Early Retirement is a Myth for Most
My dad was about my age when the company he’d worked for most of my life until that point decided to screw him over, effectively forcing him out. I wasn’t there when he got home, I was at my after-school job …
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Chasing CP 2816 on the Final Spike Steam Tour
I admit, I have a couple of non-standard hobbies. The one that gets the highest eyebrow raise, is, of course, chasing trains. But I’m not a generalist, I tend not to chase any train, there has to be something …
Lawyers have Ruined Everything
I had a thought as I was walking home from work today. We’ve been having conversations about “corporate values”, a term I moderately loathe, as while employees are expected to be exemplary examples, the …
Bursitis
On a curiously warm and otherwise lovely 11 November afternoon, the kids and I stopped into the local Rexall to get a COVID booster. Choo Choo had (finally) caught the bug and I wasn’t too keen on any of us dealing …
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Software Patents are Pointless
You’ve heard me rant about software patents before. Today’s stupid thing comes from a news release that Nikon is buying RED, which has been making excellent digital film cameras for years, now. The news …
Why AI is a Long Way from Human
For over a year, now, I’ve been watching the hype-panic that AI was “going to take over my job” die down to “this can barely produce a believable image” only to reemerge as …
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
In a rare moment, I was talking with Duane face-to-face. We chat all the time over Signal, but actual person-to-person conversation is just so much better, when you can arrange it. Anyway, we were doing what we normally …
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A Sleigh Ride in Banff
Just prior to Christmas, Jean (Alex’s stepmom and Granny to the kids) declared that she wanted to do an old-fashioned sleigh ride with the girls in Banff sometime in the new year, and could she make those …
2023, a Year in Review
I think we’re all still recovering from COVID, or more specifically, the time warp that the lockdown imposed upon us. It’s been (almost) two years of (mostly) freedom, but I suspect our start to the 2020s …
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New Year's Tea
I’ll just come out and say it: I didn’t want to do New Year’s Tea this year. Yes, it’s our tradition, yes we try to do it even under strange circumstances (heck, we made our own during COVID). I …