In The Now

Exit, Stage Left

2009-06-26T00:48:00.003-06:00

Well, Google, Blogger, Bloogle, gogger, whatever, it's been swell. It's time, however, for In The Now to move on to happier horizons.

Thankfully, the kind people at Bisonweb Inc. have graciously agreed to host In The Now.

You can visit us at our new home.

Hope to see you there.

Possible New Revenue Streams

2009-06-23T23:26:00.002-06:00

In The Now: Brought to you by

Agnostics - whether you believe it or not.
The Yakuza - Because your left pinkie is basically useless, anyway.
- you won't believe it - cynics.

Your Recommended Dose

2009-06-19T09:57:00.002-06:00

In these times of not only economic uncertainty, but uncertainty on a moral, ethical and societal plain, it is good to know that there are people who are willing to discuss, in an open forum, weighty issues that have severe impact on the world around us.

Violent Aggression is a podcast put together by four of us:
Cliff (from Peer Pressure Works)
James (from Feelings of White)
Vlad (from the Analog Coast)
And yours truly (from here and here)

There are no set rules, no hidden agenda (the agenda is actually on the table in front of us, out in the open like a band's set list).

We tackle weighty issues, interpersonal relationships, the employment issue, drugs, the influences of technology on society, and, at one point, there's a very poignant and loving intervention, where I try to turn the tide of one young man's life from violence and hate to a more positive, loving one.

There are moments of levity - moments where we discuss television shows. It can't all be serious and weighty stuff - who'd want to listen to that? And there's certainly some levity - oh, we're comical, all right.

So come on, come give us a listen. If you do, you probably won't regret it.

DISCLAIMER

I love children. I have two, and a third is coming very soon. This particular show, however, tackles issues that are for "Big Ears" and not "Little Ears". I would recommend that anyone under the age of 18 not listen to this. I know my children won't.

Also, you will probably not want to listen to this out-loud at work. There are some heavy and controversial issues that are not appropriate for a work environment.

END DISCLAIMER

Try it. You might just like it.

Violent Aggression

Point(less?)-form Updates

2009-06-12T23:36:00.004-06:00

I've felt the motivation to post something here. I really have. But I've been over-employed and then under-employed, both of which serve to kill a man's best intentions.

Quick updates:

Baby's cookin' just fine. 36 weeks in. Projected due date is 40 weeks, so really, it could happen any time and be an okay pregnancy.
The "boy-name" is still Finnegan Tate. The "girl-name", which I was happy to keep as Molly Bea is now up in the air.
I'm working for a company called EbOWorld. I'm filling a contract they have for some Ruby on Rails application development. So far, so good. I'm liking Rails a lot.
Met the guy who does www.runningmap.com today. He's an Edmonton guy and a good guy. If you're using www.mapmyrun.com (Guth, I'm looking at you), knock it off and go to www.runningmap.com. Seriously. Do it.
Hopped on the bike to get to work a couple of times this week. Not this morning. I was going to, but fates collided and I was up early enough to go downtown and play hockey at the YMCA. My legs were tired and sore, but the real damage was to my left shin. I'm sorry, lefty. I'll consider wearing pads from now on.
Big fire at the Rapid Apartment complex. For those of you Leducies, yes, that's where "George's" used to be. An institution is razed to the ground one late spring evening. Totally shocking to me.
I now have a facebook username. You can reach me at facebook.com/hadaad I don't understand the significance, but if it's anything like all the other facebook things that have come along, I'm sure that I'll wonder how I ever did without it very soon.
I'm thinking about a story written completely within the correspondence between two people who never actually meet. I'm sure it's been done before, but the idea has piqued my interest. The idea that you can probe people's motivations, their relationship, without ever being able to come out and say it. And talk about unreliable narrator... Everything's below the surface. Dunno, I have to get better at letter-writing, if I'm going to pursue this.

Sunday Night re-dux

2009-05-04T00:12:00.001-06:00

So, the last time I was working late on a Sunday night was because the powers-that-be asked me to work a weekend and the weekend was too full to accommodate it with day-time working. Mostly because of a long afternoon spent with my family, my sister, and her son.

Here, we come to another weekend where they have asked me to work, and I spent the day with my family, my sister, and her son. Today was a hot day, out in the sun, and we celebrated that heat by assembling most of the new swing set my children received as an Easter gift.

I say most of, because this thing is an unholy monster that consumes entire afternoons with no remorse. Add to that a missing carriage bolt, a couple of misused pieces of hardware and the fact that we could not get the entire thing together in eight hours, and you have a man who has to go in to work as his children are getting ready to go to bed.

So, I figured I'd share another fun night with you. Today, the problem is that a page with a WYSIWYG editor is not saving the data we want it to. I need to get this done tonight so that they can test it tomorrow and demo it on Tuesday. Will I be done? I don't know. Let's find out!!!

***

I will be participating in my first podcast on Saturday. If any of you (who won't be participating in the same podcast) have any ideas you think would be cool, send 'em on (unless they're proprietary, or you're hoarding ideas, or charging money. If any of those are the case, you can keep your high-fallutin' ideas). I have some thoughts percolating in the back of my noggin but it would be nice to hear what you want to hear. I will, of course, link to the podcast from this blog, and the main site (the completely-neglected http://www.bisonweb.ca )

***

The latest episode of Dollhouse, apart from being the best episode yet, completely took me by surprise. When I heard Wash was on it, all I could think was 'Yeah, it'd be funny if he were Alpha, but Alpha didn't have those love handles.' I didn't know he was so in-shape. And handy with a razor, to boot.

***

We got the entire series of Angel off of Amazon for 57 dollars, American. I don't know what that translated to on the day that we bought it (I don't know what it translates to now) but I know that some SEASONS of some series cost that much, so I wasn't going to quibble too much. I love the first season for its almost Film-Noir feeling as much as I love the later seasons for their Superhero-Team feeling. Poor Fred. Poor Wesley. Ah well...

***

It doesn't appear that the servlet request path is being set properly, which seems silly to me, so I'm going to change that. That might be all that's standing in the way of actually getting this working. Then I have to implement a little more server-side validation and I might be able to kiss this pig good night.

***

I'm planning a story that I really want to write, right now. I may have mentioned this story before. It involves a man who loses his daughter and leaves his severely-injured, and maybe-dying wife for another world. I'm fleshing out the concepts, the high points, and the relationships. But mostly I'm not. I'm disappointed by how little I write, now, but I guess it's mostly part of being a full-time worker, a father, and a husband. You take the time you can.

***

I plan on doing a blog post about the draft. I don't plan on assigning any grades. I don't watch college football. I listen to what other people say about the college players, and I read what I can when I can. I like to see attempts to fill holes, or find out what a guy's strengths are, after the team has drafted him. I'll give my impressions on the Texans' picks, though. Another day.

***

Half-way into my second double-double, it's seven minutes to midnight. I've found the problem. There is a method to let the program know if this is a save request. The problem is, it checks the url that the page forwarded from, and the url it's checking doesn't exist in web.xml, which means that it can't ever be that value. So, in the present case, saving is impossible. Don't worry, I made some changes, and now I'm going to check and see if they helped. I'll let you know how it turns out.

***

What happens when you're a computer programmer and you spend an entire day out in the sun without sunscreen, turning wrenches and screwdrivers? You burn the hell out of your neck, and your hands get achey and weak. This sucks.

***

Lost in the wake of the posthumous fawning over Heath Ledger is the job Aaron Eckhart did portraying Harvey Dent. I thought he was fantastic. And creepy-looking.

***

So, tonight's work ends after two hours. I have good diagnosis of the problem, but the server has run out of memory, so I cannot work anymore. One of these days, I'll have to figure out how to restart the server. Can't do it yet, though, so I'm stuck.

Good night, Internet, and we'll talk to you another time.

ABC This is Me!

2009-04-20T15:27:00.001-06:00

So, I received a survey thingie on the Book of Face, the other day. I have an incredible weakness when it comes to survey thingies. Thing is, if I have it on the Book of Faces, I don't generally put it here. So, I decided to put it here, too. One day, I'll get to the point where I only put it here, and link it to the Book of Faces, but until then, here is the dramatic second posting of my double-post:

ABCs of Liam

A – Age: I mostly prefer the Age of Apocalypse. If you want to know how old I am, I'm 100000 in binary, for the next four days.

B – Bed size: Too small. Little creatures (chilluns, puppies) are always migrating in and out, and the tiny sliver I get usually has me teetering on the brink of falling to the floor, which isn't safe, because there's usually a toy down there with sharp edges and lead paint.

C – Chore you hate: They don't call 'em chores because you love to do 'em. My least favourite would be laundry. It's not very work-intensive, as the machines do most of the work (as they should!), but you have to stay on top of it, and the machines are downstairs, the laundry is not in your face (as dishes are) and if you don't keep up, next thing, you're wearing purple-striped golf pants and an Iron Maiden tour shirt (probably Live After Death or Somewhere On Tour) because everything else is dirty, even the khakis you tried to get a couple more months out of by stitching the crotch with neon green thread, but didn't THAT turn out to be a mistake, because there was a reason they were torn in the crotch in the first place, and when that stitch stretches, it's just about the only thing anyone can see when you're sitting in front of them.

D – Dog's Name: J.D., Sasha, Jack, Caine <snif>

E – Essential Start-Your-Day items: Phone, wallet, iPod. Glasses should be on that list, and despite my best efforts, I can't get them on there. I hope that section of memory is not ROM.

F – Favourite Colour: Green. Ever since I was a little, little boy. I THINK it started out as red because my first blanket was red, but I'm a spring boy, and spring is green.

G – Gold or Silver: Gold for my medals, silver for my apparel, thank you very much.

H – Height: Just enough under six feet that Kim can give me a hard time about lying to her every time the issue of height comes up. I'm sure she'll have something to say about this when she gets around to reading it.

I – Instruments you play(ed): I played Piano through two years of lessons, and countless sessions of In The Mood. Also, I plunked around on House of the Rising Sun, which Cliff would have a good time recalling, if he were still on Facebook. I don't want to turn this into a rant, but why the hell is Cliff off Facebook, anyway?

J – Job Title: President and Grand Poobah. Systems Analyst. Director. Software Engineer. Programmer. Dad. Hey, guy, can you?.

K – Kid(s): I was going to say that I didn't believe in kids, but that's not fair, since I saw them just yesterday. I have two children, one fetus and high, high hopes for each and every one of them.

L – Living arrangements: I can't say that this makes much sense to me. We have a 1.5 storey house in Mill Woods, which we bought in 2006, shortly after I started at Intuit. All person-types live upstairs (in the half-storey), over two bedrooms. Those rooms are very big and accommodating for a family of four. We're examining options about where to put the spud when it's old enough to want its own room. We have two bathrooms, though the one upstairs is sadly underused. It's my favourite, though, because there's a gameboy for long-term stay. Our kitchen is the selling-feature of the house (it was for us, anyway). It's huge, as it incorporates kitchen and dining room into one. We have an office, where our mess winters. We have a playroom, though it's been officially renamed to “Homeschool room”. Our basement is where I play xbox and Kim has her scrapbooking stuff. Also, the laundry resides there.

M – Mom's Name: This is the stupid one. Mom's name? Who cares? My mom's name is Peggy. I don't think it's stupid because it wants to know about my mom, I think it's stupid because you should want to know more about my mom than her name. Sorry, I'm a little sensitive on this subject, lately.

N – Nicknames: Baldy, Lum, Lumpy, “Late for dinner” (aren't people just so witty?)

O – say can you see my eyes: Okay, this one might be dumber than Mom's Name. I can't see your eyes, it's an internet meme. I can see the screen. I can see your “i”s.

P – Pet Peeve: Stubborn ignorance, apathy, entitlement, people who criticise authors who don't put things out on a regular schedule.

Q – Quote from a movie: It's hard to come up with one that does justice to movies. Dune quotes keep coming to mind. “Are you suggesting that the king's son is an animal?” “I'm suggesting that the king's son may be something more.” ; “Tried and failed?” “Tried and died.” And of course there's the obligatory Flash Gordon quotes. “Must be some planet you men come from.” “Not too bad.”; “Gordon's ALIIIVE?!” ; “Fly, my hawkmen! Let this be known forever as Flash Gordon's day!” Which begs the question. Do they have a state holiday in Voltan's kingdom called Flash Gordon's Day? Is there a Santa Claus equivalent of Flash who brings presents to good kids and blasts bad kids to atoms?

R – Right- or left-handed: Left-handed in most that I do. Righty for hockey and baseball.

S – Siblings: Sean is my older brother. He is an electrician, but don't try to peg him down with your definitions based on employment. He's also one of the smartest guys I've ever met. Meghan is my little sister. She has a son named Preston. Meghan is the strongest person I know.

T – Time you wake up: When I wake up, I stumble out of bed and head downstairs to get ready for work, which necessitates my return upstairs as I forget my clothes, then I forget my phone, then I forget my glasses or whatever. Then I stumble out of the house and wait at the bus stop for the trip to work. I usually just see the bus before I realize whatever it is that I've forgotten (glasses, phone, wallet, backpack with the computer, whatever...)

U – Underwear: Generally, yes.

V – Vegetable you dislike: Well, there's that one turnip that was looking at me funny, last week.

W – Ways you run late: Forgetting things at home is the most usual culprit for this. Trying to drag screaming kids out the door to a place they want to be but don't actually want to go to (you'd have to be a parent to understand what I mean by this, I think) is probably second.

X – X-rays you've had: Doctor Yue (I think that was his name – he didn't have Imperial conditioning, though) once had me get my back X-rayed because he thought my back pain meant that I'd broken my back. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't.

Y – Yummy food you make: I eat yummy food.

Z – Zoo favourite: I prefer that animals stay where they are and I try to eat them. Just kidding. I was a big fan of the capybaras and the ever-peeing elephant.

New story snippet

2009-04-11T01:00:00.001-06:00

This is very rough. Some context: Jon's wife and daughter just died. He's found a way to look in on some fantastical world and now he wants to go there.
By some as-yet unexplained way, he's found the ability to negotiate with some form of gatekeepers.

********

"She's gone," Jon said, not meaning his wife. "They're both gone. I don't want to be here, any more."

"You could join us," the male voice said, doubtful.

"But you will not," said the female. "The price is far too high."

"What is the price? How can you know I will not pay?"

"Redemption is the price, Jon. You must atone for all you have done in your life."

"Come to terms." They were alternating sentences, each speaking in one ear only. It was making Jon dizzy, just listening to them.

"Accept responsibility."

"Others have accepted the burden before, but none have borne the strain."

"The strain?" Jon was getting impatient to be on with it.

"The guilt. No one is pure."

"No one."

"When confronted with the naked truth of the things they have done, all have turned away - closed their eyes to the truth."

"In doing so, they were spared the pain."

"In doing so, they were spared the guilt."

"In doing so, they died."

Jon swallowed. He only half-believed this whole thing was happening, but if it was real, it was a guarantee that he'd get to leave his life behind. Either for the Other, or for the afterlife. It was truly a case of having nothing to lose.

"I'll do it," Jon said. "I have no regrets, so this should be simple. What do I do?"

"It is simple."

"It is not easy."

"Just watch."

"Do not turn away."

"Do not close your eyes to the truth."

And then it started.

Insomnialmanac

2009-04-10T01:44:00.001-06:00

There are so many things worth saying, I know that now. I look at other people's content (famous people) and I find it hard to believe that I censor myself so completely.

I have been feeling a need to write about my mom, lately, and I've been holding back. It seems kind of silly, now, though, reading about a guy farting while working out.

There are so many things I want to say about mom. So many wonderful things she's done for me, for other people. Quite a few not so wonderful things. Let's face it, we've all got those -- we're human.

I like to think the positives outweigh the negatives for mom. Then again, I like to think the same for most people.

My aunt shared a memory that her son had of mom, when she was here for the funeral. He and his sister had very sharp recollections of mom singing to them when they were younger. It really resonated with me because mom singing was a constant throughout my childhood.

She liked Ella FItzgerald. She liked BIllie Holliday. She liked the Beatles. She liked Barbara Streisand and Melissa Manchester. She liked Aerosmith. She liked the Band and the Traveling Wilburies.

Through her appreciation of music and her love of singing, mom opened doors for me. When I'm happy, I sing. Sometimes, I have a hard time keeping a filter in place at work. I'm sure notes have squeaked out here and there, and it's all mom's fault.

Mom was a very protective woman. I'll always remember how a friend of hers promised me a job and when she didn't come through, mom kinda snapped. I won't say that it ended their friendship but it did change things.

I needed mom, a lot. I'm sure that everyone could say that, but it doesn't make it less true. I'm a momma's boy and I feel no shame in admitting that.

Mom was second-mom to a lot of friends. Not just my friends, but my sister's friends and my brother's friends, too. Simon, who lived with us for a time, was welcomed into the room with the family during the funeral and I was certainly glad to have him there. He certainly feels like a second brother to me, sibling rivalry and all.

Since mom passed, I've been trying to plough straight ahead, as if nothing has changed. For the most part, I've done a pretty good job of it, but I will admit that I've been feeling more temper and less patience, lately. I'm hoping that getting all this off my chest will take some pressure off and help me be the husband and father I want - and need - to be.

One more thing to say, and then I'll leave off this morose piece of text:

Kyle and Erron, I don't talk about her much, because it's sure to bring tears to my eyes, but I need you guys to know that Katie is never far from my thoughts. All I need to do is to look at the light in NIck and Lilly's eyes and know how lucky I am to have them.

I want to extend to the both of you my love, my admiration, and my condolences. Also, I want to congratulate you on your upcoming move. Hopefully, we won't have to wait so long between visits, any more.

Okay, that's all. I'm done for now. Until more later on.

Monday Musings

2009-04-07T00:16:00.001-06:00

I'm working again, tonight. I figured it would be good to keep up what I started last night.

I'm trying to lower a different kind of complexity in the same class I was working on last night. Basically, the thing kicks your ass for having too much in one class. I'm making progress, but this thing is mucky. I've factored it out, so far, into two new, specialized classes, two utility classes, and it looks like I'm going to create another specialized class - or maybe a util for the specialization.

I've been pretty lucky with the Tim Horton's contest. I'd say about a third of my coffee purchases have borne additional fruit, by way of free coffees and donuts.

Trying not to get distracted by the lure of taking a break. Really. I'm trying, progress is happening, albeit very slowly, but the siren call of Jarome Iginla and the fantasy world of pucks and sticks calls me.

Why, oh why, is there a method in the User dao where all it does is call a method from a different Dao? How does that help anything? Especially me?

I tried a new way of drinking tea, tonight. I frothed up a milk/sugar combo and then poured the tea into that. It was some tasty vanilla green tea.

I have finished my refactorings. Now I need to get them into Eclipse, make sure all my files are green, make sure the project still works as expected, and likely update unit tests.

Good night.

Sunday Night Waits

2009-04-06T01:00:00.001-06:00

I'm in at work on a Sunday night, spending most of it trying to debug search functionality that won't work.

Actually, I'm spending most of the time waiting for my code to deploy on the application server. Seemed like a good time (five minutes or so at a pop) to update the ol' bloggeroo. This entry is likely to be very scattered, very unfocused, and, probably, something that Dylan would call "Not very good." Fortunately, there have been bad blog posts on this site before and the internet hasn't burned my blog down yet.

A father, on his death-bed, tries to make his child understand that he's done terrible things.

"I'm no angel," he says to the young adult.

"That's all right, dad. They don't have balls. Anyway, last I heard, one of them was running Hell. Who'd want someone like that for a father?"

Fictional writing has been a luxury I cannot afford so much, lately. It's been work, work, work, without much time for anything. Unfortunately, writing is usually the first thing to go. It's so much easier to turn on the tube, turn off my brain and lose myself in someone else's creation.

I have started a contract where my work was to be mainly in design. From there, there was to be an opportunity to construct code from the beginning of a project all the way through. Instead, I find myself at work, at 11:41pm on a Sunday, wading through thousands of lines of code, trying to find a place where I went wrong.

It's getting to a point, tonight, where coffee isn't enough. I'll have to make more, to keep myself going, but there comes a point where you just have to shut off and go to sleep, doesn't there? Maybe not. Maybe I just don't like waiting.

Mom bowled in a league. People who don't know my mom can say, "Oh yeah?" and not really mean it. People are in bowling leagues. They bowl with friends and it's no big deal.

You can definitely tell the people who know the kind of person my mom was by how they react when I tell them about the bowling. Their eyes pop and I'm met with incredulity. I think Auntie Anne was the most surprised.

The thing that reminds me most about my mom is the feeling of warm glasses on my face. When I first got my glasses, mom would always wash them in warm water before I left for school. I could feel the warmth coming off of them and that was relaxing on my eyes. Feels like love to me.

12:30am, and I've finally managed to pinpoint the location of the problem. Unfortunately, fixing it put the complexity of my favourite piece-of-crap method over the top for complexity again. So, I've refactored some more, and I am once again waiting for my application to deploy.

Nick has the best sense of humour in the world. I don't have to look at him and say, "D'you get it?" I just know he does.

Remember, no drinking this week. It's dry week, leading up to Easter. It's so that we can know what it was like for Jesus and the other prisoners up on the crucifixes. I wanted to use crucifices, but LiveWriter assures me it's not a word.

Apparently, two of the top linebackers, heading into the NFL draft, have tested positive for steroids. Their management firms vehemently deny it, and no official word has come out about it. Linebackers. Hm.... do you think that maybe some team that needs a linebacker, but doesn't draft early enough to get one of these guys, maybe spread word (subtly, of course) in the hopes that one of the dudes would fall to them? Shades of Warren Sapp are clouding this entire situation.

The code works. It's 1am. Earned myself a tidy sum for the weekend's work. Off I go, to jot down my hours, and then head home.

Dissection of a Job-Change

2009-03-27T06:27:00.001-06:00

Two and a half weeks ago, or the day of my last blog post, I was working overtime (work out!), trying to finish off testing a section of the project I was hired to work on. The next day, all motivation was punched out of me when they let all of the contractors, save George, know that the contract with the Department of Defense had been canceled and they would no longer be needing our pricey services.

No reason was given for the ending of the project. Certainly, it wasn't the work we were doing. That was what our project manager said, and I believe and hope that it is true. Regardless of the reason, we were given notice and told that, if everything worked out, we would be on for another two months, transitioning out of the project. What does that mean? It's not entirely clear, but it meant that I likely had until May 15 to find another job.

Initially, I was angry. But they said... But it wasn't supposed... It wasn't until I changed my mind-set that I was okay with it.

'I'm a contractor,' I would tell myself. 'Contracts are canceled or end all the time.' So I got back to work - the work of looking for a job.

Eventually, I was led to DevFacto, a company owned by my friend David. He knew of a company, Accenture, who had a need for a Java Developer (or more, as it turns out). Wednesday, this week, I interviewed for the position, was an acceptable candidate, and worked out a contract, basically on the same day.

Thursday, this week, I learned that my (now) former employers were not able to negotiate a transitioning-out contract with the DoD and that, had I not found my current contract, today would be my last day at Haemonetics.

I start at Accenture today and I imagine it is going to be a little hectic, between trying to get up to speed company-wise, social-wise and project-wise.

It's nice to be relevant again.

This Week in The Biggest Loser -- or -- Ron Culls the Flock

2009-03-11T13:07:00.001-06:00

I wanted to like Ron. He's a father, he's a straight shooter, he doesn't make excuses, and he seemed to be coming from the right place when it came to his place on the show.

However, last night's show gave me a little insight into what papa bear's really trying to accomplish.

The first challenge was to decide who would face off against whom in head-to-head weigh-ins.

In usual fashion, it came down to Tara for the black team and Mandi for the blue team. In usual fashion, Tara eked out the victory. It was up to her to set the lineup for the weigh-in.

Immediately after, they shifted to some voice-overs and interviews from the blue team perspective, saying how frustrating it is to be constantly losing these challenges. (For those of you scoring at home, since they mixed things up and went blue/black, Bob's Blue Bombers haven't won a goddamn thing.)

Then there was another challenge that involved teamwork. The prize: luxury. 24 hours at a luxury resort, getting massages (presumably without happy endings), hot tubs, the whole gamut.

Shock of all shocks, black team won it. Ron had a "haird taim" in the pool, moving medicine balls from one end to the other but that was all that he could contribute. It looked like he *did* try, even though he took almost half-again as long as it took the Terrible Tongan, Filipe.

Mandi did some good work, gaining some ground against Tara, though there was basically no chance once the balls were in her court, so to speak. Aubrey did her damnedest to catch up to Helen. In the end, though, it seems that, once again, Ron held them back juuuuuuuust enough for them to fail. Again.

Luxury to the black team.

Advantage... blue team?!

That's right. 24 hours of luxury is 24 hours away from Jillian and 24 hours of excess. They went whole-hog that night. Between the six of them, there were something like 12,900 calories consumed in the span of four hours.

Speaking of Filipe, the day before the luxury, Jillian completely ignored him, choosing to work out the others, one-on-one. Oops.

After the black team got back to the Ranch, Jillian tore a strip off of them. Let me be clear if you haven't watched the show: Jillian is not a nice person. She likes causing pain, she likes hurting your feelings because she will break you down to a gibbering pile of guts if that's what it takes to get past your emotional crap and get you on track to losing weight.

Have you ever seen a 290-pound temper-tantrum? If you didn't watch last night, I'm guessing probably not. At least not a 290-pound Tongan temper-tantrum. Filipe was slamming his hand on the table, walking around and yelling at Jillian about the day before when she didn't take time for him. Then he went to the gym and asked Bob to train him again. His compadre Sione went along.

In a later aside, Sione came up with some bullshit about how he agreed with Filipe and wanted Jillian to know that he felt the same way. This, despite the fact that Jillian has taken Sione aside, trained him one-on-one, and made him a priority. Bob, his goony-eyes popping, agreed to train the pair of them, and even had them facing off against their head-to-head competition. "Sione, beat Mandi. Mandi, beat Sione." Stuff like that. Bob is very funny and he did, I guess, the best he could with a difficult situation.

NOTE: I can understand the frustration that Filipe felt. It's not nice to be singled out, whether on purpose or not, and any time you feel sorry for yourself, it's certainly not going to help your motivation. When you're 290 pounds, you let off steam the same way you do anything else: really big. So I can kind of understand why he fell off the weight-loss wagon during his luxury 24 hours. Still, to whine and complain about his horrible lot in life, having to suffer under Jillian, slamming his hand on the table, shrieking in petulant rage, before storming off to Bob's Blue Bombers, begging to be let in because of the unfairness of it all, shows me the character of the man, and lets me understand how, despite an amazing athleticism and work ethic, he managed to reach 300+ pounds. When everything's going well for Filipe, he's boisterous, laughing, shouting his joy to the world. He loves everything and everybody. When something goes wrong, he can't blame himself or move past it. The world's over, and it's time to eat. I know this because I'm the same way. It's helpful to see that behaviour in someone else because it makes it easier to look at myself and see when I'm doing the same thing. It's also frustrating to see it because he needs to suck it up (his pride), sack it up (be a man), sock it up (his whiney pie-hole) and back it up (his big talk about how he could eat a pound of chicken tenders and still win weigh-in). After the Dane marathon lies that we were told, I have to wonder how much of this show is real, but if any/most of it is real -- particularly the parts about the weight-loss journeys -- then there are two things that need to happen: Sione needs to kick his cousin's ass back to Jillian, and Filipe needs to take his hat in his hand, swallow his pride, toe the line, pull his weight and all the other cliches that mean he's contrite and willing to accept responsibility for the choices he made while he was off the Ranch. Whoo - long note.

To make an already-long story shorter, somehow, black team managed to pull a win out. I say somehow but, really, Tara did an amazing job of setting the matchups.

vs.

Putting Helen against Ron was genius. Helen lost very little, but Ron would have had to basically double that in order to win the matchup. He didn't.

vs.

Mikey was probably the only one off-Ranch who didn't totally lose control. He lost 8 lbs and secured another point for his team.

vs.

This is an interesting matchup since they both had to do work at home. Laura, however, nearly drowned in tequilla and mashed taters off-Ranch, while the light seems to be finally coming on for Aubrey. Laura gained weight (I believe) while Aubrey had a fairly solid number.

vs.

There was some good smack-talk leading up to this matchup. I don't know if they genuinely don't like each other or if they both just have big mouths, but Filipe's loss of control led to some deep-fried chicken tenders, some alcohol, some kobe sliders, and a minimal weight-loss. Kristin continued her solid performance, putting Filipe to rest. After the weigh-in, Filipe said something along the lines of, "I can't believe I let my trainer affect me this much," showing me that he has some miles to go before he gets it. Dude, you just got your butt kicked by a girl. :)

vs.

I'll admit, Mandi was my dark horse for the biggest loser title. The camera didn't really follow Sione too much during the off-Ranch lux-fest, so it's my conjecture that he really didn't let himself go that far (kinda like Mikey). Still, Sione's just about a hundred pounds heavier than Mandi, so when he lost six pounds, it was up to Mandi to lose five. Deet - deet - deet, she gained two. Oops.

At the elimination discussion, Ron says, "It's Mandi's time to go home." As if he wasn't the guy begging not to be sent home two weeks ago. But now he's got his ladies to vote his bidding and he can just make pronouncements from the throne.

It's really interesting to see the disintegration of a team like this. It will be Aubrey next week, it will be Ron the week after that, and then Cathy and Kristin will have to make the horrible mother-or-daughter decision that Helen and her daughter had to make.

And it's all Aubrey's fault.

Two weeks ago, Aubrey had a chance to send Ron packing. She held the swing vote. Dane and Mandi did their jobs, voting for Ron. Ron and his ladies voted for Dane (because Dane was the most able to do it at home). Aubrey, apparently under some illusion that it would be her fault, couldn't vote Ron home and effectively sent Dane away. That shifted the balance of power to Bob's original Blue Bombers and sealed her fate as well as that of her sister.

That act of ~~nonsense~~ conscience cost her and Mandi the Biggest Loser cup, I think. Add to that all the little goodie packages that come from winning the mini-challenges and all that leaves is the real reason we're here. I hope the light truly came on for her and she loses lots of weight - enough to keep her immune until they restructure or whatever - or enough for her to make the switch, because I don't truly think she's ready to go home and be healthy, yet.

Which brings us all the way back to Ron's evil plan. I truly believe that when they split up Ron and Mikey, Ron stopped caring about his team. He's there for his son, he wants his son to be on the show - he's said that enough times - and he will burn Bob's Blue Bombers all the way to Hell if that's what it takes to keep Mikey there. Thus, he gets his ladies to vote off the strongest performers under the guise of them "being ready to do it at home" and Mikey's team wins all the challenges, gets all the advantages and, since basically all the athletes are on Jillian's team, they can take a day off, eat two days' worth of calories, and still win the weigh-in. Congratulations, papa, you've done your son proud.

My funny wife - or - that big red mark on my head

2009-02-18T05:54:00.003-07:00

My wife is funny. Sometimes, she is funnier than she is nice. I don't have a problem saying things like that because when I tell her she is doing something mean, she acts hurt and responds by saying things like: "But it's funny!"

So when she hacked my facebook account and put a picture up of my forehead hickey, I accepted it.

I will explain. My children received approximately four-hundred dollar-store toys at a Family-Day carnival on the weekend. One of these things was one of those popping half-spherical pieces of rubber. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. You turn it inside out, put it on the table and, seconds later, it pops up in the air, driven by the force of its return to its original shape.

Lilly and I were playing around with it, and I stuck it to my head. Pulling it off broke some surface blood vessels which resulted in a near-perfect circular hickey on my forehead.

Kim, being easily-amused, decided while I was reading, to take some oh-so-funny pictures of my injury, log in to facebook with my credentials, and post a new profile picture along with a funny status update.

I won't keep you in suspense anymore. Here is the picture:

Kim will probably make some plea to your sensitivities, telling you that she's some poor pregnant woman, and that her horrible, mean, and stick-in-the-mud husband is just being mean to her, never letting her have any fun. Don't let her do that. She is funny. There is no way to deny that. She's just not always nice.

2008 in Review - Part One

2009-02-03T22:37:00.002-07:00

It is tradition for me to take New Year's Eve to reflect on the past year. This year, it didn't happen. That's why you are seeing this at the beginning of February. To that end, in the spirit of getting on with things, here is the first part of my 2008 review.

2008 in Review

2008, on the surface, looks a bit like 2006, only flipped on its head. I moved on from a company to start something new.. 2006 saw me depart from Halliburton three months into the year. 2008 saw me leave Intuit three months before the end of the year. A couple of months before 2006 started, we had a baby. A couple of months after 2008, we will have another baby.

A pretty superficial comparison, I know. We didn't move in 2008 or do a lot of other things either but it seemed like a good place to start. This is, too:

January:

2008 came in much like any other year. It was cold. We've spent as much time in this house as we did in the condo and it has become apparent to me that when we moved, it was a significant trade-off of insulation for square footage. I have never faced more fully the heat of the summer or the winter chill.

Despite a scare with Intuit and our fickle budget the previous July, I was flush with employment. The company went as far as to help my productivity by providing a laptop for me to work at home.

February:

Then they took away any need for me to work overtime by canceling our project. This was the beginning of the end at Intuit.

On the way to Beaver Camp, we were rear-ended. Not hard enough to hurt anyone. Not hard enough, even, to break the eggs in the trunk. Hard enough to bust up the bumper, though. A bust-up that wouldn't be repaired until the end of summer.

March:

Being cast adrift from my project at Intuit was, at first, a little liberating. The prospect of a new project was daunting but who knew? Maybe the project I moved to would be able to catch some of the lightning in a bottle that BCM (the newly-ended project) had. However, I always thing it's best to cover my bases, so I had my first job interview as an employee of Intuit.

April: Time really didn't breeze by as quickly as it seems as I'm writing this. Time actually dragged right out. I jumped around to a couple of project ideas during this time: a webmail thing; an RSS thing; my eventual landing spot, Customer Central; even a small stint on the project that replaced BCM: Quicken Online. None of them really stuck and minds were changed until I found Customer Central. I knew some others who had also landed there, however briefly and it seemed as good a place as any.

May:

Nick returned to soccer and I helped out as the head coach again. This year worked out to be a bit better as I had an assistant coach and, let's face it, more than enough time on my hands. I also started playing soccer again, though I can't remember the specific month when I started, so it makes sense for me to put in in there with Nick's. This is also the month that the rest of the family went to Chicago and I went... to Chicago. I went to study Java and Kim and the kids went to visit with the Andersons who abandoned us to the frozen wastelands went south in search of new opportunities in the wake of Kyle's graduation.

Kim has told me of her experiences in Chicago. Driving, sight-seeing, scrapbooking, laughing, driving...

My experience was nothing like that. Twelve hours per day over six days, I sat in a stuffy classroom and listened to a Philadelphia guy talking about all the pleasant features, details and pitfalls of the Java programming language and all the tricky, nasty, evil things that would be on the test to try and trip me up. Professionally, the trip was a success, despite only seeing Kim for a couple of hours after the test. This, even though we tried to get together for lunch one day.

June:

As far as I've been able to pull out of the hole in my brain, nothing major happened in June. Life had settled into a fairly predictable routing. Soccer for Nick and I, running for Kim, continued insanity for Lilly. Work started to mean less and less as I struggled to find any motivation at all. I should have walked away then and there and I likely would have if it weren't for the bonus in August. Hindsight being what it is, I should have left anyway. Happiness and job satisfaction are worth more than 10% of my annual salary.

July:

I spent a significant amount of July on vacation. The four of us and Kim's family – her parents and her brother's family – went to Salmon Arm, B.C. For a camping vacation. I have learned to fear summer vacations. The year previous, I came back from Vancouver to discover that my job was in jeopardy. This year, when I returned from vacation, DING, you guessed it. My job was in jeopardy. Intuit laid off 575 people in July, including my friend Marius. This was the middle of the end for my time at Intuit.

That's it for now. Next up, August through December. Big changes ABOUND.

Stay tuned,

Liam

Mom

2009-02-01T21:56:00.001-07:00

While I will not pretend to never have delved into it on this site, it has never been my focus to dwell on my own emotions. Instead, I've been focused on things that I'm doing, goals I'm working toward. In the now, even.

Every once in awhile, though, the pot will bubble over and I'll let something slip, giving the reader some small glimpse into my feelings.

I don't know if the pot's bubbled over or if the soup is done but buckle in, kiddies, because it's sharing time.

In the months that led up to the completion of my university career, my mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. My first memory of things turning down that road was when her eyesight started not being so great. I remember one eye test she had that left her pupils frighteningly large and unfocused enough so I had to drive her there and back. Meghan reminded me the other day of another episode, quite a bit before mom was diagnosed, when she had a Bell's Palsy attack.

Funny story. Not really, but - yeah, really.

I'm in my room, playing NHL hockey. Mom comes in and says something about supper or something like that. I notice she's kinda talking funny.

"Hey mom, what's with your face? You're talking a bit weird."

"Oh, that. I think I had a stroke."

Jesus fucking Christ.

"What?! What did the doctor say?"

"I didn't go see the doctor," (well, duh, the sarcastic part of me thought at this point, just a stroke). "It was just a small one."

I've always thought of these things as being binary conditions. Either you had a stroke or you didn't. If you did, you go see a doctor. How there's a decision there, based on the size of the stroke, I don't even know.

Still, mom got in to the doctor and they told her it was Bell's Palsy. Meghan, most likely correctly, figures that it was the first-ish sign of MS.

Mom kept working through a good portion of her MS, until it became ... I don't know, too much? Too bad? Too dangerous? How does a woman who shuns the doctor over a stroke decide it's time to hang it up? Anyway, she stopped working.

Fast forward a couple of years. Mom's been at home for awhile. I spend my time trying not to think about it. (She's retired, I tell myself. She's earned it.) I've got a young family, Meghan has a young child, dad's in business for himself and Sean is finally out of truck driving, working as an electrician.

A couple more years, and mom can't walk anymore. (It's probably for the best, I tell myself. She's not on the pain medication she was on before.)

Then she gets this bed sore and winds up in the hospital. I don't think any of us knew just how serious the bed sore was but it got infected. The infection tried sneaking around a corner and succeeded to a certain extent but she got into the hospital and got it under control.

In the hospital, my mom suffered some pretty bad depression, fighting the boredom, the hopelessness and the displacement. She wanted to go home and would alternate between anger and sadness; between trying to make sure we felt okay when we went there and needing us to know that she wanted to go home.

She went home. And nearly died. Quick action on Meghan's part saved mom's life but she was different. It almost seemed like part of her was gone and the one night we went out to visit, when it was time to say goodnight, nothing the kids or I said would elicit a response.

Then mom got another bedsore. The mattress that dad got her was not good enough. They caught this sore in time, though, and she went back into the hospital. Thank goodness for this, since they found pneumonia in her lungs. They caught this early enough, too, that they were able to take it down with antibiotics. I spent the night with Meghan and mom at the hospital, then went back with Meghan to her house. We talked for awhile and then it became apparent that I was going to have to drive home eventually and I didn't want to fall asleep on the way home.

So mom's been in the hospital since then but they say that her lungs are clear, her sore is cleared up and dad ponied up for the good bed and when it arrives and is set up she can go home.

See what I did there? I did what I always do with mom's situation. I managed to go through the entire thing in 14 or so paragraphs and I managed to skirt the issue of how I felt at any point, other than incredulity.

How did I feel? How the fuck should I feel? I dealt with it. I got from one day to the next, not thinking about it. It pisses me off that I wasted so much time trying to avoid how I felt instead of actually fucking feeling it. I've seen my mom in such extremes of pain and despair and what fucking good is it doing me to pretend it hasn't happened - that I haven't seen or felt the things that have happened? What honour does it do to my mom, the woman who made me the man that I am today, to push her hurts, her sadness to the side because it makes me fucking sad? How fucking full of shit am I to preach to my kids about compassion for each other when I spend every day denying my mother my compassion because I'm not emotionally equipped to deal with it? How fucking hypocritical is it of me to cry at a movie or a piece on the news when I shove the emotions down about something that is really happening and has bearing on my life? Even now, I am hiding a big part of it from myself. Why? What the fuck am I waiting for? It's pushing me around right now, this feeling, whatever the fuck it is. It's exacting its revenge for six-plus years of denial. I don't sleep. I eat until I'm full and then I keep going because I need something to fill me up. I vacillate between playing NHL hockey real late and staring at the computer screen, refreshing Facebook and Twitter in some savant-like compulsion, praying for something to distract me from whatever moment I'm in. Things pass me by. I find the biggest joys in life - Nick and Lilly - to be my biggest annoyances. I apologize to them right here and now for the way I've acted. I've been impatient, unforgiving and downright insulting to the people to whom I should be the exact opposite. I want to say that things are going to change. I want to say that I'm going to work my way out of this. I'm a guy who solves problems. I want to say that I can just come up with a plan, put tab A into slot B and everything's going to be better but there's no guarantee of that.

I ask again, what am I waiting for? Kim has told me I'm good at falling apart after whatever crisis it is has passed. Is that what this is? Can I not glory in the life gave me mine now? Can I not mourn what is lost, what is being lost before it is gone? Is it pride? Is that what it is? Am I so worried about how people will feel about me that I can't let go of whatever it is I'm holding on to? I don't fucking know. But I need to let go. I need to allow myself my grief. I need to let my kids see that it's all right to be sad and not hold everything in. If not, I do myself, my kids and my mom a disservice.

I'm Still a Child

2009-01-15T08:05:00.002-07:00

In high school, I would sit through interminable lectures and make them seem to go faster by doodling, taking notes that were part real and part ridiculous. Apparently, this defense mechanism has not gone away.

Yesterday, after only two and a half months on the job, I got my new hire orientation. For three hours. How, oh how, do you suppose that a grown-up who owns his own business and hopes to reach continually higher by standing on the ever expanding mount of his own achievement and reputation would grasp this opportunity to better familiarize himself with the company he has hitched his professional wagon - NO - chariot to? Would he become a master of product knowledge? Would he make every effort to familiarize himself with the ins, outs and processes of said company?

You know me better.

So here, with no further rambles, are some of the choicer tidbits from the note-taking extravaganza that is my new hire training:

The first bit concerns a program called LOGIC:

LOGIC
-510k device
-Data warehousing solution for plasma
-Foundation for thought and argument
-Only 2 customers use LOGIC
-Help Desk Bastardizes LOGIC (they actually said this)
-LOGIC keeps bad units from being shipped
-LOGIC pools
-LOGIC has tools
-LOGIC team - two members shy of a full load (talking about some employee turnover recently)
-LOGIC - available on Windows and Linux but not OSX. (funny, I thought it would have excluded one of the other ones instead)

The next set of notes is about a project called EQue. Doesn't seem really all that legal, until you realize they're talking about a questionnaire program. A note about the following bullet points - I only wrote down what they said in the meeting.

EQue
-Electronic Questionnaire
-Does the hustle-Bang away at EQue
-Plays for the other team too
-Donors like banging away at EQue
-Especially repeat customers
-Donors are more truthful to EQue than people
-EQue is selling fast
-The underlying architecture is not robust and has people clamouring for EQue.

There was mention of an ATM program where they give the donor a chit and he goes to an on-site ATM which provides him with money. Apparently, the big canvas sack with dollar signs printed on it was a security risk somehow.

Anyway, that's how I spent three hours yesterday, compiling notes like the ones above. I'm such a child.

I Found It - The Essential Mel Torme

2009-01-13T00:41:00.001-07:00

A million years ago - or eleven, if you're using decimal notation - I went looking for something new. I'd started down a path looking at swing music with Glen Miller and delved a little deeper into Jazz with Dave Brubeck. Eventually, I returned to one of the artists I grew up listening to. Ella Fitzgerald singing How High the Moon and Don't Fence Me In is burned into my consciousness. It was her scat singing that led me to Mel Torme. In my first year of university, I was having an argument with a fellow student about who was better, Ella Fitzgerald or Mel Torme. My familial loyalties fell behind Ella, but I have to admit that his vehemence led me to look closer at Mel.

The Essential Mel Torme was the first CD of his that I bought, hoping it would have lots of scat singing, fast-paced music and excitement. Much to my disappointment, it had none. That's right, not a single bop skoobie doo ba baa.

Later in university, I sold a car with that CD in the player. Ever since, I've been obsessed with replacing it.

Thank you, EPL.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T23:30:00.002-07:00

Brief. It's bedtime and I have to work in the morning.

Didn't get a chance to do my usual year-in-review last night. I put Lilly to bed and was out for the night. Hopefully this weekend I'll get the chance.

I got NHL 09 on Tuesday but I still haven't played it. Haven't had time. I will make time this weekend.

That is all.

Self-Checkout

2008-12-31T14:24:00.002-07:00

Okay, I'm usually a pretty reasonable guy. I get along with people pretty well and I try to go along with whatever. However.

The time is 10:15pm. There is not one other person in line at the Save On Foods. Why, do you suppose, a guy would take his groceries to the Self-Checkout lane? Could it be to bypass the milling throngs clogging the standard checkouts? No? Could it be because he just wants to make his purchases and get the hell out of the store because he's in an unsocial mood? Hm... Nah, this must be someone who needs a lot of extra attention.

Honestly, that must have been going through the Self-Checkout clerk's mind as I strolled up because she hovered. And she wouldn't take a hint. While I was pushing the lookup produce button, she told me to push it. Then she helped me find the pesky T button (for tomatoes). Good thing. I've been struggling with those pesky alphabetized letters since '07.

She was trying to help me to make room in my cart for bags while I was trying to shoo her away. Then one of the bags I was filling with groceries disappeared from the filling area. I looked over my shoulder and she was putting it in the cart, with me holding a grocerous item, with no bag to put it in. So I bore it. I was the stone at the bottom of the river, allowing the water to flow over it.

Is it wrong of me to be so annoyed at a person who could not take a hint and apparently didn't think I could find the letter 't' without her help?

Battlestar Galactica

2008-12-30T14:47:00.002-07:00

Note to the wise: This post will contain information and give away plot points for the first four and a half seasons. If you haven't seen these episodes and want to preserve a virginal innocence with regards to the identity of Cylons, etc., please go away. I will post other stuff later on but this is what this is about so move along.

So, I'm all caught up on Battlestar Galactica. Some thoughts:

Colonel Tye is probably my favourite character. When he was identified as one of the final five, I was shocked but the way he dealt with it in the latest show was brilliant. It showed that Tye wasn't changed by his discovery. Probably Torry wasn't either - a power-hungry bitch is a power-hungry bitch. Nice to see that some switch isn't just turning on and changing who they are.

As soon as Apollo left Galactica, I knew that he would be the next president. It wasn't even something I had to think about. It'll be interesting to see what they do with this. I think he's been one of the weaker characters, even if his would-be romance with Starbuck is interesting.

The best: All of the stuff on New Caprica, the boxing match between the old man and the chief, everything that comes out of a hybrid's mouth, Dean Stockwell, Helo

The worst: Early Tom Zerrich, Dee dropping Billy for Apollo (where did that come from?), Caprica 6 having visions of Baltar (seemed forced to me), Starbuck's problems with training nuggets, waiting to watch the next episode.

So, it's a brief babble on a good TV show and I know I didn't do it justice but I wanted to get something out, maybe start a discussion. Nah, who wants discussion, especially about TV, on the internet?

My Christmas with Katie

2008-12-21T09:00:00.001-07:00

On a Saturday morning where I was scheduled to drive out to Leduc to visit my mom, I took some time out to visit the cemetery to clean it up and put some decorations up.

Keeping in mind that it was -33, I hope you'll understand that it was a quick trip.

Katie's grave was pretty full of snow.

Fortunately, I'd planned ahead and brought my car scraper.

Some quick work dusting and sweeping, and recovering all the little people from the snow, and the work was done.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get our barbecue lighter to light but it's definitely more festive.

With my new job, mom in the hospital and everything seeming to come together just a little too quickly, I've definitely been feeling stress. It was good to get away from that and gain a little perspective. Even if it was just a short time.

It's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't care a whole lot

2008-12-20T01:39:00.001-07:00

First post in a long time. See title as to why.

I started a new job. Most or all of you know that by now. I'm contracting through Bisonweb Inc. and they have a contract with Xea Services Inc. who have a contract with 5D software who have a contract with the department of defense for software. Convoluted but true. Suffice it to say, I've been busy.

The good: I went into this job as a non-newbie. This is the first job I've walked into since University where I felt like I knew the score and could come in and contribute right away, which is good, since contractors don't generally have the same lee-way for learning on-the-job as full-time employees. Thank you, Intuit, for making me ready to launch myself into my next position. (I don't rule out a return to Intuit someday, but it's not entirely likely).

The bad: My mom is in the hospital and has been for several weeks. She got an infection on her hip and she's been receiving treatment for that.

The not-so-bad: The dishwasher is once again in the fold. I had no idea how much I was relying on that thing until I had to live without it. I guess a little perspective is never a terrible thing but it would have been nice for it to just have kept on working.

The long and drawn-out: Unit testing. Testing, in general, is something that I don't like to do when I'm programming. I know it has to be done, and I know that I have to do some of it. But the amount I've been doing since I started at 5D is a little out-of-proportion. Still, they're paying me to do it, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

The short and sweet: We're having a baby! Nature should take its course toward the beginning of July and we're excited. Especially Lily who says that she'll share all her babies with the baby but if it's a boy, it's NIck's.

The failure: I gave up on Nano very early on. Generally, it's better not to try to write 1700 words per day when you've started a new job.

The win: Barrack Obama won the election. Yes, I know. Old news. So what? It's still monumental. And he actually won the election unlike our ground-breaking woman-as-a-Prime-Minister-by-default scenario. My concern with Barrack Obama is whether or not he can do the job. I wasn't concerned on that score with McCain but Obama kinda came out of nowhere and smothered voters in charisma.

BSG: We have one episode of BSG left until we're all caught up. Just in time for the new episodes. Must... not... spoil.

Football: Despite being eliminated from the playoff hunt, Houston looks poised to turn in their best record yet. A win over the woeful and embarrassing Raiders, and a home-win over the Bears and they've got it. If I could remove the RosenCopter from the annals, we'd be talking about a wild-card spot. Stupid Sage Rosenfels.

Books: I've gotten up to 38 books this year, the most since I started counting. Yes, it's not 50, but there *is* the new job, after all. Best new book this year: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's epic fantasy done right. Doesn't stretch too many boundaries, but that's not what I read it for. Good characters, good pacing, good world building and an underlying creepiness in the epic part.

Comics: I'm reading the Sandman comics that James lent to me. Really, really good. Must... not... spoil.

Hockey: Three times a week at the downtown YMCA, I'm playing floor hockey at 7 am. Sean's made an appearance and all hope is that we'll see him out there again some time. Nice to see I can keep up with a bunch of people I don't know.

That's all for tonight, folks! Sorry there isn't more but who knows? Maybe I'll generate enough energy and give-a-damn to squeeze out another post or two before Christmas.

If not, Merry Christmas.

Liam

A stab at something new

2008-11-19T08:46:00.002-07:00

I started writing last night. Just kinda let myself go to it. I got just about three thousand words out but a lot of it wasn't as good as this part. For what that's worth.

----------------------------------------------

PROLOGUE – What Came Before

I looked up and kissed her on the cheek when she said she was leaving. I'd probably have kissed her on the lips if I'd known she meant forever.

Both kids snug up in their beds, I was distracted and incurious when she stepped out. I must have assumed she was going to get something to eat or something but I can't remember what I thought. It was just another night in front of the TV.

When I looked up and it was eleven thirty, I'm pretty sure I thought she must already be up in bed. That happened plenty, so I was careful and quiet when I went up to bed at two. I woke up early and got ready for work. She usually gets up – got up, pardon me – just as I am ready to leave. Kinda makes sense, now that I think about it. But she didn't get up. So I put off leaving. When it was obvious she wasn't coming down, I thought she was just mad or something. So I went up to see what was the matter. She wasn't there. Her side of the bed was still made. My head tilted back and I started feeling sick to my stomach. I looked around the house. After all, she could have just made her side of the bed. She used to do stuff like that to make me help out around the house more. She gave it up pretty quick when she figured out I'm pretty happy whatever. “Like a pig wallowing in his own filth,” my mom used to say. But she wasn't anywhere in the house. I looked out the window. No car. Oh, shit. She's been in an accident. That's what I thought, anyway. Wasn't the case, though. I called her cell. She never leaves without that. Good move. One ring, two, and a small voice.

“Hello?”

“Hey. Where are you?” I was relieved but scared a different way.

“I'm on the highway.” Never one to give more than is asked.

“Why? Where you going?”

“I told you last night, John. I'm leaving.”

“I thought you were coming back.” That, I remember saying for sure, because it made no sense.

“I thought I was at first, too. Then I started driving and nothing in me wanted to come back.”

“Plenty in me wants you to come back. I think there are two others full of wanting you back too, Linda.” I don't cry much. Maybe at those stupid movies where they always have a fight then get together, then have another fight and then they're really together. And when my kids were born. Can't forget that. But I started crying then. I guess it makes sense.

“I can't, John. I can't do it anymore.” Sounded like she was crying too.

“Can't do what?” Like her life was so hard. That's what I thought, then, but I didn't say it. I was trying to get her to come home.

“Being a mother, being a wife. Cleaning. Always cleaning, and never any help from you with that. You come home and you play with the kids 'til they go to bed and then you watch TV. Every night.” She was letting it out and it kept coming out faster and louder until she was screaming at the end.

“I never knew you wanted anything else, Linda.” I got that out, even though it felt like I was punched in the stomach. “I never wanted anything else. I wanted a wife – you – and I wanted kids – Rob and Alice. I got what I wanted and never pined for anything else.”

“You've got more than that but you can't see it. You've got a job. You've got control over the money. We never go anywhere. I feel like I'm locked up in a crazy house with those two every day and you don't appreciate all I do.” She didn't get loud this time, she got quiet. For some reason, that hurt even more.

I wanted to defend myself. I wanted to say that I worked hard at a crappy job for not enough money. I wanted to shout at her that it was her stupid idea that I should control the money, that if she wanted a job, we could get daycare. It was cheaper now that Rob would be going into school. I wanted to say all these things, but the more she talked, the further she got. She was driving away from me, but her heart was already gone. I had nothing more to give her.

“What do I tell the kids, Linda? You're walking away from them and I don't know how to tell them.”

She didn't say anything. I could still hear the car motor and the faint sound of some Bobby Darin song. She always did love that Bobby Darin. I never thought he cared enough – I like my singers to care.

So, we stayed like that for a couple of minutes, her getting farther away in the car and me getting farther away in my heart until she said, “I gotta go.” And she went.

Doin' the Dishes - System of a Down

2008-11-09T23:22:00.003-07:00

I was doing the dishes tonight, and decided that I would listen to a single album and then post my thoughts on that album. It might become a series, it might be a one-time shot.

I picked System of a Down tonight for two reasons. One, it was on the iPod. Two, I was in the mood for something a little faster, a little heavier. So, with no further ado, here are my thoughts on System of a Down's self-titled album:

I got System of a Down from James one day in 1998. I had originally thought that it was 1997, but Wikipedia, ever my faithful companion, tells me that the album did not exist at that juncture. This was during my "Roommates" phase with James. A time that was transformational and brought me out of a shell I didn't even know I had around me.

James was into different music than I was. I seem to remember listening to a lot of Faith No More and some old-timey lounge music at the time. James was into Korn and a bunch of others that I'd heard of but not paid much attention to. He mentioned this album and it intrigued me so I borrowed it from him and ~~made a copy~~ tried it out.

For the next several months (during which I would have the tumultuous ending of a friendship, start and leave the bleach factory, build bikes, build golf courses and consort with ~~waitresses~~ servants of the great egg) I listened to a near-continuous stream of System of a Down. They were loud, they were fun, they were sometimes annoying but they were almost always on. I'll give my thoughts on some or all of the songs below.

Suite-Pee - My only thought on this song is that my brother originally thought this was the title of the CD so my ~~copy~~ evaluation version actually has Suite-Pee as the title.

Sugar - My most vivid memory of this song is James singing it at Karaoke. Which also brings back the memory of Kyle and Erron fighting at Karaoke, which filled James with glee because he could run home (I remember him actually running down the street - boy got some quicks) yelling, "GREAT! I get to watch Buffy!"

Suggestions - I remember listening to this song on the way to and away from a movie at Silver City. I don't remember what movie it was. It might have been the second Star Wars prequel but I'm not sure.

Spiders - This and War? are my favourite songs on the album, for completely different reasons.

War? - WE WILL FIGHT THE HEATHOOOOOOOOOONS!

So, that's all I got for the first edition of Doin' the Dishes. Maybe there'll be a second edition. We'll see. There's always more dishes and I have lots of albums.

Pick'em week 7

2008-10-25T07:25:00.002-06:00

Sorry, guys. Been busy. Changing jobs and all that.
You guys have all the way up to the beginning of the first game to pick'em.

Games:

OAK @ BAL
ARI @ CAR
TB @ DAL
WAS @ DET
BUF @ MIA
STL @ NE
SD @ NO
KC @ NYJ
ATL @ PHI
CLE @ JAC
CIN @ HOU
NYG @ PIT
SEA @ SF
IND @ TEN

Week 7 Pick'em results

2008-10-21T12:27:00.002-06:00

Week 7 was a much more successful week across the board. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that more games have been played and there's a larger body of evidence on which to indict the crappy teams and elevate the good'uns.

Or maybe we got a lucky break.

Team Miasma surrounded everyone else, pulling the mists over our eyes and coming out on top with 11 wins.

SD@BUF - Buffalo. I really have nothing else to go on in this game but Buffalo's at home.[Going by that, you picked the winner.]

PIT@CIN - Pittsburgh. Marvin Lewis should be on some sort of death watch about now. Every damn time I want to proclaim the Lions are the worst team in the league, the Bengals crap the bed.[The Lions and the Bengals... wow do they both ever suck.]

TEN@KC - Tennessee. I am honestly blown away by the Titans record, but I certainly can't choose the utterly talentless Chiefs to hand them their first loss.[I wouldn't say utterly talentless. Just mostly talentless. The way that Cary Elwes was mostly dead in The Princess Bride. And now they're struggling to find a quarterback. Not that they had one before. HAW HAW HAW!]

BAL@MIA - Miami. Baltimore is to offensive success what France is to battlefield success in the last 200 years.[Hey, the Franco-Prussian war couldn't have turned out too badly. There's no Prussia but there IS a France.]

DAL@STL - Dallas. Haslett may have coaches up some bad Saints teams, but he also coached down some good Saints teams. Utterly mediocre coach, running an utterly mediocre team.[Haslett is the MAN! That's all I got to say!]

SF@NYG - Giants. They'll be ready to crush someone coming off that loss. Seeing how bad San Fran's pass protection has been, O'Sullivan might be sacked 20 times in this game.[I don't think it was that many but he did get knocked around some. Bring on Singletary! He's the singletary man who could come in and save this flagging franchise. First black head coach in San Fran! WOO!]

MIN@CHI - Chicago. Orton beats Frerotte. Also, 'Purple Jesus' Peterson is the most overrated player of all time...Forte isn't.[Purple Jesus makes me want to pee my pants. That's funny. And what a god-awful game.]

NO@CAR - Carolina. I see a 27-24 type win in this one. Saints are solid, Panthers are better.[I think the Pants walked all over the 'Aints, didn't they?]

DET@HOU - Houston. If the Texans can't beat the Lions, the need to be excommunicated from the NFL the day after.[They beat 'em, but it wasn't pretty.]

IND@GB - Green Bay. Packers seem to FINALLY be cranking up their ground game, and the Colts run defense can't do much more than just watch opposing backs run past them.[Stupid Peyton Manning.]

NYJ@OAK - Jets. I sense a really, really awful football game. Something like 13-10 with a total of 179 yards of offense.[HAH! Way off! it was 16-13. And Jones had a good day if nobody else did.]

CLE@WAS - Washington. Have the Browns hired a defense yet?[No. But they still held the Skins to 14 points. They still haven't hired an offense either.]

SEA@TB - Tampa Bay. Seahawks are done. Bucs are scared their coach will devour their souls.[D-FENSE!]

DEN@NE - New England. I'm fairly confident I could put up 100 yards on the Broncos this year.[Did you see THAT pants-kicking coming, though?]

Team DEATH METAL tied for second place with a 10-4 record.

SD @ BUF: BUFFALO. I'm hesitant to make this pick, but I gots ta go with the home team. [Everyone likes the home team. That's right. especially when they control the power.]

PIT @ CIN PITTSBURGH. Bengals bungle their way to another loss. This is my Death Metal Power Chord Lock of the Week.[On-key yet again, team death metal. Good job so far.]

TEN @ KC TENNESSE. I'm sold on the Titans. [Especially when the only other choice in the contest is a bona fide lemon.]

BAL @ MIA MIAMI. Better offence, and they're playing at home. Over/Under on the number of times the announcers mention the wildcat formation? 14. [It was only run 5 times but I'm sure they mentioned the lack if nothing else.]

DAL @ STL DALLAS. Brad Johnson is good enough to lead the Cowboys to a victory over the helpless Rams.[Brad Johnson is not good enough to lead anyone to a victory over my son's soccer team. BOO BRAD JOHNSON!]

SF @ NYG NEW YORK GIANTS. Superbowl champs at home. Dig it.[Dug, Doug.]

MIN @ CHI CHICAGO. The Vikings fall victim to the Kyle Orton attack.[Or the Chris Kluwe dismantling.]

NO @ CAR CAROLINA. Effective Cajun Quarterbacking all up in this.[Mon p'tit fou poutine! STEVE SMITH! JON STEWART!]

DET @ HOU HOUSTON. Not even the powers of Jesus can stand in the way of a Houston victory.[Jesus? Dave Krieg? Jake Plummer? I'm confused.]

IND @ GB GREEN BAY. I think this will be the game to watch this week. Green Bay wins a close, close game.[Stupid Peyton Manning.]

NYJ @ OAK NEW YORK JETS. Oh, those goofy RaiderZ. Sean's team wins in a landslide.[Buried under what? Oh yeah.]

CLE @ WAS WASHINGTON. I'm stealing Liam's comment b/c it is entirely accurate.Last week was a blip. For both teams.[Liam's comment is all that is good.]

LVL @ TB TAMPA BAY. No Hasslebeck = no chance. Another Loserville loss, which, as we all know, brings me joy.[And me. Joy is important in this current economy.]

DEN @ NE DENVER. Just going with the gut on this one.[Going with the gut-punch on this one.]

Sharing second spot with Team Death Metal is team BisonWeb who remains the only team not to win a week yet.

SD @ BUF BUF I don't really know what to expect from Buffalo on a consistency basis but it's getting cold and Buffalo is at home.[Buffalo looks for real to me. They're scary with Edwards in the game.]

PIT @ CIN PIT In general, I hate picking the away team but I don't know what Cincinnati has at all. I have no faith that they could beat Pittsburgh.[Cincinnati's contents are known to me now. It is tiger feces.]

TEN @ KC TEN The Inbred Children of Uranus will continue to dominate defensively and while I wish I could pick KC, my head overrules my heart on this one.[Maybe the Chiefs will bring in Daunte Culpepper now.]

BAL @ MIA MIA I don't think Baltimore is better than Miami, so I have to take the home team.[When the chips are down and all is riding on one last toss of the dice, regardless of the result of the toss, things have gone horribly wrong.]

DAL @ STL DAL They lost last week and St. Loo won last week. St. Loo has Haslett. But I'm still picking the away team because they're BETTER.[I still contend that the Cowboys have a better talent pool but I think they overlooked the Rams. I expect St. Loo to come back to earth next week.]

SF @ NYG NYG Home team, better team. Angry team. If Carr goes in, sink the season, fire the coach and wave goodbye to any good players.[Played like the better team. No Carr.]

MIN @ CHI CHI I don't know who to take or what to believe but Minnesota BARELY beat what is possibly the worst team in the league last week.[And they keep finding ways to lose. Ugly, ugly game.]

NO @ CAR CAR I look for Carolina to bounce back against the Saints this week. Reggie Bush really scares me, though. He's really good at getting touchdowns.[Reggie Bush isn't scaring me so much for the next couple weeks.]

DET @ HOU HOU Two weeks in a row, looks like Houston is favoured.[TWO IN A ROW! (extend fist in celebration)]

IND @ GB IND Aaron Rodgers is looking like the real thing and the Colts seem to have injuries out the butt-hole but I am still going with the away team. Why? I don't really know.[Butt-hole Peyton Manning!]

NYJ @ OAK NYJ I can't stay away from the away teams this week. Kyle would be so proud.[This was one I should have seen coming.]

CLE @ WAS WAS Last week was a blip. For both teams.[>blip<]

SEA @ TB TB LOSERVILLE! HA![HA!]

DEN @ NE NE Rebound game? Dunno. I didn't want to pick this game. Both teams make me sad.[Rebound game.]

Coming in fourth place, with a still very respectable 8-6 is Team Kraftverk. Pretty good considering you don't know the players, I don't think.

SD @ BUF : A sad buffalo is a dangerous buffalo. BUF[They charged the chargers and sapped the power.]

PIT @ CIN: Trapped deep in the pit of cin, I fear the PIT.[The pendulum swung their way this week.]

TEN @ KC: Everyone knows that ten inch kc is just a banana. Silly KC.[Just in KC (case) you weren't paying attention, this game was rated a TEN.]

BAL @ MIA: bulimia isn't good, but balamia is a BAL.[Mama-mia, bala-Mia.]

DAL @ STL: cowboys versus latte drinkers? I'll take the decaf DAL.[The Latte provided much needed jolts of energy. Cowboys were roped in.]

SF @ NYG:Hulk smash, giant squash, NYG.[Hulk smashed and New York wished it would have been an away game.]

MIN @ CHI: I'll chi-min (chime in) on this one in a MIN.[Shouldn't have been so CHI.]

NO @ CAR: no car, no credit, no problem! nobody will be refused! You get CAR good time![warranty love you long time!]

DET @ HOU: House debt? That's a different problem, a DET problem.[DET is the problem. HOU's gonna win?]

IND @ GB: The G8 has the financial fix, trust the GB.[IN-D end, you were right.]

NYJ @ OAK: no joke, haha, ny joak at all, seriously... seriously.. I'll take OAK[The only one to pick the winner in this one. Well-done, sir.]

CLE @ WAS: Looking at the clues (clewas)that WAS awesome.[if only you would have been able to CLEWAS (clue us) all in earlier...]

SEA @ TB: See a tub, take a bath, a bloodbath for the SEA.[Bloodbath was right, the outcome was wrong.]

DEN @ NE: no retarded egg will beat sweet, innocent Denney any more, run DEN, run![DENNY versus N-E was like a retard playing by himself against a professional football team, that's for sure.]

That's it. Schedule for next week should be up soon.

Until more later on!

Liam

Week 7 Pick'em Schedule

2008-10-16T13:25:00.001-06:00

Once again, with the late publishing, I'm pushing the deadline to Saturday at Midnight. Go crazy!

SD @ BUF
PIT @ CIN
TEN @ KC
BAL @ MIA
DAL @ STL
SF @ NYG
MIN @ CHI
NO @ CAR
DET @ HOU
IND @ GB
NYJ @ OAK
CLE @ WAS
SEA @ TB
DEN @ NE

Week 6 Pick'em Results

2008-10-16T12:36:00.003-06:00

Another week and another tie in the weekly pick'em. This time, it's between the two previously-named teams of Death Metal and Bisonweb. Yes, DM and BW sit atop the weekly standings with a less-than-lofty 8-6 record. Team Miasma barely fell out of contention (I blame picking Cincinnati). However, team Bisonweb could have won this week fairly handily if their manager had bothered to do his picks on time.

On to the games.

Team Bisonweb rushed through its picks, leaving the picks two short and went the anti-Kraftverk by picking the home team in each of those contests (1-1 in guesses). Team Bisonweb is wondering whether it is better to rush through the picks since they finished with an 8-6 record on the week and share of the top spot.

Chi @ Atl: ATL - I didn't think that Chicago could go in and beat a really, really good rookie quarterback. Looks like Matt Ryan wasn't a reach at #3. (At least this year. Vince Young didn't look like a reach at #3 his rookie year either, but Joey Harrington did)

Car @ TB: CAR - Yes, I got this one wrong but so did EVERYONE ELSE.

StL @ Was: I was so tempted to take St Loo in this one. I love the Haz and my fingers were itching for the upset but I didn't do it. I would have talked myself out of it. But I think they'll be better without the rape-enabler coaching their team.

Cin @ NYJ: Favre, man. if they win out, I won't be surprised.

Bal @ Ind: Manning versus Flacco. Gimme Manning.

Det @ Min: I thought this one would be a laugher. It almost was, as I would have laughed my guts out at Minnesota if Detroit had beaten them.

Oak @ NO: This one played out as expected. The Raiders are a freaking disgusting joke.

Mia @ Hou: Screw all you guys! Houston wins a game. And pulls an inverted rosencopter to do it.

Jac @ Den: Jacksonville is hitting their stride. I still hate them.

Dal @ Ari: I was going to pick Arizona. I put down Dallas and had every intention of going back and changing it. In fact, when Arizona won, I was thinking "Ha! Sean gave up on the Cards too soon! Good thing I didn't!" Too bad I did. Crap.

GB @ Sea: heh. Loserville.

Phi @ SF: I was waffling, I'll admit. I picked the home team because I ran out of time.

NE @ SD: Again, I didn't get this pick in in time, and picked the home team. Good thing in this case.

NYG @ Cle: Who knew? Derek Anderson. Braylon Edwards. STEVE HEIDEN! WOOOOOO! Kellen WHO Junior?

Team Death Metal secured the other share of top spot with an 8-6 record. Here are the games.

Baltimore at Indianapolis:
Indianapolis. Flip a coin. [Indianapolis flipped the coin. While the Ravens were looking down to see what came up, Peyton kicked Ray-ray in the junk and stole the game.]

Carolina at Tampa Bay:
Carolina. I’m just not sold on Tampa Bay. Plus, Jake Delhomme will use his Hard Target-esque Cajun accent to ensure victory.[Jon Gruden doesn't care about you. He won just to vex Sean Woods. "I'll show that son of a bitch who takes care of business!"]

Chicago at Atlanta:
Atlanta. Possibly my dumb pick of the week, but I think Atlanta can take the Bears at home.[Not so dumb. Bears taken. Ryan awesome.]

Cincinnati at N.Y. Jets:
New York Jets. Just like Sean Woods, the Jets will take care of business. This is my Death Metal Power Chord Lock of the Week.[Gutsy call with the PCLOtW but it played out and paid off.]

Detroit at Minnesota:
Minnesota. As bad as (I think) the Vikings are, the Lions are that much worse.[You think. You think. Well, the Lions are just a bitty bitty bit worse.]

Miami at Houston:
Miami. Liam, I want to pick Houston, I really do…but I can’t this week. That said, I’m sure Miami will fuck me again and lose.[YOU DON'T WANT TO PICK HOUSTON! YOU WANT THEM TO LOOOOOSE! But they didn't.]

Oakland at New Orleans:
New Orleans. I should have saved the Death Metal Power Chord Lock of the Week for this game. Oh, those goofy RaiderZ.[The 'z' is truly appropriate this time, since NO won in a snoozer.]

St. Louis at Washington:Washington. By a lot.[St. Loo with the Haz at the controls.]

Jacksonville at Denver:
Denver. Only because they are at home, and for some unknown reason I have something against the Jags.[Probably because they dropped your win total in week 6 of pick'em.]

Dallas at Arizona:
Dallas. You all know I love Kurt Warner and the Cardinals, but the Cowboys are just too darn good.[Too darn good at LOSING! Maybe not with Roy Williams and Roy Williams, though.]

Green Bay at Seattle:
Green Bay. I love being able to pick Loserville to…um, lose, every week. It brings my bleak world joy.[I didn't know your world was bleak. heh heh... loserville.]

Philadelphia at San Francisco:Philadelphia. Eagles win a squeaker, McNabb apologies for not being able to score more points.[If he's apologizing after that, that's just false modesty]

New England at San Diego:
San Diego. San Diego is bound to get a bounce sooner than later – why not this week?[Didn't need a bounce. They bounced the Patriots.]

N.Y. Giants at Cleveland:
New York Giants. The boys from the Big Apple take a bite out of the Browns. [but the bite was poisoned and Shaun Rogers is a beast.]

On to Team Miasma with the unclear and foggy picks that landed them at 7-7 in third spot:

Chi@Atl - Atlanta. Would not be surprised if this is a high scoring game. Falcons have shown me more this year.[No kidding. Falcons are doing really well. And Chicago is way unreliable.]

Car@TB - Carolina. The Gruden Scowl has no doubt deepened this week, but still isn't enough to stop Carolina from rushing for 200 yards and winning the game.[That scowl is for doubters like you... and me, I guess.]

StL@Was - Washington. The Rams have no defense. They also have no offensive line. A team of children would run rampant over their squad. Redskins are adults. Prepare for ass whupping.[But they DO have Jim Haslett. he got a lot out of some pretty bad Saints teams, too.]

Cin@NYJ - Cincy. Prepare for the Jets letdown! I don't like New York's defense, and the Bengal offense actually played some good ball last week. Favre starts trying to force another 6 TDs, ends up with 17 interceptions.[He did get a lot of interceptions but their defense is quietly very good. Look at Calvin Pace doing something.]

Bal@Ind - Indy. Their offense is going to struggle with the Ravens, but the Ravens offense...well, actually, the Ravens offense lives somewhere in Loch Ness, next door to the monster, and down the street from Bigfoot in the suburbs of Atlantis.[Their offense is wearing diapers and sucking on its thumb.]

Det@Min - Minny. The Lions might be the worst team in the NFL (and that's saying something in a league containing the vermin known as 'Chiefs' and 'Raiders'). They are such a powerful source of suckage that goodness is pulled in and dies. Luckily, the Vikings have two immense defensive tackles who can clog the hole, saving us from a world run by Matt Millen.[They may be bad but they nearly won a dogfight.]

Oak@NO - Saints. The Raiders are going to run the ball well, but the Saints are going to put up about 6000 yards of offense on the Raiders massively overrated defense (with a few exceptions). Darth Raider shall be totally faced.[Poor darth. No death star for you.]

Mia@Hou - Houston. Yes, the Texans will finally win, BUT ONLY IF they have to come back in the 4th. IF they have a lead, they're doomed. Bonus points if they do the world a favor and shatter Joey Porter's jaw.[Joey Porter showed the rookie Duane Brown a thing or two but at least it wasn't Brad Hopkins versus Derrick Thomas part 2.]

Jac@Den - Denver. Probably will be a close game. Denver can't stop the run, Jags can't stop the pass. Lots of points, and the home team gets the nod.[Jags... what... can't... what? Oh, I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how wrong you are ABOUT YOUR OWN TEAM! And Jay Cutler is turning into a douche.]

Dal@Ari - Dallas. I still just don't buy in to the Cardinals. This is the team, after all, that gave up 56 points TO THE JETS. They also simply cannot run the ball when they need to.[They gave up 56 points to Brett Favre. Tony "RI'm rnot ra" Romo is not Brett Favre.]

GB@Sea - Packers. Seattle is an absolute disaster right now. The defense is surprisingly bad, and their receivers are as reliable as the Dow Jones right now.[And as injured.]

Phi@SF - Philly. Actually a bit of a tough pick right now. Eagles have been unpredictable in terms of play quality, but they simply have a better roster than the Niners right now. O'Sullivan should have trouble making big plays against a decent secondary.[As much as all of us (except Kyle) struggled with this pick, it turned out to be a pretty bad game.]

NE@SD - New England. The Chargers have the look of a team that figured they were awesome, so who needs to really practice or work out? They flat out cannot block worth a damn, and the D is still stuck playing Ted Cottrell 'Just grin and bear it' bend but don't break crap., even though they're built for aggression.[BWAAAAA HAH HAHAHAHAHA!]

NYG@Cle - Giants. Wow, at the start of the year, this looked like a good game. The Browns were overhyped coming in. Will this be the week that 'Muscles' Quinn finally gets his chance? Or did some of that John McCain Anti-Magic rub off when he endorsed him this week?[Better than expected.]

Finally, Team KraftVerk limped to a 4-10 showing this week, teaching us that maybe there is something to "Home Field Advantage". Just think, Kyle, if you'd gone the other way, you would have won the week by two games. I'm not going to do a huge writeup on yours, mainly because lunch hour is over and I need to get back to work.

Sorry about the really late entry this week. I'll try to have the schedule up fairly soon (maybe I can scrounge a couple of minutes this afternoon) and deadline will be Saturday at midnight for picks.

For those not In the Know

2008-10-09T15:41:00.001-06:00

I have been leaving updates on Twitter (hadaad) and Facebook but for those of you who do not follow me on either of those media, and use this blog for all things Liam-related, I must let you know.

I quit my job today. It was not a sudden act, brought about by a moment of rage. I don't operate that way. I haven't since puberty, I think.

It was a premeditated leaving. You can look at my 200th post spectacular for the main reasons. They're outlined there pretty clearly. In that post, I expressed my desire to make another start. However, since then, everyone else in Edmonton who was on my development team has left the company. I don't want to be the sole canadian developer on a team in San Francisco. I may be a decent communicator and fairly confident in my skills as a programmer but I found myself somewhat suffocated on that team when it was local. It was a great project, and there were never a shortage of people to help when something wasn't working and I'm sure that would still be the case right now. But I haven't grown as a developer the way I've wanted to.

I am moving to a senior position with 5D, the blood company. I don't know what details I can divulge about the position, so I'll just say that I'm doing more web programming. The senior in my title is hopefully more than just a word and I'll be able to put my stamp on this project.

There are advantages and disadvantages to taking a contract position. The disadvantages being a lack of security (they can terminate me with 2 weeks warning), and a first month that I'm sure will make me feel like I'm trying to wear one of Nicks t-shirts - stretched. Despite the fact that I start my new job on October 27, I won't see a full (that's a full month) paycheque until January 1. If you include the fact that there are startup costs (new laptop, accounting fees, startup costs, etc) it seemed prudent to chase a loan from the bank. The only problem with THAT is that I am leaving my job. Ha ha ha. So they don't know how much I'll be pulling in. Which basically means that they're less likely to lend me the money.

Now I have other options: i can go with an equity lender like Aaron Acceptance or Alpine Mortgage/Credit/whatever they're calling it on The Team 1260 nowadays, but while the interest rates are considerably lower on that kind of a loan than on my credit card, it's higher than my own bank would give me for a line of credit.

So I wait while they check my credit history. The fact that I haven't missed a payment of any type since university doesn't mean much to them, apparently. *I* know that I can get the money together but apparently the financial institution I've been affiliated with for thirteen of the last fourteen years just "doesn't know". it's frustrating at a time when I need to get some financial security, when stress is crunching my guts to mush. But hey, that's life.

My life, anyway.

Until more later on,

Liam

Week 6 Pick'em: Get 'em while they're HOT!

2008-10-09T11:02:00.000-06:00

CHI @ ATL
CAR @ TB
STL @ WAS
CIN @ NYJ
BAL @ IND
DET @ MIN
OAK @ NO
MIA @ HOU
JAC @ DEN
DAL @ ARI
GB @ SEA
PHI @ SF
NE @ SD
NYG @ CLE

Week 5 Pick'em results

2008-10-07T13:38:00.003-06:00

So, another week has come and gone and as always, (for the second time) we have some scores in on the In The Now Pick'em.

Death Metal is the song of the week posting a 9-5 record. His most notable was picking against the pack with Arizona over Buffalo.

Second off was Team Bisonweb with an 8-6 mark. They wanted Miami but talked themselves out of it.

Tied once again, this time with a dubious 6-8 are teams elCliff and drKyle. Surprisingly, they have not come up with catchy team names and came in last. Coincidence? Probably. But who cares? On with the games!

First off, Team BisonWeb:

TEN @ BAL TEN The Titans really scare me. Joe Flacco might be the next big thing but those Titans are strong.[I was RIGHT! Who knew it would come down to Kerry Collins?]

KC @ CAR CAR Last week aside, KC is not very good. Carolina is.[No KFC this week!]

CHI @ DET CHI Taking the road team for the second time but Detroit doesn't have it this year (again). Chicago might not either but they've got more of it. Whatever it is.[Home team or not, Detroit is quickly becoming an embarrassment.]

ATL @ GB GB Home team, better team. I'm worried about Quarterback but their defense could win this game for them.[Wow. Was I ever wrong? Turner the Burner looks like he's for REAL!]

IND @ HOU HOU That's right, baby! Home team![I had it! Glory was in my grasp. But then I fumbled it in a flat spin.]

SD @ MIA SD Ridiculously, this is the hardest game for me to pick this week. I like the life the Dolphins are showing but there are too many weapons on SD's offense.[Nice to know that I was wrong but I was almost not so much wrong or something.]

SEA @ NYG NYG Home team, better team. I'm worried about Quarterback but their defense could win this game for them.[Why was I worried about quarterback? What is wrong with my brain?]

WAS @ PHI PHI They're close but Philadelphia is the home team.[Home field advantage, apparently, doesn't play as heavy as it used to.]
TB @ DEN DEN Cutler, Marshall and the new kid. This is a good team. They'll rebound from last week's embarrassment.[Not the way I thought it would play out, but it played.]

BUF @ ARI BUF Better team usually wins. No Boldin.[I... um... I think the better team won.]

CIN @ DAL DAL Better team, home team, what does Cincy have?[What does Cincy have? NOTHING! HAHAHAHAHA!]

NE @ SF NE My heart says that New England will win this one. SF doesn't have the weapons to expose NE's weaknesses on Defense.[When both teams struggle, go for the team with the better coach. Belli is better than Nolan.]

PIT @ JAC PIT Better team.[DARNED RIGHT BETTER TEAM!]

MIN @ NO NO Home team, better team.[Sometimes you just don't win.]

Next is Team elCliff:

TEN@BAL - Ravens. Tennessee's bound for a letdown at some point, and the Ravens defense is still healthy.[Healthy but crappy! letdown... pff]

KC@CAR - Panthers. The Chiefs got their one win for the year, and can return to hoping to possibly reach the heights of mediocrity from this point on.[Mediocrity? That's a bigger pipe dream than solar power.]

CHI@DET - Bears. I don't think they're that great, but the Lions' air carrier seems to have misplaced their defense, and it still hasn't been returned.[At least their uniforms are still clean or something. And nobody's gone through the drivethrough naked this year.]

ATL@GB - Packers. Atlanta's defensive backs would be challenged to consistently cover me.[Maybe you should make that call to Al Davis.]

IND@HOU - Colts. The Houston defense has shown me absolutely nothing this year to make me believe this won't be the Colts breakout game offensively.[Sure, if you call 21 points in 3.5 minutes offensive breakout... I just call it offensive.]

SD@MIA - Chargers. Miami WILL score against the once good Charger D, now that it's been rendered a eunuch by Ted Cottrell's pitiful play calling. However, the Chargers will demolish the Dolphins excuse for a D.[I wish I'd called this one otherwise. There's something about those Dolphins this year.]

SEA@NYG - Giants. The Seattle wideouts are finally coming back, but there's going to be some rust.[Coming back but still sucking, dropping passes and getting reinjured.]

WAS@PHI - Eagles. Close game, but the Skins are probably STILL boozing it up over their giant win last week.[Maybe they play better drunk.]

TB@DEN - Denver. The Broncos comes out angry, so does Jon Gruden. Unfortunately, while Denver PLAYS the games, Gruden just LOOKS at them and makes faces. That doesn't stop many plays.[Coach scowl can't be happy with playing his team's kind of game and losing.]

BUF@ARI - Buffalo. Anquan Boldin's still trying to find his head, and Kurt Warner is just a few more of those awful performances away from returning to stocking shelves at the Shop n' Save.[He apparently almost retired last week but changed his mind.]

CIN@DAL - Cowboys. By about 50. This is going to be about as fair a fight as that loan Chinese guy versus those tanks in Tiananmen Square.[Uneven, but not unfair. Unless you count the horrible Bengals "scouting" staff. "Hey, I've heard of that guy. Let's draft him!"]

NE@SF - Niners. The Niners defense is good. The Patriots is defense is good...unless you want your D to have any speed or playmaking ability, and their offense has fallen and can't get up.[They didn't fall. It was a cleverly-planned ruse by Bellicheck to trip up the niners. But I think some senator will start up an inquest to find out if pretending to fall is against the rules or the law.]

PIT@JAC - Jaguars. The Steelers had about 7 running backs get hurt against Baltimore. Najeh Davenport is good at taking dumps in the closets of coeds, not at running the ball.[Don't hamper his running-style! He likes dump passes.]

MIN@NO - Saints. Until the Vikings defense actually proves to be more than a one dimensional group of run stuffers, teams are going to throw all damn day on them.[Funny. The Vikings didn't run well, gave up two return touchdowns but still managed to win. Weirdo.]

Now for Team DrKyle:

TEN @ BAL: two balls are enough, go BAL[Ah, but you forgot the formula: Tennis ball. TEN IS BAL! So they don't only own them. They ARE them. There's no way the Ravens could have won.]

KC @ CAR: kick a car? nice KC[Ah, but the CAR KCed back.]

CHI @ DET: ok, I'll pick CHI just because I live here[I'm sure you're not the only Chicago resident who made that bet and is some glory (or some dollars) richer for no reason other than their proximity.]

ATL @ GB: mmmm.... grubs GB[Ah, but ATL ATE grubs. Sorry.]

IND @ HOU: indiana jones vs houdini... I think HOU[Except they pulled a disappearing act three and a half minutes too soon.]

SD @ MIA: Mama MIA![Once again, Kyle's spyglass picks an upset. Good job, Kyle.]

SEA @ NYG: i sea you nygga, talkin all badass... go NYG go[Racism, while not condoned by In The Now apparently works for Kyle.]

WAS @ PHI: i was phiiling so nice, yes I WAS[Good job again. Your PHIILING was right.]

TB @ DEN: go in da tub den, and get yerself clean, in da TB[I'd rather watch TV in the DEN.]

BUF @ ARI: getting BUFfer by the minute[Maybe they got caught with steroids, then.]

CIN @ DAL: CINDAreLla, a house favorite, CIN[Too bad it wasn't a slipper but a sanDAL.]

NE @ SF: north east versus south fest? that's not right... NE[NE-one could have picked that one.]

PIT @ JAC: it's the PITs[JAC's pass defense? Why yes, it is.]

MIN @ NO: minnows... swimming, NO?[You were our only hope for a winner on this one.]

Finally, The Disco Blog-o-rama's Team Death Metal:

TEN @ BAL: Baltimore, because they're at home. And their QB has an awesome name.[Amadeus, however, got rocked. No win for Falco.]

KC @ CAR: Oh Carolina. Kansas has Larry Johnson and...well, yeah.[Tony Gonzalez. But they still suck.]

CHI @ DET: Chicago. This is the Death Metal power chord lock of the week. I will give the Lions props for firing Matt Millen.[The Power Chord was on-key!]

ATL @ GB: Packers-Packers Atlanta has surprised me so far, but I don't think they can take the Packers at home (although the outcome of this game also depends on Rogers' health...hmm...).[Ryan ain't cryin' and I don't know if Rodgers's health was an issue.]

IND @ HOU: Indianapolis. No chance for the Texans, although I do like that...what's his name...Slaton? Yes. Good pick by the Texans there.[Thanks for the props about Slaton. He pushed my fantasy team over the top. But those Texans are just finding ways to lose. At least they're creative.]

SD @ MIA: San-dee. SD just has too much going for them.[Apparently, Pennington begs to differ. So do the Miami Defense.]

Loserville @ NYG: New York Football Giants. Loserville lives up to their name.[Loserville is not loverville. But they're definitely not fighterville either.]

WAS @ PHI: Philadelphia. Aiee! I detest picking NFC East matchups. Still, I gots ta go with the Eagles @ home.[Good call. NFCEast matchups are a bitch.]

TB @ DEN: Denver. Unless Brandon Marshall slips on a McDonald's bag before the game, Denver wins big.[Denver wins small. But they win anyway.]

BUF @ ARI: Arizona. Probably a dumb pick on my part.[Dumb. Dumb. Where do you get off being right on this one?]

CIN @ DAL: Dallas. No contest here.[There was a contest. Just a very, very, very lopsided one.]

NE @ SF: New England I think this game will be closer than most expect? Why do I think that? If only I knew.[I don't know. I was expecting a close game.]

PIT @ JAC: Pittsburgh. The Steelers are just plain better.[Ha! Take that, Cliff. Take that Del Rio! Plain better! HA!]

MIN @ NO: New Orleans. I have nothing good to say about the Vikings.[And they say "Sean can kiss our asses!" Their kicker got lots of points for me.]

Week 5 Pick 'em Schedule

2008-10-02T13:58:00.001-06:00

So I'm behind schedule. What else is new?

As before, feel free to put picks in the comments or email them to me at hadaad(at)gmail.com

The games:

TEN @ BAL
KC @ CAR
CHI @ DET
ATL @ GB
IND @ HOU
SD @ MIA
SEA @ NYG
WAS @ PHI
TB @ DEN
BUF @ ARI
CIN @ DAL
NE @ SF
PIT @ JAC
MIN @ NO

Please have your picks to me by Friday at midnight. I can accept them until Saturday night because I'm late, but I'd prefer not to have to.

That is all.

Week 4 Pick 'em results

2008-09-30T10:39:00.005-06:00

[Quick edit. My original math was flawed. There were only 13 games so everyone has one less loss than I thought. Apologies -- The Management]

Week 4 of the NFL season and week 1 of In The Now Pick 'em was a rousing success with four teams stepping to the plate and putting their prognosticatorial reputations on the line. Three of the four teams surpassed .500 with yours truly bringing down the bell-curve.

But at least I had comments for all the games, unlike a certain other team.

My team, henceforth known as Team BisonWeb was 6-7. My predictions and original thoughts are preserved with comments afterward either explaining what I was thinking or mocking my choice.

ATL @ CAR Carolina Their defense is playing better and I think they can handle an improved Atlanta team. [RIGHT! Julius Peppers looked like he stepped it up this week.]

CLE @ CIN Cincinnatti Cincy stepped up against the Giants and Cleveland has serious questions on offense. [WRONG! I thought that Carson Palmer would play. This is why people who are good at this kind of thing look at the injury report.]

HOU @ JAC Jacksonville It breaks my heart to go against the Texans but they have too many questions on offense and have real problems stopping the run on defense.[RIGHT! But so, so wrong on why. Stupid Jack Del Rio, using Houston's penchant for 4th down gambles against them! YIKES! At least they made it close and forced overtime.]

DEN @ KC Denver Home-field advantage doesn't mean that much when you're as bad as the Chiefs are.[WRONG! Herm had 'em ready to play and Johnson took off his Huggies and managed not to crap himself. 198 yards! WOW!]

SF @ NO New Orleans I like the way the Saints play on offense. I also don't think San Fran is all that good.[RIGHT! I have nothing else to say here.]

ARI @ NYJ Arizona Despite being a long way from home all week this week, I think that Boldin and Fitzgerald will give the Jets fits. [WRONG! Okay, Brett Favre is now Jesus. He's even old enough... well, almost.]

GB @ TB Green Bay Not really sure who to pick here but I like what I'm seeing out of Rodgers. [WRONG! I underestimated the impact that Graham would have. But I am glad they won.]

MIN @ TEN Minnesota I hate Tennessee way too much to take them over the visiting team. I think that Peterson is going to run Fat Albert into the ground.[Looks like maybe my head was up my butt on this one. Tennessee scares me.]

SD @ OAK San Diego They came out angry on Monday night. They might be a little drained after getting their first win of the season but I doubt it'll matter much.[It didn't matter much. Oakland sucks.]

BUF @ STL Buffalo Will St. Louis win a game this week? [Buffalo still doesn't scare me. I like Edwards, though.]

WAS @ DAL Dallas I hope Washington beats Dallas but the Cowboys are looking really, really good this year.[Need to start guessing with heart. Head is stupid.]

PHI @ CHI Philadelphia DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS [Note to self: Bears have good defense too.]

BAL @ PIT Pittsburgh Both have solid defenses. Pittsburgh's got the better offense and they're the home team.[Too close. Missed most of the game. Another overtime shocker.]

On to Cliff who was 9-4 this week. Good job, Cliff! Not that I won't be mockful of yours too!

ATL@CAR - Carolina. My darkhorse pick from the NFC this year. Atlanta's played better than I expected, but the Panthers are a better team. [Dark horses are good. They're playing well on defense and the offense is actually carrying the team. Go, go Jon Stewart!]

CLE@CIN - Cleveland. Cincinnati's joke of a defense looks like a good remedy for a struggling offense. [Not the remedy you'd hoped for but they got the W.]

HOU@JAC - Jacksonville. If they can run the ball, they can win the game...it's that simple. And I think they can run the ball on Houston.[Yeah, they can run it on 4th down. Trickerous cowards.]

DEN@KC - Denver. A team of retarded, legless monkeys would be the odds on favorites against KC this year. Tyler Thigpen? Are you kidding me?[DAMON HUARD! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!]

SF@NO - New Orleans. The Saints are pretty solid. The Niners are beating up on the injury riddled and the crappy. New Orleans is neither of those.[SOLIIIIID! Deuce had a good day, too.]

ARI@NYJ - Jets. I see a close game, but I see a Jets win that will give their fans a ridiculous sense of hope, making the inevitable failures to come that much more painful (and fun to watch for the rest of us).[Close... PSHH Pleeease!]

GB@TB - Green Bay. Packers come out pissed off. Tampa counters with Jon Gruden making the 'immortal' Brian Griese throw 7000 times again, then scowls for the cameras. Good team...or crappy game plan and overrated coach...I choose the good team.[Let's hear it for Ernest Graham!]

Min@Ten - Tennessee. As much as I loathe the Titans, and question how the Hell they keep winning, they probably will again. It's Gus Frerotte for Chrissakes! [Kerry Collins is better than Vince Young.]

SD@Oak - San Diego. Oakland defines chaos, and Al Davis looks like he eats babies for fun. Plus, San Diego has the power of an asswipe quarterback. In the battle of an asswipe vs. a baby eater, the asswipe wins, because the baby eater has no effect on adults.[Asswipe 1 - Baby eater 0]

Buf@StL - Buffalo. Trent Green will have 3 concussions by half time, then come out for the 3rd quarter in a Joe Montana jersey, thinking he IS Joe Montana. He's not. [Loo made a game of it but not enough. I think KC did enough to get out of Ditka's doghouse, though.]

Was@Dal - Dallas. Seriously, this team is scary right now. Come on, world, bring on the hookers and blow to bring this team down! [Hookers and blow, made to order. Also, Laron Landry over the top to shut down T.O.]

Phi@Chi - Philly. Actually a bit of a tough call, because we don't know Westbrook's status. Overall, though, Philly's the better team. I cannot choose a team starting Devin Hester at wide receiver against a team with a respectable D. [Well, you tried.]

Bal@Pit - Pittsburgh. This one's going to be close, because the Steelers are banged up. Still, I cannot pick Joe Flacco over Ben Roethlisberger, a man who not only possesses impressive abilities to bang drunken floozies, but a man who also can collide with a car AND WIN. [OVERTIME! That's as close as it comes.]

Team Death Metal went 8-5 this week.

ATL@CAR - Carolina. [Right, o Brief one.]

CLE@CIN - Cleveland. [Right, o Brief one.]

HOU@JAC - Jacksonville. I'm sorry, Liam. [I'm sorry too, Sean. But you were right. So was I.]

DEN@KC - Denver. The Eskimos could beat kc. [Funny that the only one you were verbose on was WRONG!]

SF@NO - New Orleans. [Yay! Stupid niners.]

ARI@NYJ - Arizona. Sadly.[Wrong. Happily.]

GB@TB - Green Bay. [Nah. Tampa Bay. Battle of the bays. Tampa Reigns Supreme. Green Bay changed to Loser Bay.]

Min@Ten - Tennessee. [Winnisseee.]

SD@Oak - San Diego. [Sean is a big Phillip Rivers fan.]

Buf@StL - Buffalo. [Jeans. Boof-a-lo.]

Was@Dal - Dallas. [Further proof that Seattle is Loserville.]

Phi@Chi - Da Eagles. [The Bears must have had Mini-Ditka on their side.]

Bal@Pit - Pittsburgh. [Jeremiah is shedding a tear of joy somewhere.]

Dr. Kyle went an unbelievable 9-4 this week, spoiling Sean's greater-than-.500 week and tying el Cliff for the week's lead.

If you're going to tell me how I did, why not play?
ATL @ CAR: If it was ATV vs CAR I might pick ATV, but since it's not, give me CAR.

CLE @ CIN: All football is sin, right? Let's take CIN. [If football is a sin, do they play it in Hell? If so, book me a ticket right now!]

HOU @ JAC: Hugh Jackman? He wouldn't be special without JAC. [Yeah, but did you bet on the Michigan Wolverines to win last week?]

DEN @ KC: Anyone who takes on KFC is a loser, so KC.[Kyle is the only one to pick KC this week. When you visit Edmonton, I will buy you a bucket of KFC to celebrate.]

SF @ NO: Just say NO. [YES! YES! YES!]

ARI @ NYJ: Gotta go with the ninjas on this one NYJ.[They sliced up Arizona's defense to the tune of 56 points.]

GB @ TB: Brits get tuberculosis, die queeny! TB [Not tuberculosis but a sprained shoulder that ended a comeback bid.]

MIN @ TEN: Ten is more than the minimum, so TEN it is. [I need to figure out how you come up with this crap.]

SD @ OAK: Only one is strong, like a tree, and it's OAK. [I think they have dutch-elm disease, though.]

BUF @ STL: Buffalo Steele, romance archaeologist... Oh yeah, he's BUF.[Digging up all the bones of the women he's loved - and killed.]

WAS @ DAL: It was the daleks all along, DAL. [You picked WHO to win?]

PHI @ CHI: Unlike Tai-chi phi-chi isn't cool, at least it still has the CHI.[phi-chi, tai-chi, chai-tea, whatever, you got it right.]

BAL @ PIT: who doesn't love to play in a ball pit? And it's no fun without the BAL. [But you underestimated the Pit Bull.]

Fantasy Football - Leduc Mustangs

2008-09-26T09:11:00.001-06:00

Here is my lineup, going into this weekend's games:

QB: Brian Griese - Dang you, Cliff, you talked me into a deal with the devil.

WR: Larry Fitzgerald - He'll play every week he's not on a bye

WR: T. J. Houshmandzadeh - Roy Williams is on a bye week and Housh is going against the Cleveland Browns.

RB: Marion Barber - The Barbarian will start every week he's not on a bye as well.

RB: Earnest Graham - It was a tough choice between him and Forte, but Forte is playing a better defense.

TE: Donald Lee - I was between a rock and a hard place here. On one hand, I have Lee, who's not as good and going against good linebackers in TB and on the other hand I have Todd Heap going against the best cover linebackers in the league in Pittsburgh. So I went with Lee. He's got a better quarterback too, I think.

W/R (where I get to choose between a WR and RB): Steve Slaton - Okay, this is where I get the "HOMER! HOMER!" chants. I don't care. He ran for 100+ against a really good Titans defense, he's been named the starter and that line is getting more used to Alex Gibbs's tutelage. I think Slaton could be my sleeper this year.

Kicker: Phil Dawon - He's going against Cincinnati's defense so he should get some points.

Defense: Minnesota - They're the defense that the autodraft gave me and I see no reason to replace them. They get good pressure with just their line, and they're going against Kerry Collins so the ball will be available for picking off.

ON THE BENCH:

RB: Matt Forte - He's a good guy for me to have but he's going against that Philly defense that's looking awful good this year.

QB: Jason Campbell - I want to start him but Dallas also has a really strong defense and Green Bay (who Griese faces) only has a pretty good defense.

WR: Roy Williams - Bye week

WR: Isaac Bruce - I was tempted to put him in and I'm still flip-flopping about this. I could move Slaton to RB and throw Bruce into the W/R slot. It's a risk, though, because he's older than time.

TE: Todd Heap - He's going against that Pittsburgh defense and his quarterback is a rookie. I wish I had Pitt's defense this week.

Kicker: Ryan Longwell - Given Minnesota's inability to put the ball in the endzone, he would likely be a good guy to start this week as well but with the mountain of points that Cleveland and Cincinnati are likely to score against each other, I couldn't pass on Dawson.

So, what do you think? Should I move Bruce into the starting lineup? Is there any other glaring mistake I've made?

Let me know your opinions.

Pick'em for week FOUR!

2008-09-24T10:06:00.002-06:00

Week four!

Without much preamble, here's the first slate of games for In The Now's Pick'em:

ATL @ CAR
CLE @ CIN
HOU @ JAC
DEN @ KC
SF @ NO
ARI @ NYJ
GB @ TB
MIN @ TEN
SD @ OAK
BUF @ STL
WAS @ DAL
PHI @ CHI
BAL @ PIT

Cut-off for this week is Friday, midnight. Send me your picks in comments or to my gmail inbox before then and you get to play.

Good luck!

LIam

In The Now's Pick'em for the NFL

2008-09-24T09:45:00.001-06:00

Despite the fact that I'm starting on week 4 of the NFL season, I'm starting.

In the tradition of Sean's Blog-o-rama's Death Metal Challenge, I am picking up the ball and running with it.

Here's how it works. I will post the upcoming slate of games here. Those interested will either put the winners in a comment to the blog or if you're worried about copy-cats, send them to me in email hadaad(AT)gmail(DOT)com

Cut-off for the guesses will be Friday night (Wednesday night in the event of a Thursday game). I will post everyone's guesses after the cut-off and the results after the Monday Night game.

If you want to post an explanation of why you think which team will win, I will post that as well. That was a good touch for the DMC.

I am sending out an email to people I think will be interested but it is not limited to those people. If you are interested, please feel free to post in the comments or send me an email. I'll keep track of the standings and heap praise on the weekly winners. Perhaps even a haiku epic for the overall winner at the end of week seventeen.

Good luck to all of you who plan on entering.

Liam

After a Brief Hiatus - or - Despite Rumours to the Contrary

2008-09-17T22:36:00.001-06:00

So yeah, it's been awhile since I last posted. I know that my nagging of some of you smacks of hypocrisy now but maybe it's a sign of something that nobody has given me grief over this.

Nevertheless, and nonplused, I press on. This is, after all, my blog and if I'm only writing for the people who read it, I'm doing it wrong.

It's not like I haven't had anything to write about. There's another story to go up here from the monthly workshop (I skipped out this month) but I haven't felt any pressing need to get it up there.

I've had frustrations at work that I could probably deal with more easily if I'd written about it and gotten it off my chest.

Call it mental fatigue, call it frustration, stress, whatever you want. It feels like I'm waiting for something. I am, in fact, waiting for something, but that's for dealing with when it comes.

At any rate, I'm still alive, I'm still online and you can expect more content at a higher rate than you have been treated to lately.

What's new:

I'm in the beginning stages of a weight-loss challenge. I've set myself the lofty goal of losing 45 pounds. I don't have a set time limit, I don't really have a plan as such except that I'm doing more exercise and trying to be less of an idiot about the things I throw down my gob.
I've started distance-running. I blame Kim for this as she completed her half-marathon on a sweltering August morning. So far, I've completed several 5km runs, three or four 9km runs, a 10 km run and a 16km run, as well as one that was intended as a 9km run but had to be cut short because of some toe-related issues and ended up as 6.66km.
I've read 30 books this year, so far. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been purchased this year, so my "Books To Be Read" pile isn't really decreasing all that quickly but hey, a goal's a goal.

I'd give you more updates but we got cable and my wife is watching a train-wreck of a show.

Until more later on,

Liam

Armo Mazzenisto

2008-08-02T10:46:00.003-06:00

The following is a story I submitted for a writing challenge at the writing message board I frequent. It's right here.

So the first draft was 1500+ words. This is what it looked like after I hacked it down to a thousand.

Let me know what you think.

---

Kellen stood, rubbing his eyes. It was time to close up the shop and not just for the day. Nobody used freelance investigators anymore.

He closed his eyes, enjoying the pull of a cat-like stretch. He opened his eyes and gasped, all relaxation gone.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh, um... No problem." His startlement had become... something deeper, before vanishing. From a little girl?

Scanning her showed nothing.

"Kellen Smithson."

"It's my sister," she started. "She was taken by a mage-guild. It is time for her to return."

"I need a little more context than that," Kellen replied.

"We recently found out where she is. We need your help with the Shields."

It was not unusual for a family member to go missing. Kellen had personal experience with guilds holding people against their will. Could he challenge an entire guild? Did he want to, for this child's sister?

"I do not know enough about the situation: why or where she is held or what her release would mean."

The girl considered. It was unnerving to Kellen to see this little girl with the cherubic face completely frozen in thought. He wondered if he should say something when she looked up at him.

"I'll tell you what you need to know."

The details were slim and the guild's motivation unclear but Kellen, champion of the helpless, as he saw himself, agreed to rescue the girl from Armo Mazzenisto, one of the more powerful guilds in the city.

Outside the gates of the stronghold, Kellen felt the buzz of a Probe, no doubt placed around the perimeter.

'There are ways around a Probe.'

He tapped into the Probe and rerouted the Sensors to one metre past the fence - enough room to climb without alerting the guild.

The outbuilding to the south of the main keep held the girl's sister. Kellen walked, hunched, until he reached the door. He Listened and heard nothing.

'The Mazzenisto have too much faith in Probes.'

An Opening and Kellen stood before a young woman, suspended in air. He Felt the Shields that had been constructed about her. He was glad that there was nobody around to contend with, but even with all the time he wanted, the challenge of the Shields would still be daunting.

Nine layers of spell construction kept the sister from freedom. These were Shields on her physical body - keeping her in complete stasis, a Shield on her consciousness, a Shield on each of her senses and two Shields that he did not understand.

Kellen chose to begin on one of the unknown Shields. It was the simplest in design and the easiest to work through. Five minutes work saw that shield evaporate.

He moved on to her physical shield. He could take his time, somewhere else. An attempt to re-Route failed. There was nothing to reroute it to. Kellen decided to move on. Next he-

His mind flashed. He saw a figure that resembled the sister but with slight alterations with eyes casting a dim red glare and coal-black wings spread wide.

Kellen shook the image from his head. The sensory Shields would come next. They were the next easiest to remove. They went quickly, save for sight. Kellen re-Routed the fields dampening the light onto themselves, sloughing the last sensory shield away-

Another flash. He saw the same figure as before, changed even more. Talons replaced her feet, her legs were covered in scales, and her face was gaunt. Beauty and terror co-mingled.

Kellen gasped in surprise as he recovered. What was he seeing?

'Six Shields down and three to go.'

He Felt the consciousness Shield and decided to try that one last. The girl would presumably be upset if she woke up, still Bound.

Having found no ability to dispel the physical Shield, he decided to work on the second unknown barrier. As he did so, images flickered through his mind of fire. Buildings blazed and the figure of his previous visions had completed her transformation. Cities were destroyed at her command and mankind was set to slavery in a reign of fire. This Shield - a barrier against physical communication, he now realized - fell away.

The visions left him. Next was the consciousness Shield.

"You don't want to do that, just yet."

Kellen jerked back and tried to climb the air at the sound of the voice, so small and so innocent behind him.

He spun and faced the same little girl that had confronted him in the first place.

"You don't want to wake her up. We can do that."

"What- who is she?" Kellen asked. "You got in here, you can wake her up - why did you need me?"

"None of the shields presented a problem to us but the last. It requires a... price. One we cannot pay."

And then he knew. He knew where the visions came from, he knew what the family was, and he knew what lay in store for humanity.

"But what of humanity?" He knew it was absurd looking to this thing for assurance.

"There will be no war. Humanity will have its place."

"But the fires, the destruction-"

"All revolutions come to that in the end. It will be quick."

"Will I-" he could not finish the question.

"You will function, in a sense."

"My magic?" Immortality was all well and good but that price was unbearable.

"You know the answer to that," the girl replied.

And he did know the answer.

"I could replace the shields and walk away. You would not have your uprising."

"That is true. You could do that." The girl did not move, only continued looking at him.

A moment's pause and Kellen returned to the form of the young woman. He knew what to do. Redirecting the suspension field to encompass him, Kellen bound the spell and traded places with the demon that had been held by the Armo Mazzenisto, the self-styled Guardians of Humanity.

My Dream

2008-07-17T11:47:00.001-06:00

That is, my dream at night, not my dream like "I'd love to see this come true" (though that might be true as well):

In the outdoor pool, pool-bully swimming around, holding people's heads under water. Until:

Hulk Hogan.

"I'm gonna dunk you, Hulkster!"

Hulk says nothing.

Pool-bully attempts to dunk Hulk. Hulk doesn't move.

Pool-bully pushes down on Hulk's head, leaving him open for:

The body slam. Only it's not a normal body slam. Hulk rears up and throws pool-bully out of the pool.

Then I woke up.

Windows Live Writer - or - MS finally gets it right

2008-07-15T09:31:00.001-06:00

So, I generally don't have anything too bad to say about Microsoft. I use their products when I have to, I go Open Source when it's available, but I have to admit, I'm pretty darned impressed with Windows Live Writer.

Despite the fact that this is the first time I've used it, I see no reason to continue using Firefox Scribefire or trying like crazy to get OpenOffice.org's blogger add-on working.

This is basically a test to see what the functionality of the thing is and, well, so far, so good.

Pictures work.

Links (even self-referential ones like this one) work.

Even	HTML
Tables	Work

This is basically the <gasp!> moment for me. You can import maps really easily. So I could, like, show you guys where I bike to work every day.

Good form, Microsoft!

200

2008-07-07T23:52:00.001-06:00

We've been through some good times and we've also seen our share of hard times. I won't kid you – some of those hard times are the happiest in my life. Lately, though, there's a lot that's been on my mind. I'll admit that I haven't been perfect. I don't know that my lack of perfection has been enough to justify the way you've been treating me.

It started last July. That's what I would call the end of the “Honeymoon Phase.” I went out of town and you told everyone you were thinking of breaking up with me. Oh sure, you took it all back and accused Susan of blabbing secrets you told to her but it definitely set the tone. That pushed Chris away. He even moved to Calgary to get away.

Then, in February, you canceled our favourite “Activity.” We'd been doing it for a year and a half and you just squashed it. (We were even getting pretty good at it) Sure, we've bounced around from one thing to another since then, and it seems like we've found new common ground but it seems like nothing will ever be better than that one special thing. And it really had the potential to be something.

Then you passive-aggresively drove away two of my friends. Gustavo and Wenpan noticed the cold shoulder you gave them and they left.

The latest thing, and the one that pushed me to write this, was that I went out of town again, and you told people that it was Marius or me. When I got back, I found you'd kicked Marius out.

I've done some research and I want to share a list with you:

Signs your relationship is failing:

You look less forward to seeing each other. -- Have you noticed that I've started coming around a little later? Have you cared?
You find it harder to focus on the needs of your partner. -- Have you noticed how soul-wrenchingly hard it has been for me to concentrate on things? How my mind has been wandering when you need my attention?
Your devotion to your partner is less and your thoughts begin to stray to another. -- Yes, it's been good, but others have told me I'm a catch and I thought I would send out a letter gauging interest. Nothing has happened but there was definite interest on their part.
You hang on to a reason to stay with your partner even if you're unhappy. -- It's the money. I've tried substituting the money for happiness. All that's made me is broke.
The wrongs that your partner has done you dominate your thoughts and you keep coming back to them. -- This is the most pressing and telling of the signs listed, in my mind. I've tried being happy, laughing it off, even, shamefully, mocking you behind your back. None of that has worked.

Everything seems to point to a failed relationship and there are those who say I should just take the money and cut bait. But I don't want that, even if there are others out there who say they'd treat me better.

Father Roger once told me that love is a choice. Sure, it always starts out grand but once things become real, you have to choose to keep loving your partner in order to keep things going.

I'm not ready to give up on you, Intuit and I think that if we start choosing to treat each other better, things can be not only like they were before but better and we can stay together and laugh at all the people who thought we wouldn't last.

I'm not going anywhere, and I will see you tomorrow.

Ready to start over,

Liam

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz/The Marvelous World of Oz

2008-07-07T12:39:00.002-06:00

A Book Report Double-Feature

After Nick and I finished the Prydain Chronicles, a wonderful young-adult series that I read when I was a child and was eagerly anticipating telling to Nick, I wasn’t sure where to turn. Eventually, though, I figured that The Wizard of Oz was a good movie, so the book should be pretty good too.

I was a little underwhelmed. The story is essentially the same. Dorothy and her problems are similar, the Wizard didn’t change either.

The Good

I liked the expanded characters of the flying monkeys. Rather than the terrifying and nightmare-inducing version from the movie, they’re a group of mischief-makers who found themselves in the limited thrall of the wicked witch (and then in service to Dorothy).

There were some more characters and more problems for the characters to overcome. The mice were a good addition, for example.

The Bad

When I watched the movie (even most recently a year or two ago), I figured that the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion had what they wanted in good measure before seeing the wizard but it was done subtly enough that there was always a little question. The book, however, hits you over the head with it again and again. All ideas came from the Scarecrow. All sympathy flowed from the Tin Man.

The Conclusion

I obviously liked the book enough to continue with the second in the series.

The Marvelous World of Oz

New characters join the Tin Woodman (now known as Nick Chopper) and the Scarecrow as the Scarecrow’s place as ruler of Oz is overthrown.

I appreciated an extended look into the world of Oz, as well as the new characters, particularly Jack Pumpkinhead and H.M. Wogglebug, T. E.

The ending was a surprise to me and to Nick as well, and the consequences will be felt in the third book.

The story did drag a bit, although that may have been more a consequence of a week’s layoff during camping than anything else. I imagine that Nick and I will return to Oz for the third installment (out of an eye-popping 41) with Ozma of Oz. However, for now, we’ve moved on to Pawn of Prophecy, the first book of The Belgariad by David Eddings. I know that Eddings is seen as simplistic and formulaic, but I enjoy his earlier books and I think they’re a good progression from Narnia and Prydain into more standard fantasy.

Next Up

How does one structure the 200^th post of one’s blog?

No Rant, but an Explanation

2008-07-06T00:23:00.002-06:00

So I know that there are a number of you out there who gain enjoyment from my anger but I'm trying to pare back from that. I'm disgusted, and tired of the things that are going on with The Company but I'm not going to sit here and badmouth my bosses or whine about the way things have gone, especially when the real-life impact to me, personally, has been minimal. Yes, I've fretted, yes, I've looked for other jobs but in the end, I still have my job and I still intend on keeping it.

So, while I was on vacation, camping in the mountains, Intuit announced the infamous 575 jobs that they had cut. I came back and found out that Marius, my cubicle-mate, and my "Buddy" (new hires get a buddy to help acclimate them to the way things are done) had lost his job. He's okay with it. After all, he's been with The Company for ten years and his severance package is quite ridiculous (in a good way). So he'll take some vacation, decide what he wants to do and he's happy with the way things have worked out.

The reasoning for the jobs going away is still a little sketchy to me.

The Company Line is that they are positioning themselves for growth into the future. But it appears that most of the people cut (all of the people that I have heard of, anyway) are in product development. How a software company can grow while limiting the amount of things that can be made is not something I can understand but the people in position to make the decisions are there for a reason. I am not there, also for a reason.

Another thing that they are concerned with is Speed To Market. So basically, you take a code base and turn it into a product that people are willing to pay for. What is the way to do that? To me, it would be to
1) hire observers to see what the problem is (product management, User Experience, product development, operations, qa, etc.)
2) hire a consulting firm to reorganize processes for the functional group that is holding up the release to market
3) implement those procedures

In this case, I believe the issues lie with Operations. They have a large process that involves a lot of redundancy and CYA.

In the case of The Company, however, they have decided to remove PD resources and hire Ops people. I guess the way you make ops more successful is to remove more things from the pipe so that they can handle the load.

Again, I'm sure there are reasons for this but I will be darned if I can understand them and it's not like bosses make it a habit of explaining their reasoning.

575

2008-07-04T10:31:00.002-06:00

575 is the number of employees who lost their jobs throughout Intuit inc. while I was on vacation.

60 is the number that were lost in my business unit.

1 is the number of people in my cube area.

Gustavo and Wenpan quit, which made the necessary cuts in our area lighter.

I doubt I'd have my job if they hadn't quit.

Thank you, gentlemen.

(rant to come)

Guitar

2008-06-17T12:32:00.003-06:00

So, lately, I've been practicing on the guitar that Kim so lovingly gave me for Christmas. It's an Aria acoustic guitar, six strings, frets all over the place, some turny knobs at the top that tune the guitar, and some other technical stuff like a nut, a neck and some other things.

Lately, I've decided that I want to learn how to actually play this thing. I mean, it looks pretty good propped up against the bookshelf in the office, but that really doesn't do anything for the sound.

So, I had to overcome a hurdle. One of the frets sounded just like the fret beside it on the high "E" string. I looked the problem up on the internet (thank you, Al Gore!) and apparently, it's called dead fret. I googled those very words (thank you Larry Page) and one possible reason is that the fret became separated from the neck and could be put back in place with some taps from a plastic headed hammer. The flashlight is plastic, so I smacked it against the fret a little and it worked.

Next came finding resources to learn how to play guitar. I googled "Guitar Lessons for the Absolute Beginner" and came to http://zentao.com/guitar which has ... you guessed it. Guitar lessons for the absolute beginner.

So now I'm getting more familiar with the notes on the fretboard, scales (major and minor, for now), chords (which are way harder than scales, at least at this point) and picking and strumming techniques.

So far, I can play "Mary had a little lamb", "Twinkle Twinkle" and I'm scratching my way through "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

It's a bit of an obsession with me right now and it's nice to actually be able to tell that I'm making progress.

Just Press End

2008-06-03T14:40:00.002-06:00

If you are interested in seeing what I'm reading, what I've read recently or what I'm looking forward to reading, at the bottom of the blog is a nifty widget that links to Visual Bookshelf, which is a Facebook app. I'm usually pretty good at keeping it up-to-date.

So check it out. Or don't. The choice is yours!

Beaver Camp

2008-05-30T10:33:00.001-06:00

So, I thought I was going to write about the rest of my Chicagoland trip here but since it’s basically all technical in nature, I figured I would leave it for Intuitive Techniques if I ever get back to updating that site.

Anyway, we went to Beaver Camp last weekend, the culmination of the Beavering year. (And also my last official act as a Beaver leader. Next year I get to hold the reins of the Cub Pack as Akela.)

We stayed at Camp Maskepatoon, just off of Pigeon Lake. Actually on the shores of Pigeon Lake.

Hm… highlights…

- Hawkeye dropping the sister of one of our Beavers into the lake and then running like a coward. (We’ve got video evidence)

- Lily and Kim’s boat ride

- The birth of the BubbleStar Galactica (pictures to follow at some point) and The Holder – Nick’s boat

- A campfire where nothing went very right but nothing went terribly wrong

- Capture the flag with the most cheating per game (CPG) that I have ever seen.

- Soccer where Granny shone and I kicked a ball at a 12 year old harder than I should have.

- Archery that left a bruise on my forearm. At least it didn’t stay all raised and bumpy.

- Pouring from a big pot, out of a ladel. (Give a couple seconds after your first dip. It lets the grounds settle a little)

- Puerto Rico – an exciting game where the Liam plantation outlasted the Rob and John plantations to secure the victory.

- Chopping wood

Lowlights…

- Scraping congealed fat off of the hood fan with first a chef’s knife and then a metal egg-flipper

- Cleaning toilets and mopping the bathroom, wearing soggy socks

All in all, it was another great camp. Here’s looking forward to Cubs next year!

Calgary in Flames

2008-05-28T13:39:00.001-06:00

This is a small piece that is a modification from a dream I had. Actually, the only thing that I really remember from the dream that I actually used in the story was the buildings in flames. And I think it was a job interview.
-------------------------------
The city burns. Great gouts of fire consume skyscrapers whole. I sit, watching the world explode, chatting idly with a woman who is not my wife.

Romantic? No. But was it? Things are ever ephemeral here. All but the fire. It has spread now. Or has it been spread? The cause seems fuzzy but the fact of it only looms larger. And yet, while I panic, I watch it unconcerned, sharing a drink with a woman who is not my wife.

Eric jerked awake. He remembered only the blind panic of a few moments ago. Then the panic subsided and details faded into dim recollections. Already he could only remember a false-looking fire engulfing the Calgary Tower and the camera of his mind panning out to see that the fire was seen through a large window. Continuing to pan, the next thing his mind’s eye saw was a coffee table, two people sipping a drink amicably while the fire spread to a nearby building. Not spread. That was not right. The other building spontaneously combusted. The whole thing.

The power of the dream began to fade and Eric started to drift back into sleep. He rolled into the heat of his wife’s sleeping frame. She sighed and put her arm around him unconsciously and they drifted back to sleep. Eric would remember nothing of the dream the following day or for the rest of July. It all came slamming back into him, however, on the tenth of August, the day he met the woman from his dream.
---------------

So, whatchya think?

Chicago, Chicago, that Toddlin’ Town [Part One]

2008-05-27T14:35:00.002-06:00

I am fortunate enough to work for a company that not only encourages its employees to get training, but hounds them into it. Also, they feel it is important for their developers to be certified in what they do. To the point of hounding them about it.

So I decided to combine the two, taking Java Boot Camp training in Chicagoland.

Saturday, I dropped my wife and children off at the airport, early early. I had big plans for the day, such as making the house uninhabitable for a week (like, so nothing would spoil, rot or stink when we all got home). Most of these I accomplished, but I also got to play tennis with Atti for the first time in six years, visit my family and have Rob over for some intense Mario Kart action!

Then I completed my cleaning duties and finished packing. I had time for a shower and some last-minute preparations before it was off to the airport.

I arrived at the airport two hours before my flight because of some problems checking in online. I am a paranoid traveler and I wanted to be there to be able to circumvent any potential problems with the ticket well in advance.

No problem. I checked in and waited, half-sleeping, half-reading and half looking out the window to see if I could see Cliff loading my plane. (“That’s right, monkey, get to work!” I would have shouted if I’d seen him, even though I know he wouldn’t have been able to hear me. I believe he still would have known I was yelling at him.) Finally, I hear my flight number called out for a different ramp. What the…? I grabbed my bags and sprinted down the hall, staggering to a halt, muttering apologies that I thought it was a different ramp and they said that it was no big deal that it happens all the time. Well, they dealt with it better than I did.

The flight consisted of me turning pages in The Bonehunters, a quick nap and watching The Golden Compass, which lasted just until we landed in Toronto. I did not know where to go, but I got oriented fairly quickly and made my way to the international flights area. Three minutes too late.

I was held back from the flight because there was not enough time to get from one place to the other and so, I was put on a second flight. I was in line to get my boarding pass when that flight was canceled. So, they were saying that the next flight would be at 7:00 the next morning. Inconceivable! However, waited in line until my turn to book whatever flight awaited me.

The guy at the front looked about two steps away from a vein popping in his head and I commiserated with him about the stress of being the only guy in line. He laughed. I feel we bonded. And it was all a mistake. I was apparently booked on a different plane that would leave in an hour and a half. All good things! So I thanked my new best friend and went off to turn some more pages while I waited for my plane to board.

The bad: About a half-hour after I sat down to wait for the plane, I looked up and noticed that the takeoff time was different than it had been. Departure was delayed by another two hours. Ah well, there was time to get a burger, and continue on my quest to polish off Steven Erikson’s sixth literary behemoth. (Really, that sucker is 1200 pages!)

The good: Apparently I did bond with that check-in clerk type guy. I was bumped up to first class where the seats are extra wide (my bum thanks that check-in clerk – but not in the way you’re all thinking), the drinks come in glass tumblers and the televisions apparently have no sound. I was going to watch Chuck but there was, as I said, no sound, so I turned, once more to The Bonehunters.

I have no idea what time the flight touched down – it was something like seven o’clock or something in Chicago time, which would have been 6 our time. I wandered over to where taxis are and waited in a line about 25 people long. It would have been distressing if there hadn’t been in the neighbourhood of thirty or forty cabs waiting. The driver drove me, though he grumbled about leaving the airport area and lost revenue for awhile. Then when we finally reached the hotel (after a couple of wrong turns and a phone call to the hotel itself) he informed me that the credit card machine was broken. Marvelous.

So, we found a Mac’s that had ATM and I paid him, grumbling to myself about his incompetence while, I’m sure, he was still grumbling about being so far away from O’Hare. Whatever. You drove, I paid. Can we just get over it now? And so, I checked into my hotel around 8:30.

So, the first day of my travel, I left my house at 5:00 am on no sleep and arrived at the hotel at 8:30 local time. And I turned down a direct flight to Chicago because I would have had to get up too early. I cost myself probably six hours or more in travel time.

That’s all for now. Later, I’ll tell about the actual training itself.

The Stand by Stephen King

2008-05-08T16:03:00.001-06:00

This is one of the longest books I've ever read.

It's a marathon of reading but each part stands on its own merits. In the beginning, we're treated to the introduction of the cast of characters. Stu, Frannie, Larry, Tom and Nick, and the bad guys, Lloyd, Trash Can Man, even the Walkin' Dude. Then the superflu works its way through, and the scattered remnants of American society come together in two camps, the good guys and the bad guys. The showdown is really good, though the outcome is never really in doubt.

What knocked me on my butt was the denouement, where it is revealed that mankind is going right back to its roots, and even the good guys are headed down the same path that landed humanity in the pickle it's in now.

Stephen King's characters are always engaging, in every story I've read. This story is no exception. The way that Larry's relationship with Nadine is written is amazing. The agony of Harold's betrayal of the Boulder folks is harsh and comes across as real. There is too much good in this book to write about it all but as with all Stephen King, even the happy-ever-after is not happy ever after. How could it be, when mankind is still what it is?

Update

2008-05-08T15:39:00.002-06:00

You will notice Dr. Kyle Anderson, Genetics whiz and all around snazzy dancer has a link on the sidebar. This is his new home on the web.

You will notice.

That is all.

Red Seas Under Red Skies

2008-04-24T13:10:00.001-06:00

I read the first book of this series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, partially during the insanity that was National Novel Writing Month, and the rest during December. It was pretty good. It wasn't a pretty story, by any stretch, but it was entertaining and a lot of things tied together very well.

Red Seas Under Red Skies was better, in my opinion, though both were very good. They both had the rare distinction of being very entertaining, easy to read, and surprisingly deep. The bonds of friendship between Locke and Jean are touching and, while the depth of the two main characters makes the secondary characters seem shallow by comparison, most of the supporting cast is actually pretty well fleshed-out.

Like with a lot of good fiction/fantasy, it's nice to see characters mess up just because they're human, and humans make mistakes. It's also nice to see people act out of self-interest, not always having a sense of awareness that borders on supernatural.

I'm glad that I started this series, which began with an impulse buy at the Chinook Mall in Calgary. The dialogue is very witty, even unrealistically so, but it doesn't distract from the rest of the story. The descriptions are the only thing I would change. There are pages of description where maybe a paragraph or two would do. I don't need to know exactly what I'm looking at everywhere the main character goes. I usually gloss over the descriptions and let my mind fill in the gaps, especially when nothing is left to the imagination in the exposition.

There is supposedly at least one more book left in the series and I am eagerly looking forward to reading what Scott Lynch has to write.

The Bonehunters

2008-04-24T13:09:00.001-06:00

I always struggle to finish Steven Erikson's books. Not because they're bad. They're really good. But they're also really long.

I think that these books tend to suffer a little too much from the jumping-around viewpoint that… ah hell, I don't know who popularized it but Martin does it and it pisses me off, Brooks does it and it pisses me off. What I want is twenty pages or so per character. I want some momentum with a character and follow through with it.

I understand (believe me, I understand) that sequencing is not very easy to write. Knowing that a character has to be at a certain point, and a plot point has to already be written in order to keep things clear, I understand that's all important.

I've read, however, that it's important when you're reading, to look at a point when you put the book down. Why did you put it down there? Why didn't you want to keep reading? A lot of the time, I will admit, it's because I have other things that have to get done. I have children, I have a wife, and I have a job. These things mean that I can't just spend all day reading. But there are also a lot of times when I will just put the book down. When I examine my reasons for this, more often than not, I come to the fact that a character's POV has just ended and it's gone back to a character I haven't read about in a long time. I'm not in step with him/her and it takes me a bit of effort to get enthusiastic about this part of the story.

Maybe that's a risk and there are tradeoffs to be made when properly sequencing a story and cutting and pasting bits of story but if this is the case, maybe the requirement is to take a step back and understand that some of those plot points, if not story lines, are too much.

Take this book for example. It's twelve hundred pages. Maybe there's just too much in there. Maybe the scope is too broad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this book. The characters are very well-written, the humour is my style, the plot is fairly engaging but it flies around from character to character, omitting entire story arcs per book, trying to keep up with everyone. It tends to make the book a little disjointed and, while I like reading it, and I look forward to finishing the book and the series (in a good way, not in a "Thank-God-It's-Over" kind of way), it just takes a long time for me to read these humungous monsters.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

2008-04-24T13:08:00.001-06:00

I took a chance on a science fiction book called Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

Normally, I don't read Science Fiction. This book kind of tore me in two directions. On one hand, it made me wonder why I don't read science fiction more, and on the other, it cemented my decision.

Scalzi's main character, unsurprisingly named John, fights to secure human colonization. I had some problems with the plot points, as he is the only character in the story to be able to succeed. All the way from Basic Training, where he wins over the drill sergeant (first guy ever to do this), to his first ever combat mission where he discovers the secret to defeating the enemy (shoot twice instead of once) to various other things that he's able to do that nobody else can do.

Still, the technology that's imagined in this book is amazing. Things like computers implanted in your brain made this book worth reading.

I don't believe I'll continue the series, more because I don't care for the writer's style than because of anything to do with Science Fiction. I'm definitely interested in reading more ideas that Science Fiction writers have about advancements in technology and exploration of the boundaries of the universe.

So, while this one was a bit of a dud, I'll definitely try again. In fact, I am right now, with Robert Charles Wilson's Spin.

32

2008-04-24T09:38:00.002-06:00

Today, I am 32.
I am 2^5.
I am 100000. (Binary)
I am 40 (Octal)
I am 20 (Hexadecimal)

32 is a good number. A powerful number. Just you wait. This year is going to be huge.

New Links

2008-04-21T15:08:00.002-06:00

I have added new links to my sidebar.

There you can access:

el Cliff's blog (he of the comment-hilarity throughout this blog's history), Peer Pressure Works! (a.k.a. Broken Class)
Tune in as el Cliff rants and raves about everything from a chronic beggar to Pittsburgh Penguin commercials to the Alberta "Advantage".

Shaun the Angry Scotsman's blog.
Shaun has recently moved into his downtown condo. He has a lot to say.

Chad the Graphic Designer's blog.
Chad has recently made the decision to turn over a less angry leaf when it comes to blogging. Oh, and he's a confessed WoW guy.

So check 'em out.

Reason for Excitement

2008-04-21T14:05:00.001-06:00

Q: How can you tell it's spring?
A: It's playoff time and the Leafs are out.

yes, it's an old joke. And not especially true, in the non-hockey sense.

Snow has kicked the door open and stomped all over our welcome mat again.

Do I care? Not really.

Aside from concerns about the soccer season (I'm playing and coaching this year), and not being able to bike to work, I have good reason for my spirits to be uplifted this week.

Tomorrow night, the Calgary Flames get another kick at the cat (erm... shark). They avoided elimination with a dogged effort against the Sharks last night. I was happy to see them come out like that, especially since they got their asses driven through the ice in game 5. Hopefully, they'll have the same jump tomorrow as they did yesterday.

This weekend, the NFL holds its annual entry draft - also known as the most exciting event of the NFL offseason. This is where the transformation of the league takes place. It's an incredibly addictive time for someone who can do absolutely nothing about the outcome (aside from whining and complaining, which seems to happen a lot).

Finally, this week I turn 32. I'm not a superstitious guy, normally, but 32 is an awesome number. I feel good things coming this year (not that any year in the past 5 has beeen anything but spectacular).

32 things to be excited about at 32:
1. My favourite football team posted its first non-losing season in its existence, despite once again, leading the league in players on the IR.
2. Going to Chicago next month for training.
3. Going camping in the mountains in June.
4. Lillian's third birthday.
5. Nicholas's eighth birthday.
6. My fourth wedding anniversary.
7. Spring! (When it finally comes)
8. I will finish the rough draft of my first novel.
9. I will finish edits to my first novel.
10. I will send my first novel out to publishers.
11. Work is looking up.
12. Kim's half-marathon (knock on wood)
13. Annual bonus in August.
14. I'm going to buy the rest of Sandy Foster's discography.
15. Heroes.
16. Battlestar Galactica.
17. A Dance With Dragons. (I hope he gets back on track)
18. No more Sword of Truth to disappoint me.
19. Finishing The Stand.
20. The prospect of starting another novel.
21. It's almost riding season (even though I've ridden probably a half-dozen days already)
22. Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) is released on my birthday.
23. Backyard landscaping.
24. Houston Texans 2008 regular season.
25. Nick starting Cubs.
26. Guitar Hero!
27. Real guitar!
28. Christmas.
29. Actually getting to play outdoor soccer (in a league)
30. All the books I will read this year.
31. All of the stories I will write this year.
32. My family.

So see, it's not so bad being old. There's lots to look forward to!

Historical Edmonton Radio musings

2008-04-18T00:03:00.003-06:00

Doing the dishes.

Not enough sleep.

Surly as all git-out.

What comes on the radio? "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves. The most overrated song in the history of the 80s.

I'm suddenly transported back in time to even before I had the mullet. 630 CHED morning crew.

"Well, we've tallied your votes on 'Make it or Break it' and it doesn't look good for Katrina and her waves. 20 votes to 1 that that song breaks it." I don't remember the DJ, whether it was Rob Christie (before his loudmouth blowhard stage at Magic 99) or someone before him (Bruce Bowie maybe?) but I remember that session of Make it or break it better than I remember probably 90% of University. Very clearly.

Why couldn't we have been right, Edmonton? Now I've got some stupid song stuck in my head and feeling a Rob-Christie rant coming on.

My biggest problem with Magic 99 is not that their DJs are blowhards. It's impossible to find a radio station without a blow-hard. It's their insistence that they're different. Better. Don't spoon-feed me that bullshit. Just because you act better and fill your between-songs time with name-dropping anecdotes that are exactly the same each and every time the same goddamn song comes on does not mean that you're better than the others. You have a wonderful variety of songs that you could play. You barely touch them. Instead of some simpering weenie singing about how I'm beautiful or lamenting my bad day, reach back. Pull more Bobby Darrin or (God forbid) Mel Torme off the shelves. Instead of pretending the only artist back in the day was Frank Sinatra, blow the dust off some Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald or even some modern-ish swing. Yeah, I like Michael Buble and Diana Krall but mix it up. Give me some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or Big Rude Jake. Throw some themed shows into some time slots. Learn a lesson from CKUA. Pick a prime-time hour and play all old stuff. Pick a weekend hour and do some small-label stuff. They've done wonders for local artists like Sandy Foster and Ann Vriend but it would be really nice to take it to the next level.

My other gripe with Magic is their "we're just folks" attitude. Just because I like listening to old standards and swing music doesn't mean that I give a crap about Mercedes or winging my way down to the sunny Caribbean. I certainly am not for going in for a Botox injection to get rid of the wrinkles on my face. Or liposuction for my gluteus-assimus. Don't try to cozy up to me and talk about how we all want this or how everybody knows that.

I'm out of steam.

Another Milestone (Millstone?)

2008-04-10T16:08:00.002-06:00

So in October and November I wrote parts 1 and 2 of Dark Prophecy. I had ambitious plans to have those parts edited and ready for mass-consumption (read: literate victims) by the end of March.

Alas, I was daunted.

I have never edited writing before. I know how Stephen King does it and I think that I'll take his approach (hard-copy, blue pen, big brass cojones and a heart of ice). That, however has not happened yet. And thus, it is not the main point of this post.

Part 3 has been fully plotted. What that means is NOT that I am finished writing it. It also does not mean that it's just a matter of transcribing my notes, adding some comic relief and going on my merry way.

No, sir. What it means is that the major plot-points have been decided on. How the characters get where they're going, what they learn, the conflict, the dialogue, and yes, even the comic relief, are still sitting in the back of my head. I haven't written more than a page or two of part 3's actual story, all of which is likely to change now that I know what's going on. I wrote those bits with absolutely no eye on eventual goal, and more of a way to kick my ass back into the writing chair. Now, I know where I'm going and I can actually set the characters up, add some foreshadowing (because that's the kind of thing that good writers do, I hear) and type away to my heart's content.

In a piece of news that is either bad or good, depending on whether you actually care to read the book or whether you believe a writer must be unfailingly true to his story, I have discovered that this will actually be a four-part story. Don't worry, I'm not succumbing to story-bloat (which Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind and George R. R. Martin have been accused of). I have the end of the story in my heart. Surprisingly, the end is absolutely nothing like I had envisioned it, what, 14 years ago? Then again, maybe it's not so surprising. What occurs to an 18 year old as a closing (of a project that looked like it might take a couple months) should look completely different than the end of a decade and more of conception to a 32-year-old man. (That's right. I turn 32 this month. Live with it. I am.) So the set up contains what I thought was the end of the story back then, and the end has its own bit of climaxiness as well as a twist that I hope I can pull off as well as I imagine.

We'll see.

Well, I'll see. If I can't, you may never see this book. Heh.

Can You See the Look in Their Eyes? - or – Bureaucracy Killed My Baby

2008-04-07T14:42:00.004-06:00

That look in a business’s eyes when faced with the prospect of mediocrity or worse, irrelevance? The massive layoffs, the mergers, the new wacky ideas that seem to fall just short? Almost like they were pushed out before they were ready?

Business. Money. These two things are inextricably linked. Business wants money. Money flows toward successful business.

Lately, the most money has flowed toward businesses that live innovation. Successful innovation leads to rapid growth. Rapid growth, handled properly, leads to money.

Two perfect examples of this: Google and Apple.

When you think of the two biggest innovation companies, that is where you land. Google and Apple have done things exactly right over the past five years. They’ve clawed their market shares out by out-thinking, out-creating and out-pacing the bigger guys (or the former bigger guys, anyway).

Intuit has decided they want to innovate. They want to learn and grow and become creators of beautiful and good things and these will lead to increased growth and more money.

The problem is, everyone wants to be innovative and create wonderful great things that increase growth and bring in money.

When you see a company do wonderful things and then you see people who are coming late to the party, copying the things that the great company does (maybe not as far as them) and adopt the same mindsets as them (maybe not as zealously, though) you can smell the stink of fear.

When we got together for the Brad Smith speech about rapid growth and innovation, I thought I would smell that stink, see the fear in the eyes of an archaic machine that fears that it is perceived to have outlived its usefulness. However, the more he talked, the more it made sense to me. Intuit already does so many things so well (good clean processes, good products that are easy to use and that help with a need that is both under-served and critical to people). The importance of innovation at Intuit isn’t the creation of a music player or the opening of the world’s eyes to the greatness of online collaboration, free software and a culture that is all about sharing content, creativity and community (which I believe is Google’s greatest contribution to the world). Intuit’s need for innovation surrounds a new content delivery system. We already do great things to help people with finances, taxes and book-keeping. But the things we do well are outdated.

Quicken does a great job of helping manage personal finances. It is wonderful for that. But it is also limited. In the world where computers are connected to the internet 24 hours per day, how can Quicken not automate paying bills online?

Quickbooks does good things with bookkeeping for medium-to-small businesses but it doesn’t go far enough, either in communities or automation of tasks, communication or interface.

There are so many new areas where Intuit can go. Online banking is a big growth opportunity, which saw Intuit purchase DI. The big bosses believed in this idea so much that they invested more than a billion dollars.

I have since been transferred to DI along with our online banking project. The project has changed throughout the past nine months and the decisions made by senior management have baffled me since June or July. The project was looking to be cut in the summer and only a reaction to external changes (see that look in their eyes? Fear. Reactionary fear.) kept us afloat. Recently, other changes have led to the termination of our codebase and a switch to other opportunities. (I hate being vague but I have no choice.) The reason we were cut? We’re not in the market.

I beg to differ.

Our program has been through a V1 in November of 2006, ready to go. Our program had a 1.5 (which they were going to call 1.0) in May/June of 2007. Our program was ready to release a beta of 2.0 (which they probably still would have called 1.0) by end-of-March 2008. Our program would have had a 3.0 (maybe 1.5) by end-of-July 2008. We were ready. The platform that would have integrated with our software, however, was not ready. We were in the market. We were ready for prime time. We were held back.

Process-heavy departments of the company halted integration with red-tape, unnecessary delays and issues that should not have been issues. In the end, Bureaucracy killed our baby.

Brad Smith told a beautiful story about how departments would adopt other departments’ processes, the ones that worked the best. I felt heartened (not for the dead baby that was our project but for the future). I felt encouraged. The new logo and mindset were not just fluff. We can build a future, I believe it.

Then the meeting afterward left me deflated and miserable. The word from the top? “Nothing will change.”

While it was just sad to hear the rote, expected things from our internal leadership, I believe that things will have to change. Our upper levels seem to change fairly frequently, and I have enough faith in the top boss that if things aren’t going his way he will not hesitate to make necessary changes.

What will force a change? Look into their eyes. That will tell you.

More on the new Intuit

2008-04-04T11:54:00.001-06:00

Brad Smith is our new CEO. On the 25^th anniversary of the initial release of Quicken, he gave a State-of-the-Company address where he mentioned the next 25 years, concerns that he has uncovered about our company and strengths that he believes will help us to be competitive in the future.

The new logo I showed you in my previous blogpost was selected to be the new banner, the new armour that Intuit will wear into competition with others in our space. Our goal? To be quick-growing and innovative. Not only to be those things but to be the very representation of those things.

The dots above the Ts are there to represent people because Intuit wants to bring people together, using a community-style platform to bring clients together. They already do this well with Quickbooks, bringing Accountants together with Small Business. They want to take that to the next level.

There are other spaces where Intuit wants to go but it is exciting to see that they have their minds on the future and the best ways for them to compete in the quick-paced, fickle marketplace that’s completely exploded in the past five years.

Not your father's Intuit

2008-04-03T09:43:00.001-06:00

It was communicated to me yesterday, by our new CEO that this will definitely not be your father's Intuit.

What does that mean?

We'll have to see. But this is the new logo. I'm thinking I like it.

Fantasy Series

2008-03-21T10:31:00.002-06:00

As a small preamble, el Cliff posted in the comments of my last post something to the effect that fantasy authors never finish their series. I realize there is a lot of rambly fantasy that seems like it never gets finished but I felt the need to defend my chosen genre and come up with a list of completed fantasy series that I have really enjoyed. I was going to leave this as a comment but it makes more sense here. Also, the best fantasy ever written, The Wheel of Time, will be complete by Christmas 2009.

Robin Hobb has a fantastic character-driven fantasy. It's actually split into three trilogies. The first trilogy is the Farseer Trilogy which comprises Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest.
The second (and far less necessary - since it doesn't deal with the main characters from the first one) is the Liveship Traders. I call it less necessary since I haven't read them yet. Those ones are Ship of Magic, Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny.
The final (and maybe best) trilogy is the Tawny Man trilogy. It's got Fool's Errand, Golden Fool and Fool's Fate.

The Deathgate Cycle is a really well-done fantasy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. There's seven or nine books in that one.

Terry Goodkind finally finished off his Sword of Truth series, though that's not a very notable accomplishment considering the last four weren't very good.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series is amazing and complete.

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is amazing and complete.

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is finished.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis are very good.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander have been around forever. That doesn't necessarily recommend them but they're finished. And I like them a lot (despite the fact [or maybe because of the fact] that they're aimed at a younger audience).

There are at least two complete Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson.

There are a couple of series by David Eddings: The Belgariad, the Mallorean, the Elenium and the Tamuli. Probably it would be best to read them in that order (definitely Belgariad before Mallorean and Elenium before Tamuli). Raymond Feist has written a few dozen books as well and while he's still putting words to paper in the same world as always, they're generally closed series so you can read one and get closure.

L. E. Modesitt Jr. has a series that he's been working on forever, the Recluce saga. It sounds like an interminable series that will never end but the first five (is it five?) are their own contained series. Let's see: The Magic of Recluce, The Towers of Sunset, The Magic Engineer, The Order War, The Death of Chaos. I think that's all of 'em.

John Marco wrote a series called something like Tyrants and Kings. It's a little simplistic but reading his battles was fun. It's pretty good and complete.

So, yeah. There are a lot of series in fantasy that don't seem to be going anywhere. But there is a lot of good, some great, and some that has changed the way I looked at the world.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

2008-03-19T11:26:00.001-06:00

Sometime in December, I heard about a newsletter that Tor was going to publish which featured free e-book downloads. As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows (are there even any of you who regularly read this blog?), cheap books drive me, probably more than anything other than free food. And free books are just that much better.

The first book I received, and the book that I have been looking forward to and dreading all at once was Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Both of these feelings are inspired by the fact that Brandon Sanderson is going to be writing the final installment of the Wheel of Time series: A Memory of Light. I was looking forward to Mistborn because Harriet Rigney (Robert Jordan's wife) obviously liked what she read by Brandon enough to sign him to the job. I dreaded reading it because, hey, what if it sucked? Then, not only was I on the hook for a crappy original book, I was going to have to deny the existence of the final WoT book. Not a promising prospect.

Consider my fears allayed.

Mistborn has all the elements of a great epic fantasy book. It has good fast-paced action, an enemy that seems invincible, a cast of heroes who are noble (if flawed), powerful and diverse, both in history and function within the team. The end also hinted at a greater danger to come, and what epic fantasy first novel has ever ended without hinting at something like that?

It also featured one of the most unique magic systems I've ever read. I like reading explanations of magic systems, especially when the explanations don't take away from the story and Sanderson wove the ideas into (unsurprisingly) training sessions between the main character and her various mentors.

My major gripe with the book isn't much of a gripe at all. Things seemed to come too easily to the main character as she developed. Both with her power and socially, as she is pulled from the streets and put into gowns to emulate nobility. As I said, this isn't even a real gripe since she is the main character in a fantasy novel and if I can suspend disbelief enough for Talon of the Silver Hawk then this isn't even a stretch.

I'm looking forward to the second installment of the Mistborn series, but more importantly, I'm still looking really forward to reading the end of the Wheel of Time series. Good luck, Brandon Sanderson.

On Writing by Stephen King

2008-03-03T08:29:00.001-07:00

Okay. I am so far behind on the books that I’ve read over the last three years that I’m just going to try to finish the ones that I’ve read this year.

The first book I finished this year, surprise, surprise, is On Writing, by Stephen King. In it, he switches back and forth between a biography and his writing process. It’s pretty interesting for both parts. I like to think that someday I will be a wildly productive (if not commercially successful) writer and it’s nice to see that humble beginnings like King’s are not the death of creativity.

Throughout the book he stresses that in order to write, you have to actually, well, write. His style is a little fast and loose for me. I like a good plan in place before I dive head-first but who can argue with the success that King has had, following his own way?

One thing that surprised me was that there was no mention of the Dark Tower anywhere in this book. For something that has shaped King as a writer, that has been the biggest struggle of his professional career, you would think that there would be at least a footnote in this one about it.

Football

2008-02-13T15:06:00.001-07:00

I was recently thinking about Scouting and what pulled me from the Scouting movement.

I will agree that probably the biggest motivating factor was the fact that my dad and my brother left for Scouts while I was in Cubs and I felt less than enthusiastic about the replacement Akela. Not that he did a bad job. Merlin was a good leader who worked hard. But to my limited experience, my dad was Scouting. I didn’t want to be there anymore. I didn’t want to be in Cubs if my dad wasn’t Akela.

I like to think, now that I am thinking about it, that I would have returned to Scouting once the scar of my dad’s departure had healed over, if my attention had not been captured by another passion: football.

I was in grade 6 when Neal Campbell showed up at my school, recruiting people for football. My world was shaken. During recess, we would play soccer (or a bastardization of that sport) and I was probably the weakest member of the group, being slow and unable to kick. Here was a chance to use my size to advantage, and a place where my lack of speed would not hurt me.

I talked with my parents about it, and they were willing to get me in. I showed up to pick up equipment (having no idea what my parents did or did not do in registration: they told me to go there then, and I went there then). They had run out of bags, so I had to, to my gross humiliation, empty out a used garbage bag (thankfully there was no wet garbage in it) and fill it with my equipment.

The sting of that didn’t last long, since there were practices, training, more practices, running, running and more running. Neal Campbell was a big one for running. We would run a kilometer before we started calisthenics, then do calisthenics, run another kilometer and start practice. Thankfully, time has taken away my memory of the early running. I had never played many sports, I was not used to the idea of running when you are tired. I think Gimli said it best in The Two Towers when he said “Dwarves are useless over cross country. Dwarves are natural sprinters.” Still, the running got easier, and I actually got in shape.

A note about Coach Campbell:

Coach Campbell was probably the meanest, angriest, pettiest son of a bitch that I’ve ever met. He passed that misery on to his team by way of practice. Too many penalties? Run them out of your system. Too little success running the ball? Practice running. Out of energy in the fourth quarter? Here’s a solution. Run more in practice. It will help your stamina. He was miserable, and he probably spent a lot of his time in his private life being unhappy. But he was a hell of a football coach. And he lived for his team. He drove you, because he wanted you to succeed. He insulted you as a motivational tool. I’ve had a half a dozen coaches over my football career, some tried running you, some tried goading you, some tried cushy sensitivity training. None made me angrier, or more prized than Neal Campbell. I will never forget the lessons he taught me because he did not teach me with words. He taught me with results. If I am ever a head coach of a football team, I can only hope to inspire the despair, the anger, the hatred, the pride in oneself, the loyalty and the love that Coach Campbell did.

Sad to say, a car accident cut short my football season. And it set back my running, my shape and my attitude coming out of it pulled me out of caring. I think that attitude probably affected the next season of football, where I was less than effective as a player and I did not enjoy it as much as I had the year before. I’m sure that a different coach affected that as well. It is hard to climb the mountain by yourself when you only know having been driven up the mountain with a stick. Still, that first year drove into me a love of football, a desire for competition, an appreciation for being in shape and it taught me what it meant to be a team united against a common foe, whether that foe was another team on gameday or Coach Campbell during practice.

My most vivid memory of football was before my first game. We were all more than a little nervous and Coach said “This is for you! The practices are for me and the games are for you. Take this and make it yours!” The love and respect we had for that old bastard at that point was just amazing. We kicked the crap out of whoever it was we played that week,and in the end, despite what Coach said about it being for us, we decided that we won that game, at least, for him.

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

2008-02-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

I didn’t like this book the first time I read it. I wasn’t happy with the way that Narnia was ending up, I didn’t like that the good guys had their good work perverted by the bad guys and I didn’t like the fact that the world that I had invested so much time in had ended. It was a hard thing to read when I was 8 or 10 or whatever I was when I actually read it for the first time. (It was nice to actually pass my brother on the series, though – we had a race back then and I got stuck on The Horse and His Boy which catapulted my brother way ahead of me.)

This time, the same forboding hit me, though, since I knew what was coming, it was easier for me to make it through. The suffering, it seems, was not quite as drawn out as I remember it. I think the blush of youth and the innocence I had as a reader back then drew the experience out in my mind. (Kind of like my claustrophobia warping the underground sequences in The Silver Chair)

The book is very solid. As I said, it introduced very complex villains who were able to counter everything that the heroes were able to come up with the save the day. In the end, (in the Narnia the story starts in), the bad guys win. They make it to the end, and it’s only Aslan that brings the heroes through. It didn’t feel forced, though. It seems that in Lewis’s world, this is what dying is like. It’s going to Aslan’s country and living happily forever. The characters do that, there is a happy reunion, and they do live happily ever after.

I don’t know that this book needed to have Eustace. He kind of reached his full development in The Silver Chair but I guess they wanted to have the same connection to the Pevinsies that they had throughout the series. Jill was good but also not really all that fully there. It seemed that this was Tirian’s book from the beginning. He was developed, his motivations and character were explored. I would rather that he had either done more with Eustace and Jill or not had them until the end. I can see how they were necessary because of the link, and their story was very important to the endgame, so in that case, it would have been nice to see them developed a little more.

I remember my feelings at the end of the book, bitter at the loss of the series – there would be no more Aslan, no more Pevinsies, no more talking beasts. But sweet because it was a land where joy would never end. I like to think that this was a little bit of magic that Lewis put in there on purpose, because this, to me, is representative of a Christian death. The sadness that the company is parting but a happiness at an eternity in heaven.

I will definitely read this series again, probably when I think that Lily is ready to hear them in a couple of years.

FOR THE LION!

Liam

Camptastic!

2008-02-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Beaver/Cub Winter Camp went this weekend, despite the colder-than-cold temperatures, the doubting co-workers and advice from all around.

It did warm up significantly for the weekend, so it was a successful camp, a fun weekend and a completely exhausting way to spend forty-two hours.

Friday, I left work around four. There was an issue with food transportation (which was ironed out through the presence of Akela's minivan and our wonderfully spacious Corrola. (More on the car in a second).

Food issues resolved, we embarked from our house somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5:30. We drove, and on the way, needs for a stop were obvious. We found relief in Save-on Foods and on our way back onto the Anthony Henday drive, our car was rear-ended. A trajedy was narrowly avoided, since the eggs that were in the trunk of my car somehow remained unbroken. There are currently three holes in my rear bumper and within the time of one red light, I was able to get the guy's insurance information. I drove away angry but I resolved during the remainder of the drive not to let this ruin my weekend.

When I arrived at Camp Evansburg, my anger dissipated and I was left feeling excited for what was to come. That night, we spent some time getting unpacked and ready for bed, then it was cookies and hot chocolate and then off to bed for the kiddies.

We played Settlers of Catan, a game with which I have a passing familiarity but no skill.

Saturday is always the big day for winter camp. This day was no exception. We spent some time outside, wearing a groove in the hill with inner tubes and then went back inside to make soap, beaver cars and eat some snack. After that, it was back outside for a bit and while the timeline is a little confused, I will say that shooting downhill on a piece of rubber, sawing triangles out of wooden blocks and pounding nails into beaver cars absolutely DOMINATED Saturday during the day. As evening approached, we put together the track for the Kub Kar/Beaver Car races that night. Some of the parents got involved and made their own additions to the race. (All of the leaders had their own cars as well. We're all essentially big kids)

My car was soundly defeated but I am not nor have I ever been in it to win it. I am the official race-starter and I call the races (which leads to a great deal of excitement from the kids (and the leaders)). In the end, the Cubs won the head to head with the Beavers but the leaders won against the kids and fun was had by all (well, almost all). Sometimes the thrill of competition can be a little overwhelming and Nick took his first-round exit from the competition a little hard. (Lack of sleep and a misadjusted diet likely didn't help either)

After the races, it was time for supper and then straight into Campfire. This year, Rob and I hosted campfire. It was fun. Songs, skits, a couple of cameo appearances by Bubbles and Hawkeye and a fantastic rendering of the Lemon Song by Rob and Krista (who knew that Rob could sing?).

Saturday night was capped off by a fireworks show put on by two cub leaders and Rob and I. I think probably we enjoyed it more than the kids did, lighting the fuses and then running away, but at least someone had fun.

Sunday, we cleaned up, packed up, took a couple more runs down the hill and headed home.

Exhausted, exhilarated, funned out and ready to sleep for a month. All necessary components of Winter Camp.

Okay, so maybe I'm still a little angry

2008-01-31T13:28:00.001-07:00

I had believed I had achieved a state of Zen when it came to my laptop, the people at Gateway and the state of all things Tablet.

Turns out I'm not so Zen.

I unsubscribed to a mailing list that I found myself on promoting Gateway products. No problem. Then I went back to whatever task I was performing at the moment.

Some time later (a few moments ago) I saw the stupid Cow-Cube that Gateway is famous for. ANGER! I wanted to send off the email that I've been crafting since November. It's not something I'll ever send - it's just a chronicle of my experiences, profanity-laced, with capslock all over the place. It is not the kind of writing I'm proud of by any stretch of the imagination and it would likely have Dylan, Sean and whoever from Lethbridge reminiscing over the whole "THIS IS SO F#CKING STUPID" from first-year university.

I had put that letter away, with the intention of reading over it a couple of months, maybe years, down the road and laughing over it. Nope. I added to it. Then I deleted it. Stupid thing.

Onward Part 3!

2008-01-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

That's Onward Part 3 with an exclamation, not Onward Part 3(factorial). I don't think there will be six parts but if there are, then I haven't thought that far nor have I decided to start writing on it.

That absurdity aside, yeah, I'm going to finish my book. I don't know how many words, how many pages or whatever it will take to get there but I've got some sketchy notes, I've got some good thoughts and most importantly, I've got the bug again.

I don't think I was burnt out by NaNo. That's the pace I want to be able to maintain. I think it's sustainable, at least over a little while, if I can a) overcome hardware failures, b) overcome my love of video games and c) keep it to a time when it doesn't affect my work or my family. Kim's scrapbooking table is right near the computer desk I used for the majority of NaNo, so it's not like I'll be completely ignoring my wife.

It's all there for me. Now I just need to pick up the pen (and put down the controller) and start writing again.

P. S. I Love You

2008-01-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

No, not you!

Well, okay, maybe you but that's not what I mean.

For Kim's Birthday celebration, we took in a movie. When I say we took in a movie, I mean we went to a theater to see it. This is the first theater movie that Kim and I have seen together since Lily was born. (I've only been to one - the God-Awful Shoot-Em-Up "Shoot Em Up" with the God-Awful Clive Owen. I don't regret seeing Shoot Em Up. It was humourous. I just wish I hadn't spent fourteen bucks on it)

The movie we went to see was PS I Love You. The movie starred Hillary Swank, Harry Connick Jr. and most notably, Gerard Butler from 300. It was a romantic comedy, kinda. I'd say it was more of a romantic tragedy (tragedy being opposite of comedy, not suggesting anything about the quality of the movie).

It's weird, because a lot of things from this movie draw me back to the weekend when Kim was gone. First, it was the first movie I saw in the theater since then, second, it was the first movie with Gerard Butler that I've seen since then and finally it was the saddest movie I've seen since Bridge to Terebinthia which I also saw that weekend. (Yes, I watch movies when Kim goes away. That's about all I do. Well, that and not sleep)

Some parts of the movie left me wondering why they were there but for the most part, it was put together very well, it was well acted (especially Harry Connick Jr. who played a guy with a social disorder... Brain Cancer. NIIIIICE!) and the story was pretty good. I wouldn't rank it up there among the best movies ever but it was a good movie to take a date to. Especially if you're married to her. And she's celebrating her birthday. But only the 28th birthday. Or something.

Happy Birthday to Sean

2008-01-17T10:43:00.001-07:00

Most memorable Sean Johnstone birthday memory:

Staying up all night, watching Revenge of the Ninja. How many times did we watch that? I think Jack Barger was there. That's a name I haven't said in a long time and I don't think I've ever typed it.

Yeesh. Ooooold man.

Confessor – Or – Terry Goodkind Is Smarter Than You And He Wants You To Know It

2008-01-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

I wanted to like Confessor by Terry Goodkind. I really did. I loved Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, Soul of the Fire and Faith of the Fallen. Blood of the Fold and Temple of the Winds were okay too but not as good. Pillars of Creation was good for what it was.

The last four books in the Sword of Truth series, Naked Empire, Chainfire, Phantom and finally Confessor were bad books. I don't mean they were bad books compared to his other ones (which, obviously, they were) but bad books all by themselves.

The worst part is that the story was still really strong. Goodkind set up a good world with good characters and put them in compelling situations. And he still writes action very, very well. And he has neat ideas that I haven't read in fantasy before. That's the part that kept me coming back.

The problem I have with the last four books is that what Goodkind writes about is directly contradicted by the way he writes it.

"Think for yourself" "Use reason" "don't listen to people trying to persuade you, think it out for yourself". While he doesn't necessarily use these words, these are his stances. I doubt that he'd argue with that himself.

He contradicts "Think for yourself" by spelling out every last detail several times. I like to think that I'm smart and well-read enough to reason out that if Jagang yells at Nicci for making him mad enough to hit her, that he thinks it's her fault. I don't need to be told it multiple times in a book, let alone a chapter, let alone a paragraph. I like to think I have enough capacity as a human being to see that Jagang telling Nicci how much he wants to have sex with her is his way of trying to tell her he loves her in his own warped way. I don't need to be told it multiple times in a book, let alone a chapter, let alone a page. Goodkind gives absolutely no room for a reader to think about what something means because he has already driven the point into the ground. These points lose their effectiveness because he has to explain them over and over again. See, impact is lost when there is over-analysis. That's because the action fades in the reader's mind due to the passage of time it takes to read the excessive explanation as well as the breaking of the spell that should be narrative. Have I made myself clear enough? Because I could explain it some more.

He violates the whole "Don't listen to people trying to persuade you on things" by using the last what, five? Ten? pages to basically decry religion. You would think that someone who was so into people reasoning things out for themselves would leave it to you to come up with your own conclusions. But no, if you believe there's more beyond this life, that sin exists and that you should hold yourself back from sin to enjoy eternity in heaven, that you hate life, reject reason and deserve to be removed from his world. I don't know what to believe where a higher power is concerned. Generally, I don't concern myself with those thoughts. To me, they're unproductive and I prefer my unproductive thoughts to be about football. I certainly don't think, however, that people who have faith in something they can't prove are doing so because they hate life. The point is, Goodkind is shouting this from the highest rooftop, trying to persuade you that he's right. Isn't that against one of the core themes of his book?

My first guess as to why the quality in his writing fell so far is lack of editorial control. Either Terry Goodkind got enough "juice" so to speak that he no longer had to go through an editor or the guys with the blue pen were intimidated and unwilling to cut into the sermon on the mountain. Or possibly they just thought that it would sell well regardless of what was in it. I don't like to think that the publishing world works any of these ways and I don't like to think that someone who wants to put the best story that they can out there would be willing to do that. However, I have come to the conclusion that Terry Goodkind was not interested in putting the best story that he could out there.

What I believe is that Goodkind wanted to get his message out there so badly when he realized that he had multitudes of fans, that he was no longer worried about the story. This was about what he wanted to say to the world. My opinion is that when you are a writer, you have a responsibility to the story before anything you owe your world view or your agenda. Terry Goodkind couldn’t get out of his own way and his ideals cluttered up what was otherwise an exciting, compelling story.

It's too bad, too. I don't know what Goodkind's goals are, when it comes to being an author but he could have been the guy who changed the face of Fantasy if he weren't trying so hard to be the guy who changed the face of Fantasy, if you know what I mean.

That said, I won't read any more that he writes. It's too much to get into a compelling story just to have it murdered by a hack of a writer whose ego is more important to him than the story is.

Year In Review 2007 PART TWO

2008-01-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

July

July was pretty big. I returned to Blogger after a month-long sabbatical. We had a garage sale (that did not do nearly as well as we had hoped). I sold my old bike and some books. Mostly I baked under a harsh July sun while reading Steven Erikson and R. Scott Bakker. We also took our first ever family-trip-style vacation. We took Mary-Jane's Buick over the mountains to visit Kim's brother Trevor. Fortunately, this trip extended into August because I'm having a hard time remembering anything from August as well.

August

We took the trip down to Vancouver and something that I did not mention in our initial report of the trip was that the whole group of us (Trevor, Mina, Trina, Kim, Lily, Nick and I) went for a walk in Golden Ears Park. There's an amazing waterfall there. This in and of itself probably does not deserve mention in a capping of the year, but Nick took a ten-foot tumble off of the path, scraping, bruising and doing everything but breaking bones. Talk about scary - it was time to leave. The rest of the trip was nicer than that, visits with family I haven't seen in far too long (since the Wedding, I suppose) and the drive home was a little frustrating but doable. After that, we found out that we were excused from the money Howard and Mary Jane had lent us for the house. Not an inconsiderable sum. My jaw hit the floor at that.

September

We finally made good on our decision to homeschool Nicholas. I have to admit, I was relieved. Nervous? Sure. Worried about his best interests? Of course. But it only takes walking back in my mind to March of 2007, screaming at Nick over the course of four hours, trying to get him to draw a circle. Yeah, this is the right decision. I thought so in September, and I still think so in January. Yeah, there are things that he'll miss out on but I think the bad things he'll miss out on outweigh the good things he'll m is out on and he'll get more good than bad homeschooling. I don’t agree with all of my wife's stances on homeschooling or the establishment of formal school but we agree that this is in Nicholas's best interests. Also, Robert Jordan died. He fought against Amyloidosis with everything he had but unfortunately, as with so many people, the disease doesn't care how much you give. It keeps taking. I was shocked when I learned he was dead even though I knew that death would come to him too soon.

October

I deem October 2007 to be mad rush month. What I remember of non-work time in October is filled with typing out the first part of my story. I wanted to get it finished in time for November when I would write part 2. I fell a little short in October but I included the end of part 1 into part 2 for National Novel Writing Month. (More on that later) There was a lot of time spent in front of the tablet, in the basement, while my wife scrapbooked. I spent a lot of October driving Howard's van. That was fantastic. I would definitely do it again if asked.

November

I don't remember a whole ton of November. There are a couple of things, though. NaNoWriMo. That's the main one. Kim, Lily and I went to Calgary for a LLL conference. Pedro, the faithful Tablet curled up its toes and refused to start up again. I don't know, really, what to do with his remnants. I want to put it back together but I find the prospect daunting.

December

I should be able to remember the contents of December. It just happened. I spent a lot of the time stressing about Christmas, avoiding doing anything too stressful and I read a lot. I finished, I think, five books through December. That's 2007 in a nutshell.

Year in Review 2007 PART ONE

2008-01-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that there's a conflict between cribbage and the keyboard so I got rid of cribbage. It's a fun game but it's hardly worth the fight. I can't exactly say that I know why this game or the program that allowed the palm to be accessed as an external drive would have caused these conflicts but that's hardly my problem. I guess it is my problem but I just couldn't be bothered by it right now.

Anyway, that rambling was meant to serve as preamble for my 2007 year in review, a review that will, by necessity, take place in hopefully satisfying chunks. We'll just have to wait and see how satisfying those chunks turn out to actually be. There are a lot of typos going on with this tiny, teeny keyboard but I'll try to clean that up and actually get something written. And I'll try later on to get those applications back on the palm and see if it's a memory thing or a conflict thing or a "The moon is in the third alignment with Venus and Uranus so the keyboard was out of metaphysical alignment with the fourteenth house of Sagittarius" type of thing.

Without further ado:

2007: A year in review

January

January was a month like any other. It was a month where I took the bus very often, I remember that much. A lot of tiptoeing around the fact that Kim had dietary issues, Nick had dietary issues and Lily had, well, you guessed it, dietary issues. All three of them cut out most things from their diet, and that was a serious period of adjustment, but it was absolutely necessary. Lily was getting rashes, Nick and Kim were getting stomach issues and everyone was all-around miserable. Aside from the adjustment to our lives with that inclusion, there did not seem to be much different there from December 2006. It would be nice if my tablet still worked so that I could consult my notes from December 2006 to see if I'm a lying sack of shit but I don't think I am anyway.

February

2007 saw the return of a Liam-post-graduation tradition of the likely-to-fail 50-book goal. Once again, I struggled to get even half-way there but I have to admit that it has become more about the struggle, the documenting of the books I have read than it is about actually making it to 50 books. I also tried to do a daily meditation - a way of getting my head straight before I started my day. I don't think it was such a bad idea but I have to admit that I should not have made them publicly consumable (if that's what I mean).

March

In March, I sat in line one cold morning to wait for the passport office to open. I waited for probably in the neighbourhood of four and a half hours to get in. I was the first one in line. The Life of Pi and my Tablet PC got me through the wait. It was really nice to walk out of there and see the disgustingly long line waiting to get into the office. I like to think that they had to wait just as long as I did. But they got to spend the majority of their wait, if not the entire thing, inside, where only the last hour or so of my wait was inside. Still, I got to go home and those suckers were stuck in line. SEE YA, SUCKERS! Bet you wish you were me, now.

April

I got older. I got crazy for spring. I got a new bike and started biking to work. I love my bike. I miss having a rigid framed bike but this one is better than any bike I've ever ridden. I'll take it, I'll ride it into the ground and I will appreciate the gift that it was. April was also the end of my second year as a Beaver Leader. I wasn't nearly as burned-out as I had been the year before. Maybe I was more used to leading, and more able to deal with it but I am pretty sure that it was mostly just a good group of Beavers. We moved into Soccer season and I was the head coach.

May

JavaOne, Beaver Camp, Soccer and biking. These were the things that dominated my May. I remember JavaOne being a cornucopia of sessions, eating, watching TV, not sleeping and then not sleeping some more. I really do sleep best at home.

June

I'm not really sure what happened in (to?) June. I know I was working quite a bit and I spent a lot of time with soccer and biking and I'm pretty sure that I might have spent a little bit of time with my family too but the specifics elude me. I think I was spending too much time on Facebook at that point.

New Year, New Goals

2008-01-02T15:42:00.001-07:00

While some people might feel the need to commit to resolutions in the new year, I've always thought that goals are more important, easier to keep and harder to slip out of. That said, here are some of the goals that I am mulling over in the new year (I do not know whether they collide with my 101 in 1001 or not):

Keep up with putting events/contacts into my PDA. I'm always forgetting stuff. Not phone numbers or names but events. I am the worst calendar keeper known to man. If I put it on there, I will remember, if I don't, I won't.

Start and finish part 3 of the story. I've already started it (one paragraph scribbled in pencil on a coil-scribbler whose location I don't know counts, right?)

Go through with the blue pen and edit the heck out of parts 1 and 2 of the story.

50 books (ho hum, been there, done that)

Bike to work more regularly in the summer

Make my lunch more regularly all the way around

So that's it. The enormous first post of 2008. It would be more substantive but I haven't even mulled over 2007 yet. Should hopefully be more upbeat than the 2006 version of the same thing.

Until more later on,

Liam

Lacklustre update blog post motivated by 25-day blog-gap

2007-12-28T11:08:00.001-07:00

Well, it's only been 25 days since my last post. But hey, December was busy.

I was reading books, fixing bugs, writing test scripts for our project, parenting, husbanding, getting ready for Christmas, watching football, and basically not writing.

Quite opposite of Karen, from Dorktastic Oddments (see my link bar), I was ready to crawl into a hole to forget that I knew how to write. Now, however, I'm out of that hole.

Hm... updates...

Thanks go to the Morrigan for the new (to me) computer. Yeah, you may think it's old and slow but believe it or not, it's faster and has more memory than our main computer. I installed Kubuntu on it as soon as I had time and it's humming along, even if I don't have it connected to the internet yet.

Thanks also go out to King Kong Awesome (KKA) for the gift of a new (to me) CRT Monitor. I was having issues with it but that was more because of the VGA to DVI adaptor not being plugged in correctly. It cast a pink sheen over EVERYTHING.

Thanks go out to my sister for a wonderful Christmas. She put a whole crapload of work into it, getting everything ready, cleaning, cooking, wrapping, driving herself up the wall with stress about everything coming together on time, and it all worked perfectly. Then, for her efforts, she got sick. And then fell. And cracked her tailbone. Condolences, sis.

Those of you who are on Facebook will have seen the picture of me holding my new treasure. My sister went overboard and got me a Houston Oilers helmet, signed by Warren Moon with a Hall of Fame inscription on it. Yeah. Blew me away.

Those of you not on Facebook will not have seen it yet. I will get a picture of it up here tout suite.

Lily's sentences are coming more clearly, now. Instead of saying "Where we going" she'll say "Where are we going" with an emphasis on the are, to make you know that she knows, now. She's so smart.

Kim got a camera for Christmas. She is now a shutterbug. Not that I would expect anything different. She loves pictures. She loves scrapbooking. So this was a perfect gift for her.

Nick says this was the greatest Christmas ever. He's probably right.

CBC Radio

2007-12-03T12:11:00.001-07:00

I have been listening to 740 radio in the van on the way to work lately, and there are some things I've heard that just make me shake my head:

Carl Heinz Schreiber: Why does the government keep him around? So that he can tease and pretend he has information he doesn't really have in order to avoid extradition? It's just ridiculous. All the political parties are ignoring what the guy is saying and are asking him questions to cover their own arses (Conservatives), or try to bury another party (Liberals/NDP).

I hate politics enough as it is but keeping this guy from facing what he deserves in Germany to further (or keep from un-furthering -- whatever) your own political ambitions is cheesy and wrong. Shame on you, government of Canada.

Edmonton Schools get rid of junk food: So what? All that means is that all the fat kids are going to stop spending money in your school and are going to cross the street to the Mac's, 7-11, George's, whatever is there, and stay fat off of their food. And curse you for changing things.

One year under "Easy"Ed Stelmach: I have very little opinion of this. They say he's poured a bunch of money into infrastructure, and that's good. They say he's not as charismatic as Ralph Klein. I think that's good too. I've had enough of the smooth guy, making grandiose gestures and yelling drunkenly at homeless people.

I am a winner!

2007-11-30T02:44:00.001-07:00

See?
Can't see that? Try this one:
50000 words. Actually I made it to like 50036. Still, I did it. In one month.

In that same month, I also:

Had a computer die on me.
Reformatted another computer.
Released a version of our online banking software, which involved all kinds of big effort.
Traveled with Kim to Calgary.
Parented, actively, mind you.
Fought distraction after distraction.
Used, as my main writing computer, a laptop that's around ten years old, has no internet connection and can only transfer files using my iPod.

All in all, I'm pretty proud of myself.

Dangit NaNo!!!

2007-11-05T16:20:00.001-07:00

I've been telling Nick a bedtime story off the top of my head and the idea is cool as heck. I want to write it but it has to wait! DANG!

Hurry up, 50000.

Hold on, key story. It's been 13 years. You can wait another three and a half weeks. C'mon!

Part one is done

2007-11-02T10:17:00.001-06:00

Sometime in high school, I had some characters running around in my head for a story. So I wrote down some notes, intending to write the thing later.

Always later.

Through the second half of grade twelve, I wrote the first couple of chapters (some of which still exists). And I wrote more notes.

Those notes were added to over the next six or seven years but I never touched the main story. (later)

There was always a compelling reason not to work on the story itself. (Work, school, work, other stuff) Finally, I was working at Halliburton and I felt the need to write. So I wrote. I got a good portion of a story-arc done. Chunks of the story changed. Big chunks. But writing was still a struggle. It felt like I was holding the pen too tightly or something. So I went back to planning.

Finally, I read a write-up on a website that talked about how your inner-editor is the biggest impediment to writing a story.

The editor is very important during the editing phase, to be sure, but if you can't shut him up while you're creating, then you'll never get anything done.

I don't know how I did it but that voice is gone. (I hope I can get him back when I need him, though) and pages and words have flown by.

The other night, I finished part one. I know that I included the end of part 1 in the beginning of part 2 (more as a bolster for my NaNoWriMo word-count than anything else) but even the part of part 1 that was co-opted is done. Thirteen years of labour and my first one came out 129 pages long and weighing 35000 words. The next one should be closer to 50000 words and take much less than 13 years.

Exploding cigars all around.

30000 plus

2007-10-24T10:50:00.001-06:00

I reached the 30000 word summit last night.

Two chapters to go for the end of October.

It's all war now!

Local Election

2007-10-15T09:54:00.000-06:00

First off: I hate elections. Not because it's democracy in action. Not because I hate freedom. Not because I'm some communist pinko who just wants to be told what to think.

I hate elections because of the visual pollution every three metres down the side of every road in my neighbourhood.

I'm sorry Amarjeet Sohi, blah-blah McKenna, Stephen Mandel. There are others. I don't remember them now but I'll remember when I see them on the ballot. I saw your signs. I don't like your signs. So I'm not voting for you.

I have a little more respect for Sohi than I do for others. He's out on 50th street on the median, waving, pumping his fist in the air at passing motorists. It's a little weird, I have to say. Is it an attempt to say "I don't have to work! I can take the time to greet you on your way to your daily drudgery! Vote for me and I'll use this time productively! Maybe!"

What I would like to see: Some minor politician campaigning by improving my life. Wanna be a city councillor? Fill some of those potholes that knock the hubcaps off of my wheels. Want to clean up the city? Start with the broken beer/malt-liquor bottles on every single corner in Millwoods. If you're already in the middle of the road, Amarjeet, you could spend some time and pick up the garbage there, with your little buddy holding up your sign and pointing at you instead of bragging about your lack of anything better to do.

I just hope they clean up their signs after the election.

One down, one to go

2007-10-13T00:25:00.001-06:00

Kim left Nick and I alone. I figured it was time.
I pulled out the DVD.
I told Nick it was my favourite movie of all time.
After seeing it, he agreed with me.

I don't know what Nick's favourite part of the movie was but I imagine it was either the football fight scene with the giant metal eggs or the crashing the ship into Ming's wedding. He did talk about those parts more than anything else.
And he didn't fall asleep in the middle of it like someone else I know.

If you don't know that I'm talking about Flash Gordon, you don't know me at all.

Now I just have to get Lily to watch it, if I can pull her way from Toupie and Beanoo.

Three chapters to go!

2007-10-13T00:21:00.001-06:00

I did some planning the other night and the first part of my story had four chapters left. I wrote some more that night and tonight and now I have three chapters left. That said, I still have several weeks if not months of editing when that's done but I'm pretty excited.

Thirteen years, I've been working toward this part. I'm excited.

Back at it

2007-10-03T09:57:00.001-06:00

I'm writing. It feels good. I told my inner editor to shut up and, lo and behold, he did. 1840 words on Monday, 1057 words last night. I'm on a roll and enjoying it. I want to have part one done by the end of this month. Written, anyway. That way, I can use part two for NaNoWriMo. Or maybe I can use NaNoWriMo for part two. Either way, I want to have part two done by the end of November. Just to see if I can do it. So far, the story is 26,716 words long. I figure there's probably about half that much left for part one.

Wish me luck,

Liam

Texans week 4: Houston 16 - Atlanta 26

2007-10-01T09:31:00.001-06:00

Injuries suck. Houston needs to get some people back. There aren't any injured guys who'll come in and take over for Faggins, though. That's too bad.

The Good: Schaub played pretty well. Travis Johnson started to come on. Amobi Okoye got another sack. Kevin Walter and Andre Davis did pretty well.

The Bad: Defensive backfield. The Defense HAS to get off the field.

The ugly: Demarcus Faggins was torched all game long. Whenever he wasn't getting burned, he was committing penalties. Who would ever run the ball against the Texans when Faggins is an automatic first down if not a touchdown?

That is all.

Angry Liam

2007-09-26T11:23:00.001-06:00

If you're telling us to do something fast, fast, fast, tell us what the fuck you want done and stick with one way of doing things. At least until the stupid rush is over.

Week 3: Houston 24, Indianapolis 30

2007-09-24T15:09:00.001-06:00

I had a bit of a bad feeling about this game, going in. First off, Indianapolis are the reigning Super Bowl champions and they don't seem to be playing like it (see Tampa Bay, New York Giants and just about every other team to win the Super Bowl other than the Patriots in the last ten years). Second, Andre Johnson is out. Third, Demarcus Faggins is starting. On purpose. Without anyone ahead of him being injured. Still, these aren't your father's Houston Texans (unless you're reading this, Nick or Lily). Matt Schaub has been playing really well and the boneheaded mistakes that plagued the team last year and before that seem to be less.

I listened to Mark Vandermeer calling Mathis's touchdown return to open the game with mixed emotions. Yes, I was excited. Mathis took one to the house and that could only mean good things. But I knew that the game was far from over. Ah well, we were up by seven and no amount of over-thinking things could change that. Only Peyton Manning and the Colts could. And they did. Quick drive, seven points over newcomer Michael Boulware to Stupid Dallas Clark who was supposed to make my day by not playing.

Not a big deal because we've got our own brainy quarterback who can make adjustments. And he did. And the Texans drove. And my heart soared because Matt Schaub truly isn't David Carr. Still, the drive stalled because of an inability to run and a false start penalty. Brown split the uprights and we were up again.

My good feeling was not to last. Manning is Manning and, as such, is unstoppable. He drove his team 65 yards for another touchdown (this time it was Joseph Addai literally OVER Demarcus Faggins for a four yard touchdown run) and just like that reality was setting in. After all, once Houston goes down to the Colts, it's over, right?

Enter the Houston Texans. They drove for 44 yards and had to settle for a punt that would bottle the Colts inside their 15.

A rare three-and-out for the Colts put the Texans in business at their own 38. Then the inexplicable happened. An 8-yard pass, then a running play up the middle that put the clock down to 46 seconds. WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS GARY KUBIAK THINKING? This is not David Carr, to be coddled when there's an opportunity for a score! Maybe Kubiak woke up because he had Schaub pass again but this was a short incompletion that stopped the clock. Indianapolis, likely snickering up their sleeves at the horrible, horrible mincing play, ran the clock down as you do when you have a lead and start inside your twenty with 30 seconds left (instead of doing it when you're nearly at midfield, down by three against the best team in the league) and Houston headed into halftime down by four to the Colts.

The wheels fell off in the third quarter. The Colts completed two 20+ yard completions on their first drive, both to tight ends, as they drove 57 yards for a field goal.

A late throw over the middle to Jacoby Jones was tipped then intercepted by the Colts who took the 21-yard field and drove for a touchdown. That made it 24-10.

My Texans-sense kicked in and I thought we were in for a crap-kicking, but little did I know that these are not your father's Houston Texans (unless you're reading this, Nick or Lily). Granted, the Texans went three and out but after they forced a three-and-out out of the Indianapolis Colts, Jacoby Jones returned the ensuing punt 72 yards to the Indianapolis 18. Turns out that Jacoby Jones separated his shoulder and will miss some significant time but it was still a nice play that should have gotten the Texans back in the game. HOWEVER, Schaub threw an interception the very next play.

Indianapolis, on the strength of a 64-yard completion to Reggie Wayne, kicked another field goal and put Houston behind 27-10.

Undaunted, the Houston Texans started off on their own 27 yard line and Schaub connected with Andre Davis (the other wide-receiving Andre) for 41 yards down to the Indianapolis 1. Two Samkon Gado runs got the Texans into the end zone, 27-17 Indy.

On the kickoff following the touchdown, Rushing returned the ball 47 yards to the fifty. Manning, picking once again on Demarcus Faggins, moved the ball into field goal range, allowing Vinatieri to put them ahead 30-17.

Houston started on their own 25, passing smartly but taking too much time. The clock ticked away while Schaub nickled-and-dimed his way down the field. Normally, I don't have a problem with scoring drives. In fact, they're pretty darn cool. However, the drive started with 10:33 on the clock and ended at 2:53. If you're down by 13 against the best offense in the league, maybe you want to hustle up to the line a little. However, a pass to Vonta Leach made it 30-24. Doing my math, that meant that a touchdown and single point would put Houston ahead. All they needed was an onside-kick or a defensive stop and another touchdown.

It was not an onside kick, so Houston was relying on their defense to get them out of the jam. A false-start by Ryan Diem helped. Demarcus Faggins playing against Marvin Harrison did not. Stupid Manning completed a second-and-nine pass to Harrison for 12 yards and were able to run the clock down to 19 seconds by the time the Texans managed to hold the Colts and get the ball back with no timeouts on their own 20-yard-line. Schaub got sacked on a big blitz and time ran out before they could call another play. Indianapolis wins, 30-24.

The good:

Houston keeps trying, no matter how far down they are, and don't give up until the end of the game, whether it's holding on to a lead, scrambling back from far down or just churning when the game is still in doubt. That's pretty awesome.

The defense came together in the second half, holding Indy to field goals when the offense or special teams was letting them down (or, granted, they were letting themselves down).

For a team with no running game, they still put up 24 points.

Schaub completed passes to ten different receivers.

The return game still seems dominant.

Another sack for Amobi wan Okoye

The bad:

Running the clock out from your own 40 with plenty of time is COWARDLY. COWARDS LOSE FOOTBALL GAMES. I never want to see that kind of mincing, fraidy-cat playcalling, ever, ever again!

Keeping Demarcus Faggins on Indy's best receiver when he was consistently converting for first downs was a bad mistake.

Michael Boulware's first significant action was, unfortunately, marred by having to cover Dallas Clark.

Schaub's two interceptions were horrendous – especially the second one. Talk about a dagger in the heart.

Samkon Gado and Jameel Cook should not be the primary ball carriers for any team.

Next week: rebound game against the Atlanta Falcons and a chance to go 3-1 on the season. Johnson and Jacoby Jones won't be playing and Steve McKinney is out for the year but I'm still hopeful.

Library Book Sale

2007-09-24T07:36:00.000-06:00

Kim, the kids and I took in an abbreviated visit to the Library Book Sale on Sunday. Here's the rest.

The Books:
The Ring of Five Dragons – Eric Van Lustbader
Hardcover first book of a series that purports to rival Robert Jordan, David Eddings, George R. R. Martin, Terry Brooks and Terry Goodkind in popular appeal. I’m curious and I have to believe that I will be reading this one with a dubious eye. Why not throw in some more big fantasy names like Feist, Lackey and Le Guin while he was at it? Still, it’s a first book of a supposedly big fantasy epic, so I’ll give it a shot.
The Duke’s Ballad – Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie
I’m worried that it’s a romance novel that just happens to be set in Fantastical times/worlds. Still, I’ve heard of Andre Norton who is supposed to have been very good. I’ll read it, anyway.
Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines – David Hagberg
I like novelizations of movies so I’ll probably like this one.
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith – Matthew Stover
See above.
The Family Trade – Charles Stross
This book starts off in real-world and moves quickly to a parallel Earth. I don’t usually read these kinds of books but the Landover ones and the Covenant ones were both worth reading so I’ll give this one some time.
Fire Sea – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
This is another step in my never-ending quest to buy all the books that I loved when I was a teenager.
The Silent House – Ed Greenwood
I like his Tales of the Band of Four, so I’m pretty sure I’ll like this. It might even be an installment in the same series.
The Anvil of the World – Kage Baker
Fantasy that Nick pointed out to me. Seems fairly interesting and quirky. I will keep my hopes up, as always.
Wind from a Foreign Sky - Katya Reimann
There are two things that are guaranteed to sell me on a book series. A positive quote from an author I’ve read and enjoyed and “Chronicles” in the title somewhere. This one has both.
Empire’s Daughter – Simon Brown
This one has Chronicles in it too and it also has guys standing on the deck of a ship. I like books on boats.
Broken Crescent - S. Andrew Swann
Computer hacker meets other-worldly Druid-types. Should be interesting.

R. I. P. James Rigney, a.k.a. Robert Jordan

2007-09-18T14:13:00.001-06:00

When I was in junior high school and high school, I spent a lot of time playing video games. Who am I kidding? I play a lot of video games now. But not NEARLY as much as I did back then. I also really enjoyed reading comic books.

Enter: Bob Johnstone. My dad was a veritable fountain of comic books. He delivered Sears merchandise to a store on his route that doubled as a convenience store. He became friends with the owner and said owner started leaving out the "destroyed" books that hadn't sold. Books, magazines and comics. I read a lot of good comic books that way. I also read one thing that changed the course of my spare time from then on.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan was one of the books my dad received from his friend and the designs on the inside of the book were intriguing enough for me to pick the book up. It was also the biggest book I'd seen to that point.

Throughout the next couple of weeks, I devoured that book. My most vivid memory is sitting at the big green chair in the living room, my legs draped over one arm and my back propped up by the other, flipping through the pages, living the adventures of Rand al'Thor and his friends. Their terror was mine, their panic made my heart beat just a little faster. This was my first experience with a truly earth-moving book.

Another memory I have is of finishing the book and being nearly sick to my stomach, knowing that the library was closed for the next couple of days and I couldn't get my hands on The Great Hunt. When I finally was able to get it out, it fell the same way that The Eye of the World did.

Robert Jordan's writing showed me how easy it could be to get engrossed in a story, how easy it was to pass time not thinking of the angstful and depressing life of a teenaged boy. After all, who has time to think those thoughts when your new best friend is being chased by a Trolloc?

Jordan was working on the twelfth and final book of The Wheel of Time when he became sick with amyloidosis. He died on Sunday before finishing the series. If I'd had the chance, I would have thanked him for my love of reading, my love of fantasy and my love of writing.

I've heard that his wife will take up the chore and finish the last book. If she does, I will read it without reservation, without hoping that it won't suck. I think it will be good, not only because she has been his editor and his wife and shared his vision for so long but because one way or another, it will provide the closure that so many people have waited so anxiously for, over the last 18 years.

It's a shame that there will be no Infinity of Heaven, no more prequels and no outrigger novels (whatever they are).

Thank you, James Rigney for all you've given me. Best of luck, Harriet, in your efforts to close out The Wheel of Time.

Liam's Latest Rejection

2007-08-30T14:04:00.001-06:00

One good thing: You can't get rejected if you're not writing anything.
Another good thing: CAPTIVATING prose.

See below:

Dear Liam Johnstone,

Thank for your submission to Every Day Fiction. I regret to inform you that we are unable to use it at this time.

Well-crafted prose and an interesting idea. I don"t think, though, that we are given quite enough information to really make the story work. I need a bit more information to convince me that the protagonist is the good guy and the others are the bad guys, to buy into this world where a man can step into a loom and disappear. I had to read it a couple of times to sort out what I think is going on, and even then I"m not certain. But there"s definitely a germ of a good idea here, and this author should develop it. --Camille

This does sound like the beginning of an interesting story, and the prose kept me captivated, but it doesn't feel complete in and of itself. There's not much character arc or plot development. The prose is good, and we'd like to see more from you, but we need a little more from a story than what is here.

We wish you good luck in placing the story elsewhere.

--
Sincerely,

Jordan Lapp
Managing Editor
Every Day Fiction

I don't have any plans on putting the story this references on the blog yet. I'm going to try and work with it and see what I can do to make it a full story and submit it somewhere else.

So it sucks it got rejected but there's cause for optimism.

Until more later on,

Liam

Frets on Fire

2007-08-28T11:16:00.001-06:00

If you like Guitar Hero, or you're intrigued by the idea of it (even if you've never heard of it) you should check out Frets on Fire. It's freeware, it's free, it's available for download, you can use the Guitar Hero song-packs for it, and there are even tutorials showing you how to create your own songs. Which means there are a ton of songs that are user-created for you to enjoy.

Give it a shot.

Anniversaries

2007-08-25T11:57:00.001-06:00

Kim and I celebrated two anniversaries this week. First, on Tuesday, was the third anniversary of our wedding. Much fun was had, eating Indian food and playing games, and just all around having a fun day. Kim goes more into it on her blog here.

Then yesterday, we celebrated the first year of our living in the Minchau house. We celebrated by helping Kyle and Erron finish moving out of their house. They're moving to Chicago, a move that is sound but sad. We'll miss the Andersons and their children and hope for their safe trip down, and their speedy return.

That is all for now.

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

2007-08-07T09:36:00.001-06:00

Being a recounting, collaborated upon by my son, of our trip to Vancouver

On the way to Vancouver, we stopped in Blue River for supper. We got too much food because the waitress brought the wrong things for Nicholas and Lillian.

We stayed the night in Clearwater. There was a playground and a game room. Nicholas got to play Foosball and Lillian had a lot of fun on the swings. There was a big wooden swing thing that you used for feet with. Kind of like a teeter-totter.

The next day, we stopped in Kamloops for awhile. We all had fun hitting Nick with the Superman ball.

Finally, we got to Trevor-and-Mina's place. According to Nick, we did nothing all week but I remember a lot.

We all went for a walk by the lake. Nick found a stick that was like a bamboo pole. We also saw a koi fish swimming around.

We went to the Sizzling Asian Festival at Henderson Centre and Nick made an origami flower.

We had a birthday party for Trina (Nick and Lily's cousin). It was a lot of fun. Trevor and Mina's building has a party room on the ground floor and there's a library filled with books. Trina came down dressed in a hang-bok. It was very pretty.

Nicholas and I went for a walk by a river with Uncle Trevor. Nicholas made friends with a snail. We just about sailed Bob the Snail on a leaf down the river but we changed our minds.

The next day, we all packed up and drove to Vancouver to visit Stanley Park. We spent most of the time at the beach where Nicholas collected shells. We put sun screen on him but it was too little and too late and Nick's back burned pretty badly. Kim and I still feel bad for that.

That is the first half of our trip. Maybe I'll finish the report, maybe I won't. I'm wacky like that.

My new toy

2007-07-18T08:42:00.001-06:00

Generally, I don't consider buying a new thing to be worthy of a post but this one is special.

No more hoping/coaxing our half-working mower to life in an attempt to even out the grass.

No more trips to the gas station so I can get the lawn done before the rain comes.

No more slow creeping across the lawn, staying in one spot for a bit so that the thick parts can get cut properly.

No more standing in the noxious mixed-gas exhaust that left me smelling like a refinery for hours on end.

No more worry about mowing in the evening because of the noise.

Here it is, my sharp new friend:

A reel mower that is pushed by hand

A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin

2007-07-17T11:18:00.001-06:00

I remember, ten years ago (was it really ten years ago? My GOD, I'm getting ancient), amid the chaos and confusion of first-semester final exams, I discovered a book that I'd bought over the summer. And heck, Robert Jordan said it was good, so why not give it a kick at the tires?

Three days later, I'd written a couple of finals and finished this glorious piece of fiction. See, the problem was that I'd read enough mediocre fantasy that I was worried I wouldn't find the right thing to blow my socks off. After all, I'd already read up to book 6 or 7 of the Wheel of Time, so I thought it had all been done.

George Martin opened my eyes up to a new style of fantasy. NED! BRAN! What the hell's going on here? How can he let this happen to the good guys?

Now, the ensuing books haven't been as good, but they are still fine books, better than most of what's out there. I'd been getting a little stale on the series, with Martin's harbingers trumpeting every turd that he makes on the toilet but it was nice to read this one again to refresh myself, get away from the hype and just enjoy the book.

I can't believe it's been ten years and it's only the second time I've read the book.

I've started it a couple of times, but there's an event that happens three-quarters of the way through that is hard to get to, let alone through. The buildup to it is just insane, especially if you already know what's going to happen. Once it happens, you're free to go ahead and finish the book, hopes and dreams shattered but the pressure lets up somewhat. Then picks up again to leave you needing the next book.

Good for you, George. You've recaptured a fan, just not butt-polishing fanboy. I reserve that for Robert Jordan.

Anyone want a gamecube... or a book... maybe some kids' clothes?

2007-07-11T21:53:00.000-06:00

We're having a garage sale this weekend. I know that the readership for this blog is absolutely through the roof, so I'm sure that there are a bunch (a BUNCH) of people who will be flocking to our house at 4707 37a avenue nearly breathless with anticipation over the merchandise.

Well, the schedule is as follows:
Thursday: 10 am - 8 pm
Friday: 10 am - 8 pm
Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm

I can't promise we won't sell out of stuff before you can make it. I mean, just think of the pairs and pairs of people reading this blog right now. Heck, they may already have read this post and are EVEN NOW coming to my house at 4707 37a avenue to buy what YOU want.

Don't let that happen to you! Come on down to my house at 4707 37a avenue Thursday 10-8, Friday 10-8 or Saturday 10-5 and see what we can do to get you (or your child) into a new (used) pair of pants!

In the news

2007-07-11T10:04:00.001-06:00

Ottawa man fined for promoting hatred

I don't normally spend a lot of time reading the news or listening to the news or watching the news because it just riles me up. Watching is the worst because the anchors seem to be able to throw a story out there about four Canadian soldiers who won't be coming home and then switch to the dog show coming up this weekend. It just doesn't work for me.

However, this one just kind of jumped out at me.

Some idiot, living in his grampa's basement, decided to start the Canadian Nazi party and started a website about it, talking about how non-white people should be exterminated. The Human Rights Tribunal got wind of it and

ordered him to stop spreading hatred
turned off his website
fined him 4000 dollars.

Fortunately, it looks like nobody actually took him seriously. The messages posted on his website appeared to be all from him. Still, the things that the tribunal would allow the press to print were disgusting enough. I don't want to think about what they kept quiet.

When notice of the hearing was delivered to this moron, he hid in his house and wouldn't answer the door. What happened to being "in the right" and "fighting for what you believe in"? Apparently, he doesn't believe as strongly in his cause as his website would have us believe.

Also, when the journalist tried to reach him for comment, he couldn't get ahold of the guy. So apparently he's not only an idiot but a coward.

What ever happened to the amusing redneck idiot who would spout off on some daytime talkshow so that Geraldo could break a chair on his head? Now we've got these morons skulking in the shadows, talking about how they're stronger and better? Gimme a freaking break.

Dead and Buried by Howard Engel

2007-07-10T22:22:00.001-06:00

I've always liked Benny Cooperman. He's not your run-of-the-mill Private Investigator. He likes things a certain way. I've never read anything about him punching anyone out. He'd rather avoid trouble, it seems.

But he's a bright guy who knows what's what and he can get to the bottom of a mystery. I guess if he couldn't, Engel wouldn't have written so many books about him.

Engel tackles toxic waste dumping in Dead and Buried. Not so much from a preachy point of view, but then, I'm guessing we're all pretty against it, so preaching would not do him much good. Cooperman is against it but doesn't like to think about the environment. It keeps him up at nights. The book was published in 1990, so I guess the writer could get away with a sentiment like that. I can't imagine a protagonist being accepted in this day and age if he had any opinion of the environment other than "We have to save it!"

In the end, surprise, surprise, it's the big corporation that's been doing the toxic dumping, and the big boss is behind it and the murders of some people who've been digging around. But never fear, Cooperman will save the day.

I don't know enough about how high society works or how big business works to know how realistic this novel is but it doesn't have to BE realistic, it just has to FEEL realistic. And it does. Good job, Engel.