Season Genie

xmas lights

Busy time of year like always. Seems I haven’t made time for blogging, something I will try to do more of.

The last couple weeks are work have been extremely busy. I have worked hard for many long hours. The goal was reached though, so it has relaxed a little. The customer is happy with the product, management was happy with the effort. The worst day I worked from 9am until 4am the next morning. That is a long, tiring day.

This past weekend, Sox’s mom came over for a visit. We went and saw Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash movie. Excellent movie. I really enjoyed it. The focus wasn’t on his music, but about him and his life. It was very well written, well casted, and the actors provided a great performance. I don’t know a lot of his music, but I am more inclined to check it out now.

The Christmas season is most definitely upon us. I am happy to report that I am well into my Christmas shopping for this year. Maybe I will even finish early. That never happens for me though. We got our outside lights up this past weekend, and we are quite happy with them. We did something different that past years, and we quite like it. We bought our tree last night, and tonight it will be decorated. If we don’t run out of steam, then we may decorate the house. I am not counting on that one though.

Also this past weekend was Sox’s companies Christmas party. It was pretty fun, but the food was outstanding. They held it at Sauce (a nice restaurant downtown) again this year. Their prime rib was one of the best I have ever had. Tomorrow is my companies Christmas party at Laurel Point Inn. I am looking forward to it. I think it is going to be a very good time. We have a secret Santa exchange, which is different from the anonymous gifts of years past. Anyone remember the Christmas Cock?

xmas lights

Yoshi has been busy the past couple weeks too. He has yakked on the floor a couple times, destroyed the refill to the diaper genie, and generally driven us nuts every couple days. Who says neutering slows dogs down? They obviously haven’t met Yoshi.

Yoshi meets diaper genie

Yoshi meets diaper genie

The last thing to note is that I heard about a 1 day course being offered this month for learning digital image manipulation to get it ready for printing. There were only 5 spots, and I managed to get one of them. I am pretty pumped. I have learned from the instructor before, so I am quite excited about the course. Dec 17 is the day. Some of the topics:

  • Introduction to Photoshop CS
  • Workflow colour management
  • Basic raw image conversion
  • Common Photoshop tools used for image manipulation
  • Tips & Techniques to emphasize the best in your image
  • Image prep for print out
  • Printout of the final images

That will be my present to myself. Merry Christmas to me! 🙂

Immensely Nuts

Yoshi running

Today I have a free day off. I am enjoying the day immensely. I am relaxing, doing some errands, cleaning up around the house, and generally just doing relaxing things.

snowy logs on the beach

One of those things is walking Yoshi. He had a great romp at the park today, despite getting trapped and lost in a giant bramble bush (he was in pretty deep, so far I couldn’t see or hear him). It was chilly out, but I bundled up well. Now Yoshi is sleeping on the dog bed behind me snoring away. Lucky pooch.

rays of sun through ominous clouds

Lucky me too. Work was pretty nuts the past couple weeks. Today is my first day off since November 20. Time to get caught up on life. Tonight Sox and I are going to her companies Christmas Party, tomorrow Sox’s mom comes over for a visit, then Sunday we are having K and JJ join us for dinner downtown, then off to the Theatre to see Stuart McLean.

Yeah, now that is a weekend to look forward to.

Error Documentation

ErrorMessage

I just logged on to my computer, and had this error message displayed on the screen. I am pretty savvy when it comes to web technologies, and I have a vague notion of what certificates are and how they are used. My problem is that I don’t know what application popped this up, nor why. I don’t know or understand what can or will happen with either the yes choice or the no choice. Does this mean a trusted website has been compromised? Whatever application opened this did a poor job with the UI. What will happen when I just close the dialog (top right X).

What are less techy people supposed to do with this dialog. I think that software developers around the world do a pretty poor job of writing to the lowest common denominator. This is just one example of pretty horrible user interfaces (UI) I have seen.

From a developers perspective I know it can be difficult to create a good UI that flows nicely, works, and makes sense. Sometimes it is easier to just make it work, and explain it in the documentation. For this example, what documents should I read?

It really is no wonder some people get so frustrated with computers and software.

Misty Macaulay

misty morning walk

Misty, foggy morning today. Yoshi didn’t mind at all on his walk though. Ran and ran and ran.

misty morning walk

We stopped on the hill in Macaulay Point Park for a bit to let Yoshi play with some other dogs. All was fine until a ChuckIt was produced. Once Yoshi see’s that thing, no other dog (nor Sox and I) exist anymore. All that exists is the ball that will be released by the ChuckIt.

misty morning walk

Peeling him from the ball we continued on our walk, and he forgot all about it. The rest of the afternoon he has spent at my side sleeping. Such a good dog.

Salmon Club

the Salmon Kings in action

Yesterday was a pretty busy day. Sox and I headed up to Nanaimo to pick up our new car. Very cool. We did a little test on the way home. We both filled up before leaving Nanaimo, then filled up again in Victoria. The CRV used half the gas that the truck does. Holy crap what a difference. Nice car to drive too. Maybe Sox will let me drive her car some time. 😉 Just kidding babe.

Sox getting dressed for a night out.

After getting back to Victoria, eating dinner, we got ready to go to a Salmon Kings game. The game was very enjoyable. Definitely a step up from the Salsa, and I enjoyed every Salsa game I saw. Lots of action, some good goal scoring. With the game tied at the end of the third, I couldn’t wait. I headed for the washroom, hoping to be back before they hit the ice. In the can I heard them take the ice. 10 seconds later there was a large cheer as they scored the winning goal. All the guys in the can cursed their luck (myself included). I missed the winning goal, but still thought the game was great.

Pics are here.

After that we headed out to the Canoe club for drinks and food. Way cool time.

Chewer Deck

ooooh, that wascally dog

Today was my day to come home to walk Yoshi. Something about Yoshi that many people don’t know. He is a chewer. Like many pointers he chews when he is bored. Throughout the time we have had Yoshi, he has eaten or destroyed many household items. Plastic and wood are his favorite chew toys. Wooden mixing spoons, plastic cutting boards, wooden salad servers, wooden napkin holder, plastic buckets, 2 sink drain plugs (one he ate the rubber off of, the other just disappeared), and now a deck of cards have all fallen

ooooh, that wascally dog

To be honest, this one was my fault. Sox and I played a game of cribbage, and jokingly I tossed this deck on the ground. I claimed that I wasn’t going to pick it up, but my intetion was to throw the deck away (it was missing a card). Instead I totally forgot to do anything with them. Yoshi got a new chew toy today and it was my fault. Doh!

ooooh, that wascally dog

Beyond that slip up, we aren’t really sure what causes Yoshi to decide to snag something from the counter and go on a rampage. We know he does it when bored, but what makes a dog decide he is bored? We alway leave toys out for him. There is almost always bones or other chew toys for him. What is so appealing about a deck of cards over a nice smoky bone? Just what does run through that little pea brain of his?