The Eclectic

Now that I’ve finished my tour with Wildfire, and finished my gradual motion towards living at home, I’m jumping back into the digital realm with both feet. Since the university doesn’t offer my next academic term again until January, I am trying to find work in the field for a few months while I take a distance education course on religious perspectives on evil.

On the job front, I’m having more success hearing back from web development contracted work than with full-time development work at local firms, which is fine with me so long as the pay gets me ready for next term’s tuition. On the balance of getting to learn new things and finding work in something I really know and enjoy, these opportunities are more latter-leaning, but I think that’s good; trying to take a course while I work will be a first for me, and I’m sure I’ll need to review a lot of old course work to feel prepared to re-enter the engineering realm.

The distance ed course looks interesting, but we haven’t “really” started yet, so I don’t know how things are going to go. I hope I don’t feel behind without the benefit of lectures. A couple of field trips (one mandatory) to related lectures on campus and in the community look like they’re worth the drive as well. Of course, I’m supposed to buy three books and a course pack, and have a reading from the course pack done by Thursday, but I doubt shipping will be quite that fast, considering I still need to send an on-campus buddy to pick those up for me and send them out (since at least one of them is not at the campus bookstore). Oh well, I’m sure I can catch up while I finish securing employment. I’m actually interested to see how good the online resources are for interaction with the instructor and general discussion through the distance ed system. We shall see…

I haven’t even mentioned the most plugged-in and exciting part of my return to the computer world yet. I’m typing this post from my brand new HP desktop that I finally purchased after my laptop’s service plan expired right before it ran into hard-drive complications. The funny story here was me trying to install the RAM and video card upgrades that I applied to the package. The machine is so tight inside that I practically looked like I’d taken to self-mutilation as a hobby by the time I had given up. The graphics card was so long that it crowded a surprising number of wires facing the motherboard, and none of the configurations of RAM that I patiently installed and reinstalled while slicing my hands on the inconveniently-placed drive bays ever worked. Eventually I made sure it booted once I put it back to its original configuration and took it back to the shop for a paid install. Taking off the front end to get the drive bays out of the way was the solution to my crowding, but I didn’t want to unscrew the wrong thing and then unplug have of the front-end devices by mistake.

This new machine can do anything I tell it without breaking a sweat so far, but of course, I’ve barely had it for a matter of days. The system is designed to be a TV Media Centre, though I doubt I’ll use it for that much while I’m living in London. I bought it because it’s got the specs to endure a few years. I tend to buy big less often when it comes to laptops and desktops, so I enjoy the boost I get at the beginning. For those who are interested, it’s running a quad-core Intel processor with two hard drives each circa 300GB and 4GB of RAM. Vista only registers 3.5 gigs of memory and until I upgrade to 64-bit Ultimate, it won’t even use more than three of them. Still, the setup is truly fast and vast. Of course, in this industry, that doesn’t normally last long, but I’m sure it’ll be a functional system for long enough to make it worth my while.

Technorati Tags: university, distance education, web development, employment, online resources, HP desktop

The most powerful God-given bounty bestowed upon the individual is freedom. It is unlimited, irrevocable, and immutable. Failure to recognize these qualities in it is the greatest mistake that can be made in its consideration. Read the rest of this entry »

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So, being on tour, I have been almost completely disconnected from the computer realm. However, of the tools that I do use to stay in touch during my life as a nomad, Facebook has been the latest to evolve for the better.

When my friends started raving about Facebook last year, like with blogging, I was resistant at first. Once I found out how fun Facebook can be (and how unquestionably superior it is to Myspace), I began to use it more and more. So, when Facebook began to release new applications, and then an open API for community developers, instead of doddling with skepticism, this time I jumped in with both feet. I’m sure my support for FOSS and community-driven initiatives had an influence on this too. While the Facebook apps I use allow the tool to outgrow its name–the apps have little to do with networking through photos–I love the new abilities I have to publish information about myself, my tastes, and my activities in a uniform layout that doesn’t suffer from any of the obvious flaws of Myspace’s equivalent services.

Then, Facebook wowed me again. I noticed a while ago that Mark Zuckerberg’s name had disappeared from the bottom of Facebook pages. The moment I saw this, I smelled a buyout. Thus, I was overjoyed to find that, not only was Facebook still in the hands of its founders, but it has turned down huge sums of money from major corporations, and has received funding from at least one VC organization that knows a good thing when it sees it.

Some people may find new applications “annoying” while developers learn to fine-tune users ability to ignore certain Facebook “requests”, and others may feel that new Facebook apps don’t fit within the vision of “a facebook”, but personally, I think its makers have seen the potential of an already well-connected community infrastructure to become even more useful.

Many kudos to Zuckerberg and his team.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Myspace, applications, API, community-driven, Mark Zuckerberg, buyout

It is now Jan. 14. 1-week blitz training is over, and I survived our first day of tour, which is more than I can say for some cast members. Training day highlights included Fabíola mistaking “pen is stilled” with “penis stilled” during prayers, failed pranking of Koorosh on his birthday, Kai,  Fabíola, Vafa and Koorosh enjoying a cake fight on Koorosh’s birthday, and Vafa’s sudden, unexpected cross-dressing. Friday evening we performed for some Nancy Cambellites and a few Stratordians. The response was very good. We had to rework the order of things which added some extra stress but things turned out to be fine. Vafa’s knee was acting up so his Hip-Hop dance as cut, and I got to take his spot in Strut, which was fun because the dance is mostly improvised.

The problems with our first day on tour began in the wee hours of the morning. I was hanging out with Joleh and Vafa in the kitchen when Nicole entered to voice a concern. What had once been a small bruise had flared up until there were veiney lines where it seemed blood had congealed on the underside of her skin. Joleh took Nicole took Nicole to the hospital as I headed to bed.

The next morning, I passed Princess as I was climbing down the stairs with my luggage. She was clutching her ankle, being tended to by Jenna. Once we were all in the van, we confirmed the worst: Princess, who had gone home mid-tour during Sept-Dec had injured her ankle carrying luggage down the stairs. As we drove to Pickering, Jenna and Vafa discussed modifications to the show while the rest of use slept.

During setup, Vafa and I helped Princess to the hospital where she was tended to by a friend who is local to the community. The first show went pretty well in the absence of Princess. Personally, my performance was mediocre. I made a couple of mistakes in Step, Abuse was good, but not great, and Gang featured a few missed moves as well. The audience seemed to enjoy the show, but performing in a mall, much of the sound was lost.

During our lunch break, Melissa and I went on a trek for coloured electrical tape and elastic cord, for spiking the stage and securing Drug/Strut masks, respectively. After getting sidetracked buying a Toblerone, handmade soap and plantaine chips, we at least found the tape. When we stopped to eat Asian cuisine, the two of us discussed our dating pasts. They are reasonably similar. We both had break ups just before joining Wildfire. I told her I was sorry to hear about it (hers break up). “I’m not,” she said.  She explained that she was hopeful in the dating department, but self-proclaimed to be, “picky.” Bad news for this tall slice of mediocrity.

Anyway, our medical escapades were not over yet, as of lunch. During our second show, Kai passed out on his way off stage following his segue. When I first saw him, I thought his shoulder was dislocated because his arm was in an unusual position. I practically fainted myself when I found out he’d passed out nearby, and had been dragged to his current position. He was verbally responsive, and the show went on as the mall security guards tended to the medical situation.
 That night, we ate in a Pickering home, and I sang Disney songs with the children of the house, along with Fabíola and Melissa. Great fun. When Kai returned to the group, we learned he’d be out of commission for a couple of days; his fainting spell was a result of taking back pain pills in a higher dosage than he was used to on an empty stomach, and hypoglycemia. We were lucky that things worked out well with our slightly sloppy handling of the situation, but Kai, Jeremy and I are going to lead a consultation on first aid Thursday to solidify emergency procedures.