Changing a global perspective

I have been thinking a bit about my global perspective on life. It is rather local. I tend to focus almost exclusively on things around me and not very often about “over there”..

I think that this is something that I need to change. I am not sure how to really go about it yet.
When I look on the news and see things happening overseas it does not really affect me in the way that I think it should. I am wondering if my sense of empathy is dulled?

I can even see things that happen in a city not too far away, say Toronto or Ottawa or Kingston and not be too affected by them. I am not so sure that this is a good thing.
I once read that our minds are wired to emotionally handle the connections and ups and downs of a village of say 200-300 people. Before the advent of media and travel, that is how people lived. Were people more well balanced back then? I think it fair to say that their knowledge base was certainly more local that global that is for sure. But in today’s day and age, I think it virtually impossible to live with such a mindset. Somedays I would like to mind you. I just don’t see how as a computer programmer, I could completely shut off.. Unless I take a job as a woodcutter or something of the sort.

So, in one way, I am global. I see things from all over the world. But in another way, I am local. I tend to let the emotions and feelings of my local settting determine my moods, my mindset, my emotional and my spiritual tone.

Somehow, I think I need to bring them both into line together. Hmmmm

To all my American Friends…

Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you enjoy your day.

Blessed quietness…

Well maybe not quiet per se.

We spent a very good day together yesterday as a family. Even though we were out and about the city, we spent it all together. It was quite insular really. We did not talk to many people besides ourselves other than those that we absolutely had to in order to get our errands done.

For a Saturday we were up early (regular time) in order to get the car into Handford’s for its winter checkup and a new battery. (Early is not really really early like some hockey families… that is just crazy stuff that…)

We dropped the car off for 8, then walked to the market downtown and had a nice little breakfast at Little Red Roaster. We sat in the market and ate leisurely then strolled around the market, bought a couple of things, then walked over to Novack’s.. Listen to me, this is becoming a commercial for the stores in London we patronize….

We had not even left the market when we got the call that the car was finished. Sweet! We had kind of hoped to hit City Lights Bookstore before leaving downtown but they do not open til 11 o’clock Saturdays so we did not get to go there.

It felt really nice to be walking around downtown in the snow and laughing lots. It certainly got us into the Christmas spirit I think.

From there, we boogeyed on up to Costco to pick up pictures and some various and sundry items and then home!

On our way home, we stopped at the dollar store to pick up some small stuff for Nan’s piano teaching, then to the video store. The boys received coupons on Hallowe’en to each rent a video.

Once home, we had lunch then just chilled.
I did some work around the house. The shower downstairs needed to be re-caulked, and the sink in the bathroom needed its drain cleaned a bit. Nan practiced and then we watched a family movie. Fun.

Relaxed the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.
Great day.

good Sunday

Fantastic day today.
The boys and I were at home yesterday morning. We got a pile of the boys’ school projects done and some cleanup around the house as well. It was great to have a “down” morning with them.

Nan’s speaking engagement in Kitchener was yesterday and she did wonderfully. I thought she would but she was nervous. It was nice for her to have two great friends there with her. And it sounds like all 3 of them were able to encourage some of the ladies that were there. Right on.

From there, Nan came home, pick the boys and I up and we were off like a shot to St. Thomas to hang with Eric and Lins for a few hours. Good times. I cannot tell you how much we love spending time with them.

Dad and Sharon stayed over with us last night as they were the guest speakers at church today. It was great to hear a little more about Sharon as she shared her testimony and how she came to be a missionary. It was really cool.

After service this morning, we had a big family family gathering at Uncle John and Aunt Doris’ for lunch. Aunt Doris is an amazing hostess and we always have such a great time with their family.
The Thompsons were there, the St. Pierres, Jill and Chris, Grandpa and Eleanor, the Brittons, and Dad and Sharon. It was a house full and a very good time.

After a bit of lunch and chatting, we came home, the boys and I watched Transformers, Nan, Dad and Sharon rested for a bit, then we were up for grilled cheese for dinner and off to service in the evening.

Once we were home, I did a bit of catch up at my desk and now ready to settle in for the night.

All in all, a busy but great weekend.

A really really good Saturday

Today we went for a family visit to Cambridge.
The Crows have been family friends since Nan and I were married. We have been having an absolute blast with them from day one.

We took off this morning around 8:30 so we could get to Cambridge in decent time. Bruce and Lorraine have 3 great little guys that Will and Jacks get along with marvelously. The had a great time playing, Nan and Lorraine have a good time talking and Bruce and I do as well. We generally talk shop, computers, or motorcycles. Bruce is into pretty much the same kind of stuff I am.

Today I was able to help him with a project that was under his skin and we were able to save him a bunch of time in repetitive tasks. Now he will be able to focus on some management of data and the outcomes thereof….

We had a wonderful lunch with them, sat and chatted and then it was time for us to leave.

From the Crows, we took a quick buzz over to Phil and Heather’s to see Heather and Baby Clara. Man, she is such a little peach! What a darling. A head full of red hair and smiles and joy. It was great to see Heather has come back so quickly after labour. She looked great.

From there, we made the dash home, stopping at the grocery store to get some supplies and dinner, ate, the boys and I sat on the couch with laptops and played around, Nan did some piano homework and then the boys were off to bed. I am going to help Nan fold laundry now and then we will just chill out for the rest of the evening.

What a great day.

Rollout Part Deux

I did not end up rolling out my big project as most of the staff were not even in their office today.
That is okay. I had time to tweak some more things on the system and we will be even more ready for Monday. Specifically, I was able to get a good securities model in place into the system so we can have some control over users and their access. That is a great thing.

After we rollout this database on Monday, I will need to focus on their website and get their payment portal into the works. The SSL Certificate is now installed and we just need to wait for the developers in British Columbia to install the Moneris Payment portal part of the puzzle. After that, Moneris can verify that our website is secure and ready for payments… Yeeha!

I think it will be a nice weekend. I have a couple of hours worth or work that I can do if I desire, but I am not sure how much I will do. We are heading to Kitchener tomorrow to visit with friends for the morning and into the afternoon and then visiting Clara and Aunt Heather for a bit too.

Sunday is a potluck after church and then hopefully some downtime before we ramp up for next week again.

Have a good weekend.

Big day…

I am always a little concerned on days like this..
I have been working on a project off and on for about 6 months now and today we release it full blown to its users. Well, close to full-blown. Some of the elements are not yet written because the client has not fully laid out the specifications for those elements. Oh well, they will have a working system today anyways.

My concern and uneasiness always lies in the fact that the client can at any time say, “hey we should do it this way instead” Usually these statements revolve around a preference of doing things and not a standard…

I am hoping for not too too many preference changes today. I have worked through a good amount of the project with the client already and I think that they are pleased with what we have done thus far.

We shall see.

Do it, please just do it.

How many times does one have to ask his son to do something before blowing a gasket or being very frustrated?

I’m thinking seventy times seven at least.
At least

And the winner is….

Tonight was the AWANA Grand Prix. An evening where the AWANA participants get to race slot cars and see who is the fastest and the who has the best design.

Will and Jacks both decided to do cars this year. Jackson decided to bow out a week or so ago citing that he was not interested. (too much sanding to be done I think…)

William and his best friend Justin decided to make a slot car shaped like a rocket.
William and I and my dad shaped the body of the car and Will did a good amount of sanding.
He then handed it off to Justin for painting and bling.
To our wonderful surprise, they won 1st place in the design category!

I made sure that I congratulated Justin’s dad John for his hard work too

A new era…

I am a self proclaimed techno junkie…
I love technology. Particularly new stuff…
I have just made a move that is probably the largest jump for me in the last 20 years since I started playing around with computers.

I purchased a macbook from apple.
There have been scads of people telling me that I should do this for ages.
Admittedly there have been a few things that have held me back.
Cost. They are not cheap, but I believe that the lifespan of this thing should be at least twice if not three times the average lifespan of a notebook pc. Therefore, total cost of ownership actually goes down.
(there is my accountant side justifying…)
Secondly, the fact that I do a ton of work in Microsoft Access which is not available in mac format.
Enter a nice little program called Parallels. This little proggy allows me to run windows within the mac.
And it runs so smooth. I won’t say it runs better but it certainly runs just as well as my current pc laptop.
Crazy.

It is taking me some time to get used to the user interface of the mac operating system as well as the fact that it is based on a unix kernal. That changes some things for me in terms of how I run the machine. It is taking time because I am so ingrained into the cult of Bill Gates’ way, that I am having a hard time getting out of it. Not to mention that I do not have 3 days to set aside to simply learn the mac. It will have to be a process for me.

So far, I really like it. I have not done much other than surf, talk to people via Adium (msn…) and check out cute programs like IphotoBooth.
I will delve a little deeper into some others in the next little while.