Boolean

Auld Lang Syne

boolean263 — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:22:41 GMT

Happy New Year!

Turkey time

boolean263 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:39:24 GMT

Although I wish a very Happy Columbus Day to my American friends, today is actually Thanksgiving Day in Canada. And, when I look at all the scary things and injustices that are going on in the world, I'm most thankful for the fact that all my worries are relatively petty ones in comparison.

Life is good

boolean263 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:52:26 GMT

On the whole, I'm actually doing rather well. Nothing notably good or bad has been happening lately, which is probably why I haven't posted often. I was just so amused (and annoyed) at my ability to chip my tooth while eating salad that I had to post.

That weekend was a good one for me. I went home to spend a bit of time with my family, but mainly to run the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. My goal was to finish it without burning out and having to walk for the last part, like happened last year. I did it! And I even managed to do it faster than I did last year, which was nice. (: It would have been a bit humbling to know that I run a race no faster than I run-too-hard-then-walk it.

Even more awesome was that my parents surprised us and came out to watch us run! That was really a boost. They've only done that once before.

My comedy of errors from my last post has one final addendum. I must have parked too close to a curb at one point on my drive home, because I ended up putting a scratch in my sidewall. I didn't notice anything untoward until last night, when I went to drive again for the first time in a week, and found my front right tire was completely flat. Doh! That blew the appointment I had planned for that evening.

I learned something quite interesting from a car buff at work: If you do happen to get a flat tire on one of your front wheels, and if you have a compact spare tire (not a full-sized spare), you should actually put the spare on the rear of the car, and move the good rear tire up to replace the flat. The reasoning is that your transmission has a harder time if you try to drive with front wheels of different sizes. Fascinating, eh?

By the way, that's probably backwards for rear-wheel drive cars. If you do have a rear-wheel drive car, don't put your compact spare on the rear, but on the front. (Just be ready for some steering weirdness.)

Comedy of errors

boolean263 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:50:54 GMT

Today's been an amusingly aggravating mess. In travelling back home from my parents' place, I had a shortcut go long, and locked my keys in the car at a service station. (Fortunately, a skilled truck driver helped me get into my car.)

The icing on the cake is that I just managed to chip my tooth eating a salad. With no nuts in it. Who does that?!

I'll post about my weekend some other time. Short version: nobody died, but not all of us finished.

Now we know!

boolean263 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:23:40 GMT

I was wandering around on TVTropes the other day, and I happened upon the article And Knowing Is Half The Battle. Upon hearing that iconic statement, everyone always asks what the other half of the battle is. And everyone on the internet will gladly answer "ha ha, it's violence! I'm so witty."

If you'll forgive me passing that particular comedic gold mine without my pickaxe, I'd like to put forward that I think the other half of the battle is actually putting your knowledge to use. Knowing something is important, but if you don't act on it, you're only halfway there.

By the way, I'm not dead.

I bless the rains down in Africa

boolean263 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:25:03 GMT

I've always been a sucker for vocal-only music. I guess that's why I so enjoyed being in my church's choir and dabbling in barbershop quartetting.

My mother emailed me this video, by Slovenian group Perpetuum Jazzile. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a capella music done right. The vocal harmonies actually made me mist up, they were so powerful, and the effects at the beginning are just astounding.

You will bring me a shrubbery!

boolean263 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:24:02 GMT

I've been playing Chrono Trigger DS on the bus to and from work, from time to time, and I've found my way to the first set of new levels. (At least I'm assuming there will be more.) I can see why the hardcore fans were disappointed with the Lost Sanctum. It takes pretty much everything wonderful about CT, then distils it down into a bunch of fetch quests. All the quests are kept within the same area (but two times), which further adds to the predictability.

One quest even goes as far as to break the game's model of time travel. You need two of something side by side, but only one exists. So what do you do? Go to the past, put it there, go to the future, take it back, go back to the past, and put it beside itself. The act destroys both items to create a new one, which makes me wonder how it still lasted long enough for me to grab it from the future.

On the other hand, it is nice to see some non-violent Reptites. And it is effectively a place to power-level. I've got money to last me the rest of the game.

Oh, and I ran a half-marathon a few weeks ago. And another two weeks before that.

Re-re-release

boolean263 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:03:41 GMT

I've been thinking. Many of us, if not all of us, mocked George Lucas when he was continually re-releasing the original Star Wars trilogy. New scenes! New graphics! Digitally remastered! THX enough to crumble the foundations of the movie theatre! Why, we wondered, could he not just let it go?

Square Enix does the same thing. Most of its Final Fantasy series, and (of course) Chrono Trigger, have been re-released several times. Not just in new formats (Playstation, GBA/DS, ...) but with new scenes, new graphics, digitally remastered...

We roll our eyes at George Lucas. So why are we glad when Square Enix does it?

Tweet?

boolean263 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:32:37 GMT

My mother wants me to get on Twitter.

Two screens, twice the fun?

boolean263 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:45:05 GMT

I broke down and bought Chrono Trigger for the DS. I felt silly since I still own it for the PlayStation, but I know I'll get use out of it on the bus. (And the loading time of the PS version won't put me off this one.)

I'm enjoying it so far. It's the nostalgic rush it's meant to be, of course. I'm still adjusting to the two-screens approach though. On the one hand I like not having the battle screen cluttered with gauges and such, but on the other, I'm missing important info on the main screen as I consider my options on the touch screen. I'm tempted to go with the classic interface, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of this one in time.

They've changed some of the dialog, too. Generally it's minor wording, but I found one instance so far that was notable. In the original version, if you enter one of the residences in Truce, there's a placid-looking woman sitting in a chair, and if you speak to her, she says, "I'm so happy I could scream!" The disconnect is amusing. Well, in the DS version, she instead says, "I think I'm about as happy as I'll ever be." She almost sounds depressed this time! Interesting change.

And what was wrong with an item called simply Revive, anyway?

Addiction is no laughing matter

boolean263 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:14:09 GMT

boolean263: Ah, coffee, my sweet mistress. Why did I ever leave you when you're so good to me? I know we've had our issues, but I swear to try and work them out this time instead of walking away.
petie_s: Coffee will never leave you!
boolean263: That's part of the reason I tried to escape. She kept me up at all hours, with no respite. I'm certainly going to approach the relationship more cautiously this time.
petie_s: Yeah, you really need to take the general male approach: no committment.
boolean263: She knows I'm also playing around with tea, so that should help things out a bit. (You should try it some time, tea is HOT.)
boolean263: Well, she can be pretty icy at times.
petie_s: That's when she's at her sweetest, sadly.
petie_s: Just don't go for that herbal stuff. Damn hippies.
boolean263: I don't think I can top that. (: Nicely done!
petie_s: Thank you, thank you.

Posted using LJ Talk...

boolean263 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:38:42 GMT

Who needs Twitter when there's Frank the LJtalk bot?

Talk is cheep

boolean263 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:36:54 GMT

I'm afraid I just don't get Twitter. Can someone explain to me what the appeal is of a blog that limits the size of your post to 140 charact

What's this 'ear?

boolean263 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:09:23 GMT

My cat Jasmine's been acting a bit odd lately. She's her usual cheerful and friendly self, but whenever she shook her head or turned it too quickly, she'd stagger to one side. So I made an appointment at the vet tonight to have it looked at as a possible ear infection.

Jasmine seems to be prone to infections lately. She's had a few bladder infections, and I suspect she had an ear infection in the recent past, too. I was a wee bit upset at her condition, since I'm sure she must not be happy. And it's a bit irritating that these things keep coming back.

It was really busy at the vet, since Tuesday nights are the only nights they're open outside of most people's working hours, so I knew I wouldn't be seen right away, and I wasn't being impatient. I do have to admit I was bored, though. And Jasmine even got bored of being upset. My appointment was for 6. It was nearly 7 before they brought me in.

Since they were so backlogged, they brought me into one half of an operating room, the other half of which was the site of the emergency case that was holding things up. They were drawing some sort of fluid from a resigned-looking cat. The doctor said the fluid had tumour cells in it. And by the way, the fluid came from its abdomen. The doctor was going to recommend euthanasia to the cat's owner.

I hugged Jasmine. Hour-long waits and ear infections aren't really all that bad, for all that.

Here's to #44

boolean263 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:34:15 GMT

At lunch today, we turned on the television to CBC Newsworld. We were just in time to watch the swearing-in of a new leader.

We all listened attentively to Barack Obama's inauguration speech. I can see now why so many people act like he's a rock star; he sure is articulate and motivational. And he covered pretty much all the points one could ask for in the speech.

It's good that he's able to talk so clearly, and to move people so deeply. Now let's see what he says with his actions.

Welcome to 2005

boolean263 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:40:07 GMT

I'm not quite at the leading edge of gaming technology, but thanks to a Best Buy gift card, I've gotten a bit closer, with a Nintendo DS Lite, in Black Cherry flavour. Mmm, tasty.

So how does this Friend Code thing work? Is it per-game or per-DS? Mario Kart DS tells me I'm ~~4434-6559-1213-1000~~ 541346-037456. I prefer Boolean, it's a bit easier to spell. (Not much, though.)

Edit: whoa, this thing saves its settings to the game card? That seems just a bit uncomfortable for me...

Waiting for Smiley

boolean263 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:03:18 GMT

When I was in university, I earned the nickname Smiley. I tended to smile a lot -- most of the time, in fact -- because I was pleased with the state of my life and what was going on in it. I'd been accepted to University of Toronto, after all, and to one of the most difficult programs. I was discovering people who shared my interests, and I was (largely) free of the types of people who harassed me in grade school. I was making friends. Life was good.

Some time after university, Smiley went away on me. I'm not sure where he went, though I have ideas of what drove him away. Since then, I've gone through several struggles to try and find him, and to bring him back. I haven't succeeded as of yet. The things I've been trying haven't worked out so well.

This morning, a thought occurred to me. Perhaps I'm going about it all wrong. Maybe Smiley isn't coming back because of the mess I've made of the place in his absence. If I were him, I wouldn't want to come back to this, let me tell you. Metaphorically speaking, I've left all sorts of dishes in the sink, cat hair on the carpet, and junk food in the fridge. Not an easy place to be happy in.

So this year -- call it a resolution if you like -- I'm not going to try so hard to find Smiley. What I am going to do is tidy up the place, try and make it more like it was in its glory days, and see if he comes back on his own.

It's funny the stories we tell ourselves in order to accomplish something, isn't it? But like my sister once told me, we can't choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we react to it. So let's see how this turns out.

Happy New Year to you!

Haul-o-ween

boolean263 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:05:53 GMT

It's that time of year again! Yes, it's time for LJ memes!

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
boolean263 goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Sly Cooper.
captainspam tricks you! You get a 3.5-inch floppy disc.
dragonunicorn gives you 3 blue tropical-flavoured gummy bats.
earthlingmike tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy!
einsdrache gives you 17 orange coffee-flavoured pieces of bubblegum.
fixitgirl gives you 19 softly glowing lemon-flavoured gummy worms.
greatpenguin tricks you! You get a block of wood.
pembrokewkorgi gives you 12 purple apple-flavoured pieces of chewing gum.
petie_s tricks you! You get an eraser.
raptorianone gives you 17 light green banana-flavoured jawbreakers.
rebeccmeister gives you 16 mottled green passionfruit-flavoured jawbreakers.
boolean263 ends up with 83 pieces of candy, a 3.5-inch floppy disc, a block of wood, and an eraser.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

Now that's a good haul! Much better than the last time I did this meme, if I recall correctly. Though I'm a little worried that Lucca would give me glowing candy. Not surprised in the least, just worried.

What does this button do?

boolean263 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:59:59 GMT

Oh hey, you mean I can actually write journal entries, too? Not just read them?

Like I mentioned in my last post about running -- coincidentally, and disappointingly, also my last LJ post at all -- I entered the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, so that I could run my first ever marathon on the same day that my running inspiration -- my sister K -- ran her first marathon. She, in turn, was convinced to do it by her training partner T.

That marathon was this past Sunday.

I guess I got a bit of a fat head about running. My first run ever was a sub-30-minute 5K; my first ever 10K was sub-1-hour; my first half-marathon (21.1km) squeaked in just under 2 hours. I convinced myself that sub-4-hours was an achievable goal for my first marathon (42.2km!).

Short answer: ow.

Slightly longer answer: it wasn't. But I'm still pleased with how it went.

Wordgasm: I didn't feel quite the same electricity around this race that I did around the half, but it was still rather easy to get caught up in the crowds and cheering and people running around me. I started out strongly, and kept up a pace of about 6 minutes per kilometre. A few people even used me to pace themselves, which was flattering, but also made it a bit more difficult to convince myself to slow down rather than try to look tough. I finished the first half in 2:11:11, which is slower than my last race, but still rather speedy, and looks to be on pace for a 4:15-4:20ish finish. But I started to run out of gas around the 25km mark. 32km was the longest I ever ran on a training run, and I was still slugging along by then, with no small amount of encouragement from my running partner, one of the aforementioned random strangers pacing himself from me. We parted ways at around 35km or so, and not long after that, I had to stop doing 10-and-1 intervals and walk more. And more... I pushed myself as best I could, but it was like I had nothing left in me, and although I got some reasonable running stretches in there, I walked more than I ran. I was able to save up a bit of energy to run the last 500m to the finish with a smile for my cheering squad, but I was pretty beat for some time afterwards. I needed one of those foil space blankets to stay warm after that.

Final verdict: I ran (and walked) 42.2km in 4:37:05.

So my finishing time is disappointing, but only if I compare it to the unrealistic goal I set for myself. Of course, I wonder if I could have finished in 4:15 if I hadn't convinced myself to try for 4:00... I guess we'll have to see next marathon! If I ever lose my mind long enough to enter another one, that is.

The course was nice. Pretty flat for the most part, and through the nicest parts of Toronto along the waterfront. The weather was nice, the volunteers were great, and even the police who were stopping traffic for us were cheering us on by the names on our bibs. It was a grand time! (When I wasn't thinking about how hard it was getting to breathe, or how I was getting light-headed, or the blister forming on my foot, or my heavy legs, or...)

My achievement was dwarfed in every sense by my sister's, though. She developed knee tracking problems during her training, and missed the last six weeks of her training programme, including the longest of the runs. She's been doing intense physio, and decided to run the marathon despite some doubts. (She had a goal of running a marathon before her 30th birthday, which is coming up soon.) She told us later that her knee was fine for 14km, then started to give out on her.

I held off on my post-race shower because I wanted to watch her cross the finish line, so I joined our cheering squad at our post 100m from the finish line. As time ticked by, I started to get worried. The course was to close at 2pm so that cars could use the roads again, and I thought that meant that a finish after that time wouldn't count. 20 minutes before that cutoff, her training partner T came up Bay street and made her way to the finish line with much fanfare from us, but K wasn't with her. When the clock on Old City Hall struck 2pm and she still hadn't been by, I cried a bit. She'd worked so hard, but I guessed she'd had to drop out because of her knee. Yet none of us could tear ourselves away from our post, could convince ourselves to leave until we'd seen her. T joined us briefly, then went back down the course with plans to run K to the finish, whenever she came.

10 minutes later, we saw the two of them walking (well, K was limping) hand-in-hand up Bay street. I cried again for K; I was so proud of her! She'd finished the marathon. Against her own body's desire to quit, and probably against anyone's definition of sanity, she struggled through.

It turns out that, although the course was closed, the timer was still running, and she did record a finishing time. She even got a medal -- it was the last one, wasn't assembled yet, and T took it so K could have her intact one -- but she got it!

My sister and I have had some rough times since we committed to running the marathon "together", to the point where I was almost dreading parts of race weekend, and felt adrift rather than excited about it. My fears seemed grounded in reality as the weekend built up toward the race, for reasons I won't bother emo'ing about here. But whatever our differences, I'm so proud of her and happy for her for finishing. And I like to think that, in some small way, she feels the same about me. We still aren't on the best of terms, and 99% of our group's post-race talk was about her and her race, but in front of them all, she made a passing comment to me that she was proud of me. I'm not even sure she was sincere, but I'll take it.

And you thought running was just about physical development. No way. There's a whole whack of mental, emotional and spiritual development there too.

What a rush

boolean263 — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:25:58 GMT

21.1 kilometres in 1:57:17. Dang! I'm quite pleased with that.

The race was a blast. I had a lot of fun. Last year I was struck by just how many people were out to run... this year I was one of them. I was lost in a sea of 10,000 people at the start line. It was pretty amazing.

I felt good throughout the race! If anything, I guess I didn't push myself hard enough. (: It was a warm day, which is bad considering all our training has been in cool weather up to this point, and I'm sure that affected me a bit. But they had water stations every 3km, and at one point a station with water-soaked sponges, so that helped us stay cool and hydrated... overhydrated if anything, and I lost a minute to take a pee break. Ah well. (:

My sister K got a new personal best by over 5 minutes! She missed her goal of 2:30 by scant seconds, so she's disappointed, but I'm still quite proud of her. And it was really cool running my first half-marathon with her.

We'll both be running our first marathon together in September. She gradually talked me into thinking about the Toronto Waterfront Marathon over the course of months. I said I'd wait until after this race to sign up for it, and see how I feel. I was so tempted to just sign up for the half, or the 10K race, given how exhausted I am now. But I followed through and signed up for the full. Now we'll see if I have it in me to run 42km!

It was great having so many guests over. It's kind of lonely now. But we had a lot of fun.

Four panels, at 30fps

boolean263 — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:32:01 GMT

I suppose I'll do a better job of convincing people I'm still alive if I post a bit more often. I like to ramble once in a while in a pseudo-scholastic fashion, so I think I will. As long as petie_s doesn't mind me horning in on his area of expertise.

Let's see here. Ahem...

Any webcomic can put up a strip that's a static image. And that's all well and good, I guess, if your only reason for having a WEBcomic is for easier and cheaper distribution than a print deal. But computers can do much more than show images.

Carzorthade looks like your typical webcomic at a glance. Four panels, fairly broad cast of characters, etc. What you might not immediately notice (if you don't have something like FlashBlock installed) is that the comic strip itself isn't just an image; it's a Flash file.

As I understand it, the author, Chris Paluszek, originally used Flash because it was easier for him to "draw". He's since branched out and tries to challenge himself with his drawing, but the strip remains Flash. I'm glad for that, because it opens things up for some interesting crosses of static and interactive content.

A few of Carzorthade's recent strips demonstrate well the sorts of things that can be done with a Flash webcomic. In the first example, the action occurring in the third panel is well suited, in (my understanding of) standard comic pacing, for the third panel, and yet the animation allows Paluszek to more clearly express what is happening than could be captured in static art, particularly in a single panel. Of course, static artists have other ways of addressing this -- the third panel could have been a series of stills artistically demonstrating what was happening -- but static artists have done that for years, where this, I think, is at least a little innovative. More than a little, IMHO.

The second example is just cool.

These two strips also show how Paluszek is branching out a bit more with the medium. Past strips have included occasional Easter eggs, somewhat like an inanimate Strong Bad email. While that's cool, I think this is cooler. One envisions Flash as being for fully animated cartoons or something like that, but this keeps the comic format intact and expands upon it, rather than abandoning it for animation.

~*~*~

By the way, Happy Victoria Day.

It's still an awfully long distance

boolean263 — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:39:19 GMT

This time next week, I will have crossed the finish line of my first ever half-marathon. 21 kilometres, 13.1 miles, 12388 smoots. I'm starting to get pretty excited.

The training has been going well. It's hard to believe that this is the same race for which I was training next to shoulder-height drifts or running on the frozen canal, as well as next to blossoming lilacs and next to the flowing canal. I'm confident I can do it, and I'm pretty sure I'll do it in a good time.

As long as I don't injure myself. I started cycling to work last week. Monday went fine. Tuesday saw me hitting a bump at a bad angle, losing my grip on the handlebars, and skidding off to the side. I've got a nice case of road rash, a bruised elbow bone, and I think I need to replace my helmet now. No injuries to prevent me from running, though. I took the bus for the rest of the week. (Not just to avoid more incidents, but also because I don't want to wear myself out for the race.)

My sister, the person who got me interested in running in the first place, will be in town for the same race. Along with her husband, roommate, training partner, training partner's husband, and our friend Len. It'll be really nice to see them all! The training partner and spouse will be staying at a hotel, but that still means I have to try and fit five of us in my apartment for that weekend. It should be fun.

My sister already has me thinking about doing a full marathon in the fall. I'm a bit worried I'll be pushing myself too hard -- after all, this time last year was just my first race ever -- but I think I can handle it as long as I'm careful.

I've been training with the Running Room clinic, as a pace group leader. I've enjoyed that a lot; it got me out regularly, I met interesting people, I had fun. But for the full I think I'll train more on my own, so I can choose the times of my training. I think I might get into morning running.

One race at a time though. Wish me luck on the 21K!

Update in the life of me

boolean263 — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:05:13 GMT

Yet again I seem to have fallen out of the habit of steady updates. Bad Boolean!

Life's still pretty good overall. There hasn't been a whole lot of interest to report. I did take last Friday (a week ago yesterday) off work to run a bunch of errands. I got my bike into the shop, for one thing; I'll be getting it back today, fully tuned and ready to take advantage of this wonderful weather we'll have next week! It's gorgeous and sunny out there this morning, with a high over 10°C forecast. Hard to believe it was snowing as recently as yesterday!

Running's still going well. No unusual or debilitating aches or pains. It seems I'm doing well to keep my IT band syndrome well cared-for. Good thing, too, considering a half-marathon is 21km, and that's a long time to be hurting! We're more than 2/3 of the way there now; we did 14km last Sunday, and we'll be running 16km tomorrow. The routes are getting longer and harder to remember. Fortunately, I've been playing around with using my Garmin for more than just keeping my running pace steady. Once I've refined the process a bit, I'll be posting here (or maybe the Running Room forums would be a better audience for this geeky stuff) with how I'm able to download navigation instructions into my GPS.

Speaking of toys, my buddy umario is loaning me his electric bass guitar. I mentioned that I was intrigued by the instrument and considering learning more about it, and so he offered me his. I'm grateful, because it gives me a chance to test-drive before I spend $500 on equipment for something I may ultimately decide isn't that great. I've only had it for about a week, and I'm still trying to get my fingers to strum just the string I want to hit, and not the ones on either side as well. (Despite that both of us are left-handed, Umario strings and plays his guitars right-handed, and my right hand isn't so dextrous yet.) But it's fun so far.

And that's my life!

Underwater adventure

boolean263 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:05:30 GMT

Well, I certainly had an interesting evening last night.

I woke up at about 12:30am (half past midnight) to the loud ringing of the fire alarm. Jasmine quite happily didn't move from where she slept atop me, so I shuffled out from under her. I couldn't see any obvious signs of trouble, so I considered going back to bed, in case it was a false alarm. Then I considered evacuating in case it wasn't.

Then I heard water dripping into my bathtub. I figured I'd left the shower faucet dripping a bit, so I tightened it... it didn't help. Further inspection revealed that the water was dripping from the bathroom ceiling.

I threw on some clothes (since it was -20°C out) and got out Jasmine's carrier, and of course, she chooses that moment to hide under the bed. I dragged her out and got her into her carrier, and stepped outside my apartment, into a puddle of water from around the elevators or firehose area. I figured that was bad, so I rushed to the stairwell...

...which was literally a rushing waterfall. Whoop whoop whoop, backtrack! Down the opposite stairwell and out into the cold.

It didn't take long for Jasmine to start shivering from the cold, so I stuffed her into the front of my jacket. Sitting there in a snowdrift with a shivering cat against my chest, watching the fire trucks try and figure out what to do, I wondered if I'd have to find a hotel room for the night, or week, or worse. Fortunately, my sleep-deprivation-addled imagination was overacting, and we were allowed back into the building after half an hour.

Apparently a standpipe or some other major water-carrying vessel burst a few floors above me. I was fortunate, in that the only leakage into my apartment (that I've found so far) was the aforementioned leaking into the bathtub. My apartment smells like rotting particleboard now, but at least my carpets are dry. My neighbour said she had a flooded kitchen. I lucked out, relatively speaking.

I awoke again at 4am to someone trying to get into my apartment. I slept through the knocking but heard the chain rattle when they tried to open the door. It was the landlord or someone like that, asking what water damage I had. I told them about the bathroom ceiling and went back to bed.

Today all the stairwell doors are open so we can air out the floors. One of the elevators is out of commission (a rather serious inconvenience given we only have two, and it's a twenty storey building), but they expect to have it going again soon. And we got notices that they'll be in our apartments some time this week to fix the damage.

So I didn't get much sleep last night, but it was an interesting evening! Tonight I won't get much more sleep, since my buddy Len is arriving at 3am or so (he drives at night so he can avoid traffic) to spend tomorrow here in Ottawa. It'll be fun having him up, assuming I can get rested (or caffeinated) enough to enjoy his visit.

Life isn't fair, but your chocolate can be.

boolean263 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:50:45 GMT

You might recall that I'm a member of the Ottawa Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB).

Today, March 6, is EWB Day. We're using it for public outreach on a topic that's rather important to me anyway. So I'd like to bring your attention to the issue of Fair Trade.