Posted 10:27 AM by Tim
Woo. Slow start to this week. Developed weird tooth pain on the weekend and had to get it checked. Nothing major yet, but if it keeps up, there may be a root canal in the works.

I've got a few days to catch up on, so lets recap the weekend. My 6th anniversary came and went. I has a lovely few days with my wife, going shopping, eating out at restaurants, and even managing to watch a few movies over the weekend (rentals - since there's nothing worth the money in theatres right now). We watched My Best Friend's Wedding,which was on the list of "never watch this" movies. It was, in many ways, as bad as I thought. A lot of cheap deception, lies and so forth to try to trap the object of affection - and very little listening to advice. Of course, the movie did have it's moments. I especially like it when the "hero" loses.

Time with my wife alone is pretty rare, and it was very nice to be able to hang out with just her. Six years married. That's really surprising. I wouldn't have thought that much time had passed already. I'm looking forward to more.

Posted 9:22 PM by Tim
Just a strange combination of words: Microsoft Deliverance.

Posted 2:51 PM by Tim
The place that I work recently bought a new coffeemaker. A while back some people asked me some questions about my coffee preferences and such, but, I don't drink coffee so I didn't have any answers. Anyway, they bought a new coffeemaker. Good for them. They replaced the late-night-diner-style one they had before with a new high tech "single cup" brewing system. This takes away the idea of filters and coffee grounds, and puts it all into a little plastic container that holds enough to make exactly one cup of coffee. Hmm. One cup. At a time. That seems awfully funny to me, and I'm not sure I can list all the reasons why.

Anyway, the machiene has been around for about two weeks, but none of the little coffee containers have been available. Let me stress that I don't care, because I can't stand coffee. It does strike me as funny though, that nobody seemed to realize that they may need coffee to go with the new machiene. And the old tin of grounds is no use because the brewer can't work with grounds packaged that way. Of course, the way the thing works seems really suspect, since it seems like you're just taking instant coffee and working out a complicated way to stir it. Which is probably how this works.

Today I noticed that there is coffee packets. There by the watercooler. The Brewer is in the breakroom, which is physically separate from the area that the watercooler is in. If you want a cup of coffee, you'd have to get up from your desk, saunter over to the cooler, get one, leave the office, go down the hall, around past the elevators and into the breakroom. Then you'd brew a cup of coffee (better make sure you've got your mug - and that it's large enough). Then, it's out of the breakroom, into the hall and back to your desk. That's at least 2 security checkpoints for your coffee break - we're in a secured building, you know. Rediculous. Really.

At least there's a lot of variety.

Posted 10:17 AM by Tim
Now and then I'll see something that will shock me. Something that reminds me that things really are like they are. What I mean is, there are some things that I just haven't seen before, so I'm skeptical that they actually exist. Like steaming manhole covers. Never saw that until I got to Cleveland, and when I first saw it, I was surprised. People sleeping on the streets - that was a new one too. It just little things like that.

Yesterday, I took a different bus route home, and was surprised to see that there is a shanty town on the outskirt of Toronto. An honest-to-goodness shantytown. Little ramshackle homes built out of flotsam and jetsam of the harbor, and rusty oil drums being used to keep people warm. Like with the manhole thing, I was honestly shocked.

I want to help, but what could I do? I mean, if I even went down there, I'd feel like a tourist in a third world nation. I'd probably wander about, trying to get the locals to take a few pictures with me or something. I'm just without words.

Posted 3:03 PM by Tim
The weather has turned back into spring. At least we're settling down - maybe. Winter, summer, winter #2, spring, summer #2, spring #2, winter #3, spring #3. That's been the last 3 months of weather. All I want is it to settle down a bit and stop jerking around with the weather. I don't know what to wear anymore.

I've been having trouble sleeping. When that happens, it's usually because I'm stressed, or sick. I don't think it's either of those things. I think it's the commute. I've taken to sleeping on the commute lately, which means that I get about 3 hours of interrupted sleep, in addition to the 6 or 7 hours of partially interrupted sleep at home. Basically, I'm not getting good sleep anywhere, and it's spread out all over my day. I sleep at night for 6 or 7 hours straight, then I'm awake for 1.5 hours or so, then I sleep for about 1.5 hours. Then I'm awake 8 hours, sleep 1.5, then awake again for 1.5 or so, then back to bed. You can see the issue, can't you? The little power naps leave me in a state where I have to be awake enough to get off the bus at the right places, and the early evening sleep is concerned with getting the girls to stay in their beds, or dragging them out of bed to go pee, etc. I'm also starting to think that I can't sleep without movement, and possibly without being surrounded by strangers. A situation that just doesn't work well.

I've very rarely suffered from insomnia, but this looks like it may be the start of a bout of it. Gotta find something to get me to sleep.

Posted 3:44 PM by Tim
Ok. I got a couple of things to comment on here. Most of which occurred this weekend. Lets start with an old topic. Hybrid cars.

I finally managed to head out to the Honda dealer this weekend and "test-drive" the Honda Inspire. I use quotations there because I did not, in fact, get to drive the car myself. Apparently, the car is a 5 speed manual, and not 5 speed automatic as I had assumed. I wasn't aware that you could shift the gears on an electric motor, but that just goes to show my inexperience with how things like cars work. I haven't drive a standard more than twice - unless you count tractors, which nobody does. Not wanting to grind the gears off the nice demonstration model, I more or less abandoned the idea of the test-drive. The nice dealer offered to drive it for me, and let me sit in the passenger seat. I was happy with this idea. I'll tell you this. I handles nice. Seems to be pretty responsive, and can make a fair jump when you need to.

Major laments about the Inspire: Only 2 seats, so no more than one passenger. Top speed of 100km/h. Super-fancy computer-controlled everything, and no CD player. Also a bit of a shock, apparently, the gas tank holds $40 of gas, not $6 as previously reported. But still, it'd save money.

Good thing about the Inspire: Looks Very cool. Saves a lot of gas money. Good for the environment (ok, that's starting to reach a bit).

All this for only $21,000-something. If we only had more money and a greater need for it.

This weekend we finished anchoring the swingset into the lawn out front. No cement, just heavy rocks and metal spikes. I helped. In fact, I rebuilt the spinning contraption, since there were a few parts left out of the original build. Here's a cute story for ya: The spinning thing uses two ball bearings to make it spin around easily (it also moves up and down). In the rebuild, I decided to follow the instructions. They suggest a commercial lubricant of some kind to make the balls move easier. Bren ran inside to find something we could use and came back out with Kama Sutra Massage Oil. We never use it, because it smells a little odd, so we used that instead. Ok, maybe its not so funny, but it did get rid of that nasty smelling oil.

My wife remarked to me this weekend that my oldest daughter seems to be having problems paying attention. This is something I know already, but she likes to remind me about it. I explained to her that it only makes sense, given my childhood, and the whole genetics thing. Basically, when I was little, like my daughter, I would not pay attention to anyone. People (especially my parents) would have to yell to get my attention. Even then, I'd tend to be distracted and disinterested. There's a good reason for all of this. People are boring. Very boring. I'm not sure why that is, but people, on the whole just cannot keep my attention for long, unless they're talking about something that I'm really interested in. I figure my daughter feels the same way, but just hasn't managed to figure out how to express it.

Because of this whole "people = boring" thing, most people find that talking to me is either distracting or disconcerting or both. The main reason is that I'll either look around at other things (distracting), or stare at them (disconcerting), or some freakish random combination of the two. Its taken me a lot of practice to get the gist of conversations.

Two other points today. 1) Crazy weather. 20 to 30 degree days here, and then it cools off to seasonal temperatures, and now it's snowing again. In April. Can't we just have Spring and leave the rest of the seasons where they belong? 2) "Sale" prices. I was wandering through HMV today, because they've got a sale on, and thought that maybe I could snag a cheap CD or movie. No such luck. They're still mostly the same price, or marginally marked down from what I feel is an inflated price anyway (down to $19.99 from $25.99). The thing that got me was the use of red markdown stickers. One DVD I looked at marked the price down to $52.99 - from $52.99. Absolutely no change whatsoever to the price. None. At all. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything today.

Posted 9:08 PM by Tim
My brother-in-law invited a number of people over to play in a D&D game this afternoon. I was hoping to play, and not DM. This was fine, since he was hoping to run the game. I think he was figuring that 6 or 7 people might show up. Somehow there were suddenly 13 people in the house, all looking to play. 10 guys, 3 girls. An impressive ratio for most geek gatherings.

This meant that they would require organization to get to playing at all. So I stepped in as DM to try to get something started. I had some help too. This was the first time I'd DM a group this large, and also the first time I'd have a helper DM.

With no adventure modules built for a crowd this size, and all of the players have characters over 10th level (meaning we'd have to build something impossible on the fly). So, the other DM and I got down to thinking about what made sense for 13 adventurers to be together, and everyone else got to making or modifying characters down to 5th level. We managed to figure out something to play, and tried to get everyone started. Needless to say, it took us about 2 hours just to get started (while getting characters figured out, etc). We managed to get going, and it wasn't too bad overall.

A short note for the archives here: If you get 13 teenagers together, there's a few things that are likely to happen. 1) they're going to be hungry. 2) they're going to argue. 3) they might fight. We of course had all three of these things happen. Plus a few more. All I can say is that it's always interesting when you get that many teenagers together.

We did manage to get a few hours of solid gaming in though. Even though it was almost entirely combat.

Posted 10:01 AM by Tim
My wife bought a swingset this week. Let me tell you about it. She'd been looking for one for a while. I was a little hesitant about buying something like that, since it represented a more permanent feature of where we were living. I'm not going to go into the details right now.

On Monday, we went to look for a swingset. She had reviewed prices at places like Toys R Us and Wallmart, and had decided on Wallmart. They didn't have any display models set up, but we looked at the really big boxes the sets came in. She saw one she liked, and made plans to go back the next day with her dad's truck and get it. While I was away at work Tuesday, the swingset was purchased and partially assembled. I arrived home to the frame and swings of the new lawn fixture.

I had my concerns about the placement and so forth, but they were assuaged. Of course, it was late, so the girls weren't outside when I got home. Apparently they had started playing with it almost immediately. I didn't get to see anyone playing with anything.

Wednesday evening, I arrive home and the swingset is further along in it's completion. There's a spinning thing attached to one side, which is apparently quite fun, and a double rocker-swing has been added. I tried to get my youngest to explain how it worked to me, but she wasn't interested in telling me about it. The slide was still to be added to the rest of the structure.

Thursday evening, the slide is built, but not attached. It's too late to bother going outside to look at the thing, and the weather is gearing up for rain eventually.

That brings me to today. The slide will probably be added to the swingset, and the girls will have lots of fun playing on it. And I'll still not have seen even a moment of their enjoyment. Likely not until the weekend. That's so depressing. I get to see my family so little that it barely seems worth all the effort. I know it is, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like it.

Posted 2:27 PM by Tim
The weather in Toronto has turned nice. The last few days have been 29, 30, and 27 degree weather. I've adopted the distressing habit of actually appearing above ground. This is distressing because I may be seen by the flaming sky-orb - also called "the sun." This probably isn't a problem for most people - but, I'm a programmer, I perfer my radiation in monitor-sized blocks.

Being above ground isn't that much of an issue really. It's warm now, so there's lot of people lounging about out there. It affords me many interesting (and occasionally distracting) sights. Like seeing grown-ups lined up at the curb for the ice cream man. I have to admit that I've seen that with ice cream carts, but never with an actual van. It makes me wonder how much ice cream they manage to sell. Maybe I should change jobs?

Another reason for me to start popping up above ground is the breeze. So far, it seems to be a constant of downtown living. All those tall buildings funnel the high winds onto the street level. In the winter this is not a good thing, as the breezes are icy and persistent. In the summer though (or at least currently) the breezes are pleasant and cool. I'm a sucker when it comes to wind. It has to be my favourite element (in the Earth, Air, Fire and Water sense, not the chemical element sense - why am I explaining this?).

Let me regale you with a short story with no point. In my youth (not so long ago), I would spend a lot of time out of doors in summer. Especially in my later youth where I worked outside. This would lead to me gaining an incredible farmer's tan (FYI: that's arms, face and maybe lower legs, with obvious tan lines around sleeves, hats and sunglasses). Also, my hair would bleach out in the sun to a bright white. These aren't necessarily bad things - I quite liked the hair, but not the tan lines. Anyhow, now I try to put on sunscreen and either go without a shirt in the sun a little more (to lessen the lines), or just not go outside at all. The End. As I said, no point. La la la.

Go outside and enjoy - as long as it's sunny where you are, and you like the sun. Unless you feel like enjoying the current non-sunny weather pattern in your area.

Gah.

Posted 9:57 AM by Tim
Sleep. It's been a major concern lately. The concern is that I haven't been getting enough of it. I suppose that's true. I have been spending the bus portion of my commute asleep - both to and from work. This is helping to keep me rested. Usually, a sleep on the commute would be a very light sleep for me. I'd still be fairly aware of the environment, but it's been getting to be something different lately. More of the deep sleep - and it's been creeping up on me more often. I guess I'm not getting enough sleep.

Still, I don't like it when someone else tells me what I need to change. That's what's been happening lately. "You should go to bed earlier." That doesn't sit well with me. I get home, eat and then maybe sit up for a bit watching TV, or checking out the Internet, or watching part of a movie as it is. Going to be earlier reduces my day to wake, commute, work, commute, eat, sleep. That sucks. It's not even a real life then, it's just daily motions. At least with the little bit of "do something" that I currently have, I can talk to people, or make a phone call or something. As it is, it seems I'm only allowed a real life on the weekends.

To make things worse, Bren is the one being blamed for keeping me up. She likes to talk to me, or sit and watch TV with me after my workday. So, of course she has to be the culprit, right? She must be keeping me awake at night, or forcing me to enjoy what little time I have with my family. :sarcasm=on: Yeah, that has to be it. Why didn't I see it before? Why aren't I just a mindless work drone. Hell, I could just stay at work for 12 hours a day, and then I'd never need to come home at all! :sarcasm=normal: (there isn't an "off" setting for my sarcasm)

Gah. Anyhow, the whole work thing is starting to grind again, and it's only being magnified by the commute. There's nothing I can do about it of course, but it's nice to be able to talk things out in the blog.

Posted 10:17 AM by Tim
I've been doing a bit of thinking about my weight again. The reason for all this thinking: I gained weight recently. After a triumphant reduction down to 210, I managed to hop back to 217 in under a week. I blame Easter. I also blame me.

Anyway, after the weight gain, I went back to managing my diet better and so forth, and I'm back to 212. Of course, that's taken me a few weeks. I'm really looking to drop another 12 pounds. In order to do that though, I'm either going to have to add more exercise to my day, actually exercise, or simply eat less. A combination of all of them would work much faster, but as I've said before, I'm not big on making my whole life change at once. Little changes tend to stick longer.

I have been adding in a little bit of exercise here and there, so I feel that I can work my way up to an actual workout (I'll probably just start doing one). I've been working my lower legs with the extra walking and stairs, so I need something that'll focus on other areas - preferably the upper legs and arms.

The food issue is another place that I could change. I am trying to eat healthier, both by being willing to eat fruit and such - but also by not always getting a burger and fries if I eat at a fast food place. Like I said - little changes.

Posted 1:10 PM by Tim
Blah. Being sick sucks. I took Friday off work and rested. Feeling better on Saturday, I went to Regionals. You get the short version. About 100 more people that I expected showed up (233 showed, I expected 125). I didn't think I'd make top 40. In the end, I came 65th place. Not that bad really.

Today, I'm back at work. Things are looking interesting, from a work perspective. A lot happened on Friday, and I'm playing catchup. But that's a good thing really, we're getting things going again.

As for everything else that went on this weekend, here's the rundown. Put a network card into the Playmate computer. It started working after several tries. Ate dinner at a restaurant that's bound to close soon (and reopen under new management). Found a place big enough to be a card shop. Tried Tai Chi. Watched all of Talking to Americans, and laughed at our neighbours to the south. Learned that antihistamines are not my friend (though that was Thursday).

I wish I had something profound to say here today, but I don't. Maybe tomorrow.

Posted 2:52 PM by Tim
The antihistamine has an interesting effect on me. I don't think I'll be taking it again. Sleepy, dizzy and slightly disoriented are all that's left, now. It's better if I sit still.

Posted 11:58 AM by Tim
Still sick. Hung out with Wayne and a few other friends. Yesterday though, got to sleep late (after 1AM), and was up again by 5:30. Technically, I slept in a whole hour. I took an antihistamine to deal with this sinus thing I've got going on. It hasn't helped compeltely, but it has given me an interesting sensation of disorientation.

Where to start with the blog today. Let's start with regionals. I've got a deck ready now. I just need to finalize it before Saturday morning. Shouldn't be a problem.

Hanging out with the boys yesterday was an interesting experience. About 4PM I started to feel awful, and considered backing out of the evening. I hung in there though, and made the journey to the shop I was going to meet them at. On the way I stopped to eat something, and observe the locals. I was accosted by a man claiming to be deaf and looking for change, I gave him none, but thought it might have been nice to try to strike up a conversation in sign with him. I don't know it well enough to want to embarass myself, so I didn't.

Later on my walk, I passed an arcade I hadn't noticed the last time I had headed that way, and saw a guy doing Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). I've been interested in that game since I saw it played in Cleveland, but I've never had the guts to try it. Most of the people who play it have played it a lot and are good at it. I'm not one for that kind of embarassment, so I just watched. It's amazing that people can keep up with the game.

I passed the adult strip, which featured several shops, a theatre, and a showbar. I've thought about taking lunch at the showbar, but it just doesn't seem appropriate - so I don't. I still think it'd be funny in a group though.

I get to the shop about 45 minutes early, so I hang out and read a bit from my current book, The Mammoth Hunters. Another in the Earth's Children series. Bren is actively waiting for the 5th book in the series, due out in this summer. Mammoth Hunters is #3 in the series. Well written, but I'm finding the sexual tensions in the book heavily frustrating. If there's anything I know, its that people should tell each other things. Especially the important things. I'm striving to meet that goal myself.

I met up with Wayne and his friend, who introduced me to "Taco." You'll note that I used the name here, even though I didn't get express permission - but this is a nickname, and those are open game if you ask me. Taco was a cool guy, working the in the field I might have worked in if I hadn't gone into Programming. He seems like a nice guy, and he's going to be at Regionals too.

Other items of note: Wayne's computer looks cool - of course, he's got the case open, bits of it laying about in there, and generally mocking the idea of a streamlined tower. XP looks cool, has an interface that feels a little clunky (even on the GHz system Wayne has), and the bright colours would grate me harshly. It's probably about a generation or two behind the function design of the Mac systems of today. I miss my bed in Midland when I'm left with only the futon at Wayne's - comfortable though it may be.

One last quick note: Antihistamines are bad for me. I'm not noticing any real improvment in symptoms, but I've added the wonderful feelings of slight vertigo, diziness, drowsiness, and apparently a very slight feeling of paranoia. Woo.

Posted 1:37 PM by Tim
Changes at work. One of the contracting companies are out. I can't say who or what, 'cause that wouldn't be nice. I can say that's its nothing personal, and not related to quality of work. It does mean a bit of restructuring of the hierarchy though. People who were in charge are gone, and others have taken over. We'll see how this goes for a while.

The cold is making things difficult for me. Slow brain and a sudden increase in workload. Not fun overall.

Posted 11:17 AM by Tim
Blah. Not feeling fully up to snuff today. A little under the weather. I'm not sure if it's just a cold, or the change of season. It could be either. Change of season is when I'm most likely to get sick, after that, I tend to be alright - or harbour viruses at sub-clinincal levels.

I'm finally going to get to playtest tonight. Woo! Yeah! I'm hoping that my deck will run nicely, or that maybe I can build something that will.

Posted 4:18 PM by Tim
Ok. It's nearly the end of the workday and things for this weekend still aren't settled. Either I'm going to be headed to Wayne's to crash until the weekend, or I'm just going to appear at Regionals this weekend. Both have merits. On one hand, staying home means I get to see the family, but I don't get much playtesting in that way. Going to Wayne's means I get a lot of playtesting, but I don't get much else, and it's a massive inconvenience to Wayne. I'd hate to do that to him.

Oh, I probably didn't mention it at the time I mentioned the haircut, but I picked up some hair colour. I've always wanted blue hair. I'm not sure why. I just think it's neat. Of course, I work in a job where hair colours that don't fall into the "normal" category are heavily discouraged. So, hair dye is out of the question. That is, until I found out about Spiker Colorz at the hair shop. Temporary hair colouring. Lasts until you wash it out. Pretty sweet. I picked up a tube of Shift Irridescent, which I hope will look cool - and not stupid. I'll try some out this weekend.

Important things happening this month: 6th year anniversary. Wow. 6 years. And still loving it.

Posted 10:46 AM by Tim
On with the show as they say. Sometimes, just before I get to sleep, I start thinking of things that I'd like to blog about. I try to store these thoughts away for later, since sleep is important to me. Inevitably, some things get lost, and I just can't remember what they were about. That happened today. I know I had something I wanted to say, but now it's gone. So, we'll just go with the random stuff that's in my head.

Regionals are this weekend, and while I've got a deck together, it's shy a few cards, and lacking in originality. I'm prepared to play it though, largely because I can acquire the missing cards easily, and it's the cheapest build I have been able to come up with. I may do a little more research and see if I can find something better.

There's been a little work done on the blog template (as you can see by looking just slightly to the left). I'm hoping to add a little to the overall site design as I get more time to work on it, but nothing has come up so far.

I have been trying to do a little more drawing on the commute lately. I'm still very weird about having people see what I'm doing as I'm doing it. I suppose that's normal. I've managed to duplicate a very cartoon face several times now, so I've taken to calling that my first character, and I've named him "Steve." I haven't managed to scan it yet, but I will eventually. I'll be sure to post it somewhere you can see it if it does go up.

Today is a good day to get work done. My mounting paranoia makes me think that it's time to get down to brass tacks. We'll see how that goes.

Posted 10:00 AM by Tim
I took some time this weekend to get some stuff done. The basement in the house we're living in is partially finished. By that, I don't mean that it's got a few walls and doors and stuff, I mean that half the floor is concrete and the rest is dirt. Sweeping down there is pretty self defeating. Of course, the place is a total mess. There's a ton of stuff down there, and nobody quite knows the entire contents. Bren and I decided to clean it up. This seemed like a bit of a futile exercise, until I noticed that they have a treadmill and an exercise bike down there.

I've taken to calling it "my underground lair."

So, we spent most of the afternoon raking, sweeping, and shoveling the junk off the floor. A number of items went to the rubbish pile, and as much stuff went into the burn pile (we still burn a large portion of our garbage where we are). We managed to get about 75% of it cleaned up and looking nearly presentable. We set up one area with the treadmill and the stationary bike. I'm thinking of taking my free weights down there too. That'll give me a place to do some exercises out of sight of everyone. I'm not one to exercise while others are about - I don't feel that I look good enough to be working out. Yeah, stupid logic.

So, we got that cleaned out, and it'll only take us another day or so of cleaning before the place is really livable, but it's workable for now. Also this weekend, I went and got a trim. Now, I've probably mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again. If I change the way I look, nobody notices. At least, nobody seems to notice. I'll get a haircut that changes shoulder length hair into a close cut, and nobody bats an eye. They don't mention it, nobody says anything about it, it's as if my hair hadn't changed. I'll trim the beard from a full bushy thing into a really short executive look, and there's no comment. This has been consistent for years.

Wayne, who I like picking on, once took more than a day to notice a haircut - and we was visiting every day - and I think I had told him I had it done. Most people just don't notice at all. I'm not sure why. Of course, I've never coloured my hair, or made it into strange shapes or such, but still, you think that somebody might notice. Of course, today, I expected the people in my office to notice, since they talk to me every day. They haven't. Not one. Oh well, I'm still happy with the cut.

Last up, a old friend of mine tried to offer me hosting for the site (apparently I have readers!). I'd love it. Email me here and if that bounces, then try mailing Brenda with the details - you should know or be able to get her address. If you can provide me with FTP, and some scripting capabilities, I'd be most appreciative :)

Posted 9:51 PM by Tim
I haven't been totally honest with you. I've neglected to mention some things here on the site. Well, that's pretty normal, right? I mean, I shouldn't talk about work, or things that are totally private, right? I mean, those sorts of things are best left private. Right. But - there are some things that I've neglected to discuss here. Sex (in general terms of course), religion, and so forth. I don't see a reason that I can't discuss them here. It really seems like the best forum.

Of course, I'm never sure who reads this stuff. As far as I know, it's just my friends and anyone who happens across the site (Hi!). People like my immediate family probably don't even know this exists. So, I don't think I can offend them directly, unless I point out the site, or they start visiting regular.

Today, well, tonight, I'm gonna discuss religion. Mine, specifically. Now, I've been raised a Christian, and a Salvation Army person too. Yes, they're a religion. Yes, it does sound strange. No, I don't think it's weird. Lemme bring the rest of you up to speed on the whole Salvation Army thing. First, we're a Christian organization, and we're classed under Protestant. There's no saints, no communion, no revering the Virgin Mary and all that clap. We're very social, and tend to have very active services. Lots of singing, clapping and so forth. Kinda revival gospel.

Ok. I've been a member of the Salvation Army (a soldier, as it were), for all of my life. I've attended a lot of other churches along the way, Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and so forth. I've known Jews, Hindus, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Wiccans, Satanists and New Agers. I've also known a lot of Agnostics and Atheists.

So, where am I going with all this? Well, lately I've been very disconnected from the church. I don't go to services so much (though I try), and I've not been really big on the faith thing either. I've just been away too much - so I'm drifting from religion altogether. Now, I'm not saying that I don't believe in God. I have to believe, I've had several very nice chats with him. What I mean is that I'm just not feeling a part of organized religions.

I'm not sure where that puts me, I mean spiritually. Lost probably. Maybe I just need to get back to church?

Posted 4:22 PM by Tim
Hmm. Minor page changes today. More to come. Wayne finally nabbed a new computer. Woo! Way to go! Now we can finally get some programming done. Gotta start on the site updates.

This brings up a point. I hate updating stuff like my website on the train. There's always someone sitting next to me. I'm not sure why that is though, I mean the site goes up on the internet, and everyone can read it. Why should it matter if someone reads it before it's posted? Am I experiencing some kind of "privacy" double standard in myself? I'm not sure.

I mean, I got the laptop so that I could do work on the train/bus, and when it comes time to actually doing updates and such, I shouldn't be bothered by others around, right? It's not like they're going to steal my work, or stories, or website, right? They'd have to be really talented to steal it from what they manage to read while on the commute, eh?

So, I'm going to try to be less concerned with what others think about the contents of my laptop, and just focus on getting the updates done.

Posted 9:31 AM by Tim
There's a lady and her son that take the train with me. The boy is about 2 years old or so, and the lady wheels him in a stroller to the train station. He's always terribly excited. If the train doesn't arrive immediately, he'll keep asking her where it is until it arrives. When it does arrive, even though he's seen it dozens of times before, he's still super-excited about it. I wish I could be that excited about going to work.

Wayne has put a blog up. Apparently "inspired" by my blog. Check it out.

Posted 10:12 AM by Tim
Change of plans. I'm not driving to Windsor. Apparently they can mail me the info, it just takes longer. :P

That's the way my life goes really. Something happens, so we react quickly to it, making rediculous plans and preparing for the worst. We then find out there's an easier way, and change plans. Then the easy way doesn't work, and we change back to a modified version of the original plan. That usually gets changed as we go, and we add a few other things in along the way. Overall the plan looks more complex and confusing than when we started. But, such is my life.

I finally drove myself to the bus station today. For those of you unaware of the situation, let me set this up. I have a huge commute, about 2 hours one way. Now, I could simply drive in to work every day, but that'll lead me to road rage and huge parking bills. So, to break it up, I take public transit. Now, public transit doesn't go all the way to where I live, so I drive to the nearest location. I then take a bus, to a train, and walk the last little bit to get to work every day. Until today, someone has either driven me, or rode with me to the bus station. Basically, they drive out there, then turn around and go home. Today is the first time nobody else has come along. It's nice, really. Sure, I don't get to sleep on the drive, but I do get to listen to the radio, something that doesn't happen if there's others in the car. It also means that nobody else has to wake up with me, and that means that everyone else gets some more sleep.

I've been mulling over the website lately, and I know that it needs a change. A big change. I'm working on the design really slowly in my head, which means that nobody will see it until much later. Nothing's more hassle and fun than a good site redesign.

Posted 12:15 PM by Tim
Ghar. Today sucks. Not the day itself, just events therein. Yesterday I had to call the border to see if I could get copies of documents that I had copies to already. They said that they could get them, but I'd have to come to them and get them. That's a drive to Windsor. Ick. Of course, today, I call again, and make sure I have to go. I don't, but I probably do. Apparently, if I can get the record number of the file they keep, they can pull it, copy it, and send it to me. All their stuff is filed numerically, of course, and sorted by date, or something. Now, this wouldn't be so bad, except that the people who take care of the numbers aren't in. They're on holiday. Woo.

And this is all for taxes. Yeah.

I've been gearing up for the Regions in two weeks. Shouldn't be too hard to get some cards together and just play, right? Right. If I wanted to just go and have fun, I could just flop something together and be off, but that's not what I want. I wanna win. I'd love to make the top 8, or first, and get my invite to Nationals. That would be something. But, even that's not my goal. I just wanna place in the top 40. Aiming a little low perhaps? Well, top 40 would be a record for me in a tourney of this size, and the personal achievement would be worth the effort to get there. But the effort to get to top 8 would be impossible to arrange. I simply don't have the time I'd need to put into practices.

I'll be sure to let everyone know what's what when the tourney comes and goes though.

Posted 11:01 AM by Tim
It's April Fool's Day! I've never been big on this holiday-of-sorts. First, I don't like being tricked, and second, I can never think of a good trick. Fortunately, it seems like most people I know feel the same way. No holiday tricks today.

Busy weekend. 9 people in the house, a lot of food, and talk about Ecuador. Wayne and I managed to pick up my friend about an hour late from the plane, because of the massive reconstruction efforts of the Pearson airport, and also because of a lack of knowledge of where exactly we were supposed to be picking him up. Things were a little strained at first, but they resolved pretty quick.

This month sees the Regional championships for Magic. I'm planning to attend, since it's an open event. A good run will get you in the top 8, which is an invite to the Nationals. A good berth there gets you into Worlds. So, it's a fairly important game. I'm not really shooting for Nationals, since I don't get nearly enough practice. Basically, I'm looking to not embarass myself, and hopefully get into the top 40 - top 20 if I can manage it.

In comic news, I've been debating whether or not to just get started with the website, and take that as a kick-start. Part of me says that'll get me started, another part says that I should at least have a solid concept and maybe a bit of art to get started. We'll see.

I can see the comic in my head now, which is good, since I need to visualize it before I can really start on drawing it. The trouble is, now I have this really detailed comic that I've got to try to get done on paper. And, apparently, I'm going to need a few hours to arrange it all. This is definately going to be a once-a-week venture.

And now for the finance news. Taxes are going to take a huge bite this year. Massive. We're looking at ways to mitigate the damage, but its not coming easily. Changes, and more changes. Of course, they say that change is good. They also say that change is hard. I suppose that means that hard = good. Which, depending on how you look at it is probably right.