Sphere of News

July 2, 2003

No Four-Day Weekend For You

The biggest complaint I've heard about Canada Day was that we didn't get Monday off. But it worked out okay. I spent Monday goofing off in my cubicle.

I spent the morning downtown with my visiting aunt. Everything was scheduled. We watched the parade at 9:15 am, headed to the Hill for the flag raising at 10, then over to Majors Hill Park to scope out the meeting place where we'd meet everyone else, then back to the Hill to watch the pipe bands on the big screens, then to the Senator's booth in front of the Chalet to get Todd White's autograph, just in time to see the Governor-General go by in her carriage at 11:50, then lunch at Elephant & Castle, then back to Majors Hill to watch Extreme Bikers on a quarter pike, then the meet-up, then back to the Sens booth where the AAA Pee Wee teams were taking shots on net. Then I went home and vegged. I got a good view of the fireworks from a friend's downtown apartment, too.

July 6, 2003

Way Out in Left Field

This was the BMSPL Mid-Season Tournament, the All-Star hockey game of non-competitive slo-pitch in Barrhaven. This was big. How big? Special Olympics big. Which is an appropriate comparison, I think, since it was partly to raise funds for a "Special Needs" school. The league was divided into earth, wind and fire, which was a description of skill level, not necessarily a promotion of musical tastes. I thought my team Broadway Bar & Grill was in "earth", but found we were listed under "wind", inspiring in me another wave of unpleasant slogans.

There's only one thing to remember, and that is that we won. Oh sure, everyone says they "just want to have fun," but the truth is every individual wanted to come out on top, and get a free beer and a T-shirt, sit in the shade and stare at the losers. That's the ulterior motive of every rec league. One team was dominated by sticklers for the rules, though they happened to be the team most likely to break them (wearing jewlery, for example, and touching home plate). Another team complained loudly about the sticklers to the referees and amongst themselves. Another team minimized the participation of women by relegating them to least important positions in the field. Who forks over ninety dollars to play for fun? Losers, that's who.

July 7, 2003

The Way of the Green Grasshopper

I started taking taekwondo classes again. My ex-manager still teaches it. It's been two-and-a-half or maybe three years since I quit, coinciding with his move to a new department and subsequent firing in the second round of lay-offs. He looked happy. I asusme he got another good job somewhere, because he's good. I found out one of the former students and her husband have been unemployed for almost a year. He asked about his old department, which hasn't changed much for better or worse.

I'd been preparing at home for this class, so I would be less likely to embarrass myself in front of unknown numbers of people. My unrealistic worst case scenario involved a demotion to yellow belt, but the worst I got was aches and pains after. The instructor focusing on the basics this term, on proper form. Maybe he always did and I never noticed. If all goes really well, I'll get a chance for a promotion at the end of the course.

July 14, 2003

Traffic Engineering for Optimal Load Sharing on the Data Path

It's time. Unconsciously, I knew the networks I administer were groaning under the strain of all the ad hoc cabling, the temporary-then-permanent configurations, the need to "mimic the customer environment" for whatever situation the company was bidding that week. Now it's back to, no not square one, even though it would make things tidy, because it means significant down time. More like square two and three-quarters hopping on one foot and carrying a router, where the new configuration is phased in using the scraps of resources drawn from the destructive phases of the old configuration. I was given the day to prepare a proposal, diagrams and spreadsheets. At the end of the day it was analyzed, and the consensual plan of action was hashed out. Tomorrow is a meeting to debate revisions to the plan. Then it has to be implemented and tested before I go on holiday in two weeks.

July 15, 2003

A couple of new drawings were posted in the "Projects: My Name Is Simon" section. And the series of garden pictures has been updated, too.

July 28, 2003

I have no real update. I'm sitting at my computer with very little to do at the moment. Oh, there are things I could do, but they're either very small jobs, or large jobs that I couldn't make much progress on today anyway. I'll do them tomorrow. In the meantime, more garden pics are up.

I went out with some friends on Saturday night -- dinner and drinks at Darcy McGee's. I haven't seen them in almost a month. There were some weird conversations. Imagine spending over an hour on this discussion: what do people mean by "last Friday"? Seriously, is your "last Friday" the same as another's "last Friday"? When does saying "next Friday" become appropriate, and when is it better to just say "Friday" or "Friday next"? If it's 2 am, and you say "tomorrow", which day to you mean? Should you clarify? Is the onus to clarify on you or the people you're talking to? Conclusion: possibly.

And at home, the quest to learn passable Italian va bene. I'm in the middle of lezione quattro which focuses on pronouns and useful interjections (Daverro. Daverro? Daverro!) to carry a light conversation. Sadly, no improvement in intelligence, style or sex appeal yet. Maybe in one of the advanced chapters.