Posted 10:08 AM by Tim
Gah. Sick yesterday. Not feeling well today. What am I supposed to do?

I've got 2 major tournaments coming up this weekend. I may end up going to only one. I've got a largely untested deck ready, and a completely untested deck sitting on the sidelines waiting. I'm really not wanting to play the same deck as everyone else, so I'm looking at building a deck that will stand up against the main crowd and give me a little bit of a chance. I've just got to get some testing in.

Posted 10:22 AM by Tim
Woo. Weekend over.

Played in the big tourney this weekend. I made it to the third round of eliminations, which is 2 rounds further than ever before. That's always encouraging. Even though I didn't win, I still managed to improve on past performance.

The weekend was filled with interesting things. I helped some friends get their new house ready (more on this in a minute), I played in the tourney, and we had a bit of a dinner party. Not a bad weekend really.

Ok. The house thing. I've always wanted a house. I just have unrealistic expectations for what I'd want in a house. I'd want something rediculously massive, and that's really impractical. I'm going to have to live with the idea of a house that's just ordinary. To me, a house is like a really big project. You keep working on improving it constantly, but slowly. We helped out with getting the house ready for our friends. A little cleaning, some painting, etc. I didn't get to do very much because there was much corraling of 4 children into useful activities.

The problem with helping others move into a house is that it really cements the idea that I won't be moving into a house for some time. Sure, it'd be nice to be able to buy something, but for that you really need stability. That means that I'd need a solid job. Something that isn't going away after 3 months. I'd need something full time. A real job. I just don't see that coming yet. So, no house for a while. I can live with that.

Posted 8:25 AM by Tim
I broke the diet yesterday. I went to a Chinese restaurant and had some things with flour and such in them. That wasn't too much of a problem. I also had chocolate mousse pie too. Yummy. I'm not supposed to have caffeine though. I think the caffeine (in conjunction with some serious stress) is giving me an issue today though. I'm back on the diet today though, so it should be better soon.

Posted 1:31 PM by Tim
On the subject of me.

I'm on this diet, as I've already said. But now, it's got an extra layer with it. No caffeine. I figured that giving up caffeine was going to be exceptionally difficult. I had actually said that I was glad that the diet allowed caffeine, because I would go on some killing rampage without it. This was the day before caffeine was pulled from the diet, of course. So, no gluten, no milk, no caffeine. I find myself down to chicken and water. It's different. Of course, I'm also on medications now. Supplements to make sure I'm not missing any essentials, etc.

I imagine I'm losing weight with this diet. I can't confirm it, of course, because I'm not bothering to weigh myself. It just seems like I might be somewhat lighter overall. If I managed to get back to working out, I'm sure I'd lose weight faster. Working out hasn't been given any priority lately, though, so I just haven't bothered with it. I'll have to work my way back to where I was a little while ago. I'm definately thinking of starting if I can arrange a good time in an evening.

In other news, I've been thinking about my friends back home. I haven't been home in over (or is it nearly?) 2 years. I feel the call of the homeland. I must go. But, I haven't got the time for it right now. Maybe in a few months when I'm unemployed.

Unemployment has been a conversation topic with Brenda lately. She figures she'll go and get some trash job while I stay home. I'm not sure about that as an option though. I mean, I don't mind her being employed (it's nice to have the extra income), but I would much rather her work in her field than as some store jockey. Of course, I was looking at that as an option for myself also, so I suppose I can't really comment.

I've though about freelancing, but I don't see how I can do that. First, I'm not as aware of the business in the area as I should be for a freelancer (I suppose I could find out). I'm sure that if I had a client, I could support the family on comissions. The trouble is, I'd need a number of contracts to keep the money flowing properly. Finding the contracts has always been difficult for me, and there's a little history that sets me back on my esteem in this area. I'm sure I could find something, if I just had time to properly canvass the city and ask the right questions.

Posted 1:16 PM by Tim
Oh, FYI, the NaNoWriMo stuff is over here.

Posted 12:46 PM by Tim
This weekend I decided to dye my hair blue again. I've got this temporary dye, so it's all out by the time I shower. Whenever I dye my hair, the girls want theirs done. And Brenda had thought about dying her hair blue also, so we ended up all having a bit of blue (well, not the oldest, she didn't bother with it this time). Of course, we all went out to have some fun and do some shopping. We got some looks. Now, in Toronto, I wouldn't expect to get any looks (except from the people in the bank where I work). In KW, I figure that I shouldn't get any looks downtown either, but we weren't downtown, we were uptown. Not a lot of blue hair out there.

I've been trying my hand at sculpting lately. This leads me to think of myself as very Renaissance (I paint, draw, sculpt, play music and debate - woo!). Anyhow, I've been working with Sculpey (a polymer clay). I only bothered to do it because a friend of ours had given us some clay to work with, and I felt like sculpting an idea that I had for a diorama.

I've finished the first bit, and now I've just got to do up the rest of it. I have no idea if I have enough clay to do all of it though. I may just have to go buy some.

Posted 1:17 PM by Tim
Hair is today's subject. Mine, specifically.

I've been growing out my hair for a while now (since I landed this originally, so about 9 months). It's getting long now (it was pretty short before), and I'm starting to wonder about cutting it. Two months ago, cutting it was out of the question, now, I'm mulling the idea. It's not the longest it's ever been, but it is getting close. I had once grown it to the length that I was sleeping on it (and thus, pulling my hair with I rolled over). See my wedding photos for a reference (which, I'm not in the mood to post, so imagine something mullet length all around).

That reminds me. Mullets. Terrible haircut. I'm worried of people thinking that I've got a mullet-do going on. Anyhow, it is getting to be a fair length, and it might just be time to consier a cut. Shorter hair seems easier to colour too. And I'm looking for a good opportunity to go blue again.

Posted 4:24 PM by Tim
It's been a long time since I even bothered to really look at them, much less play with them. I'm talking about my miniatures. I've got 400+ minis on the shelves in my room. I used to play Warhammer and 40K. I don't play so much now. One thing that I always did wrong with the minis was buy too many. I'd buy a squad, and intend to paint them completely before I bought another. But, I'd get about half way into priming them, and have bought more. So, eventually, my army grew, and the percentage of unprimed and unpainted minis grew with it.

I have three principal armies. Sisters of Battle, about 20 figures, Dark Eldar, about 150 minis, and Dark Elves, about 250 minis. The Only army completely primed is the Sisters. They're all just white, except for the Leader, who's got a tiny bit of colour on her (so she stands out). They were only about half done until a few months ago, when I figured that I might as well, finish getting them primed while I had a little free time.

The Dark Eldar were almost totally unprimed. About 120 of the 150 figs had no primer on them what-so-ever. That meant that about 15% of them were primed, and only about 2% of the army had managed to see any sort of colour (of course, they were very nicely done figures). The Dark Elves faired a little better, with about 120 of them not being painted. That amounts to only about 45% of the total army size, and many of the primed minis were actually painted.

Today, well, yesterday really, I figured that since I still had a can of spray primer, and a little bit of free time in the evenings, it would be easy to just take them downstairs, and do 10 or 20 an evening. I didn't get around to that for lack of a box. Today, however, I noticed that there was an empty box from the packs of Magic we've bought recently. So, I was all set. Just after lunch I started with the priming. Nearly all of the Dark Eldar are now primed. Only 11 minis are unprimed. This is mainly because spray primer would make too much of a mess with them, or they still need fixing in some way (one needs a head). That's pretty good. Less than 10% is now in an "unplayable" situation. I don't know if I'll get around to painting them, but I figure that a simple paint scheme should let me do a small group of them in an evening. If I get enough of them painted, maybe I'll start playing again.

Posted 10:35 AM by Tim
Working the numbers for NaNoWriMo. I'm a numbers kinda guy. Gotta figure out my numbers. 50,000 words in 30 days is 1,667 words a day. Given my commute time (total of about 3 hours), I've got to be writing about 555 words a day to meet the deadline (assuming I can get 3 hours a day on the weekends too). That means that I need to write about 10 words a minute during my work times. Simple, eh? I mean, I can type at about 40 wpm. That's 4 times as much as I need to do in order to keep on schedule. :)

This is going to be interesting, yes.

Posted 9:58 AM by Tim
Hmmm. I've been looking at this NaNoWriMo site. I've seen it on other blogs that I read. The idea is intriguing, to write a novel in the month of November. Start on November 1, and finish by November 30. 30 solid days of writing. Hmm. I wonder if I can do that. It sounds like a challenge, and I like challenges. I've got a little bit of time every morning (which I tend to spend browsing). There's no reason for me to not try it. The only hurdle - 50,000 words.

One one hand, 50,000 words seems like so much. On the other, it doesn't seem like that much. Anyhow, I've just signed up. Great adventure probably awaits! Woo. See, I'll be a fantastic writer. Besides, Storylines is full of starter information, right? Sure it is. I've just got to get writing. No, wait. I have to wait until the beginning of November. Ok. I can do that.

Posted 2:19 PM by Tim
I didn't post yesterday, so you get two posts today. This one has to do with tournament Magic, so those of you not interested in that sort of thing should probably ignore this post.

I've been thinking about the tournament scene out here in KW. It's pretty good right now. I could get a tournament in every day - if I were willing to quit my job and do nothing but Magic all the time. Anyhow, finding a weekend game seems pretty simple right now. Same goes for throw-down games, if only because Wayne lives in the same house. There's three tournaments coming up in about 2 weeks, and I'm trying to get ready for all of them. If they were all the same format that would be one thing. But they're not. They're all different. So, I'm trying to come up with three different decks, and just get everything ready. It's not easy. I think I'll drop the "creative" routine and just build what works.

Part of the problem for me is that I have a lot of ideas and I can get halfway with anything I want to build, but I'm always shy a few cards here and there to make it perfect. Wayne is always saying, "but I have 4 of those, you could use them!" but I don't want to borrow everything for a deck. That just doesn't sit well with me. I've got to go with what I have. I'm strange that way. I'll loan out all kinds of stuff, but I hate to borrow. Just me, I guess.

Posted 10:11 AM by Tim
I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but I keep getting sidetracked. I'm starting to realize that I'm not 18 anymore. I mean, I'm not old, but I'm certainly not as young as I was. I need more sleep (maybe that's the kids?), I just can't do an all-nighter anymore. With this realization comes a lot of thinking. I need to start thinking about where I want to be in the future. I'm still mostly floating along, going with the flow.

I keep thinking that I need to be planning for the future, putting all my ducks in a row, thinking about tomorrow. It makes me worried. I don't like worrying, but sometimes, you just can't avoid it. I've been mulling the facts of the future. My job only lasts another 6 weeks. After that, nothing is certain. I know that it shouldn't be too hard to find something that I can do. But I also feel like I'd like a few weeks of not working. That's not really an option though, because there just isn't any way for me to take time off and still pay bills. I suppose I could go back to school - but that won't pay the bill either.

And this is where I'm stuck. I want to do something for myself, but I can't because I've got to work to support the family and house and lifestyle we've got now. So I work, but get so little time to work on the other things. I guess I have to do it in small pieces still. Keep working in the background, and late at night. I'll figure something out.

Posted 3:21 PM by Tim
I'm glad it's Friday. That means that I don't have to go to work tomorrow. I like that feeling. I'll even get to sleep in. I've been tired all this week. And I've been off at least a day in my head. Maybe the weekend will help me sort it all out.

Posted 9:49 AM by Tim
Work has decided to change their deal with me a little. I have to give detailed time sheets now. Really, that's not that big an issue. It just means that I need to account for all of my time in the office every day. That way they can bill my cost to the departments better. I wish they had started off that way though, it wouldn't have been an issue now. I just hope they don't want me to back-date all the time sheets, because, frankly, I can't remember the number of hours I did X or Y or Z.

Posted 10:01 AM by Tim
It's Wednesday already. I'm a day off on my brain clock. I keep thinking it's Thursday.

Posted 4:31 PM by Tim
The thing about trying to write more meaningful posts is that you actually have to have something to say. I haven't found that to be the case today. I've been focusing on the job I have to do here at work, and that leaves me with very little time to appreciate the intricacies of one thing or another. All I've got is little snippets of thought in the moments between work thoughts.

I suppose those are better than nothing. First up. The sniper guy down in the Washington area. I only heard about this guy today, but it seems like he's a busy guy. 8 people in 6 days. That's a lot of shooting. 2 have lived, so he's got about a 75% kill rate. I can see him being really happy with those numbers. You can expect a lot more hits if this guy isn't caught soon. Now, for those on the victim side - there really isn't anything you could do to prevent this from happening. Even wearing a bullet-proof vest isn't enough insurance.

The sweater project is going very well. Both sleeves are done, which means that there's basically joining and finishing to do. I've got to look up (or figure out) the button sizes for the sweater, so that we can have the buttons made. After this, I've got a couple of small projects that I really want to get done up.

There's 2 new comics in my daily reading list. The first is For Better or For Worse, which is a syndicated comic that is also repeated on the internet. Of the syndicated comics out there, I find that this is probably the only one worth reading. I found out that the comic is set in Southern Ontario, and that the artist lives in Northern Ontario, which, for me, just makes the comic that much better. Next is Life of Riley (click on the Life of Riley item on the left). Life of Riley is just too cool for me. Go check it out.

Posted 10:35 AM by Tim
I've been reading over a few of the posts, and I've noticed how bland and predictible the endings of my posts are. I'm always ending with "we'll see what happens" or just sort of cutting it off. I think this is because I'm not thinking of something before I start posting most of the time. This really isn't acceptable blogging behaviour, and I'm going to work on changing it so that I'm making more sense. Or, at least being more entertaining.

Posted 10:33 AM by Tim
I'm three days into the new diet. The first day was pretty difficult. No bread and no cheese and no milk are pretty hard for someone like me (who likes all those things way too much). It's getting better, and there are a few perks to the whole thing. First, I'm eating only healthy foods now (aside from potato chips - plain, of course), and second, I'm eating less overall. This means that I'm absolutely bound to lose some weight.

We picked up the Harry Potter DVD yesterday. I was expecting a little more from it than I got. I was hoping for deleted scenes and so forth, but I didn't find any of that on the DVD. There are some very nice things on the DVD for information about how they put the whole thing together, but not a lot of info on deleted scenes, or such. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a DVD?

In other news, I'm still prepping for the big tournaments coming up this month. There are three, and all of them have a different format. That's not that big a hurdle, but it means that I'll have a little bit of trouble getting everything to work out. More testing is necessary, but I think I'll have something together soon.

Posted 2:10 PM by Tim
I've just realized that I'm 6 weeks into my current contract. That leaves me with about 6 weeks left. I should be worried. I haven't got that long before the spectre of unemployment comes up again. But, for some reason, I'm not. Unemployment doesn't seem to scare me too much.

I've got a couple of side projects that I've been too pressed for time to get started. I'm thinking a bit of unemployment might let me get them started. I mean, look at the sweater project. I had to set it aside just to get an extra hour's sleep each day. That's pressured for time, eh?

There are so many things I wish I had time to do, and so little time to get any of them done. I'm not only unsure of what to get started with, but I'm unsure of where I'd manage to find the time for it once I got started.

Posted 10:22 AM by Tim
We're looking at a milk-protein free, gluten free, casein free diet. This is supposed to help out with some of the symptoms of autism. Brenda and I are thinking that maybe my oldest and I may have some autism. As far as the symptom list goes (it's extensive), and I've got a fair number of them, at varying degrees. The oldest seems to have something similar. She's a lot like me.

Anyhow, this book suggests that some of it may be diet related (at least for mild autism). So we're going to try it out. Milk seems to be the culprit, so we've got to eliminate as much of the milk protein as possible. That includes casein and gluten - which are both milk proteins. Just to give you an idea of the foods that we aren't supposed to eat now:

Milk (pretty obvious)
Cheese, yoghurt, sour cream
Pasta (double bad on Mac and Cheese)
Breads (almost all kinds)
Cookies, Cake (really these are breads)
Ice Cream
some kinds of Potato Chips (depending on flavour)
some snack foods

There's still good things that can be eaten though. Fruit, vegetables, rice, potatoes and soy are especially prevalent in the menu. Of course, we're not giving up eggs or meat, so we're not really going vegan. I've just got to start reading labels and figuring out how I'm going to eat lunches here at work. Sure I can bring a lunch, but that's not going to be easy to do in this fast food haven.

I figure that eating this healthy will help me to lose weight (did I mention that I'm fat? I've regained about 15 pounds). A little exercise wouldn't hurt me either.

Posted 10:49 AM by Tim
Spiders.

They're one of my irrational fears. I've got it down to the point that they don't completely freak me out, and I can see them for the interesting and complex creatures they are. The tree outside our house has a resident spider. I think its doing a great job there, eating bugs and the like. There's one on the window here at work. Which is pretty impressive, considering that we're 11 stories up. We get a lot of little bugs up here. Even a butterfly or two (I'm surprised at how well they can ride the thermals).

I found a spider in the shower the other day. He was at the far end, so it didn't bother me. I moved a little further away than really necessary (they still bother me, eh), and that's when I noticed the other one on the other side of the shower. I didn't like that idea, so I had to get out of the shower and hose them both. After they were gone, I was still leary of the drain for a while. Go figure.

Posted 8:38 AM by Tim
Well, sometimes life is a little more exciting than it needs to be.

Yesterday, my daughter pulled the fire alarm at her school. There was no fire. She made a few quick, but non-intuitive logical leaps which lead to her decision to pull the alarm. Of course, the school called Brenda and myself in to talk with us about her. They're concerned that something is wrong. Of course, that makes us concerned that maybe something is wrong. We really haven't seen any other instances of this kind of thinking though.

They're suggesting we go see a pediatrician. We probably will, just to ease our minds a bit.

Yesterday was also part of this somewhat frantic information search at work here. I left work early, which pushes all of that searching to today. Woo.

While you're at it, toss on an interview thing that I had on Friday. I went to the interview, and they liked me - a lot, apparently. I'd have taken the job (there were several nice perks), but the commute would have been 2.5+ hours one way again. I didn't want to get into that, and I don't like the idea of living away (or moving the family again!). I had a nice chat with the recruiting company, and tried (for hours) to think of a set of options that would help make this job workable. Shorter hours, telecommuting, and so forth. I couldn't find anything that would be anywhere near reasonable. I had to turn the job down, which I don't like doing - but must do on occasion.

In other news, there's not that much going on. The new set for Magic is out, and I'm looking forward to owning a few dollars of cards soon. The main events coming up are things like Provincials (historically, I've gone 50-50 in the field), Bignemans and a Listowel tourney. Those are the ones I'm looking to focus on. Everything else remains to be seen.