06 Mar 2007
it’s late, or very early depending on how you look at it. don’t hold the grammar and/or spelling and/or sentence fragments against me.
Holly and I went to Oregon for a break from the daily grind. I believe that sort of thing is called a “vacation”. We started on our little adventure back on February 27th.
I hadn’t been on a real vacation in years. It felt great to get away from it all. It felt great to get to spend so much time with Holly.
We were staying with her parents at their timeshare in Newport. It was pretty much a house. Two bedrooms, two and half bathrooms, and the rest of the normal rooms. Considering how the weather was it was great to being staying somewhere warm and dry.
Tuesday
On the first night that we arrived I was introduced to Izzy’s. I don’t normally do buffets, but come on, a pizza bar! How can you go wrong with that? After my first trip there I have to say that apparently you can’t go wrong with that. The pizza was great, and all you can eat. The only downside was that they stopped bringing out the pepperoni pizza and ventured off into a most unwelcome direction; everything had black olives or pineapple on it and some even had both. That freed me up for chicken and dessert though.
Holly and her parents were more focused on things other than pizza. I think most of them had shrimp (which in my opinion is just gross…) and the chicken was popular.
Just after we had made our move to the buffet bar a bus load of kids showed up and took over the place. You see, kids don’t have manners, they just grab. I simply adapted my strategy to match theirs, and I grabbed too.
Wednesday
We got up and hit the beach, for about five minutes. The sun was out and the sky was blue, but the tide was in and the beach was rocky. That one picture with the blue sky was taken at that beach. We bailed on the idea of a walk on the beach and continued on with our day.
Eventually we wound up at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The Sea Otters were amazing. Especially old Grandpa Sea Otter. He just puttered about amusing himself as everyone looked on.
The seals were pretty cool to see. They mostly just hung out under the water swimming around. There were all kinds of them there; spotted, sea lions, grey, white, etc. I’m not sure how many of them there are. I managed to snag a rare picture of Holly at the underwater window to the seal area.
The Sea Bird Aviary was pretty cool as well. Especially when we found the underwater window where you could see them diving underwater for food. That particular section was filled with brilliant purple sea anemones. In retrospect, I wish I’d taken a picture of them.
The Passages of the Deep was quite an experience as well. It’s a section where you walk through a tube of glass/plastic/something clear and all around you there is water. Above you, beside you below you. Everywhere. One of the areas was surrounded by sharks. I have never seen so many sharks in one place in my life; not even on TV. We were just standing there and bigger and bigger sharks kept zooming past us, just an arm’s reach or two away from us. There were also some rays swimming in the exhibit.
For our dinner adventure we went to a local Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good. The beer was great. As much as I liked it I think I mostly prefer the North American version of Mexican food that I grew up with. Although the refried beans were the best I’ve ever had.
That second night was the night that we introduced Holly’s parents to the Nintendo Wii. Holly made Mii’s for each of them and in no time at all they kicked our butts in Wii Bowling. They both seemed to really enjoy the system.
Thursday
We went to the Sea Lion Caves. The cave was pretty cool. You go down 208 feet from the entrance to the cave. You have to take an elevator. While we were down there I started talking to the Sea Lions. I yelled at them to sing for me, and sure enough they started singing. It was loud!
I tried to take a picture of the Sea Lions down in there cave, but it didn’t turn out. I can’t even really describe how many of them were there. I can throw out a number like 150, but without seeing it, it can’t really be understood. Hearing 150 sea lions barking (singing…) is an interesting experience.
On the way out of the cave I noticed a sign that said not to yell at the sea lions… whoops.
We also took a little trip to the lookout that was built for the sand dunes. It was pretty cool to see the sand dunes and the evergreen trees side by side. That was something I didn’t even think could really exist. We didn’t stay too long at the sand dunes since it was cold and wet, but they were still wonderful.
On our travels through Yachats we discovered the small town marvel that is the Green Salmon Coffee Shop. We stopped for a cup of cocoa and a quick bite. The cocoa was simply perfect.
Holly went with a Mayan cocoa and I went with a Bolognese cocoa. The Mayan one was a touch spicy, which was really nice. The Bolognese had hints of orange and vanilla flavour mixed in with the chocolate and was very creamy. We both loved them.
Holly had a slice of turkey sausage pizza that tasted very good. I had a croissant stuffed with chocolate chips. Everything there was wonderful. It was far cheaper than a Starbucks and a hundred times better.
They had all kinds of crazy flavours and mixes for coffee, tea and cocoa. The place was solar powered. They also had fresh baked bread that we bought to take home. We got a whole garlic and mozzarella bread.
If you ever go to Oregon, you must go to the Green Salmon Coffee Shop!
For dinner that night we went to a place called Mo’s, which is famous for its clam chowder. Needless to say, I didn’t have any clam chowder? Who needs that gritty sea stew? Apparently the rest of the world does… I ordered the halibut fish and chips. Which was quite tasty indeed :) I’m sure everyone thought it was funny when I got a salad with my meal and I was absolutely shocked when it was covered with shrimp. I didn’t even think for a moment that I’d get a seafood salad. I was expecting a pile of lettuce with some bad dressing on it.
Friday
With the coming of Friday morning it meant that it was time to checkout and start heading home.
The highlight of the day had to be the visit to Tillamook Cheese. The cheese sampling was yummy. The ice cream was amazing. Getting to see the whole cheese process at work through a viewing area in the factory helps fill you with confidence in the cheese itself.
I think I’ll stick to buying Tillamook products when I’m shopping south of the border.
We ended up in a Best Western in Astoria, ordered in some pizza and called it a night. I was so exhausted that day for some reason.
Saturday
It was time for the last leg of the journey home. We set out mid-morning and headed for Seattle. There was no way we were going past Seattle without stopping at Racha Thai again. I simply can’t put into words how amazing their Tom Ka with Chicken Breast soup is. I tried once before when I did a review for Racha Thai. All I can say is that the soup was even better this time.
The Catfish was calling to Holly and I decided to try the Golden Halibut. It was marvellously cut and deep friend in a way that even though it was one solid hunk of halibut, it broke away in nice even chunks. The sweet and sour sauce it was served on was incredibly hot! I honestly thought by the end of the meal that my tongue was turning to liquid in my mouth as it melted.
Of course my tongue didn’t really melt, but I swear it really did feel like it was. It was still an amazing treat for my taste buds. I’m pretty sure the next time that we go to Racha Thai I’ll be ordering the Golden Halibut again.
Just a few more hours and we finally made it home.
* * *
After that great break from the working world it was hard to get up and go to work today. After I did get to work I got to read a bunch of e-mails about how this and that was broken. I don’t think I got to even touch a piece of code until just about noon by the time I updated my build and caught up on e-mail.
I celebrated my first day back at work with a solid 11 hour day… yay… In the end one of the big problems that popped up while I was gone did get fixed though. For some reason they left it for me to fix, which I found sort of funny because until it was fixed it meant you couldn’t play through a game anymore.
Still, in spite of it being nearly a 12 hour first day back, it felt good to fix something that has such an impact.
20 Feb 2007
The sky is blue with a fist full of white to grey gradient mottled clouds. It is beautiful. I don’t think that I’ve ever been happy to see the sun before. I honestly have to say that I have missed the blue roof on this room called Vancouver.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the grey sky too. However, the grey sky is a thoughtful sky. It is an introspective sky. It can start to weigh heavily on the soul. The blue sky is fun and bright. Even the sun seems beautiful, though as we all know it is out to kill me.
Last weekend Holly was away winter camping, which left me with a void of time to fill. I ended up playing World of Warcraft. It was pretty amazing, it actually felt like old times. Much more fun than it had been during the last couple of months that I had played before my hiatus. It was great to hang out with some of the old crew and go through some of the new 5-man content with them. It was very easy to slip back into the roll of tanking.
The really funny part of it all to me was that initially while leveling from 60-70 I had a hard time getting help from people in the guild. Some of my good friends in there did help me out along the way though which was nice. However after I hit 70 and decided it was time to start doing some dedicated instancing, I respecced to Protection. After the guild heard I was protection again the offers to go in groups have been flying in.
In other completely unrelated news, I found out today that I work in the same city that Joe Sackic was born in. THE Joe Sackic! The same guy who scored his 600th goal in the NHL last night… Man, that is cool.
I’m looking forward to moving in with Holly soon. It’s going to be great to get to see her every day :) There are certain things that I’m going to miss about living in the heart of downtown, like being able to go next door to the grocery store, across the street to the theatre, or three to five blocks to anything else. It is all pretty insignificant though, since I miss Holly more.
I think what it really comes down to is that I’ve been on my own for so long that I’ve grown very used to being independant. It’s kind of strange how life seems to go. You start out with your family and you are dependant on them for almost everything. Then you jump out into the world and try to figure out how to be independant. Then after you’ve figured that out you meet someone and settle down a little. You have to unlearn some of your independance and learn to let that person in. You have to learn to depend on them and to be there for them to depend on too. It all boils down to no longer being independant, which is a really wonderful thing.
12 Feb 2007
Bad programming is one of those things that really drives me nuts. I don’t mind when someone who doesn’t know how to program, and understands that they don’t know how to program, writes bad code. They’re learning. I can help them.
The real problem is when you’re working with a group of people and they all feel that they are great programmers and they understand perfectly what they are doing, when really they don’t.
The real problem I have with those people is that they are unable to accept that they don’t know what they are doing, and are not only unwilling to fix what they have done wrong, but most likely unable to as well. Of course, this means that I end up having to fix their problems.
Refactoring code can be fun. Fixing stupidity on the other had, rarely is.
Then, you pile on top of all of this the fact that because of how they have written their code, there is no way to easily fix it without rewriting the entire system and so you tend to end up with a hack (of course you promise yourself that you will fix it in preproduction next year, or when you have some down time, but that never happens).
The final straw, is that I sit here all day trying to get my work done, but generally fixing someone else’s. I’m here to answer questions. I’m more than willing to help people out. However, the questions don’t come and the people don’t ask. Because these questions are never asked, I end up working more and more.
Is it too much to ask for to work with a few smart, humble, people?
I had this at the start of my career in the middle of nowhere Nova Scotia. Everyone did their job. Everyone was open to criticism. If there was a problem, everyone checked their work first instead of telling everyone else that something broke and they need to fix it. As much as I didn’t like the overtime, or in some aspects the work atmosphere very much, that was hands down the best crew of programmers that I have ever worked with. I would be willing to pit the team of 11 programmers that I lead there against any other team of 25+ programmers I have ever worked on since. Without any doubt in my mind, that group of 11 would blow away that team of 25+.
I guess, in hockey terms, that team is the championship Oilers team from the 80’s. It was a collection of underappreciated and underpaid super stars who played for the love of the game. It was a team that played in an era with no clutching and grabbing, the game just flowed (there were many, MANY, fewer managers and levels of communication to go through). It was a team that got things done.
24 Jan 2007
I was sitting on the SkyTrain today just minding my own business. I was blocking out the world and listening to some Snow Patrol. I was taking in the breathtaking view of the mountains in the first day of sun in I don’t know how long.
As I was sitting there minding my own business an old man sat down infront of me. He had a handful of propaganda. Religous paraphanelia. Whatever you like to call it. This isn’t exactly out of the ordinary. People outside my SkyTrain stop are standing there pushing boxes of bibles at people at least once a month.
This man looked down his nose at me as he sat down. His eyes had that righteous fire that you seen in people who greatly believe in their faith with a bit of fanaticism. He turned and offered his literature to an old couple sitting across the aisle. They declined.
He turned back to me with those same eyes. I am not normally one to push my beliefs on any one. I respect and accept everyone’s beliefs, until they start to think that theirs are better than other people’s. Even then, I’m good right up to that point when they start to push their faith on me or other people. He started to hand me one of his pamphlets.
He locked his eyes on mine and I stared right back. Bit by bit his gaze lost it’s strength. There are points that I don’t yield on. There are points where I don’t back down. His initial look at me told me that he thought he was better than me. That he had his God behind him. That somehow I was weaker without his God behind me. There was that subtle glint in his eyes telling me that I was wrong.
I didn’t give an inch. I have my faith. I have my beliefs. They probably aren’t the same as yours, and surely they weren’t the same as his. I believe in people. The inherent good and decency of humanity. In family and friendship. Whether it was the strength of my own faith in my own beliefs, the strength of my disbelief in his faith, or him seeing something else deeper and hidden, I may never know (I have been called The Red Devil or Devil by more than one crazy homeless person in more than one city (I always blame it on my Calgary Flames jersey) ).
One stop later, unable to look at me, he got up and moved further down the train car.
19 Jan 2007
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade came out on January the 16th. Since that time, I have been playing as much as I can. It is wonderful to be back.
The expansion has brought back all of the joy and fun of WoW for me. It feels just like it used to when I first started playing a couple of years ago in beta. There are some differences, such as this time I know a lot of people right from the get go.
I do have to say that I also enjoyed my time away from the game. I think it was about a three month break, maybe more. I’ve never been good with time. It was great to spend time with local friends and get to know Holly better. It was great to go on trips and little adventures. I still plan to continue doing all of these things.
It has been great to come back to the game that I left and see so many friendly faces. So many people that I used to hang out with in that virtual world. A few of whom I have met in real life. All of us have gone through so much together.
We have faced the depths of hardship, failure and loss. We have climbed to the heights of achievement and triumph. We have banged our collective heads in frustration while struggling with challenges that have forced us to learn more about eachother and how we work. We have celebrated loudly and wildly at the end, when we finally overcame those struggles. We have all made friends and enemies. We have helped eachother grow and change as people; good or bad. We have all been a part of eachother’s lives for over two years.
Really, when it comes down to it, how is playing something like WoW any different than being on a hockey team, in a theatre group, part of a band or part of some other random club? You end up hanging out with a group of people. You forge friendships. Undoubtedly there are teams formed. You all work together. It’s just, that now you can do it from the warmth of your home in your comfortable chair. You still face challenges. You still celebrate victory. You still practice to get better.
For me meeting up on a Thursday night to raid is like going to brunch or dinner with my RL friends, but with better food (some of my friends have poor tastes in restaurants). Maybe comparing it to a poker night make even more sense though.
I am trying to play it slowly and enjoy the leveling this time around. Pacing yourself is important. Doing the quests, gaining experience, and growing your character can be a great deal of fun. I don’t care who gets to 70 first. Once you hit 70, everything goes back to being raiding and PvP again.
So the real trick, is to find that happy balance of gaming and life. Ah, the eternal struggle. (No, not really. Life always wins :) )
