tech toys, worky worky and umm.. I dunno.. I'm tired

So Apple released two new versions of the iPod this week, the Photo iPod and the U2 Special Edition iPod both are things of loveliness and wonderment. In another world I would own both mb. In this world I have resisted saving for one, asking for one for birthdays and the like and I've never really been sure why. I was talking to Christine about this today and I guess it comes down to price and what that price represents in terms of other things. Let's just look at tech toys specifically. The biggest iPod retails for a little less than half the cost of the 12 inch iBook, something I could use a lot more than a MP3 player. $500 something Canadian could get me RAM for our original Titanium Powerbook so we could bring it into the OSX world. The same money could get me a pretty serious internal drive, which is something I could use as well... leaving aside tech toys, that much money is roughly half our mortgage for a month, or about 2 months of groceries... I dunno, if I had a bunch more money I guess I would snap one up..they are so very drool cupy.. but as it stands now so many other things seem more pressing.

I just finished version one of the third module (and final) of the online certification program I am working on for my internship. It now needs to be reviewed by the SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), which, to be frank, should have happened two months ago. The content is pretty good, but has a few holes in it.. I guess I am still struggling with the whole notion of SCORM... the little app I found to make my DreamWeaver content compliant basically does the bare minimum in this regard. I fill out no metatags, no manifests and the LMS (Learning Managment System) we are working with (EKP) accepts it without SCORM (a bad joke). Basically this means that I subvert the whole idea behind the standard all the while getting to comply with it. Wheeee.. and don't even get me started on granularity... someone told me to load the whole course as one object, this was when we had at least 10 modules... UMM? The whole point is to be able to reuse "learning object" (whatever that means)if the whole course is one big object doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Anyway, a couple more weeks of this and I will be done with both the academic requirements (actually done now) and the work (well the work could go on, but the compnay doesn't want it to). So far I am kind of happy with the final product, and kind of not...

bah.

OMG I FORGOT

So somehow I forgot to mention that Lucas now constantly says his first word. Before we go any further you should know that we have lots of cats, five to be exact. So they loom large in the Lucas World.

So his first word is "chat" or cat in English. Both of us are pleased that it is in French and it is cute as hell. He gets up in the morning and runs around pointing at the cats, yelling at the top of his lungs "CHAT CHAT CHAT". Now if we could convince him that pulling their hair is a bad idea.

Job hunting (ick), random thoughts, the stupidest haircut ever

So, given that my internship/job ends in about a month, or so (more or so) I have started looking for a new job. CV redone, business cards, posting CV on education related job sites etc etc etc. I hate it. Every second of it. I hate looking for a job, I hate being unemployed, I hate that it always happens before Christmas (I know, gift buying isn't the point of Christmas.. blah blah blah I WANT SHINY BAUBLES FOR EVERYONE). Oh well. I'm gonna work my contacts, my profs etc etc etc... bugger.

So Lucas has a new trick. Whilst walking and holding your hand he kind of goes limp and dives for the sidewalk with one hand to touch interesting looking things (manhole covers being a fav). One minute everything is grand, we're walking along, and the next he is swinging from the hand I am holding.. this can happen 15 times in a block. Fun.

Speaking of walks, we just went on one, while out I counted three syringe wrappers and two plungers from syringes. There are days when I want very much to move.

OK, so, for those of you who don't know, I used to shave my head. Before that I had spiky hair, almost shaved with a Tintin front thing, David Bowie hair, all manner of foolish punk rawk/new wave dumbness. So I don't find most hair cuts silly. (are you ready for the but?) But yesterday I saw the dumbest shit I have seen in ages, and I hope to god it is an early Halloween costume related hair cut.

I was shopping at Seagals, this odd grocery store I go to and I saw this youngish guy who had shaved some male pattern baldness into his lanky sort of short Ramones hair cut.. he was even working the comb over. I'm sure this is some sort of post-modern ironic blah blah blah.. but I wanted to smack the shit out of him for some reason. What's next, white canes as an accessory?

A question

I don't drive, so I'm not qualified to answer this question. When a person is third in row in their car at a busy intersection and they start honking because the first guy isn't going does it not honestly occur to them that they are stopped to let pedestrians across the street? Or is it that the driver in the third car wants the first guy to run the pedestrians over?

Can you guess that I went for a number of walks today?

Grab bag

Been a bit since I last posted, been busy with work and running around. I've got a bunch of oddities bouncing around in my head.

We went to IKEA last weekend to get a new bookshelf that serves as a divider for my office and the rest of the front room. We got the Expedit it swallows books, because it is designed to be double sided. While we were there I saw a family out shopping. They were very quiet. The husband and wife were ignoring each other and the little boy was sitting in the shopping cart. This is normal, everyone has had a long week, IKEA can be stressy etc etc. What was not normal was the fact that the little kid was in the shopping cart balancing a portable DVD on his feet and watching a movie. How fucking ADD have we become as a society that children aren't stimulated enough at IKEA (Swedish for primary colour)?

My internship is ending a month and a half earlier than I expected. Which is nice. Because I wouldn't want to blow my "broke at Christmas" streak.

Lucas now runs, or capers.. or something faster than a walk. It is quite astounding. One day he can barely go 3 steps with out falling, a week later it is a whole block.

We watched the US Pres debates the other day. Half way through my wife looked at me and asked, half rhetorically, half seriously, about Bush: "People vote for this man?" I could only shrug and suggest to her that it took all kinds. I know that a lot of people a lot smarter than I am (and a few a whole lot dumber) have had a poke at this, but suggesting that the way to fix unemployment is through sending people back to community college is silly. If you are a 55 year old PhD, or IT specialist, what exactly are they going to teach you at community college that will get you a job? Also, who will be paying your mortgage while you study for your glamorous new career in phone sales?

It's moose hunting season. I don't hunt, and I guess I am against it. But I suppose if you eat the moose and aren't just out to blow things away that is a different matter. Anyone who tells me that hunting moose and deer is sport is a liar. You could hunt most deer I have seen in the wild with a hammer or a rolled up magazine. Anyway, how I know that it is hunting season is because Lucas and I saw a moose head mounted on the top of someone's car. You don't see that very often anymore, I suppose it is half practical (moose are big, most vehicles are small and dead moose stink) and ego (look what I killed). Anyway, (keeping in mind that I don't eat anything bigger than chicken) I'm looking at the moose and thinking "whoa that is a seriously big, dead beast" and a woman walks by. She covers her eyes when she sees the moose and almost falls off the sidewalk avoiding looking at it. How much do you want to bet that at some point in the next 24 hours she eats some dead cow? People are very odd about that. Kill an animal on your own, and you are a savage and the animals carcass can not be looked at. Have someone kill an animal for you and then package it on styrofoam? MMM. THAT'S GOOD EATIN!

A learning experience

You learn a lot of things when you become a parent.

Some of them amazing and wonderful. For instance, it is true (unless you should have never had a kid in the first place) that you can love your child so much that you would happily die or kill for them. That when your child smiles at you the whole world seems better.

Some are gross or odd.

Today I have learned the latter.

Brussel Sprouts. I hate them. But Lucas had never tried them. So I boiled and blendered. They come out a deep, rich, brownish green once blended.

What I learned today is that after being processed through Lucas and into his diaper they don't change colour, smell or texture. I am unable to vouch for taste since A) I have not lost all of my grasp on mental health. B) I would have no predigestion sample to compare with (like I'm going to eat brussel sprouts!!). That said, I would guess that they taste exactly no worse or better.

Restless night

Ok, so Lucas didn't want to sleep last night. In pain, mb feverish, we aren't sure, but he kept waking up and whining... so eventually, around 1am we got him and put him down to sleep on my chest. He slept there from 1ish to 6am, it was sweet and odd all at once. When he was a few months old he slept there all the time, but he hasn't recently and he has gotten HUEG LIEK XBOX. Anyway, he got sleep, we did not. Ah... parenthood.

Trips, work, tiredness etc

So we went to Toronto to visit our friend Andrew, first time on the train for Lucas. It was fun and exciting and scary all at once. Lucas out of his house etc etc. We took a hiking backpack for us, a kid carrier backpack with bags attached for him and a huge ass portable play pen for him to sleep in. Luckily my dad took us to the train with all our crap and Andrew met us at the other end. Lucas performed nicely on the train. He slept for a bit, went for walks with me up and down the train and generally was a good little boy.

We totally buggered up his sleeping patterns in Toronto though, lots of wandering around, lots of missed naps. We met my Aunt and Uncle for lunch one day and which was fun. Basically we had a grand old time. Visiting with Andrew always feels like picking up a conversation where you left of 5 minutes ago, very comfortable.

Work is odd. The project I am working on has been cut down to mid November instead of January. So I will have to look for work sooner than expected. That said, if I can find some decent part time work I can finish up all my Masters related stuff faster and get on with finding a real job.

In other news my sister and her fiance have set a date for their wedding, this coming summer in July. I'm in knots. There has been a request that Lucas wear a kilt, so many happy hours were wasted today looking at kilt websites to see who offered the best kids kilts. FUN!