2006 Rants

In 2006 I bought two new vehicles: a motorcycle and a car. The car got practically no use until the late Fall because I was riding the motorcycle everywhere. Middle-aged crisis, anybody? I started obsessing over the computer game Oblivion—it really was a significant impact on my life!—but I still found time to begin running as a hobby, and even completed the 10K Sun Run and another mini-marathon at UBC in the Summer. I quit my 6-year job and started a new one because I needed to shift my focus away from being the best damned tech writing SME you ever saw, and instead focused on managing people and process. A two- or three-year arc of learning how to be a leader began in this year.



Dec 21st, 2006 -  Oblivion: The computer game. The state it leaves me in.
Dec 20th, 2006 -  Who wants to be reminded of our fragile mortality? I do! I do! Me too please!
Dec 13th, 2006 -  Billions and billions of Brian Porters
Dec 11th, 2006 -  The Paranoid Gerbil and other stories
Dec 8th, 2006 -  Wrestling with the Optics Demon
Dec 5th, 2006 -  Fridge magnet Christmas poetry
Nov 29th, 2006 -  A fragment of humanism
Nov 24th, 2006 -  A quick conversation about a friend's company
Nov 23rd, 2006 -  Roger Hodgson, formerly of Supertramp
Nov 20th, 2006 -  On a "need to know" basis
Nov 15th, 2006 -  Putting the "fun" back into "dysfunctional"
Nov 7th, 2006 -  The photocopier is no dummy; it knows what I did
Nov 3rd, 2006 -  Playing with your Lagos
Oct 31st, 2006 -  All safe and no scare makes Jack a loose cannon
Oct 25th, 2006 -  There is some value in sentimentality, after all
Oct 20th, 2006 -  Some casual chat apropos to last rant
Oct 18th, 2006 -  By their fruits are they remembered
Oct 13th, 2006 -  Love in the time of prairie drought, Part II
Oct 11th, 2006 -  Love in the time of prairie drought, Part I
Oct 6th, 2006 -  Of users and geeks
Oct 3rd, 2006 -  Pardon my French
Sep 29th, 2006 -  Each day seems to bring us new heights of pneumatic pulchritude
Sep 25th, 2006 -  Wham! Bam! I am! I swam through spam!
Sep 20th, 2006 -  A tool of abuse and a point of contention
Sep 18th, 2006 -  We all work for Napoleon
Sep 15th, 2006 -  Chase You Out Again
Sep 13th, 2006 -  Is it possible to pine for crappy coffee?
Sep 6th, 2006 -  Put that romance thing away before you hurt someone!
Aug 30th, 2006 -  True joy from the unplanned and the unexpected
Aug 25th, 2006 -  We could all be artificial intelligences
Aug 23rd, 2006 -  Why start looping now?
Aug 22nd, 2006 -  Soul searching for gratitude
Aug 18th, 2006 -  The fury of the exceptional in the sights of the plodding
Aug 14th, 2006 -  My phantom nemesis?
Aug 11th, 2006 -  It can't all just be competition for resources ... can it?
Aug 8th, 2006 -  White-bred suburban upper-middle-class Protestant boy ponders the word, "hay"
Aug 4th, 2006 -  Road-rage experienced first-hand
Aug 2nd, 2006 -  Memories of music
Jul 26th, 2006 -  You'd better be sure it's worth it
Jul 24th, 2006 -  Monday thoughts of turning the corner
Jul 20th, 2006 -  The content defines the form? Well, probably not in the real world ...
Jul 19th, 2006 -  But I refuse to twice say that "Z" word
Jul 17th, 2006 -  Do flight attendants read movie credits?
Jul 8th, 2006 - Ethanol, a scary TV show, and where art thou, my wife?
Jul 5th, 2006 - It's a big world, after all
Jun 30th, 2006 - Even a mother can be selfless for only so long
Jun 27th, 2006 - Idle words about idyll words; eye-dull words about idol words
Jun 23rd, 2006 - They are not "just words"
Jun 22nd, 2006 - *Sniff* Goodbye, my faithful little companion
Jun 15th, 2006 - Where does the line between self-respect and survival fall?
Jun 12th, 2006 - With this ring, I see red
Jun 1st, 2006 - Too much oil is bad for the health
May 29th, 2006 - Three little ninjas are we
May 23rd, 2006 - The crushing agonizing deathly loneliness that leads you into another's arms
May 16th, 2006 - All I really need to know I learned in my high school boys' room
May 15th, 2006 - The Dog Explosion and the Church of Environmentalism
May 9th, 2006 - Freedom is the embodiment of perfection
May 5th, 2006 - A piano piece of cake and eat it too
May 3rd, 2006 - Fun in the Sun
May 2nd, 2006 - Geez! Some people's children!
May 1st, 2006 - Making memories
Apr 24th, 2006 - Fun in the Sun (Run)
Apr 19th, 2006 - A weak muscle to flex
Apr 13th, 2006 - The word piranhas
Apr 5th, 2006 - "Here for a good time / Not a long time"
Apr 3rd, 2006 - The Kawasaki Kompensator
Mar 30th, 2006 - Would you like a side-order of style with that?
Mar 23rd, 2006 - I'm gonna write that boring shit right outta my blog
Mar 21st, 2006 - It's all about perceptions
Mar 16th, 2006 - Fear is the true addictive substance for which rampant consumerism attempts to compensate
Mar 13th, 2006 - Victoria victims
Mar 12th, 2006 - Thought for food
Mar 8th, 2006 - Internalising the pursuit of that which we can't define
Mar 6th, 2006 - A note about some songs
Mar 2nd, 2006 - There's confidence, there's pigheadedness ... and then there's the successful ...
Feb 22nd, 2006 - Mensa, you idiots!
Feb 21st, 2006 - A cashless society
Feb 19th, 2006 - You Wish
Feb 17th, 2006 - "Dust in the Wind", eh? Kansas were optimists
Feb 16th, 2006 - Congratulations! You've been overchoiced!
Feb 14th, 2006 - Happy Easter! Drat! Not again! Maybe I got head-punched too many times in the 80s
Feb 8th, 2006 - I envy the youths that don't feel the need to bite the hand that- OUCH!
Feb 6th, 2006 - If only people were more like databases, damnit
Jan 31st, 2006 - And the coffee tastes better, too
Jan 30th, 2006 - OK, there, I finally said it; just be glad I didn't name names
Jan 27th, 2006 - If I were blind this would piss me off
Jan 26th, 2006 - Hah hah that was so funny I forgot to laugh
Jan 23rd, 2006 - Semantic and mechanical meanings of hyperlinks
Jan 19th, 2006 - It's my right and kind of a rite to write, right?
Jan 18th, 2006 - A certain amount of inner strength and a big dose of non-self-consciousness
Jan 16th, 2006 - And the coffee tastes better, too
Jan 11th, 2006 - The Shredmaster 3000 ... just when you thought it was safe to start hoarding bank statements again ...
Jan 4th, 2006 - No resolutions for the new year, but a theme