This is a short vent.
I found this article about the unlocking of the iPhone. Essentially, the iPhone has been hacked by various people who can now use it on other networks than the one it was meant to, AT&T. You can now pay various people to do the same to your iPhone.
This person’s critique is that instead of paying them, we should donate to the “iPhone dev team” that did all the hard work of hacking into it and reverse engineering. They deserve the support more than these other people charging money.

And yet, I can’t help but think that if anyone deserves the money it would be Apple because they actually did the hardest work of all to bring the thing into creation.

God’s Eye

I don’t think I’m going to rate this one. I don’t feel qualified. It’s not the kind of play I tend to like, so I would rate it low. But it is the kind of theatre that leaves tears in the eyes of the audience. I’m an emotional cripple so I didn’t feel as moved. Maybe that is why I prefer comedic plays.

“The Ghost Righter’s”

I enjoyed it, but I went in with a slightly negative attitude. The Journal gave it a poor review, so I was thinking of all the problems that it had mentioned. But it wasn’t just a look at the farce that is reality TV, it actually had a good storyline. (7 out of 10)

More plays!

The Headshot of Dorian Grey

Good play. Basically Office Space for theatre actors. It’s the annual David Belke romantic comedy; You can’t go too wrong with it.(7 out of 10)

WATER

The people in this troupe are awesome at story-telling. They did a fabulous job with “Letter’s in Wartime” last year. When they describe the war it is perfectly vivid. Unfortunately, they don’t play to their strengths here. It is a bunch of skits all dealing with water. It does get kind of preachy at times. But when they tell the story of a WWII pilot landing in the English Channel, you are there. (6 out of 10)

Napoleon’s Secret Diary

I didn’t particularly care for this. The premise is that France’s greatest general is an idiot and he has bumbled his way through history. And if they had stuck with that, it would have been better. But near the end, he starts showing signs of intelligence and it is harder to find him funny. I’m all about the funny. (5 out of 10)

I wanted to go to West Edmonton Mall to get supplies for the trip. I had a play that ended at 3:15, so I got to the mall at 4:00. I started doing the shopping, not really rushing it.
Until I found out the mall closes at 5:00. Or rather, I found out that the mall had closed at 5:00.
So I didn’t get everything I needed. I’ll need to go back now.

Long day with four plays. But I did experience the joy of the traditional green onion cake.

Dishpig

Good play. Basically Office Space for the kitchen staff. The actor does an okay job of pretending to be the various people at the restaurant. The only thing I could ask for would be a more defined ending. It just petered out. (7 out of 10)

Picasso At The Lapin Agile

I enjoyed it. It is by Steve Martin, but it wasn’t wild and crazy guy. It was a more intellectual piece than just flat out slapstick. I went in expecting that a theatre school was involved because it had so many actors, but I stand corrected; professional actors who know what they are doing. (7 out of 10)

Indulgences

This play is what would happen if a Shakespearean play (complete with iambic pentameter) had the devil wandering through trying to help things along. This could have been a better play, but it went on too long. The first 45 minutes dragged and it was hard to pay attention. However, things started wrapping up nicely in the last half hour, greatly improving the quality. (6 out of 10)

Badaboom!

Puppet burlesque; At times explicit puppet burlesque. There is audience participation in this, and strangely, the front row seems to be the safest spot to sit if you are introverted. A guy in the back middle got harassed the most. (5 out of 10)

At a party today the topic of conversation wandered into the professional lives of monsters.
Zombies: Lawyer. The newly risen zombies are typically wearing their Sunday best that they were buried in. i.e. A nice suit. They would look almost identical to a professional lawyer.
Werewolves: Working the rigs up north. They are already hairy so they should fit in. And they would do well working in the wilderness.
Frankenstein’s monster (original version): Day care centre. Sure he had problems with that one child, but I think he learned his lesson. He’s gentle and I think he would work well with kids.
Frankenstein’s monster (movie version): Demolitionist. I can totally see him working the big crane with the wrecking ball.
Mummy: Actuary. Clearly his previous job experience is ex-pharoah, but now I see him more in the long-term planning. Of course if he’s using one of the old style calculators he has to make sure he doesn’t accidentally use his bandage in the paper feed. Really, that’s just embarrassing and more worthy of Scooby-Doo.
Creature from the Black Lagoon: Sushi chef.
Godzilla: Open pit mining. But that is more a function of his size than any particular personal aptitude. He seems more like a people-person, so he might not like working alone in the wilderness, but then again he does have to contend with the radiation he gives off. Sometimes your body just doesn’t match your personality.

Dominatrix-quest continues. I didn’t find her at my brief stop at the Fringe today, but I did get some information; A newspaper article gave me some clues. I had initially thought that she was just wandering the fringe trying to promote a particular play, and that she would be doing this multiple times. Now I find that she was in the parade, so her appearance might have been a one time occurrence. She did appear with zombies, but looking through the guide for zombie plays makes me think that they were a different production that just happened to be nearby. I actually saw her going into the main building, so it might have been to change into something more respectable.
Anyway, I did see one play.

Poptart

Excellent play. It helps to be up on pop culture for this one, but not completely necessary. It does a good job of mocking celebrity worship while pointing out that if you are famous, you can do whatever you want. Characters are funny and interesting. And there was the unexpected drag show. (8 out of 10)

Fringe has started and I’ve already got two plays under my belt. I do have a goal now though: I only saw her from a distance and couldn’t leave my spot in the line, but I really want to find out what play the woman dressed as a dominatrix was representing. Don’t tell me if you know, this is the kind of information I want to find out personally.

“Matt and Ben”

Well, every Fringe needs at least one drag show…
This was well done and had good humor. I think Jocelyn did a better job of portraying Ben than Belinda did of Matt. I felt the former acted (and looked) more like a guy would. I liked the name dropping and hints of the future sprinkled throughout. “I really love latino women.” (7 out of 10)

‘B’, or, Unless You Steal Her Pen!

This was the debut piece for the writer/director and you can see the rough edges. It’s amusing at times, but some of the jokes seem a little forced. My biggest problem was that there was smoking almost constantly throughout. I’ve been spoiled with anti-smoking legislation, so I found it annoying. In its defense, it is appropriate for a period piece. (4 out of 10)

The nurses need to learn the difference between past and future tense.
For instance, instead of saying “This may hurt”, they should instead say “That may have hurt.”
A subtle, but important distinction.

Okay. I was up too late yesterday. I have noticed that I’m cranky.
For most of the day the crankiness has been manifesting as worry about the vacation. This comes in two ways:

1. Financial
   My credit card bill came yesterday. I still have a lot of money but this one took a big bite out of it, what with the eye surgery, plane tickets and tour. I’ve been calculating it in my head and I will run out of money. At least I will in my checking account. I have money in investments, but I would rather not liquidate those. I think the solution is to talk to the bank and see if I can get a credit line or overdraft protection. I’m sure they’ll be able to suggest something.
2. Social
   I went to dance lessons today. It didn’t go well. Maybe it is the bad mood?
   I got there at 8:00 and the instructor wasn’t there. I sat down and noticed how much I was dreading this. I was hoping the teacher wouldn’t show up. She did at 8:30, and we got into the lesson. I had trouble getting a partner; I guess some women wanted to dance with each other instead of a man. The partners I did get never really seemed to want to look me in the eye, looking anywhere else but the face. Or they didn’t speak English.
   None of the above fills me with confidence about my ability to be social in Europe. If I know people, I’m comfortable and can be entertaining. If I don’t, which will be everyone in the continent, then I just don’t have fun. If I can’t even handle a bar where I speak the language…
   Am I really right to go on this vacation?
3. Readiness
   I haven’t gotten everything ready for this vacation. Planning has fallen to the wayside. I am easily distracted, which hasn’t helped.

Not looking for a pity party. Just making observations.

Huzzah. My watch came back yesterday. A lovely boxed package was waiting in my mailbox. It was mostly crushed paper protecting the valuable contents.
Well, valuable to me.
The sweet ecstasy of having a watch again is mine. At least a competent watch that probably wasn’t made by immigrant grandmothers in Nigeria.
But wait. Something is wrong.

This isn’t my watch!
My watch had a scrape along the side. (The other driver never left his information and just peeled out of there.) And no fancy plastic cover to protect it. And these buttons feel a lot springier than what I’m used to.
Those people were too lazy to replace the watchband and just gave me a new watch.

If I had any sentimental attachment to the previous one (that climbed over two mountain passes and navigated one marathon with me) I might be upset.

I went to Wee Book Inn today. It is the used book store that I am most likely to go to, because of convenient hours and location.
I was going through the Sci-fi/Fantasy section and I saw a lot of good books there. Books that I hadn’t expected to see. They’ve been out of print for awhile and are hard to find. Good condition too.

Wait a minute… These are mine!

I sold them those books last month when I was going through a book purge.

I suppose that it has been long enough that I am going to give my thoughts on the last Harry Potter book.

SPOILER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T FINISHED HARRY POTTER

My biggest problem is that the people who should have died, lived, and the people who should have lived, died. The second biggest problem was that the book felt like an afterthought in plot.
If a Weasley was going to die, I was hoping it would be Ginny. I don’t like her. She was an afterthought relationship. Groundwork had been laid for Harry to get into a romance with Cho Chang. She seemed respectful enough. Then, out of nowhere, with nary a foreshadow in sight, Ginny leaps to front and center as the girlfriend.
I wouldn’t mind so much if there had been hints of it. But nothing.
It also seemed an afterthought in killing Tonks and Lupin. As near as I can remember, they were killed in one sentence and never referenced again. It was like she put it in at the last minute. You think there might have been some mention later of how horrible it was to have the baby, Teddy, be an orphan. That might have made me believe it was planned from the start, but this? Just sloppy.
I can only assume that Rowling is setting up for a sequel series where we follow the adventures of this new orphan. This was also pointed out by a friend of mine.
I have frequently mentioned my favorite author, Lawrence Watt-Evans. One of the things he did that impressed me a lot was in the end of The Unwilling Warlord. He devoted several pages to clearing up little plot threads that he had introduced; Some of which were clearly only obvious in his head. A paragraph was devoted to each and then we moved on. That was nice and tidy and didn’t interfere with the story.
I wish Rowling had done something like that. She could clear up her threads and still have a good story. I might have found if my theory on Umbridge was correct.

I just saw The Bourne Ultimatum. The initial plan was to see it last night, but it was sold out when we got there. (Darn date night!) So instead we rented a movie (Ocean’s Eleven) and watched that. We made attempt two this afternoon.
It was good. A nice action movie where the main character actually seems to get hurt. Matt Damon spends a good chunk of the film limping. It doesn’t seem to last though.
The biggest problem I had was the same with the last movie: They mixed up the Steadicam with a paint shaker. At no point was the camera ever still. My friend got a nasty headache from watching. I avoided it by closing my eyes and resting them every so often.
It looks like there were some great stunts and action scenes, but I really couldn’t tell. The camera was too shaky.
I would still recommend it, but be aware of the above caveats.
It doesn’t make the Americans look good though. It may, in their eyes, do that, but to the rest of the world it looks bad. The CIA does whatever they want, wherever they want. Indiscriminately killing, and the term rendition was bandied about. It pretty much stereotypes what many foreign countries would think of Americans at the present, and not the good thoughts.

I went dancing tonight.
It was weird. I knew I should go, and yet in my heart I didn’t want to. Still I forced myself and I had a good time. My only concern is that my ankle is feeling a bit off.
That may be because I ran for thirty seconds on Sunday. Or it could be because of the dancing.
I’m still going to try and go again next week.

This is basically a pictorial history of my dam.

Erik’s Dam: 2006-10-9
Originally uploaded by ad_havoc

This is the dam as it was in October of last year. I had come in September and started work on it. I came back later and this is how it looked when I was done.

Erik’s Dam: 2007-6-23
Originally uploaded by ad_havoc

This is the dam in June of this year. The spring runoff has completely covered it. It was quite discouraging to see this and I didn’t think I would ever work on it again.

Erik’s Dam: 2007-8-4
Originally uploaded by ad_havoc

This is the dam as it appeared yesterday. It is surprisingly intact. You can easily use it to cross with only a bit of wetness. I went to the farside to do most of my construction. You can see the three sluices that cut through it. There are other places water is going through but those are mostly waterfalls and are easy to cover up with more rocks.
I wish my camera hadn’t run out of batteries after these pictures. I could have then showed you the changes I had made.

Interestingly, I think someone else has been messing with my dam. I don’t know if I should be pleased or indignant. I think I’m leaning towards pleased.
My proof: If you look in the June 2007 picture, there is a root ball, or big pile of branches, on the far shore. A bit to the right and down, in the creek you can see a large rock sticking out of the water. If you look at the August 2007 picture, it is gone. I don’t think it washed away so I can only suspect I’m getting help.

Today my family went out into the Kananaskis, to where my dam used to be. Last year I was in the location twice. The first time was at the start of September and I started work on the dam; Mostly taking nearby rocks and piling them up as appropriate. Part of the construction was a large log lying nearby that did a great job of supporting some of the flat rocks used.
The next time was in the middle of October and I successfully blocked the entire creek/river. The top of the dam was completely dry and all the water was flowing through the cracks between the rocks.
During the K-100 relay in June I was able to see the dam again. The park had been closed off for half a year so anything could have happened to it. In fact, it had. The dam was gone. The spring runoff had put everything deep underwater. You could barely see any evidence it had ever been there.
Well, imagine my surprise today when I got there. The water had come down, and you could clearly see the dam. It had damage, sure, but it was still doing most of its original purpose. The big rocks had all stayed put, but three sluices had been forced through it. I suspect two of them were from when the big log floated away. Rocks were no longer being braced and tumbled downstream.
I took a few pictures. Then my camera died. Out of batteries, and the replacement ones I had brought were apparently too old to keep a charge. So no more pictures for the rest of the day. (Unfortunate, I had some good ones planned.)
Then I got to work. I focused on moving really large rocks. They have the best chance of staying where they should and not washing away. You still need the smaller rocks to fill in cracks, but the big ones are key. Of course they are hard to push, and I hope I haven’t damaged my shoulder right before my Europe trip. (Fingers crossed.) There was a lot of yelling at the rocks as I tried to force them up against the current. I wanted to use downstream rocks the most, because upstream ones might someday wash into the dam. I think I even reused some of the rocks that had fallen from last year.
Unfortunately, while I was clambering over one of the sluices, I looked down and my sunglasses fell off my face, right into the rushing water. Whether they stayed in the area or washed downstream, I don’t know. The water was too frothy to have any idea. I settled the argument by putting a really large rock right where they had fallen.
But still, I had fun. When I was done, I still had one sluice left. But I am proud of this. No post-forest products were used in its construction, and large, hard to move rocks were braced well. It will be a lot harder to wash this away. It will still be underwater during the next spring runoff, but it should start doing its job well in the summer next year.
I wish I could have taken an after picture.

I went rollerblading today. Because of the ankle injury I can’t go running, so this is some exercise I can do that is lower impact. I do not want to become a fat slob.
Part of the route took me through Hawrelak park where I saw that the Heritage festival is being set up. I’ve gone several times in the past. It hasn’t been the greatest, but it is an excuse to eat varying dishes. I try and avoid direct eye-contact with culture. I’m there for the food.
I’m not going this year. I’ll be in the greater Calgary area for the long weekend. Initially I felt a sense of loss over missing it. I won’t be able to try Wienerbrod or Crepe Suzette.
Then I realized I’m going to the actual source in a month.
Sense of loss is gone.

Yes, I’m reading the Harry Potter book. It is okay. I’m not inhaling it, like I would with another author
I’m only up to chapter 21. But I do have a theory about one of the characters.

SMALL SPOILER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T FINISHED CHAPTER 13

Umbridge: She is in charge of prosecuting mudbloods. She has a locket to demonstrate her heritage as a pure-blood. But we know the locket isn’t related to her at all, and was gotten from a “petty criminal”. I think she is actually a mud-blood and is desperate to cover it up.
Maybe I’ll find out by the end of the book. If I don’t, there isn’t another one later to reveal it.

Because of the operation I have to wear some eye-shields while I sleep. Basically large plastic lenses that I tape over my eyes, so I don’t rub them in my sleep.
The first two nights I didn’t have a problem. I think I was still delirious so I was sleeping soundly. The next night I noticed in the middle of it that they were sitting on my bedside table. In a place that I would have to almost leave the bed to put them. Weird. I was sure I had put them on.
The next night, I distinctly remember my finger rubbing my eye and then snapping awake. Where were my eye-shields? Once again, sitting on the bedside table, though not as far this time.
I’m guessing that my asleep-self is considering them to be glasses. So when he realizes they are on my face he takes them off and puts them safely where glasses are meant to be. Despite the fact that these are taped to my face and can hurt to take off.
The last two nights have been better and I have woken up with them in the correct position.
Actually, for the last few months I have been sleeping much better than usual. The key to this has been to turn off my alarm clock. Don’t even set it.
I was usually waking up two hours early, and unable to get back to sleep. I think asleep-self was dreading the sound of the alarm going off, so it didn’t want to chance being asleep when it happened.
Asleep-self has really got to learn to relax.
Now that the alarm is off, I sleep well, and I seem to wake up at the right time. And if I don’t, it probably means that I needed more sleep anyway. If I didn’t get that extra sleep, productivity would take a nosedive.
It came into play this morning. I was up a little too late last night reading Harry Potter. So I woke up an hour late. But I woke up refreshed instead of insane-sleep-deprived-self. (He’s a little cranky. We don’t want him around.) So I consider it a success.
This is all important because I don’t drink coffee;

I had an event yesterday that hasn’t happened in a long time.
I used to live in Winnipeg, where the only relatives were immediate family. Long ago we would travel to distant continents to see kin. But that hasn’t happened in decades.
In Edmonton, I live alone.
But yesterday, when my mother was visiting, she introduced me to some fairly distant relatives that lived in town; My mother’s grand-niece and her children.
So I had a dinner with relatives. It felt different, in a good way. It’s hard to describe, but I highly recommend the experience.
Being with people you don’t know, but who treat you like good friends.

After the operation, one of the important things to do is to stick various fluids into your eyes at very regular timed intervals.
So, much to my delight, my watch from grade eight died on Friday morning. Batteries ran out.
So, on the way back from a follow-up appointment at the eye doctor I stopped off at London Drugs and bought a new cheap watch. This one only cost $15 and looks like it was designed in communist Russia. It puts the total for replacing the watch band at $40 now.
While there, I saw Harry Potter on sale for $29.
My initial plan for this book was to buy it from Superstore. The last book they had was cheaper than most places. This time they were selling it for $23. But that is in the liberal sense of the word. A better way to describe it would be to say they were sold-out at $23. Save-on-foods had a similar story.
Chapters was right out with a $38 price tag. I am cheap!
I’m not in a rush. It is just a book. My only requirement is to have it read before I go on my long vacation. So I was thinking of going for Amazon which was selling the book for $22.50.
Needless to say, I picked it up at London Drugs. It seemed the cheapest of all the options. If I did go with Amazon, I know I would order several other things I didn’t desperately need that would have added $60 to the price.
And yet, I still have yet to read more than the first page.

Oh yeah. Laser operation seems to have worked.

Woot!

I have successfully mother-proofed the place. Except for the laundry room. I can’t really clean that out until I get rid of all the beer bottles, and I can’t do that until people have drunk the full ones I already have.
She should be here any minute.
I am filled with a sense of dread over the incoming operation.

About a month ago, my watch died. Well, actually it is still working fine, the band just broke. Normally this would be a simple operation. Find a new band and stick it on. I’ve done it before. Easy!
However, when I bought it long ago I actually stated “It does have an interesting watchband that I’m worried will be a headache to replace when it wears out.”. Well, a promise made, a promise kept.
To get it replaced I have to ship it to Ontario. I don’t have a big problem with that, other than for two weeks I would be without a watch. And that is just wrong. So I’ve been keeping it in my pocket, trying to figure out when would be a good time to give up the feeling of time for a fortnight.
Then, joy of joys, I took a peek into my bedside table’s drawer. I had stashed a writstwatch there! I didn’t think I had one. The previous search for old watches that still worked turned up two lurking in my laundry room, but they were horribly broken. One looked demonically possessed.
So I popped the broken band watch into a package and sent it off to Timex headquarters. In an insured package. This band replacement is costing me about $25! I’m desperate. But I will not recommend their watches to anyone anymore. Ironic, because I do like the operating system, and they did make one of the best watches I ever had: the one I’m wearing now.
I think the watch I’m wearing is the one I got in grade eight. It has the distinct honor of having been on my wrist for half my life. That isn’t true anymore, but when I finally did replace it, it had earned that label.

On Friday there was a farewell party for one of the founders of my original company. The company has been through two acquisitions, so it isn’t the same as it originally was. The initial acquisition made him quite wealthy. So now he is moving to Vancouver island. I guess the natural order is to make your money in Alberta and then get out.
I must say though that I didn’t enjoy the party. The founder kept talking about how fantastic his new mansion was and how great things were going. He harped on how everything was perfect in BC. He apparently will not miss anything in Alberta. And we heard a parade of stories of things he is doing with his wealth.
Now don’t get me wrong, the founder is a great guy. Very charismatic. He deserves his fortune because he put in a lot of work to get it. But at the party, I felt like it was being rubbed in my face.
I should look at this the correct way: If you work hard you can get rich and deserve it.
However, there is the hidden resentment that I didn’t get rich like he did when the company was bought up. The founders gave out stock options and allowed employees to buy shares. I bought a lot of shares so that when the time came I made a nice amount of money. Insanely risky, but it worked out for me. But the stock options were worth very little. So while the founders got a lot of money, the other employees did not become one of the upper class.
I read a review about the reality show Pirate Master which pointed out that the crew is getting resentful of the captain because he is getting all the money and not sharing it well. The crew gets at most a few scraps. (The author was relating this to the idea of hirelings in a D&D campaign.)
I wonder if that is the same thing happening here with me.

How petty of me.

At the parade they had helicopters flying by, flushing out terrorist elements causing trouble. (I suppose.)
It’s interesting to just spend a moment to look at a helicopter. They are very impressive.
An airplane uses the birds as an example of how to fly. And it adapts to the air around it, working with the atmosphere in harmony. It doesn’t try to fight it. It can be quite graceful.
A helicopter takes a different approach. It has no natural example of how to fly. It decides where it is going to go, and where it is going to be. It doesn’t try to work with the air. It levitates through pure force of will. Opposition to gravity.
This is what I like about science and technology. Humans getting to point where we can make demands on physics and force it to work for us. Where we don’t need to accommodate it.

I got to see the Capital Ex parade today. I’ve never been to the main parade of the Edmonton summer. It’s downtown and I don’t work there, so I haven’t been able to make it there in the past. However the new corporate overlords let us go see it.
It’s quite a bit bigger than the Silly Summer parade on Whyte Avenue. So it’s less intimate. But it wasn’t as big as I expected.
There were maybe about ten floats. The rest of the “exhibits” could be classified in one of several categories.

• People who think they are famous and want to wave at the crowd from the back of a car.
• Marching bands. There were three bands that highlighted bagpipers. The Red Deer marching band’s cheerleaders looked like their uniforms were from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• A trailer piled with junk, that someone thought was festive, being pulled by truck. Usually this was advertising something.
• Horses. Always followed by a street-cleaner.
• Tanks! Best thing there. Nothing commands respect like the barrel of a gun bigger than your head pointed at said head. But being me, I really wanted to yell at them to honk their horns.

The experiment with the homemade A/C didn’t work that well. In the middle of the night I wandered into the room to see how it was doing. The tube had slipped a bit and so instead of piping hot air out of the place, it was blocking the intake of the fan. i.e. It was just making a lot of noise.
I might feel inclined to continue with the experiment if it gets hot again and I want to avoid being more productive.
For Science!