I haven’t updated in awhile and I apologize. I don’t really have any excuse. I’ve been playing Halo 2, which means I don’t have anything interesting to write about.
On Friday I had a D&D game. I think I’m losing interest. We are starting to play so irregularly that it is hard to keep paying attention to it. But the last game was easy because the players had finally gotten to town and wanted to spend their money. I even gave them interesting NPCs to deal with.
My friend Jake, and his girlfriend run Nightshade Corsets. I’m not in the market for one, so I’ve never purchased from them. However, they were having an exhibit at the Taboo sex show that is happening this weekend. So, to show my support (yeah, that’s it) I went down to see them. (The irony of me going to the event is not lost on me.) The show itself wasn’t that great. There seemed to be some exhibits there that weren’t really in the spirit of the theme. Really, dear steaks?
This morning I ran 19km. We were supposed to go on the winter route, but I am so sick of that, that I convinced my small group to go someplace else. So we ran into a totally new place for me. It really helps keep your interest to see new sites. Afterwards I went to brunch.

Today there was the annual general meeting of the condo board. It’s the one where the peons get invited to have our say. Unfortunately, the condo board is bleeding and is looking for new blood to sustain it. Through no fault of my own, I got volunteered to join. I’m not especially happy about this because I seem to have enough time management problems as is.
Still, I should revel in the power.

I did my civic duty today and voted in the provincial election. There were a number of hurdles. Foremost is that everyone knows Ralph Klein is going to be elected premier. He’s been practically daring people not to vote for him. Second, I really don’t know any of the candidates in my new riding. None of them have done anything noteworthy for me. So I’m going to vote Green party. You get a nice feeling when you vote for them. That, and they appreciate your votes so much more. With Conservative you are a face in the crowd. With Green, they will probably celebrate every vote. Third, it took forever to vote. With the municipal and federal elections it was a five minute deal. For this provincial election, the voter lists didn’t have anyone in my building on it (I met two other groups of my neighbors at the polls) and there was a long line just to get into this place. The media kept predicting low voter turnout because the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Didn’t seem to happen.
In other news I finally got the last check for my stock sale a year and a half ago. When my old company got bought out, they kept 18% of the money to protect against unforeseen expenses. There were practically none, so I’ve finally gotten the remaining money. The bad news (considering the good news of a large influx of capital) is that it is all in U.S. currency. And those stupid Americans keep ruining their economy by electing dumb presidents, meaning my check is worth less and less. I love that the Canadian economy is firing on all cylinders, but I keep getting American money that is turning into monopoly money.
Still I have a nice chunk of change. I’m hoping that the Americans can get their act together so I can make a good deposit towards my mortgage.

I went to New City tonight. I really didn’t want to. I still feel tired. But I have this $50 tab that I feel I should use. So off I went. I bought drinks for all the people I know, but I stayed with the non-alcoholic beverages. My vacation taught me that alcohol has no benefits, so I see no reason to change my standard pattern.
The night was also disappointing in another respect. In Jamaica, everyone dressed up beautifully. Now New City isn’t my vacation, and the people really don’t dress up. It takes a bit of acclimating to lower my expectations.

I phoned my sister this morning. When I wished her happy birthday, it was a surprise. She had forgotten that it was today. On a similar note, my parents had forgotten my birthday yesterday. It was only through a third party that they realized it today.
Today has been a fairly good day. For the first time since working at Shana/FileNet I have gotten birthday cake. When I first started there, they ended the birthday celebrations in October. Last year they started it up again in December. I had to share the celebration with the other two people who have it in November.
Of course I brought the Erik method of thinking to the whole affair. The people are there for the cake, not the singing of the songs. I got approval from the other birthday celebrants, and as soon as I got to the kitchen with the cake, before everyone had arrived, I started the cutting. Let’s get this cake out to the people as soon as possible.
I noticed that the sign next to my office had had a modification. Previously I was just a “Developer”. But it had been modified, probably stolen from someone who had left, to say “Senior Developer”. I was hoping this meant some promotion I was unaware of, but neither my manager nor his boss had any idea. I took the modification down.
The run this evening was good. For some reason I was feeling exhilarated. It was only three degrees out, so it was good enough for shorts and a t-shirt. I always get a thrill when I’m dressed like that and I pass someone bundled up in a large coat for winter. Invariably they look oriental. You can draw your own conclusions.

So this was my birthday. Pretty pathetic. No one phoned me. I had to organize my own party. Well, it suits my mood. At least the people who joined me for dinner are saying that there will be cake for the Random Acts of Gaming we’re going to have this Friday.
In other news, I finally tried out Halo 2. It’s weird. I’m unused to the levels, so I’m exploring anew. I’m finding the weapon system slightly confusing, and I seem to just be sticking with plasma rifles. I did try out XBox live and I was very impressed with that. Previously, with MechAssault, it took forever to get a game going. You had to join someone’s game, hope they didn’t kick you out, wait for others to join, then hope the game doesn’t get cut out in the middle.
I just clicked XBox Live with Halo 2 just to see what my options were, and before I knew it, it had found several other players for me, set up a game, and away I went. Total time, less than thirty seconds. Cool.

All I did today was sleep, There was a brief interlude of browsing the web and eating breakfast at one o’clock in the afternoon, but really, I needed sleep. At around seven, I really started getting hungry. No food here, so I went out to Funky Pickle and got a slice of pizza.
It’s my birthday on Tuesday. The vacation was good, but not awesome. Technically I’m supposed to do something rash. To too tired to plan that though.

I just arrived home. Quite traumatic really. I left Jamaica at +30 degrees. Toronto was +3 degrees. Edmonton is -3 degrees.
I kept journal entries of my trip and I’ll see about putting them in here, backdated.
Feeling really tired now. I’ve noticed the occasional hallucination. The timezone change and the only sleeping three hours last night seems to be catching up to me.