We're havin' a heat wave...

Holy crap! 27 Celsius today?? In April?

Sweeeeeeeet!!!!

Watch out for that Sonic Boom!

That's Monday whipping by at high speed. Holy crap, what a day.

I don't really feel that I've stopped since last week. This weekend was pretty full and I was going back and forth to work stuff all weekend (in and around kid events, yard work, etc.)

I do feel better for having made some headway with our e-learning stuff. I was getting some ideas for how to rebuild our existing backgrounds and navigation stuff and I made that my mission for today. Of course I didn't let a pesky hurdle like lack of local software stop me (thank god for old P2P dowloads from days past.) So I added the graphics tools I needed and I was off to the races.

Next time I looked up it was 11:30. Did some more work, wolfed down lunch, then back to the grind.

Look up again, and its almost 3. Reward myself with a celebratory Root Beer and play around with some new ideas.

End result of today's efforts?

A brand new "look" for future e-learning content; one that can aslo be used for software simulations as well as the other stuff we're doing. Even got a full set of nicely interactive navigation buttons all build and 'programmed' and ready to go. I think our content is going to look a lot more professional.

Of course, this was the goal all along.

All this heady success gets me kinda celebratory and frisky. I see other rewards ahead. *grin*

Stripped Gears and Muddled Minds

Surprising myself, I dragged my bike down from the rafters of the garage and took it for a spin this morning. I am seriously pondering biking to and from the Train instead of taking the bus. I figure that the weather will be nice enough in the summer and the extra exercise certainly can't hurt. 2-3 days a week would be a good thing. Having bought new bikes for the kiddies recently, I'm jonesing for a new velocipede myself. Unfortunately, I'd have to sell the existing 2 beasties I have before I'd be justified. My road bike is awesome, but I need new pedals/clips and new shoes and I need one of the wheels aligned and trued up. My mountain bike is a real cheapie but probably better to the somewhat battered streets here in suburbia. I also managed to strip one of the gears (a middle one, of course) last spring so shifting is a nice challenge. Its also a fixed-frame bike so the ride is a bit hard on the bod. If I'm gonna go spend the money on pedals/clips and shoes, I might as well....well, you get the picture. I foresee a purchase of Dockers Wrinkle-free clothing in my relatively near future, too. Saw some nice bikes in a flyer from a bike shop closeby, so maybe I can get a good deal. Of course, if I could find my camel pack and my biking gloves and my tools, I'd feel happier. Fucked if I know where they're hiding at the moment.

The Boy actually came along with me. I was, I admit, a bit reluctant to have him come along. Its a bit of a long ride, and I wasn't sure he'd keep up at the pace I wanted to go. Its also a tough ride on the streets and I am usually reluctant to ride on the sidewalks. But he wanted to come, so come along he did. To his credit, he managed to make the 14km round trip and didn't whine once but he was pretty wiped when we got home. In his words, "I'm glad I made the trip but I'll never do it again. I'm gonna buy a bulldozer and flatten Ontario." Go figure, he thinks it's hilly.

I probably should be working on, well, work stuff today but I'm not sure I'm motivated to do it yet. Its one of those situations where there's SO much to do, but its hard to see where to start.

The Girl has a short concert this afternoon, but its at the church just around the corner so that makes it easy on the to-and-fro side.

Blog-a-Thon Continues...

Courtesy of the Free Writer, I bring you the question and answer session called the Blog-a-Thon. (Rules posted below.)

FW: What would happen if Calvin and Hobbes met Mr. Clean?
MS: I dunno, would Mr. Clean be able to see Hobbes? Mr. Clean would take one look at Calvin's house in the aftermath of some kind of whirlwind (bathtime, or say, an excavator in the living room, or filling the dishwasher with Chocolate Pudding) and after surveying the carnage, he'd grow his hair out, put on some kind of shabby robe, move to Bountiful, BC and get out ot the cleaning fluids business entirely.

FW: Do you care that the NHL season was cancelled, should the center line be removed?
MS: Now that my football season is fast approaching (June 11, here we come!) I'm living without the NHL with no sign of the DTs whatsoever. Of course, playing hockey twice a week keeps the twitchies away. Removing the red line? I dunno...some forwards are pretty stupid and might forget which part of the rink they're supposed to be in. This presumes that you didn't leave some big-ass chasm in the ice when you removed the line in the first place, right?

FW: When did you first realize that you weren't homosexual?[This is intended in good fun and to provoke a weird or profound answer]
MS: I never realized that I wasn't. I've just taken great steps to reinforce my beliefs in that area. *evil grin* Of course, this disappoints and old boss of mine no end because for the life of him he doesn't understand why I won't consider hopping the fence.

FW: You've just won $100,000 [I'm a cheapskate], what now?
MS: Oh man, is this before or after I get to Lee Valley for tools? (although if I blew the whole hundred large on tools and widgets I think my wife might shit a kitten.) Okay...budgeting, budgeting...fuck. I've got it. I'd pay Rik Emmett $50K to come to my house and really teach me to play guitar...then I'd pay RUSH the other $50K to let me sit in for Neil Peart for a set.

FW: Name your dream gadget.
MS: Is this a two-parter with the one about the hundred large?? Dream gadget....holy crap...How about my own orbital spacecraft with a workshop built in? Shit, I'll need room for a library, too. Okay, the International Space Station qualifies as my ultimate gadget. Until someone builds me my own NCC-1701...

---

Blog-a-Thon Rules:

I'll offer to interview the next how many ever people to respond to this post that will follow these rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me." Please also leave your blog address.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones above.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
   

Mumblings and Bumblings (bring your own breadcrumbs)

I'm so fucking jealous of one of my co-workers: she's starting flight training. Thanks so much barry cohen, you spineless little weasel. I wanted to fly...okay to learn to fly a plane in the absence of actually either flapping my arms and defying gravity or hurling myself at the earth and being unsuccesful in the attempt. Of course. There's always the chance that I'm not a natural pilot and I dunno how I'd deal with that. Bad piloting skills don't make for long careers in the air. At least if I have a bad day in goal I've got defencemen to back me up and I can always come back and play another game. Flying isn't so forgiving.

Fears...read some interesting thoughts on fears...fear of committment is really a fear of success? The Daily Inbox seems to think so. Is everyone so afraid of success? If we're so afraid of success does that mean we're in denial when it happens? Doesn't this fear really translate as a fear of the unknown?

Speaking of unknowns, Cricket wants to be an honorary Canadian. I say we cover her in maple syrup, shine a bright light in her face and grill her for definitions of things like the rouge, the extra Defensive Back, forechecking, tag-up offsides, chesterfields, poutine, Farley Mowat, Tom Longboat, appointed senates, and multi-party parliaments. If she passes, she's in. Otherwise she takes her rack and gams back to Pecan Country. She may be eligible for bonus points if she can generate a constructivist essay on the socio-political impact of Bob and Doug McKenzie on Canada-US relations.

Is it possible to sprain a thumb using a Blackberry?

I have some totally boffo ideas for our e-learning development and I really hope I can pull them off, cuz holy fuck does it take a long time to develop content.

Boffo...love that term.

Google rescued my ass from sheer boredom 6-7 times this week. I love reading historical fiction and.then googling for the facts...fucking brilliant.

Monty Python: you guys rock. You're comedic gods. I could watch that stuff again and again.

Friday again...

A relatively productive week and a somewhat busy weekend ahead. Yep. Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose.

Its actually been relatively quiet in the ol' blogosphere. John Q has probably been busy with work and unable to post. Kristin is away on what may be her farewell trip to see her Granny. The Gilamonstre is out of town on a conference. dtrini, Biff love him, has been posting up a storm. I know that Cricket has been relatively active, but I can't exactly visit her blog at work. Not that the content isn't work safe, but the title might raise some eyebrows among the firewall gestapo. Several of my other regular reads are likewise quiet. *sigh* God knows how I'll cope over the summer. (is there a 12-step program for blog-a-holics?)

On a very happy note, my friend Jewell (new link included) popped up in my MSN after a long absence. I pointed her to the blog as well as that of my DW and she was suitable inspired to start one herself. She's a Canadian who moved to Aussie, for love, even... She's been there for about 18 months now so all is good and she's never been happier. DW and I miss her, but its nice to have her back online.

My energy is at somewhat low ebb this afternoon. Sometimes I wonder if its something like ADHD? I've never been tested, but sometimes its frustrating when I can't focus on what needs to be done at work.

My brain is in definitely babble mode. I feel a stream of consciousness coming on....

Bring on the babble!

Busy, busy, busy....

I've barely had time to scratch my ass today, but I figured I should make time to put something up here so that my loyal audience doesn't disappear over the fears of "dead air".

So...here I am! Heads down in e-learning storyboard work...

*ugh*

Returns and Farewells

Back at the office today, having been away for my e-learning course. I suppose there's an advantage to being wired up with the crackberry because I don't really have any outstanding emails to deal with. However, I do feel a certain loss of momentum being absent from my veal-fattening pen for so long.

I am, to put it mildly, dragging my ass. With my hockey game being so late last night I didn't get home until well past my bedtime. Of course, DW and I were running around like mad with a Hockey Tournament for The Boy down at the local Arena all weekend, to say nothing of buying new bikes for the Wondertwins and doing all the necessary adjustments... *sigh*

My winter hockey season wrapped up with a disappointing loss in the Division final. I also said good-bye to the team I've played with for the past 5+ years. I knew it was coming, but it didn't make breaking the news any easier. I admit, it hasn't always been a fun ride and we've lost more games than we've won, but still, it's a good team and we've come a long way since the start of Beginner hockey. I take a certain quiet pride in knowing that a) I've played more games with that team than anyone else, and b) I never missed a season. I leave the team in relatively good administrative hands and I've already made arrangements for a replacement goalie, and I know he'll be a bit of an upgrade in skills.

So why do I still feel a twinge of sadness?

Anyway, I'm now on an unheard-of month long hiatus from hockey. I start with my new teams when I get back from the cruise in May.

Workplace Vocabulary

Normally I'd turn these over to dtrini but I figured I should get a little of the gravy once in a while.

TESTICULATING: Waving your arms around and talking Bollocks.
BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a projectfailed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS: The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.
SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (promotion also applies - there may be cake.)
MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" needless paperwork and processes.
404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found,"
OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realise that you've just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all')
WOOFies: Well Off Older Folk.
CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously farting while passing through a CUBE FARM, then enjoying thesounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING

Ahhhh.....almost summer

The season truly arrives with the inaugural barbecue session.

Tonight's fare, all natural turkey sausages with very nice seasonings from our local Mennonite butcher. Awesome stuff.

...and I got a certificate and everything!

So my 3 days of "e-learning fundamentals" are complete. All in all, I don't think it was 3 days wasted, but I'm not sure some of my classmates would feel the same way. Some of my classmates were a little surprised that I wasn't disappointed with the outcome, considering that I've had been involved in e-learning in one form or another for about 5 years now. My logic was this: I'm never opposed to learning new stuff, and there's a lot of stuff I've had to figure out for myself over the last year or so when e-learning really started taking off where I was working. It was nice to learn that I'd made some of the right decisions. That has a value for me that's pretty tough to underestimate.

I'm inclined to give the facilitator a bit of leeway for a couple of reasons: one, it was the first delivery of the course; and, two, he had a really wide range of skills and expertise and personal agendas in the class.

Yeah, there were some flaws, and some clear misses about the message regarding e-learning, but the course has some serious potential. I have a pretty good rapport with the program director for the Adult Ed. certificate and she wants to sit down with me, and some of the facilitators to talk about how to reposition the course so that the messages are clearer.

I really had to work at restraining myself from throwing too much of my own expertise into the delivery mix. I mean, I felt bad for the facilitator, but there were a lot of experiences (not just mine) he could have drawn upon to help illustrate his points.

Today, for example, I passed around a sheet asking any of my classmates who wanted a list of some of the resources and tools and links I'd used in my own discovery of the e-learning process. There were 20 of us in the class, including me and the other program staff...I got 19 signatures and email addresses.

Wow.

So I'll have to figure out just how to compile all this stuff, because its going to be a lot more work than I thought. I'm not sure if I'm going to create an email, or upload the content to my consulting site, or even start an e-learning blog separate from this one.

If only I'd had these opportunities when I was consulting... *sigh*

%¥@!#*¤^ Blogger....

THREE times last night....THREE freakin times I tried to post something I had sitting in draft. Sure, I could log-in, but when I tried to Publish, or even Save as Draft, I get "Cannot find server..." errors.

"But it already knows where the server is, Brain...I mean, we were just there!"

"Never mind that, Pinky...we must prepare for tomorrow night."

"Why, Brain...what are we going to do tomorrow night?"

"The same thing we do every night: TRY TO POST TO THE BLOG!!"

Blogger guys: let's sort this out, shall we?

(Author comment: Of course, it fucking figures...this one actually posts...)

And I thought *I* was creative with Lego

Click the title link above to see some really awesome and creative Lego work. Kinda puts the replica "Crystal Cathedral" to shame, doesn't it?

~Whew!~

What a day.

There's nothing quite like the rush of a really good learning experience to fire me up. Its almos like an epiphany moment: you sit and think, "omg this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing." Perhaps that's a challenging concept for some but that's really how I feel.

Let's trip down memory lane for a moment, shall we? Have you ever had one of those moments when you're jus "in the zone"? (No, you perverts...in this case it doesn't mean that you've got a good shaggin' rhythm happening...that's another kind of "zone". *wink*) I remember where I was when I realized I needed to get into corporate education. I also remember (with vivid clarity) when I got caught in a round of staff cuts by my corporate training employer. It was decision time: stay the path, or re-tool for something else? I made the decision to stay the course. I remember the rush I felt and the momentum when I was doing my Certificate program. If they'd dropped me into a Masters' slot right away, I would have gone for it without even blinking.

I have to say, today's session was good. Despite the chaos caused by the academics in the crowd, I enjoyed it. The academic folks often have trouble relating to "real world" challenges, concepts and constrains. However, there was lots of good content for us business folks. What really helped me was that even though a lot of the stuff on Day 1 was review, it helped to reinforce that the things I've figured out on my own...well, they're right...I'm on the right path. And the new stuff I've learned helps to fill in the gaps.

Pretty good learning day, all things considered.

Oh yeah? I'll see you at recess...

I'm going back to school. Okay, so its only for 3 days, but that counts, doesn't it?

A couple of years ago, I took a bit of a financial risk and signed up for a Certificate program in Adult Education. Why was this a risk? Um, well, I was working as an idependent consultant and I hadn't quite figured out how I was going to pay for the whole thing. But since every one seemed to be looking for this piece of paper before they'd even sniff at my resume, I figured I should get off my ass.

For all that I was a lousy student in my school years, I've appreciated education as an adult. I'm a lot more motivated and I find I relate to the experiences better.

One of my secret shames is that I never finished my undergrad. Of course, a liberal arts BA is a nice piece of paper, I don't think it would have advanced my career any. I'm a lot more proud of my college diploma.

The group that I did my Cert program was pretty cohesive. We had a mixed bag of people and a pretty wide range of experiences...even the facilitators said that we were the most tightly-knit groups they had seen. I was absolutely pumped about being back in a learning environment, particularly one that had a direct bearing on my career (for a change). So I have a dream now to pursue a Masters' degree in some Education field and I've even found one who doesn't care that I don't have the undergrad. Of course, how I'll come up with the $20K to pay for it, I'm not sure. But I've been down that road before, now, haven't I??

So, I'm pretty jazzed about getting back for this course. Its run at the same University faculty and Its a new module for the certificate program focused on e-learning. A couple of the people from my old group will be there, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. I've even met the facilitator through one of my old business contacts a couple of years ago...again, this bodes well.

Even though I'm probably more experienced than some of the participants with respect to e-learning, I'm still hoping to learn some new things.

Besides, its 3 days away from the zoo. As dtrini will tell you, that's never a bad thing. *grin*

The Day after Yesterday - Is that another Dennis Quaid movie?

*ugh*

Unpacking.

I genuinely hate moving. I really do. When my DW and I got under the same roof on a permanent basis last year, I loathed the move process. Not the move itself, mind you, just the moving process. I'd been in the same apartment for 7 years, so I had put down more than a few roots...so the packing, sorting and culling were arduous.

No less so with my office move. I've been here 9 months and I've collected a staggering amount of stuff. So this morning is spent sorting and culling paper and tossing/shredding the stuff I don't need.

There have got to be better ways to spend a Monday.

Weekend Madness

While I can't speak for my DW, I know that I will be glad when the weekend finally ends. The weekend has been pretty busy with both of the Wondertwins having overlapping commitments, to say nothing of the things DW and I had to do around all of that.

My DW, unfortunately, is fighting a bug. (DW sends her regards to the readers at large...she's simply too wiped to type.) Its probably the one that has made its way through the house. Hell, even Psycho Kitty has been sick. Add to this 2 kids cooped up in the house because of brutal weather and its a tempest in a two-storey teapot. If this is any kind of indication, I didn't even have the energy or the interest to blog until right now.

The Girl has had 2 choir performances (Friday night and Sunday aft/eve) and The Boy has wrapped up his hockey season with a 2-game series (Sat & Sun.) I had to miss my own playoff game this evening because I simply couldn't make it. *sigh*

We're collectively stressed out and the kids are a handful when they're cooped up. They get at each other like cats & dogs. Of course, our favourite refrain from them is, "I'm bored...there's nothing to do." These are the same children who have lots of books & activites, a video game system, a TV, etc. downstairs... While I can't confirm it, I think this is kid-code for "Entertain me because I'm not interested in doing it myself." I do what I can to not go all Drill Sergeant on their little asses because I didn't have a lot of that kind of stuff when I was a kid. 2-3 channels on TV, no video games, not a lot of other kids around because of where we lived. Nope, it was books, Lego, models, musical instruments, or nuthin'. We knew better than to express our level of boredom because that would immediately result in some kind of household chore.

So, DW is going out (justifiably reluctantly) to her last kid-related event (kid choir exec meeting) and I have to two of them for the balance of the night. The Boy has homework, so that will have to get finished. If you hear something strange over CNN Headline News about a volcano erupting in Southern Ontario, you'll know that I've spontaneously combusted. *grin*

Saving grace: Ex picks up kids from school Monday.

Update: 4 April. Apparently we *do* have the kidlets tonight, just to cap off the weekend's insanity. DW has a meeting out and The Girl has, yep, her choir practice. So I get to to drop-off and pick-up. *sigh*

Office Moves

There are fewer brutal experiences than an office move. More importantly, an office move where you're just doing a cubicle swap, as opposed to changing buildings.

We've been in the middle of expansions and renovations and stuff, so of course we have to change EVERYTHING. Walls have come down, new cable run, new phones, new offices going up...in other words, it's basically a goat fuck.

So I'm sitting here in a bare-ass cubicle, waiting for the end of day so I can pack up the last of the computer stuff and get some of it moved to another cube. 2 pods down. Sheesh.

Of course, the bulk of the people on my floor have already been through this madness, so my team and most of the folks in my immediate area are pretty much the last bunch to move.

Its an interesting exercise in humanity. There were a couple of cubicle occupiers who are working at another location today, so that means some poor bastard has to clean out their space. Jayzus. Some of these people are pigs. Some of them are food hogs. I can't believe we don't have mice. End result: The day is pretty much a write-off. Monday should be, as well.

Can I go home now?

Stoopid MSN

MSN Messenger has been conspicuous by its chaotic behaviour of late. I succumbed to peer pressure and installed the new Beta of Messenger.

It keeps dropping offline for l o n g periods of time and not letting me back in.

Between this and the ongoing frustrations with Blogger access, its not been the best of weeks online.

Karma sucks

My sucky rec/wreck hockey league sucked at scheduling so that we have to play on a weeknight, instead of our usual Sunday. We also have to take a long sucky drive to a different arena for the privilege. That sucks. Of course, since its the playoffs and no game can end in a tie, we might start later than our 9PM slot. Also sucky.

I wanted to get home a bit early so I could have some relax time. I get to the train station; my train: Delayed. Shit.

Wait a few minutes after notifying DW of my plight.

Update over the PA: Train cancelled. sucks twice. So much for getting home early.

Managed to catch the next cattle-car local train, now double-loaded with passengers and my DW picked me up annd drove me home. Biff love her...

Things were fine until one of my car-less players called telling me that his ride was sick and had bailed. Shit. Down another defenceman. This really sucks. So I give him a couple of phone numbers and leave a few messages because, of course, this call comes shortly before I headed out the door. At this point I'm wondering who *is* going to show up, instead of who's missing.

The drive was uneventful and I get to the other arena with tons of time to spare. Park somewhere in the neighbouring area code, drag all my shit inside and check the board for our room. Red rink? Nope. Green rink? Nope. Hmmmm. Gold rink? Nope, not there either. Uh-oh. Um, Blue rink? Nope. Oh shit. This isn't good. Mental panic ensues. Did I get the wrong night, the wrong time? Just then, one of my players calls me back.

"Hey, Dave. Where are ya?"

"I'm about 10 minutes from the arena, why?"

"Which arena, dude?"

"The ****, 9PM on rink 3. That's what you said, isn't it?"

Me: " "

I'm. At. The. Wrong. Arena.

More panic: Did I tell everyone to come here?

Did I mention that I'm not only the goalie but also the team's admin person? So, like, I remind the guys where to play, and when??

One of my few virtues (although the jury is still divided as to whether I have any virtue at all) is that I'm almost always riddiculously early for things; and this time it paid off.

Game time: 9:00PM
Now: 8:23PM
Race to other arena
Arrive: 8:30 PM

Now, these arenas are not exactly co-located and I actually had to get back on the highway and test out the low-altitude flight handling characteristics of the Mighty Intrepid.

(Ever see a goalie in a panic? It's not pretty. )

As it turns out the only one who had cranial-rectal inversion about the rink locations was me. My teammates were there, somewhat relieved at my arrival.

The bad news? Only 9 skaters showed from a team of 15, not including our 2 subs. Also absent. The bad guys? 14 skaters.

We did our best but we ran out of gas. It's a rare occasion when I know I played well but we lost anyway.

It was a long drive home and a late arrival.

The saving grace? My DW was still up.

Maybe the evening didn't quite suck after all.