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Public - All A Buzz - 7:16 PM 12/02/2010
I've had a perpetual personal website in some form or another now, since 2003. That's a heck of a run. As it's developed, I've started to really recognize the direction I wanted it to go. As early as 2006, Tyler and I were working on making the website more of an aggregation point for all the things I did on the web, instead of a customer 'blogger'. The idea was to have each post not necessarily be a long, boring drawn out conversation, but often a line or two, an image, or an update drawn from another website I was active on.

In the past 3 years, this has developed even more as I've implemented Youtube, Gallery, and Twitter updates to the front page. The grand plan was working.

Then Google goes and does it, and blows away all my hard work.

I mean, it's still different. My site is still all the shit that *I* do. Sure there's the occasional random video or irreverent twitter post, but for the most part it's focused. Unlike Buzz where I'm sure the clog of 'interesting news' and 'hilarious image' spam will quickly grow.

I'm interested in Buzz however. It's something I've sought to achieve and it looks pretty well done. The screen real-estate needs some work as it's too bulky right now (especially if it's planned for a while mobile release)... but if they are careful, they could quickly replace Twitter for me. They even might convince me to switch the 365 project to Flickr and abandon the Gallery server that still runs out of my mother's basement...

Time will tell, but interesting things are happening.
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Public - Moustache - 6:00 PM 02/02/2010


Credit to Tyler for pointing this out. More pics to follow.
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Public - My Net Minder - 11:54 AM 26/01/2010
If you can find 23 to 46 spare minutes in your day, feel free to spend that time with your knees at a 45 degree angle, leaning forward with your shoulders raised as high as possible and your arms out to the side. If you're feeling spunky, feel free to add 45lbs of gear. Every once an a while, flop forward or onto your side. When you're done, you'll know roughly how I feel this morning. My hips got it the worst. At least the fear subsides as soon as you put the equip on. I was invincible, and the puck might as well have been foam.

Suffice to say, I was not a great goalie. I wasn't even good. The first wake-up-call came when a puck slid under my pad, beside my skate blade. There's a gap there! You HAVE to go down, otherwise sliders go right under you. The next wake up call was the wrap around. You go to the other side of the net, but while you weren't looking, they went back to the first side. I learned quickly that I can do almost a full split, and reach post to post. This isn't a surprise as I stretch a lot to combat my AS. However I also learned that creates a great big gap under your legs... and something else.. oh yeah, surprise splits HURT.

After the first period the score was 9-0. While that might sound like I was a god awful goalie, note that I had no part in the zero goals. We were getting out played as much as I was sucking. I learned a lot of lessons in that first period. So many in fact, that the final score was 10-0. Better defense, lessons learned, and I didn't let in any more dribblers. A 1-0 loss is the same as a 10-0 loss as far as I'm concerned. With no points on the board, we couldn't have won, regardless of who was in net.

The real bruise on the ego came during the hand-shakes when the other goalie let me know "Your pads are on the wrong legs". Andrea had warned me not to do that, and I took special care and attention to get it right... but it wasn't written on the pads anywhere. I figured laces on the inside where I could see them. That's exactly wrong.

But oh well. If that had allowed me to stop twice as many goals, we'd still have lost. It was a great opportunity, I had a lot of fun, and I'll be paying for it the rest of the week I'm sure. Sadly with all that gear on, I couldn't carry my camera to the bench, not that we had any spectators anyway. So I'm without photos, hoping that someone somewhere took a shot of me suited up. Otherwise, you'll just have to take my word for it. I looked awesome.
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Public - My Death Wish - 7:32 AM 24/01/2010
They call them "Less Lethal", but a rubber bullet can quite easily kill its target. A rather horrific image search on google for Rubber Bullet reveals people with all kids of bleeting and in all sorts of distress. According to Wikipedia: Smaller rubber bullets...contain a single 4.75 gram projectile.

So how does this relate to me? A standard hockey puck weighs in at 170 grams, and during game play is often frozen solid.

You see Andrea is gone to Atlanta for the next 3 days, and our hockey team is left without a goalie. We tried to add a sub, but were told our roster was full. At that point, they started requesting volunteers. A couple weeks ago, I was offered to play goal with some friends from work, but turned it down. Andrea was rather vocal about how I should have taken the opportunity, mostly so she could laugh at me. So this time, I am.

I'll be the suited-up netminder for our game Monday night, and I'm rather terrified. I played goal in soccer for a couple seasons, but that's about the extent of my ability. Do you see the connection there? Large round inflated ball vs small frozen less lethal projectile.... Me neither.... But the team is paying to rent me gear from the UofC (they have a small budget from sponsors), so I'm really hoping I don't let them down.

Pics and bruises to follow, I'm sure.
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Public - South St Burger - 9:46 PM 22/12/2009
I recently posted a tweet (@gordbird) about a problem I had a South St Burger, to which you've asked for a response from @southstburgerco. You offered me an email address, however that email address is bouncing the messages I send to it.

My situation occurred at the new Balzac Mall location outside Calgary AB. My girlfriend and I ordered a burger meal, right off the menu. The young woman behind the counter took my order, and asked about the standard up-sell 'Cheese and Bacon?". I responded 'no thank-you', as I just wanted what was on the menu. She proceeded to look at me, held up a drink cup and said "You want this size?"
My response was obviously "Yes, what it says on the menu". She then repeated the process with the fries. I had to stop and ask her why she was asking, at which point she asked the same question again. I was forced to stop her and ask, "What comes with the meal?" It was only then that she lifted the much smaller cup out from within the first cup.

She then proceeded to charge us for the up-sized drink, which I only noticed when the bill was larger than it should have been. As I looked around the restaurant, every single customer had a large drink and fries, almost without exception. The $8ish meal with cheese and bacon, as well as the upsized drink and fries would quickly turn into a $12ish meal. An increase of 50 percent! Obviously at this point I was a little upset, on behalf of more than just ourselves and opted to post my tweet from my phone.

Thanks for your interest. I trust an effort will be made to prevent further abuses of this sort.
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Public -Sometimes I think evil thoughts - 10:03 PM 15/12/2009
One day I will donate $6.4 Million to charity.

Then I'm going to call up someone I don't like, and invite them out to dinner.

In casual conversation, I'll mention my recent donation to whatever fund it was. I'll tell them that I picked that number, because I wanted to have donated $0.10 for every year back to the age of the dinosaurs.

Then I'm going to whip out my cheque book, and tell them that they've been significant in my life. As their mouth begins to water I'll cut them a cheque for $3.40-$4.20 or so, and let them know that this cheque represents their entire life. That's how significant they've been.

Then I'll pay the bill and leave.

Significance can be a bitch.
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Public - I made it - 7:38 PM 23/11/2009
Since I moved to Calgary, my favourite jogging route has been to Nose Hill Park. My goal has been to make it all the way to the top, which is quite daunting. The actual run is only about 3km to the top, but it's straight uphill the whole way. Seriously, it's an elevation gain of almost 150M (about a 30 floor building). The first time, I barely made it 2km before turning back. Since then I've added 1km each way, and made it to the top. I feel pretty good about myself.

Tonight's run also saw 2 firsts. 1, I let the dog off-leash once we hit the park, which was a great change of pace. 2, it was dark outside. This is the first time I've been to the top of Nose Hill in the dark, and it was awe inspiring. It wasn't exactly black, but a cloudy sunset behind the mountains.

I'm not one to be philosophical, but the lights and the vantage point were simply out of my vocabulary. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen and altitude (1215M above sea-level) but I found myself looking at this huge city thinking "Monkeys built this." I couldn't take my eyes off it. I caught my breath for a few minutes and sat on a rock looking at it. Max came over and sat near me, tired of chasing gophers and other dogs I suppose. He too was taking in the wondrous sights. But while I looked at the city, Max looked to the west and the untamed wild that is the Rocky Mountains.

So I turned around and looked with him. Never underestimate the cleverness of dogs.
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Public - Toni T - 11:05 AM 11/11/2009
The year was 1997. Windows 95 graced Pentium 166 computers around the world. The internet was beginning to hit mass appeal, and the concept of growing up to be a computer programmer was suddenly not a bleak existence.

The small harbour town of Kincardine Ontario, located disturbingly close to the Bruce Nuclear power facility somehow found the funds to install a state of the art computer lab within the walls of the local high school. What they failed to realize in doing so, was that there was a current class of nerds progressing through the ranks, who would make those machines and any instructor attached to them, their collective bitches.

From 1997-2000, the computer classes at KDSS were amazing. The members of the then 'Negaverse' would show up for whatever level class they were enrolled in, ruin any potential grading curve and leave. Then we'd return a few hours later to tweak our code after classes. It must have been difficult to teach that class. You know less than the students, and are forced to learn at a rate greater than them. And it's not math or english knowledge, where the students advantage will suffice by giving them an A. Computers were a constantly evolving field. In this sense, despite all the mockery, Toni Theilman did a great job. She kept current. She presented the correct information that was relevant and timely. In 3 years we learned Object Oriented programming in Turing, and Class systems in C++. We were even encouraged to delve into the Allegro library, which was pretty advanced at the time. But the impressive feat was keeping US entertained, while also teaching the generic high school mongoloids how to do any of this, from scratch.

I was sad to hear that Toni T passed away yesterday. Suzi and I visited KDSS a couple summers ago, and Toni T was right there in the computer lab. She hadn't changed a tick. She still seemed stressed out about keeping up with the students, but to that end she seemed on top of it. I'm sure she'd garnered the skills by then to program her way into a far more distinguished job, even though she was teaching accounting.

While writing this, I found her 'rate my teacher' page online.

have you ever wondered how many times someone can say "Okay"...well ask ms theilman.

It brings back memories, and scares the crap out of me that someone last year mentioned the ToniT remix. I'm not going to lie, I started this post so I could give you all a copy for old times sake. But to know that people still hear it. That she might have heard it.. that's a little weird.

Here's to you Toni T. You were a tremendous influence in my life, and that's the highest compliment I can offer a teacher.
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