They've moved the desired opening date of the new store up to Tuesday at 8am (from same time Thursday).
My next 108 hours are going to be, hmmmm, hectic.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Eek.
Ummm, does this worry anyone else?
From the link, "If the shrinking trend continues at its present rate of 8 per cent a year, there could be no ice at all at the pole as early as the summer of 2060."
Not an isolated report either...the new evidence the report is based on is also being reported by the New York Times and CTV.
Apparently my plan to move to Alaska to bask in the wonderful coldness of it all may be short-lived. Well, I'll be almost 90 by then so probably not an issue for me. What I'm most worried about though is what the effect of all that 'new' water will be over the rest of the planet. That ice water floats sometimes hundreds of feet over the ocean surface for an area of some 2 million square kilometers. That's a lot of water.
It brings to mind that debate over the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" which involved the rapid onset of an ice age because of the sudden increase in melting of the ice over the north pole. Everyone agrees that the events depicted occurred far too quickly (like decades fast), but many scientists are starting to believe that those events could actually happen, just over the course of 30-100 years.
What was most interesting about the release of that movie was that the head of Nasa at the time forbid all of the agency's climatologists from talking to reporters about the potential truth behind the movie's pseudo-science.
I just say: "Eek."
From the link, "If the shrinking trend continues at its present rate of 8 per cent a year, there could be no ice at all at the pole as early as the summer of 2060."
Not an isolated report either...the new evidence the report is based on is also being reported by the New York Times and CTV.
Apparently my plan to move to Alaska to bask in the wonderful coldness of it all may be short-lived. Well, I'll be almost 90 by then so probably not an issue for me. What I'm most worried about though is what the effect of all that 'new' water will be over the rest of the planet. That ice water floats sometimes hundreds of feet over the ocean surface for an area of some 2 million square kilometers. That's a lot of water.
It brings to mind that debate over the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" which involved the rapid onset of an ice age because of the sudden increase in melting of the ice over the north pole. Everyone agrees that the events depicted occurred far too quickly (like decades fast), but many scientists are starting to believe that those events could actually happen, just over the course of 30-100 years.
What was most interesting about the release of that movie was that the head of Nasa at the time forbid all of the agency's climatologists from talking to reporters about the potential truth behind the movie's pseudo-science.
I just say: "Eek."
Teetering on the Edge.
Uh, yeah. I woke up this morning because 90km/h wind gusts are quite loud. Our forecast says these should be around almost all day. I guess that's one way to get rid of the old deadwood around my house.
I just captured that radar picture, it's just a few minutes old and shows that we're just on the edge of a large rain front that will also pelt us today. Yay.
I just captured that radar picture, it's just a few minutes old and shows that we're just on the edge of a large rain front that will also pelt us today. Yay.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Thank You.
To the anonymous someone who shopped with SAQ and sent a bottle of my most favourite wine straight to my home...
Thank You!
Thank You!
Better.
What's better than earning money while sitting in a lab doing my homework?
Earning money to sit in a lab doing my homework and playing poker for real cash at Ultimate Bet.
That remote desktop protocol for that little bit of wonderment.
Earning money to sit in a lab doing my homework and playing poker for real cash at Ultimate Bet.
That remote desktop protocol for that little bit of wonderment.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Monday.
Wow. Not much bloggin goin on here in a while!
Truthfully, that's because there's just not too much happening. Poker happened last night -- it was good, as usual, even though I ended the evening $5 down after three tournament games. Thankfully there was an abundance of red wine still left over from the CSC party last weekend. I consoled myself in it's cheap, stark redness.
(Aside: I'm a work. Someone just asked me what a USB port looks like. I sometimes forget that minutia like that is not necessarily common knowledge.)
Most of this week will be spent in preparation for my trip to Stoney Creek on Friday; I leave at 3am to hopefully arrive just before noon. It will be a phenomenally busy week as we make final preparations to open the new store. Over the weekend I'll begin packing all of my LAN hardware and PCs but I'll stop short of bringing anything over to the new building as the office furniture won't be in place until Monday morning. Sunday evening we have the 'gala' store preview for staff families, neighbouring store owners and invited guests from head office.
Monday morning, my crew of 20 will spend the day moving 22 PCs, 8 servers, 40 dumb terminals, 14 cash registers and all of the associated hubs, swtiches and battery units over to the new site. I'll have 1 day to get everything hooked-up and working before the 'go/no-go' call for Thursday morning opening. I'm not expecting any non-trivial problems.
I'll be back home in Quebec sometime on Thanksgiving weekend -- I'm thinking Sunday -- it all depends on how everything works on Thursday through Saturday technology-wise.
Truthfully, that's because there's just not too much happening. Poker happened last night -- it was good, as usual, even though I ended the evening $5 down after three tournament games. Thankfully there was an abundance of red wine still left over from the CSC party last weekend. I consoled myself in it's cheap, stark redness.
(Aside: I'm a work. Someone just asked me what a USB port looks like. I sometimes forget that minutia like that is not necessarily common knowledge.)
Most of this week will be spent in preparation for my trip to Stoney Creek on Friday; I leave at 3am to hopefully arrive just before noon. It will be a phenomenally busy week as we make final preparations to open the new store. Over the weekend I'll begin packing all of my LAN hardware and PCs but I'll stop short of bringing anything over to the new building as the office furniture won't be in place until Monday morning. Sunday evening we have the 'gala' store preview for staff families, neighbouring store owners and invited guests from head office.
Monday morning, my crew of 20 will spend the day moving 22 PCs, 8 servers, 40 dumb terminals, 14 cash registers and all of the associated hubs, swtiches and battery units over to the new site. I'll have 1 day to get everything hooked-up and working before the 'go/no-go' call for Thursday morning opening. I'm not expecting any non-trivial problems.
I'll be back home in Quebec sometime on Thanksgiving weekend -- I'm thinking Sunday -- it all depends on how everything works on Thursday through Saturday technology-wise.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Rant.
While I normally like to envision (or at least project) Bishops as some sort of utopic hall of academia, mostly due to our small class sizes and level of student/prof interaction, it is certainly not without its flaws. Those on my mind today follow:
Why is it that I work for ITS (Information. Technology. Services. !!!) and almost all of our correspondence is on paper? When I got hired, I had to fill out 6 pieces of paper. Why? WHY? Most of them even had duplicated information. When I work in one of the labs, I have to go over to H150 (the main lab) and write (WRITE!) my hours onto a timesheet. Why don't we have a web application for this? Worst of all...my supervisor is the web designer for the university. In all fairness to her, I get the distinct feeling that she is overworked and that she would probably be proactive about things if her schedule permitted it. I just can't shake the feeling that reliance on old methods is something that is clogging these peoples schedules.
Even my work schedule was only available on paper, well, until yesterday anyway. Now, with an email (wow...not actual paper) announcement last night I have been informed that it is now available as an outlook schedule and hence only accessible through the official outlook application or the official webmail. WHY? Our schedule doesn't change...it's the same until December. Why can't it be just a simple web page? There is no supposed confidentiality here, it just lists who is working where and when. But hey, we do take the confidential phone numbers (which we are reminded are c.o.n.f.i.d.e.n.t.i.a.l.) and post them in the labs so that anyone can see them.
My thought: Why don't we just have a web application for the consultants and other ITS staff - password protected - that has a page to enter hours, a page to get schedules, and a page to find staff phone numbers? ITS, let me introduce you to the open source world and a package called Mambo. It irritates a nerve with me that if I showed this to someone in ITS they'd probably immediately start a search for a product they have to pay for instead.
And, please, someone...800x600 is no longer a used screen size by those of us under the age of 105! Yet it is the default on almost all lab machines across campus. Speaking of bad desktop setups, the consultants workstations (at the front of each lab) are supposed to give us access to all kinds of 'extra' software -- like the printer administration, print credit stuff and password reset features. But not all the labs are set up this way. For instance, the lab I'm in now has absolutely none of it. The only reason that I'm actually here I suppose is to prevent people from walking out with computers because I can't really do anything else. We use Windows folks, which actually makes networking not terribly difficult. Why can't we just use roaming profiles with a consultants group policy so that it doesn't matter what work station I log on at, I have access to all of the tools I might need? I had never worked with any of that stuff, but I both learned and implemented it in two weeks in Stoney Creek over the summer.
And communication people! Right now Bishops is in the middle of a switch from Novell to Microsoft's Active Directory. It makes less than no sense why they'd wait until ALL OF THE STUDENTS ARE BACK to make this change, but whatever. Problem is, we've been in a state of half-way-done for weeks now. At Bishops profs use the R drive to put course materials for students -- this normally works very well. Now however, half of the profs' offices are on the old Novell system and half are on the new system. The ones that are on Novell continue to put things on their R drives entirely oblivious to the fact that that is the Novell R drive which is NOT the same one that all of the students access when they use the lab computers (which are almost all running active directory). No one is telling them anything!
Cheers to Doocing. Better yet, cheers to Doocing while I'm at work. Actually, I suppose it's not really Doocing per se, the people I work with are nice, but we're certainly lacking something. Last year, Kent (the former ITS head) was fired and we have an interim director in place. He seems both capable and personable, but impressions don't forgive inaction. We'll see how all this progresses.
Why is it that I work for ITS (Information. Technology. Services. !!!) and almost all of our correspondence is on paper? When I got hired, I had to fill out 6 pieces of paper. Why? WHY? Most of them even had duplicated information. When I work in one of the labs, I have to go over to H150 (the main lab) and write (WRITE!) my hours onto a timesheet. Why don't we have a web application for this? Worst of all...my supervisor is the web designer for the university. In all fairness to her, I get the distinct feeling that she is overworked and that she would probably be proactive about things if her schedule permitted it. I just can't shake the feeling that reliance on old methods is something that is clogging these peoples schedules.
Even my work schedule was only available on paper, well, until yesterday anyway. Now, with an email (wow...not actual paper) announcement last night I have been informed that it is now available as an outlook schedule and hence only accessible through the official outlook application or the official webmail. WHY? Our schedule doesn't change...it's the same until December. Why can't it be just a simple web page? There is no supposed confidentiality here, it just lists who is working where and when. But hey, we do take the confidential phone numbers (which we are reminded are c.o.n.f.i.d.e.n.t.i.a.l.) and post them in the labs so that anyone can see them.
My thought: Why don't we just have a web application for the consultants and other ITS staff - password protected - that has a page to enter hours, a page to get schedules, and a page to find staff phone numbers? ITS, let me introduce you to the open source world and a package called Mambo. It irritates a nerve with me that if I showed this to someone in ITS they'd probably immediately start a search for a product they have to pay for instead.
And, please, someone...800x600 is no longer a used screen size by those of us under the age of 105! Yet it is the default on almost all lab machines across campus. Speaking of bad desktop setups, the consultants workstations (at the front of each lab) are supposed to give us access to all kinds of 'extra' software -- like the printer administration, print credit stuff and password reset features. But not all the labs are set up this way. For instance, the lab I'm in now has absolutely none of it. The only reason that I'm actually here I suppose is to prevent people from walking out with computers because I can't really do anything else. We use Windows folks, which actually makes networking not terribly difficult. Why can't we just use roaming profiles with a consultants group policy so that it doesn't matter what work station I log on at, I have access to all of the tools I might need? I had never worked with any of that stuff, but I both learned and implemented it in two weeks in Stoney Creek over the summer.
And communication people! Right now Bishops is in the middle of a switch from Novell to Microsoft's Active Directory. It makes less than no sense why they'd wait until ALL OF THE STUDENTS ARE BACK to make this change, but whatever. Problem is, we've been in a state of half-way-done for weeks now. At Bishops profs use the R drive to put course materials for students -- this normally works very well. Now however, half of the profs' offices are on the old Novell system and half are on the new system. The ones that are on Novell continue to put things on their R drives entirely oblivious to the fact that that is the Novell R drive which is NOT the same one that all of the students access when they use the lab computers (which are almost all running active directory). No one is telling them anything!
Cheers to Doocing. Better yet, cheers to Doocing while I'm at work. Actually, I suppose it's not really Doocing per se, the people I work with are nice, but we're certainly lacking something. Last year, Kent (the former ITS head) was fired and we have an interim director in place. He seems both capable and personable, but impressions don't forgive inaction. We'll see how all this progresses.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Music To Code By.
I'm different from most coders that I know in that when I code I need loud metal music playing (well, that or show tunes, but that's a story for another day), generally the louder and heavier the better. One band that I've been listening to more lately than in the past: Disturbed (the link is a stupid flash site). They've always had some great singles in songs like Stupify and Prayer. On their new album this year, called Ten Thousand Fists, the latest (only?) single, Stricken, is a fabulous coding song.
On a related note, the address for The Edge (CFNY 102.1 Toronto) has changed for those of us linux users that use mplayer to play the stream. (They used to be shoutcast, but now they seem to have moved to Stream the World.) Anyway, this address should be the currently correct one: http://64.34.147.163/CFNYFM
On a related note, the address for The Edge (CFNY 102.1 Toronto) has changed for those of us linux users that use mplayer to play the stream. (They used to be shoutcast, but now they seem to have moved to Stream the World.) Anyway, this address should be the currently correct one: http://64.34.147.163/CFNYFM
Random Monday Morning.
Computer science party 2.0 was a fair success on Friday night, despite the frequent mini-showers. The outdoor component only really ended because the rain really picked up at 10:30 or so. We came inside and (those of us who were not falling-over drunk) played a $5 poker tournament, which I won.
The only sad point? (Coincident with the disadvantage of buying an expensive camera) I took not a single picture of the event. The constant light sprinkling of rain made me nervous to take the camera out of the car all evening (beyond showing it to Stefan, who is debating a digital SLR purchase in the near future). I'll just have to wait to see Dimitri's pictures, he was not so paranoid about water on his Canon EOS 10D.
Also: I reinstalled Gentoo on my main AMD64 box this weekend (partly because my old Gentoo profile had expired and it was no longer a trivial symlink switch to upgrade, and partly because after over a year I had built up quite a bit of dependency crap that I hadn't bothered to clean out). As such, anyone who had an account on it no longer does. If you would like one, just send me an email and I'll get you set up.
I also unmasked and installed Gnome 2.12 which seems to work terrifically. Evince is a vast improvement over all previous attempts at a document reader. If you're a Gentoo-er (ist?) and want the package.unmask entries for it, let me know and I'll send them.
A Windows (ghast!) partition is being set up tonight, only because I love photoshop and simply cannot stand using Gimp. It may have most of the functionality, but it has none of the usability.
The only sad point? (Coincident with the disadvantage of buying an expensive camera) I took not a single picture of the event. The constant light sprinkling of rain made me nervous to take the camera out of the car all evening (beyond showing it to Stefan, who is debating a digital SLR purchase in the near future). I'll just have to wait to see Dimitri's pictures, he was not so paranoid about water on his Canon EOS 10D.
Also: I reinstalled Gentoo on my main AMD64 box this weekend (partly because my old Gentoo profile had expired and it was no longer a trivial symlink switch to upgrade, and partly because after over a year I had built up quite a bit of dependency crap that I hadn't bothered to clean out). As such, anyone who had an account on it no longer does. If you would like one, just send me an email and I'll get you set up.
I also unmasked and installed Gnome 2.12 which seems to work terrifically. Evince is a vast improvement over all previous attempts at a document reader. If you're a Gentoo-er (ist?) and want the package.unmask entries for it, let me know and I'll send them.
A Windows (ghast!) partition is being set up tonight, only because I love photoshop and simply cannot stand using Gimp. It may have most of the functionality, but it has none of the usability.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
CompSci Party in the Woods 2.0
Late notice here but everyone should know anyway...
This year's Computer Science student/faculty/significant others/admirers/fanboys party is happening tomorrow evening (beginning around 5pm or so and continuing until we can't go any longer).
Location: My house! North Hatley, in the orchard.
What should you bring? Alcohol, food (there will be both a BBQ upon which to cook and an open fire for roasting things -- remember your marshmallows!), a cooler to keep things cold.
What else should you bring? Consider a chair if it's feasible for you to do so, I only have 9.
Anybody have any questions? Leave a comment and I'll reply there.
This year's Computer Science student/faculty/significant others/admirers/fanboys party is happening tomorrow evening (beginning around 5pm or so and continuing until we can't go any longer).
Location: My house! North Hatley, in the orchard.
What should you bring? Alcohol, food (there will be both a BBQ upon which to cook and an open fire for roasting things -- remember your marshmallows!), a cooler to keep things cold.
What else should you bring? Consider a chair if it's feasible for you to do so, I only have 9.
Anybody have any questions? Leave a comment and I'll reply there.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Updates from Academia.
My new job with ITS is not nearly as bad as expected; indeed, I have a tremendous amount of free time when working in the labs. This will prove especially beneficial later in the semester when I want to get homework done. Right now, I mainly occupy my time by working on Canadian Tire stuff (I am a Canadian Tire whore don't you know...), watching DVDs (which reminds me...Colin, if you're reading this, we're gonna have to get some sort of system going where I can borrow DVDs from you...I have watched all of mine many times and I only have 30 to begin with), and writing email or blog posts. Really, in a 4 hour shift, I would say that I only spend about 30 minutes doing any actual job-related work.
This morning I have a meeting with my research supervisors Layachi and Madjid to see what direction I should be heading during the Fall semester. Lately I have compiled a large collection of volume data to be used as real testing data for my programs. My collection thus far includes CT scans of a human head and an entire body and an MRI of a human head. The data comes as image slices at varying degrees of resolution. My program then takes that data and attempts first to extract important features from it, then take those extracted features and attempt to rebuild them into independent 3D objects. Trust me, it's exciting stuff. I don't see myself continuing past this Fall on it though -- what I really want to be working on, and the direction I plan on taking in my Masters, is what Layachi is researching -- multi-camera integration and it's applications in remote-sensing.
The two classes that I have this semester...well, they'll be exceedingly easy. It turns out that I already know most of the information from both of them. Oh well, I'll be able to spend more time on the jobs and research for this semester anyway.
This morning I have a meeting with my research supervisors Layachi and Madjid to see what direction I should be heading during the Fall semester. Lately I have compiled a large collection of volume data to be used as real testing data for my programs. My collection thus far includes CT scans of a human head and an entire body and an MRI of a human head. The data comes as image slices at varying degrees of resolution. My program then takes that data and attempts first to extract important features from it, then take those extracted features and attempt to rebuild them into independent 3D objects. Trust me, it's exciting stuff. I don't see myself continuing past this Fall on it though -- what I really want to be working on, and the direction I plan on taking in my Masters, is what Layachi is researching -- multi-camera integration and it's applications in remote-sensing.
The two classes that I have this semester...well, they'll be exceedingly easy. It turns out that I already know most of the information from both of them. Oh well, I'll be able to spend more time on the jobs and research for this semester anyway.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Tonight.
I can't remember the last time that I had an evening where I was this sad. Not pathetically or weepily sad...just in a profound state of reflection. I normally have pretty much only one emotion: normal. Not so tonight.
On August 4th of this year, sometime around 10:30pm my stepfather was going to work on his motorcycle. He loved his motorcycle; 2001 Kawasaki Ninja, green. He spent years doing everything he, my mother, his two daughters and my brother and I needed. House, cars, everything else before he bought that bike -- it was his only 'toy'.
He was killed instantly by a driver leaving a parking lot only two blocks away from work, only 51 years old. The other driver is said not to have stopped at the lot exit, this being a statement that I can't actually make until the police conclude their investigation, but after looking at the scene myself it is decidedly obvious that that was the case. He was wearing full protective equipment -- all body leathers, with bike boots and of course a helmet. He always did, even if he was just going around the block. They didn't help, but at the same time I give a new look of scorn to those bikers who don't wear proper safety equipment, as I pass by.
I got the call at 5am the next morning; calls from family before the sun rises are rarely good. Within a few hours I was on the road to Whitby. The whole way there I watched cars and bikes flow past and around...everyone's life just...continuing. I wanted to scream, "Stop the world! I want someone, everyone, to take notice that Greg is gone." Does everyone feel this when someone dies unexpectedly?
The next few days are a blur in my memory. The funeral was five days later, but so much had to be done before then. How can the government, the world in fact, expect a grieving spouse to begin filling-out insurance paperwork and visiting banks to deal with account transfers during the week of her husband's death? It's all deadlined...it has to be done...the spouse's financial solvency depends on it. We as a society have a long way to go in our treatment and handling of the survivors of unexpected loss. My uncle and I did as much as we could, but so much has been left to my mother. It aggravates the grieving process in such a terrible way.
The truly terrible and infinitely regrettable point for me is that I never truly got to know how great a person Greg was before he was gone. I know, we all say that right? But really, I always knew he was a terrific person because of how he made my mother feel -- she lived the last 16 years like none I'd ever seen before. Their relationship is one of the few bright lights that I've used to convince myself away from a permanent state of relationship pessimism. Anybody who could show that state of wonderful to my mother had to be a truly good person. But aside from that, I never saw a lot of direct evidence of it -- I mean, I never lived with them so I never had an opportunity to be around through the normals of daily life.
That week, the one before the funeral, really made me see. The number of neighbours, ostensibly in this day and age, strangers, that came and told stories about how Greg did this, or Greg did that. Took care of their lawns. Carried their groceries. Fixed their cars. Help with problems. Teach them things. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. One night at about 11pm I answered the phone after my mother was asleep and an elderly man asked for Greg. I began to explain what I'd managed to explain a hundred or so times by this point and he went to tears on the other end of the phone. When he was able to explain he mentioned that he only knew Greg from Don Cherry's (a local bar...a chain in Southern Ontario) but that Greg was the guy that would always take him to his doctor's appointments and to the hospital for x-rays. It became clear to me that he had similar 'relationships' with many people from Don Cherry's. Greg was just that type of guy.
The funeral was bigger than any I've ever attended. The sheer number of people that came was staggering. More than would fit in the chapel, the overflow wouldn't even fit in the standing room behind the chapel. Greg was a much-loved man. There wasn't a dry eye in the building, including the hundred or so coworkers from GM. People said wonderful things. I didn't get up and speak, I couldn't find the words to describe what I wanted to say. The funeral ended with myself, my brother, and four other family members carrying Greg's coffin and putting it into the hearse. What a surreal experience. I only remember it as barely being there...barely cognisant of that fact that we were carrying Greg, my stepfather, my friend.
Everytime I see those Lance Armstrong bracelets, you know, "Live Strong" yellow bracelets, I get this feeling that I want to make my own and I want them to say "Live Like Greg". His philosphy was just like Pay It Forward, but in smaller steps, all the time. We would all do well to live a life like that.
On August 4th of this year, sometime around 10:30pm my stepfather was going to work on his motorcycle. He loved his motorcycle; 2001 Kawasaki Ninja, green. He spent years doing everything he, my mother, his two daughters and my brother and I needed. House, cars, everything else before he bought that bike -- it was his only 'toy'.
He was killed instantly by a driver leaving a parking lot only two blocks away from work, only 51 years old. The other driver is said not to have stopped at the lot exit, this being a statement that I can't actually make until the police conclude their investigation, but after looking at the scene myself it is decidedly obvious that that was the case. He was wearing full protective equipment -- all body leathers, with bike boots and of course a helmet. He always did, even if he was just going around the block. They didn't help, but at the same time I give a new look of scorn to those bikers who don't wear proper safety equipment, as I pass by.
I got the call at 5am the next morning; calls from family before the sun rises are rarely good. Within a few hours I was on the road to Whitby. The whole way there I watched cars and bikes flow past and around...everyone's life just...continuing. I wanted to scream, "Stop the world! I want someone, everyone, to take notice that Greg is gone." Does everyone feel this when someone dies unexpectedly?
The next few days are a blur in my memory. The funeral was five days later, but so much had to be done before then. How can the government, the world in fact, expect a grieving spouse to begin filling-out insurance paperwork and visiting banks to deal with account transfers during the week of her husband's death? It's all deadlined...it has to be done...the spouse's financial solvency depends on it. We as a society have a long way to go in our treatment and handling of the survivors of unexpected loss. My uncle and I did as much as we could, but so much has been left to my mother. It aggravates the grieving process in such a terrible way.
The truly terrible and infinitely regrettable point for me is that I never truly got to know how great a person Greg was before he was gone. I know, we all say that right? But really, I always knew he was a terrific person because of how he made my mother feel -- she lived the last 16 years like none I'd ever seen before. Their relationship is one of the few bright lights that I've used to convince myself away from a permanent state of relationship pessimism. Anybody who could show that state of wonderful to my mother had to be a truly good person. But aside from that, I never saw a lot of direct evidence of it -- I mean, I never lived with them so I never had an opportunity to be around through the normals of daily life.
That week, the one before the funeral, really made me see. The number of neighbours, ostensibly in this day and age, strangers, that came and told stories about how Greg did this, or Greg did that. Took care of their lawns. Carried their groceries. Fixed their cars. Help with problems. Teach them things. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. One night at about 11pm I answered the phone after my mother was asleep and an elderly man asked for Greg. I began to explain what I'd managed to explain a hundred or so times by this point and he went to tears on the other end of the phone. When he was able to explain he mentioned that he only knew Greg from Don Cherry's (a local bar...a chain in Southern Ontario) but that Greg was the guy that would always take him to his doctor's appointments and to the hospital for x-rays. It became clear to me that he had similar 'relationships' with many people from Don Cherry's. Greg was just that type of guy.
The funeral was bigger than any I've ever attended. The sheer number of people that came was staggering. More than would fit in the chapel, the overflow wouldn't even fit in the standing room behind the chapel. Greg was a much-loved man. There wasn't a dry eye in the building, including the hundred or so coworkers from GM. People said wonderful things. I didn't get up and speak, I couldn't find the words to describe what I wanted to say. The funeral ended with myself, my brother, and four other family members carrying Greg's coffin and putting it into the hearse. What a surreal experience. I only remember it as barely being there...barely cognisant of that fact that we were carrying Greg, my stepfather, my friend.
Everytime I see those Lance Armstrong bracelets, you know, "Live Strong" yellow bracelets, I get this feeling that I want to make my own and I want them to say "Live Like Greg". His philosphy was just like Pay It Forward, but in smaller steps, all the time. We would all do well to live a life like that.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Fall 2005 Schedule.
I got the job I applied for with ITS - a lab consultant position. Yay me. How long has it been since I earned minimum wage? Oh well, it actually works out really well for me because I'll do Canadian Tire work while I'm sitting in the labs and get paid twice.
Anyway...click through on the picture if you're interested in seeing my schedule for this semester. Only two classes, but I have no doubt that I'll be busy anyway between research and two jobs.
Anyway...click through on the picture if you're interested in seeing my schedule for this semester. Only two classes, but I have no doubt that I'll be busy anyway between research and two jobs.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Ransom Demands.
Should the owner of this iPod Shuffle wish to see it forwarded, intact, to their new address the following demands must be met:
1. The owner of said iPod must fashion a costume at least vaguely resembling an aquatic creature. The iPodnapper would be most pleased if an octopus was chosen.
2. This costume will then be worn out to no less than two on-campus bars at which time pictures must be taken and posted to the blog of the iPod owner (public post only please).
Once the photos have been witnessed to be online, the iPod will be securely packaged and express-posted to its rightful owner.
Failure to comply with any of the two conditions above will result in the packaging being sent to the owner -- in separate envelopes.
1. The owner of said iPod must fashion a costume at least vaguely resembling an aquatic creature. The iPodnapper would be most pleased if an octopus was chosen.
2. This costume will then be worn out to no less than two on-campus bars at which time pictures must be taken and posted to the blog of the iPod owner (public post only please).
Once the photos have been witnessed to be online, the iPod will be securely packaged and express-posted to its rightful owner.
Failure to comply with any of the two conditions above will result in the packaging being sent to the owner -- in separate envelopes.
News.
- I don't have to go to Hamilton this weekend as previously thought. The new store is at a point right now where I simply don't have enough to do to fill up five days worth of work (or not work that I can't do from home anyway). Instead, I will stay here, there will be a regular poker game on Sunday night and I'll go to the John Deere equipment demonstration extravaganza on Saturday morning.
- Bishop's has a photography club. My new camera and I will be attending the first meeting, whenever and wherever that may be. Why they would put an article in the school paper, but not provide any seemingly important info like that, who knows.
- All of Petter's boxes should now be out of Quebec and en route to his new home in BC. Little does he know that I'm holding his new iPod Shuffle hostage. Proof of life photos and ransom demands to follow shortly.
Addicted to Workahol.
Stacey comments the other day that she is jealous about the fact that we are back to school. This is a feeling that I understand, the workforce is one hard taskmaster and if you happen to be fortunate enough to end up with some closet dominatrix as your immediate supervisor, well, you'll find yourself frequently wishing for a return to the security that academia provides. Nothing really matters here. Program submission deadlines and calculus midterms are the sole puntuators of a stress level that is constantly somewhere below Tense.
All that considered, every time I go to Toronto, I have to fight the urge to stay there. The work-world, although considerably more stressful and decidedly frenetic, offers an unparalleled sense of freedom. Sure, the stakes are higher; deciding to skip an assignment most likely will get you fired, you can't tell people what you really think about them and expect no consequence, and you will be in dire straits if you don't get a steady paycheque (well, unless your name is Phil Verlinden).
But real work has substance. Whether you're picking up dope needles in a park so the next three-year old to fall on his ass won't get stuck and die well before his time. Or perhaps you're ordering inventory for a store and you have pride in the fact that you've done your job well, so that when the five year old girl comes in with her father on a Saturday, to buy her very first bike; a bike which she's been talking about for days and dreaming about for months - she won't be disappointed. Or, you work in a law firm and help in the incorporation of companies - companies which employ hundreds or thousands of people - companies which provide families with opportunities they may not otherwise have.
For years now this is what I've told people. It is quite possibly true that you may never see quantifiable evidence that what you do has meaning; you may never meet those whose lives you have affected - this is where blind faith comes in. It is inexplicably difficult to convince the sixteen year old cashier that, by being happy, friendly and genuinely interested in each and every customer that passes through her line, she has the power to turn an argument with a spouse four hours later into a pleasant family evening.
Pithy? Perhaps. But true none the less. I prefer to live in the real world where what I do really does have meaning and it won't be soon enough that I'm back there.
All that considered, every time I go to Toronto, I have to fight the urge to stay there. The work-world, although considerably more stressful and decidedly frenetic, offers an unparalleled sense of freedom. Sure, the stakes are higher; deciding to skip an assignment most likely will get you fired, you can't tell people what you really think about them and expect no consequence, and you will be in dire straits if you don't get a steady paycheque (well, unless your name is Phil Verlinden).
But real work has substance. Whether you're picking up dope needles in a park so the next three-year old to fall on his ass won't get stuck and die well before his time. Or perhaps you're ordering inventory for a store and you have pride in the fact that you've done your job well, so that when the five year old girl comes in with her father on a Saturday, to buy her very first bike; a bike which she's been talking about for days and dreaming about for months - she won't be disappointed. Or, you work in a law firm and help in the incorporation of companies - companies which employ hundreds or thousands of people - companies which provide families with opportunities they may not otherwise have.
For years now this is what I've told people. It is quite possibly true that you may never see quantifiable evidence that what you do has meaning; you may never meet those whose lives you have affected - this is where blind faith comes in. It is inexplicably difficult to convince the sixteen year old cashier that, by being happy, friendly and genuinely interested in each and every customer that passes through her line, she has the power to turn an argument with a spouse four hours later into a pleasant family evening.
Pithy? Perhaps. But true none the less. I prefer to live in the real world where what I do really does have meaning and it won't be soon enough that I'm back there.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
And it Begins Again.
So school starts for another year.
This post was made automatically by Flickr when I sent a picture from my cell to my Flickr account. Yay for Moblogging!
This post was made automatically by Flickr when I sent a picture from my cell to my Flickr account. Yay for Moblogging!
Sunday, September 04, 2005
BTW...
Who else that reads this blog regularly has a Flickr account? Let me know so I can add you to my contacts.
The Triumphant? Return.
I'm back!
I wasn't really gone, but I was really busy. Now with the start of the new school season things will be a little more stable. For today however, two things, entirely related:
I caved, well, not so much caved as decided that I wanted to buy a new camera. I have been looking for the last year but could never bring myself to purchase. Well, it occurred to me that if I don't do it now, and I wait until I actually have the money to do it, I may never. So I did. And it's yummy. It's a Nikon D70S digital SLR. Besides my own exhaustive research on the landscape of similar camera fare, I credit Dooce and Jennifer and the wonderful photos both have published to help in my decision.
Second: I upgraded my Flickr account to a pro account which gives me unlimited storage and 2Gigs of upload per month. Expect Photos!
I wasn't really gone, but I was really busy. Now with the start of the new school season things will be a little more stable. For today however, two things, entirely related:
I caved, well, not so much caved as decided that I wanted to buy a new camera. I have been looking for the last year but could never bring myself to purchase. Well, it occurred to me that if I don't do it now, and I wait until I actually have the money to do it, I may never. So I did. And it's yummy. It's a Nikon D70S digital SLR. Besides my own exhaustive research on the landscape of similar camera fare, I credit Dooce and Jennifer and the wonderful photos both have published to help in my decision.
Second: I upgraded my Flickr account to a pro account which gives me unlimited storage and 2Gigs of upload per month. Expect Photos!
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