Home Depot vs. Rona

I love shopping at home improvement stores. It's my toy store, there is not much I like better than perusing through aisles fittings, fixtures, and raw materials that are just waiting to be used for some project. Becky can attest, we will go to Home Depot and window shop (and no I don't mean shopping for windows!). Even Keira looks dejected when she sees that big orange sign, she knows we're going in and won't be coming back for awhile.

So why do I like Home Depot versus Rona? Why pick the orange over the blue? Pick the American chain over the Canadian chain? Well, it all comes down to their websites.

Home Depot's website is useful, it'll tell me what they have (for the few times I'm not sure they have what I need), with pictures, details, sizing, pricing and reviews. There website is easy to use, straight forward, doesn't ask me if I want to see the French versus English version, and gets me what I want quick. Rona's website? None of the above, they don't even list their products, or didn't until very recently. Say I want an Impact Driver (because if Mike Holmes has one, I need one!) Rona lists 9, Home Depot has a category just for the selection. So who am I going to choose?

And know what, it's not even just that, not only is Home Depot helpful on the web (and doesn't ask me for my Postal Code twice, or even once), but they tend to extend that quality into the store. I mean really, when you go into just about any big block store and ask for a 1/4 NPT nipple you are going to get snickers from all the 17 year old high school boys working there, but at least in Home Depot you can find someone to ask. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a Rona looking for 4-40 machine screws in a quantity with more than 8 per package and can't find anyone, not one helpful person. And yes, contrary to what you say, 4" ABS pipe can be used for more than plumbing, I'm sorry you can't imagine that far.

So I'm sad to say, even though I'm a proud Canadian, I'm going to keep shopping from the boys in Atlanta, and drive that extra mile past Rona.

Randomness

Just watched One Week. It was not a bad movie, definitely indie, and definitely that you won't forget within the next 3 hours. As per the movie, out of 10 I'd give it 7, which is in some way generous because there was geographical placement issues. If the big deal is to ride across Canada make sure that you at least get the highway shots right.

I'm lying here in bed, well Becky is busy playing with Picnik, it's really nice to have laptops. I'm feeling a little anxious, and mostly depressed. Which is always frustrating, considering there isn't really a good reason to feel depressed. But frankly, sometimes I feel misunderstood, mistaken, mistreated, well not so much mistreated, but I was trying for alliteration (I can't be serious for more than half a sentence). I need to find some balance, need to find some way of feeling fulfilled, not just half-filled. And I don't want to wait until I only have "one week."

I think that I have more creativity than I am letting out, and I don't know how that makes me feel. Partially, I feel frustrated because I feel constrained, partially kind of glad because I know how fickle creativity can be, and I don't know if I could be that creative every day. Mind you at the same time, maybe I need to be surrounding myself more with things that help me feel creative. I know that when I see the things other people build it helps me feel like I can build too, and maybe I need more of that every day. And maybe too I need some of the routine, and rituals that allow my mind to be free enough to be creative. It's tough because it's not like it is in a book, and if it was, I probably wouldn't believe it. I guess all part of the journey.

So, I need to get things a bit more straight, I need to see life as it is, and change what it isn't. I need to be strong on what I believe, and let other people see that too, and I need to focus on our life (because even though this post is about how I feel, Becky is so much part of me that it's the two of us - and I never needed to ask if I was in love, I always knew). I know this sounds a big angsty, but it's how I feel, and I just needed to get it out. Life all in all is positive, and I just need to keep a look out for those things. I know, I'm a natural cynic, pretty pessimistic, but I'm working on changing that, just like the fact that I drink coffee and listen to country (on occasion) and that someday I'll eat chinese food again and own a motorcycle, I do slowly change, so someday maybe I'll only see the positive.

Boy that was random :-)

Logging Layout

So, Brent and I have been passing around ideas on a future logging layout in the basement. We've been trying to figure out how to have the right balance of scenery, track, interest. And not to mention figuring out how to make the space work for multi-family uses. Not that the family accounts for much more than 2 cats, 1 dog, 5 "sometimes" adults (the 5th one is not always here, but she makes good suppers!).

So we are working out how to allow ourselves a good amount of run in a 10x14' space that can really only be used around the walls. We tried a square type walkaround (as in walk all the way around, glorified table) but that got poo-pooed by the planning regulator. I was wrong that it's only slightly larger than a 4x8.

So we are working around the walls. Hopefully figuring out a nice way of building a layout that is above any other required uses of the space and well out of reach of small fingers, and allows those small fingers to store their toys underneath. One plan we both liked was the CVR plan by Ron Newby. Especially the switch back for the Okanogan Lumber Company, so we are thinking of ways we can work that in.

So, between homework I'm hoping we can get a good handle on this so that by sometime in the summer when I finally get the basement finished we can start building.

BTW - I used Paint.Net for the image, because I don't have Photoshop on this machine again. Very useful, and very lightweight.

Cheers,
Eric

This is how I feel...

Jalopnik

So very true!

Pour My Heart into It...

My lovely wife challenged me last night to re-evaluate my focus and what I pour my heart into. Lately I've been pouring my heart into one thing only, something which as of late isn't returning on the investment, no matter how hard I try. So Becky's suggestion was to look at what I'm doing, and all the things I have going on in my life and re-evaluate what I'm pouring my heart into.

It's tough, we both have the John Rebus protestant work ethic. Not that I think there is anything wrong with that, but it's leading to an unbalanced life. I think that I need to concentrate on our home more, school more, even enjoying life more. It's hard though because I feel like I'm not doing what I should be if I'm not beating myself by working hard. But maybe there is more to life! You know, back when I had hopes and dreams, I looked forward to stuff, felt positive moving forward.

So I think I'm going to shift my focus a bit, really work hard at school, get some more stuff done at home. Still put in my 100% at work, but leave work at work. And hopefully it'll work out better for the future.

-Eric

P.S. Dex and Piper have decided that the upstairs room is much more dull than having the ability to walk on keyboards and knock off pens in the living room/office. They truly are becoming stinkers. I forgot how much fun Kittens are!

Lost and Found at Church

Ever tried to lookup Lost and Found at a church, especially one with a very good/big website. I "found" alot about Sheep, converting to Christianity, and grief counselling, but not one thing pointed to where I might find my wallet. Teaches me for trying to be quiet in church :-)

I'm enjoying school, though I'm writing this in class. It's been really good having some enthusiastic professors who are teaching like they want too, and learning something that I want too (or don't already know). Dr. Gavrilova for example is very good at bringing in information from the real world and providing examples. My programming paradigms is interesting as we are studying functional programming which is completely different then what I'm used to (imperative) but is becoming more common in multi-core, cloud type computing networks.

The kittens are doing well, Dex has decided he likes to come downstairs and sleep on the chairs (sorry for those of you who are allergic like me), and Piper is slowly warming up to the larger world of our house. Piper is actually more likely to get along with Keira I think then Dex is, though I figured it would be the other way, and is a big fan of kick boxing Keira's squeak toys. We need to get some more pictures, because they've already grown a ton, even though we've only had them 3 weeks!

But I should pay attention here now, we are talking about Pascal (which I'm not sure has been used other than to teach for the last 15 years!).

Cheers,
-Eric

P.S. Oh yah, I bought my first game in years (Trainz 2009), it's so Brent and I can test out some designs for a new layout! Very exciting.

My legs tingle...

... because the dog wanted a walk and it's still really cold outside. Not -30c like it was earlier this week, but still cold.

Keira loves snow, every dog loves snow, but Keira absolutely loves snow. She is much more of a winter dog then a summer dog, she can hardly wait to just pounce on fresh snow. And I think she's part husky, because darnit she didn't want to go the way I was going, she wanted to pounce in that fresh unadulterated snow! And pounce she did, she was bouncing pretty much straight up and down all over. If she could've, she would've done cart wheels. Not only does she love the snow, she loves burying her nose in the snow, so that when she comes home she has all sorts of little ice crystals around her muzzle. And I have legs that tingle because it's really cold.

But it's good, exams are done, school is done for the semester, and now I just have Christmas to prepare for. It's good. Still lots to do and consider (even though school is done) but it's good to just have those things to think about and not worry about anything else.

-Eric

Life is Crazy

Life has been crazy, really crazy. We've had our ups and downs and exams. Well, I've had exams, Becky got off easy in the exam department, though I think the amount of group projects they made her do was just as hard. We are both super tired though, and very much looking forward to a bit more of the less hectic life. I know it's Christmas and all, but I think that dealing with a mall of crazy people might actually be easier than all this exam studying stuff.

I've written one exam so far, the Math one, the dreaded Math one. It was hard, so much stuff to know, and so much stuff to put together. I have a hard time with memorization, so definitions and the like always make it a bit harder. And this Math course had a fair number of definitions. I swear, when we have kids I'm going to make them do double math homework, simply because then I hope they'll be good at it, or better at it than I am.

In ~40 minutes I have a Computer Science exam, which in this case is pretty much like the Math exam except I have to remember about heaps, binary trees, red-black trees, queues, the like. Not really hard, but I normally live with a reference close at hand, so I don't usually memorize every in and out of each implementation. But if I tell you that the worst case possibility of my finding a gift for you is T(n) = O(n^2) then you know that I'm still thinking CPSC.

But that's all, I just have to make it through the exam and then tonite I can relax for a bit. My next exam isn't until next Monday, so I can breathe for a few minutes, and maybe do something else. Which probably will be look at Christmas lights with Becky and Keira-munster and then watch a movie. Man I look forward to that. And sleep, a bit more sleep, and only having to go to work tomorrow.

I have big plans for the holidays, besides our trip to Vegas, which will be awesome, I am also planning on doing some stuff around the house. One of which is clean the basement a bit more so that I can keep working. I haven't lifted a hammer since we started the semester, so if I hold my nose right, I might actually get to do a bit more work. I'm hoping so at least.

Also, I'm hoping to organize a few things at home, so that we can backup our laptops, and we have access to our pictures, videos and music from a central location. We'll see how it goes though, because I'd like to upgrade the Media PC as well to a more power efficient and faster model, but with school and work that might be outside of the budget until the summer. Also, we need to run wires into Chris' room so that we don't have a patch cable across the floor of the hallway, that and Kev and Chris might want cable in their rooms as well when we change our plan around to include full cable (we really miss having the movie channels).

So, here is to one more exam down and one more to go! Soon it'll all be done.

Cheers,
Eric

PS> I mentioned how crazy life is without even mentioning once the craziness of Canadian politics right now, which is what I think about when I'm not doing Math or CPSC.

So very, very tired....

I have a cold, not a particularly terrible cold, but one that is bad enough to make it hard to go to sleep and easy to wake up at night. I woke up this morning at 5:00 AM just because I was hacking up a lung, so I got up and swigged some Buckley's straight out of the bottle. It worked, quite well, I was able to sleep for another 45 minutes or so until the alarm went off.

We had to get up and get going this morning by 6:00 AM so that we could be at the University for 7:00 AM. Which is just freaking crazy, I found it hard enough to be up and at the University for 8:00 AM meetings with my marketing group, but B had to be up and with her group for 7:00 AM. Which is just really crazy, no one should be up that early, at least no University students. And her group wanted to meet for 6:00 AM until someone knocked some sense into that group member (no it wasn't B who suggested 6, I believe she did the knocking).

The nice thing though is that it makes it really quick at Tim Horton's because no one is there except for a few plumbers and an electrician. But when I get up that early even an extra large Double-Double doesn't work. So, I might have to do more than write my semi-weekly blog in Computer Science this morning, I might have to....... zz zzzz zzzz zzz zzz

School is Cool...

and Eric is corny...

But really, I think I'm starting to see that school really is cool. I know, I haven't posted in two weeks, and now I'm saying something like school is cool, you are thinking have I gone off my rocker? No, I haven't, at least I don't think so!

I've been working on mid term exams, had a computer science (CPSC) last week, marketing this week and math in a week or so. So I've been a little overwhelmed with school, studying for exams and doing assignments.

So the question becomes, why would I say school is cool? I say it because it is, I've gotten to the point where it's not so much fluff and more content, a higher SNR (signal to noise ratio) which I like. And you know what the crazy thing is? The longer I'm in school the more I realize I don't know. If I come out of school and pretend to know everything I give you full permission to kick me, because the more you learn in school the more you realize there is to learn. And a big part of what they are doing here is teaching you is how to learn more.

I used to rail against University because it was so impractical, they don't teach you skills that you can directly translate into the workplace. Well, that is true in many cases, but what they are showing you is how to come up with bigger and grander ideas, how to learn how things work, how to evaluate and prove ideas. Which is cool.

Now not every class is like that, some are still kind of mundane concepts and ideas that they try to pound into your head, and expect you to memorize for exams. But some of them are really great, specifically my math class. I know, I know, I've always kind of hated math or so it seemed. But the fact is I like math, I like it alot, it's such a practical, logical language, I've always hated the amount of work I have to do to be good at it. But with a few good professors, and taking a few courses more than once :-) I'm slowly getting better at it. And it appeals to me, because it teaches me how much I don't know!

Cheers,
E

PS: I had to write this down so I remember in the future when I'm tired of school and I've decided I don't like it anymore. Which should be now because I'm tired and worn out and in the middle of exams, but I still like it.

Funny

My Sis-in-law K (actually my only Sis-in-law at the moment) has introduced me to Goodreads.com which is an interesting way of keeping track of the books you've read, are reading and would like to read. If you aren't signed up yet, and like to read, sign up and look for me :-)

In relation to that it was a funny XKCD this morning; I can totally concur, because I find it difficult to discuss a book (or game, or movie) where you spend more time figuring out what each person is talking about because there are more made up names then content.

Feline Chronic Renal Failure

Thank goodness for a wife who is learning to be a nurse. We've been suffering with a chronically sick cat, who apparently has kidney's that are failing him. It's a painful disease that usually come on older cats, but Rusty has contracted at age 8. Basically, his kidney's are failing to function properly and so he needs lots of water and care to keep him going. There is a whole slough of related issues as well, including constipation, frequent urination, weakness, et cetera, et cetara. It's not nice, and the worst thing is that it hurts him, he's not comfortable and not even his old self.

We know that it may only be a matter of time, maybe not even a long time, and we'll lose him. It's hard when we have nights like last night where he was really sick, and we don't know what to do. The crazy thing is we can't even take him to the vet and get them to do something, because there is very little they can do as well. There are kidney transplants, but that may not do much for him, including even whether he'll make it through the surgery let alone the recovery. That and he'd be on anti-rejection drugs the rest of his life, which is hard for a little cat. So we keep working with him.

Thankfully my wonderful wife is good at giving IV's and force feeding, because we've been doing alot of that lately. Rusty gets sub-cu fluids every day (may be more than that soon) and is right now being syringe fed vet food. He doesn't like it, but it usually makes a difference, and we thought he was picking up again, until last night he turned for the worse. It's so frustrating because there is so little you can do, even though you want to do a whole lot.

So it may mean we may lose our little guy in the near future. I hate the thought of that, because he's been so important to us, and we like to think to him. I guess I care too much, because I've known lots of people who have no problem getting rid of their cats when they move, or because they become inconvenient (ever tried finding a rental that allows pets!!). But I guess I'm not that kind of person, and I've never lost a pet before, so I don't even know how I'm going to deal with it, especially when we have to make the choice about whether to put him down because he's so sick.

Anyways, I know this is a kind of sad post, but I needed to get a bit of it off my chest. I try to be upbeat even when I don't feel that way (well, most of the time) but my Sis-in-law said it's ok sometimes to say what you are really feeling, and I think this is one of those times.

E

Heroes, Top Gear, Rebus and Computer Science

I'm currently sitting in my CPSC 331 class, terribly boring class, explaining why to use a Dynamic List versus a Static list, I actually much prefer a Generics List. It's so much easier to deal with the underlying objects rather than being returned an open ended object you need to cast. Bah, child's play, much to boring.

So, my cultural life has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse. So much for watching the IMDB top 250, lately it's been whatever looks not boring at the video store (and sometimes what is boring). Pulp Fiction is the only recent Top 250 movie, and why it got #6 is beyond me. Tarantino may be brilliant, or he might be an overgrown kid with a desire to make odd, violent, and slightly drug induced movies. If I wanted to see that (less the violent) I would be watching Kevin Smith, fluff I know, but he knows how to make a really funny bad movie. Pulp Fiction (that came out Pulp Function, how can you tell I'm in CPSC!).

So, rather than watch movies we know watch TV shows. It works better scheduling with four people that way. So that means a whole lot of Top Gear. Ah, British Television, so much better than pretty much any of the US networks and by far better than our US copycat Canadian stations. It doesn't hurt either that they talk about cars, all sorts of cars, but typically exotic cars. Though my two favorites so far are the Toyota Hilux (which we can't get new in Canada) and the Tomcat. It's sad but true, the other day we drove by two Ferrari's and I was much more interested in the restored Land Cruiser across the road. If you haven't seen the Top Gear Arctic special, and can put up with the British version of a red neck, you should definitely see it.

So, the only other thing I've seen lately is Heroes, which I'm not sure was worth the 2 hours of TV (getting spoiled by ad removed TV). What can I say, good premise, but it sucks. Chris has even said he's not likely to watch anymore, which I can't say I blame him. So more Top Gear it is!

The only saving grace right now is that I'm reading a Barbara Kingsolver and Ian Rankin book. Kingsolver's series of essays (I'm sorry, can't remember the name of the book!) is quite good, though not at all the escapist novel that I typically like. Fortunately Ian Rankin's "The Black Book" is very escapist and good work. I know the Scots may say it's fluff, but I've read alot of mystery/crime drama and this is night and day from most other books. I can really in many ways relate to Rebus (which I'm not sure is always a good thing!) and he is very human. Sometimes I think the books are more studies on human feelings and characteristics than a crime drama.

So I guess I'm lacking in the culture, though funny enough, anything I've discussed isn't getting funding from Harper's Fat-Cats :-)

Next time I promise I'll edit a bit more, and have a direction to my post. Not just a dump of words!

Cheers,
Eric

University Library

So, this is my 5 or 6th semester of University, depending on whether you count the two courses I took in 2003. I'm not a big university person, to me it's really one of those necessary evils, I have to go to get my degree. I haven't done much university type stuff, being involved with anything, gone to a single frat party (which I'm sure are nothing like Animal House), or any of that. I'm really a very sad example of a university student.

One thing I do use a lot though is the University Library. I spend most of my in between class time here, reading, working, posting a long overdue blog post. About the only thing I don't do is read books, at all, ever. Haven't even cracked one open, and I've probably sat hours in this library.

I think my primary problem is that they don't have enough pictures - which I'm sure again would just describe how much I'm a sad university student. But it's true, I'm a very visual person, I like to see how things work, I like to see how things look, I remember so much better based on pictures then I do words. And if a book has both, well then! Now don't get me wrong, I'm an avid reader (or at least when it's not just textbooks), I've gone through my fair share of books - but never one from the University library.

But I'm here all the time, typically because I find somewhere that I like to sit, and it's so much quieter not listening to people walk by, and talk about their "like horrible" sociology class. My current sitting place is the 6th floor, Southwest corner, where I can watch them build the new Taylor Digital Library. Which I'm hoping will still have lots of nice quiet places to sit, but I'm not holding out on more books with pictures :-)

So, in case my Sis-in-law K is reading this, who I know has read at least 2 full floors of books out of this library and who may argue that there are books with pictures, I promise one day I will look at the books. But until then nobody steal my seat on Friday's 10:00 to 11:00 AM, because I kind of like it, but there is two seats, so if you want to discuss Danish made crane's and the latest XKCD, come join me.

PS > My wonderful wifey has a blog, but I don't know if she wants me to link to it yet, so I might in the near future, and you can read someone who is more eloquent and will probably post more often.

New Basement, Dishwasher & Backyard Cont'd....

More pics of the new house.

The living room with Keira looking on.

The dining room with way more space then our last one (a few less boxes though!)

The new kitchen with the dishwasher!!!!

Keira enjoying the backyard, she's really liked it so far as there is lots of stuff to explore and a few peices of wood to chew on. She actually asks to be let outside so she can sit in the sun and explore. We just have to watch her digging!

New Basement, Dishwasher & Backyard

The three most important things for us - a basement, backyard and most important a dishwasher!

This as you can see is the basement, it's 3/4s painted with a tan (Pyramid is the name) epoxy garage floor paint. Very nice, much better than the yucky floor that was there before.

Our new washbasin, which I very much like as it means I don't have to clean paints or other stuff in the kitchen sink - which means Becky really likes it too.

All the crap that we had to move to paint the floor - some of it is garbage, but alot of it will be moved back after 72 hours of curing time.

Painting the inside of the kitchen drawers with Killz - much needed, it may actually need two coats of Killz to cover all the grease and crap. Man is that stuff thick, it's got to be as bad as painting in Mexico in 30 degree weather.

More Pics to come as apparently Picasa only uploads 4 at a time :-(

New House, Here We Come!

Today is the day... we get possession of our new house and it's great!

It has everything we are looking for, backyard for Keira to run around in, a dishwasher to wash dishes and a basement to play trains in. And all for a low, low price... well maybe not that part, but this is Calgary!

So today we take possession, and at 1:30 we get the keys - and at 2:30 we start scrubbing the basement floor to paint :-) No rest at all, but we can do it, simply because it's our house, and we aren't painting someone else's property - no more rentals for us!

As you can tell, we are excited, which is the best we've felt over the last few weeks - buying a house is a lot of work. But today it's ours, so we can really, truly feel excited.

And so everyone who reads this blog can come see it (all six of you, which we can all fit, all at the same time, even with a dog and a cat!)

-E

Future Shop Extended Warranty

So is it worth it? That's a good question, I've only ever bought it on two items - the first being a printer that I was using when I was contracting, the second on our 40" LCD (I still drool over the thought of it). So why do I question it's value?

Well, this morning I called Future Shop because we have a pixel that is shot, since pretty close to day one. What does Future Shop say? Well it's still under the Sony warranty - ok fine, please fix it - you have to call Sony. Ok, so I call Sony and say my TV has a dead pixel - Sony says you have 2 million pixels - we wont' fix one dead pixel - I say that's fine but it's Bright Green not black - Sony says ok, but you have to call Westpeak Electronics! Ok, so I call Westpeak Electronics, get the one lady at the shop who hasn't had her coffee this morning (or I think for the last week) and she says we'll send a guy tomorrow - we'll call you tomorrow to let you know when he's coming.

Ok, so why is Future Shop Extended, In Home Warranty worth it? Well, for one, to keep me happy (or make me happy as I have not typically had a good relationship with Future Shop) they could've arranged all this crap for me. They already probably know who is the repair shop that I'm going too, so take my information (which is on file, even though I didn't buy it at Northlands Edmonton) and route it through Sony to the Westpeak electronics. Is that hard? Nope - it's straight forward, and considering in Canada we only have a few really big electornics realtors (two of which is the same company) it should be really easy to implement. Sure it'll cost a few bucks, but you may not have to advertise as hard to get me to come back next time. And then everyone might just be a bit happier (including me). Service is becoming the most important thing now, not just price so these companies might want to pay attention to that. The shareholders are not the ones who are buying the majority of products, and keeping your company afloat, so it might be a good idea to consider someone besides just them.

But that's enough of my ranting - all I know is that I don't want to have to wait 6 weeks for it to be fixed and have no TV. I don't watch a lot, but if I don't get my Avatar before bed, I do get grumpy.

-E

Stacks

Just in case some of you didn't believe me that we have floor to almost ceiling stacks of boxes :-) No Mailbins this time!And the only one who is more excited to go to work than me:
Someone is not as helpful as he looks:

Dogg Tired...

Just in time for the spring time change, the one where we have to get up early so that we can drive to see our beautiful goddaughter Emma's 2nd birthday I thought I'd share Keira's feeling's on getting up:
Rusty, in general tends to concur:
Click on these for Holy Moses size for certain people's desktops :-) (Hint, Hint Mom)