31.03.09
    Why yes, I am a web-elitist techno-curmudgeon, allow me to go back to my hand-coding HTML.

    On the other hand, I seem to have taken a position aligned with the Government of Iran. Our reasons are different, I hasten to add.

    I already have a website with updates on what I’m doing. If I get a facebook account, it means less energy goes into my existing site. And you wouldn't want that, would you?

    What is the future of facebook? It seems any discussion of social networking or online marketing cannot occur without mention of facebook. Will it have more staying power than the internet fads of yestersecond? Will the shady privacy issues cause some internal or external meltdown of its code? Will it improve? Will something better come along? Longevity on the internet is a relative term. The bang or the whimper is likely in store for facebook eventually, at least in its current incarnation, but the same could be said for almost every other website currently available. The development of the technology alone will see to that. Details are undecided, or unimagined at present, but when that particular ride goes off the rails, it does so without me.
    But I'll wave as you go by.

28.03.09
    In the departmental mail there's a request for some type of endoscope system to figure out the sex of some sea turtles we have, there's a job for someone to band warblers in the BC interior, and a volunteer position to track seahorse migration by scuba diving off of Portugal. There are also lectures on fisheries rights, anoxia in carp, and the return of the sea otters. I can also learn how to write Animal Care Protocols. Of course I actually do none of these things. No, instead I spent the most of the last week putting together beauty shots of teeny tiny spiders. And it wasn’t for the first time.
    Go see it.

    The last thing I need is a wall.

    I went to a Japanese restaurant this week, let’s call it ‘Protein on Starch’; we had a choice of several eateries, and multiple Japanese ones. We chose badly. Once inside, the place was near empty. We didn’t want all-you-can-eat, so we asked for an à la carte menu. We were seated at a banquette where the bench seat was a good six inches shorter than the chairs. I, being taller, switched to the bench, which wasn’t an issue as long as I didn’t slouch. We got tea, and realized the host had given us the all-you-can-eat menu. After correcting this we were ignored for a while, then were permitted to place our orders. The food came after a reasonable amount of time, both of us had tempuras but we were only given one ponzu sauce. I didn’t find this to be an issue, until I noticed someone was double-dipping. I asked for another. The food itself was good, a dynamite roll with two nice big prawns, crispy deep-fried chicken wings, assorted tempura, one ebi, salmon, and tuna nigiri, and chicken teriyaki on bean sprouts with one piece each of carrot and broccoli. Reasonably priced and almost more than I could eat. Our tea was refilled once, then left to run out as no one checked back again. After I had finished (it took a while), a waiter delivered food to the next table, then studiously kept his back to us as he left the area so he wouldn’t have to clear our table. Eventually we flagged someone down and asked for more tea and the bill. We were splitting the cheque, so we put down a few bills, expecting to divide the change between us and a cursory tip. The change never arrived. The guy that took the money apparently decided he deserved a generous gratuity for sub-par service and seemed to be organizing his cash drawer instead of returning our change. I suppose the fact that we had covered the total amount plus an extra bill led to this, but he could have at least asked. I’m sure if we made an issue of it, we could have gotten our change, but at that point we just wanted to get out and not have to interact with the service staff anymore. We got our wish, as no one noted or acknowledged our departure. I was considering submitting a review to Dine Here, but I see that there are already several others that say the same thing.

    About a 28 inch diameter circle, in case it was keeping you up at night.

    Also, I caved. They were having a promotion. I’ve started wearing suits to work (very, very occasionally). Since it’s the second one, I could make it fit better. I’m going to two weddings and a golden anniversary this summer. We’re going to have grand opening events later this year. Other excuses!

    Yes, it's indochino.com again, it's dark grey, the first one was black (in menswear, the difference is apparently gargantuan). They've increased their prices a bit, I notice they're advertising more heavily and the free swatch and $1 measuring tape now cost $20 for both. Also, the packaging has been upgraded substantially. Last time it was a plastic bag with a balled-up suit inside. This time it was everything folded nicely on a wooden hanger inside a custom garment bag. The shirts (not shown) were folded onto cardboard backing, with plastic bits holding up the collar and one sleeve decoratively fastened to the front, then tied with a branded ribbon and put into a glassine resealable envelope. Everything arrived in a branded box, again within nine days of ordering. I suppose the packaging feels more upscale, and it could make the difference to some people, but I would go for less packaging and lower price points.
    And if they don't survive "these economic times"*, then I'll be glad to have got this when I did, because for that money where else am I going to get suits like that?
    Oh, right, go to Asia myself.
    *I am so sick of that phrase, I say we replace it with "this time when we realized corporate finance is a sham", or better yet "this time of massive human-exacerbated global ecosystem damage we keep ignoring in favour of making more money". How's that for your newsbyte?

19.03.09
    There’s this neat material, a clear resin, with bits of stuff, we liked the plants, embedded within it. It’s sold in 4x8 foot sheets and it’s expensive. We were thinking of fashioning round tabletops out of it. So, given the dimensions of a sheet, what is the largest size of circular tabletop you could get if you wanted three tabletops out of each sheet?
    And that's how I ended up puzzling out a quadratic equation at work today.

17.03.09
    FB means I have to start drawing lines between my friends; who’s a FB friend, who’s strictly IRL, where do you stand in relation to me? What little box of paranoia and discourtesy can I put you in? Then there are the work groups, and the extent to which I want my personal life to bleed between the two. Do I really need those drunken Vegas pictures circulating with upper management*? Speaking of which, there’s the issue of all those other tagged photos coming back to bite me.
    *Okay, this is kind of a hypothetical, as they would probably encourage and delight in me sharing those images with them. Still, think of my future political career.

15.03.09
    I received some chocolate, which is never a bad thing, in the shape of a little cross. Now, am I the only one who finds it odd to eat as candy, and derive a measure of enjoyment from what is pretty much a device of torture carrying the symbolism of the crucifixion? Transubstantiation indeed.

14.03.09
    Remember that time that couple put their baby up on Craigslist, and the news illustrated their story on them with photos they sourced from Facebook?

    Hey, remember when we were all on ICQ?

    Hey, remember when y’all had Xanga blogs?

    I want to be cool like you.

13.03.09
    You know how you're on the bus, and it's after work, and you're tired. And you fall asleep, and you weren't lucky enough to get a window seat, so you're next to an aisle and you don't know the person next to you, so you're trying not to squish into them. Yeah, that was the guy next to me a few days ago, which isn't really a big deal, I've been in that position. Except the driver was kind of heavy on the brakes and corners, and this guy next to me didn't have the best balance ever. So he's kind of falling sideways into the aisle, then saving himself and sitting up straight, then doing it over again, once every few seconds like some kind of hyperactive narcoleptic.
    What do you do in that situation? If he were more conscious, I would have suggested we switch and he could collapse against the window. Should I have woken him up? Of course I chose the path of least interaction, I just became absorbed in my book and hoped gravity smiled on him. And he was fine, except for that time the bus accelerated and his head snapped back and whacked the metal upright pole. Then I tried not to giggle. But hey, I've been there too.

12.03.09
    I don’t like how Facebook hides all its information from non-members, while at the same time sharing your personal information with their ‘sponsors’ to better sell you things, as one of the least nefarious applications (they said they dont do that... anymore). It creates the perception of privacy, where little to none exists. Of course the degree to which this actually happens is debatable, but why would we encourage Big Brother more into our personal lives? Here’s a gem from Wikipedia: Facebook has “22 breaches of the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Complaint_from_CIPPC), and Facebook’s defense is pretty much “That information was willingly shared”, which is a fair point and why I’m unwilling to share.

10.03.09
    A while ago I joined the screamingly paranoid masses and traded in my hard plastic water bottle for a stainless steel version. Sure, we're going to screw up our environment with aplomb until we're all crispy Cajun-fried versions of ourselves, but damnit, we'll be BPA-free. Anyway...
    The new bottle has some deep, shiny, metallic red clear coat over a brushed metal body, so it reflects a stripe of intense red graduating to near-black at the sides. I would have bought it for the colour regardless of anything else. I usually fill it up with tap water at home since the stuff that comes out of the taps in my work building is often brown and chunky. Yes they've tested it, yes it's fine, no I won't drink it.
    The bottle has a narrower mouth than I'm used to, which actually makes it easier to drink from, but harder to clean. The opacity also renders cleaning challenging... as I found out when someone else cleaned it for me. I usually have it sitting on my desk and take a sip whenever I have a couple seconds; waiting for a program to open or a page to load. I did this today and was rewarded with a mouthful of dishsoap bubbles.

08.03.09
    Another young woman on the bus:
    “I went out with this guy twice maybe, then on his Facebook he changed his status to ‘in a relationship’ and I’m like WTF?”

   And I’ve had this conversation:
    Me: “So, how was your birthday?”
    Someone: “I got some presents on Facebook.”

    That was some weird snow we had today, I managed to head out in my car right as it started; it was like being hit with millions of little snowballs.

07.03.09
   Then a former co-worker:
    “I took down the thing where it says my relationship status, so all my friends got a message saying I was ‘no longer in a relationship’ and they all messaged me to find out what happened, and I was like, ‘Nothing happened, I just got rid of one line of text’.”
    For a while this same co-worker had a profile picture of himself playing Guitar Hero, shirtless. I only know this because it made the more well-known gossip rounds at the time.

04.03.09
    A young woman on the bus:
    “I met this guy and he gave me his phone number, then he’s like ‘Call me right now’, and I didn’t really want to, but I did it anyway, so then he, like, had my number on his caller ID. So then he calls me and we hung out, like, once, and he finds me on Facebook and sees I have a boyfriend, and he’s all, like, ‘I thought you were single’, and I’m all, ‘Well it’s not like we’re dating’ and he’s all, like, pissed.”

03.03.09
    “Are you on Facebook?”; the perpetual social networking question. Thus far my answer has been a resounding “NO”, followed perhaps by an icy glare. Still, as my real-life (remember what that is?) social network has grown more dispersed, there have been times I’ve thought it would be nice to see those photos from away, or know how so-and-so is doing. Facebook, being the fad of the moment*, seems to be where this is taking place, lest anyone actually take the effort to create a public blog.
    There may have been a waver, but I’m still on the side of “No”. (There’s most definitely a waiver, but that’s another story.) I’ve never fully articulated my reasons; usually people have heard enough of them and are tired of it, regardless of which side they’re on. I’ve never catalogued them either, my resistance stemming from a vague sense of unease rather than an exhaustively researched list of valid criticism (several already exist). I don’t think Facebook is the Root of All Evil, I don’t think they’re more out to data mine you than other companies, the safety of your immortal soul does not hang in the balance, it’s just not for me. BUT since it keeps coming up, I’m dedicating this month to the occasional random post about ‘Why I’m Not on Facebook’. You have brought this on yourself, you know who you are.
    *And on these newfangled personal computers. They’ll never catch on.

02.03.09
    It’s Saturday morning, 9:30am, I’m pulling on my old jeans with the hole in the left knee, wool socks, with a hole in the ball of the foot, polyester fleece on top of polyester, a raincoat, a toque, and gumboots up to my knees. By 10:00 I’m outside under a high overcast sky meeting up with similarly attired people beside one of the largest lakes in the region. We’re preparing the nest boxes for the return of the birds, so they could have new homes in which to raise more little birds. The nest boxes are pretty much your average wooden bird house, usually painted grey, sized for different species, refined through trial and error into a minimum of parts and efficiency of maintenance. It all sounds cute, sure, but the labour of it was removing moldy 10-month old unsuccessful eggs, feces, nesting material, and a few dead chicks out of cold, wet, wooden boxes. People go out on boats to retrieve the boxes out on pylons in the lake; I clamber up a ladder in patches of salmonberry and blackberry to get the ones on top of poles. The smaller boxes are hauled down; the large ones have removable trays. The insides have a base of fine wood chips we put in on which the birds built last year’s nests, or tried to at least. I pulled out one tray of sixteen unhatched wood duck eggs. If the hen was taken by a predator, or scared away from the box, we don’t know. If your gross-out tolerance is pretty high, you can see some neat stuff, besides the decaying eggs; we found the beginning of a paper wasp nest (complete with live wasps), some mud wasp larvae in their little mud houses, lots of other insects in various stages of devouring various detritus, the perfect mossy doughnuts of chickadee nests, and the exuberant feathered rounds of tree swallow nests. Data was collected, the boxes were cleaned out, good fun was had by all. When accompanied by people whose curiosity about the natural world outweighs their common sense (“Sure, let’s crack open that egg”), you cannot help but be amazed, and educated, and inspired. Though it doesn’t make you want to go out for a big meal afterward.

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