10 Jan 2007
I have this vivid memory from my childhood of running in the tall grass. It was in one of those out of bounds areas where you aren’t really supposed to go, but you end up there anyway. The surroundings in the memory are a bit hazy so I can’t place where or when it was, but the feeling of freedom and carelessness shines through to this day. I’m not even sure that it is a real memory, but it feels real.
I have always drifted through life with that same sense of wandering and adventure; freedom and carelessness. Growing up my family moved a lot. In a broader sense you could say that we wandered, sort of like Gypsies or Nomads. It made our family very close I think.
I used to believe that it would have been wonderful to stay in one place for my whole childhood. To grow up with a single group of friends. From my current perpsepctive though I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I learned a lot of things that many people never have a chance to learn until much later in life. I got to see places that some people will never get to see. A lot of those places that we learned about in school weren’t just vague ideas, they were places I had been.
Since graduating high school my geographical wandering has continued. Each place holds a little magic and more than a few great memories.
Nova Scotia was filled with professional development. I learned a lot about programming and helped forge a few other great programmers in my time there.
Montreal was filled with personal growth. I learned more about who I was and started to enjoy life again away from the strict regime I had worked under for four years before. I was reunited with old friends. I found my happiness again.
Vancouver has been filled with more personal growth. Moving beyond happiness and in to love. I met my wife-to-be here. I also found a degree of happiness in work that I didn’t know was possible.
Although for the last little while I’ve felt the Gypsy blood starting to burn inside of me again. Not driven by a need to change locations or anything like that, but more by a feeling that it might be time to search for new employment.
Every job that I’ve ever had has been sort of a Caesarean conquest. Veni, vidi, vici. The problem is that after the vici part of it all, as I’m sure Caesar himself would attest to, boredom creeps in unless there are more challenges to face. Possibly a better take on the old Caesarean phrase for my case would be veni, vidi, codi.
Once a certain level of comfort sets in you are no longer learning. This is when, for me at least, it starts to get boring. I lose interest in the day to day tasks. I need to be challenged and pushed. When I was in Nova Scotia and this problem set in it wasn’t so bad because I took over the programming team and thoroughly enjoyed molding the new recruits into better programmers. I enjoy the role of teaching.
I was born and raised as a knowledge junkie. I used to watch Nova and National Geographic on PBS like most people watch Survivor. You’re there evey week, eagerly anticipating what is revealed next. I used to read encylopedias and dictionaries for fun. I still tend to prefer shows that teach me things and have a fascination with nearly all books that are educational.
The only real difference with how I acquire knowledge now is that the majority of it comes from the internet. I read wikipedia when I’m bored and when I’m not. When I find something truly interesting I find as many sources as I can to put together a better picture of it all and ensure that the facts match.
Today has been one of those strange and thoughtful days. One of those times where everything is evaluated and re-evaluated. There are lots of places out here where I could work. Lots of interesting prospects. Perhaps it is time to return to my PC roots? I do miss making games for the computer as opposed to the consoles.
Then again, maybe this will just blow over in a day or two as these thoughts have a tendency to do. Maybe something will happen to challenge me at work; to take the focus of my attention and effort.
08 Jan 2007
So today is the 8th of January, 2007. After a dinner with Holly’s parents last night it is finally allowed to be common knowledge extending beyond family. Holly is my fiancé, and I am hers. We got engaged on the first day of this promising year :)
We are tentatively looking at a wedding date for September 2008. Some might think that this very long engagement is a sign of there being a lack of faith in our relationship or in our comittment to eachother. That however would be about as far from the truth as they could get.
Put simply, we would get married today if we could. Financially though, we just can’t afford the wedding this year. We have already planned out how to spend most of the money we will make this year. We’re moving in together this year. Before that happens though we are making some changes to her condo. We are reflooring, repainting, and doing a little refurnishing most likely as well. I am also most likely going to finally get myself a vehicle. On top of that some of our most important guests at the wedding have to travel 6000+ kms and we want to give them some time to ensure that they can afford the trip and make it on their own terms.
Coupled with all of the above is that I still don’t know of many areas around here where I would want to have the wedding. So we are going to spend the Spring and Summer checking out the various parks and little out of the way places where we could have an outdoor wedding.
One of my best friends and his wife were engaged for three and a half years and it worked out great for them. He said that they felt married as soon as they got engaged and I feel the same way about Holly. I think that might be one of the secrets of success.
I’m so happy with Holly that words can’t really do the feeling justice :)
22 Dec 2006
This post has been rated “R” for strong language, scenes of violence and brief nudity (okay, no nudity).
I have to say that this whole thing with the Christmas Tree being banned from the courtroom because it makes some people feel uncomfortable (Article) is a very sad turn of events. Initially I thought it was a joke, but then more and more news sourced reported it. Initially I let it roll off my back, but the more I think about, the more I can only see it as a gross misunderstanding of multiculturalism and immigration in general.
When people immigrate to places they bring their own beliefs and ideas. We as Canadians accept this. I would go so far as to say that we embrace this. However, when you immigrate to somewhere I believe that there is an unwritten acceptance of the rules and customs of your new country.
When you move to a new country bringing all of your beliefs and your culture with you, you are supposed to be enriching the destination culture with the presence of your own. If you are unhappy with the way the culture is where you are going, then don’t go there. Pick somewhere else.
There isn’t even a religous overtone to Christmas trees. It’s just a tradition that is celebrated in several places around the world. It is just something wintery and wonderful because it reminds you of the holiday season. I personally doubt that most Canadians even really consider Christmas to be a religous holiday.
When the Christmas tree was first being introduced even the Christians, who seem to be tied to the modern collective conciousness of the Christmas tree, were not in favour of it. They felt that it distracted from the work of God.
Utlimately I have to say that if a fucking Christmas tree makes you feel fucking uncomfortable then you have bigger fucking issues!
And did anyone even stop to think that the presence of the tree which might be making 1% of the people feel uncomfortable is making the other 99% happier and cheerier than normal?
GG Judge Cohen. GG.
22 Dec 2006
So last night was pretty cool. Caulle was exactly who I expected her to be. After meeting Paschen in person, he seems a lot nicer than I had assumed. Seltzer was also pretty cool, though not at all what I expeced. We didn’t do too much after we met up, but it was still awesome to finally put “real” faces to the names and voices. I say real, because a lot of people post pictures of themselves that are 1-5+ years old; and they don’t neccessarily still look like that.
I bought what will most likely be Holly’s last Christmas present last night. On the way home today I’m going to pick up one of her other present’s, but it has already been paid for so it gets relegated to second last. I could still use some stocking stuffers as well, but I haven’t had much luck with those yet.
We finally decided how we are going to do our Christmas last night. After I get back from New Brunswick and we survive the big Near Year’s Eve bash, we’re going to take all of the presents we got each other and put them under our tree. Then the next Saturday will be celebrated like Christmas (so we get to Christmas’ this year :) ). We’ll open our presents, putter around, have a Christmas dinner, etc. The extra waiting will be tough, but the end result will be nice I think. Plus it will be really nice to see the Christmas tree with presents under it.
And as a last thought, being in a ginormous mall this close to Christmas is how I imagine Hell to be.
21 Dec 2006
Well, I sure haven’t updated in a while. It hasn’t been because there isn’t anything to update, but rather that there is too much.
My friend Derek and his girlfriend moved out here last week. Everyone always said that he’d never leave HB or small town Nova Scotia, but I knew better. So since I moved out here I’ve had four friends follow, and the ex-HB head count is up to ten (I’m pretty sure that’s all of us… so many it’s hard to keep track). That count doesn’t include Jay either. We both stopped at Ubisoft on the way out of HB. I ended up in Vancouver and he ended up in Australia.
So what have I been up to? Christmas shopping for everyone has been the biggest time sink. I’ve never had a girlfriend at Christmas before, and so I’ve never gone through this type of shopping (which reminds me, I still need to get stocking stuffers). I think I’ve been doing an okay job at it, but I guess I won’t really know until after Christmas is over.
There has been a lot of brunching and drinking lately. I had to make the rounds to all of the weekly events (that I don’t always go too) to say my Merry Christmas’.
I normally have a brunch on Saturdays, a different brunch on Sundays, dinner on Sundays, and movie night on Mondays. Honestly, it’s just too exhausting. I both love and hate rigidly scheduled weekly events. It is nice to know that there is a group of friends doing something every X day at Y time. It stops being so much fun though when you start feeling obligated to go and there are other things that you want to do. Even if it were just one event a week scheduled it wouldn’t be so bad, but to have so many, it eats up your weekend and other time too.
Quite often Holly and I like to go away for the weekend, or go to the movies, or not eat the same thing over and over that you have to eat at one of these rigidly planned events. Essentially, we like to live a little. I mean, it’s awesome to see your friends so much, but it’s also nice to do new things.
I’m trying to convince everyone that we should do a once a month get together somewhere. We could invite everyone from all of the various events and everyone could meet everyone and hang out together. Plus, once a month is easier to schedule for than several times a week.
Completely unrelated to everything else, tonight a few of the World of Warcraft crew are going to get together. It will be interesting to meet Caulle, Paschen and Seltzer in person. I think maybe I'll give them all a copy of the game I made at work. Maybe I'll be able to convince them that we should head downtown after we meet up and have supper at Guu! (Guu is a Japanese pub around the corner from where I live)
I’m looking forward to geeking out with them and talking about all of the intricacies of World of Warcraft. There are a couple of people at work I can talk to about WoW, but most of them stopped playing long ago. I stopped too, but only temporarily. Soon there will be a return to WoW made and hopefully it will be a triumphant one.</chaos>