Archive for October, 2006
Lots of last minute activity at work today - very complicated coordination with many people in different departments. I don’t have responsibility in handling issues much since there are people who take care of it, although I feel seriously guilty having another person take on such critical tasks on my behalf. I guess we’ll see in the next 12 months what decisions were right and which were mistakes - all I can say is that we tried our best and we’ll stride ahead into the new world. For the moment (and the next little while) however I’ll just be unhappy.
October 17th, 2006
Karen got a call today saying the car finally arrived and will be ready for pickup on Wednesday. It will be a bit of a feat to coordinate getting rid of the blue car (but still using it up to the last possible moment) and picking up the new car all before we fly away to the UK. Karen is very excited and it will be nice to put ol’ bluey to rest - he served us well and has lots of memories for us (including our first kiss).
October 16th, 2006
Called my father to see how things were going — apparently they were terrible. Anna apparently went for an extended walk and was missing for about 6h. Being that it’s a foreign country, of course all manner of things lept to people’s minds about what could have happened and everyone was in a whirlwind of concern. Of course, Karen just has the feeling that she probably was just roaming around and exploring the city or whatever and also probably got slightly lost. Within about an hour, Dad calls back and tells me that she turned up at about 11pm at night and was very sheepish (probably because Mom and Grandma were freaking out and Mike was driving around the city looking for her) and apologetic — hopefully they didn’t give her too much grief. I really think Anna and aunt Lou would really have liked each other had time allowed for it since they really are so similar personalities it seems.
October 15th, 2006
Went over to Simon and Kathleen’s for dinner tonight and got to see what they’ve done to their backyard. The did a great job of finishing their fence (saw that last time), but they’ve now gone even further and added a shed in the back, a very nice and spacious deck as well as a wonderful looking overhead structure that provides some semblance of shade. K and I have to have them over because I think this is the third time we’ve been over there in as many months.
October 14th, 2006
Chad, Sean, Karen, Shae and I and got talking tonight about a film challenge — essentially something we could probably film in quick order potentially this weekend. Spent several hours talking concepts and came up with a few ideas (supervillan interview and effunowhutimeen, but nothing that we could shoot from without spending a bunch more time actually working through scenes. Still even if it amounts to nothing, it was fun to brainstorm ideas and we need to do it more.
October 13th, 2006
Today was a very tough day. Lots of deep thinking, lots of hand holding, lots of doing others work for them, lots of explaining, lots of validation of work and only a few people to assist. I’m looking forward to having all the acquisition related activites done with and then moving forward boldly on our corporate plans.
October 13th, 2006
Decided to cancel my flight back from Kingston and take the train back with Robert from the office to Toronto so we could do some follow-up discussions. I haven’t taken a train in about two decades and the last time I think the actual train was on fire and late by like 10h. So, this experience was quite a bit different than in 1987. It was the first class cabin so there was a complete meal as well as internet access so I could do acquisition work on the way back to Toronto. But sadly, same as a flight would be, I had to get out of the train and get a car back home. Overall the train added about 2h to the trip, so I’m not sure it’s that much of a better alternative to flying. Perhaps I can get a charter from the Waterloo airport.
October 12th, 2006
Got together in the Ottawa office today and started some extended planning around the product technology side. I also had an long, headache inducing, after work talk with management as it pertains to upcoming changes in the company. All in all, it was an ok and necessary day but I’m glad that they don’t come up too often. Then hopped in a car and went to Kingston (thank god I wasn’t driving).
October 11th, 2006
Flew back from NY today, largely uneventful which was nice — our Thanksgiving was largely just relaxing and unwinding from travel and we didn’t really do a whole hell of a lot other than try to get caught up on things. Ron apparently got his photos from the medieval faire up on his website, so hopefully people check that out.
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October 9th, 2006
We spent a large portion of the day today in Central Park today. This is the second time we’ve been to NY and on investigation I had no idea the park was so huge. You do the horse carriage rides and such, but you don’t perceive that it is actually only covering about 1/16th of the park space. We walked for a long while through the park and it is amazing on how big it is and how varied the scenery is. It is no wonder that it was a haven for bad elements back in the 80s and I’m impressed they actually managed to do anything about it and clean it up. After our long walk, we went to go see the musical Spamalot at the Shubert theatre. After seeing Lord of the Rings this year I think most anything would be an improvement, but even at that, this was quite an excellent show. It wasn’t quite as good as Wicked or La Cava, but I was very much impressed by the production value and theatrical staging tricks they used to pull off this farcicle story. I would recommend seeing it if you get the chance, although if you’ve seen the movie, there is quite a bit “lifted” from it directly - but I suppose that’s the point.
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October 8th, 2006
We toured around Manhattan today looking at various shops. I bought some new clothes (some jeans and a few nice shirts) which should keep me set for a while. We had lunch at Bubba Gumps which was ok, but not as good as when we were there back in 2004. Managed to find the Blue Moon mexican cafe that Karen, Craig and I went to last time (it’s at 18th and 8th for future reference) so we stopped in for margaritas, chips and salsa. Sean, Shae, Karen and I then went to see an Upright Citizens Brigade show (”Mother”) which was hilarious (drunk guy yelling “MITCH!”, robot-lions and Quizpod Flatscreen). I love going to watch such good improv and they are damn funny but differently funny than say, Colin Mochrie. They do things VERY different from ToTE — no character, environment or conflict establishment out of the gate, they just really jam and react lightning fast, fully explore the offers and stick to long form structure… resulting in a very tight show. Now, that said, I don’t mind the games and handles of short form improv styles, but I really do gravitate towards UCB and the Del Close’s improv methods. Maybe Karen and I should start a UCB Canada (UCB Waterloo? UCB Toronto?) — might be an interesting thing to try.
October 7th, 2006
While we were waiting in the airport lounge for our flight, some guy was super keen and told me about Slingbox. The slingbox device lets you watch your home TV system (including PVRs) remotely over the web. He himself was watching TV shows that he had recorded earlier and was just killing time waiting for his plane. I think it’s a very cool idea that it’s just an appliance that you hook into your TV system and it all just magically works. Much better than trying to build a home-grown web friendly system using MCE or MythTV. Currently they have a mobile Windows client and I think they are researching a Blackberry client which would be way better than BBTV.
October 6th, 2006
We arrived at the airport and the line-up was huge (several hundred people at least) probably due to the Canadian thanksgiving holiday. Luckily we could get in the much much shorter executive/elite line and were through the line up in about 30 minutes (although Karen had to miss her CANPASS appointment). Fortunately the long line hadn’t made it’s way to customs or security yet, so we managed to get through those quite quickly even though Karen was subject to a “random” search. Karen and I went to the maple leaf lounge to have some snacks and wait for Sean and Shae to make it through the extended line up which took quite a bit longer than they would have liked. We went to the gates and waited to board. I just happened to check with the desk clerk to find out if they were going to open the plane anytime soon and found that there had been a gate change for us to the other side of the airport. Karen and I quickly made our way to the other side and arrived just in time to hear the flight was cancelled due to weather and “ground problems” (which meant too many planes). S+S got on their plane and took off after a bit of a delay, while we got rebooked (priority listed thanks to elite status again) on a slightly later flight. Karen and I went back to the lounge for a beer (or a few beers) and dinner. We flew out at 9pm (only about 3hrs delayed) and made it safe and sound to the hotel in New York without any further troubles. Very lucky because having elite status afforded us a lot of comforts and privileges, which had we not had, would have made the trip problems very annoying. Glad I get something out of all this work travel. 
October 6th, 2006
Today was my only day back in town before my birthday and hence all my licensing had to be renewed. I had to make several trips before I got all my photos taken and papers filled out, but at least I got it done for the next five years. Today was a very hectic one trying to cram everything in, so I was most pleased when I returned home. Opened my birthday present from my parents (a shirt, sweatshirt and two japanese saws — all very nice) and then I had to run to meet Craig for beer. We talked a lot about the company and all the things that need to happen to improve the general corporate operation.
October 5th, 2006
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