I have a new job! It’s for a small high-tech company called Picomole. I start October 1, the same day we get possession of our new condo.
New Job
September 18th, 2007We Bought a Condo
August 23rd, 2007…well conditionally that is. It’s a small one bedroom apartment across the street from the Bonnie Doon mall. It’s going to be great! You can see the condo listing if you would like more info.
I played baseball here…22 years ago.
August 21st, 2007Last night Christine and I were walking around the neighbourhood where we are living and we walked to a park with baseball diamonds. There was a building there with “Duggan” painted on the side and I remembered playing baseball there when I used to go to Allendale school. That was 22 years ago. That frightens me.
How the Scots Invented the Modern World
August 16th, 2007This book was a Christmas gift and I recently finished reading it. I had fairly low expectations going in, but my interest was held all the way through. Mr. Herman does indeed make a strong case for Scots leading the way in many aspects of modern society, although I would say that declaring that Scots invented the modern world is rather speculative. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this book and was especially interested in how Scots helped shape the United States and Canada with highlanders generally siding with the monarchy and migrating to Canada as Loyalists after the War of Independence and lowlanders siding with the revolutionaries. An excellent read if you are interested in Scottish or New World history.
See this book in my library here.
★★★★☆
Edmonton Folk Music Festival 2007
August 14th, 2007Christine and I spent the weekend at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. This is the second time we have attended. The first was in 1997 and it was amazing. Compared with ’97, this year was disappointing; however, we had a good time and enjoyed ourselves and the music. We’re already looking forward to next year and hoping for more blues (Chris) and Celtic (Christine) performers.
PHP for the World Wide Web (Visual QuickStart Guide)
August 14th, 2007I have to say I was quite disappointed with this book. After reading through it I was not equipped to write php scripts. It is missing many features that should be present in PHP 4 like constants and objects. There is already a third edition out; hopefully it is more complete and up to date.
★★☆☆☆
Heritage Days
August 9th, 2007Another Heritage Day has come and gone, but not without a trip to the Heritage Festival to sample some world cuisine. We went on Saturday. It was raining all day. Fortunately that meant short lines for food and no dancing or shows to distract us from what the Heritage Festival is all about.
What I ate:
spanakopita from the Greece pavilion – delicious
some kind of beef stew from the Eritrea pavilion – very good
a banana pastry from the Philippines pavilion – very good
a mango shake from some booth – delicious
a beef kebab from the Arab pavilion – dry and disappointing
for dessert, a little doughnut and rice pudding from the Scandinavia pavilion – excellent
And there you have it, an expert opinion from my accomplished palette.
William Shatner Wants You to Join Movement
July 30th, 2007According to a cereal box William Shatner wants you to join a movement. He recommends that you take the two week challenge of mixing 1/2 a cup of All-Bran with a cereal that you actually like every day for two weeks and then to see how you feel about it. After taking the challenge himself Mr. Shatner said, “I feel really good about it.”
Canadian Professional Engineering and Geoscience: Practice and Ethics
July 20th, 2007This book was also required reading for the engineering professional practice exam. The highlights of this book were the case studies of historical catastrophic engineering failures. All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not a civil engineer. The rest was useful but boring.
★★★☆☆
Practical Law of Architecture, Engineering, and Geoscience
July 20th, 2007This book was required reading for the engineering professional practice exam. I read it over the course of a week and found that despite being exceedingly boring, there was a fair amount of useful information. The sections dealing with contracts, negligence, and liability were the highlights while the chapter on aboriginal law was the low point. It was a good book; I’m glad I read it. I hope I never have to read it again.
★★★☆☆
