More on the new Intuit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.

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Confessor – Or – Terry Goodkind Is Smarter Than You And He Wants You To Know It

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

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

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

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

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Lacklustre update blog post motivated by 25-day blog-gap

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.

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CBC Radio

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.

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I am a winner!

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!!!

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!

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Part one is done

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.

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30000 plus

I reached the 30000 word summit last night.

Two chapters to go for the end of October.

It's all war now!

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Local Election

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

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.

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Three chapters to go!

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.

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Back at it

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

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Texans week 4: Houston 16 - Atlanta 26

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.

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Angry Liam

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.

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Week 3: Houston 24, Indianapolis 30

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

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

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.

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Liam's Latest Rejection

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

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Frets on Fire

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.

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Anniversaries

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.

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How I Spent my Summer Vacation

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

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

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?

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

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

1. ordered him to stop spreading hatred
   
2. turned off his website
3. 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.

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Dead and Buried by Howard Engel

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.

The Failed Facebook Experiment - or - I was gone, but now I'm back.

I will admit it: I've spent too much time on Facebook. But I've had it. I wasn't getting any social networking done, just browsing people's profiles to see what was new with them.

My one attempt at social networking fell on its face, leaving me with my desire to play hockey intact and ashes in my mouth regarding Facebook.

Still, I persevered, I put in my time, but I kept getting added by people I barely knew and others who I didn't really like. I didn't mind it when Facebook was a dozen or so friends who were still relevant in my life but it ballooned out of control so I would log in, look at some groups, look at some people and log out. I wasn't contributing, I wasn't creating, I was just wasting time.

Instead, I'm going to waste time here, putting posts up on my blog like I should have been doing all along.

After all, I've read 16 books this year and I think I'm shy 14 write-ups. I just hope I can remember what happened in what book.

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June... 24? Yes, June 24.

If you're missing hockey, street hockey, or just streets in general, get your runners, get your sticks and mark June 24 on your calendar because I'm similarly marking it as a day to play street hockey.

The tentative location is Minchau School. I picked this place because it's fairly easy to find, it's in the city and it's close enough to my place to have people over for barbecue later.



It's almost a month away and details are very sketchy right now but there will be more to come.



Streets, hockey, Sunday June 24.



Don't forget to mark it on your calendar.

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JavaOne part three

5/10/2007 6:12 PM Mountain
Monday was an interesting day. We met sometime around 8:30 and went to Mountain View, bickering about radio stations, fighting over which way to take, and generally getting along peacably. After eating, “stopping for coffee” a couple of times, and the drive, rife with traffic and slowness, we arrived at the Mountain View office sometime around 10:00 am. Upon arrival, we all connected our computers to the work network and, to our horror, realized that we had an 8:00 am skip-level meeting with Spencer. Only two hours late. I guess it would have been a good idea to connect to work before going to bed the night before.
I read my emails, sent some emails and had a meeting on Struts2 before it was off to the all-hands meeting where we got another unbridled dose of optimism, good-feeling and an idea of what to expect in our lists of things to do in the coming months.
Honestly, I was pretty positive about the all-hands meeting. My boss's boss's boss, Paul Rosenfeld is a pretty straight shooter and comes across as having very little tolerance for BS. I don't agree with his opinions on everything but at least I'm confident that he does.
After the all-hands, we headed out to San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House. I wasn't very enthusiastic about that – I'd tried to talk Marius and Wenpan into abstaining since we'd already been through there but peer pressure guided us all to the decision to follow the crowd. Honestly, I was pretty impressed. The guy had exactly the same spiel as the girl had had a couple of months before but his in-between commentary was a lot better than the girl's.
After that, it was a kind of dinner I've never had before. They brought dishes out – fish, beef, chicken, veggie, but they just kept coming. It was pretty nice and I was impressed by what they offered for the most part but I was surprised to find that at the end of the evening, I was still pretty hungry. There was a lot of good conversation to be had. I moved around, trying not to miss any of it. I talked with Grace, a UE designer and I was pretty impressed with what she had to say. I'll go into that later.
After dinner, Marius, Gustavo, Evelyn, David and I went out to an Irish pub. It was loud during the Golden State Warriors game then people filed out and David Cassidy's evil doppelganger showed up and wowed people with his hair and his guitar. Unfortunately, his guitaring sucked and his voice was worse. I could recognize most of the songs he was playing but only through keen observation. After that, we went back to the hotel and I pressed the up button a couple of times before going to bed.
JavaOne was like I expected it to be – only way louder and with waaaaay more people. The first opening session was likely six to eight thousand people sitting and listening to a guy talk about taking Java open-sourced. Maybe I'm not seeing all of the benefits that this provides but I didn't get really jazzed about it.
I'll go into the details of the sessions in my technical blog at http://intuittech.blogspot.com for those of you who care. It's mostly about Java language and web programming but who knows? Maybe there'll be something in there for you to care about.
Probably not, though.
San Francisco has been, in turns, sunny and hot enough to melt a man, cloudy and windy, cloudy and calm, on the brink of rain (without ever actually raining to back it up) and sunny with wind. The San Diegans have been bitterly cold but I have been in a t-shirt and shorts the entire time. I guess it all comes down to what you're used to.
The food has been fantastic. I've been spoiled with the generosity of our manager. Steak, rack-of-lamb, any number of amazing meals that I've eaten happily.
The only one that I didn't enjoy was the pizza.
I like pizza. I like pizza probably more than any man has a natural right to like pizza. However, this one had Shiitake mushrooms which I THOUGHT I liked, but they were disgusting on the pizza. And it also had sauteed onions that covered the top of the pizza like some unnameable slime. I suffered through. I'm such a freaking trooper.
Mostly, I end up struggling to find a wireless signal and I struggle to keep my laptop charged. Disabling the wireless speeds up the charging but I'm fighting a losing battle. I managed to get my Palm charged and synced up thanks to Derek Deter who works for the people we bought and are integrating with. So now I'm taking my in-session notes with the palm and if I can get together with Derek again before the end of the conference, I'll put them on the PC. If not, I'll hope the battery doesn't die on the Palm before I can get the notes off of there. Maybe it's worth it to type them up on the tablet by reading them off the palm. Don't worry about me, though, I'll figure it out.
Last night, Gustavo and I went with Abraham, another Intuit employee, to a party hosted by Terra Cotta, a company that does some kind of caching solution or something. I didn't really understand. I just know that they claim to be 8-10 times faster than JBoss cache. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like when the skinny doper at the golf course told me he power-bombed some guy through a pool table. My bullshit monitor kind of peaked at that moment and I knew it was time for me to leave.
I don't know how many more of these updates I'll do before I get on the plane tomorrow afternoon but I'll get another one up when I get home. A sort of conclusion to the festivities.
Until next I blog,
Liam

JavaOne trip Part Two

JavaOne SF Trip Part 2 – 5/9/2007 11:49AM
The date and time above might be a little misleading. I'm seated in my session and waiting for it to start so I thought I'd keep working on the updates.
So, I explained the “Uncle Marius” thing by mentioning what happened at the hotel but we didn't get to the hotel until pretty late Sunday night.
We got out of the airport area around 10:00AM here, and we were going to be going sailing at around 11:00. So, we had lots of time to get to the marina. Which turned out to be a good thing, since I took several wrong turns, and had a very vague idea of where the marina was.
We stopped at Peet's coffee, which would become a theme of sorts for all of our wrong turns. “oh, it's okay, Eric, we don't need your GPS for the drive home. We're going to stop for coffee on the way back to the hotel.”
So, we made it to the marina and I won't go into the entirety of the seven-plus hours spent on the water but I will say some.
It was sunny, sunny, sunny. I sun-blocked everything that showed but I still burned my elbow-pits. They're coming around now but they were pretty red for awhile there.
The helm doesn't move. I discovered this, to my pain, by experimenting with my nose. I thought I had missed a spot with the sunscreen, since there was a very tender spot, but using my scientist-powers I deduced that sunburns turn red and the spot on my nose was definitely brown. Just – like – a – bruise.
I am a tacking-genius. Okay, so it's not so hard to tack. You just have to turn 90 degrees. But Tom, whose boat it was, said that I got sailing right away. I think that's the highest praise I've ever gotten from him.
Seven hours on a boat in the hot sun can tend to make you stink. The bath at the hotel when sailing and eating and getting Eric back to his car were FINALLY taken care of seemed to be better than any shower I've ever had before or wil ever have again.
And of course, for those of you who don't know, Kim and I chose two and a half years ago not to keep cable. It's nice but it wastes so much time and the absolute crap that is out there, we can get for free. I only mention this because the hotel room has cable – ESPN, all the networks (couldn't find Fox), Comedy and soe others. There are a lot of buttons on the TV remote. Buttons where you can rent movies, buttons where you can turn on the GameCube, buttons for channel changing, volume control and some other crap. The only button that has any meaning in my life anymore is the up-channel button. I pressed that button over and over and over again, going around the horn over and over again.
Now, if I were to do this kind of thing at home, around the horn is four, maybe five channels and I'm done. The same things are on, the same commercial is usually on if I don't catch anything interesting, I get bored and turn off the TV.
The hotel has in excess of 40 channels. This means the usual around the horn takes 9-10 times longer than at home. Coupled with the fact that there are three ESPN feeds, there's always something catching my attention for a couple of minutes. That means that by the time I get around the horn all the way, there's always something new and interesting on a given channel than there was the last time I flipped by it. Unless there's a movie on, then forget about it. Random movies are my special crack and I will sit and watch that until there's a commercial, which just slows the flipping down even more.
I say this because I made the mistake of turning on the television when I got to my hotel room, thinking it would be once, twice around the horn and then straight to bed.
I stayed on that sucker until 1:30 in the morning. Stupid me. Around the horn is a professional's game. You don't go cold into American cable thinking you can spend less than two hours idle time. Being tired made it worse.
That's it for this update. It's long enough.

JavaOne trip -- Part One

Being part one of a series of posts about Liam's trip to San Francisco for the JavaOne conference, 2007.


San Francisco Update: 5/9/2007 11:21 AM
After Beaver Camp, Nick and I drove back to Edmonton, getting home around 11PM. I helped Kim finish packing me up for this trip, ordered a cab for 5:00 and headed to bed around 1:30 AM.
I woke, shaking my head to the pounding on the door from the cab driver. I rushed downstairs and told the guy I would be right out. Gathering things together, I dressed and shot out the door. Kim also threw some muffins and a banana into my bag.
The US customs guy was actually pretty friendly. The first time that's ever happened for me. I shot through security with Kevin Hu in tow and we sat by the gate to wait for the flight and the rest of the team.
Gustavo showed up first, and Wenpan and Marius didn't make it until the plane was pretty much full. Apparently, security got crazy after we went through. Gustavo got finger-printed and he got a free cuddle from one of the scanner-people.
The flight was fairly unremarkable. I read my book – Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, while I listened to Sandy Foster on my MP3 player. I dozed off for awhile but it's hard to get comfortable in those miniscule seats.
Renting the car was an adventure, since my credit card was declined. I'm still not sure if it's because I'm in the States without them knowing or because of the credit limit but “Uncle Marius” stepped up and used his credit card and we were on our way sailing.
--I have a session in a couple of minutes on Java Persistence but I'll continue the update later on.
*Uncle Marius is what I called Marius after he helped out with the rental car and then did the same thing for my hotel room, Kevin's hotel room and Gustavo's hotel room.
Catch you after the session – if I have time for that, lunch and blogging.

This one's for "In Rob We Trust" writer Rob.

If he even reads this blog.

If he hasn't already read this.

I got a kick out of it.

A letter from the Smithsonian

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Daily Meditation -- 04/24/2007

We distinguish the excellent person from the common
person by saying that the former is the one
who makes great demands on him or herself, and the latter the one who
makes no demands on him or herself.


-Jose Ortega y Gasset



I read this and immediately shook my head, taking it to be common sense. Of course it's common sense if I agree with it. So I started thinking a little more deeply. Can I find somewhere in my experience where I've disagreed with this? Can I find somewhere in my experience where someone else has disagreed with this?



Looking at the quote, I find it hard to imagine someone who makes no demands on him or herself. I guess living in an addicted haze, stumbling from one thing you need to do in order to survive to the next would be a little less demanding than facing the realities of each day, taking the hits as they come.



So maybe the excellent person is more willing to face life, whatever may come, than the common person. Maybe turning away from a sense of entitlement, opening ones eyes so they can do what needs to be done, rather than what they feel they get to do - that would be demanding.



Then again, maybe I'm just skewing the criteria, trying to fit my carcass into the uncommonly excellent slot.



Thoughts?

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//CODiE//s

I have no idea what a //CODiE// is, but my old project (Quicken Home Inventory Manager) won for best home productivity solution.

There was, sadly, no mention of the installer.

Daily Meditations -- 4/23/2007

That's right, I'm going to try again.




Wise men don't judge: they seek to understand.


- Fingers Pointing Toward the Moon by Wei Wu Wei



I find that the hardest part of any argument is getting to the actual disagreement.

I find that rhetoric and persuasion, followed by anger and self-consciousness are barriers to that. I feel like I spend the entirety of every argument trying to break the sides down to the most basic elements. If I can do that, I'm satisfied and I end the argument, happy to understand the other person's perspective.



I'm not confrontational by any standards, despite the attempts of others to characterize me as the angry bald man. I do like vigorous conversation where points of view are debated but I've walked away from conversations where, rather than explain their part, the other people will resort to yelling and personal attacks. This doesn't happen very often, I'm glad to say. My last line in just about every disagreement I've had since I was twenty goes like this: "So what it boils down to is... ... and I can accept that we disagree on that."



As far as the judgment, I agree, it's the wise thing to try and understand, rather than pointing fingers or making snap judgments.



The Virginia Tech murders come to mind as a place where it would probably be wise to try and understand but in this instance, I chose to (and continue to choose to) judge by saying: "I'm glad he took his own life too because he doesn't deserve to live." I don't care about taxpayers money imprisoning him. I'm not American and I'm not paying to keep him alive but he just doesn't deserve to live.



Wise? No. But it's the way I feel. You may disagree, and I can accept that.

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My new bike

Friday, Kim and I went shopping for my new bike. We spent some time at the Sherwood Park mall. I'm sure it has a name beyond "Sherwood Park mall" but I don't know what it is.

We spent some time waiting for a bike to be assembled but time was bleeding away and we ended up missing out on the one shop Kim wanted us to hit.

Fortunately, there was another shop that was open for another fifteen minutes. We sped across town (actually, it was just down the road) to "Bikes and Boards" where we talked for nearly 40 minutes with the owner. In the end, I decided that JAMIS would be the next brand of bike I'd own. The guy had a two-year-old bike that a 60-year-old lady owned and that she rode a total of 12 kilometres.

I'll admit, the 60-year-old comment almost turned me off of this bike for good. I mean, who wants a bike a 60-year-old would choose? But then I decided that the way this bike fit me, the way it felt riding down the road, and the good feeling I got from this guy (when he said he'd take care of the bike if anything happened to it) decided me. I'm going to redefine this bike, from a hardly-ridden old lady's bike to a bike that a 30-year-old angry man would be proud to ride. (I just have to figure out how to get the ribbons out of the handlebars and the basket off the front. I'm keeping the clonkers on the spokes, though)

Seriously, here's what the bike basically looks like. (It's a product shot from JAMIS's site. I'll get an actual picture of it at some point)

Spring has Sprung, the Grass has Riz

I love spring.



I realize I'm not alone in this statement but I really love spring.



I love the same thing about spring as I do about winter. In winter, I want it to snow and snow and snow. I love snow. In spring, I can't wait until the snow's gone. And now it is, mostly.



Soon, I'll be able to bike to work. No more glares from bus-riders. No more standing there, waiting on someone else's schedule.



Soon, Nicholas will hit the soccer field and my indoor games will become outdoor games.



It's bright when I get out of the office now. I don't realize how much I miss sunshine until about this time of the year.



Everything's waking up and life is kicking into high gear.



YAY SPRING!

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Late nights at Palazzo Johnstone

I stayed up late to watch the Canucks-Stars playoff game last night. I went to bed twenty minutes or so before the end of the game.



There's just something about overtime in the playoffs that I can't turn my back on. Every game is so important and you never know when it will end. I love the idea that a game could still be playing when it's time to go to work the next day.



Of course, the Sedins ruined that dream.



Speaking of the satan-twins, there's something almost hypnotic about the way they cycle the puck down low. They always seem to know where the other guy is expecting him to be and then, just like that, the puck's out front and there's a scoring chance.



I hate the Canucks but I hate the Stars worse and I'll cheer for any Canadian team as long as they're not playing against the Flames.



Nice to see Ottawa doubled up on the Pens as well.



Here's to the Flames kicking some Red-Wing tail tonight.

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