lexrobertson.ca

ETA 1800.

:D

I love the modern age.

I’ve evacuated my house for the slaughter of the flying monsters nest. My car is undergoing it’s pre highway check and while that’s happening I’m working from a coffee shop (Timmy’s) before heading to my parents’ place to hide from the flying monsters - have I mentioned lately my love of cell phones and wireless internet?

This reminds me I’m going to be in Stoon from the 3oth July to 3rd August. I’ve just finalized this with my fellow contractors - KJ is off sick leave and now A is down - but I’m going to burn out without a change of pace soon.

The 30th is booked up pending further notice, but I’d love to see people for lunch, etc. Will probably flood people’s inboxes soonish. = D

So today was not anywhere near the perfect day.

I hate bugs. When I go camping or hiking I’m in their home and I have to respect that they’re going to be there. I just try very hard not to add myself to their dinner menu. When they’re in my home however then it is treaty negotiation time.

Right now there is a nest outside my door. So far whatever they are have not bitten me. But they now appear to have a one way tunnel into my house. I can’t tell you how disconcerting that is…

So I managed to pluck up my courage and use the old cup and cardboard (paper being too thin imho) trick to maneuver the flying striped buzzing thing from my house. But then I discovered a spider. A stripy coloured spider - sorry no pictures - I attempted to make an agreement with it (and for those who weren’t aware I have a minor phobia about spiders) that I was going to leave the room and it was going to disappear. If I didn’t see it again then I didn’t have to kill it.

When I came back it was out of sight, so I got into the shower… and then it came back out and started crawling down the wall towards my poof. So that was a declaration of war and it required immediate retaliation. So I got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around me, fetched some more cardboard - good thing I hadn’t yet taken my paper recycling to my parents’ place - and wack. Retaliation completed. It’s part of my thing however that the spider’s corps must be evicted from the premises as well as the instrument of its demise. So I wandered towards my front door and the flying buzzing hoard and this piece of cardboard joined the first one (the cup was also still out there - I was planning to retrieve it after dark).

I turned and found myself locked out. For those I haven’t been in recent contact with - I’d recently upgraded the internal lock and had been having a devil of a time getting spare keys cut. The result being that at this point all the keys for this lock were behind said lock as was my mobile phone and I was wearing a towel. *sighs*

So I wandered through the laundry room to see if I could borrow a mobile from the upstairs neighbours - both of whom don’t have a landline either. They’d left the door to the laundry room open with a basket in it, but no one was home. So I borrowed the tools that were hanging out by the door and proceeded to try to break into my apartment.

Now, I tried to be smart about it first, but after a period of time with no progress I did what every coder knows to do when confronted with something that must be done and no elegant solution is available with the tools on hand - brute force. I hit the lock with the hammer until it decided to co-operate in letting me back in. (no I didn’t damage the door)

It was shortly after this that the neighbour returned. I told him thanks for the loan of his tools and returned them to him. We discussed the flying monsters and tomorrow he intends to ensure they nest ceases to pose a problem. I have nice neighbours, but I have returned the lock I originally put on the door with the lock that I find in adequate and so must now purchase a new one.

*raises an imaginary beer* To bugs and brute force.

So I was going to get up today and I even listened to part of my alarm, but it seriously feels like a percussion session in my head today. And it’s a good thing my place has a naturally low light level because yeouch! Even so I’ve fielded a few calls and e-mails, but I’m really kicking myself about getting sick today because I was hoping to finish that bloody coding. But it hurts to look at screens and I code for clients on the Windows laptop. It’s screen doesn’t dim as much as the mac’s does. =$

On a mildly funny note, I may be a hack of coder, but even I know better than this:

New bottle of water, check. Something to eat, check. A couple more supposed anti-head exploding pills, check. Now back into the blessed darkness.

That’s one of those things which have been said about the new Harry Potter Film.

I’m not going to rant and rave about the changes here… yet - seeing how this is opening weekend and all.

But I would like to know what monkey in the costuming department decided that for the final shot where you have a bunch of teenage school mates running around in their jean jackets, hoodies, and t-shirts that putting Potter in a t-shirt and *sports jacket* (yes, it is a nice sports jacket, but that is not the point) was a good idea. I understand he’s “Our Hero” and he’s transitioning into the defender of all that is good etc etc - but at that moment to create that line, both the visual and the resulting implication, between him and the people who just fought by his side *in the uber battle* was contrary to the overall concept of the story (just a regular kid except by his extraordinary actions yada yada) as well as that particular moment - which is supposed to be one of unity, happiness, and ‘going forwardness’ (yes, I know that’s not a word, but progress didn’t convey the message I wanted and I couldn’t find another which did).

On a completely different note: someone is producing a Get Smart movie. For the first time ever a Steve Carell (sp?) movie I want to see in theaters right as it comes out. Anyone else here watch that show?

Life is trundling along here. Actually went onto the Stampede grounds here for the first time ever - L was there drinking with some of her co-workers on Friday and after the past week and the upcoming weekend (now almost over, but not quite done yet) a beer was required.

I was passed this link : http://globalnerdy.com/2007/07/13/reason-2-why-there-arent-more-women-in-technology/ and really can’t find the right words for it at this time. But is it wrong that on looking at reason 1, http://globalnerdy.com/2007/06/13/one-reason-why-there-arent-more-women-in-technology/, my only thought process is - I know that character she’s from “Anime X”*? * - a cookie for any other geeks who can, only by looking at the images provided in that link, guess it right away as well.

While I find Reason 2 thought provoking - especially the date of publication aspect (My Question: If it was published in 2000 does that make it any better? Personally I think not) - Reason 1 was merely entertaining. So you’ve a co-worker who is a juvenile, likes anime, and purchases juvenile & anime related mouse pads (or insert product X for a more generic statement) - I very much doubt that’s limited to the technical industry or a given gender. In fact I’d be seriously shocked to find out it was.

On a completely different topic, I finally gave up on the Nike + shoes - they are crap. I’ve taken some clear plastic and tape and white twist ties (everything has to co-ordinate when doing makeshift handicrafts, didn’t you know?) and attached the Nike + sensor to my pair. Hopefully not hating the shoes, as well as not running in shoes which were breaking my feet, will improve the regularity of my running. Here’s hoping…

Edit notes: I tried adding a closing tag to that damn link three separate times and it just wouldn’t bloody save. So I ripped out the anchor entirely and now at least my post doesn’t look like a complete joke…

So Sean has meandered his way back out east and I have learned the salutary lesson to never leave an engineer with too much time on his hands in my apartment as it will result in the abuse of my kitchen utensils for random creation of gizmos link.

Ward was in town this weekend. We did dinner and hung out for a while and that was fun. = D
I’m hoping that I can persuade his lovely wife Mel to come visit me later this month when he’s off to the states for work. That would be wonderful fun.

It’s stampede week here - western Canada’s best known wildest 10 day bender. That means the phone should be quiet so I can finally get that custom coding out of the way. Unfortunately it also means that the streets will not ever be quiet. And since all my company has now gone away I have no excuse to actually head out for any of the events - such a shame. If I’m still in Calgary next year maybe I should invest in a stampede outfit - j/k I can’t even picture myself in a cowgirl outfit.

From someone else’s blog:

So my Canada Day was enlivened by company and goodies. Sean is down from out east and so we’ve been hiking for the past few days and my mom made me Gingerbread dough. For those of you who haven’t seen me receive it before, imagine a jumping squeeing Lex and you’ve got the idea. ^_^

Yesterday however, we had the ‘hunt for a corkscrew’, we’d picked up a bottle of Australian white to go with dinner - but as I’ve been living a very buy-things-as-I-need-them lifestyle we had no corkscrew to open it. So we thought we’d wander to the 7-11 and grab one. Only it was sold out.

And so we wandered to the little alcohol store down the street and they were also sold out of them.

Eventually we found a Husky (of all the places) which still had a corkscrew in stock. It also turns out to sell Kicking Horse Coffee which means it will be useful for when I need to do a server-is-dead-no-sleep-for-us coffee run for KJ, fellow contractor, and I. I like Timmy’s but he’s a coffee snob - so this won’t be fresh ground right the instant before it’s brewed just for him, but it’s at least the right brand….

After that adventure, I got a call from T & R who were in for a conference and we all ended up taking the C-train down to the core to watch the Canada Day fireworks. I’m sure it’s just my imagination that says that the displays were bigger and longer when I was a kid. On a side note: I am really not fond of the Public Transit system here. It’s better than Stoon, but Singapore definitely spoiled me for public transit.

I have to admit that there are two times in a year when being in Canada means something special to me, the first is the holiday season in December because it’s good to be with friends and family at that time and the second is Canada Day. Happy Canada Day y’all!