Untitled

Sometimes I don't feel like coming up with a title for an entry. I know I don't need to have one, but at times you feel that you need to put something meaningful there. So tonight, I am just going to leave it untitled. I just can't be bothered tonight.

So what's new and exciting in my world? Uhm, I'm afraid not much really. I had my Mandarin class tonight. I talked to my friend that I take the class with. I seriously think (and another friend agrees) that he's going through a mid-life crisis. And without going into too many details, I think he knows it himself. Anyway, he's gone ahead and signed up for some charity organization that sends people out to the Ukraine to help the homeless and the needy. His trip is planned for June. He said that he had always want to do something like this. Aside from that he also is taking a course on religion. He assured me it wasn't an attempt to recruit people.

If it means anything, he's also in his late 30's He's divorced and had been travelling a lot for work for the past few years. Only recently has he actually stayed in town for more than a few weeks. His new role does not have him travelling as much now. I think he's at a loss as to what to do next in his life. That would explain him getting involved with stuff to fill up the time. Not too different from what I have been doing.

My other friend (who agreed with the above diagnosis) is currently living on the other side of the world. He's also in his 30's but slightly younger. He's also single. We have some rather frank discussions about stuff. He's currently on some secret 6 month plan. He can't tell me anything about it until it's over. I guess if I do make it out there in November he will have to tell me just what the f* he's been doing. I have some idea, but I won't jeopardize things by mentioning my theories here.

In the meantime, I think I'll just continued to coast along. See if anything interesting happens along.

Life on the 'Net

I find it incredible how there seems to be a parallel universe of sorts. I'm talking about the Internet: the virtual world that many of us partake in.

I think those of us who have been on the 'Net for any length of time should be savvy enough to know how things work. It's still a bit the wild, wild west out there. You have to be careful where and how you tread.

For those who have made themselves a name and a presence on the Internet know that with the recognition there would be both detractors and admirers. They have to deal with both kinds of people.

I think that one very good and recent example is Matthew Good. He's been an active Netizen for a number of years. This past weekend he launched his newly redesigned website. As well, he made a couple of entries on his blog. One entry referenced the recent launch of a blog by his ex. Needless to say, given what the public knows of the whole affair, all sorts of backlash was unleashed on the woman. Now, I certainly don't condone this sort of behavior, yet I don't think it was entirely unexpected.

I think that after at least a day or two of really nasty comments being posted on her blog, the website was taken down.

Well, not wanting to rehash the whole story, you can go check it out yourself (see links on the right). I'm quite proud of the fact that Matthew Good has managed to keep himself composed throughout this whole sordid affair. His comment to David Gratton demonstrates this. Taking the high road is the way to go. No need to stoop down to the level of some people.

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Meanwhile, I've been on a sort of 80's music kick tonight. I went through all the stuff i had in iTunes and came up with a playlist with just over 4 hours of music. :)

Alt/Indie/Rock

I've been updating my iTunes with some stuff recently... Dinosaur Jr., Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, The Replacements. I guess to some degree I am rediscovering alternative/indie/rock. Coincidentally, Dinosaur Jr and Modest Mouse have shows coming up here in Montreal. Should I buy tickets? Or should I wait until I find someone to go with? I dunno.

The weekend wasn't too bad. I caught up on a few things Saturday. And during the course of some IM'ing with a friend from work, got invited to join him and a few friends for sushi. Yum!! I hadn't had sushi for a while. The place we went to is suppose to be one of the nicer sushi places. I ordered a few standbys plus one of the house specials. Well, in the end my bill came close to 3 digits before tip! Ouch! I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but I just didn't pay attention. Anyway, I was REALLY stuffed in the end.

I could have gone to the Hash on Sunday, but since I had a pretty late Saturday (we went to Starbucks after dinner), I sorta slept in and was still rather tired. I think I will try to make it to this weekend's Hash.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting...

Oh yeah, well, there was the election today.. The current results seem to indicate a minority government with the Liberals in charge. The race is still very tight. I guess we'll know in the morning when the dust settles.

More inane babblings

So here I am on a Friday evening sitting in front of my computer. I'm chatting with a few friends online. I am listening to some music. I am burning a few DVDs... What's wrong with this picture?

Anyway...

So I peruse Craig's List from time to time. Sometimes there's some interesting posts. Sometimes not. Tonight, for whatever reason, I decided to respond to a couple of them. I really didn't care if they wrote back or not. If they did, great! If not, oh well.

Well, one of them did write back. After a few email exchanges, he asks for a picture. Oh well. Fair is fair, I guess. He did post a picture of himself on CL. But being somewhat cynical these days, I figure, whatever. If I don't hear back from him, then I know. If he does write back, there might be a polite response. In any case, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Heh! I did send him a picture of me after a hash. Hair's a bit askew and I've already had a beer there. That would explain the stupid-ass smile on my face!

I think I have for a while been saying to myself that I really should just take things in stride. Not to take things too seriously and just live! I guess it's one thing to say it and it's another to actually start believing it. I think I have finally come to the point where I am starting to believe what I'm saying.

I am just going to plow on ahead and move forward. Whatever happens happens. I cannot control that which I can't control. You know. The usual stuff. :-) So it's onward and upward (I guess?).

Aside from all that, I don't think I'll be doing anything TOO exciting. I might go out and do a little shopping. I might also do some baking! :-o

So, I am capable of keeping myself well entertained. :) For the time-being anyway.

Slightly Bored

It's a bit quiet at work this week. But they seem to have come up with stuff for me to fill in these gaps. My latest is to work at updating a 162-page Word document that I've complained about. Since I am currently the main user of said document, who better to update than me? Oh well. I suppose I just couldn't avoid that much longer.

My exam on Tuesday went better than I thought it would. It wasn't that much different than the project assignment given, but I think the instructions for the exam was better. Anyway, towards the end I started to get a bit fed up and wanted to finish up. I know the last part was not completed 100%, but I think I got most of it done.

The camera class last night was fun in that we got to shoot in a studio environment. After the instructor gave some explanation of the use of lighting, we were left to do what we could. It was fun to try all of this. I think I took some good shots.

Pet Foods
Since the news broke out late last week about the tainted pet food killing pets, I started to wonder about the soft/canned food I was feeding Finster towards the end. I know that I had fed him some of that Iams Select Slices. But in thinking about it, I think Finster was already on the downslide when I fed him the soft foods. The canned Royal Canin I was feeding him in the end was not affected by the recall. So, I really believe now that Finster's decline was due to kidney failure due to age and not by bad food.

Monday night, I had started to watch Noir. It's an anime I picked up a while ago. I got the entire box-set. I think I will watch another disc tonight.

Wow! It's kinda nice not to have class tonight! :-o

Flurries

That's what I see outside my window at work at the moment. I don't exactly have a nice view of anything. In fact, I have a view of the roof. Just lovely. But at least I can see what the weather is like out there!

Yes, I survived the pub crawl Friday evening. Well, it did help that I did not have more than 2 pints of anything the entire evening. I do know my limits. Even after the 2 pints, I did start to feel a bit woozy at the 4th pub where I had just a coke. :-p I guess walking around after downing the pints goes straight to your head. I really needed some air otherwise I probably would have lost it. I had wanted to do half pints, but at the first place (which was actually the 2nd because we were late), they accidentally poured me a full pint. At the next place, they just didn't do half pints, so I had a full pint of Guinness there. After that it was Coke, water, then nothing. I think I started to head home around 11PM. I know. It's not terribly late, but I wasn't going to drink much more and I was planning to drive home (car was at work).

And the rest of the weekend? Well, I was a total slacker. I did next to nothing. I did not go out anywhere. I also realized yesterday that there wasn't much I needed from the supermarket either, so I did not need to get any groceries. Scary, huh? I did at least take care of some usual household chores like laundry. I finally cleaned the Roomba. I have been very neglectful of it. And it did need a bit of a cleaning! :-p

Yes, my life is just chock full of excitement! I suppose to compensate for that, I am looking forward to my trip in May.

In the meantime, I have been listening to some other stuff. I've been listening to The Decemberists. They sound a little like They Might Be giants. Not bad. I've also been listening to some other stuff that I've collected recently, like Dinosaur Jr. I've also been listening to The Frames being that it was just St. Patrick's Day and all. Not a bad band. They're suppose to play here in Montreal some time in April. I wonder if I can interest someone in going to see them with me. I'd like to try to catch the occasional show from time to time.

I am so overdue for a trim. I called the salon for an appointment. Apparently, my hairdresser just got back from vacation. I wanted a Saturday morning appointment. The first available Saturday isn't until April 7th. Oh well. I've already waited this long. I last had my hair done in September!!! :-p I think my hair has grown about 4 inches. The grays are really rearing their ugly heads. I'm also starting to get these short hairs growing out. Not a total disaster, but I need to try to get things tamed back.

So aside from the usual mundanity that is my life, work has been somewhat uneventful. I wrote up a test report this morning. Helped out someone with an issue they had. I have to coordinate getting some equipment to finish up a test case. Waiting to see if I could possible get the equipment after 5PM today. Maybe not. Eh. Nothing too exciting. :-p

Rate My Life

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.5
Mind:	6.6
Body:	6.6
Spirit:	6.4
Friends/Family:	4.2
Love:	3.1
Finance:	8.1
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Things that make you go "Hmm..".

Busy Bee

It's been a somewhat busy week.

I booked my vacation. I have stuff to test at work. I have my classes. I had to hunt down "cheap" airfares.

The testing at work went well yesterday. Today, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster. :-p I managed to do a few things in the morning, but when it came time to execute a simple test call, nothing worked! :-p I checked the usual stuff, nothing. Then I submitted a trouble ticket to have the problem looked into. One of the guys called and left a message at lunch time. I called back and he said to call him when I went back to the test plant. I said, okay, in 10 minutes. When I did call him back he wasn't at his desk. I waited a little bit. After about 15-20 minutes, I tried his desk again. No answer. Then I tried his mobile. He's in a fscking meeting! He asked me to get in touch with another guy! So I called the other guy. He was busy (also overloaded) with other stuff but would try to get back to me in half an hour.

In the meantime, one of the guys in my group came down to see if he could help out. He did some tracings. I attempted to make some test calls. Then the other guy finally came by. He still had other problems to work on. Then another guy from my group came down to give a hand. More tracing was done. We're sort of managed to narrow things down a bit, but not 100% sure what the problem is. I reload the software in the node on the theory that some configuration was changed somewhere. Nope, that didn't do it. By now it was 5PM, but we managed to point a finger at the suspect component. We'll have to wait until morning for someone to look at it.

It was not a very productive afternoon workwise, BUT, I did manage to book my flight for Rome! :-D

Elsewhere, there was an article posted by Samar Mazloum on the Matthew Good site. In one of the comments there was a quote from the Joy Luck Club:

“Losing him does not matter. It is YOU who will be found, and cherished.”

It's something I will need to keep in mind.

Tomorrow: St. Paddy's Day Pub Crawl. Wish me luck!

La Dolce Vita

Well, after some hemming and hawing, I finally made the decision to go ahead and book a trip to Italy. I decided to go in May since it might be a bit too warm come late June.

This is the trip that I plan to take. I'm kinda looking forward to this. I've never taken taken an organized tour. I've always been leery of the coach tours. Since this is considered a small-group (not more than 15) tour, I figure it can't be that bad. The pricing is reasonable as well. I just need to sort out the air portion of this trip soon. I've only put down a deposit for the tour. I need to pay off the balance in 2 days.

Well, that's the big news for the day. Aside from that, I've sent off an email to my C++ instructor yesterday indicating that I will not be able to complete the course. I kinda said I would still come to class tonight, but then, what's the point? So here I sit still until time for the 2nd class (XML). I'm doing okay in the XML course. But even with that one I am starting to get a little lazy about. I really didn't do much more the the "project" assignment last night other than to burn the files onto a CD and print out the files. :-p

Anyway...

Springing Forward

Thanks to Dubya, we in North America will be springing forward an hour tonight. We will be losing an hour of sleep a few weeks earlier than usual. I haven't really had a chance to read all the funky logic behind this decision. In any case, I need to make sure all my clocks and watches have been adjusted. :-p

Today, I think I managed to do as little as possible. I really didn't want to work on any programming assignments. I *might* try to finish off the XML assignment Monday night. I absolutely do not have the energy to work on the C++ assignments at all. I think that that class is a total write-off at this point. I need to either talk to the instructor Tuesday or send him an email.

I've been thinking about what to do about vacation this year. I've been trying to get some ideas by looking at sites like GAP Adventures and Intrepid Travel. I'm not sure if I want to visit Europe or Central America. Do I want to visit urban areas? Do I want to be outdoors with Nature? There's one trip that looks interesting. It's an Alaska and Yukon Adventure. It's a bit pricey, but considering how out of the way you are and all, it's to be expected. I'm still mulling it over. I would need to save up a few bucks for that trip.

Otherwise, it's been a quiet Saturday. It's nice to not do much of anything today. Well, okay.. I did do some laundry. :-p

Sometimes...

Sometimes I really wonder what the heck is going on in my head. Last week, I was in such a state that I didn't know what to think about anything any more. I really wonder if it isn't because I have been running on approx 4-5 hrs of sleep most nights for the past month and a half? I think there was a study done on the effects of sleep deprivation. I probably have been slowly depriving myself of sleep. :-p

Well, I hope this lack of sleep will come to an end soon. My Tuesday evening classes will come to an end soon. I have 3 more weeks of the Wednesday night class. And tonight's class was number 4 with 6 more to go. I think I was crazy to do this! :-p

I'm doing it to myself again tonight. I've been home since a little after 10. It's now about 11:30PM and I have not gone to bed yet. I even told myself I would go straight to bed when I got home. I wonder if the computer and the Internet aren't to blame. I find them such easy distractions.

Meanwhile, there have been some interesting posts on Matthew Good's website. Dale Mugford's post was most interesting. I hadn't realized what the significance of it was until I found out it was International Women's Day (or week). The post also reminded me of when my sister used to work at a county correctional institute in Massachusetts. I forget how long ago this was. I think she was also working on her Master's at the time. In any case, I remember her telling me about how she has regular group sessions with these mostly big, burly guys who were there doing time for committing some sort of crime against women. She had mentioned that some of the men continue to deny that they did anything wrong. It almost seemed that there was no way to get these guys to admit that what they did was wrong at all. I give my sister a lot of credit to take on such a job. She's not a terribly big person. And I'm sure some of these guys do tr to use their physical size to try to intimidate my sis as well. However, knowing how tough my sister is, I don't think she ever waivered. Of course, I'm sure there was armed security nearby!

Anyway, enough for now...

This River Called Life

(Thanks, dman!)

Yes, it seems that lately I have been somewhat philosophical about things. So, as a result this analogy was formed. I'm sure it's not totally original, but this is just my take on it. And no, I have not read anything else along these lines. So it's all original from me...

I see myself floating along this river called Life. It's not really a terribly large boat that I float about in. It's large enough for myself and whoever happens to climb aboard.

As I float down this river, I occasionally pass close to certain shores. These places almost always had something to offer. Some good, some not so good. I avail myself to what these landings have to offer. The shoreleave might be brief, or they might last for some time. Eventually, I continue down the river.

Occasionally, someone will come along for the ride in my little boat. The ride with me varies. Some stay for a while. Some for not very long. Sometimes the ride gets a little bumpy on board!

For now, I am along on this boat. Sometimes I see someone waving from the shore. But I can't really tell sometimes.

Ahoy there!

Mid-life?

I might have touched upon this earlier in some form. It just seems that this subject has appeared again in my mind. I guess I have lately (again?) been taking stock of my life. What have I done? What have I accomplished? You know. The usual questions about life.

I find that I oftentimes have too many thoughts and ideas going on through my head. Sometimes I will have certain revelations, but I don't get the chance to act upon them or to record them for reference. Then such revelations are forever lost. Sometimes I will think about what I'm good at or what I would like to do. Again, I don't seem to have or find the chance to act upon them.

I suppose that life can be full of missed opportunities. But how do you know when an opportunity really presents itself to you? Sometimes I feel so clueless about such things. Just how many opportunities have I lost along the way? How many opportunities was I able to identify along the way? I don't think I'll ever really know.

I suppose there are times when I feel that have pretty much settled for my lot in life. It's not necessarily all that bad my life. However, I'm pretty sure it's not as fulfilling as it could be. So what do I need to do to change things? I find that I am rather wishy-washy about things. Again, I tend to "float" along this river called life. I might occasionally come across a fork where I would need to make a decision. Have I taken the road less travelled? Or have I been taking the path of least resistance? I can't exactly back-paddle to find out. This is the direction I have been heading. I may as well just continue down it. See what's up around the curve.

I remember when I was high school that I had a tendency to write an awful lot. However, I question now the quality of the writing I was doing back then. I wish I still had the compositions I wrote back then. It would give some indication as to what sort of style I wrote, if there was some sort of style. Also, it would help figure out what was going on in my head back then. High school was not exactly my most favorite years. But I'll save that narrative for another blog entry.

With regards to writing, I guess at one point in time I had aspirations of being a writer. However, I don't think I ever had the imagination for it. I remember making a few feeble attempts at writing about something. It never amounted more than a page of stuff. It was only much later that I realize I did not quite have the "experience" or knowledge to really write about something (fiction or not) intelligently. If I were to write something, I would want it to be somewhat broad in scope. Something that would in a way give the big picture. I guess it's rather difficult to explain this.

Anyway, I played hooky this evening from class. I guess all of the evening classes are starting to take a toll. Also, trying to maintain some sense of a social life is tough too. I hashed for the first time in over a month this past weekend. It was nice to to something other than homework. I like talking to people. However, trying to be social when you're slightly inebriated is not so good. :-p

New Album Coming

(The following is an unpaid endorsement!)

So Matthew Good finally posted some info about his upcoming album. It sounds like it ought to be quite good! For the few of you out there who read this blog regularly, please give his stuff a listen! If you like what's done so far, hopefully you will like or love what's coming soon! :-)

BlogShares?

WTF?

Okay, given that I don't web surf as extensively as I have in the past, it had never occurred to me that someone would actually come up with this. Gee! I think the $1,000 valuation is rather generous!

Quotables

A friend of mine who recently moved to China put this up on his page. I like the philosophy of this quote:

"In life, people tend to wait for good things to come to them. And by waiting, they miss out. Usually, what you wish for doesn't fall in your lap; it falls somewhere in the vicinity of your lap, and you have to recognize it, stand up, and put in the time and work it takes to get to it. This isn't because the universe is cruel. It's because the universe is smart. It has its own cat-string theory."

-N.S.

Comments

It seems that no matter what I try, things somehow end up becoming complicated one way or another. Sometimes I just wish things to be simple. But I guess life was never meant to bo that way. At least not in this day and age...

It's Saturday Night

And I am sitting at home. Well, I did have a few things I wanted to get done, but that's besides the point.

I did manage to get up early enough and pedal for about 45 minutes. I hadn't pedaled in about 2 months, so this was way overdue. I did it while watching a Pixies DVD. I think it's better than just listening to music. It's a visual distraction. Anyway, let's see if I can get up early enough tomorrow morning and pedal again.



I went to the supermarket to get ingredients for vegetarian chili. I wasn't sure just how much the recipe was going to make. I ended buying 2 cans of everything needed. In the end, I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes, one can each of red kediney beans, black beans, chick peas, and white kidney beans. The recipe called for 15 oz. cans, but the ones I bought were 19 oz. I guess it all added up. I tweaked the recipe a little bit as well. Instead of worcestershire sauce, I added traditional chili seasonings like ground cumin and oregano. I also threw in some chopped jalepeno. In the end, it came out pretty good. Rather tasty! :) I had also made a lemon poppy seed cake.

Later, I went over to a friend's place. We went over a map to figure out what trail to lay for the Hash tomorrow. I think we came up with a good trail for both runners and walkers. It covers quite a bit of area. I hope he can make it to the Hash. In any case, the temps tomorrow shouldn't be too bad. It's good to get out and get some fresh air.

I did manage to take a few pics today:


That was quite a bit of snow that fell yesterday...

Anyway.. I think I might try to go to bed "early" tonight. :-p

hmmm...

Could this be my problem?

Working from home

Well, today's storm dumped quite a bit of snow here. I really don't know what the final count is but the forecast indicated somewhere between 20-30cm of the white stuff. And with the wind blowing it all over the place, I'm sure it looks like more.

Because of this snow storm I decided to work from home. Actually, I sort of decided on it yesterday. So I managed to bring my laptop home. I tried to get a few things done, but some thing just refused to work. Oh well. What can you do?

In the meantime, I'm still in a bummin' mood. I really don't know why. It just seems tht lately, I'll just fall into a bit of a funk. I guess it might last a couple of days. Sometimes I wonder what the triggers are for these moods. I don't think it's entirely hormonal. Then again, you never know.

I have really got to stop thinking too much about things. I've got to re-focus on doing my own thing. I've also got to stop reading too much into stuff.

During the course of my thinking too much, I've come up with the theory that he may have built a wall up around himself. Or, at least, he hasn't been very open about himself. Unlike myself who would tell everyone my life story if asked. I guess I am much more open about things. I don't have much to hide. Of course, there are some things I won't disclose. Everyone's got some sort of secrets tucked away in the proverbial closet somewhere.

So, this weekend... I've got a few things I'd like to get done tomorrow. I might try to hit the supermarket early tomorrow to pick up some stuff to make chili and cake with. I guess that means I should put together a shopping list. Then, if the weather is agreeable, I might go out and try to take some photos again. This time, I will remember to wear a different pair of glasses so I can actually read the readings in the camera! :-)

Anyway, I am almost in the mood to watch a chick click or something...

Home Stretch

Maybe I have been burning the proverbial candle at both ends. This week seems to be rather evident of that. Okay, so I didn't have class on tuesday, but still I didn't get to sleep until late that evening (went to a movie instead). But all these late evenings and trying to keep up with class work is starting to take a toll on me. It also didn't help that I did some work over the weekend as well. This week, I started to do some testing. I feel a bit brain-fried. Tonight I have the Mandarin class.

I find that when I get really tired like this my mind starts to go off in different directions. When it starts to do that I tend to think too much about certain things. And when I do that it tends to be somewhat on the negative side. This is usually not very good. :-p I end up feeling a bit bummed out as a result.

Anyway, I don't know how Tuesday's classes will be made up. After this week, there are 2 weeks left of that class. There are 4 weeks left of the camera class. Tonight is class #3 for Mandarin. After this, I think I will need a break!

But despite all the thinking I have been doing, it has come to my attention to question just what state things are between me and him. I am still unclear if we are just still hanging out, or if we have sort of started down the road of dating. I am a bit puzzled and perplexed about this. Where do we stand? Is it something that is still in progress? A friend said that perhaps I am trying too hard to find a new relationship. To some degree, he may be right. Subconsciously, I might be. On the surface, I am trying to go with the flow and see where the currents take me. Is this the right thing to do? I am by no means in any big rush. I don't have any set timeline or goals in my life. In fact, I don't think I've ever really set any real goals in my life. I just exist and live. Is there anything wrong with that?

Anyway, I am still struggling with a few test cases. I've asked for help, but even the experts are having problems. (O_o)