wheniwas19

Last Weekend

2008-07-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

Libs and I had planned on going to Huff Estates winery for our first weekend alone since Declan was born. However, with Declan getting sick with hand, foot and mouth disease, we felt it inappropriate to drop him at the grandparents and waving so long.

Turns out after we cancelled our reservation, he started to feel better and by the weekend, he was fully recovered. We brought him to Libs' parents anyway so we could still get a little break.

They gave us the opportunity to head into Peterborough and watch a movie. Went to Hancock. As we were walking around downtown Peterborough, we happened to see this car sitting in a parking lot.

I recommend waiting a second while you look at it. No? Imfamous. Not only is it stupid to have Infamous on your windshield, it's just that little bit extra stupid to misspell it.

Oh and we went to the drive-in in the evening and saw Wall•e and The Incredible Hulk. Took care of all our summer blockbusters at one go.

Broken Down on the Side of the Highway

2008-07-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

On Monday, my mother flew into town for the week. Then I had to jump on my bike heading to London to help my brother unload his moving truck into storage. I decided to spend the night in London since we finished unloading at 10 pm and I was exhausted. We had a few well-deserved drinks then went to bed.

The next morning, I wanted to get on the road quickly, so I skipped the shower, had a coffee and got underway. Everything went fine until I passed Woodstock. My bike started losing speed and my throttle became unresponsive. I pulled over and let the bike cool down. Then tried to start it back up. It did, but soon stalled out again. Using the toolkit from the bike, I removed the speedo and signals to see that my coolant was empty. On the side of the 401, I called my brother, who was still sleeping. He offered to pick up coolant and drive out to me. When he arrived, I filled the coolant reserve (over-filling, as the case may be) The bike started up, ran a little rough, then smoothed out. Stuart said he'd follow me along and make sure every thing went well to the next rest stop. Unfortunately, I didn't make it more than a km and a half before the bike died again. Once more, we took to the road and once more, the bike died.

Finally, after this, I called a tow service. He came in good time, meaning it took another hour to show up. So, all told, I spent 4 hours on the side of the road getting a bad sunburn, spent more money than I ever meant to and at this point, my bike still doesn't work.

However, to look on the bright side, it wasn't raining. If I'd left the night before as I initially intended, I'd be on the side of the road, in the dark and alone. Stuart would have been drinking and wouldn't have been able to drive. I also may not have got the same tow truck driver (who turned out to be a really good guy and managed to get me a really good deal for the tow). So... silver lining.

Movies for the Day

2008-06-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

While I work, I like to have a movie playing in the background (as in, my second monitor). Usually at half size and kind of quiet, but a nice little "Hey, what's going on over there?"

Anyway, today's movies are;

• The original Rat Pack in Ocean's 11
• Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• O Brother Where Art Thou?

R.I.P George Carlin

2008-06-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

George Carlin was my favourite comedian in high school. I went through a stand up comedy phase. Starting with Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Steven Wright and ending with George Carlin.

George, you will truly be missed.

Father's Day

2008-06-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday was my second father's day and it was awesome! But first, let me talk about Saturday. My cousin Chandra's husband, Dave, was in town with his band The Tall Boys of Kentucky for NXNE.

What an incredible show. They didn't go on until midnight and I was pretty tired and sober by the time they rolled onto the stage. Riding your motorcycle can put a damper on any visit to a bar. They Tall Boys had an amazing energy and all familial pride aside, Dave's drumming was phenomenal. They're playing tonight, Tuesday June 17th, at the Lakeside Lounge on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. If you're in the neighbourhood, check them out. I guarantee you'll enjoy them. Plus, Dave hooked me up with two bottles of single cask bourbon. I love you...

Anyway, this leads me to Sunday. My one father's day request was to sleep in. With a toddler waking up at 5:30 am every morning and going to a show that went til 1 am, I really wanted, nay needed to sleep in.

Libs woke me up with Declan at 9:30 am. My presents? Besides a happy Declan, I got a card, a shirt and Libs had a little printed card stating she was having one of my Josh prints framed. The last time Josh came to FiTC, he gave me a Ming Dynasty print. Eric Miranda is one of my favourite New Yorkers and his band is awesome. Josh knows it, so it's a great gift. The last print he gave me is oddly sized so I need to have it professionally framed. And I've been a little reticent in that area. Anyway, I'm excited to have the Ming Dynasty print framed. I love getting artwork from my friends.

She also gave me a great shirt. Then, when Declan was napping, I ran out bought myself a father's day gift. A new helmet. Finally, I can replace the half helmet I bought a year into owning my bike that never really fit and made my head look like a mushroom. The new helmet is exactly like this but with flames. Sweet.

Then, we went to a concert. Declan's first ever concert. Dan Zanes is like the Raffi of the 2000's. It was awesome. Declan had so much fun! He'd stand on his seat and dance, he'd jump into the aisle and dance. He went to the family behind us and sat on the lap of first the father and then the son. He'd clap and yell. He spun around and around.

Finally, to top it all off, although it was closed, the organic butcher down the street from the concert invited Libs and Declan in to look around. Libs picked out a few chicken breasts. Oh, and it was FREE CHICKEN DAY. Excuse me? A free chicken??? So we got a free 6 pound chicken. Which I promptly shoved a king can of beer up it's ass and roasted on the BBQ. You've never had chicken til you've had beer chicken.

To sum up;

Free chicken, good.
Dan Zanes, good.
New helmet, good.
Framed artwork, good.
Kentucky, great.
Libs, awesome.
Declan, awesome.

Happy June

2008-06-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Things are busy as usual and that means not posting. That's not to say I'm not doing anything and just to prove it...

I ran into a problem in a recent project where I had a series of buttons and I wanted to one to be active right off the bat. ie, like a gallery where the first image is the triggered from the first thumbnail.

There are two ways I found;

1. When your button isn't actually sending any information along with it you can change your callback function to accept a null parameter.

ex.
button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick);

private function onClick(mevt:MouseEvent=null):void
{
//do whatever here
}

now I can just call the onClick function like any regular ol' function

onClick();

However, if you want to actually click the button because you need to know something that button has;

//using the same code as above

button.dispatchEvent(new MouseEvent(MouseEvent.CLICK));

TADA!

Now tell me I haven't been doing anything.

Stephen Colbert Puppet Challenge

2008-05-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

My friend, Brian Hogg of Hoggworks Studio, has issued a challenge to Stephen Colbert to use his Stephen Colbert puppet on his, the real Stephen Colbert's, show.

Camp Organic Vegas!

2008-05-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

Got back from Vegas on Saturday. I had low expectations for this team-building exercise.

Turns out it was a great experience. The team I was in worked very well together. We had few arguments and any that did occur were relatively easily overcome. At no time did I think "Well, that's it. I'm going to punch someone."

Plus, I got to dress up as Elvis.

Vegas? What Vegas? Oh...THAT Vegas.

2008-05-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

Heading to Vegas tomorrow to take part in Organic's Camp Organic. I don't 100% understand what it's about, but I am excited about going. I get back on Saturday evening.

Interviewed by HoggWorks' Gideon

2008-04-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Brian Hogg was walking around FiTC with a puppet and against all odds managed to talk a bunch of cynical web-nerds into interviewing. I was the first. I'm not that cynical. Of puppets, anyway. I deal with client service reps every day. HA! I'm so bad!

Gideon interviews yours truly

Bit-101's Three Useful Methods

2008-04-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

Keith Peters posted on his blog last week three useful methods.

I've added a couple of extra methods that I'm finding I use more often than not and might as well shove into this class. Shove is an inelegant word, but I'm an inelegant guy.

//thanks, Keith.

public static function distanceCalculation(x1:Number, y1:Number, x2:Number, y2:Number):Number
{
var dx:Number = x1 - x2;
var dy:Number = y1 - y2;
return Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
}

//I mixed something up here. Fixed the randomRange value return. Thanks again, Keith.

public static function randomRange(start:Number, end:Number):Number
{
return Math.floor(start + Math.random() * (end - start));
}
It's fair to note that I didn't create these methods. They were found at various times in various locations. I just keep misplacing them and looking for them again. Good to know that it's last time I'll do it.

It's nice to be spurred on to centralizing this stuff. Thanks, Keith!

Emergency Rooms

2008-04-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

How can you get the feeling of urgency when you're made to wait for over an hour and a half to be seen?

Declan fell off our bed this morning. To put this in perspective, our bed has a 19 inch mattress which is about a foot off the floor. So Declan fell about 3 ft to land on his back and bump his head on the floor.

He immediately started crying, Libs picked him up and held him on the bed for about 10 minutes before she told she was concerned that he seemed sluggish. He'd slowed down considerably. Something I attributed to shock but that Libs thought meant he could be concussed.

I called my retired nurse of a mom who basically said "Better safe than sorry, bring him in." So we packed up, went to Toronto East General Hospital nearby.

I think the second you say your child has suffered head trauma, regardless of the degree of it, a healthcare professional might consider at least briefly checking on him. Even if it's only to make sure it isn't a sign of parental abuse, for god's sake. I'd happily be put in cuffs if someone could just allay my fear that little D wasn't hurt. However, not at TEGH. Nope, they put us into the system, told us to wait in the pediatric waiting room where he could watch tv. The tv that didn't work. And he could play with the toys. The incredibly dirty toys.

So there we were. Worrying about concussion. Declan recovered quickly and was playing with the toys within minutes. If you ever need to balance between holding Declan and letting him play with filthy toys knowing you'll wash his hands afterwards, let him play, man. Let him play.

After an hour and a half, we all became impatient. Declan had missed breakfast and was getting incredibly cranky. He wanted out of the confines of the room, so Libs started to walk around a little with him. I decided to call mom again and see what she thought.

"What's he like? Still sluggish?"
"Nope, he's running around like a maniac, pointing at every drawing and painting and naming all the stuff he sees."
"Are his pupils dilating? Or locked and fixed?"
"Well, if I cover his eyes I get about a second before my hand is forcibly removed by him and I can see they change a little. I don't really get enough time to make his eyes react, but they do a little."
"Go ask how long you can expect to wait and if they it's a lot longer, check yourselves out."

So that's what I did. The chart hadn't even been moved to the ward. When I asked one of the three nurses standing around the station if they just wanted to pop their heads in to take a quick look, I got a resounding "No". And I was reminded that all the beds were full and it would be a while. An indeterminate length of time, of course.

So we checked him out. I am so angry right now with TEGH. Is this what happens when you're considered an essential service? You become simply "essential" without "service"?

Note, I did check his pupils with a flashlight while he was eating breakfast at home and they definitely reacted. His mood improved even more when we finally were able to give him the cheerios he wanted so badly.

Screw you, Toronto East General Hospital. Thanks for taking what was a great week at FiTC and ending it with such crap.

FiTC TO over for another year.

2008-04-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Sniffle. Just like that, FiTC TO is over. One last lunch with some folks and off they go to their respective locales.

James Patterson's work is incredible. It's really evolved. I look forward to seeing his universe unfold. I wish I knew him better personally, as he's a hell of a guy.

Robert Hodgin continues to impress with his incredible work. Plus, his dry wit and sharp tongue is a boon to all of us that have the pleasure of knowing him. And he has some wicked people to work with at Barbarian Group

Grant Skinner and his wife Bobi are two people, that if I missed them, I'd miss them. Plus, Grant's words of wisdom taken from his years of speaking was a tremendous help in calming me down before, and after, my session.

Erik Natzke and his lovely Tobey left early but they were catching a flight to Norway so who can blame them? Seeing his work has always inspired me. Plus, he punches hard. I get to punch him back and he doesn't mind since he's built like a tank.

Phillip Kerman has been doing some really funny videos.

Chaos-101. Keith Peters. All she wrote, yo.

There's lots more, of course. Josh is even more of a brand, partnering up with Umbra. I don't see them on Umbra, but he also designed bedding. So if you've always wanted to curl up with Josh and drink a hot chocolate with him while watching the English Patient, here's your chance. I'm pretty sure he won't do that in person, unless it's the extra-long director's cut. He's a sucker for Ralph Fiennes.

Lastly, this was year was different because Libs got to join me once in awhile and meet all the people I've been talking about for the past however many years. She finally managed to have a nice chat with most of them. And we brought Declan to the festival for a short while where he captured the hearts of every onlooker with his crush on the Seneca bee.

and stole a beach ball from Aquent.

Faïk Tattoos

2008-04-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

My presentation at FiTC TO went well, from what I can tell. Not everyone will agree, but such is the way. I did get some really great feedback following the presentation which I truly appreciated. Everyone seemed interested in the source materials. This is a good sign. So for those of you that waited the 12 hours, here's everything. And thanks to everyone that attended my session. It was extremely rewarding to see so many faces. I hope you got something out of it.

OOP for the OOPless

Navigation is as follows:
S (s) - show slide navigation
H (h) - hide slide navigation
if slide navigation is opened, you can click on individual slides to jump to a slide.
right arrow key - next slide
left arrow key - previous slide
down arrow key - progress through slide

Once the slide has 'opened' (meaning the background image has come in) you can just burn through the slide to get whatever you were looking for. I probably should have visual titles on the navigation, but I'll get to it, I promise.

Source Example Files from the presentation.

FaïkTattoos
Not too shabs for a week's worth of work.
Source files

Thank you, Shawn, for the opportunity. I haven't spoken publicly for a couple of years and it was fantastic to come back at such a prestigious event. I look forward to taking money from everyone in poker. Or having a little cry in my beer as I sit on the sidelines after being busted out.

FiTC TO in Two Days!

2008-04-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

My talk, OOP for the OOPless, is in two short days! I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

There really is nothing better than FiTC. It's a lot of fun and the speakers are top notch.

I haven't spoken for them in two years. Jeez maybe three. I had a downslide of public speaking since going fulltime and my little Libs getting pregnant with our little Declan.

So I'm very nervous. VERY nervous!

Hope to see you there!

Happy Easter, People!

2008-03-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

Libs took Declan to her folks for his second Easter ever. I stayed behind in Toronto because I had/have work to do. I've spent the weekend watching comic book inspired movies and sitting on my couch with my laptop. Occasionally glancing at the dog thinking, "Hm, I should take you out."

So Happy Easter to all of you that celebrate Easter. To all of you that don't celebrate Easter that live in Canada, you're welcome for the day off on Friday.

Oh, and Toronto beat Ottawa yesterday in hockey. Happy birthday to me.

Speaking of birthdays, is anyone else sick of knowing a person's birthday? Thanks to friggin' Facebook, I can't just be ignorant of a birthday.

Manamana

2008-03-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

I found this this morning and honestly I got the giggles.

This has to be my very favourite bit from the Muppet Show. I've never forgotten it and always laugh when I say it out loud.

Weird...

2008-02-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

So last night I was having a dinner with some coworkers from Organic (we're all in New York, but for different business reasons).

Anyway, midway through dinner, HD says "I'm heading to the Lower East Side after dinner to hook up with a friend. We're going to watch one of her friends perform. You guys are more than welcome to join us."
I said, "I was intending to head down that way myself to hit up Hockey Night in Chinatown. I'll grab a cab with you. Where are you going?"
"Some place in Chinatown called Fontana's"
"What? Seriously?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Between Broome and Grand? On Eldridge?"
"Yeah...why...?"
"Because that's where HNiC is happening."

Now, I don't have the exact figures, but there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of a BILLION bars in Manhattan. How freaky is it that two people with two different objectives in mind are going to the exact same bar? And they're sitting together discussing that bar without realizing it? Bizarre.

Now for the not weird but definitely cool news. Eric Miranda, who I've mentioned several times over the past year as a member of Ming Dynasty, emailed me last week to announce the release of their brand new LP "Yellow Tiger". Awesome. Eric's friend, Josh, designed the cover. If you don't recognize the art style, don't worry, he's not that famous. Anyway, check them out, they're wicked awesome.

Dinner

2008-02-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

Last week I went to two higher end restaurants. In neither case did I pay. Which is a little out of the norm for me, but I lived with it.

There's a compulsion I have to talk about both of them because my experiences were so different when it comes to their food.

First there was Blowfish. Blowfish has been around for a few years and I've always wanted to go but felt I couldn't justify the cost. The group I was with got the chef's tasting menu. Always more expensive but infinitely more interesting as each dish is a surprise. There wasn't one course I didn't enjoy. From the Black Cod to the self-cooked Kobi beef on a hot rock, it was a festival of subtle flavour. Additionally, because each course was picked by our chefs, all the courses felt like they went together. There wasn't a moment where I reacted with, "Oh, ugh." Rather there was a lot of "Oh my God. This is amazing." Even our resident raw fish skeptic enjoyed the dishes and pushed his own reluctance aside. I give Blowfish five out of five.

On to Lee. This is another restaurant I'd wanted to go to for a long time. Again I held back due to cost. Although I think it's likely Lee is slightly less expensive than Blowfish, my experience was such that I won't go back. Every dish was over-saturated with flavour. The beet and tomato salad was so strong (and NOT because of the beets) that I didn't want to finish it. Out of the nine dishes we three ordered (it was recommended by the server that each person order three dishes), I enjoyed three; the asparagus and green bean salad, the salmon ceviche and the black cod. If I'd had them alone, plus a small bowl of brown rice, I would have a totally different outlook on Lee. However, I also tasted the duck confit, the afore-mentioned beet and tomato salad and some incredibly lack lustre jerk chicken. That's right, the one dish I expected to be full of flavour, Jamaica's own Jerk Chicken, was so subtle it actually approached 'bland' territory. Oh, we also had the scallops, which themselves were quite nice, but noone really wants a crunchy top on a soft, delicious scallop. Plus over-crisped bacon included with the scallops was impossible to eat without picking it up with your fingers. I'm not sure what Lee was trying to cover up with over-flavouring their food, but I was incredibly disappointed. I had felt a world class chef like Susur Lee would have a good handle on subtlety. I give Lee a "don't bother" two out of five.

BulkLoader

2008-02-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

This nifty library gives you the power (that's right, I said "power") to load multiple items easily.

Very nice.

Sheesh

2008-01-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

It's not "orientated", it's "oriented". As in, "They're very team-orientated."

I keep hearing people use "orientated" in that sense. Please stop. You're wrong. I beg of you. STOP.

Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk! Still...

2008-01-24T10:52:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow night I finally get home. Here's a brief synopsis, since I promised I would blog about being here and to be honest, I just want to go home.

Here's my room. Where I've basically been sequestered for a week.

Eric Miranda. Awesome dude.Ming Dynasty, Eric's band, is so close to getting their LP finished. I swear to God, I can taste it.

Josh's wife and little girl are sick (or were over the weekend) so I couldn't visit. Too bad.

I painted for the first time in a couple of years. Much to Libs' chagrin, it wasn't for her.

My palms get sweaty typing on my laptop because the metal is slippy and hot.

Times Square is so lame even someone like me, visiting the city, hates it.

Fontana's is a cool bar in the middle of Chinatown.

Connelly's and The Perfect Pint are two bars located next to each other, are owned by the same people, so are not particularly competing. It's like a huge lie. I feel cheated. However, the bartender DID give me a free scotch.

I gave myself a heel blister by walking approximately 50 blocks round trip. Ghey. So now I basically limp around like a goof.

Geoff Lillemon is capable of getting anyone, ANYONE, to do pretty much anything at any time. Just witness the majesty of the pineapple.

I'm a confirmed speaker at FiTC TO. My presentation is called "OOP for the OOPless". I'm very very excited. I haven't spoken since, ah heck, DesignFest a few years ago. Mostly I've been hanging out at events, looking like a tremendous hanger on.

It's hard to work on a laptop in a hotel room.

My new favourite quote. "I'm gonna punch that Bleeker kid in the weiner next time I see him" - Mac, Juno's father. Juno, released 2007.

Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk!

2008-01-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

I got to New York on Friday for a week-long stay visiting the Organic office here. It was/is a dual purpose visit for a little training and packing in a crapload of meetings.

However, thanks to not even bothering to check a calendar before booking this trip, I wasn't aware that Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. day. The office is closed Monday. I feel so stupid.

I'm trying to make the best of it, but man, I seriously wish I wasn't here right now.

On the plus side, I am staying in a fairly cool hotel called Night.

And I actually went to Brooklyn for the first time.

PS.
Con Air is a stupid movie.
A hotel right off Times Square means tourists. TONS of tourists.
Walking 28 blocks means blisters when you wear new shoes.
The Hudson River is not entirely straight.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

Happy friggin holidays, people! From me. And Baby Jesus.

MSN. God Love You.

2007-12-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

I was poring over my chat transcripts with my buddy Drew this morning trying to locate something I was sure I told him and found this gem from September;

Drew: What is it with women and Python? I get tired of hearing, "I don't get it. Why is that funny?".
Hugh: i leave it be.
Hugh: i don't get desperate housewives and that's fine with me
Drew: Fortunately Rose isn't into that crap. But we do watch a lot of CSI. I must admit that it cracks me up. I love their software!
Drew: There's nothing like a piece of software that will superimpose 2 face then throw a huge message on the screen in red letters, "Match Found"!
Hugh: oh hell. what the hell is with the lighting?
Hugh: if you have a lab, wouldn't you want it lit?
Hugh: "have you seen my microscope?"
Hugh: "so fucking dark in here"
Drew: But then how could I look at everything with a tiny flashlight?
Hugh: "where's the corpse?"
Drew: Follow your nose!
Hugh: hiyo!