Kev

This post has been sitting in “draft” for a few weeks, so it’s time I set it free.

This isn’t a new flavour of marinade from President’s Choice, it’s more of a conclusion to my trip to Scotland. I haven’t taken vacation time to go anywhere outside of Ottawa (from wherever I was) to see the sights since I was fourteen, so the trip was something of a novelty for me. I wasn’t sure if I’d know how to vacation, as stupid as that sounds, but it turned out to be an amazing time all around.

I got to see a place that is defined by its history, beautiful coastlines, buildings three times as old as my country, and those narrow, winding roads you always see in movies. Karen took over a week from her MBA studies (and sacrificed a lot of personal time before and after to stay current in her program) to show me around and explore the countryside, and I’m lucky to have been able to spend that much time with her.

There are a number of things about Scotland that stuck in my mind. These are the things that really made a lasting impression:

Green: Everything was green. Bright, rich, lush, deep, green. It was so green, Walt was convinced I had mucked around with the colour saturation of my pics to make everything look greener than it was. Not so, and the green you see is the green I saw. Lawns are a combination of grass and lichens, and said lichens cover anything that has been there a while (there’s a lot of items that meet that criteria). Even when the sky was gray, the green made everything fresh.

Stone: Stone is an integral part of the architecture of Scotland, and of the land itself. Long stone walls define property borders everywhere. Castles, houses, courtyards, churches, and other buildings are made out of sandstone and granite, and it’s clear that they were built to last. Stone pushes up from the ground everywhere, but it’s been transformed from an impediment into things of great beauty. It’s an appropriate backbone to the country and its people.

History: Everywhere you go you get a feeling for how old the country is. Everything has a story, and that story manifests itself in both tangible and intangible ways. Rock walls have a huge buildup of moss that could only have built up over a few hundred years; castles that are still used were created in the 13th century (and earlier), traditions practiced eight centuries ago are still very much part of the cultural makeup. It’s something we don’t have back home, and maybe explains why we do everything so maniacally as we try and create that history in a very short time.

People: Everyone I came into contact with was awesome… well, except for the woman in front of the department store who had some choice words for me. They know their history, are incredibly friendly, and go out of their way to help you out. From Gavin at the Aberlour distillery, to the owner and her daughter of Cheers in Fraserburgh, Charlie at the St. Valery, Steve at Waxy’s, and the Oddbin’s clerk trying to get us to continue tasting at 10am, everyone I met was genuinely friendly, interesting, and fun to be around. They very clearly love and are proud of their country, and it’s pretty cool to see that kind of identity that sets them apart from anywhere else I’ve been. They don’t flag wave, they culture wave. It’s not all rosy, to be sure, as there are a few nasty bits about the culture, but we could take some lessons from the Scots in a number of areas.

Open sky: There are very few tall buildings anywhere. While there are tall hills, they tend to be wide and rolling, and are covered with grass and sheep. The landscape always lets the sky in, and it’s nice to walk down the main street of the larger cities and be able to see the horizon, the surrounding hills, and the blue (well, grey in my case) skies.

Wildlife: For some reason I had this impression that there was nothing other than sheep and crazed locals. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. I saw a couple types of deer, rabbits, ferrets, pheasants, and a multitude of other animals I couldn’t identify. My favourite bit of ignorance was being surprised at the variety of seafood, and then I remembered it’s an island in the ocean. I’m quick, I tells ya. My fave was the ferret – not very bright, but cute.

Cuisine: After hearing all the horror stories of Scottish and English cuisine, the food turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. While you can get a lot of deep-fried everything, you can get even more excellent food. The venison and Angus beef is first-rate, and the seafood-which includes a lot more than battered and fried cod or haddock-is both plentiful and tasty. I had several amazing meals, all of which were prepared with local game and produce and were exquisite. Add the local atmosphere and people, and it was an incredible culinary experience, no matter where we went.

Whisky: Certainly not the same as cuisine 🙂 Whisky is a huge part of what was experienced on the trip, so I may be a little biased in my perceptions of its effect on the country. Whisky is everywhere, and is a big part of the industrial, cultural, tourism, and social backbone. Whisky takes the culture of quality wines and mixes it with the accessibility of beer. The results are sometimes painful, but always entertaining. I still can’t get over the bottle I saw for £10,000.00. I know some wines are more expensive, but still… It was a nice looking bottle, though.

Karen: An incredible host, and I can’t thank her enough for taking over a week to show me around the country and exploring Aberdeenshire, Speyside, and the Highlands with me. I had a great time enjoying all of the above with her, and I owe her bigtime for suggesting visiting the country, helping me figure out where to go, and making sure I didn’t kill myself crossing the street when I got there. She’s an amazing person, and I’m super-lucky to have been able to have such great company on the trip.

Scotland was very good to me, and I have a tonne of indelible memories. (I am thankful I have the pics to jog said memories from time-to-time, tho) The trip was the best thing I’ve done in a long time for a multitude of reasons, and I’m actually interested in seeing what the rest of Europe has to offer now. (I have never really had any interest in visiting, and that’s changed in a big way)

I hope to get back there soon.

Tonight fell into the category of “excellent”. It’s always a treat to hook up with Ingenia folk, and I’m constantly reminded of what a great group of people worked there. Jumanji (Keith) and I have kept in touch since Ingenia folded, but I hadn’t seen him since 1996. Way, way, way too long.

We closed the loop and met up after work at the Beer Bistro in downtown Toronto. It’s an interesting place, and most of the menu incorporates beer in one way or another. All the dishes have recommended accompaniments, and for the most part I’d agree with the recommendations. The atmosphere was very casual, and the layout is well thought out, and very comfortable. Service was excellent, and our server was helpful without being overbearing.

Shaver joined us a little later than planned, and some geeky and non-geeky conversation ensued. It’s funny how ten years can pass, and everything but nothing changes in the interim. The conversations flipped from home renovations to family (congrats Janice, glad to hear the operation was a success!) to coding to food preparation to network protocols all without missing a beat. Many different beers were had, and I think we all went home “happy”.

The beer list was suberb, but I’m sad to say the food was only passable. I had the Bacon & Brune mussels, and while the sauce was very tasty, the mussels themsleves were over-cooked, and there were three over-sized and not-very-tasty specimens that should have been removed from the dish. The frites were good, but I’d avoid the “smoked” ketchup and stick with the mayo. Shaver mentioned his stew was perfectly cooked and had a great texture, but was taken down a couple notches from being too salty.

The amazing point of the night was when a waitress dropped $200.00 in twenties, and not a single person noticed. The bills were just lying on the floor for a good minute, so I picked them up and brought them to the bar. It turned out that one of the waitresses had dropped them, so I guess we saved her an evening’s pay. I still can’t get over how no one even considered picking them up – people were walking on them on the way out. Weird.

In any case, a great evening, and it was great to see Keith and Shaver again. As far as the Bistro goes, I’ll give it another chance as everything but the food was superb, and it could be they were having an off night.

In any event, we’ll have to do it more often.

So… has anyone else noticed that almost all the North American sites that mirrored sourceforge files have dropped out? The only remaining company/organisation still hosting is easynews. It hasn’t been a gradual loss of hosters, either. In the last six months, at least ten providers and universities have dropped off the map.

What the dilly-o?

For the past year or so, I’ve been boycotting EMI Music. They introduced an annoying copy protection scheme whose only “protection” seemed to be to not work in my car’s CD player. They’ve been agressive, and have included this new feature on pretty much everything released in Canada.

EMI has a lot of artists I like, and it’s been a bit of a cheese-off seeing that annying logo on pretty much anything I’d like to buy. I’ve written them about it, and never received a response, and I figured they’d go on their merry way using tools that don’t prevent anyone who can use google to find out how to hold the shift key down, or grab a ripper that reads the real TOC.

Today I received a pleasant surprise – Daft Punk’s newest release doesn’t incorporate any copy protection technologies here. Our friends in Australia aren’t so lucky, though. I’m wondering if this marks a shift in policy, an experiment, or a reaction to litigation in countries where the copyright law is sane.

In any event, no copy protection, and a decent CD. EMI, keep ’em coming this way, and I’ll go back to buying from your catalog.

So, the migration didn’t go without a hitch… in fact, there were many minor hitches. That said, we finished it off this eve, and everything looks good on the surface. Tomorrow will be the true test when the users try things out. The intended result is they won’t notice a thing – hopefully that’ll be the end result.

I’m tired, but not exhausted. This was one of the best migrations I’ve ever been involved with. My colleague Kwang spent a good chunk of his night assisting as well, and for that I’m grateful. I think I understand how shadowing pairs are configured, but I would like to know how many hits of acid the person who designed the management tool took before coding it.

Here’s hoping tomorrow (today) is uneventful, and that I’m on a plane Sat or Sun morning.

The first migration for the new gig didn’t quite work. Good news is there was no harm, no foul, no permanent damage. Bad news is we found a bug that is a wee bit destructive with the data.

We’re pretty sure we know what thw problem is, and if our solution doesn’t work there’s a couple other ways to make it fly. My getting home on saturday doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen, though.

Ah well, good learning experience 🙂

If so, help Karen out by answering a few questions she’s posted about your habits/faves. Go on over to her post with the questions and reply using the “Comment” form at the bottom of the post.

So, I made it to Tucson. It’s a gorgeous city, and my only complaint so far has been that Hertz’s map wasn’t quite to scale, resulting in exploring a little more than I wanted to on my way from the airport to the hotel. I’m at a Four Points Sheraton just outside the University of Arizona. Their stadium is much bigger than Frank Clair, and it looks to be in a lot better shape, too.

I have some Negra Modelo, which does not come in a twist top (thank you desk top that doubles as an opener), and a chooge burrito which was amazing. I can see the hills from my room, and it’s a pretty impressive view (the pics don’t do it justice).

It’s about 85 degrees F, and is dry as a bone, so the heat is really quite enjoyable. The pool is ready to go, and I’ll be swimming laps tomorrow instead of going for a run. It’s a nice place… I think I’m going to enjoy my trip here.

So, travel has started once again. The last few years have been nice to me time-wise, and its been a mixed blessing to work primarily from Ottawa. I have, however, missed travelling. There’s something I really like about breaking a month up with a trip or three to places away from home.

I’m off to Tucson, AZ to meet with a client and do my first project with my new employer. The client seems pretty decent, and Tucson is a place I’ve never been before.

I brought my camera, and plan on doing a little hiking next weekend or on one of the evenings I’m there, time allowing. Walt assures me this is a great time of year to go, and I’m kind of hoping to catch the desert bloom.

It’s a 7.5 hour trip, and my flight boards in a twenty minutes or so. I’m looking forward to this all of a sudden, which has caught me a little off guard. I wasn’t big on going this morning, but now that I’m here I’m pretty sure this will be one of those good trips.

Back into the breech I go. Here’s hoping it’s a smooth ride.

If I’m using one of the Ministry of Ontario’s Self Serve Kiosks and not making use of expensive, human labour by going to one of their centres, why am I charged a “convenience fee”? Isn’t it reasonable to assume that because I’m entering all the data, and not some unionized person on the other side of the wicket, that I’m actually saving the gummint some money? It’s only a buck, but seriously…