The Year of Living Dangerously

I probably shouldn't be launching such a major change to our web pages at work, on my last day before 2 solid weeks vacation, but I'd rather not have to remember all the details to switch over to the new dynamic market statistics PDF generation. It's a twisty labyrinth of a multiserver file system with many database sources. Just keeping all the symbolically linked directories in my head simultaneously is making my brain itch.

So I've been doing as much testing today as possible, maybe have a quick peek from home tomorrow evening to see if I broke the internets.

I'm taking off 3 hours earlier than yesterday... 4pm! X-treme!

Happy, but old

I'm happy that we've got a sizeable contingent of friends from university living in town, 3 of whom are literally a stone's throw away. (Assuming I could throw well.)

It also makes me feel happy to see the evidence of existence of really old friends I haven't seen in a millenia. It makes me wonder, though, how old I would look to them now. I'll ask next week when Amy and I visit my high school best friend Michelle and her family back in Brampton. The cumulative indignities of time are less evident in me to the folks I see regularly (or at least every few years), but it'd be many years all at once for those who I haven't seen since my teen years.

I'm still wrapping my mind around two things I've learned recently:
1. The new Michelle Callender paradigm: Mother of two!
2. The mischievous urchin Sarah Fox: professional bass guitarist!

Upon further investigation, both Ryan and Dane from B-town have gone on to careers in music. *sigh* D'ya see, 17-year old me! It IS possible to do music for a living... You don't have to do Physics and Math if you don't really enjoy it. Ah well...

It'll be even more fun to see folks in yet another 15 years! Woo, Time!! At what point will I be required to sport a pipe?

Current music: Anoushka Shankar - Sinister Grains

I'm Mad at MADD

I've been irritated at MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) due to their pro-criminalization stance on marijuana. The criminalization of it merely helps prison industry growth, diverts resources from true crimes (incl. corporate ones), ruins lives and helps no one.

I had previously given them money, but I regret it now. Ironic, too, since some recent cursory forensic auditing of them has revealed that less than $0.20 of every dollar collected by them actually went to the cause. The rest went to telemarketer firms and administration.

I've told them several times on the phone and once on e-mail that I no longer support them. Hence, today's MADD e-mail, mentioning Stephen Harper with their faint cooing in the background, was the last straw. I sent this response...

===================================
Dear Karen,

For the record, I am firmly opposed to this new agenda of MADD and Stephen Harper.

I believe the new initiatives are a huge step backwards in civil rights and a step towards a fascist state. Tests for marijuana usage result in detection days after the effects have long since ceased. And yet, your efforts have now instituted a system where a random spot-check of such an UNIMPAIRED driver can now result in harsh prison sentences and the loss of someone's livelihood. All because that citizen does not hold with illogical neo-conservative views and may partake of a corporate-condemned substance.

The "problem of ... drug-impaired driving" is, frankly, statistically insignificant in view of the numbers for alcohol-related accidents. And despite the attention paid to drunken driving, fatigue has always been the primary cause of driving impairment.

In addition, it is a misleading claim that the "Government’s focus" is on drug-impaired driving. More dangerous driving behaviour is caused by legal drugs than by marijuana usage and yet the legal drugs are not the targets of this campaign. This is simply more of the same neo-conservative agenda to obstruct drug legalization.

Shame on you and your entire organization. Shame on Stephen Harper and his party of ignorant reactionaries.

Take me off all contact lists maintained by your disgraceful group, immediately.

Yours, with alarm and hostility,

Chris Murphy
Toronto, ON


>From:
>To:
>Subject: What’s new at MADD Canada - Winter 2006
>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:37:02 -0500
>
>2010 Winston Park Drive, Suite 500, Oakville, ON L6H 5R7
>Victim Support Hotline 1 800 665-MADD
>www.madd.ca
>
>Dear Mr. Murphy,
>
>Your commitment to MADD Canada is making a difference!
>Read all about the latest MADD Canada news in our MADD
>Canada Winter 2006 newsletter.
>
>Highlights of this issue include:
>
>Prime Minister Supports Project Red Ribbon
>
>Prime Minister Stephen Harper tied a MADD Canada red
>ribbon to a vehicle at a media conference in Kitchener
>on Friday, November 10 to raise awareness for sober
>and safe driving through the holiday season. The Prime
>Minister spoke to MADD Canada representatives, police
>officers and community leaders about the Government’s
>focus on tackling the problem of alcohol- and drug-
>impaired driving. Read More…

Ella, the Advance Scout

Ella, our Lhasa Apso, was picked up today by my mom to accompany her to Belleville. I'm looking forward to not having to do the late night walks, although we both miss her a lot already.

Ah, Roma

The southern face of Constantine's Triumphal Arch close to the Colosseo... and me attempting to appear triumphant.

I think I enjoy the pictures of hot springtime in Italy even more as we enter our Canadian winter!

Talking with Amy about Venice today, she now feels that we should have taken a gondola ride, even though we viewed (still view) it as ludicrously touristy. She pointed out that, though it may just be age, it would have been nice to boat along the quieter backwater canals.

If Venice isn't submerged in 5 years time, perhaps we'll correct that neglect.

I <3 Karaoke

I can't believe how much I enjoy the Karaoke games that If and Oksana bought recently. There are two microphones -- great for Karaoke duelling -- and apparently there's a variety of editions of the game, including an 80s one. Now, if only there was an 80s alternative/goth music one, then I'd be rockin' the mic!

They've gone kinda crazy with the singing game purchases, not that I object... It's just that with a bunch of looming projects at work and Amy's full course load until May, there's not the excess of leisure time where we could hang out with the friends and maintain the competitive closeness in these games that make them all the more enjoyable. By the time May rolls around, both If and 'San will be experts, and the game aspect of it will suffer. *sigh*

Looking forward to my two weeks off starting Friday evening...

Stop! Photo time!

I was looking at photos to use for a different desktop background and found this from 2003 when we explored Rome for about 2 weeks. Huge stairway inside the Vatican with Amy looking up on the right.

Brilliant suggestions from Blockbuster

Amy was exhausted after this week of exams and had requested sushi and a low-key movie, preferably a Merchant Ivory type movie with period costumes and a dangerous levels of lace and frilly items. (No zombies, martial arts, exploding things, etc. and especially no exploding martial artist zombies.)

So, Sushi... check! Movie... "May I help you find something, sir?" interrupts a freshly-hatched Blockbuster employee.

"Hmm. What the heck. I'm trying to find something very sedate. A relaxed kinda movie for a woman about my age."

And so the hatchling turns to the nearest shelf and points out "Bicentennial Man", a Robin Williams vehicle and attempts to sell me on its merits."He's a robot who becomes self-aware", he says, graspingly.

"Um, we're a bit tired of the Robin Williams schtick. Since 1980."

After glancing through more titles he suddenly makes a pleased sound and presents what he considers a likely winner. "What about this... Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo?"

"Definitely not."

Another aisle, a couple more options discarded, including "Eyes Wide Shut" since we've already seen it. "I've seen all the other Kubrick films, but heard this was just a light porno", he says.

"Uh, not really. It was a well done film with lots of interesting elements."

Ultimately he points out "The Passion Of The Christ" as a great recommendation.I chuckled in bemusement as I realized the defining feature of this young lad wasn't just stupidity, but that specific brand of Christian stupidity.

"No. It's just torture porn. Besides which we're both hard-core atheists. I'd probably find it funny to watch, though."

I got "The Shipping News".

4am - the ugliest part of the day

Early day today. Got to sleep at 11:30pm last night and up to start work at 4am. Changes a-plenty in the systems and I needed to do even more code changes and watch it deal with different data scenarios with the state of the databases specifically at that time of day.

Five hours sleep and a 4am wake up time leaves me in a foul mood. Wanted to kill Django, as the little sh*t kept interrupting me as I began the extreme crunch time between 6am-8am. I kept shooing him, and he returning and clawing at me until I had had it and shut him in the bathroom for that 2hr span. (Apparently he thought this was "outside the box" thinking and reciprocated later outside his box for A). Cat didn't know how close he was to being an ex-cat.

Ate good Ethiopian food for lunch with Dave L, Dave V, and Vanessa and Ed. Nice long lunch, over 1.5 hrs, then back for meetings and work until I finished my labours after 5:30pm. Very happy to get out early!

So it begins.

"Nearing the end of 2006, why should I start up another blog?", I ask myself.

Um, well, I can never remember events particularly well, and, though incremental, they tend to add up to big changes over time. My other blog is a far more argumentative one whereas this one can be solely a chronicle of daily dog and cat adventures and everyday goings on so I can remember what happened in a given year as it flew by!