Kev

So, I’ve been busy. A casualty of being busy has been this place. Apparently, people have been noticing this; my apologies.

Life is good. Heck, life is great. Every aspect of it seems to be taking a turn for the better. Four weeks ago I was gearing up for another shitty holiday season where I would let myself get down and would spend the entire time in woe-is-me mode.

It didn’t happen.

I had an amazing Christmas and holiday. I got to hang out with my fam, including the new members thereof. I got to take part in an incredible Christmas eve, a relaxed Christmas Day and dinner, a series of afternoons and evenings out, and an incredible New Year’s Eve at three different locations with all the people I really like to be around.

Since then, life continues to get better and better. I’m more focused at work, and am getting rid of all the shit that has been dragging me down. I’m not throwing up my arms in despair and complaining about the bureaucracy, I’m making people pay attention by spamming everyone and telling them how fucked things up are, and what needs to be done to fix it (and they’re actually listening). I’m hiring new people, empowering others, and setting everything up such that it’ll run smoothly with minimal intervention. It’s working – how weird.

I get to talk to some of the coolest people on the planet on a daily basis, and have managed to get away from constantly bitching about *everything* (although I still marvel publicly about some of the stupid things I am subjected to on a daily basis). I think I am a little more tolerable, but that’s just a general impression.

Other things are going exceptionally well. I’ll post an update on some of those next week, I think. No point talking about everything all at once.

In short, life is good, and for the first time in a very, very, very long time, I’m happy with my place in the universe. I’m not even worried about my little black cloud, because the person who brought the little black cloud onto the scene in the first place was me. I think I’ll keep it in storage indefinitely.

Whee!

There’s nothing quite like running in the rain. I love the rain, because it cools you off while giving you a little extra opposition. It quiets everything down so you do nothing but focus on the sounds of your footfalls, your breathing, your heart thumping, and (optionally) the conversation of whoever you’re running with. Tonight it was raining, and I had an amazing run.

Wednesday night is run night for me and four of my good friends. We’ve been hit with bad weather on almost every Wednesday since the start of December, and tonight’s forecast was freezing rain (the weather people were right for a change). Every Wednesday morning there’s a role call, with everyone telling everyone else whether they’re in. Most folks don’t like to run in the freezing rain, so three of the five indicated they’d be going straight to the pub. That left the two idiots who run in anything.

The two idiots are Pierre and I.

While Carol, Terry, and Iz went straight to the Fergus for food and bevvies, Pierre and I wanted to run. We also wanted to avoid the streets, and decided the canal was the place to be, because no one would be skating on it in weather like we had.

We jogged down to the canal after being told how silly we were, and had a flat, smooth, empty running surface 50 metres wide. It was grey, it was dark, it was raining, and it was on. The rain drowned out all the sound from the city, which allowed us to focus on the run and catching up with the last week. We started at a 10km/h pace, and slowly worked our way up to a 14km/h pace. This gets the blood flowing, and heart rate into Z2. We ran hard, we ran far, and we kicked it up to 18-20km/h for the last 300 metres or so.

It was awesome. It took away the stress of the day, the chill of the season, and the sluggishness of the night. We ran what normally takes 45 minutes in 36. That may not seem like a lot, but it’s a world of difference. I can’t tell you how alive I felt (I know it was the endorphins… be quiet) afterwards, and I’m ready to go do it again.

Whoa.

P.S. – We did make it to the Fergus afterwards for some well-deserved food and bevvies. Can you tell how much I love running?

…I seem to have forgotten to update the last couple days with anything meaningful, which is a shame, I admit.

So, good things are happening. Some of which I can’t talk about, some of which I won’t talk about. I’m happy, and think I’m going to be a lot happier in the coming months. Christmas was about as good as it could get and was, without question, the best holiday season I’ve had since my mom passed away. Thanks to everyone who made the second half of December amazing, it made my year.

The week’s been crazy busy at work, and there’s a whole pile of stuff that I’m finally getting off of the “to-do” list. I want to have everything cleaned up by the end of this month for a couple reasons, and it’s looking like I’ll be able to. I have a tonne of writing to do, a little bit of number crunching, and a lot of reading.

Things are looking seriously up. (and I am saying this while knocking on wood. no sense getting karma-whacked)

Coop got fucked again. While he gets to stay on team Orange, I’m kind of wondering how the league can justify replacing 3 people (updated, I realise that the 3 in and out are not going to/coming from completely seperate teams).

Part of playing in a league is chemistry, which isn’t instantaneous. While I understand the ultimate goal (ptp) in Winter league is to achieve parity and make the games a learning experience, I question the logic behind changing the teams this late. You’ve now blown away a chunk of the team by taking the best/better players and replacing them with less-skilled folks. Any chemistry/knowledge of your teammates is gone, the better players are usually (although not always) the leaders, and the remaining players will have to start all over with building a team.

In all likelihood, this means that the next 3-6 weeks the games will be less-than-fun for orange as they get accustomed to their new mates and establish a new structure and flow. Suck.

I realize that OCUA is doing it’s best, but I have one question: What are all the people who make the decisions doing during the selection process doinf during tryouts? Isn’t the whole point of tryouts to select players who belong in Advanced, and then make balanced teams? Is the selection process really just a forum to confirm what people think they know, without actually validating how good the talent pool is, or is it supposed to be a true analysis of the talent pool so they get it right the first time? I understand moving a player here or there, but not 3.

It really doesn’t affect me much, as I don’t (and never will) play at that level. Still, I’ve seen it happen two years in a row, and know how difficult it can be when you make serious changes after everyone starts to get used to their teammates. I fear that this year will be a repeat for coop, and that just ain’t right. I also don’t think it’s a knock against the coordinator, who from what I’ve seen takes on an awful lot solo and has a lot of respect. I’m wondering where the help is 😉

Ah, what do I know about sports, anyways? Sorry coop, and here’s hoping team orange is not “Team Yellow: The Redux”.

Yesterday/today was a pretty good close-out of 2004. The morning was spent doing some last minute running around for new tires (really), some beer for the evening, and chocolate for Kris and Chris’s fête. On the subject of chocolate do check out Truffle Treasures, as they have the best chocolate I’ve had in a loooong time. Highly, highly recommended.

I didn’t sleep well the previous night at all, and only managed a couple hours. This was less than ideal, as I was running the 10km Resolution Run with the Wednesday night run group and being fatigued is no fun. The afternoon was spent attempting to have a nap, but the brain was in overdrive and wouldn’t let me rest. Oh well.

The race started at 6:30, and to get to the start line I ended up running an additional 3.5km – 1.5 to Carol and Pierre’s where we were meeting up, and another 2 from their place to the start line. At least we were warmed up. The run was great, with Terry bringing all kinds of glowing accessories for wearing during the run (it’s dark after 5:00pm here). Carol did the 5km, while the rest of us ran the 10km. All things considered, it was a good run. We finished in style with party horns and sparklers as we crossed the line in 1:05:something.

The race was followed up with a much-needed shower, and then it was off to Carol and Pierre’s for a drink. They were serving up a dinner as well, which smelled awesome. I had to pass on dinner, but the Guinness and conversation with folks was great. A very nice way to start the evening, and I didn’t feel like dying at any point. Once dinner started, I hopped back in the car and travelled to Chris and Kris’s to ring in the New Year.

When I arrived, it was pretty obvious that everyone was having a good time. I am fairly certain that a decent amount of brain cells had been killed by that time, and everyone looked fabbo and was having an excellent time. Karen posted some pics of the eve and everyone there. I think we paid attention to the New Year’s arrival for about 90 seconds, then went back to doing what we were doing.

Around 02:30 everyone was about done, and I drove Mark, Barb, nad James home.

Was a great evening, and I didn’t bonk. All good, and a better group of folks to bring in the New Year is hard to find (we’ll have to find a way to sneak the Trotta’s out next time).

Hope everyone’s New Year was safe and happy, and that the upcoming year brings you everything you’re looking for.

Please welcome to the planet Gabrielle Maria McQuade, the 19.5″ healthy offspring of Terina and Steve, at 8lbs 1oz. Gabrielle was born at 18:51PST, and is the closest to a New Year’s baby I’ve ever known.

Congrats to Terina, Steve, Bella, and the kids. Gabrielle, we’re sorry in advance for your father, but your mom will more than make up for him. 🙂

I’m sure these diagrams made sense at the time, but I hafta wonder. I recognize my office and my handwriting, but man, that seems soooo long ago, and it was only 2001. I miss those days.

I actually do remember what the pics are. The first was a cutover timetable from a huge mail system to a sane-sized mail system, after our “partners” decided to go it alone after they spent $10M of our money. The second was an initial, half-baked concept of a content delivery system that Walt took and finished cooking, and over-delivered with multiple times. I still feel bad about saddling him with it, but man, he made it fly.

Ahh… memories. I miss my brick walls, the pinball machines, Kourtney’s sarcasm, Josh’s gopher-like cubicle antics, Yadira’s stuffed animals (which indicated if I was in deep shit or not with her), Coop’s laptop in pieces, Walt’s coffee, James’ throwing shit at me, and everything else that made Globix fun. ‘Twas a blast, and somedays I wish I could relive it, and then I come to my senses. 😉

Who knew that annoying songs in your brain actually had a name associated with them? The name is earworm, and the definition forgot a classic from Barry Manilow. Yes, I’m supposed to be working. No, it’s not going very well. Spreadsheets lose their allure after staring at them more than 30 minutes.

Do you ever look at something and wonder what the person who dreamed it up was thinking? I tend to do that a lot, and came across a hybrid ambulance/fire truck. Supposedly, having dual-purpose vehicles will save costs. What happens when you have someone who needs immediate attention at a hospital, but the fire’s not quite out? I guess you have two of these things. Right.

I win.