July 9, 2008 at 9:41 am · Filed under Games
Stolen from ex-neighbour-lady…
Here’s how you play:
- Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search
using only the first page. Choose an image.
- Copy and paste each of the URLs into the Mosaic Maker at FD’s image maker.
The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favourite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favourite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.
July 2, 2008 at 10:08 am · Filed under Family+Friends, Food
On Saturday we attended my brother-in-law’s wedding. This involved me dressing in a suit and tie and entering a church, so for a while there was a serious risk of an improbability explosion of massive proportions. Luckily that was avoided and the event proceeded without a hitch, apart from Aidan talking through the first part of the ceremony before I took him outside.
We had an umbrella with us because rain was forecast, and indeed it was raining when I stepped outside. Aidan refused to let go of the umbrella so I spent the next 30 minutes crouched at small boy height so I could stay dry. Finally we were called back inside for photos with “the princess”, as Aidan had named the bride.
By the time we got outside again I was hot and bothered by the rain and the suit and the church and the disobedient boy, so we went home to change into something more comfortable for the reception. I threw on a less stiff shirt and some casual trousers and we headed out again.
The reception was in an art gallery which was a very cool space, my idea of an ideal apartment. When we arrived, a jazz trio were playing their piano, saxophone and double bass and Aidan was instantly mesmerised. He was still clutching the precious umbrella which he started to strum while he gazed trance-like at the musicians. Most of the meal was spent taking turns with Jen to watch Aidan, who couldn’t be pulled away from the musicians, and eat.
The food was excellent, starting with a melted goat cheese, courgette and tomato concoction including a tiny blob of an incredibly flavourful balsamic reduction. My main course was an anonymous white fish with an unusual texture and delicious taste with a selection of perfectly cooked vegetables. Dessert was fresh strawberries and pears with cheese, and favours of belgian chocolates hand-made by the bride, who happens to be a chef.
Meanwhile, Aidan was desperate to play the piano. I kept telling him he had to ask the man, and he kept getting closer and closer to the man until finally he gathered up the courage to ask the question. The man said no. I can’t really blame him, he was a hired musician playing someone elses piano in someone elses venue at someone elses wedding and he obviously didn’t feel it was his place to make that kind of decision. So we went and asked the groom instead, and he said yes. Aidan spent the next 10 minutes in kiddie heaven gently playing the same two or three piano keys until the proprietor told us we had to stop because she’d had a complaint. Bah, humbug.
Shortly after that though, the dancing started, which was something new and exciting for the boy. We took him onto the dance floor where he stayed for the rest of the night, resisting any attempt at removal until we finally dragged him off at 11pm to take him home to bed.
June 30, 2008 at 8:47 am · Filed under Books
Update: Apparently the list doing the rounds is quite a bit different from the actual list on the BBC site, so at the bottom of this post I’ve done it again with the “real” list. Thank’s to Melissa for spotting that. I do slightly better with that list, 34 books read.
Shatnerian tagged me (he tagged me on Facebook, what’s that all about?). The following is a list compiled by the BBC of books we’re supposed to have read. Bold means I’ve read it, underlined means I love it and italics (red) means I started it but didn’t finish.
36 is part of 33 so I’m not sure why it’s separate. Same with 98 and 14.
I left John’s comment on #42, because he’s right, and it’s #42 too!
I’ve only read 26, I’m a very bad Brit apparently.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I only read the sexy parts)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (ok, why is this even on the list?)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kirouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Now for the “real” list:
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
June 22, 2008 at 9:39 pm · Filed under Travel
The sandsculpting competition was won by an Ontario-ian, with a Quebecer taking the sculptor’s choice and people’s choice awards. Special mention goes to the Indian guy who flew all the way from India, spending his own money, to spend hours over a beautiful buddha sculpture only to have it washed away in a thunder storm.
The fireworks display was impressive, but not as impressive to Aidan as pouring sand into a croc shoe and shaking vigorously.
There are strange people in Hampton Beach.
The Target just across the border in MA is huge. We went on a spending spree.
Everyone in NH owns a Harley. None of them wear helmets.
There is a TV channel devoted to showing NH council meetings. It’s fascinating but Jen won’t let me watch it.
Aidan got ocean on him and didn’t like it. But wanted to do it again.
June 6, 2008 at 9:26 am · Filed under F1
It snuck up on my faster than I expected this year, but the Canadian Grand Prix is in Montreal this weekend. We’ve been to the race a few times before, but this year we’ll be watching from the comfort of our living room. For those of you who are going, I thought I would offer some last minute hints and tips.
First though, a bit of history. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is strictly speaking a street circuit, although not many cars use that “street” during the rest of the year. It is built on a small island called Île Notre-Dame which is part of a small complex of islands just off the southern shore of the island of Montreal. The islands are man-made, built from the material taken out of the tunnels for the Montreal metro system, and used originally as the venue for the Montreal Expo of 1967. The Formula One Grand Prix has been held on the island since 1978, except for 1987 when it was cancelled over a sponsorship dispute. In 1993 the Montreal Casino was opened, sitting in the middle of the island surrounded by the race track.
What to take
Here are some things worth taking with you to the circuit:
- A paddock pass. OK, so it’s unlikely that you have one, but if you can get one, don’t hesitate. And if you can get one for me too, even better.
- Water - It’s supposed to feel like 40 degrees Celsius this weekend, which is hot, really really hot, so take water. Seriously. I’m not kidding.
- Ear defenders or ear plugs - Those cars are loud. Loud enough to damage your ears. If you plan on listening to the radio commentary, ear defenders are best, otherwise ear plugs will do. You can buy them at the circuit but they won’t be cheap.
- Poncho - You never know, it might rain, and a poncho is better than an umbrella as far as the people sitting behind you are concerned.
- Cushion - The seats in the grandstands are not comfortable, not even in the “Gold” stands, so take something for a bit of comfort.
- Sun-screen and a hat - Like I said, it’s gonna be hot.
- Beer - Strictly speaking I don’t think you’re supposed to bring your own beer, but I’ve never had any trouble. The beer you can get at the circuit is expensive and weak.
- Food - You can get expensive and crappy hot dogs and hamburgers at the circuit or you can pack a nice healthy picnic for the day. You probably won’t get away with setting up a bbq though.
- Cameras - Depending on where you’re sitting, you can get some really nice shots, especially if you have a decent zoom.
Getting onto the island
First of all, leave early to beat the crowds. There’s plenty of stuff happening during the morning to keep you occupied so just get up and go, take breakfast with you. There are various ways to get to the circuit. You can walk, but it’s a bit of a trek from downtown. You can drive, but you have to park in a lot on the main island and get a shuttle bus to the circuit. You can take the metro, but the line-ups can get nasty. Or you can use the secret way, which I’m about to reveal to you. Hail a cab, and tell the driver to take you to the casino. Cabs going to the casino are allowed through all the barricades straight to the centre of the island, so you’re right there with no hassle at all. It’ll cost you a bit more but it’s well worth it.
Getting off the island
Getting off the island after the race is even worse than getting onto the island. You will be stuck in crowds of people whichever way you to try to go, possibly for hours. So don’t bother. Stay on the island, go to the casino, play some slot machines, grab a meal at one of the restaurants. Three or four hours at the casino and all the crowds will be gone, leaving you to stroll to the metro station or grab a cab off the island.
June 5, 2008 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Geeky
Over the years I’ve tried many different ways to remember stuff. I’ve tried paper calendars and diaries, which just got forgotten and gathered dust. I’ve tried post-it notes, which just get lost. I’ve tried keeping stuff in my head, which works some of the time, but the amount of time it works decreases with age.
Of course, I’ve also tried many software solutions. I’ve tried iCal, which is great but not portable enough. I’ve tried Google Calendar, which is very cool but for some reason doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried 30Boxes, which is beautifully designed but also doesn’t quite work for me. I’ve even tried Outlook, but that has the same problem as iCal.
After realising that graphical calendar applications don’t work for me, and because of my love of the command line, I went looking for a command line application. I found remind, and so far it’s working better than anything I’ve tried before.
Remind uses text files to store reminders, so you can edit them with any text editor you like, or write scripts to add reminders, or there are front-end applications if you like that sort of thing. The contents of the files look something like this:
REM Feb 2 MSG Ground Hog Day%
REM Feb 14 MSG Valentine's Day%
REM Mar 17 MSG St. Patrick's Day%
REM Apr 1 MSG April Fool's Day%
REM May 5 MSG Cinco de Mayo%
REM Sun May [Week_2] MSG Mother's Day%
REM Mon May [Week_3] MSG Victoria Day%
REM 06 Nov 2008 +3 AT 13:00 +120 MSG Doctor %b.%
REM 24 Nov 2008 +3 AT 08:00 +60 MSG Dentist %b.%
REM Tue 1 +3 MSG Quiz Night %b.%
REM is the keyword for reminder, which most of your entries will begin with (there are other keywords, but for simple usage REM is all you need).
After REM comes the date the reminder will happen on. There is a huge variety of possible date formats making for ultimate flexibility. You can specify a full date, like the Doctor appointment above, or just a partial date, such as the statutory holidays above or even the quiz night entry, which evaluates to the first Tuesday of every month.
After the date you can specify an optional delta, for example +3, which means remind me every day starting 3 days before the event. You can also use *n which means repeat every n days.
Next is the optional time setting, for example AT 13:00, meaning the event happens at 1pm. This can also have a delta, for example +60, meaning remind me 60 minutes before the event starts.
Finally, we tell remind what to do when it’s time to remind us. Usually we just want a message, so that’s what the MSG keyword is for, which is followed by the message itself. The message can contain substitution variables, such as the %b in the above examples. The %b evaluates to “in n days”, “tomorrow” or “today” depending on how close we are to the event.
There are many other options, and it can be a little overwhelming if you try to figure it all out, but if you stick with the basics until you find you need something more, it’s a very powerful tool. There are lots of useful resources relating to remind at Roaring Penguin.
June 3, 2008 at 1:59 pm · Filed under General
It’s quiz night tonight, as it is on the first Tuesday of every month. Come to Hurley’s at 8pm to have your knowledge of useless trivia challenged and heckle the virgin quizmasters.
May 29, 2008 at 10:44 am · Filed under General
The people who are always calling for Monaco to be removed from the F1 calendar, who say it is boring and processional, are a bit quiet this week, after the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend turned out to be one of the best races of the season so far (I still think Turkey was better).
Obviously the rain helped a lot to make the race interesting but there were other elements too. The tyre anf fuel choices teams made, and their strategies in general made the outcome difficult to predict, and having stars like Alonso in midfield and Kovy at the back meant there was good racing.
Frustrations were evident, especially with Alonso who was obviously quicker but ended up making a rash move at the Casino hairpin that was just never going to work. Raikkonen also had a bad day, culminating in taking Sutil out of the race after an impressive attempt at getting his car back under control. Sutil was obviously devastated, so it was good of him not to rip into Kimi after the race.
It was a great race for Lewis and a thoroughly deserved win. I expect that trophy will take pride of place in his trophy room.
As for Max Mosely, well he didn’t show his face much and didn’t talk to anybody. Since the weekend a letter has been sent to the FIA calling for his resignation which has been signed by representatives from:
America, Singapore, Germany, Finland, Canada , Brazil, Denmark, France, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Israel, Austria, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.
Italy isn’t on the list, which doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m a little suprised that the UK is missing though.
May 20, 2008 at 2:03 pm · Filed under Movies + TV
Russell T Davies, the man who brought Dr Who back to life after the BBC tried to kill it off, is stepping down from his role of executive producer. A sad day for Who fans, but not as bad as it could be; his replacement is a writer for the show and sounds very keen. Here’s what new guy Steven Moffat says:
I applied before but I got knocked back ‘cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven.
May 15, 2008 at 6:06 pm · Filed under Skepticism
The Quebec Human Rights Commission has quite rightly ruled that city councils, including Saguenay, should stop praying before or during council meetings because it violates religious freedom.
Sadly, the mayor of Saguenay, Jean Tremblay, doesn’t care about human rights because apparently he’s a religious bigot:
“I know they prefer me to stop, but I won’t do that,” he told CBC News. “For me, God is much more important than the commission. When I arrive on the other side, maybe in 10 years, 20 years, I don’t know, they won’t ask me if I follow the commission, they will ask me if I follow God. And I follow God.”
He also said that the 30 second prayer addresses all religions… Is that so Mr Tremblay? Do you mention Vishnu in that prayer? And Mohammed? What about Xenu? Buddha? The Flying Spaghetti Monster?
What about us atheists? How does the absence of religion fit into a religious prayer exactly? Or are we expected to leave the room while you wish to your imaginary sky friend?
Here’s an idea for you Mr Tremblay: Pray at home before you go to the meeting, or stop off at a church on your way. That way you’re only wasting your own time, not everyone elses.
April 29, 2008 at 11:30 am · Filed under F1
The Spanish Grand Prix sounds more interesting than it actually was. It was certainly a race of attrition, giving some of the smaller teams a chance at some points; it was nice to see Mark Webber and Jensen Button finally get a bit of luck. The result was a runaway for Ferrari though, with only the safety cars stopping them sprinting off into the distance.
Kovy’s crash looked really nasty, I was convinced he had at least one broken leg, especially seeing the gaping hole in the front of his pod. It’s a testament to the safety of those cars these days that he came away with just a concussion. He went almost head first into a tyre wall at 140mph, burying the car 3 tyres deep (luckily it was a 4 deep wall otherwise he probably would’ve hit something more solid), and came out with a headache.
In other news, the Max Mosley sex scandal has gone from bad to horrible for Max now that his bestest friend Bernie has joined the chorus calling for his resignation. Only three teams refused to sign Bernie’s letter: Ferrari, Torro Rosso (aka Ferrari Junior) and Williams (Super Aguri didn’t sign either but they’re busy with their own problems).
If Max has any love for motorsport left he needs to realise he’s damaging the sport and walk away. We can all wail and gnash our teeth about the horrible invasion of privacy the man has suffered, but the damage is done. We know what we know, it’s not possible to un-know it. Every time someone talks face to face with Max they will either be smirking at him or looking faintly disgusted. He claims he will attend the Monaco Grand Prix, so I’m looking forward to some of the banners the fans will have on display for him.
April 21, 2008 at 10:36 am · Filed under Travel, Work
I’m back from California, and it looks like I missed the last snowfall of the year. I enjoyed sun and warmth in Anaheim and came back to a warm night in Montreal.
While in Anaheim I walked a lot, went on five rollercoasters at Knotts Berry Farm, walked some more, ate at IHOP twice and at the Rainforest Cafe once, perused lots of Disney merchandise, went to Target, oh and did a bit of work.
The presentation went well. We had about four hundred people in the audience. I got a couple of laughs and some good questions at the end, including people wanting to steal my code (if it were up to me I’d GPL it, but it’s not up to me).
April 11, 2008 at 11:54 am · Filed under Travel, Work
Tomorrow afternoon I’m catching a flight to Orange County, California for 5 days of sun and relaxation work. I’m attending the Sungard Higher Education Summit in Anaheim, where I will be taking part in a presentation in front of up to 1,000 people. Worried? Me? Nah, as the refreshment lady says, it’ll be a piece of cake (only parents with two year old Thomas fans will get that reference). Apart from that nerve-wracking hour, the rest of the time will be spent listening to other people talk about all things university computer system related.
Although I’ve been within spitting distance of the border, I’ve never actually entered California before (I don’t count sitting in LA airport for six hours) so that’s another state to cross of my list even though I doubt I’ll get to see much of it.
April 8, 2008 at 2:16 pm · Filed under Work
I have a new job!
No, I’m not leaving McGill… Today I accepted a new position at McGill as a web developer in the Web Services Group, the team who look after the content of mcgill.ca and are involved in other web initiatives around campus.
It’s a step in a new direction for me. The WSG use mostly open source tools, which I’ve been playing with personally since I first installed linux on an old computer several years ago but I haven’t been able to use in a work setting. I’m stepping away from Oracle, the proprietary RDBMS that I’ve been working with for 20 years, to embrace open source technologies like PHP, Python and PostgreSQL. It looks like there might even be a bit of WordPress thrown into the mix.
I’ve had six good years here on the Finance IT team but I’m really looking forward to something new.
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