Per usual, just testing some new installation of software. In this case I'm testing to see if XAMPP is correctly installed so that Blogger can publish to my web server. Exciting, huh?
- posted by ~Jeff @ 23:14

 
So, mostly this post is just to verify that my blog is still working and posting properly. I'm not going to post much right now, but I am going to try and get into the habit of writing in here more than "infrequently".

What's going on lately?

Well, Winnipeg was cold and flat; Jen's family there were warm and friendly.

Jen and I are in the midst of lots of clean up and organizing at home; the more we can get into storage the less cluttered our place will be. This will make renovations easier, and the place will look a lot tidier when we put it on the market. We're definitely looking forward to Mom & Dad's spring garage sale so that we can get rid of a bunch of stuff.

We're looking at a place in a new development in Maillardville/Coquitlam called Orleans Ridge. We went with Cody to look through the show home and it's a great looking place in a great location.

OK, I'll have to come back and post more later. I have a massive headache from dealing with FreeMind deleting my entire mind map containing weeks worth of meeting- and project-notes, To-Do's and general ongoing activity. ARGH! Other than this one problem I've been loving FreeMind, and I'll keep using it, but it'll be a long time before I experiment with encrypted nodes again. *sigh*
- posted by ~Jeff @ 15:53

 
OK, so it only took me 13+ months to fix FTP publishing of my Blogger account. And yeah, lots of things (mostly images and such) are still broken. Oh well. Maybe later.
- posted by ~Jeff @ 21:34

 
I guess I should stop being so surprised that it's months between posts in my blog. I mean, that's the disclaimer with which I started this blog.

Anyway, it's Friday, August 19th, 2005. Ooo, four days till Erin's birthday. I need to call Mom and Dad and see if we're having dinner for her this weekend or, more likely, next weekend. I wish I got to see Erin more often, but she really is so busy all the time.

I definitely want to get out fishing tomorrow. Ty, Laura and I had a great time up at Herrling Island last weekend. It's on the Fraser River between Chilliwack and Hope. Depending on the water level in the river you can wade across to the island, walk across the island, and do your bar fishing in the main part of the river. That's what we did last weekend, and what I want to do again tomorrow. Last weekend was very successful: Ty and I each brought home a 7-lb Chinook/Spring salmon. [Images]

I'm working on getting some of the guys from work to come fishing too. The trouble is that the gear isn't particularly cheap. Adrian has gotten into trout fishing, but I don't think his little spin-casting gear is heavy enough, given the number of serious snags you get while bottom-bouncing on the gravel bars in the Fraser. I know that Kevin has an ocean-fishing rod that he has to retrieve from his parents' place in Victoria. And Alan Yu thinks he may be able to borrow a friend's rod. Everyone liked the pictures of the salmon when I sent them around so hopefully I can get these guys interested enough to join us on an excursion.

Changing directions now, I'm signed up for a programming course at BCIT this Fall: “C++ For C Programmers”. I'm really excited to be going back to school. Even if I never go as far as getting my Degree from BCIT (I graduated with my Computer Systems Technology Diploma in 1995) I'd like to prove to myself that I can ace a course like this when I'm focused. I diddled around so much when I was going to BCIT. I passed all the courses that I needed to graduate, but I know that my transcript doesn't reflect my abilities. Jon and I have talked about this a few times. He went to UCFV in Abbotsford. Both of us recognize in retrospect that going to school when we did was necessary, but neither of us really applied ourselves the way we would now. We both goofed off a lot and didn't really take it seriously, treating it more like the social activity that was high school. Anyway, I'm already getting a headstart on the class by going through Bruce Eckel's excellent book, freely-available online book “Thinking In C++”. His books also available in print form, but he freely publishes all his books online. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this class like I never have in the past. It's from the knowledge that I'm going to apply myself and ace this course, instead of it just being an inconvenience like school always was in the past.

Just two weeks left before Labour Day long weekend. I'm taking the preceding Friday off to drive out to Calgary. I'll be helping Jen move the last of her stuff out here. It really shouldn't be much more than a single carload, but I don't like the idea of her driving by herself through the Rockies with her car overloaded with boxes, so I'm going to caravan with her. I'll drive out Friday; we're going on a hike with Sam (and Jason?) on Saturday, and then we'll drive back on Sunday, leaving Monday for recuperation.

Well, that's all for now. Talk to you again in a few months.
- posted by ~Jeff @ 08:35

 
Wow, it's been ages since I updated my blog. So long, in fact, that I've made configuration changes that had to be updated in Blogger so that I could publish again.

Anyway, what's new lately? I'm buying a place! ...



Well, I'm buying an apartment-condo in Burnaby. It's about time I started paying my own mortgage instead of someone else's. It's a beautiful place:

• 1 BR + Den with a small balcony
  
• award-winning Adera project, "Carmel", built in 2001 with rain-screen technology
  
• track-lighting in the tile-floored kitchen
• gas fireplace
• in-suite laundry
• newer appliances
  
• secure underground parking for the car and motorcycle
• excellent location in the Middlegate area of Burnaby, about a block from the Edmonds Sky Train station
• shielded from the noise of Kingsway and the Sky Train by buildings and trees
• faces West toward the sunset
• I can finally adopt two kitties from a shelter
• the strata allows rentals (a potential good thing for me in the future), but currently only 7 of 79 units are rented (a good thing for the other 72 owners).
  

I'm very excited about moving in. For one, it'll be my own place. The other reason is that it'll put me on the right side of the Fraser River for my daily commute to work. I estimate that I'll save around 60-90 minutes of driving every day. Plus, I'll have three choices for getting to and from work: car, motorcycle, or Sky Train. I've already switched my car to pleasure-only insurance, which allows for up to 6 days driving to/from work out of every 30 days. So, between those 6 days in the car, and riding the motorcycle to work on nice days, I probably won't even end up taking the Sky Train very often.

Anyway, I'm signing papers on March 16th; the closing is on March 22nd; and, I take possession on March 24th, the day before the Easter long weekend. I actually get a four-day weekend for Easter, so I should have lots of time for moving, and then I'll have a few days after that to come back here to the basement suite to clean.

And what else is new? I have a wonderful woman in my life:



(Ahhh, poor Mooch. He never gets to see his love, Shnelly. Although, between Shnelly and his Little Pink Sock, I don't think he's feeling too sorry for himself.)

Things are going very well for Jen and I (my girlfriend). It's looking more and more like she's going to move out here in the next few months and join me in my new place. I'm really excited about that. She and I have such a wonderful time every time we're together. Yeah, my blog has sort of missed most of that because it's been so long since I posted here. Suffice it to say that she is intelligent, funny, and loving, and I'm a very happy man when she and I are together.

And speaking of being together, things are definitely looking up. I flew out to see Jen the weekend after Valentine's, Feb 19th - 22nd. And she's flying out here for April 1st - 4th, when she'll be able to see my new place. And then and her parents are all flying out here on April 29th for the May 1st Vancouver International Marathon. Jen and her mom are running a half-marathon. And Jen's not flying back until May 8th, so she'll be here for 9 days. Although, she's going to spend a day or two with her cousins on Vancouver Island as well.



Speaking of that half-marathon that Jen and her mom are going to be running, I'm training to run the Vancouver Sun Run on April 17th. So far my training has been a bit hit-and-miss. My ankle sprain from ten years ago is acting up every time I get more than a few days of training behind me, making it difficult to work my cardio and muscular endurance up to speed. In fact, it got quite bad this last time, leaving me limping for a couple of days after my last run. I'm going to join the run, one way or another, even if I end up limp-walking the second half. The whole thing's only 10KM, after all.



And yes, I did mention that I have my motorcycle on the road now. It's been uninsured for a while, since it usually doesn't make sense to have it insured through the winter. But, due to insurance reasons (like moving the lesser discount to the bike, and switching the Audi to pleasure-only insurance) it made sense to get it on the road sooner rather than later.

Well, there's more I could write about... salmon fishing with Colin and Ty last fall; Laura and Ty getting engaged, to be married in July; but I think that's enough for tonight. Maybe next time it'll be less than 8-9 months until my next update.

In the meantime, remember what Plato used to say: He was a wise man who invented beer.

- posted by ~Jeff @ 21:34