Change Congress

If you have a few minutes (around 40) listen to this - while I'm not in the United States I think that it offers some interesting observations. Also, I think that it's an extremely well done presentation.

Museum Day

It' isn't often that S. and I get a day off together that we don't have other things to accomplish. Today being Good Friday S. suggested that we visit the Museum with our son. We had a wonderful time. For us this was a return to places that we had grown up with (every student in Winnipeg goes to the museum a couple of times at least in Elementary school.)

For Kiddo this was dinosaurs, moose, owls, wolves, a tonne of native artifacts, a bat cave, Winnipeg in the 1920's and 'the big ship' the Nonsuch What a great day!

Photo Credit:Guacamole Goalie

Gary Gygax Passes

My brothers and I spent LOTS of time during our youth playing D&D and other fantasy games, Gary Gygax wrote the original Dungeons and Dragons game, and while I'm not a rabid player I would say that I owe him a debt for his work. Thanks Gary!

Mid (End of) February...

Been a while since I posted, not that I hadn't wanted to - as it happens I've thought about it several times over the last few weeks but never seemed to have finally arrived at this page. So what's going on in the snowy cold of Winnipeg? First, yes it is very cold - it was -34°c last night and it's currently sitting at -26°c the wind chill makes it -42°c! The nice thing is that at that temperature the driving actually isn't too bad - we don't get ice on the roads the same way that other places do - it's simply too cold for water to melt in the first place...

It's now a couple of weeks since I actually started this post and the deep freeze has let go a bit - it's going up to -9 today, much much nicer!

This past month has, much like last year, been really 'cave like' not only for myself but I've seen it in others - it's time winter was over!

The good news is that we finished painting the upstairs of the house (yeaaa) it's now a very nice green, we have to move the piano and then do a little more painting but it looks great!

Kiddo has recently had (sorry didn't blog about that) surgery and is now out of his casts from that! We're still wearing temporary 'back slab' casts but they can at least be removed to tub him (and that's a good thing!)

I'm going to try and get the seeds for the garden started today - we have a little plastic green house that we can put by the front window in the light.

Back to coding - but I thought you'd like an update...

Photo: Quiplash

New Year

Wow it's already the end of January and I haven't posted yet - bad blogger...

This is actually going to be my '2007 Year in Review' Post. I know that many families send out those letters at Christmas and some people find them really annoying to read (I usually don't by the way).

If you don't like those letters, you probably want to skip this post!



Accomplished (From things To Do and What Didn't Work, from last year)

Personal Organization

With the completion of the basement this has improved - we still have a house with a 2.5 year old kiddo but it is getting better. I'm keeping accurate and better notes; I use one large Blueline Twin Wire Bound notebook for my paid-work notes and continue to use (and enjoy) my Moleskine for all else (Scouts, Church, Personal) and I carry that everywhere that I go, these notes are transcribed to Minutes, Calendar, Agendas etc. as needed but I only need to go to one place to find everything that is actionable.

Finish Basement

Thankfully this is all but completed - some trim remains outstanding but we are now moved into this space and using it much to the enjoyment of the house - and it's spin off effect is that less 'stuff' gets stuck upstairs.

Yard / Outside

The sod is down, the path almost completed and we are now enjoying the space we planted many many bulbs that will come up in the spring! The Deck remains to be finished but that seems much more easy to accomplish now.

Garage Cleaning

Both cars are back in the garage now and much (though not all) of the crap has been thrown out or given away! No more scraping the windows!

Outstanding

Personal Development (Training/Certification)

Made no progress here - I guess I need to decide if this is really important.

Craft Room

Like many people we still have a 'deep dark secret' in a pile of collected junk that we need to sort through.

Tasks

This has improved but need to get better at focusing real time onto tasks be they work, personal projects, Scouts or just having time to enjoy cooking dinner.

Painting the Living Room

This is probably one of our 'next tasks' only issue is that the living area has a vaulted ceiling over the stairs that is going to be very very difficult to paint.

Ideas for 2008

I'm going to try and limit 'Aimless Surfing'...I frequently sit on the couch and surf the net - whatever I find interesting, problem is it isn't productive on any level. At the same time the TV is on and that just creates mental noise (as one blog I read this year said) if I'm going to make time to accomplish tasks then I need to have less unfocused time when I'm not productive.

I continue to try and change the 'tone' of the items I buy - wood, stone, stoneware, metal in place of plastic and that has been somewhat successful.

Kiddo is now old enough that S. and I are going to try and take him out canoeing this summer - we'll see how that works out.

Have a great 2008!

BTW my 2006 Year in Review is here if you want to read it

Evan

Photo Credit: Fabrizio Morroia from Flickr

Top YouTube Video

This is the top YouTube video, viewed 55.8 MILLION times! And it really is very good



This is from a top 10 list I read on http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_youtube_videos_of_all_time.php

Advent Greetings

Advent is a intended as a time of expectation, reflection and preparation for the nativity of Christ.

This year it has been very difficult to keep my mind focused on advent. Having a 2 1/2 year old at home results in a very disjointed day (or world for that matter).

We had our family Christmas Open House last weekend with 100 people invited and ~45 actually attending. I had hoped that that event might 'set the mood' for the run up to Christmas - no joy. Between the mass cleaning and running around town getting rented dishes it resulted in a feeling of 'quick quick run then pause'. I'm not sure how to avoid that. Maybe next year we need to scale down a bit.

So while I'm 'expectant' for Christmas, I'm not prepared and I've had no time for reflection.

How do you 'keep Christmas' in your home?

Evan

Some Resources:
http://www.followingthestar.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent


Photo Credit: Adrea Kranz

Cool Greenhouse Gas Video

TreeHugger's 2007 Gift Guide

Here's a green suggestion for those of you engaged in festive shopping TreeHugger's 2007 Gift Guide (TreeHugger)

Geek Conference

So here I am in Toronto on a one day visit for a Microsoft conference - flew out last night at 6:30 from Winnipeg, short night at 'Cheap Hotel' and out to the conference for 8am this morning sit in a room with a bunch of other Geeks absorbing all of the good information, pick up my 'grab and go' lunch and continue right along after a 15 minute break. Finish at 5 pick up my 'swag bag' and back to Cheap Hotel. The Hotel is a very strange mix of styles, it wants to be a British 'club' style but it has a Greek restaurant and a strange mix of old wood, bad wallpaper and cheap silk plants, very odd.

This last week has been crazy - no time for much of anything, the family all piled into the car and drove to Minneapolis to visit good friends, 14 hours of driving in 56 hours. But we had a very nice visit, did a little shopping and had a good time, and at the current value of the Canadian dollar not as expensive as it sounds. Got back into town on Monday, slept at home one night re-packed, got up taught an 8 hour training on Tuesday, drove like a madman to our office then drove with the fellows from the office back through town to the airport made it to security with 40 min to spare - not as much cushion as you'd like. Back home on Thursday AM, then back to the office, from there to a Microsoft user Group meeting back downtown in Winnipeg, I'll finally get home later on Thursday night...Sheesh how do I get myself into this stuff?

Evan

Photo Credit: kevbo1983

Blog Action Day

A few weeks ago I was asked by my parish priest to consider doing a sermon on environmental issues. So you get to be guinea pigs for my sermon (or at least for the ideas I'm working on for it).

When our church began it was not uncommon for someone to be born, live and die with their 'world' encompassing the surrounding few kilometres, strangers were few and far between, food and goods were drawn from local sources, and waste was returned to the local ecology. Today, we draw our food and other goods from across the planet and our 'world' encompasses not only earth but the moon and Mars (someone will land there in my lifetime). In the past it was relatively easy to live in harmony with nature, in fact you didn't really need to try. You could use only what was available locally and what you produced as waste was easily returned to the local environment where it was processed and re-used. Today, much of our waste is non-local and more importantly, not re-usable.

In the past we believed that nature was given to us to dominate, to exploit and use as we saw fit, in a world with humans at it's centre, where the planets revolved around us this worked. Today, the world does not revolve around us, we occupy a single planet orbiting an average main sequence yellow star, on the outer edge of one arm of a fairly ordinary galaxy. Imagine, in all of that vast creation - God chose this place and this time to put us here, where we have the opportunity to realize, sometimes painfully, that we are a part of His creation not separate from it.

So, what does this mean from a Christian perspective? I think it means that we are called not to to be so much users of creation as stewards. The Genesis story gives a viewpoint, as each day was finished it was good, after it was all done the 6th day God said it was Very Good! All of creation, complete and operating as a whole!

Practically this means that we need to re-think much of how we live and work. Does the food we eat come from local sources; so it doesn't burn fuel being shipped around unnecessarily? Are the vehicles we drive powered by a clean energy sources that do not consume resources that cannot (reasonably) be replaced? When we do produce things are we producing them from sustainable resources and then planning the processing of their waste into their design?

We can take steps today - reduce use of consumables, be aware of and choose locally grown food, choose items that have reduced packaging, insulate our homes and replace regular lights with compact fluorescent bulbs. The next step to become an active consumer - choose to purchase from companies that act in responsible ways and teach children to consider the environment not as an afterthought but as a primary part of any issue.

I'll continue to work on this sermon and I'll let you know how it comes out.

Evan

Blog Action Day

What If...

Reprinted from Leo Laport's Blog

What if…

September 29th, 2007

What if you bought a computer that you couldn’t install any of your own applications on? (Stupid, I know, but what if?)

What if that computer required you to sign up for two years Internet service with one particular company, and prohibited using any other ISP? (Not that the ISP subsidized the price or anything - the computer wasn’t cheap.)

What if some bright guys came along and figured out how to install your own applications on the computer? And then showed you how to choose your own ISP? You’d do it, right? I mean, why not, it’s your computer. But wait.

What if the company that made the computer sent down an update that checked to see if you had installed your own applications and deleted them if so?

What if that same update checked to see if you were using the required ISP, and if you weren’t turned the computer into a useless, unfixable, piece of glass and plastic?

Would you ever buy a computer from that company again?

Would you ever trust a company like that again?

Addendum: Some Apple and cell phone customers seem to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, so let me put it another way.

Let’s say you’re selling me a cow. You tell me that that cow is being sold for the express purpose of making milk. I agree, and buy the cow.

Later I decide that I’d prefer to make cheese. You say that’s a violation of our agreement and kill my cow.

When I paid for the cow it became my property, to do with as I please. If you don’t like how I’m using it you may choose not to do any further business with me but you don’t get to kill my cow.

And, by the way, warning me you’d kill my cow if I keep making cheese doesn’t make it all right.

The lawyers will point out that contractually I agreed to your terms. True. But I don’t think the contract said anything about killing the cow did it?

Apple’s sole redress is to halt all support of my phone. If we let Apple destroy our property for not following the rules we’re telling the music industry it’s ok to destroy a hard drive containing illegal songs, the cable company to fry our TVs for stealing cable. That is vigilante justice and a direct threat to the rule of law.

From: Leo Laport's Blog 29 Sept 07

It's Fall Again

It's fall here in Winnipeg, well it has actually looked like fall for some time, but it officially became fall on the 23rd. Fall is my favourite season, cool crisp (7c) air, no bugs, the colours and the expectation of the winter to come. There is a set of 'things to do' like cleaning, putting the gardens to bed. And now that we have sod, everything is much cleaner to work around and psychologically less weighty, I didn't know until we had that done how much it was weighing on me.

There is a chunk of work still remaining to do, as well as some fixing up because the sod wasn't down for so long. But now I'm beginning to actually look forward to my work outside. I'm off to camp on the weekend and that should be fun as well - time to spend out with my brother and other friends at camp, maybe a little reading time and time with my own thoughts will be nice.

I've been reading a lot recently, maybe part of my fall mood as well. Everything from Warhammer 40k fiction to David Suzuki is on the table right now.

Kiddo is 2.25 years old now, and continues to amaze me, being a dad is becoming what I had hoped it would be. Unlike the first year where he was for all intents a poop machine (food in poop out not much else). He's interactive, curious and luckily for mom and I, he is generally a happy kid. Like all parents of 2 year olds we have our struggles with 'I wants' and 'not nows' but when he's snuggled in my arm watching, and quietly talking about, Bob the Builder on TV it's great fun. It's hard to be concerned about much at those times. By Christmas he'll be 2.5 years (wow) and will be getting into the season. As active Anglicans, we intend to make sure that we observe Advent, and tell the Christ story as well as the secular Santa story and I find that a good Fall season will feed into Advent and Christmas very easily.

I'm off, cheers!

Photo Credit: Fall Creek Falls cwage

Comments....

If you've tried to get engaged in Internet comment threads then this video will seem very very familiar...WARNING - Not Safe For Work!



Found this via 43 Folders, Merlin Mann's site. The original is here.

This Bulb

From National Geographic...

Content Aware Image Resizing

This is technical but really neat!

Blog Action Day 2007

October 15th Get Ready - One Issue. One Day. Thousands of Voices.

I'm back from Scouting Heaven

I returned on 4 August from two weeks in northern Quebec at the 11th Canadian Scout Jamboree. It was a wonderful way to spend two weeks of vacation, the country was beautiful, lushly forested with lots of new plants and wildlife. The local people I had opportunity to interact with were friendly and helpful. There were 8600 Scouts and Scouters on site from across the globe. Canada was well represented, from shore to shore and from the north as well. Represented were: United States of America, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, Thailand and Switzerland.

Interestingly, even with all the heat, dust and walking I slept reasonably well (sometimes it was a little noisy or hot). I rose refreshed and ready to enjoy my days. I didn't have any of the 'sluggishness' that I have experienced at home. I didn't have any migraines or sore feet (I have flat-foot and wear orthotics), I even avoided blisters! I spent one day with a friend on the way home walking around Ottawa (and it was a fair bit of walking) and I was really sore - open ground vs. concrete maybe, makes one wonder.

LM and I estimated that we were putting in some 10k each day just moving around the campsite doing our work. That's probably more than I put in in a week normally.

I missed kiddo and S lots. Homecoming is mentioned in some of the Celtic Christianity books that I've been reading recently. This was my first long trip away from my family by myself and I've discovered that going away is good but coming home is great!

Evan

p.s. Thanks to all the other scouts and scouters that made my CJ experience a memory to treasure.

Inside the Blogger’s Studio

From a post on darrenbarefoot.com
Based on the Actors Studio...

1. What is your favorite word? Knowledge
   
2. What is your least favorite word? Failure
   
3. What turns you on? New Things
   
4. What turns you off? Others 'Managing' me
   
5. What sound or noise do you love? Loons on a misty lake
   
6. What sound or noise do you hate? Snowmobiles, Harley Bikes etc.
   
7. What is your favorite curse word? Farg
   
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Information Broker
   
9. What profession would you not like to do? Food Services (I like to eat not cook!)
   
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? 'Welcome Home' (The Scouts say that a leader that has passed on has 'Gone Home')

Photo Credit: archival http://www.flickr.com/photos/archivalproject/314538852/