Untitled

Wow - I was reflecting on the day trying to come up with something interesting, and I really don't have much that is worth discussing. Even vastly one-sided discussion generated entirely by me. I had to start writing though, so I tried to focus on this, but I'm tired. I'm really glad I didn't try and start playing on the PS3 'cause that would have been a giant time-suck.

I really thought I'd be able to get some stuff done on the wired home network, but no dice. I enjoyed hanging out too much. Then I was tired. And here I am. Guess this means I should pack things up and go to sleep, so I will.

Weird...

I'm really wondering what I'm doing in an "online" sense now. I have a blog, a twitter account, email, web and *nix powers, but what I have I done with them. More importantly what should I do with them? Rhetorical for the blog of course because here I am...

The most prolific blogger I know (in real life) tends to write about what he was doing in a day, things he's done or will do, thoughts on this or that. Same with most Twitter postings I've bothered to look at. First I'll admit that I haven't tried to read many tweets, but I use Slashdot like Twitter in a sense. But what I am doing? Other than practicing my rhetorical questions? When I try and start a rhythm going with daily posts I tend to write about meta issues, a sort of Sienfeld of blog posts, a blog about thoughts about blogs, endless self referential loops that eventually just peter out. Kind of like modern culture. Huh - talked myself into the mainstream. I'm the everyman, talking about talking about nothing, endless repeats and references. Yes I do get the irony that I am the one seemingly decrying pop culture references. I am the one with a Simpson's or Futurama quote at the ready. I'm not applying morality to the our-culture-is-a-self-referencing-house-of-mirrors, but I can't see it as being entirely wholesome either.

This is the sort of thing that will cause people to rise up and cast of the shackles of their oppressive machines, machines made in their own image, in a kind of Butlerian Jihad... And yet I can't keep from referencing something somewhere. It must be a crutch, a bad habit that I've developed over the years, that if I can't tie something I say to something that's come before it can't be good. That kind of ideology doesn't stand up - it doesn't make logical sense. I would hope that I could one day make something that isn't embedded in what came before - a wholly new thing, a creation I can point to and say "I thought of that. I was the first one and I can prove it." Yes it's wishful thinking, but apparently that helps you live longer. Not sure about stream-of-consciousness writing though. Not many studies there. Don't know too many people that do it, although my sister's boyfriend really does an excellent job with the ol' Facebook status updates. I'm more of a "open the faucet and let's see what comes out" rather than a couple of words slapped together, held only by a tenuous 'now' association... Even my gibberish is getting sloppy now - better move on.

Let's pretend that last paragraph didn't happen (if you didn't skip to here, I can't really take back that last paragraph. You've read it, you can't unread it... And don't bother trying it's too messy). Many have predicted "have and have-nots" future, with some sort of technology separating the two groups. Money used to be the easiest and most visible, but communication and computers has been a popular sci-fi theme in the past. It really seems like it is approaching, although there may be some different ways to classify people. Right now, the vast interconnectedness - searchable interconnectedness - provides tremendous benefits. The "always-on" society isn't really a burden, it's an analogy for humans that can communicate in parallel with what they're doing. Think of Twitter - you shout to the ether every time you start a task. Almost like you're a lawyer making notes in your log book for billing purposes. The act of communicating isn't really an act or effort - it's a side effect. But there are tremendous potential problems. The biggest is with power.

Electricity is the one thing I've been worried about being without for any length of time. It's the fungible energy and it makes all the fun things work. For me those things don't have to be connected to other people but whatever. People (and their homes) are starting to get to the point where they don't work right if there is no power. The techno-haves can't really operate without electricity. Many are helpless when the machines don't work. The article I read about trivia games and the internet become more clear - people don't have to remember things so they won't. If they can look it up online, it's good enough. I know I've said similar things in the past, but the problem is how to evaluate the information. It makes the most sense to put this in a social context.

Let's pretend that you weren't using a computer to find out the answer to a question, you could only talk to people. People who weren't using computers... *sigh* Anyway, you ask the same question, possibly in slightly different ways, and then you gather the responses and come up with an answer. If you are wise, you solicit several answers, hopefully from people you trust, and look for the common answers. The value of the response is based on your trust of the source and your knowledge about them. You can also evaluate the response to the particular question by watching and listening carefully to the answers given. Similarly, if you don't have an internal knowledge core, how can you possibly evaluate answers discovered on the Internet. Simply looking for the most common answer is a perversion of the "wisdom of crowds" idea. Playing games with internet search engine results started shortly after money was mentioned in the context of the internet. The "wisdom of crowds" idea works, much like free market capitalism, in a largely bias free environment.

So? Well, you've read this far (I'm impressed - I only read this far because I'm writing it. I didn't really edit it), so I should tie these threads together. The bias toward technology and always-on-communication can go to far, creating an insulated self-referential world that becomes your entire culture. This would be a "bad thing". Learn to operate without. That is a sentence and I believe it, rotund technoman that I am. Balance is elusive be one should seek it. Balance between operating with and without, connected and not, electricity or no.

Maybe tomorrow the diatribe will be better. Coherent. Brief. Illuminating. Less self-referential (doubtful).

Contractual obligation?

I guess this is like a contractual obligation post - if I'm going to write every day, I've got to do it before midnight :) Ah well - I guess that's just how the holidays go; I don't really find myself with any kind of schedule. Once the major holiday gatherings are done, then it's chores and errands that don't normally get done. Plus lots of gaming. Got the ol' skates sharpened - 5 pairs this time. New record. My sister and nephew went skating with us before Christmas and I'm shocked she could even stand up properly. There was a huge bit of corrosion or something smack dab in the middle of the blade. Plus I can't imagine they were very sharp. So those are done.

Managed to get something else done I've been thinking about for awhile, which is to get some old stuff off of floppies and on to a CD or something. Specifically my old Turbo Pascal 6 kit. It's held up well so far and I was able to pull everything off the floppies. I'm not exactly sure how I'd install it, but I thought qemu or dosbox or something like that would work, if nothing else. Maybe wine on Linux? The next step would be to find some of the old source code... That may still be around somewhere as well... At any rate, maybe one of my boys will be interested in learning pascal, although my older son has used and enjoyed Scratch a fair bit. Getting the algorithmic mindset in place is more important than the specific language.

2010: The next... thing

Creating a blog post for Jan 1 has to be one of those common activities that everyone does these days, akin to the crush at the gym for the month of January. Naturally I have to add to the rush, the useless torrent of nonsensical jabbering simply to add another notch to the old, um, blogpost. Tis no matter - not a huge thing, but it is a thing. Some kind of vague philosophical commentary that. If I was really going with the flow and not merely being dragged under by it I'd have created a todo list of sorts on Dec 31st and attempted to follow through with it. Well I forgot so I'm going to do it now, now being the "now that I remembered" now.

One thing I attempted last year and I desperately need to do this year is to keep that regular physical activity scale going. That or cut down on the ice cream consumption, but I'm not sure I can do two things. Well three because the other thing I attempted last year was to keep a regular writing pace. I mean this space has the capacity to contain my limitless dribblings and I think it's easier when no one is really paying attention to me. The opposite of many people I suspect. I mean if someone reads something I have written and gets a chuckle or provokes a thought or bridges a synapse, I'll be satisfied. Myself I've found this sort of writing closer to that of the classroom note taking exercise. I always enjoyed attending class and taking notes, but I rarely read them later. The act of writing was the path to deeper understanding and my penmanship was most horrifying. My mother always thought I'd be a doctor after seeing my scrawl. And I think that is what I have here.

My aunt lent me the memoirs of Albert Speer, one of the top ranking officials in the Third Reich government. He was initially Hitler's architect, but later an important minister. He was one of the few who admitted guilt at Nuremburg and served 20 years for it. He spent his time reflecting on what happened and why and produced a book. My aunt's comment was that it is slanted to show him in a good light, but that's to be expected to some extent. You can't be purely objective about things personally done or participated in. However that first hand account is always interesting. This is the another reason for writing, in a somewhat personal way, on a regular basis - to reveal one self to yourself. Sounds facile, but is a difficult thing to do. Those who are best at it are probably the people that lead the most peaceful existence.

So, perhaps I'll be able to write a little every day. Maybe this time I'll look for different times of the day to do it. Maybe I'll even factor in some pen-and-paper time. Don't want to lose the old skills just yet.

Back again

Kinda funny to stay that I'm "back" when I haven't really gone anywhere, just haven't been writing much lately. Here anyway. Kinda like when I started going back to the gym on a more regular basis - I said something about nice to be going to the gym again, and he said that he hardly noticed. "I thought your shift changed", he said. Nope - just didn't get out there. Same with this - just haven't been writing much of anything. The main reason of course being that I haven't been spending my nights in front of the computer. More like in front of the TV - been kinda worn out and just wanting to sleep more than use the computer. If I started at the computer, I'd end up staying up closer to 1am then 11pm. Plus if I "watch tv" I usually nod off for a bit.

The other annoying thing was the getting stuff moved over to the "new" hard drive - something I bought a year ago almost. The old XP partition was full all the time and I think it was causing issues. Now it has 300+ GB to play with and I don't have to worry about stuff for awhile. At least space-wise.

This posting is coming to you live from the Ubuntu partion however. I had 8.10 installed and upgraded a little while ago to 9.04. Just noticed today that I was running the old kernel, not a great thing. That should be nice and fixed now - need to keep on top of that. Love the little graphical goodies that are available now that my NVidia drivers are up and running as well - woobly windows and such. It's all very pretty and I appreciate it. Anyway, I need to post more because I haven't been vocal about some of the dumb things our government is doing, but that's for another post. Let's just see if I can keep a more consistent schedule going.

At the computer - surprise!

I am, somewhat surprisingly, sitting at my home computer whilst typing away at this.  Certainly improves the throughput quite a bit.  The inline editing I'm used to doing works better when one can erase and re-type a word without even thinking about it.  The little mobile keyboard works, but I definitely don't have enough practice under my belt to have the same facility as a full keyboard.  Or kybard as Dilbert once noted.

I have barely been at my computer for weeks now.  I'm still not sure why, but I'm going with it.  I suppose some of the people I used to play online games are wondering what the heck is up, but they'll figure out a way.  What I have to do is figure out a way to stop spending so much!  You can tell when I pay the bills, 'cause that's when I think about money.  I have to do a better job of managing what I have instead of managing what I want.  Maybe that's the trick.  Whatever it is, I have a job and that's good.  I have to stop digging at stuff and pay down debt instead of racking it up.  Easier said then done, given my past history in this matter.  And I know that I'm the biggest culprit in this manner in my household.  Ah well - I shall have to be more careful!

Anyway, I also need to make sure I get out the door on time tomorrow - hockey ahoy!  Plus I have to be at work for 9am, so I have to be careful with my time budgeting as well.  Maybe I'll get someone else to pick up the pucks for me... But the Wings and the Blackhawks are on, so I'd best go investigate that...

Brother...

... I guess I changed to "every two or three days" for posting.  I don't know why, but I've been so very tired for the last few weeks.  I guess it's the going to work, getting stuff done.  Getting up and playing hockey a few mornings a week - plus watching hockey late... I suppose that would explain things a bit.

I've got to get a plan straight for this Saturday - Sunday is Mother's Day and I have yet to do my shopping.  I really, really need to do that and bring the kids along.  I'll have to think of something.  Privately - I know who reads this space!  But suggestions will be entertained ;)

I really hope Jim Balsillie gets his team.  I really, really dislike Bettman.  Especially his ideas of what needs to be done for the NHL.  I don't think that the league should keep trying to cram hockey down the throats of people that don't normally see snow on the ground.  I mean some places think it's great, but others - not so much.  If a team makes money, that is good.  If a team has been given a chance and still doesn't make money...  I guess I can't say how long is long enough, but I suppose the best way is to count owners.  Changes owners more often than the coach, probably won't be making money any time soon.  Anyway, it is disappointing that the shenanigans have to be deployed to try and get another team in Southern Ontario.  This area could easily support another NHL team and there would be a fan base and people willing to pay to watch hockey.  Not like some places.  Maybe Balsillie will outlast Bettman and then all will be well.   Let's hope so.

Long day...

I went a bunch of days without posting again!  What kind of sad commitment is that?  At least I was blogging at work - took quite a while as well.  I posted something on Friday, but it was only "part 1".  The part 2 ended up being pretty big, so I probably should have made parts 2-5 and part 6 later, but the issue is current so I felt I had to get done.

The topic of how to manage releases comes up every now and again and it shouldn't.  We should have a system that provides benefits for all the user instead of just some and then we won't have to ask the same things over and over.  Hopefully my postings at work will help illuminate some of the choices and get more people thinking about them.  One can only hope...

Whoa

Guess I should use my computer at home more.  Or at least some kind of better mobile blogging software 'cause I haven't written anything for 5 days!  That's pretty horrible given how I was doing before...  I just haven't been up to using the computer for the past few days.  At home at least.  It's been pretty busy at work, what with meetings and just so much stuff to do.  That is a good thing, but sometimes it leaves one tired and out-blogged.

One of the things I've been involved in is around our branching/release strategy.  It's funny because we've had this conversation too often as far as I'm concerned.  In the meeting we had to discuss it, we talked about the same old set of arguments about the basic different ideas.  It took a few days, but I think I hit why that was.  We were not establishing the correct base questions - we didn't know what all the root issues were, so we argued over the proposed solutions.  Also the arguments also revolved around the benefits of the proposals, not the drawbacks.  I wrote up my ideas, but the analysis of the problem hasn't been done yet.  That's probably something for tomorrow, but I think it is absolutely necessary.  Otherwise we'll end up with the camps of "this is newer/better - let's do this" and the "this works, why mess with it?"  Of course neither camp is that extreme, but hey analogies aren't fun if you don't push them a bit.

Anyway, I'm going to construct an analysis of the proposed solutions and identify if they can each meet the requirements and then see which one does the least harm.  Maybe show which provides the best benefits with the least effort - both good criteria.  I've been saying for a while now that the best way to evaluate a process - because that's what these solutions will be - is to pick the one that makes it hardest to wrong thing and easiest to do the right thing.

That is kind of tricky in the software business because you can change so many parts at once.  For software processes, it's important to pick the process/tools that make it hard to do the wrong thing and then make your process fit the process implied by the tools.

You may have noticed something controversial a few paragraphs back as well - that we were picking a process.  It doesn't seem like it because the choices revolve around different tools, but each tool implies a different process.  Picking a process implies picking the tool to use.

Wow - I'm writing this in a very abstract way.  I hope it's clear to other people what I'm trying to say... It's all that math training over the years - I tend to remove the parts that are irrelevant to an argument and replace them with variables or generics (when writing).  The more involved the process or tools the more abstract the references become so we end up with this gobbledy-gook.  Whatever - I wrote up something interesting to me and that's why I'm doing this.  You can read for your own reasons.  Individuality springs up everywhere.

Silly

I came to this page yesterday - even thought about a topic.  Didn't write though.  Probably a good thing - I had an idea, but not a fully formed one.  Writing then would have made a mess of things.  Not like now - what I'm doing in a typical entry is more like a conversation.  Start typing, see what shows up and take it from there.  It works, although it does not make sense sometimes.  The next time I sat back down there was no chance of an entry because I was beat.

It was a nice day yesterday - too bad I let my younger son dress himself.  He spent most of the day outside and quite enjoyed it.  Only catch was he had a long-sleeve shirt and long pants on.  I think he got a little heat stroke by the end of the day, but he recovered before bed time.  And he had a good day today.  Today we went down to the local storm-sewer pond, where a large collection of frogs has been serenading us.  The same son and a friend from the street followed a bunch of (slightly) older kids down there, where they proceeded to catch some frogs.  After the first 20 it wasn't as fun, but I convinced my son that they probably would enjoy the pond better than a bucket at home.  The other kids took about 20 to join the 14 or so they had collected earlier.  I hope they take them back, but I'm not optimistic.  Still it was good to see so many amphibians out there.  Spotted some tadpoles as well, so things just keep progressing.

I managed to go for a glide in my new inline skates today as well.  Bought them a few weekends back and never made it out until today.  Most enjoyable.  I think I could get quite the pace going, and might even be fairly safe if I learn to turn a bit better.

Finally, tried out the new butcher/deli in town.  They advertise they only carry local grain-fed beef.  Bought some strip loins and fired up the grill for supper tonight and the meat was good.  Prices weren't horrible either.  Not quite as good as the grass-fed beef I could get when we lived in BC, but still excellent.  I will have to see if the quality changes over time.

Un-postal

Not really keeping up with this whole blogging thing recently, have I?  I was  doing quite well for a long time, but then it kinda slipped away from me here.  Oh well - not that tremendous a loss and frankly I can still keep doing this.  Lots of neat stuff happening in non-computer ways so I can't complain.

Hockey today was excellent - benches were 3 deep and the game was fast.  I feel good about the game because I got a goal (from the point no less) and we had the strong-defense team.  So we peppered the other goalie and you know what that means.  More goals, in case you didn't know what it means.  Anyway it was a good thing.

Work has been interesting as well, but I should probably leave some of those thoughts for another post - one where I have my thoughts arranged in a coherent fashion.  Not this night time jumble.  Meetings all over, process and tool changes.  Interesting times one might say.  Lots of changes to accommodate I'd say.  I guess it's one of those philosophy things - the tool is less important than using it.  That's why I learned to use edlin, notepad, vi, emacs, edt, visual studio, eclipse and other editor/development environments.  They all can edit source code, but each has an appropriate time and place for their use.

So tired...

Don't seem to be posting every day like I want to.  I blame the tired.  Or maybe The Tired.  Ness.  The Tiredness.  Whatever it is, I have it again tonight.  That and the playoffs - they result in me watching more hockey (good) and not posting (not as good).  But I did watch Vancouver advance in 4 straight after the overtime goal in St. Louis.  Tonight, however, Calgary got my hopes up and Chicago brought them back down again.  Calgary went on a tear with 3 straight goals.  Then Chicago did the same.  And now it's almost time for the third period.  I'll have to watch that - at least part of it, until I canna watch no morrrrre.  You know - sleep.

Short and...?

Not gonna spend much time tonight writing, but I should get something down.  I've been watching the Calgary-Chicago game and it is good.  Western conference teams are just so durn fast - fun to watch.  End of the second and Calgary is ahead - let's hope they can continue with the lead through the third.  I've got to get to bed relatively soon as I have to be in to work early tomorrow - before 8am.  I have been invited to a meeting with some of the more senior leaders.  Don't worry - I'm nothing special.  They've been having these meetings every week (maybe) and inviting all employees to this.  Gives a chance to talk to people in charge more directly than normal.  I've been trying to figure out what I should ask I think I know - I'm curious about the plans to bring in new tools.  I feel we should have more process defined, and maybe more clear statements from the top as to where things are headed.  We'll see what will be said about that.

A few days away

I simply stayed away from the computer most of the weekend, so no update yesterday.  No update Friday because, well the same reason, but slightly different.  In both cases I was busy and by the time the end of the day rolled around, I was so entirely beat I simply had to fall into bed.  

Friday I played pool with a friend after work.  That was nice, but a little too expensive to do very often.  I think maybe once a month with a little less food would probably fit the budget okay.  Have not played pool in a long time, but I still managed to "not lose" using my patented 'clog-the-table' strategy.  By allowing my opponent ample opportunities to scratch on the 8-ball, I would avoid losing.  I was beaten twice however - but I can't not-lose every time.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to try this again relatively soon and improve my skills.  My fine-touch shots were much better than I recall.

Yesterday was a long day, which involved my lawn mostly.  I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to top dress my lawn, and he said that April was a good month to do that.  He called me early and said he was heading out to get some top soil, was I ready?  I said sure because if I didn't do it then, it probably wouldn't get done.  Or I would have to order some soil, which would mean the cost of the dirt (~ $30/cubic yard) plus delivery charges ($50-$100 I'm guessing).  In other words, delivery is at least as much as the soil itself, and seeing as I need only a few yards, the delivery would be the majority cost.  I believe that most places will waive the delivery fee if you order enough, but "enough" is usually "a truckload" and that's > 10 cubic yards.  That would be enough to choke my entire lawn and create flower beds around the whole house and represents a lot of work to haul.  Considering topsoil weighs about 2400 lbs (1.2 tons) per cubic yard, I don't think I'd have the energy to move that much dirty.  In one day anyway.

Anyway, my dad was able to fit about 2.5 cubic yards in his pickup and we spread that over the front lawn and made some piles in the back.  Then it was lunch - a fine steak lunch - and then resting, followed by spreading the dirt in the back yard, mixing fertilizer and grass seed, spreading that over the front and back lawns, followed by racking everything with a metal fan-rake.  That was enough for one day, but I think that I did what I needed to.  We'll see how everything turns out in a few weeks.  I'm pretty sure my lawn is in good shape, as it looks a bit better than most of my neighbour's lawns.  I don't like to water my lawn, mainly because I'm I think that I shouldn't really have to do that, plus it's a bit of a waste of water.  Several neighbours have sprinklers built into their lawns, and one adjacent neighbour waters consistently all summer.  I think that after 3 years of non-watering, my lawn has developed a deeper root system and that is why it looks better now.  Their lawns will remain very good during the summer while they water them, but I'm hopeful that my lawn will remain thick and non-dead even if I don't water it much.  I'd rather have a lawn suited to the climate (read: I don't have to water) .  My dad has mentioned that all the grasses he's seen growing native near his house (out in fields and such) are much more robust and remain green and full all summer, no matter how wet or dry it becomes.

Anyway, enough lawn talk - that was a long day's work.  I tried to catch up with my playoff watching, but I simply could not.  That combined with the scheduled power-outage meant that I had to go to bed before I passed out, although that nearly happened three or four times...  I didn't really need to unplug anything, although I turned off one power bar - it was more to turn off my UPSs.  I have one on my main computer and one on my cordless phone.  The cordless phone one is most annoying - it has no buttons except on/off and it beeps every few minutes when the power is off to indicate it is using battery power.  I cannot think of anything more annoying that sitting in the dark with a UPS beeping at me.  It's not like I don't know the power is out - I understand the battery is being used. In fact, that's why I bought it! Can't it just do it's job quietly???  Even if it had a blinky light to show it was on battery, that would be okay because you can't see it if you're asleep or in a different room.  But anyway, that's the way it is.  Everything seems to be okay today, so I don't think anything went "kablamo".

Today it was simple chores around the house and Rock Band.  The perennial favorite.  I tried to arrange a session with my almost-brother-in-law, but I just wasn't persistent enough.  He was interested, but I didn't get him on the phone until late in the day.  Oh well - a couple of weeks and we'll be good to go.  I have to make sure I have some beer and vittles so we can arrange things.  It will be good.

Another work day

Busy day today - workin' away at stuff that wasn't scheduled, but necessary.  Gotta get that stuff done so that the new work can be done.  Made it to the gym.  Again.  Twice this week - that's pretty good for me, at least lately.  Hopefully I can keep it up 'cause I really needed it.  Before I went on Tuesday I had a weird ache in my elbow and an arm workout cleared that up.  Guess I needed some good arm stretching to work things out.  Got hockey tomorrow so we'll see how things hold up.  Maybe I won't be quite so winded, but I suppose that also means I need to get the heck to bed.

My eldest son seems to be enjoying Rock Band quite a bit.  He appears to be getting better at the guitar at a rapid pace.  Not surprising really, given his age.  After a week of regular play he is vastly improved.  He tried moving up a difficulty level and had some moderate success, so hopefully he will try some more.  He probably doesn't see that if he spends three or four days working at the harder level he'll achieve the same success he has now at the easy level.  That remains to be seen.  Anyhoo, I must go and sleep now so I will be ready for hockey tomorrow.

Tax cut interestingness

Saw this report on the cbc.ca website today and I was intrigued.  I'm kinda torn between both aspects of this report.  The first point is the origin of the report - "The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives".  It's a left-leaning institute, which gives with the summary of the report.  The summary being that cutting taxes hurts more people than it helps because of all the government programs that get cut along with the taxes.

I'm torn because I understand the conclusion of the report, but I'm not sure that I agree with what it represents.  I think that more people lose benefits when taxes are cut, but I'm not sure that is such a bad thing in the first place.  The whole left-vs-right internal division causes me political stomach cramps.  Wow, that's an awkward analogy, but let's move on.  I believe that we, as a country, need to have programs that we collectively pay for to benefit society as a whole.  One of those is health care, and another is education.  Collecting money from everyone's pay to help people that have lost their job is a good thing as well.  Plus there are some situations where money needs to be given out so that people can survive.  Then there is infrastructure, the military and policing.  After that... I'm not so sure.  I'd like to see less bureaucracy and less reliance on the government for day-to-day survival.  However that's what the report talks about - cutting taxes reduces programs that people rely on every day.

I think the "every day" part gets to me.  I have no problem paying taxes so that we (as a country) can do bigger things than me, my town or county etc could do alone.  Cutting the GST was always a bad idea - taxing things as they're consumed is pretty fair.  You have a bigger car, you pay more taxes on gas and upkeep.  You like to eat at fancy restaurants, you pay more tax.  It's pretty fair.  Cutting that tax was a bad idea.  It looks even worse now that we hit an economic downturn - people spend less so the GST collected will be less than ever.

In conclusion, I've complained and I don't know what my point was.  I guess I need to go find more chocolate eggs to fuel a potential response... But I'm not really going to do that now.

Here we are yet again

Tuesday night, before the game.  We've got two goalies, although one is a fill-in.  Borrowing equipment so that we have two live bodies.  I'll have to ask someone at work if we can borrow his equipment somehow.  I know there are at least 2 people that are willing to play net as needed, although only one has actually done it before.  I'm hopeful that at least 4 more people show up tomorrow so that we can have 4v4 or 5v5.  3v3 is kinda, well, tiring.  But that is for tomorrow.

Today is Lemon Jell-o Appreciation Day, although I sadly did not appreciate it enough as I did not make any.  Still, I thought about lemon Jell-o and appreciated it.  Greatly.

Got a chance to play some more Rock Band this evening and I'm pretty happy with the new pedal.  I think that I was doing pretty good - with more regular practice I seem to be improving pretty well.  I'd like to see if I can beat the drums on hard, but some of the tour sessions require more time than I can string together (normally).  Seven song sets are all well and good, but it's like watching the extended Lord of the Rings - I like watching them all together, but when do I have the time for it?  Maybe I'll get lucky and meet up with someone on the weekend for some good ole Rock Band action.  That's pretty far away though.

Whoopsie-doodle

I totally forgot about writing blog posts for a couple of days there... I'm actually kinda surprised - but not that much really.  First off, Saturday was a big day in that we went out shopping.  The whole family.  Does not happen much, so it stood out.  My wife needed to get another Wii Balance Board because our original one stopped work.  I think it may have died of loneliness, but that's just a suspicion.  It was weird because it hadn't been used for some time and then it ceased to work.  So we had to get that, and I had to get some drum pad silencers for my Rock Band drums after Friday's Rock Band at my sister's.  Next we went to Best Buy and I got Rock Band 2, after convincing myself that it would work with the Rock Band instruments.  Then the whole family got inline skates.  

I'd had a look at some inline skates a few weekends back, as my wife has a growing interest in skating.  I thought would be nice for everyone to get them so we could go out all together.  Plus I never owned any and it looks like fun.  Apparently I shouldn't go out when it is even a little damp as that gums up the bearings.  So far, that isn't an issue as I haven't even attempted to go about yet.  I got some hockey inline skates, ending up with Nike Bauer's because the toe box for the Mission's are way too narrow.  The Bauer's have a huge square thing, matching my need for a small skate but with adult toes.  Or something to that effect.

Anyway, we headed home and I had to try out Rock Band 2 to see if I'd wasted my money or what.  Turns out that no, I had not.  I proceed to play for the next 4 hours or so, with my oldest son joining me on guitar.  It was an excellent time.  The Rock Band 2 port for the Wii brings it more in line with what is done on the Xbox 360 and PS3 with customizable  characters, online play and downloadable content.   Needless to say, I was quite pleased.  And then there was Sunday morning...

Sunday morning dawned and we had some time where we could play Rock Band until it was time to go for the family lunch at my aunt's.  We went for lunch and got back around 5:30pm.  My eldest son and I sat down, picked a set of 3 songs to do and off we went.  I broke the bass pedal on the third note.  Because I'd been given one of the older Rock Band original pedals, this one didn't crack or weaken - it snapped cleanly in the exact spot my original weakened.  It was pretty tough, but I played for a couple more hours.  The pedal worked if you weren't too energetic and held your foot in the right place.

This brings us to today.  I needed to get a better replacement for the pedal, so I started calling around to some of the gaming stores.  I found what I wanted at one and got them to hold it for me.  Seems the Rock Band 2 pedal has a metal reinforcing plate and otherwise is the same.  Well, that's what I wanted, give the way the first two pedals were damaged.  And only $25 to boot!  I picked that up and a second guitar so that we could get a full four-person band going.  Rushed home and I was able to put the new pedal to the test.  It worked really well for me - the metal plate made things really solid and movement easier.  It makes less noise because it is more solid - the spring doesn't bend funny when you move it faster.  The other neat thing is that this pedal came with a double-bass aggregator, which allows you to plug two pedals into the drum kit.  Don't really need that yet, but the possibility is now there for me.

Good Friday

Today is Friday and it was good.  Played hockey this morning with 5 subs on each bench - pretty nice.  Teams were a smidge lopsided (all the good puckhandlers were on one side) but it was a good skate.  I think I got a goal even!  But it dribbled in strangely, so it's hard to say.  Spent the rest of the day at my sister's house having lunch and the playing Rock Band.  Definitely a good time - haven't done the online part of Rock Band before and that was pretty fun.  I'm sorely tempted to get a PS/3 so I have an excuse to buy Rock Band 2 and then I'll be able to play online.  A good day.

Hey - it is the end of the week!

It was a long time getting here, but now it is.  And here we are!  Regular slate of meetings and what-not at work, followed by a trip to Wonder Sushi.  I tried to remain calm and not go nuts with the selected delights I normally gorge on.  This turned out to be a good thing because I ended up eating my share and then my share again in crispy spicy rolls.  They were extra spicy today and that means extra good, at least in my book.  Kinda scuppered the rest of the day though, as it takes a while to produce 120 pieces of crispy spicy tuna.

Not much else to talk about, except this Slashdot article on CFL bulbs.  Turns out that there is a gap between "real power" and "apparent power" used by these lights, something called the "power factor."  Basically it means that the utility (the grid) has to have more power available than is used by the bulbs to make them work properly.  I only went through some of the comments, but they make many interesting points about LEDs and CFLs and other options.  I have always disliked the bans of incandescent bulbs - they are very useful and well understood.  They have their uses, especially in the cold.  The heat factor has been brought up recently - some people think that a house full of incandescents would provide extra heating in the winter.  I personally don't think it makes a huge difference, but whatever.  Incandescents produce a very nice quality of light.  We got all CFLs for our house when we moved in 3 year ago, and I've had to replace several recently.  The suspicion is that these are older, cheaper and less reliable than the bulbs we can buy today, but I haven't seen a 7 year life, or even a 5 year life.  We'll wait and see.