One of the disadvantages about not working at an office anymore is that there is no air-conditioning. So, when it is in the upper twenties, I have to sweat it out. In other words, I’m not that productive these days.
But, if I ignore the 9-5 schedule, I can do better. It is nice and cool right now. (At least it is outside. The outside temperature hasn’t migrated to the indoors yet. But it is not baking.) In other words, take a siesta during the day and work late at night.
My contract job has been oddly silent and not giving me anything to do, so I’ve been working on my own program. There I’ve been struggling.
On Friday I talked to a gaggle of mathematicians and I got a good perspective on what I’m trying to do. The goal is for every map to allow a rectangle to be selected as either a new map or a sub-map. The problem I’ve been faced with is that spheres aren’t that happy about having squares on them. I’ve been using a Rubik’s puzzle of a sphere/globe to organize my thoughts. (Which I cannot find mentioned anywhere on the internet, so I have no way to easily solve it.) There is a sort-of-square on it, and so that is what I’m trying to replicate. The mathematicians were able to point out that the “square” is bounded by great circles. With that, I had a direction to go.
I started doing research with the graphing calculator that comes with every Mac. It’s been invaluable as a testing platform. I don’t think it is happy with me though; I’ve been bringing it to its knees.
Just now I finally got the math working and entered it into my program. It is correctly displaying a great circle going west to east that goes through the two points I wanted.
This whole project would probably have been easier if I had done it in second year university when I was taught about planes, dot products and cross products. I still have my text book from then, but it was a used one and has been very marked up. I’m also not that happy with the production value. It was published in, let me check…1976! Okay, updated in 1988, but still… That might explain why I had so much trouble finding out about dot products and cross products. I don’t think they were invented back then, at least not by those names.
Basically, the internet has saved me a lot of trouble.

The semi-job that I have is continuing. A lot of the time I am waiting for information from my employers about what exactly they want me to do. When I get it, I can usually be fairly efficient in finishing it. But that does leave me with time on my hands.
I have a policy that I have to get out of my place at least once a day. But I think I may have to amend that. Yesterday, my one time out was to go do some stair-training. (I think it will help with the Death Race.) But by the end of the day, I felt rather squirrely; there was absolutely no socialization. So today, after the usual Wednesday evening run club, I made sure to join my fellow runners for dinner at Royal Pizza. I feel much more mentally balanced now.
Of course, yesterday, I didn’t even talk to anyone over the phone. In fact it was pretty much a day off for me, because I didn’t even work on my own program. Instead I played a game of Railroad Tycoon 3. I purchased the game a year ago, but never got around to playing it. When I finally did, I found it wasn’t exactly working with the latest operating systems and/or processors, and there were no official updates. Six year old game. Fortunately I found a torrent that had a version that did work. It even waived the requirement that the CD be in the drive. I don’t know about the ethics of this, but I did legally pay for the game.
Speaking of ethics though, the game doesn’t really promote good ethics. There is a separation between the player and the company he is running. Both have their own money. But there is absolutely no penalty for insider trading. In fact it is encouraged. One of the best ways for your train company to buy another company is to use the player’s cash to buy a lot of shares in it, so that when your company tries to buy it for an inflated price, the stockholder vote is more likely to go correctly. And then the player makes a good profit at the expense of his own company. And always buy stock in your own company before you make the company buy back its stock. Yeah, I feel like I’m with Goldman Sachs.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
-Theodore Roosevelt

But I am continuing work on my own program. My current issue is that when I have the program fill in more details of an existing map (increase granularity, I call it) there are changes that don’t look right. I found a small peninsula was disappearing in the test map I was using. The increase in granularity shouldn’t be doing that. After adding in some debugging features I found the problem was that I was changing the heights of everything to be more within a set range, but I wasn’t including the sea level in that change. I have an idea of what I need to do to fix it.

I attended a wedding of a friend today. The church ceremony was nice, although I discovered I was an usher upon arriving. I had been warned this was a possibility, but I didn’t know for sure until I had crossed the threshold. On a good note, I didn’t burst into flames when I crossed that threshold; always a worry for me with churches.
The reception was also nice, but I didn’t know that many people there, mostly my running friends. Which of course meant we got stuck on talking about running. We are rather focussed on our hobby.
There was a single girl who I spent some time with. She arrived with someone else, so nothing was going to happen. Interestingly, when it was time to throw the bouquet, it came towards her. She didn’t catch it, and it landed on the floor. She looked at it like it was a dead fish. A small child picked it up instead.
In other news, I caught the garter. I’m not sure what that signifies.

Lazy unemployed person or focused on growing facial hair. A little of column A, a little of column B.
I haven’t shaved my face for a week and a half. It started out as being lazy which I’m wont to do when I’m at my parent’s place. Then I figured I would try out facial growth.
I’m mainly wondering if I look good with facial hair. I can’t tell. I see pictures of men with a bit of growth, and since they are in magazines I assume there is some call for that level of scrufiness. But after this long, I am down to just a scruffy beard.
I polled my friends tonight on whether I looked good.
The results indicate I will be shaving it off before the wedding tomorrow.

Okay, I found the problem with my program. You know, the one about increasing granularity instead creates garbage. Stupid mistake. First-year-university kind of mistake.
Essentially I was putting a long into a short. For the non-programmers reading this, let me explain. Integer numbers can (mostly) be stored in in either of two ways. They can be stored in a short, which means you are only allowed about five digits, or they can be stored in a long, which allows about ten digits. (This is GREATLY simplified.) If you try to put a ten digit number into a five digit place, it lops off all the higher digits. In other words, it becomes much smaller.
This problem didn’t really show up until I started quadrupling the size of a map by doing the increased granularity. A low level function was getting the size of the map and going through every height-point on it and converting it appropriately. Except it thought the size of the map was 257 times smaller than it actually was due to the long/short problem. So instead of doing the conversion, it was only operating on a small part of the map. The rest was unconverted and looked effectively like garbage.
Because I knew what to look for, I found a similar problem with my function that calculates the percentage of ocean coverage. (Probably because I copied the code from the first function.) Except in this case, it was only telling me the percentage of ocean coverage in the top few rows of my map. Not the same thing.

I spent most of today looking at my computer, programming. Then at around seven o’clock I went out and rented two videos. I didn’t event bother going back home and instead drove to the theatre and saw How to Train Your Dragon. (Which I’m thinking may have been better than Avatar.) After it was over, I waited in line for over two hours and saw a midnight showing of Iron Man 2.
I think I’m movie’d out. And I need sleep.

So much for regular updating…
Last week I travelled to my parent’s place in the greater Calgary area. While there, a snowstorm hit and the power failed. This seems to be a recurring theme for me and that city. Power came on six hours later, but the internet was down for the entire day.
I find it harder to update my journal when I am at my parent’s place. It is out in the country, so there isn’t much happening. And less so if you are snowed in. I did do a lot of my own programming and have been steadily improving the application.
I did take a few wrong turns. I started working on getting waterflow calculated, but I later decided it wasn’t time yet. I think I need to create support for sub-maps first. It is something I should have implemented earlier, because they affect everything else. So I’m working on that for now. But there is something else in the way; sub-maps are useless if you can’t do any operations on them. So I am working on a feature to increase the granularity of a map or sub-map. Problems are showing up in that the images created are garbage if the original map was too large. I still need to figure out if this is a problem with the image generating code, or if the newly generated map has become defective.
I’m also working on my new job’s code. Right now my wage with them is fairly low; until I get over this probationary period. But because I’m only a contractor, I don’t feel emotionally involved with the code. I see parts that need rewriting to be improved, but if it isn’t something I’m told to work on, I don’t feel like sticking my neck out. Maybe that attitude will change later on, when I feel some ownership. We’ll see.

Yesterday I went to a former co-worker’s home to help him with his current programming project. If I had still been employed, it is a problem I would have been working on. But apparently I can’t be hired back, even temporarily, without screwing up my severance. Still, I want to maintain my friends and network, and it was an interesting problem. It was actually enjoyable to work with someone else for awhile. Most of my programming these days has been just me and it is feeling lonely.
I then had the interview for the job. It wasn’t done in the time allotted and had to be continued today. My biggest issue with this job is that it seems to require Lotus Notes. I was forced to use Lotus Notes in my last job and it seemed to be one of the larger barriers to productivity. It is enough of a bone of contention that it is making me doubt whether I want this job. Still, I’ll give it a try and see if I like it.
The multi-hour meetings are not endearing.
On my own programming I got source control up and running. Now I’m working on getting the saving and opening of files to work. I’ve got a few memory problems I need to contend with. Hopefully I’ll get those sorted out quickly. Then I might feel confident enough to post it on a website and accept comments from other people.
I’m stuck in my home all day. I’m finding myself starved for socialization. It’s making me moody and a little down. I need to find some friends who want to go out and do things. I’d like to go see a movie in a theatre, but I can’t think of anyone who would join me.

I went running this evening. That is hardly news, but tonight was special. Instead of warming up in the weight room, then stretching before driving to the Running Room, I just ran there and then did the stretching. Again, I’ve done that before, but what was special about this time was that I had a backpack on which had my runners in it.
That’s right! I used the foot gloves to run the 1.7 km. This was my first time out running with them. It was an interesting sensation. The pavement was hard to start, but I got used to it. Still, once I got out of Whyte Avenue and into the residential areas, I mostly stayed on the grass next to the sidewalk. Occasionally I did step on something uncomfortable, and once with real pain, but it never slowed me down.
The magic moment came eight minutes in. Then the muscles in my foot started to ache. I was training new/atrophied muscles! Fortunately my run was over within two minutes; it would probably have been a bad idea (when has that stopped me before?) to keep pushing it.
I changed my shoes at the Running Room and then went on my regular run. The first few minutes of that, I could feel my muscles still aching, although the ache had migrated to my lower leg. It went away soon enough.
I’m going to try this every Wednesday. Although I would like to go to a park and take a walk in them. Would that help?

Okay, that’s better. I’ve finished off my list.
Well, all the features are there, but I am not especially happy with the performance of the drawing of the relief view. It is especially evident if you change sea level quickly. There is a noticeable lag. But I’m more interested in getting the features in, and later working on improving speed.
Next up is using source control. It isn’t a feature of the product, but I’ve been wanting this for awhile. Basically, once it is installed, any time I make a change to the source code, it is recorded. I can undo the changes and go back to what the files looked like before. Whenever I want, I can “check in” the changes, and they will be saved to a repository with a note. I can then go through the repository and see what changes I have made to a file, and why.
This is something that real developers use. Usually in a team environment where there are a lot of people changing the files. I’ve been negligent, because I’m the only one modifying the source. But it is a wonderful system for keeping track of the work I’ve done.
Tomorrow though I have two other projects. I’m helping a friend with a programming problem he is having, and I have an interview with a possible employer. Because my social network got me this interview, it is feeling like fait accompli, but that is probably not true. It will require programming in a language I am unfamiliar with (but is very similar to two others that I do have familiarity with.) It’s also contract work, and I have never done that. I’ll need to do some research on what I need to do.
In any case, I think I can get all three projects done tomorrow. Help friend, interview, implement source control.

I have not been that productive lately. All those real world chores ate up too much time, yesterday and today. I did get a better percentage of water coverage on a sphere, but I’m not convinced it is accurate. I need to find a mathematician to help. I did discover another problem with my sphere generation algorithm, mostly that despite taking longer, it does not create a sufficiently granular map. I’m wondering if there is anything I can do to improve that. At least not without increasing generation time.
I sold my Apple stock this morning. It jumped after yesterdays financial results. I was actually expecting it to drop, as it is wont to do after good results. But I’ve had a good ride, and the stress of when-to-sell-and-not-feel-stupid has been getting to me. But I’ll be happy with a 91% return on investment.
I’d like to get back on the wagon, but I’m sure something will happen that will cause it to drop.

Things are looking up. I was much more productive today.
One of the things that helped was to play with parental controls on my computer. Those controls allow me to block certain websites and prevent me from wasting time with random browsing. I know the password to get around it, but usually the request for it is a good reminder that I shouldn’t be going there. Unfortunately, because it is PARENTAL control, it feels the need to block me from any adult sites, such as Facebook, YouTube, and LiveJournal. I just wanted to block digg.com, which I find to be my biggest nemesis for productivity.
But, in programming I finally got the sea level control window up and running acceptably. It failed its first UI test with an end-user, but I got valuable feedback. Thanks S.! I want to mull over the opinions and figure out the best way to implement them.
Tomorrow I have a few real world chores to do, but I also have a list of some features I want to get done:

• Get a correct percentage of ocean cover on a planet that is a sphere. (Yes, I realize that is most planets, but I do most of my testing with planets that are either flat or cylinders. They make better pictures.)
• Allow water to appear in shades according to depth, instead of a constant blue.
• Support the appearance of water in the relief view.

I think I can get those three things done. And if I can, I’ll feel good about starting to use version control.
I’ve been wanting to get to using that for awhile.

have not been that productive. I haven’t been looking for a job.
I had bigger plans. I was going to do my own programming so that I can start to like it again. But I have no deadline and no one asking for it, so motivation has been lacking. I’ll make excuses: I do better later in the day; I’m feeling ill; Just one more episode of TV.
This is not the way things should be going.
I think I need to start logging what I’m doing in my program. Dare I even say, put the application up to be downloaded? If people know (even if they are theoretical people) and are watching me, I’ll feel much more accountable.
Let’s see if this takes.
I did do an interview last week with a major New York company. They found me, not the other way around. They weren’t exactly interviews, but tests to see how well I knew programming. The first test I passed, but it was mostly basic stuff I learned/forgot in University. The second test I did not do nearly as well on; they asked hypothetical programming problems and asked the best way to implement them. I gave answers, but I thought of better ones five minutes after it was over. They haven’t called back.
I fear that I am rusty in my programming. My last job was mostly about fixing bugs instead of implementing new code. And new code is where I want to be. I need to get back in practice.

That was a horrible trip home.
I got up at a reasonable time for someone with a day job. A completely unreasonable time for the unemployed. I packed up and got into the car. I had time, so I decided I would go to a grocery store and find some Vanilla Coke to take home (not available in Canada. I’m not even sure if it is available in the States either.)
And because I don’t know the area that well, it was not easy. It was also not successful. In the end, I got to a pharmacy and just grabbed a 12-pack of regular Coke. At least I’ll be able to do a controlled test of America Coke versus Canada Coke. I believe they use different sugars.
I then drove to the airport, although by this time it was two hours until my flight left. I promptly got lost in the airport streets. I had to pick up gas, and drop off the car. Both were harder as I kept having to make left turns. Did you know that gas stations demand a valid zip code when you try and pay at the pump? Did you ales know that there are two Fox Rental places? One for renting cars, and the other for dealers.
I got to the WestJet counter an hour and fifteen minutes before flight departure. Things went fairly well from this point. There were few lines and I got through them all quickly and efficiently. Stress was relieved and I enjoyed the flight.
Aside: While flying over Nevada, I noticed an interesting lake to the left. What got me was that I could see a river clearly going into it, but I could not see any way for the water to exit. No outlet? I drew a picture so I could look it up later (I like flying over land with topography so I can learn about what I saw during the flight. Heaven help me if I ever get internet access while flying.) I found out that it was Pyramid Lake and it IS an Endorheic basin, which means I was right. No outflow.
I got to Calgary, and passed customs with no trouble. The luggage carousel was reporting my luggage wouldn’t show up for 25 minutes, but it lied. Two minutes later and I was out of there.
I had a five and a half hour layover. (A drive to Edmonton would have taken two and a half hours.) Fortunately, my parents are in the area, so they picked me up and we spent the afternoon together. Then the spring storm happened. Snow was going sideways. They got me to the airport on time, but it wasn’t a good sign that all the lights were out. (Power was out over all of northeastern Calgary.) Security was continued, but with them going through every piece of luggage and doing a body search. Then I got to the terminal and proceeded to wait. Along with a lot of other people.
There was an older couple with a dog that needed to go outside. Eventually security let her outside with the dog so it could relieve itself. They still searched her and the dog when they came back in.
Facebook was nice as a way to keep people up to date. Eventually the power came back on, and I got information. My flight boarded at 9:20 in the evening. Two hours later than expected.
The 40 minute flight didn’t take off until an hour later. I think there was a line-up for de-icing.
Edmonton airport, shuttle bus, walk in the cold to my building. Enter the building and find the elevator is out-of-order. Stairways up to the top floor. (Remember, there is a 12-pack of Coke in my luggage.) And I’m home.

Tomorrow morning I head home. This trip has been quite the experience. I had expectations that turned out to be wrong. I had hopes that did actually happen. I’m tempted to say this has been my best trip here. Yes, there were things that went horribly wrong, but that is what makes great vacation stories. (Although I think I better keep some of these to myself.)
There are a number of things I never got to do, like the Getty museum. But I did get to be myself, which is more important. Let’s face it, I’m not that much of a museum person. Instead I went to Santa Monica beach and went for an 11.5 km run. I did go the wrong way, down the boring part, but I had never gone that way before. Lesson learned.
And really being myself, at one point I just lazed around and read comic books at my host’s place. That is what I would probably do in Edmonton.
I had a good time.
But I don’t think I could live here. The people here are cynical, and occasionally mean. Something here gets to people and makes them selfish. I think they realize they are changing into people they don’t want to be, but there is nothing they can do about it. They are actually put off by someone who is nice for the sake of being nice.
Which is why I never really looked for a job here. I did do a bit of networking with my friends, and there is a lead that may help another project. It would be nice to be here for longer, but I don’t fit in this town.

I’ve tried running here. My host is a bit into running, but we didn’t get very far the first time. I totally confused my Garmin Forerunner. It took several minutes before it gave up trying to figure out where it was and asked “Have you travelled hundreds of miles since your last use?”
Today running went much better.
I’ve been partying a little too hard, and for the longest time I wasn’t getting adequate sleep. Strange bed, strange hours. It finally caught up with me yesterday evening, and so we collapsed in bed instead of going out to a party. The party would have been at a semi-outdoor venue, and it is (relatively) chilly here. So last night I finally got a decent night’s sleep. Which meant that when we went for a run this morning, we felt good.
I have to keep slow because my host is not at my level of fitness. (who is?) But it is a beautiful run around here. We headed towards the Hollywood hills, AKA Hollywoodland. I’m glad I had a local guide, because otherwise I would have gotten lost. It’s a maze. Anyway, we encountered a garage sale and my host wanted to buy stuff. I’m glad we were able to come back with a car because I wasn’t looking forward to running back carrying a big pot. That would have looked like we had just stolen soup from someone’s home.
We got close to the big Hollywood sign, but I don’t think you can get right up to it. I’ll have to try and get a better view later.

I’ve been in L.A. for a bit over a day now. Plane arrived, I rented a car, then drove to my friend’s. By this time it was late and I was rather hungry. We walked to a nearby Thai restaurant and had a lovely meal. Then I just spent some time relaxing.
The hi-light was the late night party. We didn’t get there until around midnight, but there were a lot of people I knew. Great to see them all again. Some I hadn’t seen for years. Some I hadn’t seen since I was last in Jamaica. I don’t actually recall what time we got back home.
But I do know I didn’t get out of bed until 1:30.
We’re going to another party tonight, but my host tells me that parties don’t really start until midnight. I’m glad I’m in the hands of a professional. I feel like the small-town boy confused by the big city ways.

So I’m off to L.A. For a wild two weeks. Hoping for a wild two weeks. But part of me is thinking of spending some days doing nothing except maybe some programming.
I got up far too early (after staying up far too late) to catch my flight. Of course it is delayed an hour. So I get to wait here and pretend to sleep.
I did get to try the full-body scanner the Americans like to use to make themselves feel safe. It’s not as fun as advertised.

For the first time ever, I gave money to Microsoft. I feel dirty.
I also feel stupid because their stuff doesn’t work.
One of the things I’m going to miss about working is that I don’t have access to office supplies. I loved being able to use a 3-hole punch. Or a photocopier. These things are lost to me.
I also have to give back my laptop. When my company got acquired, the new company didn’t approve of our old laptops, giving us new ones instead. I took the old laptop home and used it there sporadically. Now that I’m being laid off, I have to return it. Which is unfortunate, because there was a program on it that I need to use occasionally.
So I should get my own Windows computer. I figured I would save money and instead put Windows onto my Macbook Pro. Since my Mac is three and a half years old, I figured XP would be the way to go. But XP is not available anymore. So, I guess I have to use Windows 7. I went out and purchased a copy, and then followed the instructions to install it. And promptly ran into problems that are leading me to believe my computer can’t support Windows 7, despite meeting the system requirements.
I am not a fan of Microsoft right now.

I really should be doing more work looking for a new job. I think part of it is that I don’t really believe I am unemployed. After so many years it feels unnatural. The last time I looked for a job was while I was still in university. There was another time I was looking, but a headhunter got me what would become my present job, so I didn’t feel as active in looking.
My friend describing an opportunity for iPhone development may have taken the edge off as well. The idea that I have this opportunity just waiting for me feels like a safety net I don’t really have. I should buckle down and get serious. But I am sort of looking forward to not having to work for awhile; an enforced vacation.
Not helping is that I’m trying to spring clean my home. Which means that I’m going through old piles of papers, sorting them and trying to figure out what to do with them. I just ran across all my documents from my European vacation two years ago. Hmmm. I have time now, and a nice severance…
Stop! That is the madness place!

What is the policy on keeping brochures from past vacations? Keep ’em as memories, or toss them as clutter?

I’ve done more marathons than I’ve done half-marathons. I’ve done more ultramarthons than I’ve done marathons. (All of the above ignores the Walt Disney Goofy which I am not sure whether it should be classified as a half, a full or an ultra.) I appear to like longer distances to shorter.
My theory for that is that there is less pressure with an ultra. With the shorter (using the word liberally) races, I know I am going to finish. I am competing to have a fast time. I have to figure out what speed I can do and how long I can keep it up for. I have to straddle the line between aerobic and anaerobic.
With an ultra, I’m just worried about finishing. That is the accomplishment. I’m solidly in aerobic exercise the entire time. Walking hills is not frowned upon, and is even encouraged. I can stop and rest without guilt or worrying about who is passing me. As long as I finish, I have plenty of time to catch up with them. And if I don’t, no biggie. My only goal is the getting across the finish line.
I could also say that I am much more susceptible to peer-pressure when I’m running. I usually don’t want to do these stupid-distance races, but my running friends can easily convince me to do one while I’m flush with endorphins. My non-running friends cannot convince me to not do them, because I usually see them in a laid-back environment with very little endorphins.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Something rather worrying has come up.
I like action movies, and science-fiction movies. I also like comedies occasionaly. Those are the movies I would most likely see if left completely to my own devices. (And that includes being free of those neurotic tics I’m full of.)
I do find it difficult to watch a movie on my own though. With other people around I have better peer pressure to keep watching. But if there is something happening in the movies that is upsetting, I start watching the clock for it to end. This usually comes up as characters being unbelievably stupid. Or the suspension of disbelief getting too hard to maintain.
Today I started watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It is a long movie, so I only planned to watch half of it. But the darn thing was interesting and I wasn’t having any problem continuing to watch it. It’s a drama! I’m not supposed to like that. I’m supposed to like things with helicopters (or giant eagles) and explosions.
Getting old sucks.

It is hardly surprising that I am not watching the Olympics. I like to see the results, but I can’t be bothered to actually watch the events. I’m wondering which I want more, Canada to win everything, or just be better than the US. Petty, I know.
But what I am really thinking about is curling. For me, curling is the ultimate winter Olympic sport. To be good in this sport, to even have a hope of contending, you must be a winter nation. Every other sport looks cool and exciting; non-winter nations want to be part of it and will field a hockey team or pretend they know how to bobsled (I’m looking at you Jamaica!) But curling isn’t cool. You have to really understand winter to play it. You can’t fake it. It is a “sport” that need special facilities to play, and you have to be really focussed to want to build one of those.
All the other countries are just winter posers.

If you are going to throw your drink at me, at least have the decency to do it to my face.
I went to the Empire Ballroom this night. It was actually one of the least stressful trips to a bar I’ve had in a long time. This was because I really did go with zero expectations. I was only going to go see a performer I enjoy. That was all. I didn’t plan on talking or making eye contact with anyone else. No anxiety attacks for me!
The show was an hour late, and it was enjoyable. The bar was filled with women that were much younger than me. Young enough that I didn’t find them interesting. Less stress!
However, after the show, I decided there was no reason to stay. I started making my way to the exit, having to fight through the crowds. There was a gorgeous girl behind me, and in the throng we got pushed around. I believe the pack made me bump into her, causing her to spill some of her drink on herself. I asked if she was okay, then continued on my way. Then I felt something wet go down my back. Apparently she was not okay.
Pfft.
Like I’m going to take anything personally from a girl wearing her dress backwards?

Of course, it might have just been some ice cubes she put down my shirt…
I’m a little behind in my social graces. Does that mean she likes me, or did that go out of popularity in kindergarten?

I’m trying to do a good tidying of my home. I want to reduce all the clutter possible in the main areas. So that means I want to get rid of any piles of anything and put them out of sight. I’ve just run into a problem though. I have some papers; (coupons, gift certificates, tasks to do) if they are out of sight, they will become out of mind.
How do I organize them so I can’t see them, and yet I can?

This morning I learned something; If you don’t put the kneading blade in the bread machine, it doesn’t actually make bread. I was really hoping to have extra food in the form of fresh toast this morning because I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat enough last night.
Yesterday was busy. I did a 16km run, then an afternoon of playing D&D. But instead of eating dinner, I decided to go out and see Avatar. When I got back, all I had was a small frozen quesadilla. Not a proper dinner, but I expected I would get more calories in the morning.
The calories are a lie!
I’ve been exhausted lately. I’m trying to put more hours in at work to make myself look better. It has been easier because I have an interesting project. But it is nearly done. In its death throes though I am getting very frustrated with my computer. In any case, I get home late and I have no energy for anything more than TV or mindless internet trolling. Much less all the little projects I want to get to that make me happy.
It is also making me moody. I’m getting stupid thoughts again. I unfortunately unloaded a bunch of them on an old friend this evening. I really shouldn’t do that. No one wants to listen to a whiner.
Change of subject!
Avatar was a good movie. Tale as old as time. Completely predictable. But, that said, James Cameron is a fantastic storyteller. I was drawn in and had no complaints. It was probably as long as The Dark Knight but I didn’t feel exhausted at the end of Avatar. It was also my first 3D movie; that was a treat.

I like knowing secrets, but I am not good at keeping them. Well, I am good at keeping them, but I can’t guarantee that about the people I tell.
This affects how I play games. If I am enjoying a game, I want to know all its secrets. Which means that playing and enjoying the game take a back seat to finding out all about it. Usually this comes in the form of maps. I will chronically map anything I can. (But I don’t like cheatbooks. I want to discover the secrets, not have them handed to me.)
The best example of this is when I spent an entire summer mapping the old computer game Ultima IV. I never got close to finishing it, but I made a large poster out of pencil crayon showing every square of the surface. (I really should get around to finishing that game someday.)
This has spoiled some other games. I remember playing Ultima VII and going off into the wilderness just to map a mountain range and ended up discovering a major artifact, a flying carpet, that I wasn’t supposed to find until later. Although the carpet would allow me to move around the world quickly, I found it detrimental to mapping because you moved too quickly. I promptly ignored it.
This also affects non-computer games. With the old Fighting Fantasy book series, I would go through and map the world. With the Choose Your Own Adventure books I would go through until I had read every page in the book, in the correct order. (I had to stick my fingers in a lot of pages to keep track of where I had been and what choices I had previously made.)
I recently discovered the online game Choice of the Dragon. This is similar to a “Choose Your Own Adventure” and I have found it strangely addictive. Of course, I’ve started keeping track of all the choices and what they lead to. But your choices affect your stats. Some of the time the game will tell you how your choice affects them, and I tracked that. At any time you can bring up a window to see our stats in bar-graph form. Then I noticed that your stats can be affected, and the game will not tell you. And the bar-graph will not tell you exact values.
Well, thankfully I’ve been learning about security of web applications to prevent hacking attempts. This gives me a good basis to know how to hack things. Last night I created a program that will let you know your exact stats in the game, and how the last choice changed them. Happy that I had a tool to let me more accurately map the game, I went to bed.
It was a few minutes later that I realized that this same tool could be used to change your stats. It hadn’t really occurred to me earlier because I had no intention of cheating in the game. Cheating spoils the fun of mapping.
Oh, in my defence, my hacking attempt does not affect any servers and only allows me to affect my game and nothing else. I suppose if I was better at it, I could get files that would tell me the effects of all the choices in one go, but I don’t have any interest in that. That would spoil the fun.

Back in 1988 I really wanted to be one of the runners with the Olympic torch. To do so, you had to be picked from a lottery; ballots could be dropped off at Petro-Canada. All very democratic, but prone to ballotbox-stuffing. I did not understand probability at the time, so I thought my one entry would give me a reasonable chance to be one of the runners in a major metropolitan area. Silly me.
22 years later and it is not a lottery. It sounds slightly fairer in that you register online for a spot and only a limited amount of people are allowed to register in each area. Or you can try reasoning with them and tell officials why you think you deserve to carry the flame. Apparently being an avid runner is not a good enough reason. It would help if I was in a wheelchair. (Do I sound bitter?) Being a celebrity also seems to be a way in. (Yeah, I’m looking at you Shania Twain!)
Needless to say, I was not chosen for the great honour.
I did leave work early to go see it. Traffic was a mess because the route had been closed off. I had planned to get to the Running Room and see it go by there at 5:30, but I got home at 5:20. I was out the door, by 5:27 after changing into running clothes and I started running to the Running Room, hoping the flame was late. Lucky me, the flame was going along Whyte Avenue, so I got to see it go by. Strangely, it didn’t look like they were allowing people to run with the official runner. That was too bad, because if you aren’t allowed to hold it, it would be nice to pace with it.
Mind you, it looked like they were walking with it, not running. And you only get to hold it for 300 meters.
Then I continued on to my evening run at the Running Room. That run took us along the flame route and I saw the torch a second time.

It is a matter of public record that I hate Christmas carols. I’ve commonly said that it is because they have been overplayed and I feel like they are always trying to sell me something when I hear them around Christmas. In August there is a better chance that they will feel like they have meaning.
I have come to doubt that theory now.
Instead we will replace it with a new theory. A new theory that fills in some of the holes in the first theory.
I think it is far more likely that I just associate Christmas carols with a traumatic moment in my life. You most often hear them in malls, and malls are miserable places, especially close to Christmas. How could that not be traumatic? It may have happened in my youth and they still cause me grief. I am much better able to tolerate a carol if it doesn’t sound “professional”. i.e. Something a mall might play. A single person on a piano makes a much better performance that does not cause me stress.
The August corollary doesn’t stand up to examination in this light. So let’s examine its origins.
I first came up with it when I saw an Animaniacs Christmas episode in August and found the songs quite touching, especially “We Three Kings” and “Little Drummer Boy”. But I don’t think it is the timing that made me like them, I think those are the only carols I like (Along with “Carol of the Bells”).
It was pointed out to me tonight that “We Three Kings” was depressing. That is exactly right! No mall ever plays that song. So no trauma. And of all of the carols, it is the only one where people are out doing things. The others just try and sell a feeling; this one tells a story. (Not a large one I’ll admit.)
“Little Drummer Boy” is a bit more mall friendly. I can’t explain why I like that one, but it doesn’t feel overplayed to me. “Carol of the Bells” just sounds spooky.
So new theory: There are only three good carols, all the others displease me.