Where you will find my (documented) thoughts, worries, concerns, and issues
2005th
Entries
Minority governments are always a touchy thing. This is something the Americans have trouble with — in a two-party system, you don’t get minority governments, just slim margins. In multiple party systems (three or more), …
Y’know, I used to believe that all the really shady governmental meddling always happened south of the border. Little did I know that our own government has been setting the stage to run things that we’d been taking for …
I’m an avid reader of Yahoo!’s Oddly Enough news section. Usually because it’s full of irreverent blurbs. Every so often, there’s something that creeps in there that actually ticks me off. Ever heard of the Bavarian …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Things seen along the way.] As we’ve moved along over this journey, I’ve taken pictures of things for posting to the blog. Some of them didn’t make it, for one reason or …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.] Um… someone stop the world, please? I wanna get off. Wow. The world is a lot bigger than one would expect. Sure, Disney says …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The Last.] Yesterday was a day of lasts. The last train (finally, even if it was just an airport tram; I was thwarted from taking the airport express train by a …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The view in Osaka.] Nothing like a little wandering around to make things interesting. I’ve been to Osaka once before — a few hours last year, when Jen and I came here. …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Nara is neat.] The last time I was in Japan (a little over a year ago), I’d wanted to go to Nara. I’d quite a bit about it, but just hadn’t gotten the chance to go. So …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Wandering around Tokyo.] Tokyo is a wonderful city. Even in the rain. Despite a delayed start (we were up late — it doesn’t help that Chris and I yak a lot), we soon …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Our first plane ride in a month.] We left the hotel early this morning — before 7:00 am — to catch a train to the airport. Strangely fitting that our last train would be …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Ohio, Nippon!.] Last country. Almost home. Being in Japan, actually, is almost like being home. This country is so familiar to me (well, certainly Yotsukaido, Chiba, and …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: A side-trip to Macau.] One last thing we needed to do before we leave the Hong Kong area was check out Hong Kong’s forgotten half-sister, Macau. Macau was founded a …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Amy's ready to kill me, I swear....] I complain a lot. Unintentionally, I swear, but I do. (Amy says I like to complain, but I actually hate it. I don’t even realize I’m …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: he Dim Sum curse lifted.] The Dim Sum curse is lifted, finally! After a few days of trying to figure out where to go, we hit Hong Kong Island to see what we could find. …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Going uphill to Victoria Peak.] After meeting up with Amy, following our mutual attire sizings (and having a snack in a very Irish bar, oddly sitting amidst a lot of …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Ode to Hong Kong Trolleys.] Trolley headlight burning bright, cart me through this stormy night, Away to the curious city sights And let me view the highest heights! …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Buying a suit.] So one of my missions here in Hong Kong (self-imposed, I should add) is to find a suit. Not just any suit, but the one for my wedding. So needless to …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Paddles up!.] For the record, we didn’t it plan it this way. But like many things on our trip, fortuitious circumstance happened to place us in Hong Kong on the first …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The Dim Sum curse.] We’re cursed. It’s the only way to explain it.Since arriving in China, one of the few things we’ve been absolutely obsessed over finding is some …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: A little more on Hong Kong.] We haven’t been here long, but there’s already a few interesting things that are, well, interesting. Consider for the moment the fact that …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Messed up Hong Kong money.] So naturally, upon arrival, we needed to get some money out so we could, well, do anything. The bank machine (from the Bank of China) set the …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Help me, I'm melting!.] Hong Kong is hot. It’s humid. I think I left a trail of melted me behind as we walked around. Oof. We took our final long-distance train from …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors.] Amy and I have gone to some lengths to avoid doing the largely tourist thing: travelling in a tour group. Why? Because this is a …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Weird things in Xi'an.] Right now, Amy and I are taking advantage of ludicrously cheap internet at a cafe on a very rainy day, listening to some strange Chinese pop …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Last night's train.] Man, do I ever have more to say about last night… This was the second long distance train we’ve taken in China (I’m not counting the train …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The Shanghai MagLev Train.] A few years back, someone got the idea that China really needed to showcase its technical know-how, and put forth the idea of building one of …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The Shanghai Museum.] Lest I neglect a wonderful place in Shanghai. One of our first stops was the Shanghai Museum. This is a fairly new place, having only opened in the …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: We've been Shanghai'd.] So we found out today at lunch that our hotel is on what was farmland barely a decade ago. The Pudong area of Shanghai was nothing but …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: On the topic of Beijing.] I have to say, I was a little uncertain of what to expect in China. Mostly because we’d been told by several Brits and Aussies that we could …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: In the House of Mao.] Chalk up another notch on the Dead Communist Leader Tour. Today, Amy and I decided to keep things light, since our train leaves tonight for …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Shifty Taxis in Beijing.] So Amy and I decided to take a taxi back from the Summer Palace to our hotel. Partly because the walk around the Palace grounds (which are …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The Summer Palace in Beijing, and a duck.] About the only thing Amy and I had on tap today was the Summer Palace. For this, we took three subways and a (decent) taxi to …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: In praise of my Critical Mass bag.] Some companies, those that want to be “fun” companies, sometimes give their staff things like shirts, bags, water jugs, …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Enter the Forbidden City.] My calf muscles are killing me. I don’t know how many stairs Noah, Justin, and I climbed yesterday, but I swear my calves have never received …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Hiking the Great Wall of China.] Amy’s feet self-destructed yesterday. And as you’ve already read, the state of her feet prevented her from coming to the Wall today. So …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Searching for the Tianjin Antique Market.] Lonely Planet recommends going to Tianjin, especially to see the antique market there. It is said that a lot of the materials …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Hello, underwear!.] Today was errand day. Today, we decided to get our train tickets sorted out, and make plans for an excursion to the Great Wall. Inadvertantly, some …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Ni hao, Beijing!.] I woke up at the Datong station. I’d slept about seven hours, but decided that I wasn’t going to miss crossing this part of China. I was in a new …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Crossing the Mongolia - China border by train.] Attention Lonely Planet! You might want to update your information for the next run of your Trans Siberian Railway book, …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Adventures in Mongolia.] We’re back in Ulaan Baatar after a few days out in the Mongolian wilderness. It’s a brief return — we hit the #24 train to Beijing at 8:00 …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: A little scoot around Ulaan Baatar.] We arrived early this morning. We were up by 5:00, but only arrived an hour later or so. After a sort-of-nap (couldn’t sleep), we …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: More Russian train stuff.] Okay, quick update…So Continuously Welded Rail (CWR) doesn’t exist coast-to-coast. After we left Ekaterinburg, we went to jointed rail. …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Crossing the Russia - Mongolia border by train.] We knew this was going to be rough. We knew this was going to be long. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be, but …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Da svidanya Rossiya.] Well, we’ve reached the end of our time here in Russia. Tomorrow morning, early, we’re off to Mongolia. And a 10+ hour border-crossing, so we’re …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The last Russian stop.] We’re in Ulan Ude now, having arrived a bit later last night than scheduled. (Mind you, it took a half hour to walk from the train to the hotel.) …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Listvyanka and Lake Baikal.] The cold seems to be slowly moving away. It hit me a little harder than it did Amy, so while she dealt mostly with the sniffles, I’ve been …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Alive in Irkutsk.] You know that feeling you get, when you’re finding yourself walking down a street in a dream, and you’re not sure if you know where you are, but you …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Cough.] I’m sick. I caught Amy’s cold. I hate being sick. The only thing worse than being sick is being sick on a train. It ruins the experience. Blech. Sniff
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Amy, communications superstar!.] So, sitting in the only internet connection in all of Krasnoyarsk (or seemingly so), Amy dove into one of the sites she used extensively …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: A little story about Ekaterinburg.] Ekaterinburg (Soviet name, a much harsher “Sverdlovsk”) is a wonderful little place to spend an afternoon. Assuming you …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: A (hopefully) brief stop in Krasnoyarsk.] Krasnoyarsk. I think it’s Russian for “ass end of the country”. There ain’t much here. This is the most utilitarian …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The internyet.] Okay, just a general bitch about Russia. Where the hell are all the internet cafes?? Our guides are out of date — we accept that. But do we have to …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The language barrier.] Okay, we finally hit the wall. It took us a while. Kazan is far enough away from Moscow that you’ll be hard-pressed to find much English. The most …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Russian trains.] A few of you are probably wondering about the Russian train system. (Okay, I imagine not really wondering about the system, but about why I haven’t …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Half-way, sorta.] We’re now halfway home. Sort of. Ekaterinburg is roughly halfway around the world from Calgary. (It’s also in Asia — we crossed the Europe/Asia divide …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Kazan kicked butt.] Okay, a HUGE thumbs up to Kazan. Wow. Such an amazing little city. I’m sure Kazan itself is quite large, but the “main” area is …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Finding the Academy of Geology Hotel.] When the Lonely Planet books fall a little short…So here’s the description of the Academy of Geology Hotel here in …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: One step closer to home; hanging out in Kazan.] We arrived in Kazan early this morning. I awoke with the sunrise, watching it through the train’s window. It’s already …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The last Moscow post.] We’ve wandered a lot through Moscow, and I never did get around to talking about it due to all the bitching I was doing. So… We took Train …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Kazan, take me away!.] I wholeheartedly agree with Amy. Moscow is dismal. Even when it’s sunny, it’s dismal. There is just no joy or life in this city. I don’t know if …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Any idea how hard it is to find the internet in Moscow?.] Hard. Really hard. Amy and I got here yesterday morning, but you’d be surprised how hard it is to find an …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Football and music.] Turns out that our excursion to Tinkoff to discuss politics turned into a football lesson. (That’s “football” as in how the rest of the …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: St. Petersburg in the rain.] It was a rainy day when my brother Raoul… no, wait, sorry — that’s a Pizzaville ad. But it was a rainy day here (the rain only …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Hermitage, Railway Museums, and Palaces, oh my!.] Oy. The last 36-ish hours have been a whirlwind of activity. Hit the Hermitage, as you already know, and then hit it up …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Pickpockets suck!.] I’ve had two separate and unique run-ins with pickpockets. The first was at the Edgefest concert in Vancouver back in “99. I think we were …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: 16 years ago....] I had a phone chat with Alex this morning (it hasn’t been a week, and I miss her sorely; the next six weeks almost seem unfathomable), and she let me …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Visiting the Hermitage.] The Hermitage is if not the largest art museum in the world, definitely in the top five. The place is MASSIVE. It makes the British Museum seem …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Things have changed.] Taking the bus out to the Metro yesterday was a bit of an eyeopener. Things have really changed here in St. Petersburg in the last 16 years. New …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Back in the USSR ... sorta.] Flew in Miami Beach BOAC, Didn’t get to sleep last night. All the way a paper bag was on my knee, Man, I had a dreadful flight. I’m back in …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: On the way to Russia.] Why is it that British buildings are so freaking hot? My bag finally appeared at the hotel last night. Clean underwear is a good thing, indeed. …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: I love pubs.] Last night, Amy and I decided to check out some of the local pubs near our hotel. Here’s what we noticed. Local pubs have a great atmosphere. Some don’t, …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: Baggage update.] The backpack is actually here. However, it’s still at Heathrow (or at least was an hour ago) going through customs. I’m very happy I didn’t pack any …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: A little more of London.] The first run of business today was food at Paddington Station. As it’s Sunday, not everything was open, and what few things were open weren’t …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: The Tale of the Missing Backpack.] As I wrote yesterday, my bag is missing. British Airlines didn’t deliver it along with myself to London, England, which has left me a …
[This entry originally posted on How To Get Lost: London, and bag gone AWOL.] The flight out to London was great. Wow. I love British Airways — amazing service for an airline. So far above anything Air Canada could ever …
Five years ago, I walked in the doors of Critical Mass, having basically no idea what I was about to get myself into. At the time, I wasn’t planning on being at Critical Mass that long. Chris and I had planned on going …
I’m not a Roman Catholic. However, I will mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II. From a religious perspective, John Paul II had no direct influence on my life. John Paul II did not draw the line at religious direction. …
For the last two nights, Critical Mass has run what are effectively recruiting job fairs over at the Roundup Centre. They’re weird things. We’d done them before when we were recruiting for a planned move to Toronto …
I cannot praise Jeremy Zawodny enough for having posted a very concise POV on respect for web developers. It’s not like we’re a collection of haphazard Rodney Dangerfields — we’re just largely ignored. Web development …
As if it’s not enough that Google Desktop regularly saves my heiny by finding long-lost files (I mean, really, why is it that Microsoft created two My Documents directories in XP, and then seems to randomly choose …
I’ve been blogging for a number of years now, going at it hand-to-hand combat style until about a month ago, when I took the bold leap to using WordPress. The decision to switch was made for two reasons. First, I was …
Many years ago, I was turned onto XHTML. Admittedly, without a full understanding of why. At the time, I was hardly in a place to object or complain, and did as I was told. In the years since then, I’ve come to …
Speaking of bugging, I ran into Molly again as I left Dave Bowman‘s presentation for lunch. (I swear Molly, I wasn’t waiting in ambush for you!) I had meant to ask her this question before Dave’s presentation, but we …
Physicists in New York working on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have created what they believe is a minature black hole. For the record, this wee beastie lasted 10 million, billion, billionths of a second. …
When someone decides to stay away from a defined direction, ignoring both precendence and the collective good, they are considered to have gone rogue. Microsoft, bastion of monopolistic behaviour in the software world, …
Today, early in the morning, JetsGo pulled the plug. I’m not surprised, really. They were an okay airline, not unlike WestJet, but they didn’t have the following WestJet has. (There’s Deadheads, and then there’s …
The dinosaurs died off because they couldn’t adapt. They couldn’t evolve fast enough to cope with a rapidly changing environment. As a result, “dinosaur” is often an apt description for any entity unable or …
So I noticed white hairs for the first time. I’m 32 (and a little over a half), and I’m just getting them, it seems. I can live with that. I mean, I’ve been losing it on top for about a decade, so having some go white …
I read a lot of blogs. It’s about the best way I have of keeping up with the trends in the industry. But there’s one trend out there that’s really beginning to bother me. A lot. Ajax. It’s an acronym/abbreviation for …
My friend Scott now works for the #2 search engine. He definitely earned the privilege to be called for the job. Recently, he had the luxury of having Eric Meyer and Molly Holzschlag visit to give a little talk on CSS2. …
Yesterday was tough. We did a lot of talking. We didn’t leave the building until we were done. The three of us, Lark, and Jim went for dinner at some steak house. Despite having been out with the client before, I felt …
My first Valentines day with Alex, and I have to be 3,500 kilometres from her. It could be worse. I could be in Kanata. First thing: Room change. Last night’s room was one Mark and I had booked. Tonight’s is on the …
Leaving Alex this morning wasn’t easy. Given the events of the last couple of days, I would have preferred to stay in bed with her. But business calls, and I’m off to New York (though Newark) for business meetings with …
Today we went down to register at The Bay (“The Hudson’s Bay Company” to non-Canucks) for our wedding. It’s a part of the law, I’m sure. Written somewhere in Canada’s constitution of 1982 states that all …
200 days. It almost doesn’t seem real. Yet in about 28 and a half weeks, Alex and I will become wife and husband. A year ago, I was stupidly busy. (Not that I’m not now, but still…) I was doing a lot of things …
Despite having the room to myself, I was really groggy when I got up this morning. I know it wasn’t a result of last night, though, as I didn’t feel any worse for wear. I showered, packed, and checked out (using the …
Allard and I hit the restaurant in the main atrium for breakfast, joined shortly thereafter by Christian and a very tired-looking Jules. Powdered eggs aren’t exactly the breakfast of champions. Jules has been up late …
I hate waking up before 6:00. There’s just something fundamentally wrong with it. Today, though, it was necessary. Today, I fly to Chicago. Was ready for my 6:30 pickup. Allard was collecting me for the trip to the …
Our world is changing. It changes every day. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. Overall, the trend is “better”. Or so one would believe over the last few years. Let’s flip back to the …
Minus 34. Celsius. (Not that it would matter much more if it were Fahrenheit.) That’s 14 degrees below my thermal underwear threshold (that would be when I put them on). That’s what it was on my way to work this morning. …
I’ve been getting this question from my colleagues lately, and I think it’s a valid one to ask. The fact that it’s being asked shows that people are thinking about best practices and how to best meet the needs. However, …
2004 wasn’t exactly what I’d call a tumultuous year, but it was certainly marked with some pretty big events for me, not the least of which was meeting Alex. If there was a number one in the list, she would be it. 2005 …
It’s an interesting start to the year, to say the least. Alex and I spent the holidays partly apart. As such, we ended up having Christmas Eve on New Year’s Eve. To make it interesting (as if being together wasn’t …