The beaver is a proud and noble animal

Came back in the afternoon, well fed on mom-food and I now have enough laundy for the week (*grumbles again at f'n Brault&Martineau*). Had a nice weekend. Ate too much, slept mmmokay, played with the dog, fixed my dad's computer. The usual :)

I'm getting ready to go to dinner with Michel tonight – I'm meeting his new sweetie, which should be a fun evening.

Work-wise, the coming week should be a fairly sedate, with some nice projects in perspective. I just finished dusting off my CV and I'm going to post it soon. Would you guys mind looking it over and giving me some feedback on it? That would be much appreciated.

Anyhoo, gotta run!

Edit: it's now 4 hours later and I had a wonderful evening. Went to Takara for sushi, which was excellent (for the most part – the spider roll leaves something to be desired), then we went to play pool at Jillians. Now I like to play pool, but there's one little thing that makes it really hard for me to really be good at it. I'm cross eyed and have no depth perception. That's kind of a problem :D

Still, I managed to hold my own. I did however manage to break my worse-game record by scratching on the break while managing to sink the 8-ball AT THE SAME TIME. Good shot, indeed :D

As for Isabelle, she seems like a really nice person. She laughs a lot, and holds up her own in a conversation. I think I'm going to enjoy getting to know her. Plus, she's cute as hell. I'm even more happy for Michel now that I can put a face to the name :)

Well, I got rid of a craving I'd been having for months now. Chicken wings. Deep-fried, artery-clogging goodness. With angelfood cake dessert. I'm stuffed. I can't move. But I have a huge grin on my face :D

Regent-In-Training of The Left Side of Poon Appreciation, R. Cote

you can also use

Dominar of The Duct-Taped Gerbil Rehabilitation Association of North America (DTGRANA), Snoop Doggy R. Cote, Esq.

and I'll sometimes answer to this one too, but only if I'm in a good mood

Mage of Moving Pictures and Lesbian-like Things, R. Cote

and now we do the dance of joy

clicky clicky

I bought a washer/dryer set at BM. I called early this week to get it delivered and the only date they could do it was today, they told me. I said fine, gave all my coordinates, and didn't give it another thought. I call them up this morning to see when they're going to come, only to be told that not only was the delivery never confirmed, the dryer is back-order and can't be delivered until mid-next week. The washer, they can't deliver until tomorrow. BASTARDS!

If it hadn't been for that delivery today, I'd be in Ottawa eating mom-cooked food right just this minute. I took the day off to make a long weekend, but now I'm really pissed that:

1. I had to split it in half for a delivery
2. the delivery will NOT happen today
3. I have no more clean laundry and am reduced to wearing mismatched socks
4. I have missed two days of home-cooking
5. I will have to wait a full week before I can get the crap
6. I will have to take another day off to wait for that fuckng delivery.

Hence, I will say again: FUCK YOU Brault & Martineau.

POSSUM KINGDOM LAKE, Texas (AP) – Bob Bemer, a computer pioneer who published warnings of the Y2K problem in the early 1970s and helped invent a widely used coding system, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 84.

Bemer died Tuesday at his home along Possum Kingdom Lake, about 200 kilometres west of Dallas, said his stepson, Glen Teeler. Bemer played an major role in how the world's computers operate. He helped invent the ASCII coding system that is used in computers to represent text, and also contributed the escape key and the backslash to the computer language.

Pronounced “As-kee,” the American Standard Code for Information Interchange is an encoding system used in nearly every computer. It allows computers, which can only interpret numbers, to see text as a series of numbers.

He first published warnings of the Y2K computer problem in 1971 and again in 1979, and made several media appearances to discuss the issue in the years leading up to the millennium.

As recently as a month ago, “He was on the computer every day,” Teeler said Wednesday. “He is a man who literally worked just about every day until he died. He felt at home sitting in front of a (computer) screen.”

Born Feb. 8, 1920, in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Bemer began his programming career in 1949, working at companies including RAND Corp., IBM, and Honeywell. It was his time with IBM during the 1950s and 1960s where he contributed to the development of ASCII. On his website, he described himself as a “Computer software consultant, futurist and raconteur.” “He never got the coding out of his system,” Teeler said. “He was a coder until he couldn't code any more. He lived it and breathed it.”

Original link: http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040624/CPB/48332034

Now normally, I wouldn't feel enclined to share something like that. I mean, it's sad, but only geeks would probably care. Why am I doing it, you may ask? It's because I couldn't resist the name of the town the article was published from. Curious now? Click here!

Went to moonlightjoy's and emjayne's garden party last night with eniran and Audrey. I had a really good time. Talked geeky fiction and home decor for a good part of the evening. I was able to put a face to the screennames of people I occasionally goof off with, like judyna, keyef, electricland (though I'd met her once before), defrocked and mr_manifesto. I know I'm probably forgetting many people, but um, some of the details are vague and murky near the end of the night. Something to do about gay midget bondage porn…

Got home and had a very late (and very light) dinner and fell in bed 'round 2am. Of course, my body hates me and woke me up at 7:30 *groan*, Couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go online.

It's close to 4pm Vienna time, and I promised raspberrysalmon I'd send good thoughts in her direction. Today is her last exam of the semester, and once she waxes rhapsodic on the virtues of anticoagulants, she'll be on vacation for the next few months. Go you!

*gets up and shuffles towards the kitchen for coffee*

Woke up way the hell too early to go to a client meeting this morning. Things went fairly well considering how fussy the client can be. Right now, I need to write down my meeting notes before I forget them, but I'm HUNGRY!

Anybody have lunch plans today?

Edit: what is it with my friends and their belief that popcorn is a meal???

Just came back from lunch with an old coworker from CGI. Really funny guy with a good head on his shoulders. We talked about the fact I'm looking for a new job. There are some really interesting possibilities with Genome Quebec.

In a nutshell, I was consulting for CGI on the GQ project last year, so I know what they want and what they're working on. Now CGI's mandate for GQ is ending today, and apparently they have funds for another 6 months of development. They also have a ton of side-projects they want to start. That means they'll need to hire people.

Veeeeeeeery interesting. At worst, my salary stays the same. At best, I get a 15-20K yearly increase. In either case, the benefits are better and I'm working on really interesting projects in my field of choice.

Just lemme dust off the old CV and see what happens!

Dogwear designer Hildegard Bergbauer, who also makes Tyrolean mountain hats and rainwear for canines, said the leather outfits were best suited for dachshunds and other small dogs but also looked good on poodles, spaniels and boxers. Bergbauer said she was inspired by the memory of dogs dressed up at festivals in her youth.

She said that when she dressed her dogs Spitzerich and Zorrolino up in mini dirndls and lederhosen, people liked the idea and thought it was a lot of fun. So far, Bergbauer has sold her costumes to dog owners in the United States and of course in Bavaria.

“They want to go to the beer garden and to show off on the Leopoldstsrasse (Munich's main shopping street) and it's ideal for that.” Bergbauer said she is thinking about extending her dogwear range to include kilts and even biking leathers and goggles for dogs riding pillion.

This is why dogs turn on their owners and eat them.

original link: Reuters Oddly Enough