Posted 6:55 PM by Tim
Ya... today lost some time from somewhere. I didn't get a lot accomplished. The in-laws are here. That's no problem, I like them. But, the house didn't get clean enough. Gah. My fault.

There's a tourney tomorrow, and another on the next day. It ought to be fun at least. Dunno if I'll get much else done this weekend.

Posted 11:51 AM by Tim
So, like I said on the 24, programming. I decided to go with the project that would take me some thinking. I wrote out a very brief overview of what I wanted, and then modified that to a more complete overview the next day. I started in on the programming as quickly as I could, and reached a point where I had only one class to go. That's where I am now, working on my last class for this application. There's about 8. It's a good jump for me.

I needed to learn more about classes in VB, so I started with something easy. Straight from one of my reference books - just to make sure I had the idea. From there, I moved up to trying out a custom LinkedList class. That involves only 2 classes, and they're pretty entertwined. It worked, so I decided to jump up to 8 classes, including some inheritance.

Inheritance of classes in VB6 is very stupid. Let me tell you. I prefer the Java method of doing it.

So. I'm working on this last class. It's the front for all of the other classes (well, I might expose the outside classes for functionality reasons). It's complex, and I didnt' think much about how it was supposed to interface with the application that will be using it. Lemme explain. Originally, the app didn't have this class in the design (or another class either), but it developed out of a desire to push the limits of my knowledge. I decided that it would be cool to try to do the whole thing as an ActiveX DLL. So, I needed to add a controller class to handle the main interface. Which means making changes to the other classes and changes to the design of things. Gah. This is where not planning things out fully always gets me. I try to do too much.

Anyway, the progress is good. The project was supposed to take me about 2 or 3 days. This is really only day 2, so I might be able to still swing that, though its looking less likely.

Change of topic.

Last night, I borrowed Robin Williams Live on Broadway (that's close enough to the title anyway). Funny guy. Bren loves Robin - thinks he's the funniest thing around. I like him. He's not a bad actor and he's funny. The vid isn't appropriate for anyone offended by swearing, or sex jokes. That's pretty routine for comedy vids though.

This weekend has a pair of tournaments coming up. $100 Type 1, and Bingemans. I've said enough about Bingemans already, but not a lot about Type 1. I've been out of the loop of playing tournaments because of a lack of cash, and also because of a slight fixation with Vampire: the Eternal Struggle. I can basically play a tournament game every other week. I've been playing Vampire lately because it is free. So, I haven't had a lot of time to get things in the Magic world going. This weekend will be different though.

The Boyz are probably going to be here too. The Bingemans game draws a lot of people from the area. I think Wayne and I are dragging them to the Type 1 also. FYI, for those of you just joining me. The Boyz are my brother-in-law, and any of his friends that care to tag around. They're good guys.

Other than the magic games, the weekend is pretty open. I don't think there's too much else going on.

Change of topic again.

Bren has been doing a little bit of repair work on her co-worker's computer. They've got some dead hardware that they're giving to us, so I'm looking at adding a 2.5 Gb hard drive to Rosa upstairs. That'll give her about 6.5 Gb, which will be nice. I know, it's small. I really want to add in a 40Gb drive, but I can't afford that right now. Once I get a job and dig out of debt maybe, eh?

Posted 2:58 PM by Tim
I've been getting back into the programming again. I'm working with classes in VB. I need to think of a project that I can do to get a little more experience with them, but it has to be something that's reasonably easy to do up quickly. Still, I want the project to have some practical merit.

Unfortunately, those two statements are at odds with each other. If I want something I can program quick, then I want something that I don't have to think too much about. However, if I want something that's going to have some use or merit after I'm done. That means I need to think about it. I have to plan. Design and make notes and the whole thing.

So, I want to put something together quick, but I want to think about it. Dunno how that's going to work out. What I really need to do is build something to handle appointments and keep track of contact information. I've got a fair idea of how I'd want to do it, but I don't have the interface worked out yet. That's where the thinking is likely to come in.

Posted 1:17 PM by Tim
Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter.

Every year it's the same cycle. Yeah, so what? Everyone knows that. I'm getting tired of Winter. Spring-like days have come and gone several times already. When is spring finally going to, well, spring? Friday night (even Saturday day), the ground was almost clear of snow in a lot of places, and it was practically warm out. That evening, the next day and it looks like maybe part of today it's snowed. Gah. We got a foot of snow again, and its drifted around here and there. It sucks!

I'm ready for spring - that wettest of seasons. Bring it on.

Posted 6:13 PM by Tim
Had a telemearketer call me today.

Them: "I'm authorized to offer up to three houses in your area with free home security alarms."

Me: "No thanks. We have shotguns."

Posted 9:10 AM by Tim
Tomorrow is a PA day. No school for the girls. No idea what I'm going to do with them all day.

It seems that the 12 hour estimate for those files was off... by about 2 days. Gah. I can't imagine why my transfer rate is so slow... probably something to do with the P2P networking scheme that KaZaA uses. It's a great idea, but one weak link will break the whole thing. That's probably the problem.

Anyhow, last night a friend of mine showed me the Lord of the Rings trading card game. It's not bad. I'm not sure if he let me win, or if I just managed a win. Either way, The game looks interesting. Which is a problem for me, because I tend to buy things that are interesting. Maybe I'll just wait it out and try not to get too interested.

I really like game mechanics. I've bought games just to see how the game was played. Mechanics are something that I love. Especially if they're balanced. I've designed a few games in my time, though none of them have been worthy of anything. The trouble is finding an idea that hasn't been done already as a game. There's a few things I'd love to do, but I don't think I have the time to do them right. Maybe someday.

Posted 5:03 PM by Tim
Today has been up and down. I've downloaded KaZaA Lite to try to get ahold of some episodes of TV that isn't broadcast anymore. Mostly Invader Zim and Daria. I've managed to get a few episodes, but they're huge files. It shouldn't take me 12 hours to download 30 minutes of video.

I had some issues with the sound not working right, but I eventually managed to solve that with Nimo codecs. Yay! Sound!

I can't stand the fact that good shows are taken off the air, while the mindless sludge seems to stick. Daria was a great show. Sardonic, thought invoking and cynical. I'm surprised that it aired at all, much less on MTV. Still it somehow managed 5 seasons. If only they'd produce some DVDs, I'd be buying those up quick.

Invader Zim has the right level of zanyness for me. As a quote and example: "I have invader's blood in marching through my veins. Like giant, radioactive rubber pants! The pants control me! You can't ignore my veins!" Yep. Perfect. Things are done so great with that show. I've just got to ge me some more of it.

Posted 2:33 PM by Tim
The water main is all fixed. They managed it last night. Apparently the water wasn't really off, just under low pressure all day yesterday. Maybe we're between two mains?

Anyhow, today has been nice. The girls went back to school (and I am very thankful for that), and I've had a chance to get a little cleaning done on the house. I didn't get as much time yesterday as I would have liked because there were always girls running about. No matter, a little extra time today fixes it all up.

We're out of snacks here. That's bad. I've gotten used to eating snacks (no, I'm nowhere near a weight scale) during the day. So, I'm not hungry, just peckish. Which is bothersome because there isn't anything in the house that's really snackable. I suppose I could raid the old candy, but that's not really a great idea. Oh well, I'll probably end up doing it anyway.

I've been trying to work out a little on the design for my new project. I'm so far behind on the technology that I need to learn that it isn't funny. I should have focused more on objects in VB when I had the chance. See, I'm trying to learn how to make things that work like plug-in modules. You can do them in VB. To do it, I need to know about COM. That's the trick. COM relies on objects, which is an area that still a little fuzzy when it comes to implementation in VB for me. I've got object theory out the yang, but I don't have the practical experience with building them in VB. So, its time to get back to the studies.

Posted 2:02 PM by Tim
A water main broke today. I didn't find out that the school would be closed until after we had arrived there. A nice cold walk in the morning. Just what I needed. At least we didn't have to wait around long to find out.

I don't mind having the girls home during the day. They throw off my routine (and kept me from getting a new routine started today), but not too badly. I even invited one of their friends to come over to play to take the pressure off the mom. But, the mom's work was closed - no water, no work. At least it's keeping the girls busy.

The house is a sustained mess. We left on vacation and it was still here when we got back. So much for the "elves" theory.

I managed to get a few games of Warhammer 40K on this weekend. I had hoped to show the game to a few of the guys who were interested, but that didn't pan out. Apparently, they were all busy. So I showed my brother-in-law and he enjoyed it. He got his butt handed to him, but he still liked it.

I think that I"m probably going to have to do some major repairs to the minis I took with me because I didn't pack them fanatically in foam. That was probably a mistake. Oh well, the things you do to have fun, eh?

Posted 6:27 PM by Tim
We're home! Hurray! Err... ick. This place is a mess.

My shoulder is feeling a little better, but it still twinges when I try to look to my right. Bren had to drive us home because I didn't have the ability to confidently get us around without sudden pain. Its cold again, but that's not that big of a surprise. Seems like I left the house on 0 while we were gone, and that's pretty much where it is right now. I'm going to have to turn on all of the space heaters to make the house warm again.

I'm back to worrying about how I'm going to fit all of the things I want to do into the time that I have to do them. And, of course, I've got to arrange them around all of the things that I need to get done. Now, it's not that I haven't got the time to do things (I know I've got the time somewhere), but it's that I have so many things that I want to do that its difficult to pick something to do.

The top priority stuff right now has to be the things that will get me employed, or that have a chance of making me some money. Our financial situation isn't great, and its not getting any better on its own. The things that are most likely to make me any money are programming and crochet. They're certainly not in the same bracket as far as money goes, but they're the best leads that I have right now.

After that would have to be the things that bring me to most joy. That's got to be my games, sculpting and painting. The programming and crochet just happen to make me happy, so that's a good thing.

Somewhere after that has to be the things that make me a better person. That's exercise and learning. I've got to upgrade Rosa a tad to make her work a little harder. That way I can finally get started using VB.NET. Buying a book on that will be next on the list after everything else.

So, I just need to take a little time to organize my thoughts and I should be fine.

Posted 6:39 PM by Tim
So we went to the in-laws this weekend. I slept wrong and put some kind of huge kink in my neck. It's been paining all day. They've convinced me to wear a neck brace, which I find to be a bit of a hassle. The pain has moved from twinging pain to a constant light pain. I'm not sure which I prefer.

I do wish that I hadn't slept however I managed to last time. If there's anything that I can do to fix it tonight, you can expect me to do it.

Posted 2:09 PM by Tim
Ok. I've mulled it a bit and here are some of the things that I liked in The Lost Boys:

The vampire hunters go to take on the vampires during the day. This is when the vampires are asleep, weakest and least able to defend themselves. They actually manage to stake one.

When the vampires are trying to kill the main guy, they pull the vampire into the sunlight - who bursts into flame immediately.

The vampire hunters are brazen enough to go into a church and steal the holy water - no explanation given.

The hunters are also willing to use a number of things to kill the vampires. Garlic, holy water, stakes, arrows and such. Versatility and inventiveness.

The grandfather knows what's going on and doesn't seem to care. Great lines. "You know the rule about filling the tank when you take the car without permission?"

Things I wasn't so impressed with:

The vampires are all stupid. They're rather petty about getting back at people, and go full tilt after people who have had time to prepare for them. Very stupid. Rather than sticking together and taking out the people in an orderly fashion, they simply attack at random, and end up getting killed one by one (don't mean to spoil the movie for you - but it was release in the 80s or something so most people have probably seen it).

The head vampire is also very stupid. Rather than playing it safe and biding his time, he causes a scene, which, inevitably gets him killed.

The vampire hunters are obviously inexperienced and have no clue how to take out a full horde of vampires. Not to say that I'd do any better, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out a way to reflect sunlight into the cave.

All told though, I enjoyed the movie. Worth a rental on a horror night. Its not too scary, so you can use it as a warm-up movie.

Posted 12:33 PM by Tim
I've just finished watching The Lost Boys. This was a recommendation and loan from a friend of mine. Its not a bad movie. I enjoyed it. Not even that scary really, which is good because I'm not very good with scary movies.

While it isn't a bad movie, it also isn't a great movie. Like I said, the movie isn't bad. I enjoyed it. But I didn't fall in love with it. There are some things that I didn't care for in the movie. Most of it was how incredibly contrived it all felt. If you can put that aside, though, you'll enjoy it more.

Posted 8:30 AM by Tim
I was going to post yesterday about how time seems to be passing so quickly. I'm finding that my girls are getting bigger faster than I expected. I'm not worried by it - I'm fascinated.

It's not just that they're developing their own sense of style (though that's limited by the kind of clothes available in their wardrobe). Or that they're wanting to to do more things on their own. But they've got their own way of dealing with things. Their own way of speaking, and more. Of course, I know that this is just the beginning. There's so many things coming. I suppose that I'm just going to have to watch and wait.

Posted 4:31 PM by Tim
I've got a really slight lead on a possible job. I really need something to work out.

Posted 1:40 PM by Tim
So, we're still trying to find me some kind of good work. It's not working out too well. I think we may have to go with drastic measures.

Posted 12:14 PM by Tim
I like candles. I've usually got at least one buring through the day. It's not that expensive if you're willing to pay the cash for the really big triple wick ones. They seem to last a really long time. One of the three in the house burnt out yesterday. I think it's the second of the big ones that I've burnt out. This one has been with us for probably a year or so. It wasn't being burnt all that time though. Small children and all that.

While I was visiting home, one of my friends had done a really nice bit with tea-lights on his living room wall. He had about a dozen or so lit up. Apparently, this is a pretty normal thing for him. I wish I could do the same, but we have the children and the whole budget thing.

Posted 2:29 PM by Tim
There's a thing about really liking webcomics. Some of them are rather difficult to explain to someone who doesn't know much about them.

Sometimes, the trouble is from the length of the archives. Take a comic like Sluggy Freelance. It's been around forever (well, by webtime it has). The archives are so massive that it's difficult to explain exactly what the comic is about.

If it isn't the archive length, sometimes it's the subject matter. Take Chopping Block (currently on hiatus). It's about a serial killer, and the humourous things that happen to him. Yeah. Sounds like I'm a nut-bar, eh?

Other times, it's the name of the comic that causes the problem. I mean, it's difficult to say that I'm really into The Devil's Panties or that I really like Sex and Violence. It's even harder to say it while keeping a straight face.

Anyhow, I like my webcomics. No matter what they're called.

FYI, you should check out Keenspot. It's got a lot of cool comics.

Posted 8:28 AM by Tim
We're still working out the difficulties of our current cash situation, so I've been thinking about money. "How to get it" has been the main area of thought.

The tournament idea (from yesterday) will earn me some money, but not a lot. I'm still trying to build up a little bit of stock for sale at the craft market, but that's a pretty slow process right now. I've had a few more thoughts about things that I could make to get me a little farther ahead on the stock, but I've got to have the time to implement the ideas.

I'm still thinking about programming something that I can sell. I've been falling behind on my developer skills, so I need to start doing something with that also.

Somehow, this money crunch is leading me towards a little bit of a hobby meltdown. There's so many things that I want to do with my day, and I'm finding it so hard to get organized to do any of them. I guess I've just got to start figuring out a way to combine all my favourite hobbies into some massive, uber-hobby. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Posted 2:34 PM by Tim
So, yesterday, Bren suggested something to me. Run a tournament. A series of them was the suggestion.

About a month or so ago, Wayne and I hosted a little tourney out in Bren's hometown. Her brother played, as did a number of other people. It was a good game. Prizes were given out, we all visited the local card shop afterwards, and a good time was had. It garnered a tiny profit (I won't say how much, but I will say that I could probably have gotten a burger and fries). So, she suggested that we do it again.

My mind is thinking on this. A tournament every month, with some prize support from the hosts (me, and maybe the card shop), seems like a good idea. The profits are marginal, yeah, but not only would I be getting some practical judging experience, but I'd be giving everyone a place to play some more serious magic, and so on. I'm thinking that I could even take a binder of cards out with me and do some sales/trading. Maybe even some comission stuff from the people out here to the people up there. If the tourneys get popular enough, we might even see people from Barrie drop in.

Personally, I like the idea. I've got some cards I can use as starter prizes, and some cash I can probably push towards that direction. It'd be pretty easy to get started. I've just got to see who else is interested.

Posted 2:03 PM by Tim
Being home has given me a chance to reflect on my life. Both as it is, and as it might have been.

I occasionally wonder about what my life would be like if I hadn't had children, or gotten married. I tend to come to the same conclusion each time. Lonely. I might not fully realize it, of course, but I figure that I'd be pretty lonely. And horny, of course. Can't forget that.

Taking a little walk around the town gave me a good impression of what my life would be like if I still lived at home. I'd probably have some dead-end job down at the huge supermarket, and be happy to get my $8 an hour. I'd probably spend a lot (too much) of my money on cards from Wilkie's store (where everything is marked up 100%!) Then there's always hanging out with my friends. Of the people that I knew from high school, there's about 5 still in the area that I'd be really happy to be hanging around. A car would be out of the question, and that means that I'd have to get used to walking everywhere (or be willling to take the taxi around). I gotta say, it's not an inviting picture so far.

Not to discourage anyone still at home, but I don't think that it would help my confidence to go back to my hometown and live there again (read: I'd feel like a big loser).

As for life here in KW, I'm fine with it. There's bits I could do without, but that doesn't mean that I don't like it here.

Posted 6:37 PM by Tim
Being home has been nice. It's shown me a few things too. Like, how glad that I am that I don't live here all the time. I mean, you have to get me right. Being here has been really great. Seeing all my friends has been super. But, I don't think that I'd adjust too easily to life back here at the town. Today was my day by myself. Spent some time with Dad, and managed to get out a bit and take a nice walk around the town. Like the song says, the streets don't change.

I was by Wilkie's store here. I'm not worried about telling people about it, because, frankly, you're not going to buy anything from the place. It's overpriced, or bad condition, and well, it's on the low end of card shops and hobby stores. Of course, it's the only one in town, so you have to go into the city, or get it from there. That's all there is too it. I did make a minor purchase there. Some older cards that were reasonably priced and unavailable in the area that I'm in usually.

From there, I decided to take a stroll through the little mall that's here. Which, I used to think of as "fair sized" when I lived here. It's not. Anyhow, the mall hasn't changed much. Bargain stores are the biggest things in there, next to the Zellers. There's a number of stores simply closing up and going away. Nothing to be done about them, really. They're either under too much competition, or too little. The food court is still there, which doubles (and doubled in my day) as the only real gathering place for people in high school that don't have cars. I was thinking to myself that this means that the people who are hanging out there now were in grades 2, 3, and 4 when I shunned the place for being too tacky when I was in grade 12. That's really dating me I think. Hey, I'm still young and stupid, I just feel older now.

After that, I went for a nice walk to the strip mall near the mega-food-store. The big super store has become the only place to bother buying anything at all it seems. Anyhow, a Subway has managed to open up in the strip mall. That's new to me, but nice, I suppose. It's pretty much assured that the food in a Subway will taste the same as you remember from the last Subway. Hey, you'll probably even be able to pick out the seat in the same spot as at any other place. It's all cookie-cutter places. No matter, I had a sub anyway. It wasn't bad - which was what I expected.

I've been subtly inspired to get back to work on the novel. It's interesting editing. It's the same book, but bits of it are changing as I go through it. I'm hoping that the new version will be better. I've got this sneaky feeling that no matter what, it's going to get longer too. Additional descriptions, longer resolution on plot points and such will do that to you.

I've somehow managed to make 3 hours of computer time (on account) at this little internet cafe stretch all week long. I tend to use 3 hours of time in the hours between 7 and 12 AM Monday morning. This has been a major accomplishment if you look at it the right way. It's also probably cost me as much as simply buying DSL service for the house would have. Gah. I need my internet.

I'm looking forward to getting home again. After all, it'll be nice to at least have a chance of having sex with my wife. No privacy for those sleeping out in the living room. Everyone is up until about 12, and awake for the next morning before you know it. Sleep is the word out here. That's fine with me though. I think I needed to catch up on my morning sleep anyway.

I've been starting to miss the gaming too. I mean, I mentioned it yesterday, but I'm really starting to miss flopping the cards on the table and getting into the game. I'm going to have to figure something out to balance all the things that I want to do with my morning time, and my evenings. I simply don't have the time to game every evening (though in some ways it would be nice).

Oh yeah, I've been looking at the morning routine for when I get back home. Basically, I'm thinking that the time that I waste in the morning could probably be used to work on the novel. This would keep me to a 5-day-a-week editing schedule, which should do pretty well for getting the novel edited and ready before the April deadline for that contest. Also, there's looking for a publisher, which I figure should be as easy as walking into a bookstore and flipping to the front page of another cyberpunk novel. That might get me somewhere. It's a start anyway.

After the girls have gotten to school, I've been trying to get a little bit of exercise into my day. I think I'm going to need to start some yoga or tai-chi to get the muscles streatched out instead. Then it'd be a little weight training and then looking for work or working on crafts or something. After that, it's lunch, and then I can really get into the housecleaning for the day. Laundry and such would have been started in the morning before any of the exercises, and probably upkept during the morning. Gah. The life of the lifeless, eh? What's there to do but plan. We'll see how everything turns out when I get home, right?