My So Called Christmas Vacation
December 29, 2003
So Christmas just steamrolled on by (anybody get a plate number on that mack truck?) and Santa left nice things here in Montreal, including The Civil War (documentary by Ken Burns, which with its 9 hours of material managed to keep me up most of the weekend) and another couple of feet of snow. Interesting phenomenon here, the idiocy of drivers is directly proportional to the amount of snow, ice, and other dangerous materials on the road. That's not including me of course...(wink, wink).
So it is back to the grindstone as we continue wedding plans, look for a place to live, and I am working on several projects for bradleyboy and the CCSB. I am sure I will run into a few of you while I am in the Show Me State this weekend.
Good Ol' Ronnie
December 23, 2003
Haven't had much to post lately, but I did run across this great quote from my favourite president since Lincoln. I have even been thinking lately that if one day I should have a child, and that child happens to be a boy, Abraham Ronald wouldn't be a bad name. Of course Nora might have something to say about that...
Anyway, here is a joke Reagan used to use to great effect back in the Cold War Days. It goes like this...
A Soviet citizen stands in line for three days to requisition a car. On the fourth day he reaches the counter. At last he concludes his transaction.
"Congratulations, comrade!" says the Soviet official. "Your automobile will be delivered to you on the fifth of March in the year 2005.""Morning or afternoon?�" inquires the citizen.
The official is puzzled. "Why do you ask?"
The citizen explains: "The plumber is coming in the morning."
Priceless...
As If I Don't Have Enough to Do: Part Deux
December 18, 2003
Well, I am at it again. With other projects and responsibilities looming (*cough...Christmas shopping...cough*) I decided to start designing our wedding invites. Hey, only like 4 months until we need to send them! Anywho, here is a first draft...tell me what you think.
Another Milestone for CNN
December 16, 2003
Gotta give it to them, they keep us on our toes. So was it any surprise Sunday, as a truly historic event was taking place and the President was about to speak on that very event, that this is the graphic that CNN used to frame the shot. Some video engineer has quite a bit of confidence in himself...
Mark Your Calendar
December 15, 2003
Well, here in Montr�al, we are sitting tight under about a foot and a half of snow (See pic below). And after talking with pastors, checking church availability, consulting with the UN, etc etc...we have finally settled on a date for the wedding. The big day will be June 19th, and the wedding will take place here in Montr�al. We are looking at a late afternoon, early evening start time. Obviously, we will have much more info as we get closer to June (which, judging by this snowfall, seems a long way away). Check back soon!
voici venir l'hiver...
December 13, 2003
For my monolingual friends (who are just like me by the way), that's "Here comes winter...". Much thanks to my friends and family in the midwest who just received a touch of snow themselves, for someone down there gave the nasty weather pattern a quite detailed map to my place. That storm is bearing down on the northeast and we are to get our first major snow (8-12 inches Sunday and another 5 or so Monday) of the season. Not to mention that it is downright cold here as well. That is no typo at the top of the screen, it is really that cold (9 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of this writing).
Be sure to check back Monday, as there will be a big wedding announcement and maybe a few pictures of the snow.
Geek Alert: I have received some questions about how this page always displays updated weather. Well, I obviously don't jump on here every time there is a change and update it myself. The new kid on the block in terms of web data (and everything else for that matter) is a format called XML (Extensible Markup Language). It stores data in custom tags, making it easily tailored for any application. Well, the weather channel outputs XML weather data for thousands of cities every 30 minutes and, using PHP to parse the XML data, this page always has updated weather. Check out this site for more info.
Our First Dose of Color
December 12, 2003
Well, I am still getting used to thinking of myself as an uncle. But in case you haven't seen any pictures yet, here is the cutest thing on either side of the pond. Little miss Lauren Frances Tiffin...
Here is a link to more pics from Kel.
The Levels of Geekdom
December 10, 2003
Well, it is nice to be bumped back toward center every once in a while by people who are way geekier than I. Take Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer for instance. Ol' Mikey figured out (after years of research) that the largest known prime number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than 2 million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number. Well, Duh. In a shocking development, Shafer and friends admitted the number had "no particular practical use".
Read the whole story here.
Welcome One and All
December 9, 2003
Well, looks like the cat is out of the bag on this little site. Thanks to Uncle Donnie for posting the first comment at northoftheborder. He also brought up a pretty good point: Wedding Questions. Very, very soon Nora and I will have some updates about the wedding plans, more specifically a firm date. We have one selected, but are just checking on a few things before we set it in stone. Look for an announcement about that and other relevant stuff next week sometime. We know many of you would like to come, and it is important to know soon as you set vacation time for the new year.
Bear with me as I develop the rest of this site. I still have to format comment pages and archive pages. So they function, but just do not look too beautiful right now. By the way, feel free to comment on any article, just click the comments link below.
A Tough Day for Sports Fans
December 7, 2003
If you know me very well, you know that I bleed two colors: Jayhawk Blue (basketball) and Georgia Red (football). And at this time of year those two passions overlap for around a month as the football season winds down and the basketball season limps into stride. All these facts combined made Saturday a taxing day, as #1 ranked Kansas fell to Stanford in California and the 5th ranked Dawgs lost to #3 LSU in the SEC championship in Atlanta.
It is now Sunday morning, and I have some distance from the night before. I no longer have the urge to throw random objects at my television (or streaming radio feed of the Kansas game). And now I have a fresh perspective on what happened yesterday, as two teams suffered very different losses. That difference sums up everything that is great about college basketball, and also everything that is horribly wrong with college football.
First we look at Kansas, who played rather poorly but still almost won against a good Stanford team. But that's OK. KU will almost surely lose again this year, perhaps several more times. But come March, open up the paper to that beloved 64 team bracket (ready for the office pool) and you will probably see KU, maybe even with a high seed, with a roadmap to the championsip laid out in front of them. Free to win their way right to the Final Four and also free to lose to Ball St., Gonzaga, or any other Cinderella (kid out of nowhere..). That's the beauty of the tournament.
The mood in Atlanta however was much different. The Dawgs fate had been sealed a month ago with a loss to Florida, and the only thing a win would give them was a BCS bowl birth, but not THE BCS bowl birth. Now UGA goes to the ever prestigious Capitol One Bowl, or maybe the Peach. So make sure you are prepared when you head for the office tomorrow, because I am sure the Bowl Prediction Pools will be flying around...or maybe not. The pool got even murkier as Oklahoma got throttled by Kansas State. Thanks KSU, now go away and leave the other teams to play for the national championship.
So now we have three teams with legitimate credentials (according to the BCS anyway) to play for the title. So let's split that Superdome field into a three-legged piece of turf, ready for a three team deathmatch, maybe Vince McMahon can help. Hey, it is just as preposterous as our current system.
So why not a playoff? Div I-AA does it. The NFL does it. Just think about it. Take these teams: Oklahoma, USC, LSU, Michigan, Texas, Ohio State, Georgia. Now put them in an 8 team playoff and let the chips land where they may. You don't have to do away with the Bowls. Let teams who didn't make the playoff compete there (kinda like the NIT) and then use the big-time bowls to play the playoff games. Naaa, I am probably crazy, who would wanna watch that...
As If I Didn't Have Enough to Do
December 6, 2003
Well, I thought I would never give in. Not for me. Didn't have time. Well, the newest craze to hit the web since the Flash intro has enveloped me despite my greatest efforts. The Blog (short for weblog) is everywhere, allowing any pundit with a keyboard and a server to blab on about just about anything on his or her mind, assuming they ran it through that filter in the first place. Even the president has a blog. So why not me?
The purpose was really two-fold. First, my family is always on my case because I cannot seem to latch on to the e-mail ring that flies around to different members far and wide (especially when everything I do revolves around the internet). This will give both them and close friends a way to keep up with this ever wandering son in his days north of the border. Secondly, this will act as a sounding board for myself and others I know in this business to throw ideas, problems and solutions around. So come by, sift through the geeky stuff (or the family stuff; depending on who you are) and feel free to respond if something tickles your fancy.