Moving Forwards Together

Right now, I'm sitting in my pyjamas and wearing my 'engagement ring'. If you want to be correct it's a 'wedding band', but I like it, I'm wearing it now, and I really like that I'm wearing it now. I'm in a loving relationship and I want to be able to show that off. :)

For those who are interested, Emily's latest blog entry has more details about the rings and the actual proposal. :) I'm eating the leftover fruits and chocolates for breakfast. I need to get her over to my apartment again to eat some more. :)

I did want to add something to Emily's blog. It's a cute little story from the night, and I think it describes how we are going to move forwards together...

On the night of the proposal we went to a very nice restaurant, had dinner and ordered a glass of white wine. Everything was ordered to share, including the single glass of wine. I think this confused our waiters, but that's just the way that we like to do things. :)

But you know what? After trying the wine, neither of us really wanted to drink the stuff. We would both shudder after taking a sip, and would quickly drink or eat something else to cover up. Emily summed it up as "we are only drinking wine because that's what big people do".

We would have preferred a hot chocolate with caramel drizzle, or an ice-cream float, or a fruity lemonade. And in future, that's what we'll be ordering. Even if we have to order from the kid's menu. :D It's the same as how our favourite store is Toys'R'Us, not The Bay or Sears. We know what we like, and it's often not the same as what "big people" like. :)

As of today, I am looking forward to a life of hot chocolates, fruity lemonades, DDR gaming, and playing Mario Kart DS between rounds at all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants. I am looking forward to having kids and sharing with them the kinds of things we enjoy. I can't imagine a better life than that. But most of all, I am looking forward to sharing it all with Emily.

=:)

P.S. In Australia, the closest approximation to The Bay would be David Jones, and to Sears would by Myers. And an ice-cream float is known as a "spider", as if we don't have enough already. What's the bet that there was a spider nearby when an Aussie first dropped ice-cream into soft drink?

On Deism

I was raised as a Christian (Anglican), but I now call myself a deist. I know of some people who are concerned by this, so I figured I would try to describe what it means to be a deist. First, what is deism?

'Deism' is a belief in God based on reason (natural revelation), and specifically not on recorded scripture or events (special revelation).
A 'deist' believes in God, and believes that reason on its own can provide sufficient access to religious truths.

Deism differs from other religions primarily by its rejection of scripture. For example, a 'deist church' would be a contradiction because it would have no scripture to espouse! With no organisation and no directives, deists will generally not evangelise their beliefs. Indeed, a newly-found deist may have never known other deists; they simply apply their own reasoning and reached the same core conclusions as those before them.

Despite the ad-hoc nature of deism, almost all deists would agree with the following statements:

• God instigated reality
• God does not interfere with reality
• We should give thanks to God
• We should not not ask anything of God

Of course, the ad-hoc nature of deism ensures that each deist will have beliefs different from their peers. For example, one belief of mine not supported by all other deists is:

I should assist others in the enjoyment of their lives, just as I try to enjoy my own.

The reasoning here is simple: Life has obviously been provided to all of us, and is rooted in the same cause (ie. God). If I am to treasure my own life and give thanks to God, then I should presumably also treasure the lives of others. Therefore I should do what I can to improve the lives of all, not just my own.

Like the majority (but not all!) deists, I also believe that questions about the afterlife are not important. I feel that many religions rely on the "afterlife" as a place of reward or punishment, and use this as a guide to moral behaviour. I choose to ignore the question of the afterlife, and trust that moral behaviour can be derived from reasoning about this life. In that way, my beliefs are more aligned with those of the deist writer Thomas Paine:

I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body; and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter than that I should have had existence, as I now have, before that existence began.

Perhaps what I find most amusing about deism and Christianity is how similar the morality and behaviour they suggest. Both suggest we be thankful to God, and treat our fellows with care. However, deist beliefs seem to be less likely to raise conflict with others... I am aware that some people are concerned by my non-Christian beliefs, but as a deist I am not concerned by their Christian beliefs. It is not clear to me how to allay their concerns, but I hope that this post has helped.

Settling Down Again

It's been a few weeks since the last visitor left. I think. I haven't had time to look at the calendar in a while, and the weeks just blur past. :| The main thing is that life is settling down into some kind of routine.

Pressure at work has been increasing, but still within sane limits. Others at the office are feeling greater pressure than me, and that sucks. If you're reading this from the office, just know that I'm trying to be less of a pain-in-the-arse. ;)

If you read Emily's blog, you'll already know that she and I have been getting out a lot more. We've been to Video Games Live, a UBC student symphony, and to see Missy Higgins live. We've also got a Disneyworld trip planned for the end of the year.

Now that winter's hit, we're having to spend more time indoors. We just picked up a copy of Settlers of Catan, a rather cool board game similar in principle to Monopoly. You build 'settlements' and slowly gain 'resources' from them. Those resources can be used to build more settlements, or do a variety of other things. It's very fun, though Emily and I are forced to create our own 2-player variant for now.

Emily and I have been attending hot yoga, and there's been some effects already. The good side is that my headache is gone and I feel I have more 'core' strength. I've now got lots of aches in other joints, and pain in my left hip if I stretch it more than 20 degrees outwards. I think a lot of the 'negative' effects are just the revelation of underlying problems, so I'll keep up with the yoga for now.

I'll try to post more often in the future. I have a few things to write about yet. :)

Visitors

This month is the month of visitors. Emily's immediate family is coming to visit for 4 weeks. I'm looking forward to taking Tim kite flying if the weather holds up. Emily's marble run is also likely to get a work out (I will link to her marble run once she blogs about it :P ).

I've also got an important visitor coming from Australia. A friend of mine from a few years ago finished a big step in her training (she's a real medical doctor, not one of these fake computer science doctor's...). She's coming to visit for a week in the middle of October and I'm insisting on hosting her in my apartment. No hotels for visitors! Not now that my place is big enough. :)

Anyway, this means I have to get rid of my cold quick smart. Yes, I forgot to mention that I've been sick for about 3 weeks. It wasn't really noticeable to start with - just a headache that lasted for weeks on end. Only in the last few days did it flare up into a proper head cold. At least that means it's near the end. Or I am. One or the other. ;)

Chinese Yo-yos

Emily spent a few hours today trying to teach me how to use a Chinese Yo-yo. She has a lot of experience, but I think we can agree that I'm not the best student. :)

Still, she persevered and managed to teach me the correct way to make it spin, and got me to the point of 'throwing' the yo-yo into the air for her to catch. We succeeded a couple of times, though mainly due to her skill at catching than my skill at throwing...

I'm hoping that she'll continue to teach me. At the very least, this should be good exercise for my arms and backs. At the worst, it is something else to do when the wind dies and the kites won't fly.

One day, we might be able to throw a pair of yo-yos to each other, without the danger of ripping skin from toes... :D

P n' E at the PNE

Emily and I went to "The Fair at the PNE" on this long weekend. It's basically a smaller version of the Sydney Easter Show. Much to Emily's dismay we didn't actually go on any rides - far too expensive to justify it. We might try and go this coming weekend, when the prices drop. However, we did have a lot of other fun...

For $8 each we got these temporary airbrush tattoos. 3 days later and they're still looking good. I'm tempted to look into body spraypaints (if they exist) to have some more fun ourselves later. Of course, with winter coming, it's not like we'll have any exposed skin for 6 months anyway. :)

We also got to watch the "Toontastic" parade. It was surprisingly cool just to see all the old non-Disney comics cruising past. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough pressure to get rid of all the wrinkles in the inflatables, making them look very aged. We had to wonder: was this intentional?

Near the end of the day, we went to see the Iams Superdogs show. The Iams Superdogs are a collection of highly-trained dogs, sponsored by the Iams petfood company, that go around doing shows. I was pleasantly surprised to see the dogs really enjoying themselves. See the videos below of "Hairy Potter" getting a homerun, and another extremely well-trained dog that I forget the name of.

To end our day we went to see the Wheels of Steel motorbike stuntshow. It started at 9.30pm, and was 10 minutes of quad-bike races, 10 minutes of street-bike tricks, and then 10-minutes of dirt-bike jumps. Aside from the jumps and tricks, the best part was the pyrotechnics - it was cold out there, and every burst of flame gave us just a little bit of extra warmth! See the videos below of two of the dirt-bike tricks; Starfish Barhop and Double Grab In The Air.

Recent Keyword Activity

I continue to be fascinated by how people find this blog. It's a personal blog for personal stuff, but for the last year I've allowed search engines to index it and direct random people here. Here's a sample of search queries that apparently bring people here:

• illustation of pupil size
• mismatched pupil size
• sesame street ao
• thrown off a seadoo
• canadian tire rifles prices

Some make sense. For example, this blog is ranked 9th for "thrown off a seadoo". And I'm fully expecting my eyeballs to end up in a medical textbook. But rifle prices at Canadian Tire? Weird people.

Camping in Jasper

This summer has seen a number of road and camping trips. Emily and I have camped in the south of the Okanagon, and taken a day trip up to Harrison Lake. There was a trip to Seattle earlier this year, and we've just come back from Edmonton. This most recent trip was particularly special as Emily got to visit her family for the first time in 4 months, and I finally got to visit Jasper...

A few of the funnier highlights from our trip...

• Emily getting a complete pat-down search from Vancouver airport security.
• Stella preparing an enormous list of activities (of which we only did three).
• Timothy had a lot of fun climbing over rocks on our walk to the glacier. :)
• Campfire! Again! Though there was no campfire in the morning, much to the "kids" disappointment.
• Constructing an enormous screen house (as big as a van!) to have our dinner in.
• Eating only a fraction of the food that we brought, and yet still being stuffed.

However, these "highlights" remain secondary to the main point of our trip: to see Emily, her mum and brother spend time together. And, of course, to check out the fantastic scenery in Jasper. I've uploaded selected photos as usual, so have a look. :)

Tendonosis

So I went to see a foot doctor about the pain I've been getting in my left heel. He struggled to diagnose the problem because I simply did not fit into any textbook definitions. It seems I have multiple competing issues, and that makes it harder to determine what the true problem is. He even considered Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (nasty stuff) which is a very small possibility if you are hypermobile. Luckily I have no other symptoms, and am quite sure I am EDS-free.

In the end, he believes I have tendonosis; small tears in the tendon connecting to my left ankle. The probable causes are:

• Calf muscles are way too tight
• The tendon was abused by a pair of shoes I bought 6 months ago
• General misalignment of foot joints

He's going to schedule the creation of some orthotics for me to try and sort things out. I also need to look at getting shoes with higher heels as that will reduce the angle between my foot and my leg and so reduce the strain on my tendon. At a later stage I will have to look at stretching my calf muscles, but nothing can be done about that now. Stretching them in the short-term will just make matters worse.

Calming Down

The last month or two have seen increasing stress levels for me. I've been getting teeth pain again because I spend so much time grinding them (literally). However, that seems to be coming to an end now. I finally woke up this morning and felt refreshed and relaxed. We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm trying to making changes that will reduce my stress in the long run.

For example, I know most of the stress comes from work. A common problem is that many developers are working independently - they fail to get buy-in and reviews from the other developers, and so their hard work ends up unused and wasted. This is frustrating and sad, but it's also stressful for me as I'm meant to maintain and encourage the development of a reusable codebase. I'm thinking to offer "a free lunch to anyone who writes more than 300 lines of code, and that code is used happily by 2 other developers".

I'm hoping it will change the way people write their code. They'll still perform their tasks as required, but with just a little more effort they'll score themselves a free lunch as well. Some have already started down this path by asking others for reviews, but we need to get from "asking to reviews" to "producing reusable code".

Sea-Doops: The Relationship Ultimate Test

Emily and I went to Harrison Lake for our August public holiday (British Columbia Day). Most of the afternoon was spent lazing around the beach and checking out a local waterfall. We decided to end the day with a 1 hour Sea-Doo rental, riding together. The "driver" sits in front, while the "passenger" sits behind and holds onto a little strap attached to the seat for dear life.

The first 45 minutes went great. Emily was the first in control, and immediately pushed the Sea-Doo to top-speed, skipping across the lake as fast as possible. I got my turn after about 10 minutes and did much the same, though I kept braking suddenly making Emily crash into my back a number of times. Towards the end of our rental I was trying out other moves, like spinning in circles or weaving left-then-right. And that's where things came a little loose. Literally.

As she tells it:

To stay on the sea-doo, I had to lean left or right depending on which way we were turning. If I leaned the wrong way by accident, I would actually get extra swing from centripetal force and wouldn't be able to stay on properly. This got kinda tricky when P went crazy doing his little circles. He would spin one way and then, without warning, start turning in the other direction. In one of his longer circles, I was leaning in the right direction (possibly too much) and he turned in the other direction. The fact that I was leaning one way and then all of a sudden flung in the same direction I was leaning, I went *whoop* and felt myself flying. I saw the sky and thought "CRAP! HOLD BREATH NOW!" and plunge! I went straight into the icy cold water. I open my eyes and thought "light! swim that way!" Head popped out of the water, could breathe and not sink thanks to my little PFD (Personal Floating Device). I always thought they were tacky.. but boy I was glad I had mines on tight!

In the signed agreements it says "don't turn your seadoo on until all the riders are aboard." So P is sitting there waiting patiently for me to swim over to him. I attempt to swim... against the waves and make absolutely *no* progress. I give up and just float as he slowly putt putt putts the sea-doo closer to me. I try climbing on but can't without losing my flip flops so I take them off carefully and hand them to P. (I don't know why I was so scared of losing them..) Anyways, I finally clamber back on board and we slowly drive back to the dock.

So I went on this day trip thinking I wouldn't get too wet so I didn't have to worry about bringing another set of clothes... BAD idea when it's around water. After that splash, I was wet from head to toe. Everything down to the "unmentionables". Luckily, P had a (clean) set of unmentionables! Well, the bottom bit.... So I had no other choice but to suck it up and try it out.

As he tells it:

I was weaving left-then-right, and hitting the throttle at the same time. After a particular hard turn, I sensed something was wrong behind me, like the jetski was a little lighter. I glanced down to my right, and just see a thong, a leg, and a head disappearing into the water. Oops.

Emily came back to the surface thanks to her life-jacket. I killed the engine as we'd been instructed and waited for her to swim over. Unfortunately, Harrison Lake is glacier-fed so it's quite cold. She'd also just been thrown off a Sea-Doo at high speed, and was swimming against the current, so didn't seem that eager to swim the entire distance back. I powered the engine back up and slowly putted over so that (a shivering) Emily could clamber back on board.

After a few checks for injuries and shock, we started making our way back to shore. We maintained a cruising speed on our home journey; nothing excessive, and definitely no turns. The wind managed to dry Emily off a bit, which was fortunate. About halfway back she realised she'd been wearing sunglasses and they were now "lost at sea". All things considered, we're lucky there wasn't more lost! She was certainly worried about her thongs. :)

That night, we had Red Robin for dinner. My shout. We've already established that Emily likes Freckled Lemonades from there. I think there's still a bit of making up to do. :)

Positive thing from all this: Emily can now work away her raccoon tan without those sunglasses!

Okanagon Camping

Emily and I went for a camping trip in the Okanagon, BC this weekend. We've uploaded a bunch of photos on Picasa already, so take a look. We also took some short videos of our tent decorations, the cute wildlife, and kite flying at Lightning Lake (not as dangerous as that sounds).

It honestly surprised me how similar the Okanagon is to home. The Okanagon is very dry, with rolling hills of brown-ish grass, spotted with wineries, horse studs, etc. The only difference is that the landscape is around 5 times taller, they have some beautiful big inland lakes, and some of the mountains are so high they have sub-alpine meadows on their side. Have a look through our photos to see them.

And a HUGE thanks to Tom from work who lent us his car. It's going to get a very good clean before he gets back from his overseas trip. :)

Back Again

I forgot to mention - at the start of this month I managed to injure my back again. I was just helping a friend move a second-hand fridge - no problems until we reached a particular steep set of stairs. It initially felt like a monstrous, horrible cramp all over my left torso, then turned into sharp pain around my lower left back. That completely faded in about 3 days of rest, anti-inflammatories, ice, and light exercises.

I think this was just a good reminder to do my exercises... :\

Lost Futon, Gained Beanbag

To reduce the amount of stuff Emily and her family would need to buy, we moved my futon to her new apartment. I then filled the empty space in my apartment with severely contrasting Sumo beanbags.

I deliberately chose the colours to contrast, and to take attention away from the plain grey-glass work furniture I have. They're very comfortable, particularly as a crash mat. Each bag can fit one couple together, or can be carefully arranged to give one person a rather comfy seat (as shown). Either form is perfect for watching movies. :)

LiveCD For The Win

My laptop harddrive has been away for repairs, probably caused by chronic overheating in the laptop. This is now the 3rd time my laptop has successfully baked a drive. My laptop DVD drive also died many moons ago for unknown reasons. Just to make this clear, my computer currently has no internal harddrive, and no internal DVD drive. However, it does have an external DVD drive, and I do possess a Ubuntu Linux installation DVD.

Until the drive comes back (tomorrow?), I've been forced to run Ubuntu in 'live' or 'demo' mode, permanently mounted in the external DVD drive. This has resulted in my system being... less than stable. Every reboot requires a reinstall of various applications (Skype, Flash) and settings (chat clients, website passwords, etc). It's somewhat painful, but also somehow reassuring to know this can be done.

Litte Bird House

I like it when wildlife comes by to visit. My sister used to have possums visit her, and we regularly had lizards visiting us in Wollongong. Now that I'm in my new apartment, I've started feeding the local birds by filling a stone "bird bath" on my back patio with seeds. More recently, I bought a little house-shaped feeder for the front patio, and hung it on the end of the hammock. So far, they seem to like it, as you can see.

I'm going to slowly get them used to the idea of me lying on the hammock while they eat. It would be nice to just watch them fly in, eat a bit, make a mess of the seeds, eat their mess, and fly off again. That would be a good afternoon.

The Seattle Tattle

About 10 days ago I went for a trip down to Seattle with Emily, her cousin, and her cousin's boyfriend. Quick summary:

• I got fingerprinted, photographed, and charged $US6 for the privilege. Australian's are still presumed to be criminals in the US apparently.
• We got quite lost by following an under-programmed GPS system. It contained decent maps for Vancouver, but didn't contain any maps for Seattle. It successfully delivered us to an intersection in the middle of nowhere, notable only for a nearby Subway store. Perhaps it was hungry? :)
• We had a very nice lunch at a seafood restaurant called McCormick & Schmick's. Everyone seemed very happy with their food, and the prices were very good. Highly recommended.
• We came across a combined sci-fi and music museum and (subject to some mild protestations) did a little tour of it during our trip. Very cool.
• We visited Pike Place Market. More importantly, we visited the first ever Starbucks store, and a picked up a nice big mug as a souvenir. It will live at Emily's place so that I don't break any of her mugs by accident (her mugs are all special gifts she has received over the years...).
• We visited the duty-free outlet shopping on the highway between Vancouver and Seattle. Scored myself a lot of random stuff (unisex perfume/cologne, a couple of shirts, some metal mixing/steaming bowls, a $15 pair of shoes, etc). I think we shopped for almost 5 hours...
• We visited a Red Robin restaurant on the way home... and left behind 2 watches and a mobile phone. We didn't realise they were missing until we needed to use the phone back in Canada. Oops! Luckily, the Red Robin staff were very helpful and posted them back up for us. Ended up costing under $12 for the postage, plus $35 for deactivating/activating a replacement SIM card.

I think I'm looking forward to making another trip down into the US, though much more likely to go camping next time.

P.S. With a few exceptions, I don't post other people's names on here. So technically this post isn't a tattle, except perhaps it can be called 'aimless chatter'. :)

Hammock

When I moved in to my new apartment I inherited a hammock from the friends who previously lived here. With Vancouver's weather you can't leave it set up, but as we head towards summer I decided to assemble it and give it a go.

The only bits I needed to buy were some S-hooks from the local hardware store (first time I'd been in there, pleasantly surprised, nice german shepherd lying on the floor, etc). Setting the hammock up was pretty straightforward and is very very comfortable. It'll fit two people width-wise, and easily fits me length-wise. You can also sit sideways on it, treating it like a bench or swing. Just don't swing too much... :)

Kites And Things

What's been happening recently? A lot of little things...

• My laptop harddrive has died. As of yesterday, I could not successfully boot into Linux. As of today, I just get prompted with with grub> _, indicating that even the bootloader is now dead. Luckily it seems that my drive is still under warranty, and I have recovered virtually all files.
• The weather has been pretty miserable, so I haven't been getting out to fly kites. My Prism Snapshot 1.4 is still on order, though I might be tempted to move up to the 1.9 if it takes too long.
• Emily will be home on Wednesday. I need to clean my apartment before her family all arrive. :) That means a proper vacuum, mopping, laundry, dish washing, and organising the place. We might also be taking a trip to Seattle one day, just for fun.
• Last Tuesday I went to help a friend paint her place. I'd never done that before, and it was surprisingly easy. Looking around, I can see a few spots on my walls that could do with repainting. I'll just keep covering them with framed posters.

Mismatched Pupil Size

Coming up in the elevator last night, I noticed something odd about myself. In dim light, my pupils have mismatched sizes. I've no idea why this is, and there's no other symptoms (no headache, no blurred vision, etc). I'll continue to monitor it and see what happens.

Eggs Benedict

OK, my second attempt at poached eggs. This time I'm going for the win with full-blown eggs benedict...

Funnily enough, it actually turned out OK. For next time, I have to work out how to thicken the sauce as corn flour didn't have the desired result.

It's fun to cook knowing it will eventually be for someone else. :)

Mushroom Cloud

Somehow I don't think a poached egg is meant to look like this. Will get some more practice before Emily gets home. :)

Angels In The Dust

Get it. Watch it. Seriously. :|

Camping On The Patio

My tent from Australia was part of my recent shipment. Today I attempted to set it up on the patio. A few interesting notes...

Do not store your tent out on the balcony if you're living near the ocean. The zipper will rust to crap, and you will spend an hour with WD-40, screwdrivers, pins, and eventually a Stanley knife. In the end you'll probably rip the zipper in two, like I just did. You may also need to repair the bag, preferably with Duct tape.

The photo here doesn't do it justice, but this tent has a lot of space inside. Theoretically it has enough space to sleep 3 people. It has front and back doors, and lots of ventilation. It also has a padlock on the back door... and I'll be buggered if I know where the key for that went to... :(

Read the instructions. I had a puzzled look on my face for 10 minutes before realising how this front section was meant to be assembled. The end result is pretty good though. I'm very much looking forward to some camping this summer. :) Anyone else interested?

Sandal Burn

It was bright, sunny and windy today, so I went kite flying again. I put sun-screen on for most of my exposed body parts, but forgot about my legs and, in particular, the top of my feet left uncovered by my sandals. This is going to be painful for a few days...

On the positive side, I ran into a new couple who had just bought a Nexus kite. Very friendly, and we got along well. They were struggling a bit having never flown a stunt kite before. I gave them some instruction, and soon they were flying my Quantum kite with no problems.

Unfortunately, the Nexus kites are ultra-sensitive and tend to need more wind, making them very difficult to control and prone to dropping from the sky. I honestly don't know why they are recommended for beginners. They are much cheaper, but so incredibly frustrating. I'm planning to buy a Prism Snapshot 1.4 (a small dual-line power-kite) to play with myself, and for others to practice with.

300 Posts Later

This is blogpost number 300 and, coincidentally, my 28th birthday. It's also the first warm long weekend this year and, for those who are interested, 789 days since I left Australia for Canada. So how have things changed since blogpost number 200? Things have definitely improved...

• I've just been treated to brunch and a birthday cake by my friends at work, plus long distance phone calls from family, friends, and Emily
• I've moved to a great new apartment in the West End
• I've got most of my stuff shipped from Australia
• I've started making non-work friends (yay!)
• I've taken up kite flying again, and having great fun with it
• I've submitted my thesis, and am in the process of nominating reviewers
• I've stopped working so hard
• I've started going out more
• I've started exploring more of Stanley Park (did you know that Lovers Trail is one of the rockiest in the park?)
• Best of all, Emily is coming to Vancouver very, very, soon

Yeah, life is definitely moving forward. I'm the happiest I've been since I got here, and some of the guys have noticed.

Bizarrely, one thing hasn't changed since blogpost 200 - I'm sunburnt again. We had a nice change of weather, I went down to the beach, and suddenly I'm (lightly!) burnt all over. That's what winter does to you.

P.S. I'll post a photo of the birthday cake later. Right now, I'm completely buggered from walking, cycling, frisbee, badminton, and just generally doing stuff.

P.P.S. Technically, my birthday was yesterday according to Australian time. It's not like "a year" is an accurate measure of time anyway. :P

Finally Moved In

Well, I finally have all of my stuff. After 2 and a bit years in Canada, my boxes from Australia have arrived. Thanks to Tom at work, we collected the boxes from the warehouse this morning, and I got to have fun opening them this afternoon. Some were very heavy and quite a challenge to unpack. (How do you get a heavy crate out of a big cardboard box? Cut the bottom of the box and let it fall out!)

So far, I've found a lot of books. Lots and lots of books. And DVDs. And CDs. Who knew I had a licensed copy of UT2003? And cookbooks? I need to get a second bookshelf, and soon.

I've found a lot of random memorabilia. There's the corkboard I've had since highschool, the pencil case I've had since primary school, lots of coloured tealight cangles, my pizza stone, a jar of vegemite (use by 2007...), a little lantern, a set of Chinese hand exercise balls, a miniature laptop desk ornament, a set of photo frames, my cap from the Logic Summer School, the book I was reading when I left Australia (!), all my old tools, lots of kitchen stuff, a LotR boxed DVD set and framed poster, and my undergraduate degrees... I need to hang up a lot of this stuff.

And there's lots of stuff I'd been missing. My Pound Puppies that I've had since I was really little (complete with a bandaid from their immunisation shots...), my body pillow to help my posture, a quilt cover set I'd worried was given away, and a big soft blanket for the Canadian winters. Plus there's my tent and sleeping bag, just in time for summer. :)

There's also a heap of shirts and other clothing. It all smells a little musty (hey, it's been two years) and will need a wash. I'm looking forward to using the bathrobe and wearing some of my old shirts again. There's also lots of other little souvenirs that I've picked up over my life, including random notes and cards and stuff.

I haven't finished unpacking everything yet. Still, I now have everything of mine from Australia (except for the stuff at Mum and Dad's house...). I have officially "moved" to Canada.

Broken String

There was a strong wind this morning, so I rode down to Sunset Beach to fly my kite. Noone else was flying kites, and this should've been a warning sign.

The wind peaked at around 40 kph, plus some slightly stronger gusts. My kite was howling, and the lines would squeal at times from the tension and wind. Still, I was having a great time, and number of kids and parents had stopped to watch. Unfortunately, my kite is rated to precisely 40 kph; while in a tight turn in the middle of the wind window, the right string snapped just near my hand. The kite then spun like a top on the left string until it hit the ground. Bugger.

So... anyone know how to fix Spectra kite lines?

Timothy

Timothy is Emily's brother, and I've always found him to be great fun to hang out with. More importantly, it makes you feel so good inside any time he achieves something new. I've rarely blogged about him before; I just never knew what to say. I think I know what to say now, but first I want to share some of the stories from times spent with him:

I bought a Wii when they were first released. I took it to Edmonton on a few trips, but then realised that Timothy might be able to make use of it than I had been. Emily bought the WiiPlay pack, and she found the perfect game for him - cow racing. You hold the remote sideways and tilt it left or right to steer, knocking over random objects as you go. He loved playing it, even though he never finished the race on time. :)

Emily's mum bought a side-by-side sit-down tandem bicycle a few years ago. It's quite well engineered, with a park brake, dual handle bars, independent gears, etc, though not the most stylish vehicle on the road. ;) Emily and I took Timothy for a ride up and down the local streets - Tim and I rode, while Emily walked alongside keeping an eye out for traffic and dogs. To begin with I would do all the steering, but at the halfway point I just took my hands off the handlebars and left it up to Tim. Within a few minutes, he was able to both pedal the bicycle and simultaneously steer us away from parked cars in the street. Even better, if I pointed left or right at an intersection, he would make the turn by himself! I was very impressed, and could even take a break from pedalling myself... ;)

Emily picked up a second-hand copy of Elebits for the Wii. Now, as far as Wii games go, Elebits is pretty sophisticated - the left hand is used to move the player around the level, and the right hand is used to control the camera and shoot targets. Emily realised early on that Tim couldn't handle both aspects at the same time, so she would move the player around the level, and Timothy would be left in control of the camera and shooting. Funnily enough, Timothy loves things that spin, so when he found a ceiling fan within the game he would keep directing the camera so that he could watch it! No matter where you moved in the level, he would consistently pivot the camera to watch the fan. It was cute, but more importantly demonstrated his increasing ability to control his movements within the game. When I visited Edmonton last, Timothy was controlling both aspects - player movement, and camera control. He even started hunting down Elebits, the way you're supposed to! :) I can only hope things continue to improve.

Timothy loves music, and is always asking for the music to be turned on when at home or in the car. It seemed appropriate to get a second-generation iPod Shuffle for him - they are nearly indestructible, have very few buttons, have a strong built-in clip, and can be volume limited in software. We set him up with his new iPod, pre-loaded with some of his favourite music, and we took him for a trip to his cousin's house (where, coincidentally, he got to play Guitar Hero with Emily's help). Nothing remarkable happened on the trip, though he did seem to enjoy his time with his cousins. However, when we got home, he ran straight to his mum and was singing the words of the music on his iPod. I had never heard Tim sing before, and that was one of those "so good" moments I mentioned. I can only call the iPod a success. :)

Timothy is a special kid. He'll always need someone there to help. I'll never be able to just sit down and make small-talk with him. But you know what? That's okay. I know that I still want to hang out with him. Timothy is special in so many other ways.

And I never liked small-talk anyway. :)

P.S. For those who are interested, Timothy actually has a blog and Facebook account that document his life and friends.

Back In The Saddle

Summer is approaching, so I'm back riding my bike, and I'm back in the kitchen. I know that, at my age, being able to cook my own food is expected. Still, I'm always happy when my plum chicken actually tastles like chicken. :)

Seriously, I am getting better. The chicken isn't rubbery anymore.

The Missing Homeware Store

I have a favourite little homeware store called Benix. I highly recommend this store to anyone recently moving to Canada and who wants some decently-priced homewares. I would have recommended it earlier, but I could not remember the name or the location! For the record, it's at Metrotown, middle floor, next to Poster World, at the midpoint between Chapters and Superstore.

For example, I picked up this set of wood-handled barbeque tools for $10, and a rather nice set of oil and vinegar dispensers for $6 (mobile phone included for scale). In the past I've bought a tall, free-standing wooden photo stand (holds 5 8x10" photos) for $25, and many other smaller items. Some of their stuff isn't cheap, but if you stick to the sale/bargain items you cannot go wrong.

The Gobbledok

2day FM in Australia is running an ad-hoc competition to come up with a new flavour for Smith's crisps. Right now, the front-runner seems to be "spaghetti bolognaise", with perhaps a side of "Parmesan cheese" flavour.

They also mentioned the Gobbledok, and a quick flip through Youtube dug up these classic old ads:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vIaCXCkkrs
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY_wdytNqhI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twUbDDhB2sE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc0EUP6wtjo

Make sure you watch through to the last one. :)

Boxes Are In The Country

My boxes have arrived in Canada. I know because on Friday I stood at the office window and photographed the boat they were on.

Unfortunately, my boxes have now been moved from the docks in downtown Vancouver to a warehouse in (relatively) remote Surrey. I have also been given an invoice for the following:

• Advance Commercial Information: $25.00
• Dewey-Decimal Classification: $28.49
• Security surcharge: $15.00
• Handling charge: $115.00
• Dock fee: $35.00

I'm also relying on a friend from work to help me pick them up, else I'd be facing more charges.

P.S. The above photo is in the Golden Ratio proportions (ie. 1 pixel high for every (-1+sqrt(5))/2 pixel wide, or approximately 1:0.618). This is the ratio used in a lot of classical buildings, and is meant to be the most appealing of all ratios. I'm only commenting on it because I noone would notice/care otherwise. :)

Samarabalouf

I went out last night with a friend to see Samarabalouf. It took almost the entire show, but I think I'm starting to understand jazz.

Samarabalouf is a (gypsy) jazz trio from France. To the uneducated like me, I would describe three-quarters of their songs as "super-fast, DIililililililiiDI" guitar music. You can see a sample video on YouTube. It's the kind of music I've struggled to find any use for in the past - it's too fast to get any kind of "emotional" involvement, and so often comes across as random noise. I can appreciate the technical skill of the players, but is that really what the music is about? Luckily for me they also played 2 slow songs last night, and they really opened my eyes (ears?).

The first came around the 30 minute mark. It was introduced as "a song I composed... in my kitchen... while grating carrots". The music itself starts with the band lead doing some tricks on his guitar, producing a musical version of a carrot grating (surprise, surpise :). The music then transformed into something very sexy and sensual, an amazing sound, before blending back into the carrot grating. I could not believe my ears - this song was brilliant.

Funnily enough, it reminded me of a Bruce Dawe poem that I liked called Homo Suburbiensis; both attempt to to show that, even in the most ordinary of circumstances, we are alive and there is much to celebrate.

The second came around the 90 minute mark, and I wish it had been earlier. It was introduced as "a song for the little girls...", and they named one in particular. The trio dropped their playful attitude and it became an incredibly sad piece of music. Underlying it though was a small note of triumph... again something to be celebrated.

At this point I had a realisation - all of these songs, even the fast ones, were celebrating something about life. I could understand the slow songs because they gave me time to think. The fast jazzy songs celebrate intense feelings, emotions and experiences. Songs that get faster and faster are screaming "there are no limits to this - we can always get more intense". This was a mind-opener for me.

My normal way of celebrating something has been to sit still, be quiet, and practically 'meditate' on what's at hand. For example, I like to sit and cuddle quietly, listen to birdsong, watch the waves rolling in at the beach, or sit through a thunder storm. I focus my mind and get sheer simple pleasure from what I'm thinking about, in all its fine detail. Fast gypsy jazz music doesn't give you time to think and appreciate fine detail like that. It's a celebration of all kinds of pure, intense experiences in life. Approaching the music that way, by the end of the show, I found myself wanting to scream "yee-hah!" with Samarabalouf too.

Except it sounded way too Texan. :)

More Apartment Photos

I just placed a collection of panoramic photos of my apartment on Picasa. I'm keeping my apartment fairly empty at the moment, though as of yesterday it is serving as storage for Emily's moving stuff. :)

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I was sneezing a lot so took a (sleep-inducing) antihistamine. I'm hoping it's allergies that I have and not a cold...

Spring Arrives

We finally got a reasonably warm (14c), dry, sunny Saturday in Vancouver. It was a perfect morning to get out on the bike, ride around the Stanley Park seawall, and finish up with a hotdog at English Bay. :)

Even better, there was a persistent north-west wind in the afternoon; enough for me to grab my kite, ride over to Vanier park, and fly for a good 2 hours. I caught up with a few old friends from last year (including a family that I "introduced" to stunt kites), and made a new friend (helloooo out there!) and had a great long lunch and chat.

But best of all, Emily arrived around 6.30pm with a van-load of her belongings. On Monday she and her family will fly to China for a month-and-a-half family holiday, but when they return she will be living here in Vancouver.

I haven't had this good a day in a long time. =:)

P.S. Emily has been instructed to keep her apartment as clean as mine is. Uh, mine is merely "empty", rarely "clean". :)

Search Engine Needs Tweaking

I peeked at my visitor logs recently and found that someone came to my blog via Google. It seems that, for some reason, one of my blog pages is rated number 1 when you Google for "irradict weather".

Elmer Fudd, Elmer Fudd...

Tax Filing

What a pain. My taxes are fairly straightforward - I have one job, a couple of bank accounts, and some charitable donations. Still, I almost fell asleep while filling out the forms. Stella (Emily's mum) did my taxes for me last year, and I'm very grateful for that. I would have used a free program called Studio Tax this year and submitted my taxes online, but I apparently am a special case. I am a "deemed resident" and so cannot submit online.

As a deemed resident I also don't pay provincial income taxes (yes, Canada still has separate federal and provincial income taxes). I pay extra federal taxes instead, and unfortunately that means I pay $830 more than a regular Canadian resident. I have a tax bill this year instead of a refund. I also have lots of incentive to change my resident status this year...

West Edmonton MasterCards

I was having some issues with my old camera, and was having a consistent urge to get a new one. My parents also had some Aeroplan miles to use up, and they could only really be used in Canada. So, using their Aeroplan miles we ordered some "West Edmonton Mall" gift cards and then went shopping at the world's biggest mall, West Ed...

1. Sears department store. We found the camera (a Canon S5 IS) on display for $349, but they had none in stock.
2. Little camera store near Sears. They had them in stock, but for $399.
3. Another little camera store near Sears. No stock.
4. London Drugs. In stock for $399, and they would have price-matched Sears... but the nearest Sears doesn't have stock...
5. Zellers. No stock.
6. The Source By Circuit City. No stock.
7. The other Source By Circuit City. No stock.

Apparently this is a very popular camera! We knew that other Sears stores in Edmonton had the camera in stock, so we came up with a great plan: use our West Ed gift cards to buy Sears gift cards and then go shopping elsewhere. We were all set to do this but...

Oh, you have West Edmonton gift cards? I'm sorry, we can't accept it at Sears. Yes they are MasterCards, but if we try to use them our computer systems will crash for an hour.

What the hell? At this point I wanted to swipe our gift cards through a Sears cash register just for the fun of it. Instead, we toddled off to West Ed Customer Service to ask about our cards and whether we could exchange for cash...

I'm sorry, we can't exchange them. However, they really are MasterCards, not ordinary gift cards. You can buy things anywhere in Canada, not just at West Ed...

It would've been nice to know this beforehand. Still, this was the point where our luck finally turned. We went straight to a FutureShop who had it in stock. Better, they could price-match with a different Sears store. Even better, it was a camera that had been recently returned, unused, and so we got an additional 10% off!

Canon S5 IS from FutureShop: $324.14. Being able to use your West Ed MasterCards anywhere but West Ed: priceless.

Graduation Dinner

Last weekend I flew to Edmonton to attend Emily's computer science graduation dinner. Considering my thesis is about to be submitted I decided to treat it as my own graduation dinner too. :)

We took a bunch of photos of our preparation, including photos of me helping to do Emily's hair. I have to admit, doing Emily's hair was a lot of fun. She and I might be able to mess more with her hair once she gets to Vancouver. :).

There's a few more lower-resolution photos on Facebook, plus hundreds posted by others who attended (a Facebook account is required to see all the photos of me and Emily). The dinner was decent, but the trip to the bar/club and to Boston Pizza (a relatively high class pizza and pasta place) was the real highlight. We were congratulated so many times by strangers who thought we'd just gotten married! Little wonder why. :)

True to Yourself

One thing I've learned over the years is that you have to be true to yourself, to your own nature, to your own concept of right and wrong. If you only live to match the desires and expectations of other people then you have lost part of yourself. Develop your own moral code - something that you can believe in and that is independent of your peers - and use it to weigh the expectations of other people.

Developing a moral code that is independent of your peers takes a fair bit of deep thinking. A useful exercise I use is the following:

A person has been locked into a room and, by sheer happenstance, you have been the power to make them happy or unhappy. No one except you will never know what happens in the room or that you were given such power over another person. You are the only person who will know about the choice you make. What choice should you make?

This exercise is specifically designed to remove any concept of "peer pressure". It focuses on your own nature and moral code, asking what you think you should do, independent of society.

Developing a moral code this way has helped me cope with the expectations and desires of other people - I am now more comfortable saying "no" to people, but am simultaneously more interested in saying "yes".

Finally, the following poem was a kind of inspiration for this thinking and is worth a read:

The Guy in the Glass by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

P.S. "pelf" means "Money; riches; gain; generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten."

Wert Keyboartd

I accidentally knocked a glass of water on to my keyboard yesterday afternoon. The keyboard survived, for a while....

Peter: have a prtoblem wirth my keyboard brtw
Peter: splirt watrert on irt eartliert
Peter: now rt and rt prtoduce borth rt and rt rtogerthert
Peter: grteatr fun
Emily: hahahhaa
Emily: rt rt :)
Emily: :D
Emily: what are you going to do?
Emily: wait don't answer :)
Peter: no idea
Peter: weirtd rthatr irt justr srtartrting being a prtoblem now
Peter: i was coding fort trhe lastr few hourts, no prtoblem
Emily: no kidding :)

Luckily, a night spent drying has fixed it. I have two spare keyboards, but I've taken them both at work so that people with laptops can use them. I don't know what I'd do if I had no keyboard for the weekend. Probably go to work to recover one of my spares. ;)

P.S. I pulled my keyboard apart a little. It's kinda scary just how much head hair gets caught in keyboards...

Elebits

Emily picked up a second-hand copy of Elebits for $20 recently. I got to play it a little when I visited Edmonton this Easter. I have to say, it is probably the most fun game I've ever played on the Wii.

The aim of the game is to capture cute, tennis-ball-sized "elebits" that you find roaming your house. You are armed with a "capture gun" that doubles as a long-range object manipulator. Using your gun, you can open fridges, lift couches, turn on TVs etc from a good 10 metres away. The end result, of course, is absolute madness as you throw potplants, books, and kitchen appliances around the room, desperately hunting down "elebits" within a limited timespan.

Perhaps the best part of this game is its accessibility. Emily's mother and brother (Stella and Timothy) both joined in and were having great fun. Timothy sometimes struggles with Wii games because of the Wiimote is very sensitive to small movements, but he was getting very good at pointing and controlling the camera to focus on objects that interest him. Stella was also showing off her Elebit-shooting skills, though she was much more gentle with the environment than Emily. ;)

Anyway, this looks like a fantastic party game, and something to train people in the use of the Wiimote.

Writing the Conclusion

So I'm writing the conclusion for my thesis, and finding it surprisingly difficult to write. I'm taking the simplest approach possible: read my table of contents, and write a sentence or two about each subsection. Unfortunately, this approach forces me to face two facts::

1. how much work went into making my thesis
2. how terribly incomplete my thesis still is

I just have to stop thinking about what more should/could have been done.

Philosophy of Science

How do you know the world is not an illusion? How do you know that everyone else in the world is actually self-aware? How do you know the fridge light turns out when you close the door? These are the kinds of questions that bug me some days.

Science has definitely washed its hands of theology/philosophy. For example, the scientific method cannot help us answer "is anyone else real like I am?". You cannot establish a common ground for discussion (also known as intersubjectivitiy) for such a question! How can you sit down and discuss with a person whether or not they are a figment of your imagination?

However, according to the Wikipedia entry on Philosophy of science:

... specialists in the philosophy of science stress the requirement that observations made for the purposes of science be restricted to intersubjective objects ...

If we were to assume that noone else is real, then wouldn't intersubjectivity become impossible? There can be no intersubjectivity without at least two subjects! Does that mean that science itself is based on the assumption that other people are as real as ourselves? Does the success of the scientific method itself provide scientific evidence that other people are real?

I can't answer that question tonight, but I think the answer is "yes", in which case a scientist can claim something about the nature of other people. Not bad really.

Anyway, g'night to whoever is out there! I say that on the assumption you are real and equal, in which case I should treat you as I do myself. :)

Boxes on a Big Boat

I just received word that my boxes have started shipping. I've been told the name of the ship, and managed to dig up this photo (yes, there are people who photograph and document all the boats they see). Anyway, it seems to have left Sydney in the last few days, dropped in to Melbourne, and is now headed to Djakarta, Jakarta. I have no idea where it's going after that, but probably China, and then North America. It won't arrive in Vancouver until late April so it must be pretty busy.

Disturbing Sleep

Saturday morning I woke up with 3 subluxed (ie. almost dislocated) finger-tips which took an hour or so to sort out. I've been having ongoing problems with my teeth because I tend to grind them while I sleep, and a few nights ago I had a very long and disturbing dream.

I'm hoping that whatever is bothering my subconscious will go away soon.

Catch 23 Banking

Many people were suggesting that I fight the bank, and the situation was annoying me enough. Here's a copy of the first email I sent. Let's see how it goes:

To whom it may concern,

I was recently notified that my savings account with [bankname] would be changed from a fee-free account to a fee-paying account. I am now living in Canada, and so tried to close this account yesterday by calling [bankname]. However, I was advised that it is impossible to close the account without being physically present at a branch. It is clearly not possible for me to get to any [bankname] branch any time soon, but I would still like to have the account closed as soon as possible so as to avoid additional fees.

Please be aware that, within that one phone call, I was able to authenticate my identity, have my phone banking password reset, have my internet banking re-enabled, and have my account changed to a different "product". [bankname] seems perfectly happy to grant access to my money over the phone after passing simple challenge-response security questions. However, [bankname] claims to be unable to stop charging me fees for an account that I do not want, unless I make myself physically present. This seems an inappropriate way to treat a customer and certainly doesn't improve my view of [bankname]'s operations.

So, with all due respect, I insist that my account be closed and my money transferred to a different institution. I can provide the account details when requested.

Sincerely,
Peter Harvey.

Catch 22 Banking

One of my Australian bank accounts was recently changed from "student" to "normal", which means I am now charged monthly fees. Considering I haven't used the account in 2 years, I felt it was time to close it. However:

1. You can only close the account from overseas if you have faxing authority.
2. You cannot setup faxing authority unless you are in the branch.
3. Someone can close the account for you if they have power of attorney.
4. You cannot setup power of attorney unless you are both in the branch.
5. You cannot transfer all money out of the account, because then you would just incur account keeping fees and additional penalties.

Note that none of this is to protect my money, as they were perfectly willing to enable internet and phone banking to let me transfer cash out. Their rules only prevent me from leaving the bank.

I will close my account, with prejudice, next time I am in Australia.

UPDATE: I just closed a Canadian bank account over the phone. The only questions they asked, after verifying I was who I claimed to be, were "who are you now banking with?" and "what account would you like your money sent to?". Very pleasant.

Voting in Canada

I was discussing the Canadian voting system recently, and I am absolutely shocked. They have no preferential voting scheme! Do you know what that means?

• In Canada, if you vote for a minor party, and that party does not win, then your vote will be tossed in the garbage. I'm not joking. There is no incentive for voting for the party that most accurately represent your views. Worse, if there are two parties with similar policies, then they will probably split their constituents evenly between them and neither will win. For example, if 60% of voters are left-wing, and there are two left-wing parties and one right-wing party, then the right-wing party would win (the two left-wing parties would get 30% each, and the right-wing party would get 40%). How stupid is that?
• In Australia, if you vote for a minor party, and that party does not win, then your vote will be attributed towards some larger party selected in advance by the minor party. This lets me vote for a minor party but, on the chance they lose the election, my vote will be attributed to the next closest party in terms of policies. For example, I can vote for the minority Greens party, with the assurance that my vote will be attributed to whichever party has created policies that are closest to the Greens.

Voting in Canada is also completely optional. People are not encouraged to consider each party on its merits - they only bother to vote if the policies of one party will somehow affect their personal lives. The voting system implicitly discourages a government that is "for the benefit of all", because a large number of people with "moderate socialist" views would not bother to vote.

To be honest, I'm not very interested in voting in Canada. I'm more interested in changing the voting system so that my vote would count. :(

Illustration Got Published

A paper of mine, which forms the guts of my thesis, was recently published in Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence, volume 4766. They just sent me a copy of it, and I got quite a surprise: the cover illustration they used is actually the one from my paper and thesis. It's an illustration of a distributed CSP that I created for demonstrating my algorithm. Don't quite know what to say. At least they really liked the diagram? :)

Moving Stories

Random stories from my recent move up the building:

• The first time we inspected the new apartment, it had a slightly smokey smell. The carpet had just been shampoo-cleaned, but whoever had done it had left a cigarette butt in the toilet. The windows were open letting dust and stuff in. To top it off, they stole the light-bulbs from the bathroom. Go figure.
• I've never owned a vacuum cleaner in Canada - I had always borrowed one from some friends in the building. I managed to buy a good one from Sears in the last week, and have had great fun since then sucking up dirt and dust. There was surprisingly little dust in my old apartment, considering I've only vacuumed twice since I got to Canada. And there was no sign of Mum's earring that she lost here. Oh well. :|
• We cleaned my old oven using some truly nasty spray-on stuff. You're supposed to wear goggles and rubber gloves, but we're lazy and skipped that bit. I just held my breath for most of the experience.
• We briefly met two neighbours on my old floor that I'd never even seen before. We also received a complaint from a neighbour for playing a movie too loud on the day before I moved. Oops. They were a pretty noisy couple anyway. :)
• The elevator was trying to kill us the whole time. We had to load it up with large amounts of stuff each time (bag run!), but if we took a few too many seconds it would start shrieking and the door would slowly close in dramatic style. It was kind of like the garbage compactor in Star Wars. At one point, Emily and I were on opposite sides of the elevator door when we realised we each had the wrong set of keys. It was a very Hollywood moment, passing the keys to each other moments before the elevator door closed on us. :)
• I still have a chocolate rabbit from my early years at University. It was something my sister gave to me, and I made some kind of promise not to eat it until I finished University. Well, my thesis is still ticking away. It survived the move, however I left it on the kitchen table today when I went to work. Guess what - my apartment now gets sun! One of its ears melted and half-collapsed, and I fear I have deformed its head when picking it up this afternoon.
• I would like to give a big thank you to Emily who organised the kitchen very nicely for me. In a related note, there is nothing on the top shelves of my kitchen cabinets. ;)

Seriously, Emily has a huge help with this move. From keeping me motivated, to packing the contents of my desk, to helping me slide my bed across tiles by use a magic carpet. She was always there, and was fantastic. Thank you.

Anyway, here's looking forward to a lot of years in this apartment. I don't want to move again for a while. It's a nice place, and I hate moving. :)

PS. There are three (3) alternative meanings to the title of this post. Can you find them all? ;)

Photos From New Apartment

So I've moved up in the world - same building, but higher up. That also means (significantly) increased living space, and some of the best views I've ever seen here. I've uploaded high-res photos to an album on Picasaweb, but smaller versions are here:

Bag Snatched From Apartment

Forget Poseidon - Hermes seems to have it in for me. Someone has stolen something while I was in the apartment. :(

I have just moved into a new apartment (more on that later) with a huge amount of help from Emily. We were tired from all the moving and cleaning so decided to have a 30-minute afternoon nap. When we woke up we noticed:

1. One of my boots had been moved from 'near the door' to 'blocking the passageway to the door'.
2. The front door was unlocked, presumably left that way by us when we came into the apartment.
3. Emily's red MEC shoulder bag was missing, including her Nintendo DS, all her games, and a whackload of Pocky.

It looks like, between 2.15pm and 2.45pm, someone opened the (unlocked) front door, saw Emily's shoulder bag on the floor just past my boots, grabbed it and ran. They didn't bother to come into the apartment, else they would have stolen my camera or wallet.

I'll notify the landlady, but I'm not planning to notify the police any time soon. It's frustrating that Emily's DS was stolen, but the odds of the police finding a "red DS with no distinguishing marks" or "some packets of Pocky" are extremely slim.

Final Move from Australia

With the help of friends in Australia, there are now 5 boxes of my stuff in transit to Canada. I don't know when they'll get here, what shape they'll be in, or whether Canadian Customs will charge me duty for importing. As it says in this email:

Your boxes were collected today by TNT, each box labeled with your address in Canada. Their eventual destination is now in hands of the gods.
Janos.

Lets see if Poseidon likes me or not. :D

New Years Resolution

I just realised that, without thinking of it, I had established some New Years resolutions for myself. I had been traveling so much I'd hardly realised we'd entered the new year! So here they are:

• Fix the hunch in my back. I've always had a curve to my upper spine, and let my shoulders slope downwards. Now, on my daily walk to/from work I make sure to hold my shoulders back and up. With some effort I'll rebuild the muscles there. It's already feeling much more comfortable than it used to.
• Lose some weight. I don't want to hit summer with a belly or flabby butt. Yes, I'm male, but these things still concern me.
• Cook more food. This doesn't run counter to the previous point. I want to cook more of my meals, and start baking more things. Anzac Biscuits are the next on my list.
• Be nicer to people. There's a lot more I could do for the people who are really close to me, and some of them I can actually help. I have to do what I can.
• Start saving for retirement. I have to remember there's no compulsory superannuation here, and I haven't really started saving for retirement yet. I need to pour some money into RRSP (the Canadian's superannuation-like tax-shelter for retirement money). One great thing is I can pour money in there, make a big tax savings, and then potentially use that money for an eventual house purchase! No such plans yet, but I like the flexibility.

There's even more resolutions I've made this year, but I can hardly list them all. I'm just surprised I didn't notice beforehand that I was making all these promises to myself.