The Organization

I got nothing.

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:35:31 -0500

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Rory is just starting to stand on his own now. Not taking steps yet, but i'm sure that's soon to come. Picked up "[Civilization Revolution][1]" the other day. I played the original way back when, and enjoyed it (to say nothing of the [board game][2], which, while different, is also excellent), and so downloaded the demo a couple of weeks ago. It pulled me in right off the top, so now we will see how much time gets lost to this one. [1]: http://www.civilizationrevolution.com/ [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_(board_game)

Two hours i will never be able to get back

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:28:55 -0500

So, we rented the Jet Li/Jason Statham flick "[War][3]" the other night. Gods, what a disaster. Why have these two guys in a film if you aren't going to do any fucking fight scenes? I should have known it would suck. I'm hopeful that [Statham][4] can redeem himself in the upcoming "[Death Race][6]", which looks like its has lots of explosions and action. As for [Jet Li][5], well, i can always re-watch "[Fist of Legend][1]" or any of the "[Once apon a time in China][2]" flicks. [1]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110200/ [2]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103285/ [3]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499556/ [4]: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005458/ [5]: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001472/ [6]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452608/

Actionscript 3.0, who knew all the cool things the Point class can do?

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:50:01 -0500

The game i've been working on for the past couple of weeks has really had me all twisted up. I've gone back and forth over how to implement movement more times then i'd like to admit. I've downloaded and tried out various 2D Vector, Math and other game-related libraries. It turns out that for most of the general stuff i want to do, the go old flash *Point* class does most everything. I'd never noticed that it has a static *polar()* method, which converts polar co-ords into cartesian ones. Man, i can't tell you how handy that is. You really have to remember to spend some time going over the built-ins, and see if they actually will do most of what you need.

Music!

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:41:01 -0500

I just wanted to point to this totally ass-kicking song by Klaas - "The Way". I picked it up via iTunes for a buck (iTunes plus, so no DRM!). I'm not so enthralled by his other work, but this song... Just makes me want to get to a dance floor and thrash around like a freak. The Way (Original Mix) - Klaas

I know you know

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:04:50 -0500

But i just had to note two things about the weekend and today. One, [George Carlin died yesterday][1], which is sad - he was a funny funny man. And today would be [Alan Turing's][2] birthday, if he hadn't killed himself due to the bigotry shown to homosexuals in England. Even when one of them helped to win the war. [1]: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/06/23/carlin.obit/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

Bill C-61 Sucks.

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:34:32 -0500

C-61 is the new Copyright Reform bill that our Government released yesterday. While Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Canadian Heritage Minister Josee Verner will try to see this bill to Canadians by pointing out all these great protections they are being given, Prof. Michael Geist suggests that they [read the fine print][1]. I'm disapointed that the Government put this bill together will little to no public debate or consultation. It seems like it is simply a suplication to the desires of certain special interest groups, namely the RIAA, CIRA, and the MPAA. There is also the inclusion of anti-circumvention legislation, which is even harsher then the terrible American [DMCA][2]. I suggest that all Canadians interested in seeing a balanced approach to copyright reform contact their MP's and let them know that this bill is not equitable to content creators *or* consumers. Here are some quick links where you can get some more info. Please, take the time to read a little about this bill, and write, email or phone your representative to let them know what you think about it. - [Copyright For Canadians][3] - form for sending an email to your rep, Prentice, Verner & Mr. Harper. - [Michael Geist][4] - All kinds of interesting stuff about Copyright, law on the internet, etc - [Putting Canadian "Piracy" in Perspective][5] - quick video debunking some popular arguments about piracy. [1]: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3027/135/ [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA [3]: http://www.copyrightforcanadians.ca/action/firstlook/ [4]: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/ [5]: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6TloG6qL3gg

Grab Bag of stuff...

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:07:45 -0500

Quick updates, most in point form cuz, well, it takes too long to make a "real" post. Yes, this is lame. Sorry. - Conor is almost done his first year of school. I can't believe it has gone so quick. - Rory is clapping and waving. He now has 4 teeth, two on the bottom and two on the top. Getting closer to walking too. - Found this cool software tool for running stuff on your computer if you are not sure if its safe - [Sandboxie][1]. Terrible name, great tool. - [Baby Lion Cam][2]. Don't watch. All your productivity will drain away as you watch ... the ... baby... lions... Squeeee! Everyone is Hale & Hearty, enjoying the warmer weather. Although, up on the 3rd floor where Conor and Rory sleep, during that mini-heat wave, it was too hot for Rory - we had to bring him downstairs into our bed, as the AC doesn't really reach up there. Now shopping for a small, quiet window AC unit. [1]: http://www.sandboxie.com/ [2]: http://atvs.vg.no/player/?id=16995

Toronto Roller Derby!

Mon, 26 May 2008 10:27:15 -0500

Wow. What a great start to the season! The arena (the [George Bell Arean][1]) was quite packed - there were over 700 people out, which almost beats the attendance record for last years. The [ToRD][2] site has gotten a nice overhaul, which, frankly, was badly needed. Since the game i saw last year, the women on the teams have obviously improved _a lot_, and the game is quite a bit faster, and more skillfully played. Not that it wasn't fun'n'fast laster year, its just _faster_ now. Crazy crazy. And you can actually sit trackside, rather then just in the stands - awesome. Everyone should come out to the next game on June 7th - my friend Bep "Karma Killmillions" team [The Bay Street Brusiers][3] are playing [The Death Track Dolls][4]. Fun! [1]: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=215+ryding+avenue,+toronto&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=38.610486,92.548828&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr [2]: http://www.torontorollerderby.com/ [3]: http://www.baystreetbruisers.com/ [4]: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=78390222

Party Perfection

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:34:03 -0500

Or as close as you can come with 12 five to six year-olds in your house for two hours. Conor's Birthday party, which was originally scheduled for _last_ Saturday, took place today. Huge thanks go out to the [Whimz][1] people, and Tracy in particular for putting on such a great ... performance? The kids loved all the animals, and it really helped to make the party special. Most importantly, Conor had a great time. And now the parents can rest a bit easier knowing that it is over for another year! [1]: http://www.whimzonline.com/

Email fixed... i think.

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:12:20 -0500

If anyone has tried to send Ciara or I an email over the past two days, and have had it bounce, or not, you might want to re-send it. My server was all _ka-blooie_, and i only got it fixed now. Sorry for the mess up!

Behind again

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:07:57 -0500

Conor's birthday was great. He had a great day, lots of fun, enjoyed (and enjoying) his presents, went out to dinner, everything was fine. Till the next day. He managed to pickup a fever, and had to stay home from school till Tuesday. This also meant that we had to reschedule his birthday party. Now, i was sure this was going to be a _huge_ deal for him - he can be very sensitive to changes, and this was a pretty big change. However, Conor surprized both of us by being totally calm and cool about the whole thing. We are now on for this Sunday, Conor is on the mend (again, thank the gods for antibiotics) and things seem to be back on track. Looking back over the past 5 years of Conor's birthdays, he really hasn't had great luck. Sick, scared or _something_ always seems to come up for the guy. At least his actual birthday this time was good!

I'm afraid to commit

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:47:47 -0500

I think the biggest problem with my lack of commitment to a task management tool is that i'm burning out on _all of them_. I know that Ciara is sick of switching from tool to tool and having to re-enter data all the time. So, i've finally committed. And to a tool that i've written off so many other times that i'm still amazed that i'm going with it now. [Chandler][1] I _know_! Who'd a thunk it, a half-finished, sort-a abandoned product with one of the craziest histories of any recent software that i can think of. But it does sharing very well. And if you can adjust how you think about task management to fit into the way Chandler thinks about it, it (so far) works quite well. There are still quite a few admittedly large "warts". Repeating events are limited to simple yearly, monthly or daily - no 3rd Thursday. This is supported in the software itself, there is just no UI for entering this kind of repeating event. This is something that i can live with, if it means i get a tool that has good sharing abilities. My last attempt at low-tech task management was using the [lightning][2] plugin for Thunderbird. The latest version of the plugin is quite good, with a nice-ish UI. The downfall, especially if you are sharing your calendar, is that, if more then one person is working on it at the same time, you can corrupt your data. Which is what happened to me. Which is why i needed a better server side solution, something a bit more advanced then WebDAV. Thus Chandler. I'm using their free Hub service, but you can download the server and run it yourself if you really want to keep your data local. Since i'm trying to commit, i'm going to be living with the warts and all of this software, but i will blog about my experiences with it, and how it works out for us over the next weeks and, hopefully, months. [1]: http://chandlerproject.org/ [2]: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/

Last weekend's update

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:45:46 -0500

Whew - what a great weekend! I was sure it was going to rain, so what a pleasant surprise when it turned out to be the best weekend of the year! We managed to be both productive, and have fun. Saturday was the 'chores' day, so we did some baby-proofing and general cleaning and spring tidying. Sunday was the 'fun' day, and we all headed off to the Zoo. It was the perfect weather for it - not too hot, a bit of a breeze. And the kids were superstars. I mean, the zoo is _big_. But we managed to time all our rests and food breaks well. Heck, Rory even managed to have a nap while we were walking around. The only bummer is that the Polar-bears are getting a new enclosure (which is good really), so you can't see them till that is all done. Anyway, the weekend was great, and i'm feeling stoked for many more!

Should have been posted on Monday...

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:49:21 -0500

Freeedooooooomm! Friday was my last day at my (previous) day job at the ILC. While i'll miss a bunch of the folks i worked with, the past few months there have been torturous - not because of the work itself, or the place even, but this winter was, well, hard on me. I got pretty depressed there for a while, and then to top it all off i got pneumonia. So it was at that point that i decided, hey, time out! I'm taking a couple of weeks to get my shit back together, then doing a couple of months of freelance work from home. Then some summer vacationing for the whole family before Ciara starts back to work in the fall, and i become the primary home parent for a year. So, i've just got to say, what a great way to start all that. Today was super. And, i expect, tomorrow will be too.

Happy Birthday Conor!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:19:19 -0500

Here are some photos from this mornings gift-opening madness!