no one to blame but myself. I spend my day behind a desk, then fire up the internet and cable news once I get home, when I could be hitting the gym, going for a run, doing some sketching, or even working on my writing. All things that involve some form of creativity, without having lots of flashy images, words and sound piping through my senses.

Two nasty habits that I've developed over the years are my propensity for procrastination and the ease at which I can be distracted. For instance, while I was writing this blog post (which, in itself, is procrastination from doing laundry, filling out my passport application, having posters mounted, updating my iPod, etc.), I decided that I wanted to see how much my ideal summer car (read: 1967 Shelby Cobra 427) would cost. This lead me to browsing used Ferraris and Lamborghinis, which in turn took me to eBay.

A few minutes later, and I ended up looking at the U.S. Treasury Department webpage for seized goods auctions (because, of course, there are many Ferraris and Lamborghinis being auctioned - crime, apparently, does pay up until the point you get busted, and your assets get auctioned off).

I've included the link for you here.

I'm not sure which is more amusing - seeing all the stuff they have for sale, or trying to imagine the circumstances under which it made its way into government hands. Either way, fascinating. Thus far, I think my favorite is the 7,200 bottles of Pirat vodka in a warehouse in New Jersey. And the animated gavel on the main page? Mesmerizing.

Back to the topic at hand.

It's going to be good to get away for a few days, and perhaps take some time to map out what it is that needs to be done in September if I'm not going to slip further and further behind as far as errands are concerned. I want to figure out how to pursue my long-term career aspirations, spend time with Andrea and my friends, learn a second language, keep things neat and tidy... etc., etc. Always so much to do, and so little time.

So, for all the procrastinators out there: did you ever find a way out of it? Or will you be getting to that soon?

Reconciling my SUV Guilt

2006-08-29T23:34:00.000-04:00

For a while now, I've realized that it's probably a bad thing that I drive an SUV. I recognized that driving an SUV makes a pretty substantial ecological footprint, and that the world would be a better place if I opted for, say, a Toyota Echo or an electric golf cart instead.

On the other hand, given the number of people I know that have been in some pretty serious car accidents, I feel much better with a vehicle (Mercules, see the legend) that has some pretty extensive safety features. And no, rolling up on top of working-class motorists isn't one of them. That, and my family cottage (as well as my uncle's place, and my grandmother's place) is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, meaning some fairly substantial snow tires / traction control are requried to make the trip in the middle of winter.

I've tried it in a rear-wheel drive before. It wasn't pretty.

So, I thought that I was stuck with SUV guilt, as a result. Doomed to wander this planet, forced to shut my mouth whenever environmental issues became the subject of conversation.

Enter TerraPass.

Initially launched as a professor's project at the University of Pennsylvania, the idea is that an ecologically-minded driver can punch in their vehicle and driving habits, and receive a rough estimate of what it would cost to fund a project to counteract the environmental impact. So, in my case, I need a utility pass that costs roughly US$80 which covers roughly double the impact of my present driving habits. For Andrea's Civic, it'd be roughly half the cost.

I bought a membership that renews itself annually.

I'm not sure which I'm going to enjoy more - feel justified in taking part in environmental discussions, or seeing what people say when they see the TerraPass sticker in the back of my SUV.

Now if there's only some way they could factor in the geo-political cost of consuming non-renewable resources... Hmmm.

A Few Things That Make Me Angry

2006-08-27T23:23:00.000-04:00

Why is there no longer any place that I can go that's free of advertisements? I pay ten dollars to go see a movie, and there's five - ten minutes worth of ads before the film starts. I pay five bucks cover to get into a bar, and there's ads hanging over the urinals. What's next? Is the dentist going to rent out space on his ceiling? Will McDonald's launch a banner into orbit? Are hospitals going to tattoo ads on the backs of babys' eyelids? At this point, nothing would surprise me.

Why aren't there any positive young female role models these days? What happened to the likes of Princess Diana and Jackie O? Instead, we've got Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Don't get me wrong, Paris Hilton's a pretty savvy entrepreneur. But, considering that her idea of community service is parking her Mercedes SLR McLaren in a handicapped spot, I don't think she's going to win the Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon. I'm not sure exactly what's required to solve this problem, but if body mass is any indication then the smart money is on a strong gust of wind.

Why on earth would someone go to a job day-in, day-out if they hated what they were doing? I know these people are out there - they commute over an hour to get to a job that they loathe, all so they can afford a quality of life that isn't actually satisfying or rewarding, on any other than a financial level. I'm not sure what would be worse - being at a job you hate, or being stuck with all the other job-loathing, commute-sufferers who are equally numb. Seriously. Stop spending all your money on pay-per-view and home threatre equipment, save some cash, and open a dive shop in Fiji.

I think each driver should get a shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket when they get their license. You only get one, and that has to last you the rest of your life. Doesn't matter if you miss, either, because that's the only one you get. So you'd really have to pick your target carefully, knowing that that you only get one chance. Still, should each driver be so equipped, I bet that puke-orange rust-flaking pick-up truck with naked woman mud flaps and a "Got Guns?" bumper sticker might think twice before they huck a lukewarm can of Pabst Blue Ribbon at an endangered animal before conducting six simultaneous lane-changes. I'm just saying, is all.

A Very Special Message from Samuel L. Jackson

2006-08-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

... can be found here.

Poking my Head Up

2006-08-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I'd written, and I realized that if this blog was meant to do more than just languish and die, it was time to do some writing. Alas, the kind of writing I need to do probably won't fit into the eight minutes I've alotted before I go to bed, but I hope to make time for it sometime later in the week.

I've also toyed with the idea of starting up a second blog. Or third blog. Or fourth blog. This all depends whether you count my travel writing as a blog, or if we should consider A Helpful Suggestion to still hold a place in the line. Regardless, it's still an idea that I think about from time to time, and there a few would-be topics to fill the void.

I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier that Andrea introduced me to Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, but she did. It's a really good series. On one hand, it's full of dragons and wizards and magic, which is precisely what I feel like doing when I come home from work having spent my entire day reading and writing, well, the polar opposite of wizards and magic fiction. This means that I have some form of escapism that doesn't involve playing video games. There's more than ten books in the series thus far, which means this diversion will last a while yet.

Beyond that, the themes that are addressed through the series are intelligent and thought-provoking. I don't know what encouraged Mr. Goodkind to use wizards and dragons as a filter through which to examine ethics and sociology, but he does a pretty good job. Of particular note are the "Wizard's Rules", which are rules that, to my way of thinking at least, are applicable for non-wizarding folk as well.

And... eight minutes are up. Time does fly. But seriously, people-who-read-this-blog-regularly, I miss hanging out with you all. We need to do it again, soon.

Question for you all: Do you have a book (or series of books) that addresses a serious issue in an indirect way, that makes in particularly enjoyable to read? If so, drop a line...

And like that... poof... he's gone

2006-07-29T17:29:00.000-04:00

I'm going away on work for the next two and a half weeks, and I'm not really sure how much blogging I'll be able to do while I'm gone. It could be much more, or none at all. I have no idea, but at least you won't be surprised if my lack of posting continues well into August.

Andrea and I spent the past week out at the cottage, visiting with family. We spent a few days with my little niece (and her exhauted but proud parents), and managed to get a few visits in with my cousin, Dustin, and his girlfriend. Dustin had been teaching English in Russia for several years, and I wasn't expecting him until August, so his visit was a particularly nice surprise.

Apart from that, we didn't do a hell of a lot. We hung out on the porch a great deal, and did quite a bit of reading. And we went swimming. And barbequed. But that was about it. Then again, that's all summer should be about, if you ask me.

Unfortunately, the vacation was punctuated by the "loss" of my credit card. While it never physically left my possession, someone managed to clone my Visa and went on a miniature rampage. When the dust finally settled, they'd racked up several hundred dollars worth of charges, and I needed to get a new card. What was particularly disappointing was the fact that they spent all the money at Esso, McDonald's, and Subway. If you're going to commit theft, could you at least do something cool with the card? Like, buy a boat or something? Seriously. McDonalds and Esso? That's just sad.

Ramblin'

2006-07-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

There have been moments recently when I can feel myself being sucked into the rushing river of Responsible Adulthood. For each time that I find myself resisting the trappings of late-twentysomethingness, I feel irrestibly lured by a siren song that offers promises of the ability to experience non-disposable furniture and covered parking. I am a man divided, with a ragged backpack in one hand and an employee health card in the other.

For every friend that has recently bought a condo, there is another paying for a hostel with freelance newspaper stories about Australian dogs, dressed up like Elvis. For each cramped Korean apartment, there is an Ikea bedroom set. Despite my illusions to the contrary, it's no longer the waiting game. The kids are picking their teams, because recess will be over all too soon. House prices are skyrocketing, and biological clocks tick on. Time is of the essence.

The problem is that there is no right answer. There's nothing to say that choosing to do a stint in the real world needs to end with a house in the suburbs and a loveless marriage punctuated by ungrateful children, nor do we know if we'll have any more success finding ourselves in the snow-drenched peaks of the Andes than we would in the checkout line at Loblaws.

Instead, we must rely on our sense of better judgement. This is the same sense of better judgement decided our career at age 17. I think we all know how well that's turned out for everyone.

This would be bad enough, but society has also instilled in us a fierce sense of irrational competitiveness. Not only are we concerned with finding enlightenment and managing our low monthly payments, but we want be most damned enlightened person out there, with the lowest freakin' monthly payments this side of December. And we want it right now.

It's not really anyone's fault. That's just how information works, these days. It's not something that you have to ask for any more. It's just there, whether you want it or not. It's like working alongside the pitched hum of a dying flourescent bulb, or trying to fall asleep with your skin pressed against the flower-covered steel-wool dust cover in a cheap motel. You might as well learn to like it, because you don't exactly have much choice in the matter.

Once upon a time, you were considered to be a true person of intellect if you understood every major scientific, theological, and metaphysical theory. Nowadays, there's more information zipping through the air around you in a single second than you could likely learn in an entire lifetime. Why bother seeking things out for yourself, when it's this hard just keeping up? Who needs to climb a hill to see what's on the other side, when all you need to do is punch it into Google Maps? Especially if all it turns out to be is another set of Big Box stores?

For a generation that's seen everything, often beamed directly into the comfort of our own homes, nothing's exciting anymore. Our frontiers, once dominated by hard-fightin' cowboys, are now the playground of wealthy oligarchs, willing to pay king's ransoms to experience one of the few things they haven't already tried. Fifty years ago, to have finished high school and own a house was to be the model of success. These days, that's barely enough to mark you as one of the herd.

Hence, the rush. If we're going to get out there, we need to do it sooner rather than later. There's scores of people lining up to be dedicated and/or adventurous, and they're all chomping at the bit to prove that they're more dedicated and/or adventurous than we are. If we don't move fast, we're not going to get there until all the cubicle-berthed orthopedic chairs are filled, and the last pygmy village is worshiping their heathen gods under the dull glow of the lights in a Walmart parking lot.

So, did you make your choice?

Tick. Tick. Tick.

I salute anyone who tries to carve out a different path, and who refuses to take their place as another cog in the Conformity Factory. I honour every one of you, those who celebrates their very limited time on this world without appology. Every time you turn off the television to actually speak to one another, or make someone's brow furrow with surprise or mild consternation, know that I am silently cheering for you.

Please, continue to ruffle feathers, be sarcastic, and draw fire from those who don't understand. And for those who manage to balance dedication and adventure on your own time and for your own reasons, know that you will always have special place in my heart.

Canada Day Weekend

2006-07-04T22:51:00.000-04:00

Now that the weekend is over, we've finally had a chance to catch our collective breathes. Things started at around 5:00 pm Friday evening, and didn't really stop until late afternoon on Monday.

Aside from my house warming party, this is the first genuine full-fledged party that I've thrown at my place in years. That was the downside of the cottage (and certainly the downside of my in-city living arrangements) was that the amount of entertaining that I could do was limited to a small group of people.

And believe me, I missed entertaining.

I think I picked it up from my grandmother. She used to have us over for Sunday dinner, back when I was in university. I used to have to warn my friends to not have too much to eat during the first round, as there was always more and more food to be had. Grammy felt that she hadn't succeeded unless, when you walked out her front door, you waddled.

Lacking the requisite living space and maturity for dinner parties, I elected to focus my activities on more alcohol-related activities. The parties started small, but it wasn't long before they started to get crazier and crazier, and run later and later.

One of the traditions that we used to have for these parties was the infamous jug of Party Juice. For Party Juice, we would take an empty water cooler bottle, and fill it up with normal juice. We'd then proceed to add somewhere between 3 and 5 bottles of alcohol. We capped it off by putting a small hand pump on top of the bottle.

The result was an 18L jug of mixed drink.

Whatever wasn't drunk by the end of the night was stored in whatever containers we had on hand, and consumed as soon as possible thereafter. There was no particular motivation for that decision, but it seemed reasonable. We didn't know just how reasonable until the Bourbon bottle incident.

After one particularly raucous party, we ended up with too little room in the fridge to store all of the Party Juice. Inventive as we were, my housemate Chris and I elected to put what little Party Juice remained in a recently-emptied Bourbon bottle, which we put into Chris' closet and promptly forgot about.

Roughly a week later, Chris and I were going about our business when we heard a sudden *POP* *THWACK* and *CRACK*, which we rushed to investigate, only to be greeted by the smell of yeast and sour juice. As it turned out, the Party Juice had continued to ferment while it was in the Bourbon bottle, and the resultant pressure was too much for the cork to bear. Ergo, the cork was shot into the ceiling, and landed hard back on the floor once gravity won out.

We did what any pair of young men would do in similar circumstances. We drank our double-fermented, freshly carbonated mixture. As far as I can tell, neither of us went blind as a result.

In any event, this weekend saw not just one, but two parties, one of which was completely impromptu. The first lasted until roughly four in the morning, while the second lasted until about three. It was a good feeling, and I hope to be able to do something similar again in the near future.

There's more to this story (ie. what happened at the parties, and the rest of the weekend), but I've written enough for one day. The rest should be up in another day or so.

Quebec, Quebec

2006-06-26T17:46:00.000-04:00

Andrea and I went to Quebec City this past weekend. There was no particular reason for our trip - we just felt the need to get away for a few days. I took care of the hotel arrangements, and booked us into the Hotel Port Royal, in Old Quebec. It's a boutique hotel, and reasonably well appointed. My favorite part was the lobby. it made you feel as though the concierge might turn to you and say, "We've been expecting you, Mr. Bond." Neither of us had a licence to kill, but they did opt to upgrade our room to a suite free of charge.

Parking was $15, and you could elect to order an a-la-carte breakfast each morning for $7 p.p.. I like to sleep in, and don't usually order breakfast at hotels, but the ajoining restaurant (Le 48) served breakfast until 1:30 pm, and had a very respectable selection. A small premium was required for some of the brunch items, but the signature breakfast included two eggs, sausage, bacon, fresh fruit, hash browns, coffee, ham, jam, and baguette. If you need more food than that, then pay the two extra damned dollars.

We'd made our travel arrangements before we found out that it just so happened to be the same weekend as St. Jean Baptiste Day. For those of you who don't know, St. Jean Baptiste is the Patron Saint of French Canadians, for reasons unknown. In practical terms, it means that there are a lot of Quebecois getting absolutely tanked on the plains of Abraham. Good times.

My French isn't exactly stunning, but I had enough to get by. Most of the French you need on St. Jean Baptiste Day can be found in the following phrases:

"Bon St. Jean!"

"St. Jean! St. Jean! St. Jean!"

"Oh-LAY OHLAY OHLAY OHLAY! OHLAY! OHLAY!"

"Cessez d'uriner sur mon bagage, s'il vous plait."

Seriously, though, it was a great party and everyone was very polite, despite my lack of French language ability. Aside from the plains of Abraham, we spent most of our time wandering around the Old City, trying out restaurants and looking in galleries. I think I'm starting to develop a taste for art, even if I don't have the budget for it quite yet. If anyone ever wins the lottery and wants to buy me something nice, an original painting by Denis Nolet would definitely win some gratitude.

Andrea arranged for reservations at L'Echaude, considered by Frommers to be the best bistro in Quebec City. I was a little taken aback by the scallops (never been a big fan of cold seafood), but quite enjoyed the Stag medallion. Their chocolate pie was very well done, as was their signature champagne cocktail, champagne and creme de cassis.

Later that evening, we visited a random Jazz bar near the Chateau Frontenac. Not sure what the name of it was. Not entirely sure where it was, or how to get there. But they had great music. And they served Leffe Brun. Always a winning combination. (My Google Sense is telling me that it's the lobby bar of the Hotel Clarendon.)

We stopped in at Aux Anciens Canadiennes the next day for their maple syrup pie, which was quite a delicacy. The other thing we really enjoyed was the fact that almost every restaurant had a cheese plate of some description or another. They also had reasonably priced wine and some quality locally-brewed beers, which means that there's not a hell of a lot else that I remember from this particular trip.

I do, however, remember Charbon, which is the steakhouse that we went to the last night that we were there. It's out by the Via station, and they serve some of the best steak I've ever had in my life. I'm sorry, Cattle Baron. We can still be friends, can't we? I had the escargot as a starter, then moved on to the ten ounce New York, with two massive U10 shrimp (I don't know why they're called U10s... probably something to do with the fact that they're nearly big enough to be submarines). Andrea had the Beef Tenderloin, which was smaller, but well flavoured and very tender. We were too full to make it to dessert.

After Charbon, we checked out La Boudoire, a martini bar located a few blocks away. Upstairs was pretty dead, but there was a dance bar downstairs that played some pretty solid music (latin dance, while we were there) and made for great people-watching. The gin and tonic was good, but I ended up getting bits of mint from my mohito stuck between my teeth. We didn't go into any of them, but there were a number of similarly-styled bars in the area. It seemed to be more of a place for locals, rather than tourists, which made it a valuable addition to the itinerary of any self-styled traveller that hates to be lumped in with drawling, butt-pack wearing, camera-toting, tiny-tipping, McDonald's-dining, Coors Lite-ordering tourists.

It only took about 4.5 hours to get there from Ottawa, and the highway was clear for most of the way. Getting to Old Quebec was a little bit tricky, but would've been easier if I'd slowed down once we got to the hilly bits. Google Maps provided directions, Expedia the hotel bookings. Beautiful city, had a great time,

100 Things That Make Me Happy (Continued)

2006-06-22T21:49:00.000-04:00

71. A really good scheme.
72. An unexpectedly amazing song on the radio.
73. Having a nap on the grass, under a shady tree.
74. Falling asleep to Loons on the lake.
75. That "Aha!" feeling when I suddenly understand something that I was struggling with a few minutes prior.
76. Black and white footage of World War II, as narrated by a truly ancient British guy.
77. The pair of grey shorts that I should've thrown out years ago, but that I still wear at the cottage.
78. Wine that has to be decanted to be served properly.
79. The beauty of human frailty.
80. The quiet respect between two people who are at the top of their game.
81. Enjoying something that I know I've earned.
82. Getting packages in the mail.
83. Friends that stay in touch, years after you've last seen them.
84. Taking the boat out on the lake to look at the stars.
85. Exceeding expectations.
86. A big mug of tea on a cold morning.
87. Freezies.
88. Getting comments on my travel articles / blog.
89. A really old, comfortable hoodie.
90. Entertaining company.
91. Christmas in Calgary.
92. Breaking out the hip flask while skiing.
93. A big breakfast after a night of heavy drinking.
94. Landing gear touching down.
95. Feeling stiff after a good workout.
96. The Kids in the Hall.
97. Chocolate banana monkeys.
98. Numbered lists.
99. People with sufficient patience to read really long lists.
100. Finishing things, once I've started them.

Words of Wisdom

2006-06-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

I really enjoy books that put deep thoughts down on paper, so that the reader can use them as a kind of meditative touchstone to jump-start the cognitive process. Warrior of the Light, by Paulo Coehlo, is one such book. The Hagakure is another. These are beautiful books, relevant and deep at the same time.

I wanted to do something similar, but at the same time I want to do something that has a bit of a different flavour. I want to put down some words of wisdom on record, but I didn't want to put down anything cliche, like "Triumph over adversary" or "A Penny saved is a penny earned". I want my words of wisdom to be relevant to everyday life. I want them to be the kind of primer that I could have used about ten years ago.

So, here we go.

Find a decent drycleaner. When you drop something off, tell them what kind of a stain it is. If they don't get it out, go to a different drycleaner. Keep doing this until you find a good one. Then, never let this person out of your sight.

Your car needs more maintenance than just an oil change. Yes, oil changes are important, but they're just the beginning. Assuming your car still works, drive around until you see some junky hole-in-the-wall with all kinds of crazy-expensive sports cars parked in front. Congratulations, you've just found a good mechanic. Keep your mechanic in the same line of sight as your drycleaner.

Learn how to combine a simple meat dish with a simple side dish and a basic sauce. Then, play around with it until it tastes unique. Unique in a good way, that is. Do this with three or four dishes, and you'll know more about cooking than most people will ever learn.

Never carry a balance on your credit card. Banks are practically pawing over themselves to give people lines of credit these days. If one of the big banks won't do it, try ING or President's Choice, or a credit union if you have to. But whatever you do, don't carry a balance on your credit card. If you have no choice but to carry a balance on your credit card, that's nature's way of telling you that you're living way, way beyond your means.

There's nothing quite so exciting as a good, old-fashioned, hare-brained scheme. There's no shame in losing yourself in a particularly good scheme for a few minutes out of every day. Go on. Imagine what it would be like to try and make a living importing vintage cars from Uruguay, or opening a cigar bar in Fiji. Think about opening your own bed and breakfast on a lake in northern Ontario, or becoming a surf instructor in Costa Rica. Big, crazy ideas have smaller, less-crazy cousins that you can actually incorporate into the less-exciting reality that you're escaping from.

Learn the basics of how to handle your money. Not to scare you, but here's a test. Read the following words. Dividends. Tax brackets. Interest rates. Money markets. Index funds. Emerging markets. Risk thresholds. There's nothing wrong if you don't understand any of these terms. If you don't understand most of these terms and you're investing money in mutual funds, alarm bells should be going off. If you don't understand all of the terms and you're picking your own stocks, then you should probably either consider a career as a firefighter or a lemming, because you're either very brave or very dumb.

If you're a boy, and you haven't seen a doctor in two years, go see a doctor. As someone who shares a Y chromosome, I sympathize with you, and your genetic belief that a doctor is someone who makes you sick, but seriously, just go. You'll thank yourself for it in the long run.

Here's another one for men: the only kind of shirt that you should ever tuck into your pants is a dress shirt. And if you do tuck in a shirt, wear a belt. If you're ever confused, wear a blue shirt with khakis. The only time you should wear white socks is if you're exercising. Ditto with gym shorts or sweat pants. By the time you're twenty, you should have an analog watch and a pen that doesn't say "Bic" on the lid. If the bottom of your pants are fraying, then take them to your tailor. If you've had the same underwear since junior high, throw them out. You can save one pair for those days when you intend to have no human contact. No one will know. I promise.

There are times when you need to get drunk, and there are times when you need to stay sober. And if you can figure out which is which, you're better at this than I am.

You should have the following kinds of books in your bookcase: a book to give you inspiration (The Alchemist), a book to make you glad that your life isn't worse (1984), a book that makes you laugh like a total fool (Dave Barry Talks Back), a book from your childhood (I Want to Go Home), and a book that's hard to grasp (The Tao of Physics).

Everything that you could possibly buy has three potential attributes. Is it easy to find? Is it reasonably priced? Is it good quality? In almost all cases, you'll be lucky if you get two out of three.

If you're with someone special to you, and you go a few days without seeing him/her, and then you see them again, and your heart doesn't leap, you should probably give some serious thought as to whether you're with the person you're supposed to be with.

You really should have a pretty solid grasp of when the food in your fridge is going to expire. Also, you should have an entire meal that can be prepared from items in your freezer / pantry.

You should have something in your life, that you see every day, that's beautiful and makes you smile.

Seriously, just go out and watch Dirty Rotten Scoundrels some time. You'll thank me for it.

You should know how to do the following in a restaurant without looking like you've spent the past ten years of your life in a cave: taste a bottle of wine, when to set the napkin down on your lap (hint: once you sit down), when you should send your food back, when NOT to send your food back, how to gauge an appropriate tip, at least two different labels of wine that you can pronounce properly, how to offer your dining companion a chair without looking wooden and awkward, and the way to talk to the manager / waiter / waitress / chef if it's a very special occasion.

One kind of exercise that you can do no matter where you are, what the weather is like, or how much you've had to drink the night before.

Not everyone in the world is going to like you, but far fewer will actively dislike you if you accept this and just be who you are. Also, it will drive the people who do dislike you crazy.

When to stop writing long lists of random advice and go to sleep, so you don't look like a zombie at work tomorrow.

University is Wasted on University Students

2006-06-15T23:22:00.000-04:00

... or, to be exact, it was wasted on this university student.

I've decided that, at some point in my life, I'm going to go back to school and get a second degree. It's going to be a degree in General Arts and Science. Perhaps I will major in something a little more specific, but I promise that it will be the least useful subject that I can possibly think of.

Looking back, I realize that I spent most of the academic portion of my university career wishing that I was somewhere else, doing anything but what I was doing. That's the drawback in deciding, midway through, that you have no intention of every applying the vast majority of your coursework to anything practical.

There's a few ways that you can react when you reach this kind of decision. You can change course and go for a different degree, reexamine your field of study until you find something that you are passionate about, or muddle your way the rest of the way through with the minimum amount of work that you need to get by.

Sad to say, I picked door number three.

This isn't to say that there weren't exceptions to this rule. I really shone during my Intro to Rational Choice and Decision Making course, totally 0wnz0r3d Artificial Intelligence and Programming Paradigms, and did a pretty damned good job with my thesis project, the Adaptive Review Agent. On the dark side of that coin lie the Intro to Brain and Behaviour, and the Psychology of Reading.

Don't get me wrong, I know that almost every university student comes across courses that they didn't particularly like or do well at. I just can't help but shake the feeling that I could've done more. I want to go back and learn things because I'm genuinely interested in the subject matter, and not because I'm angling for a better job somewhere along the line. That's not what university is supposed to be about, but we put a premium on practicality in Canadian society. Sometimes, that emphasis can draw focus away from the noble pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake.

I don't regret the way I went through university. To be honest, I think that life is too short to carry any kind of serious regret. But if the opportunity presents itself, I'd like to go back and really soak up the benefits of being at a quality institution of higher learning. Talk to the professors. Spend some time in the Art department, or the English department. Broaden my horizons. I think I got a lot out of my first go 'round, and there's no denying that when the time came, I was ready to leave.

I'm interested to see how the second time around will go, but probably not for another three or four decades.

Update

2006-06-13T18:01:00.000-04:00

The trip to the cottage was a lot of fun, despite abysmal weather that kept us in doors for most of the weekend. If nothing else, it allowed us the chance to get caught up on our movie-watching and food-eating, if there is such a thing as getting behind in those two particular activities.

We're planning to go back out again this weekend, but we're probably not going to have any company out this time around. It's been a while since Andrea and I have had a weekend to ourselves, and I think we're just going to take it easy for a bit. We're still hoping to have more time for entertaining later in the summer.

I've been reading the book Snow Crash recently, and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys any kind of computer-based science fiction. As far as a good hacker story goes, it's pretty hard to beat. Also: its main character is named Hiro Protagonist. Fan-tastic.

Still looking at the Real Estate market off and on, but much more off than on, these days. I still think that the price of housing is over-inflated, and there's a bubble ready to pop in there somewhere. This is perhaps less true of places like Calgary and (hopefully) more true of places like Ottawa. Still thinking that I might want to get into the market by at least buying some raw land or something, but quite comfortable in my current (albeit leaky) apartment.

I've started to run again, but my ambitions of fitness-dom are being dashed by tight fitting shoes that give me blisters whenever I run. My solution to this is to keep running until I build up callouses the size of walnuts on my feet, but perhaps you know a better solution. Years ago, Nubalance was the mark of high quality, respectable footwear. What is it, these days? It's literally been years since I've bought running shoes (and sadly, no, it's not because my current runners are worn out).

Cottage Bound

2006-06-08T22:01:00.000-04:00

We're headed down to the cottage this weekend, which'll make this the first weekend of the season that we've been able to spend on the lake. I'm not going to lie to you: there are still a lot of things I miss about cottage life since I moved back to the city. I've discussed them in detail, so I won't go into it again. Suffice it to say, I'm really looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of the loons again.

That is, of course, if the weather is at all reasonable. Weather for Kingston is supposed to be a little cool this weekend. Hard to say what it's going to be like out at the lake. If the north wind kicks up, then it's going to turn into a DVD-watching festival. But, if not, there might be a bit of kayaking and sailing going on. Probably not enough warmth for tube-floating, though.

The visit wih my father and stepmother went well. Contrary to my cynical suspicions, there was no motivation behind the trip other than a desire to visit with my sister, myself, and our respective significant others. Dad seems like he's much more relaxed now that he's no longer working two jobs, and I think he may actually be ready for retirement. Time will tell, though.

Thanks largely to his most recent visit, I've since acquired a new dream car. I think the 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 will always have a special place in my heart, but I need to be realistic here. All I could ever afford would be a replica. The body would be made out of fibreglass, and it would never be quite the same as owning a real one.

Enter the Caterham Super 7.

Caterham owns the rights to the Lotus Super 7 design. So while it's a continuation of a successful design, it's still a real car, and not a replicar. Also, the body panels are aluminum, which keeps the weight low without diminishing the appearance. Modern cars, such as the Audi A8, BMW 7-series, and the Jaguar XK have all moved to aluminum bodies in the name of performance. Another thing that's notable for Canada: aluminum oxidizes, but it doesn't rust.

Also (and I throw this in purely as an aside), the Caterham Super 7 is capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds. That's performance to match or exceed even the most exotic of supercars. Now, we'll forgive it for having a top speed of 155 mph, but considering where it would be running, I think it's understandable. Besides, most supercars are governed well below their top speed in North America... as if you needed a physical reason to not travel at 300 km/h down a Canadian road.

It gets this out of a four-cylinder, 260 HP engine. That makes it much, much better on fuel than a Cobra or comparable vehicle... let alone some 12 cylinder monster from Italy.

The lines aren't quite as sleek as the Cobra, but at least the roll bar covers both driver and passenger. Plus, put in a set of the wheel covers that stretch back to midway through the body and a nice paint job, and you've got yourself a classic sports car.

Of course, I still don't have a garage. Or any need for a second car. Or the spare cash to purchase one. But that's why it's a dream car. But at least it's an obtainable dream...

I'm not going to get my hopes up on the cottage until I know what the weather's like. But I will update on how the trip went, after the fact. Until then, Cheers - and I promise to lay of the car talk for at least a month or so.