This'n that

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind. Although our vacation was very relaxing, and we had Sunday to stir about the house, getting back up to speed at work after 3 weeks off was a bit of a leap. In addition, the first thing was to find my office. I knew there was a move coming so I was all packed up. My office this week is nice. Cold, but nice.

Here's the good part of the view


Here's the not so good part.


I have to be packed up again tomorrow, and I move to an internal office. The only view is another office. Oh well.
As some of you know, I like photos that have reflections in them. This is a gooder.


After work today we went over to Southcenter mall to look at Canstruction. Stuff made out of stacks of cans. Very cool.



In other news, Curtis has discovered a new place to hang out. Now I'm afraid to put the paperweight collection back there.


My legs are feeling better today. I'm walking normally, but there is still some creakiness. Slept like a rock last night, which is very unusual for me, and was woken up by the alarm clock, which is even rarer than a good night's sleep.
There was something else, and now it will have to wait for another time.

My legs are a wreck

Such is the professional opinion of my wonderful massage therapist. She worked on them for 1.5 hours, and there was still more to do. It was an owie, even in a good way, an owie.

Back in the pool this am. I think there is a swim meet happening, so things were a bit crowded. I swam a bit easy, and a few interval laps. Pool feel wasn't bad. The main goal was trying to get my legs to relax.

An "only you" adventure after swimming. After swim, walking to the office, and I'm normally really hot getting into the building. So today I'm trying to unzip my jacket and nothing is happening. There I am, getting hotter by the minute, trying to keep my pack on one shoulder, and holding my wallet to wave at various doors, elevators, and turnstiles to get in. Even after dumping all the stuff I still couldn't unzip. I'm roasting, I'm hungry, and have to pee. There was just enough space to get the jacket off over my head, with my scarf trying to strangle me along the way. Somehow I had tangled the scarf into the zipper. For a while I was afraid I was going to have to cut up my favorite scarf to get it off, but I managed to get it out ok. Then unzipping the jacket was hard because part of the zipper hadn't zipped up. For a while I was afraid I had broken it, but it all turned out ok. Good thing nobody was watching that performance.

Massage was a good brutality. Things still hurt. Yoga hurt, with some poses being total non starters. I think it was all good in the long run, but my legs have been so tight that now they are starting to relax post massage, it's actually hurting a bit more as they sort themselves out. I'm about to see if more sleep will help.

Social stuff

The first 'pitcher' of rum swizzles was a success! It was actually a measuring cup, but never mind. 1 oz dark rum, 2 oz of a mix of orange and pineapple juice, a dash of bitters, and a dash of lemon. Pretty good, and better over ice.

Very easy spin 30 minutes and then stretching my legs. Looking forward to a massage. Knee and heel still cranky, but maybe a bit better.

I've been thinking about social media a bunch lately, and this is one of the occasions where I need to write about it to understand what I actually think about it.

Once upon a time, back in my youth, the only practical way to get to know someone was to be close to them. You might work at the same place, go to the same gym or church, live in the same neighbourhood, or attend the same school. Once the relationship was formed it might or might not survive a separation. There are people that got to know each other through letters and phone calls, but that's tough sledding.

Now things are different. To the youth of today it seems natural, but I still marvel at being able to get to know people that don't live anywhere near me. Through blogging and other social media, I'm pretty confident that if I went to Southern California, or Boulder, or Nova Scotia, and probably other places that don't instantly come to mind, I could go to lunch or dinner with people I've never met in person and have a great time. It's allowed me to meet people at races or training camps already having some basis for a relationship. People have come up to me to ask if I'm who I am. (It's the mustache, I can never shave it.)

Linked In was the first social media site I joined, and it was pretty lame at first. Now I look at it almost every day. It's a valuable tool in the competitive world of holding a job, especially if you're like me, an independent contractor. You never know when someone you know tells you to contact someone they know to discuss a job. I've got at least two jobs that way. Now my rule for connecting to someone is that I have to have worked with them in some way. It's most often someone I've worked with, but it could be someone I've purchased services from. Some of my older contacts don't meet that criteria, but that's ok. If you look at my profile it's pretty much built around my work life. It needs updating to better reflect what I'm actually doing at Penn West these days, but that's life.

Blogging is my first social media love, and my most enduring. I like doing a blog. There seems to be a small, but fairly loyal audience that like what I have to say. Which is nice, considering I'm writing this for myself. I love getting comments. I remain amiably baffled by which posts get read more or less, and which collects comments. Every now and then I rip out a good rant, and people like those. Some are semi-rants, or bleats about some topic or another. I'm pretty sure that none of my readers are bored because I'm always talking about only one topic. They might be bored because there's a wall of text on a topic they aren't interested in, but that's another issue.

Facebook was next, and that was a bit of a struggle for me. I'm up to 141 "friends". I'm seriously contemplating exactly what I use Facebook for. I've loved getting caught up with cousins, and staying caught up with some people that don't blog much anymore. But as I noted in my linked blog post above, I've got some issues. Every now and then I go through my settings and make sure I've got things nailed down. Most of the time my rule about Facebook friends is that it's someone I'd go to lunch or coffee with, and that I don't mind them reading what I post, and I don't mind reading what they post. I know most of the people, or knew them at one point. But I am considering culling the list a bit, though rumors of changes to the newsfeed might make me change my mind.

In order, what I like to read on FB is what my friends post for themselves. News of what's happening in their lives. Photos of cute kids, or beaches, or race photos. Or even just a pretty sunset, I've been guilty of that. It might be banal to others, but that's ok.
Reposts are a mixed bag. One particular buddy is a treasure trove of good stuff, interesting photos and links that I often follow. Other reposts, like the stupid intelligence tests to pick a word meeting some criteria, or the math test, or the number of squares, I wish I could make them go away. Forever. Same for forward this if you love your mother, or put x in your status if you love dogs, and all that sort of crap. I'm getting crankier about that, and too much will lead to being unfriended.
I don't play any games on Facebook, and won't respond to invitations. I'm very, very suspicious of third party apps.

I've read about Facebook getting less popular. Kids are moving to other social media sites to do their thing, away from what they see as their parents thing. Many people are pissed about the changes to privacy settings, and the data ownership issues. Some want to get back to interacting with their real friends. Others are pissed at the advertising.

Twitter had me baffled for a long time. What could you say in 140 characters? I've come around now. It's such a great way of getting news I don't read the paper anymore, and don't listen to the news on the radio. My only criteria for following someone on Twitter is that they have tweets that interest me. That might be because it's news, or they are witty, or it's a notice they've blogged and I follow their blog. Just because you follow me is no guarantee I'll follow you. Most of my tweets are notice that I've blogged, short things I want to say on Facebook, or (semi-) witty responses to what other people say.

I flirted briefly with Google+, but I'm kind of pissed at Google these days, and besides, didn't like it. I do have a Flikr account, but it's mainly where I put images for my blog because the linked Picassa account for Blogger seems to be full. I haven't got around to any of the other zillion social media sites. I'm just not that social a guy, I guess.

There is a growing push to recognize that people legally own their own data, their personal information, their photographs, their text, whatever else they've created, and not the company that provided a social media site. The media sites will hate it, of course, but too bad. There is also a push to punish privacy breaches. It's one thing to have some new and diabolically clever attack succeed, but quite another to have some script kiddy assault get results. That should be punished.

Part of it is the prevention of identity theft, and part of it is simply good practice. Part of the onus is on people themselves, since most of us are very bad at choosing passwords. It's hard to create an endless series of passwords that are easy to remember, easy to type on a variety of devices, and yet are hard to guess. I can't help but think that eventually we will get DNA analyzers in all our devices. They work when we hold them, and don't when someone else holds them. Perhaps there needs to be a 'keep working for x seconds button' so we can let others look at photos, or make a phone call.

In most ways I like the social media world. We're still figuring out how it works, and lots of people have been burned by it, and that's too bad. There's a story I like to tell about a young woman I once worked with. She was photographed on the Red Mile screaming her lungs out during a Flames game. That photo was put up on an early social media site where people modified the images, and reposted them, sometimes with comments. I was looking at this one morning, wondering if it was her. I got the guy across the hall to come and look, and sent her an email with the link. We're looking, and can't decide, when we heard this scream from down the hall. It was her. She came running in to ask how to get it taken down, and was very disappointed to learn that it was essentially impossible, that once an image is on the internet it's effectively there forever. She got a really thoughtful look when told that many women had had the same experience, only they didn't have their shirts on. I am sure that some poor kid somewhere is going through hell because a NSFW photo was posted in Snapchat, and someone screen shotted it while it was still alive, then posted the screen shot. All these social media tools are just that, tools for interaction. Our other tools have various safety features, but lost of people lost limbs to power tools before the safety features were worked out. Play safe, my friends.

Lived in, or cluttered

While on vacation we spent some time in the evening watching cable television. This is a rare thing for us, since we don't have it at home. Wipeout is even funnier on the big screen. I nearly peed myself a couple times, restraining myself that there must be some major injuries coming out of that show. Still, they signed up for it.

The major part of the TV diet was HGTV. We got a big kick out of the Property Brothers, and international house hunters. Love it or List it was fun a few times, then got tiresome. There were a few others that were more of the same.

As some of you know, I'm a big fan of the lived in look. We live in our homes. The stuff we use daily should be close to hand. Things like the several books on the go, mobile devices, wine, cookies, that sort of thing. Art on the walls and elsewhere helps make a home comfortable. Cats especially make a home more comfortable, and cat toys make cats happy.

The one thing that became clear from HGTV is that trying to sell a home means being death on clutter. Every show said it, get rid of the clutter. Some of the homes that I thought were nicely lived in, or maybe trending a bit to the clutter side were castigated as being just this side of a catastrophe. Or a dump, which it was in a few cases. I reassure myself that all of it is staged.

Still, I've been looking around our house. The upstairs I think would be termed lived in, more or less, depending on what day of the week it is. Downstairs I've been saying is clutter. Out and out clutter. I've had to wade through it, move it, stack it, try to find stuff in it and otherwise face it. Where, exactly, is the line between lived in and cluttered? I thought most of the for sale homes on the shows, or even the new look to be unbearably sterile. That's just gross.

Our whole society is based around things. Getting more of them. Better things. Bigger things. Meaning we also need bigger houses to put stuff in. Bigger garages to store extra stuff in. Rental storage facilities for even more stuff. Our society is drowning in stuff. Clutter, most of it. I'm struggling with what to do with the pieces of it that are technologically driven. Specifically, books. We have a ton of them. Probably a metric ton. Seriously. If you gave me a few minutes to look some stuff up, I could tell you about how many, but I don't really want to know. I'me guessing on the order of 4000 books down in the basement. Some of the oldest are nearly 100 years old, and falling apart, the pages oxidizing. I doubt they're actually worth anything.

Tell me, what does one do with a complete Encyclopedia Brittanica? This is probably 5 cubic feet of high quality paper that will never be looked at again while it's in my basement. Why would I? Why would anyone? Seriously, what do people do with them?

When we had to tidy up for house painting, I moved all the CD's downstairs. I don't know how many there are. Hundreds, maybe a thousand. I don't know. Most of them are in the computer, and unless I get screwed over on some digital rights thing, those CD's will never see laser light again. It's the digital rights thing that worries me, so I'm not in a rush to get rid of them. However, in the mean time it's just clutter.

Trip souvenirs are a good source of clutter. I brought home a couple T shirts, a hat to keep the sun off my ears, a glass octopus to replace the one Celina broke. There was no end of stuff I could have brought home. At least digital photos take up no space.

My first day back to the office entailed finding it. I was moved during vacation, and I move again on Friday. Sigh. I like this office very much, and I know unless something dramatic changes, I will not like my next office much at all.

My heel and knee are very cranky today. I stretched them yesterday and did a good core workout in the evening. If I was ambitious, I'd do that tonight, but don't go holding your breath waiting for me.

It was suggested to me that the reason Curtis likes to "help" me type is that he wants to start a blog. I'm not so sure about this, and he's being coy upon being put to the question. He undoubtedly has opinions, just not sure a blog is the right forum.

No sympathy, I expect

We are home. The cats are pleased with us. It's snowing and cold out. I'm feeling a bit of weather whiplash. Good thing I don't have to run today. Our last morning in Bermuda I woke up to this. No filtering or editing here. Just the photo.

While we were waiting in Toronto for our delayed flight, a buddy reminded me of Air Canada's motto, "We're not happy till you're not happy." Though I do have to say they got us home eventually, even if the baggage delivery here was even slower than Vancouver. The extra carry on bag, the one with fragile stickers all over it, was about the third item off the belt with the regular stuff. So much for going and collecting it with the over sized. At least everything survived. Now to experiment on making Rum Swizzles.

I ended up taking 470 photos in Bermuda. Some of them look really nice on screen, much nicer than how Blog Press shows them in Blogger. So I may be redoing some of them. Pardon me if you think you've seen them before, but some are really good, and haven't been done justice. Most of the ones I put up will probably have some tweaking done.

What follows should be a video I shot in Horseshoe Bay. Let's find out if this works via Flikr. If not I can go back to You Tube, I guess.

While on vacation I discovered some spam comments actually sneaking onto my blog. I've tweaked some settings that should prevent anonymous posters. I hope that doesn't block anyone from actually posting. It shouldn't, since all anonymous was spam, and all the real comments were from people I know, or recognize their names. If there is a problem please let me know somehow, via the twitter button, Facebook, or plain old email. If I must I'll go back, and turn on comment moderation for all posts, not just the older ones. I take pride in my blog, and have some of the finest commenters around, so I don't want to dilute their efforts. I've already made a bit of a round catching up on comments on other people's blogs. I've missed doing that.

Back to regular blogging, whatever that is. First there was the month of one word blogs in February. Then a bunch of vacation blogs. Now back to the regular world. I was thinking a lot about vacations and my working life. My buddy Alan once said, "I strive to schedule my work the way most people schedule their vacation." We are already thinking about our next vacation, though quite a bit depends on exactly how this project goes, and if I get renewed or not. Linda is researching Copenhagen, I'm looking at Iceland, and plan on feeding my buddies Mike and Julie tea and cookies while interrogating them about Cozumel. 

Temporarily frazzled

I remember when airline travel was fun. Traveling home on (gag choke) Air Canada, I've been stuck over and over again by all the stupidity inherent in the system.

Frazzled at the moment because I could take two bottles of rum onto the pane from Bermuda, yet not in my carry on from Toronto to Calgary. I should have put it in our checked bags during the 5 minute window of opportunity.

We wend our way through the maze, till the security guy hauls them out and says its unsafe to take liquids onto the airplane. There they are in a Bermuda duty free bag, with the receipt, right off the plane. Since my checked bag is deep in the bowels of the system, I had to give it up, or go back and check in my carry on bag. For an extra bag fee of $20 to add insult to injury. I was seriously afraid my red sweaty face was going to trigger some quota seeking guard. Sure enough I had to do the extra check. Linda was waiting for me with rolled eyes. Good think we had lots of time. At least they put a fragile sticker on it. I wonder if I'll see it again at the other end. At least I remembered to take out my iPad.

Nice lunch for an airport. Now waiting for our flight. Better than a night at the airport hotel like last year. Still wondering how long they will continue with the stupid no electronics rule. Wondering who could possibly 'breathe normally' if the masks drop out during flight. Watching the cabin crew struggle through handing out food and drinks via a very poor process. Glad that planes do exist to get us around. Getting to Bermuda by train and ship from Calgary would take the better part of a week.

Missing our kitties. Can't wait to get home.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Last full day here

Another perfect day here. Perfect for lazing on the deck, strolling around town a bit, lying in the hammock, and now, sitting in a shady spot. Thinking back on how much we've enjoyed this vacation, even if we do miss our furrballs.

The bus stops are marked by poles, and the colour tells you which side of the road to stand on. Sometimes it's easy to get turned around. Pink poles are for girls going to Hamilton to shop.



Blue poles are for boys tired from shopping in Hamilton.



These are the bus stops we've used the most, and if it looks like we're standing on the street, we are. If it looks like there is a wall that prevents any escape from traffic, they do. Travel here is a bit of an act of faith. This is the main road going into St. George's, and I'm pretty sure some of the bike paths in Calgary are wider. There is no margin for error on the roads here, which is why we haven't rented a motor scooter or used the apartment bikes.

I could cope with a scooter. I could cope with driving on the wrong side of the road. I could cope with narrow twisty streets and navigating on the fly in busy traffic. I'm pretty sure I could cope with any two of those. All three together are right off my list of adventurous things to try.

I like this signpost to tell you who lives on this street.



While I'm barefoot at the moment, here's the pile of my shoes by the door.



Bermuda's architecture is nice, with some odd twists. This looks like a resort hotel, but I think it's actually an office building.



Here's what the Hamilton waterfront looks like.



We are going to be sad to go, especially since the weather is finally getting nicer here and is crap in Calgary. I've taken about 400 photos this time, many of which are near duplicates. There are some videos as well. Once home I might clean up some of them and tell some more stories. Tomorrow is a travel day so I probably won't have much to say, though there is a 3 hour wait in Toronto and wireless access.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad