Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

I am the world’s worst homeowner. I never seem to get around to doing the routine maintenance that owning a home entails. Some of this I can get away with because I will pay someone else to do it, and some of it is covered by my awesome wife–for instance, all my neighbours think I [...]

Tonight’s planned hotel blogging will not be happening due to a much longer than intended commute time today.
Americans, rest assured that your Border Protection officers are doing an excellent job of preventing Canadians from sneaking into your county without a thorough examination. Also, they are very friendly, very interested in the intricacies of software architecture, [...]

I’m working on a post with a bunch of information about the various things I got up to this week while I was away from the Internets. In the interim, here’s one photo that captures the way most of the week went:

So, yeah, it was a pretty good week.

It’s been a crazy week at work, which is eating a lot into my personal time, but I don’t really write about the job here.
That being said, apparently going to the weekly poker game with a lot of repressed anger fills in nicely for the “killer instinct” my poker play is usually lacking–since I dodecupled [...]

Seven days into June, and I have my first sunburn of the year.
Since there is a problem with the A/C in my car at the moment, I spent part of the day driving around with the windows down, and one arm hanging out. This arm has now developed the startling boiled lobster colour so familiar [...]

This weekend marked both the 7th anniversary of my wedding to a woman who is much too good for me1, and the 10th anniversary of the day we “officially” started going out.
Time flies. It seems like the five year mark was just a minute ago.
According to traditional sources, the 7th wedding anniversary is marked with [...]

I have been insanely busy and travelling all week. This will continue tomorrow, hopefully reaching a peak so that things will mellow out a bit into the weekend.
The remainder of this post is for the gentleman who, when challenged by me today asked me with a straight face “You don’t need proof that 1+1=2, do [...]

I had one of those shocking epiphanies today. I realized, seriously, completely, viscerally, that I am going to die someday.
There was no hair-raising event, no near death experience, nothing dramatic. Just a realization that hit me during a very long drive, when I had some time to think about what it meant. Harlan Ellison is [...]

I am totally having a Grateful Dead day today, and I feel motivated to share with you all.

Annotated Lyrics: Scarlet Begonias, Ripple, Uncle John’s Band, and Tennessee Jed. The other track, Me & My Uncle, is a cover.

You’re feeling: Extremely tired and that special kind of drained that comes after particularly good times.
To your left: Immediately, the hardcover fiction, Abbey-to-Carroll, shelving. Left and back, a rack with 2TB of RAID storage, a laser printer, a colour inkjet, a wireless N router (with custom firmware), a cable modem, and around another 1.2TB of [...]

Sunday: 3 hours of packing. 1 hour of back-and-forth. 11 hours of driving (5 hours of music, 6 hours of radio plays.) 3 hours of reading.
Monday: 9 hours actually in the office. 7.5 hours of meetings.1 I predict another two or three hours of reading Santayana now.
Predictions for tomorrow: 8.5 hours of meetings already scheduled.
I [...]

No poker last night. No work today.
Sudafed, Robitussin, Benylin, Drixoral, etc: No relief from symptoms.
Otrivin right up the nose: actually works. I can breathe. This may mean I can sleep. This may mean I can get rid of this minor annoyance.

(This is a bit journal-ish. Skip ahead if that kind of stuff doesn’t interest you.)
You know, the last time I can back from Australia, I was hungover and carrying the Aussie death flu bug, and I was wiped out for several weeks.
This time I seem to have been wiped out first, and then picked up [...]

On the one hand, I am really looking forward to being home.
On the other hand I am really not looking forward to the process of getting home.
My flight leaves Melbourne in two hours, then it’s 7 hours to Singapore, a 2 hour wait, then 14 and a half hours to London, then a 6 hour [...]

Today I picked up a poppy at the grocery store, and probably severely over-donated as part of that interaction.
I can’t help myself–one of the things that completely crack through my stern and manly1 exterior is the “uniformed old men with dignity” thing. I see that guy, who’s probably a hundred years old, clearly making a [...]