Posted 12:30 PM by Tim
Hey there!

For those of you wanting to know (and from all accounts, it seems like that's just me), Storylines is not dead. It's merely on really long hiatus. Yeah. A break. I'll get to it eventually.

News on the home front. Snow. Lots of snow up home. Makes the morning drive a lot more treacherous. Woo. It also adds about 30 mintues to the experience.

Laptops. I'm nearly ready to buy. This is normal. I'll want something, consider it, review all the options, and then after much bothering of the sales staff, follow up with a purchase. Usually. I'm nearly ready to buy a laptop now, I've just got to check a few other places for price comparisons.

Project-wise. Rather than hem and haw at a name for some of my projects, I've decided to go with codenames. That way they're funny and useful at the same time. I can decide on a real name later, but still manage to get work done under the codename. Big corps do this all the time, so I see it as emulating the larger corps, really.

Alright. News and opinion time. I've been reading the newspapers here in TO, looking at this and that. I've found the comics page to be quite interesting. First, most of the comics don't fit well with me. They're bland rehashes, bad jokes and poor constructions overall. I suppose that I'm too stuck on webcomics (which seem more alive somehow). Second, I've discovered the comic "Joey." Now this, is an interesting comic. Basically, the main character is about 7 lines and a few colours. Nothing complex at all. Background art is minimalist also, and there's really very little in the way of storyline. Actually, it seems quite similar to Calvin and Hobbes, less the tiger and with fewer lines. What gets me is this: I've been thinking about a webcomic for a while, and I want to put out something that's interesting to read, nice to look at and probably follows a storyline. I can't draw well enough (and haven't much time to devote to learning how to draw better) to do a comic to my satisfaction. But seeing this "Joey" comic makes me think. Maybe I don't need to make something look ultra-realistic to get the point across?

So, I'm mulling the idea of a once-a-week schedule comic. This would come out on Monday, probably, and would give me all week to think of a comic, plan it, draw it, scan it, do post-production, and post. Seem simple enough? Yeah, sure, why aren't you doing it then? The biggest hurdle left for this is a premise. I need an idea. I've had a few ideas for one-shot comics before, but to actually stick to a schedule and keep the interest level there, I'd need to run something with a bit of a story in it. I get carried away when I think of stories sometimes.

This bring me back to Storylines. I figure that I might be able to convert one of those into a comic, but I could never do the story justice artistically, so I figure I'd have to go with something new. Give me some time to think about it...

FYI, I found that there is a comic that uses "Agent Cain" already. Not quite the same as "Agent Kain" but close enough to have me scrap it. We'll see what happens. I figure it'll be at least a week of thinking and such before I know anything. Keep checking back.

Posted 3:54 PM by Tim
Now and then I wander the net in a random fashion. There are several ways I do this. The most common, and best traveled, is to follow the links on someone else's page until you get somewhere interesting. The next most common, is to go to Google and type in a subject I've been thinking about, like Fencing, or how to create classes in VB, or what's in a hamburger bun. You know, stuff. This usually leads me to interesting places. Lastly, and certainly the most dangerous and random, is to type in a random site - just to see what's there. Like www.hell.com, or www.stupid.com.

Today, in a burst of sheer random, I typed in www.gwah.com. It exists. And they blog. Everywhere there is blog. Sweet. Gwah!

While I'm on this vein, I should say that www.evil.org exists, but it's not very interesting. Just thought I'd let you know.

Posted 9:58 AM by Tim
Monday, Monday. Canada wins gold in the Men's Ice Hockey. Woo! Yeah. I actually watched the game. I spent the breaks installing some RAM and a new sound card. Canada gets the gold, HELGA gets a new bit of memory and the ability to play sounds again. Sweet.

What to say in the blog today? Ah, yes, I know. Laptops. Not that I want to replace ROSA (who came home yesterday), but I could definately use something a little more mobile. I've been looking at laptops for a while now, and thinking about what I'm looking for in a system. I've finally been given the go ahead to get one - as long as it's under $1000. Alright. So, I've been thinking.

First, I should decide if a laptop is going to be more functional than me not having one at all. That's certainly the cheapest option, yes? Right, so what advantage will I have with having one? Well, some of the advantages are that I'll be able to code from any place in the house, or while commuting. That effectively adds 4 hours a day to my coding time (assuming I have a battery that'll give me that much time). I'll also be able to write documentation, or books while on the go. Also a good thing. A disadvantage is that I'll need enough space to open the laptop, and I'll have to carry it around with me when I go somewhere. That means I'll need a bag for it, spare battery, power supply, CDs and disks. That's in addition to the standard backpack weight that I carry to work already. A little hefty probably, and I end up being one of those people carrying a bunch of bags to and from work. A single heavyweight bag could take the whole thing, but I'd have to make or buy one of those.

Alright. So, it looks like the laptop might be a reasonable expense. The extra weight is an inconvenience, and the added programming time every day will be very benificial - more so than trying to scribble in a notebook anyhow.

So, the next question is, "is a laptop more effective than, say, a palmtop?" The palmtop system is smaller, cheaper and potentially as useful. I can still do some scripting (notes and so forth), but I can't actually do any coding. The palm would be better for taking quick notes (no startup time), and for tracking appointments, etc. Of course, my cell phone can handle appointments and I can make notes if I need to. Hmmm... almost seems like I need both! :) Of couse, that'd be one more electronic thing to take to and from work. As it is, I'm carrying my CD player, and a cell phone. Not a lot of stuff, but toss on the laptop and then a palm and we're starting to look pretty loaded. I don't think I need both. I just need a system that will let me do my coding, and probably handle a great whopping load of mp3s.

I tend to have a lot of demands on technology that I buy. It has to do what I want it to do, or it's not worth the trouble. For example, my CD player. It needed to be virtually skip free, even if I take it out for a run. I have to be able to drop it, and not have it wipe out (I have dropped it, and it continued to play - even though the CD had popped out of the thing... woohoo anti-skip!). Another example is my cell phone. I've already stated what it needed to do in an earlier post, but basically, it needed to work anywhere, even if I were buried by concrete, be durable enough to be dropped from shoulder height and not break, store numbers, display callers, and so forth. I think I got what I was looking for.

A laptop would need to be at least as good as ROSA, in all respects. 128Mb RAM, 4GB HD, CD-ROM, colour screen of about 15", with a battery life of at least 4 hours, and hopefully with an unloaded weight of 6 to 7 pounds. I'm not asking for much, am I? Also, I need a spare battery, power pack and charger, all built in. It'd be really nice if I had a network card and floppy drive too. Yeah. I gotta head down to the shop and ask them if they have anything like that.

Posted 2:04 PM by Tim
I missed my alarm this morning. Let me run the story back a bit to yesterday. Yesterday, I left the house later than usual. 5:40AM. This got me to the bus with very little time to spare, and required a lot more highway speed to get there. 10 minutes is a lot of time. So, I resolved to leave the house by 5:30 for sure.

Now back to this morning. My 4:30AM alarm did not manage to wake me. Not until 5:45 did I spring from my bed. You can see how this relates to yesterday. I'm dressed and ready in under 5 minutes, but now I'm leaving 20 minutes later than usual. I didn't think I'd make the bus. The application of extreme speeds and hyperjets managed to get me there exactly 1 minute earlier than the bus. Woo. Close one that. Apparently the bus was running just slightly late. I am now very resolved to leave earlier.

I've found a parking spot in Barrie where I can leave the car all day. Only $2 for a whole day of parking. Very reasonable. For those of you stalking me, I leave nothing valuable in the car, so don't bother messing with it. Thanks! Actually, leave me a note on the windshield, and I'll hook you up with a signature or something.... whatever.

Ok. The commute between Midland and TO has been a little rough, but it's survivable. I can sleep, or write, or read, or do whatever I want really - as long as I don't bother the other passengers. There's at least 1 person who brings a laptop to do some work on. I Fi ever get a laptop, I'll probably do the same.

This brings me to my next bit. I found a laptop store in the underground. Some very cheap laptops. Very cheap in some cases. I'd need to find out a little more on the specs, but I can so see me getting something done with a good one. We will see what we can find out.

Posted 9:11 AM by Tim
Olympic Hockey. What a sham.

Let's look at this, ok? If I say the Canadian Olympic Hockey team, everyone thinks about the dozen or so burly men recruited personally by Mr. Gretzky, right? Of course. No thought to the Women's Olymic Hockey team. Lets look at the stats here people! The Men's team, supposedly the greatest team around, has lost, tied and scraped wins out of games. The Women's team, however, virtually unknown, has totally dominated. Winning games 5-1, and basically commanding the ice.

The Men's team (nobody calls it that of course), is playing tonight for a chance at a medal. The Women's team plays today, for the gold. Does anyone care? I do, but that's about it. Like I said, what a sham.

To keep on this topic right now, what about this Mats Sundin guy? He was solidly kicking our butts, and there was nothing the Canadian Men's team could do about it. Its too bad that such a popular player has to endure the hassles of these Olympics. I mean, he goes from being loved by people in Canada (he's a good player), to being hated for scoring against the Canadian team (a lot!). Of course, now that his team has lost and is out of the competition, most people are probably thinking, "serves him right for playing against us," even though the Canadian team did not beat his team.

Sham. That's all I gotta say.

Posted 4:54 PM by Tim
Blah. Another day. Not that days are bad, per se, just that there's not much relief from them.

Been thinking about saving up some cash for Origins. I should find a link for that, but I won't. If you're a gamer, and you haven't ever been to a con, Origins is a good one to attend. If you have been to a con, and you haven't done Origins, then you haven't lived... unless of course, you attend things like GenCon, or any of the other massive cons around the world - in that case, you have lived, and you're probably not missing too much.

Whoo. That's a digression, eh? But still, the point is, I gotta save me some money. I figuer that the con will cost me between $1000 and $1500 bucks, if I front all the costs myself. It should be less if I'm a little more thrifty (like going for fewer days, or staying somewhere cheap). We'll see how that all works out.

Last year I missed every single panel and demo. I only played games. Of course, I played a lot of games, but I did miss out on the panels. I'm planning to try to get a few more panels in this year. We'll see once the big book of events comes out though.

I'm trying to convince a few other people to come along to help defray the total costs, but we'll see who can be get the time off, and who has the cash to front. Of course, I've got over 4 months to save, but it's best to be prepared. :)

That's all for now, I'll probably go into more details later.

Posted 8:52 AM by Tim
Scary image today. On the train, I was looking out the window, and thought that I saw a man hanging from a crane. I really can't confirm it though. I don't have any cause to disbelieve what I saw, but then, it does seem a little odd. I'm going to be checking the news for any info on it today though. Just so I can chalk it up to imagination or something else.

I took a different route today. I'm not sure if it took me less time or more time, but I'm starting to think that it's more. Besides, I'm getting in to work later, and that's not as good as I'd like.

Not much happened this weekend. I played about with that "kill everyone" project some, and racked up 10,000 kills. That's a lot of wasted time. That's actually more people than live in my hometown. So, I suppose I could say I've wiped them out, eh? I know, a lot of death imagery today... sometimes, that's how it is.

Posted 8:57 PM by Tim
So, have I made a decision yet? Well, not entirely, but I'm close. All the options hinge on one major selling point. Commute time. Kitchener has a striking lead with only 2.5 hours per day. Not bad really. But, I've discovered a way to cut 30 minutes each trip from Midland. That pushes the total commute time to about 3 hours. All else being equal, Kitchener would have a slight lead - but things aren't equal.

Midland still has a number of advantages, not the least of which is being near my family. So, for now, it looks like I'll be sticking it out with Midland.

I hate tipping my hand, but Bren and I are seriously looking at a number of business ventures. We're thinking of getting some serious business going here, or somewhere with a similar demographic. I will say that we've been looking at places to put an actual place of business. I don't want to go into details right now, since I do like to have some surprises.

For those wanting to know the little details, I did sleep in today. Got 4 hours of overtime resting in. So I was awake by 7:30, but that's fine.

I'm on the lookout for more RAM for Helga. She received a minor lobotomy before the start of the year, and has been sluggish and unresponsive ever since. I'm hoping to hop up another 32 or 64 Mb, to get the speed back, or improve performance somewhat. I figure that the chips shouldn't be too expensive, but they may be hard to find.

The phone has been useful, even though I have yet to answer a call, or speak on it myself. I've checked out the "mobile web" with it, and frankly, it's far too slow for anything important. I'd have a much better time simply not knowing, or making a call to someone with a net connection. I suppose I could see the use for it, if I really didn't have any other place to get my information from, or maybe for driving directions?

All the same, it's been useful. The built in games have been reasonably distracting, and I'm sure I'll find a use for the calculator, calendar and alarm clock functions. Especially the alarm clock.

On a really odd note, I found this: http://homokaasu.org/killeveryone/ It's strange and sadistic enough to be funny.

Posted 8:56 AM by Tim
Friday. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Fridays are nice.

Yesterday, to get the storytelling out of the way, I purchased a cell phone. Against my more vehement statements. I feel connected again somehow. I figure it's euphoria of some kind. Strangely, I wasn't affected by buyer's remorse, which I do get so often. Maybe because it's a justifiable expense?

In case anyone's wondering, I got another Nokia, their 9100 series, which went on sale the day before I committed to buy. Very nice phone it seems. A lot of features and things to play with. We'll see how it holds up under the conditions I put a phone through.

It's decision time again. I need to figure out what to do about commuting. Again, there are two main options, which have sub-options in them. Mainly, the decision rests between living in Kitchener and commuting from there. And living in Midland and commuting from there. Both sides have good and bad points. As I tend to do, let me use the internet as a sounding board.

The Midland option is good because I get to be home with the family. Of course, the girls are in bed by the time I get home, and I'm only awake for an hour (of which part of that is taken with eating supper, ironing and brushing my teeth). The commute gets me in to work early enough to do a 9 hour day. It's a bit more expensive than Kitchener, and I'm not able to sleep as much on the way in (well, I am if I get driven to Bradford).

The Kitchener option is good because the commute is fairly cheap and accessable. I'm still able to work about 9 hours a day. I get home a little earlier, and don't need to wake up so early. However, I'm away from the family all week, and only see them if I'm willing to hop between locations on the weekend. On the good side, I do get to compete in a regular magic game each week. Though I get to run D&D from the Midland location on the weekends. Of course, I'm imposing on Wayne the entire time, and incurring an additional rent cost while I'm there.

There's a lot to be said one way or the other. Good and bad things for each part. I think we're going to have to look into this very seriously this weekend and decide.

On to a bit of other babble about my live and the lives of others. One friend of mine is still living the adverture life in Quito. Pretty cool really. I get an email from him every so often about his travels. Much too cool. Another friend of mine has just finished his work in the USA and is trying to get more work there soon. I hope he finds it. In another part of the world, back much closer to home, my brother-in-law hooked up with a young girl and they're going out. Good for him.

This brings me to a short rant about sex. Well, sex and condoms. With Valentine's day come and gone (no pun there), I was thinking about buying my bro-in-law a 3 pack, for his personal use. I figure that this would have been a bad idea though, as the parents (mom- and dad-in-law) would have flipped. Not to mention the wife and her sister. I don't think they're ready for the idea of him and sex yet. Which is probably too bad, given that I figure he's gonna need something before too long. Then again, maybe that's not what he's interested in - though it would be hard (again, no pun), given the group he hangs out with right now. Alright, enough of that.

Glah.

This week has been pretty busy as far as work is concerned. I'm only hoping that I've done a job good enough to be kept on. I'm liking the work, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out if I'm working in the right direction. I hope that it'll become clearer soon.

That's all for now boys and girls, tune in next time...

Posted 8:17 PM by Tim
I've been doing the long commute thing for a while now. Basically my day goes like this: Get up at 3:30AM, shower, eat and dress for work. Leave by 4:30 to drive an hour to the Train. Take the train at 6:15, for about 1.25 hours to arrive at work for 7:30AM. Work until 5:00PM, to catch the 5:15 train back to where I left my car. Then it's just the hour home from there. That puts me home by 7:30PM, so that I have between 30 and 90 minutes before conking out and going to bed. Pretty straightforward, eh?

Getting into Toronto early is different from getting there later. When the train arrives a number of other trains arrive too, so there's a lot of people trying to fit through about 6 doors. This means that it has the look and feel of a slaughterhouse opening. Move slowly, and squeeze in next to everyone else. It gets better as you get going, but there's still a good crowd until I get near my work. I use the stairs, unlike most people, so there's not as much waiting.

The evening is much the same for getting to the train in the evening. A lot of people, and me only having about 15 minutes to get there. I've been making it in time lately, but if I ever get delayed, I'm going to have trouble.

The other commute wasn't much better overall. The timing was a little better, but not a lot better. I'm going to have to make a decision about what kind of commute I'm going to go with soon.

Posted 8:21 AM by Tim
Ok. Blogging from work. We'll see what I've got to write today. I'm worried that I'll lose the blog, so I'm trying not to say anything too interesting. :)

What can I say. The new commute route isn't very easy on the day. Much like I figured, I'm up at about 3:30, away from the house about 4:30 or so, and off on the train. I then arrive at work for 7:30, and am basically stuck at work until at least 4:45 or so. The arrival at home has been about 7:30, giving me all of 30 minutes before the brain moves into shutdown mode. This goes all week. The weekend should be different, but I'm not seeing how I can arrange something different. I suppose that I get all that working time between 4AM and 8AM when people start moving about, but that's going to be harsh on the daylight time for me. I'll have to figure out something.

And now, a short rant on the cell phone:

About three years ago, I bought a cell phone because I needed to stay in touch with people, and I needed to get any business calls. To make sure that I had a good phone, I bought a Nokia. It's a nice phone, good weight, good sound, features that are cool, and it was Digital/Analog. That meant that I could go all over and still get a decent reception and useage. I had to turn the phone off for about 1.5 years while I was in the USA. Nobody there would even look at my existing phone for service. Well, that's not entirely true. They'd hook up my phone, but it would cost me about $70 for the hookup, plus about $250 deposit (or more in some cases) on my credit card, plus service fees and a minimum 1 year commitment.

Well, I couldn't commit to a year. That was far too long for a 6 month contract which I figured would see me leaving the country. I mean, how much would it suck to have a phone that I'm paying for in Cleveland while trying to get service in Ontario. Talk about roaming charges.

So, I'm finally back in Toronto, and I figure that I can get my phone working again. This way I can keep in touch with home while I'm away, etc. I ask a few local places. One place says they can't do anything for my phone - but they're happy to sell me one. The other says that they can hook up my phone for me (if they can find someone to do the software flash), but downtown toronto doesn't support the 800MHz Digital frequency my phone uses. That would leave me with Analog signal anywhere in the GTA. Of course, the fact that most of the time I'm going to be inside buildings, underground, or in server rooms leaves that option no better than not having the phone. Apparently, the GTA uses a 1900MHz Digital/Analog system, while the rest of Ontario uses the 800MHz Digital/Analog system. The company, predictably, was only too happy to offer to sell me a new phone which had the triple modes, so it could work anywhere.

Now, I can't begrudge the salespeople for doing their job - but I can comment. If someone is trying to sell you a phone, they're going to try to push the most "advanced" phone loaded down with a ton of features, and also loaded with a bucket of phone options. Were I to get a new phone, I'd probably go with the Nokia (they make good phones) 9100 series. Basic phone with slightly better options than what I've got now. And a $99 pricetag. Almost affordable. Of course, the salesman wants me to get the $600+ phone, which has silly things like voice dialing (I can push the buttons myself, and with preset numbers it's only 2 buttons!!), network options, pager hookups, speakerphone, laser death rays and teleporter. Ok. The death rays and teleporter don't exist, but they'd be cool, eh?

But, I haven't reached the best part. The programs! Once you have a cell phone, you've just bought a very expensive bit of plastic (or metal). Without a cell phone plan, it's nothing. Just ask me and phone I have now. In general, a cell phone plan gives you a number of minutes of time, which you use up like nobodys business. Here downtown, you're paying about $10 for every 100 minutes of time. Not to mention the extra $0.35 or somewhat less you'll pay for each minute you go over. The best part are the hidden costs (they're not really hidden, they're mentioned really quickly, or printed in really small print somewhere). Normally, the hidden costs are hookup ($35 or so), access fees ($6.50/month or so), long distance (you didn't think you could call anywhere did you?), and any other sundry fee they want to charge you. Not to mention the monthly bill. If you're daring, you're likely to find that it'll cost you about $10/month more to have a monthly plan. Just don't let your service lapse, or you'll have to pay the hookup fee again.

All that being said, I figure that I'll probably end up shelling out the $170.5 ($99 for phone + $35 hookup + $6.50 access fee + $30 first month bill) for a new phone sometime this week or next. And I'll probably sign up for a year of this kind of hassle.

Posted 7:58 PM by Tim
Short blog today. Tournament went off, and I did alright. Not nearly what I expected, nor what I was hoping for, but alright.

Work tomorrow. Should be interesting getting there, since I'm headed a different way for the commute. Gotta drive to Bradford, and then take the train in to TO proper. Should take me an extra 40 minutes or so over the other commute (one way), but there are other perks to take advantage of, like a bigger bed and someone to snuggle with when I get home.

I'll go into a bit of detail on the tournament. I went 5-5 in the open play portion. I lost at least 2 games due to bad plays on my part, and the others were legit losses. The second part was the ladders, and I went 1-1, since it was single elimination. My first round opponent in the elim ladders didn't show, so that's my win.

That's all for tonight.

Posted 9:06 PM by Tim
Ghar. I keep losing blogs from work. I'll have to constrain myself to being satisfied with blogging from home. Anyhow, work is going well and unfortunately, that's all I have time to say tonight.

Posted 7:53 AM by Tim
Ok, so today is going to be a pretty busy day today. Three meetings this morning, and we'll see where that leaves the afternoon. Now that I have a security pass, getting in to work early isn't a problem. Before the pass, I had to sit and wait until someone managed to let me in.

Wayne informs me that my punctuation was especially poor yesterday. He's right. Too many commas. I love the comma, and so I use it a lot. Probably more than I should. No matter - everyone will have to live with my random punctuation skills! Woohoo! ;:"{}@@#

That's enough of that.

This weekend is shaping up to be pretty busy itself. I've got to get home on Friday night, run a game Saturday night, and then go to a tourney (no deck ready yet!) on Sunday, then get back to work on Monday. With the sleep pattern being what it has been, this is going to be pretty interesting.

Posted 1:23 PM by Tim
Day 2 of work. Don't expect me to count. I'm not likely to remember.

I started work on the 4, which, incidentally is also my birthday. Neat day to start if you ask me, which you didn't, but I like to provide. Anyhow, the work environment seems pretty nominal here, both in load and demands. Overall, I get to start when I want, within reason, and end the day 8ish hours later. See, lunch isn't paid, so at the worst, I'm working 7.5 hours and taking the lunch, or working longer, and taking a few more hours, or more lunch or something.

Internet seems to be nice so far, if a tad slower than I've come to expect from a corp (likely due to increased load from multiple focused user requests). I've yet to hit upon a restriction, but I haven't been trying to find one. Besides not being on the net very much, things are working out pretty well overall.

I've had to rotate the sleep schedule a little to get into the new workday. I was sleeping from about 12AM to about 8 or 9AM (or occasionally later), now I'm getting started at 4:30AM, so that moves the sleep time towards 10PM or somewhat earlier. This should be fine, once I get used to it.

There's more I want to say, but no time for it. Maybe later.

Posted 11:58 AM by Tim
I played a bit of the new D&D. It's not bad, but a little confusing overall. There's a load of new rules to go with. I'm thinking about starting a campaign. The boyz here take turns running and playing in different games. So far, they seem a tad disjointed - but that's just based on what they're saying about what they've done. I was going to run an impromptu mission for them, but I couldn't get my head around their power level. Let me elaborate:

The party would have 4 members. One of them is a level 14 Monk, with a load of options, feats, over 140 HP, and accompanied by a Gold Dragon. Another is a level 10 Cleric, with a sword that instantly slays undead, spells all over the place (including ressurection), over 100 HP and accompanied by a Black Dragon familiar. Another is a Sorceror, at 10th level, with 60ish HP and regeneration, with an enspelled 8th level Ogre Mage and a Brass Dragon. Last is a 10/4 multiclass Sorceror/Fighter with a Blue Dragon, an unbreakable crystal sword (magical of some kind), and who knows what all else. If Brenda would have played she would have been an 8th level druid with 36 HP and no magical stuff at all.

How do I manage to balance out an adventure for them? The simplest method is just to assume that they're already too far gone and to start fresh with new 3rd level characters. Those should go better, since I'll be able to figure out a way to balance the games. We'll see how it all works out.

Posted 10:23 AM by Tim
Its February. I've always liked this month. Indian Summer and all that. Well, that's a derogatory term, but it's what I heard while growing up. Basically, it should act like spring, then get snowy again. We've had a bit of that already (with 11 degree temps outside), so I don't know if it'll happen now.

I'm away to Midland today. Gotta spend at least the weekend there. Maybe longer. We'll see how it goes.

Work starts on Monday. Ought to be interesting. I gotta get a bag ready with all the stuff that I'll need. Basically a little of this and a little of that. Enough to make my cube seem like home.

The boyz are planning a get together today. I'm invited, so's Wayne. Wayne can't make it though, because he has to go to work today. Which reminds me. Wayne missed submitting his hours, so he's not gonna get paid this week, or next, or really at all until the 15 or something. That totally sucks.

There's been a lot of snow and rain lately. I had to dig out the car last night (cracking the ice to get into it), and also had to do it again this morning. I figure that I'll have to do it again when I go to leave today.

The urge to do something has come again. This time its comics again. I wanna draw. I wanna put something out on the web. I suppose that if I was at home and had access to the scanner, this would be the perfect opportunity to do something, right? Yeah, but my drawings suck. I suppose that the easiest method would be to just start and see what develops, yeah? Well, I've thought of that before, and I don't like the idea of putting bad work on display. But, what else do I have? We'll see what, if anything, develops.

Short discussion time! The whole commute thing. Here's the problem. I work in TO, but I don't live there. I have to get there every day by a certain time, and leave there to get home again. There are a number of options. 1. I could drive the whole way. 2. I could catch the train/bus from some point and ride in. 3. I could get a carpool to ride in.

I've already loacated a carpool, as in 3, but that's only from Kitchener, and it still requires me to have a ride to the carpool location. I could walk it, but it would take me at least an hour. As it is, the carpool leaves here at 6AM, and leaves the city at 5PM. That gives me about an hour to kill in the morning, and then a rush to get home. I also have to get up at about 4:30AM or earlier to make sure that I'm ready to go. Without the car, it means getting Wayne up early too.

The train/bus thing isn't that great either, but there's more options. From Kitchener, I need only drive an hour to Milton to catch the 7:10 train, and then catch a bus home later that day. Another hour drive to Kitchener. Basically the same leave and arrive times as I'd get with the carpool. From Midland, I can drive to a bus in Barrie and then grab the train direct to TO, or can drive directly to the train station and go from there. The train leaves early (6 something), so I'd have to get going before then. The drive to Barrie is about an hour, and it's a little longer to get to the train directly. This means getting up really early, and getting home late anyhow. Probably as bad as the carpool in the end.

The first option really isn't feasable. Driving 2 or more hours through morning rush, then parking all day and driving 2 or more hours home through rush again just won't work on my nerves. Even I will be forced into wanting to ram other vehicles. Besides, the long days will probably make me sleepy. That's just not worth it.

There's a few advantages to the Midland commute, and a few to the Kitchener commute. I suppose that things could be arranged one way or the other, but it'll have to be decided soon. Flip-flopping isn't helping anyone.