The life of a Canadian
Life in Canada has many rules. One rule is that you may never take the last of anything. Despite protests by greenpeace and sierra club activists over the large number of cookies, muffins, and baked squares that go to waste, this protocol has remained one of the key social skills for broad cultural acceptance.
To give credit where credit is due, this comic is the result of a conversation between me and Pedro some years ago while working on the farm.
Work Thoughts #n
Imagine if instead of a C# build error like this
“Cannot implicitly convert type ‘type1′ to ‘type2′. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)”
you instead got
“Only landlubbers be implicitly converting ‘type1′ to ‘type2′. Thar be an explicit conversion (be ye missing a cast?)”.
Wouldn’t that make bug testing much more enjoyable? I think everyone would become programmers if piratey talk was the norm.
… and you thought you had already seen the Internet!
Ok, I know that XKCD was just featured on my last post – but wow. I am completely amazed at his latest work :
Now, Pete will be able to read and understand this. Maybe some others will understand too. But to me, this is (geek) poetry. Or something like that.
On a social note, it might be worth considering how much of the pie is split between North America and Europe. IPv6 is the answer to this techno-neo-colonialism.
Oh, and on a technological note : find 192. That’s a very common private network number… no addresses begin with that on the Internet. There’s your trivia for the day.
Something Different
A response in picture to both Kristofer Straub ( http://www.starslipcrisis.com , http://www.halfpixel.com ) and to the work of Randall Munroe ( http://xkcd.com/ ).
Straub recently started the second website listed under the philosophy that he should be creating something new every day. I’m not sure how well the philosophy works with creative minds, and whether “creativity block” is ever a problem but it sounds like an interesting idea. Although I am not of an exceptionally creative bent, I like the concept when restated as such : “Everyone should strive to not only consume but also to produce.” Consumption and production here refers to the creation / assembly and use / enjoyment of music, art, food, technology, anything and everything… I guess I’m thinking mostly along the lines of cultural and technological grounds, although the concept does extend to some degree to include physical resources such as the food farmers produce for us, etc. Consumption is, of course, necessary and unavoidable in any society. Then again, maybe that restatement doesn’t cover it – it puts creativity as a social obligation. If you were alone on an island where no one would ever find you or your artifacts, would it matter what you created and devised? I think it would.
The idea also suggests the topic of the laughable comic strip I drew up (artistic style was heavily influenced by Munroe). I think the basic idea presented in the strip is clear, and something that we often forget in the monotony of job, family, school, sleep. Part of the idea is also expressed the following XFCD comics :
Permission to copy these pictures was given at http://xkcd.com/about/. If my tenuous leaps of logic between these comic strips is to much, let me know.
December Concerts
I figure since I’ll be going to five concerts over the course of two weeks, I should post some details so that any interested parties can join in the fun. On the agenda for December:
December 8 : Redeemer University College Concert Choir Christmas Concert (ok, that title’s a bit long, I’m sure their marketing department has come up with a more catchy way of saying that) This event is being held at Redeemer University College.
December 11 : Strings, Etc! Homeschool Choir. This event is being held at Meadowlands Fellowship CRC in Ancaster (right by Redeemer)
December 15 : Messiah, I forget who’s singing but it’s being held in St. John’s Anglican Church in Ancaster
December 16 : Singalong Messiah, hosted by the Pro Musica Choir. C’mon, you get to sing along?!?! Great stuff!!
(looks like I’ll be driving to pick up a long lost sibling instead… fair trade)
December 22 : Orpheus Choir / Hamilton Youth Orchestra, held at Hamilton Place.
There you have it. Five choral events… choose your poison…
