lexrobertson.ca

I found this comic so very entertaining.

So yesterday I went into a big meeting. I mean a big meeting – high powered people representing three companies were present.

When I left the meeting they were thrilled with what had already been done and incredibly keen to move forward.

I love days when I’m being ‘high paid consultant’ me – the feeling of power involved in that type of meeting is heady and fantastic.

On the one hand, ’scruffy student’ me gets to temporarily dye my hair a cherry plum because it doesn’t matter.

That dichotomy is really getting to me today. On the one hand, we’re ready to move on a pretty interesting deal – which could lead to some pretty good word of mouth. On the other, I had a ‘chat’ with an ex today. It stung even more than I was expecting and that sucked. I think that’s enough personal information on the internet for this eon… or at least the week.

Before I begin, a definition:

LARP: a live action role play, something similar to improv.

1) Why do you hate others taking your pictures so much?

There is a longer answer, but the shorter version is that when I was in high school I thought, quite seriously, that I was ugly and overweight and so I hated looking at pictures of me because that is what I saw.


Now I know I am not obese, although I weigh more now than I used to then, but I do know now that I am not photogenic – most pictures tend to look bad and those taken in my spectacles look worse. I’ll admit that if the pictures didn’t habitually look awful I wouldn’t object quite so much.

On a joking note: if there’s no pictures you can’t prove I was there…

2) Which do you prefer living here or living way far away from here?


That’s a tougher question than the first. It’s easier in Saskatoon to slip back into old habits – old hobbies, old interactions with friends, and in some ways old bad habits too. On the other hand – I love things which are shiny and new. New places, new people, new languages, obviously new technology will all fascinate me.

If I could manage to be elsewhere during the winter and just back in the summer I think it’s something I’d do.

3) How’s the Database class going this time?


I did better on the first assignment than last time, but the real test will be next week. There is the second assignment and then the midterm back to back. So we’ll see how I’m doing after those are completed.

4) Do the ‘crazy’ players make LARPs more interesting or are they harmful to them?

I think they make the actual role playing part of the experience more interesting, but they make the ‘power moving’ etc harder sometimes. So I think they have the capacity to be both.

5) Feel free to ignore this one but it just amuses me to ask… Your single right now so if you were going to start dating one of the single LARPers in our scene who would it be?

I kept that one in for entertainment value mainly. I have no real idea who is single right now and who is not in the larp, but more importantly I am a commitment phobic when it comes to ’serious’ dating so I doubt I would start dating anyone, in the next two months before the term ends, in the mutually exclusive looking towards the long term sense – which is what most people mean when they say they are dating.

On a more joking note: I’d love to date someone in the LARP, but all the good ones are married.

Here is an alternative for 5 since its pretty personal: Once your done your degree and likely move back over to China what are the chances of you moving back to Saskatoon at some later time?

I think I answered this one in number 2 – I really dislike the winters in Saskatoon, but I enjoy the summers and the people so I think it would depend on my ability to get away from the winters as to whether or not I ever settled here.

You can read John’s (aka Barry’s) answers to my interview questions on his blog.

As I’m sure most of the regular readers know: I’m against fake holidays.

I’m also against the concept of a specific day for doing something nice for your loved ones. Never mind the stereotypes about females (and males I’ll grant) related to this day – it is a perpetual farce of the least entertaining kind.

And for the e-mails relating to my lack of post on Tuesday: I never said I was going to post something dated each day. Yesterday’s was a completed post moved from the draft’s folder into the published one. I’ve realized that now some of the drafts are over a year old which tells me it’s time to either ‘publish’ them or delete them. Tomorrow something more interesting, I hope.

So I’ve started and abandoned an ever increasing number of blogs posts lately. Not the least of which was one about the ‘ambush party’ my friends arranged for my birthday party avoiding self. I hope I will pull that out of the drafts folder and post it soon though. I just need to restore my mental state a bit first.

Here’s a random bit of entertainment:

Star Wars Horoscope for Pisces

A typical Pisces, you have your head in the clouds. You’re self-sacrificing and a bit too passive to stand up to the dark side. You become fairly pessimistic when put under pressure. You are a chameleon – wanting to change your scenery on occassion. Star wars character you are most like: Lando

I was catching up on people’s blogs and saw an interesting meme, “Interview Me”. I’m feeling somewhat open, in a split open via applied force to a crack in a rock kinda way, so I figured this would be as good a time as any to play this game. In advance I’ll admit that unlike the blog I saw it on I will deem certain questions ‘too personal’ for the internet so please forgive me if I don’t answer every question posted.

Sometimes emotional storms are good because you sleep so deeply when they are done. On a side note, my goal is to write a new post or complete an entry from my drafts folder for each day during the university break. Just as random exercise to see if I can. Hopefully more tomorrow.

I have a long standing tradition of hating my birthday and avoiding any sort of celebration which could be associated with it.

So tonight my friends threw me an ambush party – in the wrong month they had a surprise party under the guise of a surprise party for a different friend.

It was nice to know that they went through all the trouble of arranging the time and the gift. (It was the latest novel from my favorite author! – the one I’d been avoiding buying until it came out in paperback)

But the cake…. Goddamn… Someone purloined my high school grad photo from a pile of craft stuff and then they put it onto a photo cake.

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciated the thought that went into the event planning and the card and the gift.
But at the same time I cannot stress enough how much the evening was tarnished by that photo being on the cake and the knowledge that the person specifically took that copy of the photo without my permission and used it for that purpose.

I guess for every good and thoughtful thing there must be a well intentioned but poorly executed aspect.

Today I was having an awful day. I was tired and still sick. But eventually I got an e-mail saying a friend had free time for coffee.

At coffee, I got a book on the art of the mastery of the relationship. So it should be interesting reading and it’s given with the best of intentions and received with the highest of hopes. I’ll write a review of it later I think.

So Vista launched… I think maybe this was a *really* good time to be taking a break from the industry.

This article about internet usage entertains me:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070126.gtweb26/BNStory/Technology/home

One month down, three to go. The first blitz didn’t kill me so theoritically the remaining acid rain of assignments shouldn’t either. Today I will clean my apartment and cook in preparation for finishing my client work before the next academic crunch. Too bad that it starts on Monday!

On a side note: Hose f/1/07 ~10 pm for those what are interested.