Archive for September, 2004
September 30, 2004 at 10:55 am · Filed under Rants, Work
There are two types of people, those who understand computers and those who don’t.
There are professional computer programmers who fall into the second category, and taxi drivers who fall into the first.
Given a new piece of software, or an upgrade to an old piece of software, or a new website, someone who can understand computers will be able to figure out how to use it quickly and independantly. Someone who doesn’t understand computers will either need to be shown how it works, or spend a long time figuring it out.
Presented with a new problem or task, someone who understands computers will be able to choose the best software for the job and the most efficient way to solve the problem. Someone who doesn’t understand computers will try to use what they know best even if it’s like hammering a square peg into a round hole.
A programmer who understands computers can pick up a new computer language and start using it, at least experimentally, almost immediately. A programmer who does not understand computers will need training or a big book.
So what is it that puts someone into the understanding computers category?
Is it experience? Well yes, experience is a big factor. The more time we spend around computers, the more familiar we become. Familiarity gives us confidence and reduces fear. I’ve been using computers since I was nine, and that experience has definitely been important.
Is it genetic? I think there is a genetic factor which can make us more able to understand logic and be more intuitive about certain things. I have no idea what, if any, scientific evidence there is for this. As mentioned above I got my first computer at nine. I was writing usable programs within six months, so I think I had some kind of predisposition to that kind of learning.
Is it knowledge? We need a certain amount of knowledge to get going, but I don’t think it’s very much. I don’t “know” half the stuff I do. I don’t remember everything about every language or software I’ve ever used. What’s important is that I know where to look and what to look for when I need to know something. The capacity to learn quickly, efficiently and independantly is more important than the knowledge itself.
I understand computers. I only wish I could be that intuitive when it comes to things like cooking, gardening, art and relationships!
September 29, 2004 at 1:29 pm · Filed under Movies + TV
Finished watching Oh Brother Where Art Thou this morning. Jen will be rolling her eyes when she reads this, because I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched it. The Coen Brothers are my favourite movie directors, and this is probably my favourite movie of theirs. The cinematography is just stunning, and the colours (which they manipulated digitally) give the movie a unique feel. The soundtrack is one of the best film soundtracks ever, almost making the movie into a musical. Even George Clooney does a good job.
My only complaint is that the DVD doesn’t have enough special features. Where’s the director commentary??
September 28, 2004 at 1:50 pm · Filed under General
I drink tea. I drink it quite a lot. I never quite made the conversion to coffee. I enjoy a cup of coffee occasionally, but you can’t beat a good hot cup of tea. So, here are some tea facts for you:
Unpruned, a tea bush (actually a tree) can grow to 30 feet tall.
India is the worlds largest tea producer.
A wet teabag on an insect bite is said to relieve swelling and irritation.
Tea drinking has been shown to have cancer prevention properties, help fight cardiovascular disease, and regulate blood pressure.
The correct method for making tea (according to me): Warm a tea pot and put a spoonful of tea in for each cup, plus ‘one for the pot’. Pour on an appropriate amount of boiling (note boiling, not just hot, or even very hot, I mean boiling, meaning the kettle has just at that moment boiled, not a few minutes before). Put the lid on the pot, and a nice decorative tea cozy and let the tea steep for a few minutes. Finally, give the pot a quick stir and pour the tea into cups (fine china cups with handles you can’t fit your finger through on delicate saucers ideally). Add milk and sugar as desired.
Now, the quick method for making tea: Stick a teabag into a big mug that you can grip in a manly way, pour on boiling (yes it still has to be boiling) water, leave for a bit, stir for a bit, take out the teabag, add milk and sugar as desired.
If anybody in the UK wants to send me some McVities Digestives to enjoy with my tea I would be forever in their debt.
September 27, 2004 at 12:36 pm · Filed under General
Went to the dentist for my six month checkup today. She poked around in my mouth, scraped away a bit of plaque, sand-blasted my teeth with pumice powder and declared my teeth a glory to behold.
Last time I visited her, she told me to hold my bottom lip down when I brush there because apparently I have strong lip muscles that try to push my toothbrush out (I always knew I had muscles somewhere). Apparently I’ve been doing it right.
This time she told me I’ve been missing a spot at the back of my bottom teeth. It seems because I’m right handed my toothbrush never reaches the back-bottom-right bit. I now have to hold my toothbrush upright in line with my nose to reach those hard to reach places.
I have a delightful, completely non-scary dentist, so if anyone needs a referral let me know, because I get a $25 gift voucher as a finders fee!
September 26, 2004 at 12:02 pm · Filed under F1
Well it was a great race. An easy win for Rubens, although Kimi pushed him in places. Jensen tried to use a two stop strategy to get in front, and did manage to leapfrog Kimi, but he didn’t have the pace to catch Rubens.
Michael’s good luck finally ran out, and in a big way. All of the bad luck that’s been accumulating over the season hit him this weekend with a spin during qualifying, a spin in the race, contact with other drivers, dodgy strategy and bad pit stops. He finished in 12th place.
Jacques is back, managing to drive a renault into 11th place, not bad after a year off. He did get overtaken by Mark Webber at one point though.
It was cool hearing the team radio on the tv feed. Would be even cooler if you could understand a word they were saying though.
September 24, 2004 at 9:11 am · Filed under F1, Rants
This weekend the Formula One circus is at the ShangHai Circuit, their first visit to China. The richest sport in the world is spending the weekend next to some of the poorest peasants in the world working in the rice fields. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
Should I be boycotting F1 racing because they are supporting the censorious and repressive regime of Chinese government? Should I be hopeful that this is one step closer to the downfall of the obviously corrupt communist system in China? Should I be cynical that Bernie has decided to take F1 to the country that has the most smokers in the world? Should I just enjoy the race and forget about the politics?
According to a report on the radio this morning, nearly 300 million people in China are considered ‘middle class’, although the more conservative figure is 100 million. I don’t really understand how you get to be middle class in a supposedly classless system, but it seems something isn’t working quite right over there.
It was also mentioned that Disney have partnered with China’s Communist Youth League to promote Disney characters and movies with a view to opening a Hong Kong Disneyland in 2006. They also have plans to build two more Disney parks on China’s mainland in the future.
By 2005 China will have overtaken Britain and France in terms of economic power. By 2015 they will overtake Germany and by 2020 they will overtake Japan to become the 2nd largest economic power in the world. How long can communism last in that kind of environment? Is China heading towards violent revolution or a quiet slide into democracy?
Yes, I will be watching the race, but the whole sport is becoming something of a guilty pleasure for me.
September 23, 2004 at 10:51 am · Filed under Movies + TV
Catch Me If You Can is a fun movie, made more impressive by the truth behind it. The movie is based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Junior, who defrauded American banks to the tune of $2.5 million dollars 30 years ago.
Although Abagnale himself tells us that the movie, and the book it was based on are dramatisations, they still contain much that is true. I don’t want to spoil it for people who haven’t seen the movie, but when you have seen it, it’s worth reading some of the true accounts given by Abagnale to see how closely some of the real events compare to those in the movie.
Tom Hanks is excellent as the slightly sad FBI agent, and DiCaprio makes a convincing Abagnale. I didn’t like Christopher Walken’s performance much though, something just didn’t sit right with his character. Apparently the real Abagnale’s dad wasn’t really like that, so maybe that had something to do with it.
September 22, 2004 at 11:19 am · Filed under General
Blork Blog’s theme for this month’s monkey is “Pitch your life!”. Let’s see if I can do this:
Adolescence: A mixture of Grange Hill (Gripper Stebson was at my school) and Weird Science (if it was possible, we would’ve done it)
The middle years: A little bit of Bottom without the gratuitous violence, a touch of Sneakers without the lets-guess-the-password-on-the-2nd-try syndrome and a sprinkling of Men Behaving Badly, sadly without Leslie Ash.
Present day: The Good Life (no animals though) meets The Savages (no children though (yet))
September 22, 2004 at 7:58 am · Filed under Toastmasters
Last night I delivered a speech for the 4th speech project in the storytelling manual for Toastmasters. The objective of the project was to tell a “touching story”. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a highly emotional person, and I’m certainly not good at touching people, even in appropriate ways, so this was going to be a challenge.
I decided the only way to achieve my objective was to tell the story that has touched me the most, which is the story of how I met and eventually married my wife. I also decided, partially due to sheer laziness and partially because I thought spontaneity would give the story more reality, to do almost no preparation for the speech. After all, it is my story, I know it better than anyone except maybe Jennifer, so why rehearse it? My final decision was to promote a more relaxed atmosphere by sitting on the edge of the lectern table instead of standing up straight.
The story choice was good. From the feedback I got, everyone enjoyed it. The lack of preparation didn’t hurt the content of my speech, but rehearsal might’ve made the delivery more explicitly emotional, I’m still not sure on that one. I got mixed feedback on sitting on the table, some people loved it, some people said “stand up straight you lazy bugger” or words to that effect.
September 21, 2004 at 8:14 am · Filed under General
Rand Corporation were obviously way ahead of their time when they came up with this. I really need to know what the steering wheel is for.
September 20, 2004 at 11:36 am · Filed under Pubquiz
McKibbin’s Irish Pub are starting their new season of pubquizzes hosted by the inimitable Sean Murphy. The first one is tonight at 8pm (ish (very ish)) and they happen every second Monday.
September 20, 2004 at 7:47 am · Filed under General
I forgot to pick up a movie on the way out the door this morning, and I’m glad I did because I might’ve missed the view.
Coming into Montreal the sky above us was filled with a thin layer of cloud, but it didn’t go all the way to the horizon. In the distance was a band of clear blue autumnal sky framed by the city below and the clouds above. The cloud edge was reflecting sunlight dazzlingly and even the small layer of smog over the city added colour to the scene. In the distance, the mountains to the south finished off the vista nicely. What made the scene perfect though was a hot-air balloon floating in the middle of the band of blue sky, silhouetted in the sunlight. I really wanted to be up in that balloon.
September 19, 2004 at 12:33 pm · Filed under Family+Friends, Food, General, Home
The garage sale was a mediocre success. We didn’t make enough to retire on but we did get rid of some junk. Tara and Cyler got rid of their big stuff, much to their relief as they weren’t looking forward to schlepping it all home.
After the garage sale (yes I had to wait until it was over) I went to the marche de l’ouest to get what I needed for dinner. Last time I was there it was winter, and the place felt like a bit of a dive, but it’s transformed in the summer into a delightful open air farmer’s market. I picked up some very good corn, a big box of berries and salad stuff before venturing inside to pick up some parmesan and sausage-meat. Sadly nobody there had pine-nuts so I still had to stop at Metro on the way home.
The evening dinner went very well, so here are some recipes:
Avocado and tomato dip: diced avocados, diced seeded tomatoes, juice of a lime, tabasco and seasoning to taste. (probaby could’ve done with some red onion too but I forgot that part)
Fiery limey corn: Corn on the cob with husks. Remove silks and rub the inside with a wedge of lime, cover up with the husks again, throw on the bbq for about 10 minutes, remove husks, sprinkle on a mixture of 1 part cayenne pepper to 4 parts salt to taste.
Tastie taters: boil some spuds, toss them in a mix of mustard, honey, soy sauce and seasoning, thread onto skewers, cook on the bbq until crispy.
Mediterranean sausage burgers: sausage-meat, chopped parsley, chopped garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese, toasted pine-nuts. Mix all that together, season well, make into patties, throw onto the bbq for about 6 or 7 minutes per side until cooked through.
After dinner Tyler and I snuck off to play Magic for an hour or so. He’s picking the game up slowly, but he still has much to learn and I beat him resoundingly.
September 17, 2004 at 9:41 am · Filed under Family+Friends, General, Home
It’s the weekend! We’re having our final garage sale of the year tomorrow, so feel free to drop by Woodland and buy all our junk. We have Richard and Elisabeth coming in from the country and Cara and Tyler (or Tara and Cyler as we’ve decided to call them) coming from around the corner so we have lots of help.
When the crowds have dispersed we’ll be having a bbq so I’ll be heading out to the market to do some ingredient hunting. Yes, that is an excuse to get away from the sale for an hour or so.
Oh yeah, Kalan won the idol competition, but I still think Theresa will be a bigger star. I’ve also predicted that Hedley, Jacob’s band, will have a lucrative recording contract within a few months.
September 16, 2004 at 12:01 pm · Filed under Rants
That title is almost a play on words, I feel so proud.
Last night was the grand finale of Canadian Idol; tonight we find out who won, the silky sounding Saskatoonian Theresa or hobbit boy Albertan KalAn. We voted for Theresa, but I think all the screaming teen girls will sway the vote toward Kalan, sadly.
Last night they had to sing the new song which will be their first single. It is a truly horrible thing and I actually felt sorry for them having to sing it. Theresa didn’t seem to be enjoying it, and Zack made his disdain fairly obvious. Either they should get a better song writer, or give up on the idea of having a special ‘Idol song’.
Kalan’s christian pop song was also very cringeworthy. He can believe what he wants, but I don’t really want to hear about it on a talent show.
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