Admiration

I'm always impressed when I hear about people who clearly understand what's important. This couple meets at the race track,
gets married there, and hasn't yet figured out their plan for what their new family looks like: they still live in different towns.

I like this kind of thing. I'm a little jaded by the standard fare of long-term dating and perpetual engagements. Ames and I had only known each other 10 months when we got married: it'll have been 16 years next month. We'd only known each other four weeks when we decided to marry: looking back it seems we should just have headed to town hall right then.

Don't get me wrong: gimmicky weddings are a blight on what little remains of Western civilization. But there's a difference between gimmick and enthusiasm.

So all the best to Greg and Linda.

Sheople

So I'm test-driving Flock: a web browser for Mac that appears to be much more like a client than a browser. I'm in minute 8 right now, and am frankly impressed by what it offers.

The basic idea is, the browser keeps you logged into things like Blogger and Facebook; and offers browser-based tools to interact with them. So rather than posting this from the little editor window in Blogger, I'm using the "Blog Editor" in Flock.

So far, an interesting idea.


In more personal news, we're moving on buying a house. Inspection is today. That's a lot of why I've been out of the loop: the house search has consumed a great deal of time and energy over the last couple months.

I've been intentionally limiting my personal computer time, trying to spend more time reading, pedalling, and paddling. I've found my laptop can be the most vicious time sink.

I owe several people phone calls and email. I'm working on it...



Finally, today is our 14th wedding anniversary.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Busy, busy

I suddenly realized I hadn't posted in almost a month. Wow.

April has been busy, but not perhaps so productive. We'll see.

The kids and I have been carving out a canoe paddle for the eldest. Once we get a chance to try it out and test it, we can make paddles for the others based on how well this one works. We made it by laminating strips of cedar, poplar, and hemlock. This paddle's been made entirely by hand: we glued it with clamps; shaped it with a coping saw, chisels, a block plane, and a spokeshave; and are smoothing it with sandpaper and sanding blocks. No power tools at all. We'll see how it turns out: there have already been three mistakes, the worst of which is a split in the blade. It's a very thin split, but it's there. I think some epoxy will fix it, but we need to proceed with caution.

From April 2009

From April 2009

I turned 37 this month. Ames baked me a 12-layer chocolate cake. This is a traditional dessert in eastern North Carolina: it's made of very thin layers of a white cake (I like pound cake best), stacked with layers of chocolate icing. The result is a brutally sweet cake that's incredibly rich. These cakes are a lot of work, and it's traditional to count the layers before eating. The most I've ever had is 23, I think 12 or 15 is about right. There are very few things I prefer to one of these cakes.

From April 2009

From April 2009

I rode my bike to work 10 times in April: it was in the shop a couple days, and I had some business I had to take care of, so I drove to work more than I wanted to this month. On the other hand, Ames got me a bike computer for my birthday, so I was able to get a more-or-less accurate trip distance. So here it is: Google Maps says my trip is 11.5 miles; Map My Ride says 11.6 miles; my car's odometer figures it at 12 miles; and my bike computer says it's 12.07 miles. But my trip home is about 11.5 miles: it's easier to take a more direct route home, when it takes right turns instead of lefts across several lanes of traffic. So I'm going to figure my rides as 12 miles one-way, or 24 miles per day; on the theory that the actual clocked mileage in my car and bike is more accurate than online mapping software.

I've not been reading much recently, except my Bible.

So that's my month in review.

Hey there

So I'm still here, I just haven't been posting or commenting a lot. I've been caught up in non-blogging pursuits for a while: I'll be back in a bit.

Since my last posting, by bus reading has included Descent into Hell by Charles Williams and The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks. Descent into Hell has long been among my favourite novels, written by one of my favourite authors. A few people have asked me to help them get started reading Charles Williams, I generally lend them the following titles (in this order):

1. All Hallow's Eve


2. War in Heaven


3. Many Dimensions


4. The Place of the Lion


5. and Descent into Hell

That's not a complete Chas. Williams anthology, but it gets the essentials across.

I always recommend Descent into Hell last, because I like it best, but I think it's also the most powerful and probably the easiest to misunderstand. I start with All Hallow's Eve because it's the most approachable, and is a great "hook" to get someone into Williams.

Descent into Hell is my one Williams book that's actually a little battered. I cherish each blemish, as they were put on by different people enjoying the book. Not abusing; enjoying. An abused book is a little sad, but a book that's taken a few hits during careful use is a testimony to its quality.

I might need to read Lilith and Phantastes next: it's been a long time.

Two Things

So I've been neglecting this blog recently: that's more laziness than anything else. But today I wanted to break the silence to mention two things.

First, there is an interesting editorial by Paul St. Pierre, "A voice from the grave's edge", apparently published in The Vancouver Sun. It's a most accurate and succinct write-up of the direction North American culture has taken in my lifetime. Whether one considers the changes in the USA since 9/11 or the Maoist speech controls in Canada, it's obvious to anyone who thinks that the world is changing, and not for the better. Ayn Rand seems less like a novelist and more like a prescient every day.

St. Pierre writes:

Our Canada is now very close to a condition in which everything that is not compulsory is forbidden. We have become prisoners of the state. Like modern jail prisoners, all our needs for balanced diet, climate-controlled shelter, approved and tested medication, mental health counselling, higher education, suitable entertainment, grief counselling and consensual safe sex are available free. The inmate lacks only freedom itself.

This one is well worth the read.

Second, I've been greatly enjoying West Coast beer, and really have to mention the seasonal offering from Alaskan Brewing Company. I discovered Alaskan's beers when I moved out here, and I've become a real fan. Alaskan Amber Ale is not the best beer I've ever had: but it's very, very good. And at around $1 per bottle at Costco (about the same on sale in Safeway or Fred Meyer), it's a real winner. Listen, I take beer seriously, and I've been drinking this stuff almost exclusively for the last month. Smithwick's and Guinness are better, but not much. This is really good stuff, and at a price point where I can't justify not buying it.

And this last summer, I enjoyed several bottles of the incredible Alaskan Summer Ale. It's nice to have a "summer ale" that's light in colour rather than taste.

But today I bought a 12-pack of Alaskan Winter Ale, and it's amazing. Check out the colour of this nectar:

From Alaskan Winter Ale

This is an insanely good beer. This is the sort of brew the ancient Teutons dreamed they'd drink in the halls of their pagan gods after dying in gloriously in battle. If you like beer and you have access to Alaskan ales, you need to get some of this.

Next to Sarah Palin, this is best thing to come out of Alaska.

Going Green

When we moved to the NorthWest, I purchased a bike specifically to ride to work. The new job is about 10 miles from the house, but the less direct route is about 12 miles long: longer, but the shoulders are wider and the roads not quite so fast. So today I rode it the first time.

Ames met me at the campus and drove me home, but I did 12 miles on the bike today. It took almost exactly one hour, so I averaged 12 mph. I expect that to get shorter as I get into better shape, but it was frankly better than I expected.

I'm very excited about the new job, by the way. I start Monday!

Cat's out

Well, the cat is officially out of the bag. I have accepted a job offer in Tacoma, to start when my current support contract comes to a close. It entails a significant pay cut from what I make right now; but it looks extremely interesting, and the work environment appears to be first-rate.

My current customer/employer is unhappy with this decision, but I've let them know six weeks in advance that I'm disinterested in renewing my contract. I'm a contractor, not an employee; so the work relationship is always a little odd. I figured the fact they had me interviewing replacements indicated it was their intention for me to leave in the foreseeable future, but that's not apparently the case. Ah well... I'm well within the terms of the contract, and I've been more than patient with their unwillingness to commit in writing to maintaining our relationship past September; so I'm leaving with very little guilt, although I've enjoyed working on this project.

At any rate, I've been quiet about this turn of events on my blog, for obvious reasons. But now it's public knowledge, so I thought I'd mention it.

I've been a bit of a job-hopper in my adult life, but I never really intended it to work out that way. Every job is the one I want to be my last, but that's never how it works out. I did have the perfect job once, but economics made me leave: I was commuting 100 miles to work, and sleeping on my brother-in-law's couch a couple nights a week. Our house simply wouldn't sell, and I eventually had to realize it was an untenable situation.

Too bad: that was an incredible place to work, and I still keep up with the people there. I wonder how many people have had a perfect job and had to leave?


So I'm hoping this new job is the one, but obviously that remains to be seen. I've learned not to try and recreate something that was wonderful, but I have to admit a certain excitement based on some similarities to the perfect job that I see in this new place.

Welcome home

Well, we're in our new home in the Tacoma area. The house is piled high with boxes, there is a POD in the driveway, and the kitchen is almost unusable. In other words, we're moving in.

The unload & unpack went remarkably well: the POD arrived at 7:00 AM, and it was empty by 10:00 PM. Not too bad.

I have my grill back, I re-assembled and polished it; then loaded it up for its inaugural cook: chicken leg quarters. I have a history with chicken leg quarters, it was 18 chicken leg quarters that caused the Great Fireball wherein I reduced the venturis from my gas grill into molten metal and ended up with some interesting objects:



The chicken leg quarters did very well over charcoal, and turned out not too badly. But I still have deep respect for chicken leg quarters.

A friend told me yesterday that Anthony Bourdain summed up the Pacific Northwest with "obsession". A quick Google search suggests that's true, but I've been unable to find the original quote. Nevertheless, it is an extremely apt description.

I don't think Vancouver Island is characteristically obsessive---certainly not like Seattle or Tacoma---there is a very different culture and sense there.

But at least in the Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula areas, obsession is rife. Ames and I travelled down to Tacoma from the Island for some business a couple weeks ago, via the BlackBall Ferry, which runs between Victoria, BC and Port Angeles, WA. Port Angeles is a very interesting town---I regret it's so close to home, as I'll likely only ever go through it, rather than stopping and exploring it. One thing one notices about Port Angeles is, every restaurant---without exception---advertises "Espresso". You see signs "Soup and Espresso," "Burgers and Espresso"... the combinations get quite interesting. Even here in the Tacoma area, we've seen a stand advertising "Hot Dogs and Espresso".

The cliche that there is a Starbuck's on every corner isn't far off. One intersection a few miles from the new house has a Starbuck's, an independent coffee shop, and a grocery store advertising an in-store Starbuck's kiosk. Literally all on one intersection. Every strip mall seems to have an espresso stand (generally not part of a chain) in the parking lot in addition to coffee shops (Starbuck's or otherwise) in the mall itself. A couple of the espresso stands have prominent signs advertising they're open 24 hours. Because you never know when you'll need an espresso at 3:00 AM...

These people are obsessed.

And the coffee obsession is not unique. There are at least a dozen teriyaki restaurants within 6 miles of our new house. Teriyaki and noodles, teriyaki and burgers... if you can eat it, you can find a place that serves it and teriyaki within ten miles of our place.

But despite the gentle laughs we've had at our new home and its residents, I'm honestly enjoying my time here. I have to admit I moved here somewhat reluctantly---I was wanting to be a good deal further north and less urban than where I am---but I am thoroughly pleased with our new city.

We'll be taking pictures and so on soon, but we're still in the throes of moving, so both my loyal readers will have to wait.

Finally, brethren

We arrived Monday.





The Columbia River is quite impressive:




The onto the ferry:


And finally, Vancouver Island:


Length of trip, 3,869.6 miles (6,191.4 km):

The week so far

Here's a short look at our progress so far:





















The rats are doing fine with the drive:


and Ames got some very interesting pictures:



So far, so good.

Destination Anywhere

Well, we're rapidly closing in on our moving date. And we're still not absolutely sure where we're going, but life is full of little twists and turns...

It looks like our destination is Seattle, yes, Seattle. This is by no means final, but some interesting opportunities for work are opening up for me in Seattle; and the more we've been thinking about it, the more rational a choice Seattle appears to be. In the end, Seattle has some serious advantages:

• It's close to family on Vancouver Island


• It means we don't have to move across an international border: no immigration hassles, no filing income taxes in two countries.


• It's got significantly more jobs in my field than anything I've seen in Canada, and the wages are significantly better.


• It alleviates cross-border work as far as existing business relationships are concerned

There are some disadvantages:

• It's not in Canada


• It's not too close to Trev, although a lot closer than here


• It's not in Canada


• Seattle doesn't get a lot of snow


• It's not in Canada


• Ames is not from the rain coast, which means she's not used to that climate


• It's not in Canada

But as much as I'm loathe to admit it, I'm reluctantly concluding Seattle is probably the most rational destination for us.

Now, I haven't signed anything in blood: we're not actually committed to anything yet. But Seattle is just making more and more sense.

Touching base

Life has become somewhat full of not much. You know how it is: you spend all your time in frantic business and can't possibly account for it in accomplished tasks.

We upgraded our car stereo this weekend, which was considered a justifiable expense in the light of this summer's drive from North Carolina to Vancouver Island. Let me explain: we've developed a family tradition where we listen to audio books on long drives. We generally buy an audio book from audible.com for every major car trip. An audio book generally plays for 8 or 15 hours, and costs between $12 and $25. We load them all on the iPod and play them on our drives. Audio books keep everyone in the car quiet as they listen; and unlike the ubiquitous car DVD player, an audio book teaches the kids to listen. We've got a half-dozen or so Redwall books on the iPod, as well as one or two others. Our drives are characterized by listening to books or podcasts, rather than music.

We've been using one of those FM transmitters to pipe the iPod through the stereo, but after a couple years, I've become convinced those transmitters are a waste of money. For close to $100 I have to look for free channels every 30 minutes or so, I get to hear the iPod through radio interference, I can hear people's radar detectors, and I have to turn the stereo way up to hear it at all.

So after some research, we upgraded the whole stereo head unit to an Alpine stereo with native iPod input. It's nothing fancy, but we have an older Suburban---we're not trying to pimp our ride. But the improvement is worth every cent we spent. And half-way across North Dakota, we'll be thankful for it.


In other news, we've made some friends in our daughter's soccer team. We had dinner with a very nice family on Saturday, then cooked out at their house on Memorial Day. It's always a pleasure to meet another Christian family with small kids.


Finally, there are complete episodes of The Splendid Table available as podcasts from Apple's iTunes Music Store. How cool is that? It's a great program, but it comes on Saturday afternoons, right when I have better things to do than listen to the radio. Podcasts are the greatest thing since Batter Blaster.

New York Times is reporting an interesting trend where some hospitals and physicians are taking a "disclose and apologize" approach to medical gaffes. So rather than trying to hide their mistakes, they're actually going to patients right away, telling them what they did wrong, and apologizing. Initial evidence suggests this is drastically reducing the number of lawsuits: possibly because under the "old" system of denial, patients really only had one recourse.

Mr. Boothman emphasized that he could not know whether the decline was due to disclosure or safer medicine, or both. But the hospital’s legal defense costs and the money it must set aside to pay claims have each been cut by two-thirds, he said. The time taken to dispose of cases has been halved.

It ain't much, but it's nice to have some good news on my morning RSS feeds.

Job Search Update

I had said we were moving North at the start of July. That's still the plan, but the time's coming up quickly, and it feels even closer than it is.

I'm working on the whole job front: there are two "possibles" that are still in limbo. I'm really, really hoping one of those works out, as it would make life a lot less complicated: both of those are remote work, which would allow us to live virtually anywhere. Both of them are with people I know, which has definite benefits.

On the "news" front, I got a call out of the blue from a company in Western Canada looking for a Unix sysadmin. I have an over-the-phone job interview with them tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but calls out of the blue always get my attention; and better, it's from a hiring manager rather than a headhunter. Perhaps it's "the job", maybe not. This job is not without some caveats: there are some drawbacks I'm aware of even before the interview. But we try and live like servants, not like the Master, so we are looking to discern whether this is His plan.

Either way, a job interview is a good thing, and it's a good sign that my resume is getting notice in Canada, not just the southeastern USA.

Ox in demand?

So I recently updated my online resume in anticipation of relocating north and west. You'd think I was giving away free beer: my cell phone's been ringing madly, and I'm getting piles of email from headhunters and internal recruiters.

Apparently Unix gurus are in demand right now. Who knew?

That's kind of cool, I feel very flattered. Now if only they weren't all positions in the Southeast...

If anyone wants an updated resume of the Ox to hand out to wealthy employers looking to over-pay a computer guy, feel free to email or comment.

Life is groovy

Hmmm... I haven't written in a while. I've started a few times, but never quite refine the posts enough to commit them to the public consciousness.

You'd think it wouldn't be that hard.


The move is all but over: the house has sold, we've gotten a cheque, and all our stuff has been relocated. We still have a storage unit full of stuff, and quite a few boxes here remain unpacked.

I had to ask a couple friends for a favour: one friend is storing the canoe for us, another is storing the grill. That makes life a little easier: living in an apartment means I really can't store either item, and I can't use the grill (I could theoretically use the canoe, I just can't store it here). With friends storing them, they are in a safe place, and they might even get used a few times.


We're still on track to head on up to the Great White North this summer. We have a lot to do before then (like figuring out the maze of rules and regulations to move retirement savings across the border), but that's just part of life.

It looks like our travel plans may have changed, though. Rather than cut diagonally from North Carolina up to Alberta or British Columbia (we still haven't gotten a firm final destination), we'll probably head north from here, go through Michigan, and head west along the Trans-Canada. There are various reasons for that, we're still looking to see how that all shakes out.


Work continues as before: we're doing more and more in Groovy, which is a Ruby-like JVM language. It's kind a bit sloppy feeling, but it lets you use a lot of Java directly in your code, and it compiles down to Java classes. It's a nice language for a lot of the problems we've been trying to solve.

Sound of Silence

We're in a frenzy of moving activity: tomorrow's the "official" move (with snow in the forecast), today I'm theoretically working from home, but will likely only bill a couple hours. I'm driving loads in the Suburban to the new pad.

There was a mix-up in the new address: the landlord gave me the wrong apartment number. I passed that on to all the utility companies as my forwarding address, and things got fun. We got it all worked out, but my ISP can't connect my cable modem until the 23rd. So service ends at this location on the 20th (and we'll probably not be here anymore), and it doesn't turn back on at the new location until the 23rd. So we'll go dark on the Internet for a few days. And since we have digital phone, our landline won't work either.

So if you need to call us between tomorrow and the 24th, you'd better use our cell phone numbers. If you don't have those numbers, you can call or email today or tomorrow to get those. We might get a chance at a Starbuck's or something to check our email, but we make no guarantees.

We'll be back with the same number next week.

In other news, things are just hectic, but we should resurface in a couple weeks. The new owner of the house takes possession on the 29th, life should calm down a little by then.

dp/dt

Well, our plans have accelerated. There have been one or two significant occurrences at work, which have forced my hand, so to speak. I'm now officially working until the end of June.

Our house has sold: closing the end of January. We move into an apartment next Tuesday, with a six-month lease.


So the plan is this: At the end of June, we pack up everything we own and head North. It would be interesting if the packing and leaving took a few days: I came into the USA on August 8, 1994. I look to be leaving almost exactly 14 years later.

We plan to drive north across the USA, for various personal reasons. I'd like to stop in St. Louis and catch up with a buddy or two there along the way. Anyone between North Carolina and Vancouver who's willing to have coffee or lunch with us as we head north, drop me a note.

This is exciting: kinda like the first pie at a new pizza joint.

Quick Hello

Haven't written much of late, so I thought I'd shoot a quick update or two.

The biggest news is that a friend: a younger guy who used to work for me, who learned Unix from me; lost everything in an apartment fire last weekend. I suppose everything is a slight exaggeration: he was able to grab one pair of pants and a cell phone on his way out. But everything else: wallet, pets, important documents, birth certificate, drivers license, Social Security card, credit cards... all that stuff is gone. He saved one pair of pants and his cell phone.

Those aren't really an indicator of his priorities: he stayed too long in the apartment trying to save his birds, dog, and cats. When he realized he was about to die, he managed to stumble out the door, grabbing a cell phone on the way out.

Obviously he's devastated, and with good cause. So if you think about him, he needs all the help he can get: praying is good. I'm trying to figure out what else I can do for him, as are all the people he knows around here.


My youngest has a fever: that's the annual "It's Christmas! Let's get sick!" tradition we've built over the last several years.


I've only made a single batch of Stollen this year: this weekend is time to make Stollen, Almond Puff, and Paintbrush Cookies. We're a little behind on the Christmas stuff this year, but with good cause: we've taken time out to celebrate Advent this year. So while we're a little slow to gear up for Christmas, we've taken a long time to contemplate the Lord's imminent return. I think that's a good trade-off.

With that in mind, I've been listening to Approaching Christmas: Songs and Music for the Season of Advent a lot. It's a collection of Advent carols: "On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry," "Lo, He comes with clouds descending," and so on. Excellent album.

St. Andrew

Well, today is the Feast of St. Andrew. I have no idea what that entails, I'm just proud of actually knowing that.

Every year the team from work goes out for a Christmas dinner. This year's dinner is tonight: yeah, it's a little early, but everyone (except me, of course) has their weekends booked from all through December, so we thought we'd just go early this year. So tonight we're going to the Capital Grille for dinner. The kids will be spending the night with some close friends, and we'll enjoy the best onion soup I've ever had.

Sounds promising.

In other news, I'm trying to learn to properly sharpen our knives. I purchased the Spyderco Sharpening System a few weeks back (a close friend has one and loves it), but I've been hesitant to mess with my Endura until I figure out how to do it right. My Endura has the "combo blade": the blade is serrated for about half it's length, and I don't want to ruin the serration. So I started on the kitchen knives yesterday: they're more expensive than my Endura, but they're also a much simpler blade: less opportunity to wreck something.

So far, it looks like we're getting the hang of sharpening: the Henckels seem to work a lot better, and I haven't actually hurt myself yet. Bonus!