Recognition – only 8 years too late

One of the projects I’m proudest of having worked on, Cineon, won an Academy Award for technical excellence a few days ago. Too bad they shut down the project 7 years ago. (Yeah, the article says it shut down in 1997 – my resume says I left in 1998, not 1997).

The local paper has a badly written article about it:
Democrat & Chronicle: Business

But a better article can be found at Australian IT.

Somebody tell me why…

…just about every single cough medicine in a Canadian Shopper’s Drug Mart I was in this weekend is sucrose free, but both the local Wegmans and the local Rite Aid only have one or two sucrose free cough medicines, tucked away in a corner separate from the other cough medicines?

BTW: This cough has gone on over two weeks now, I think it’s probably time to see a doctor. Fuck.

Oshkosh, b’gosh

I don’t know why, but I very suddenly have been hit with a strong desire to go to EAA Airventure 2005 (yes, I wrote 2004 the first time, sue me), or “Oshkosh” as everybody who has ever been calls it. I can think of very little else these days. I looked at the club’s schedule, and sure enough 3 planes are already booked for that week, but the Lance wasn’t. So I’ve booked the Lance for just sort of “on spec”, but I will be looking for others to go with me. Or I might decide no to fly myself and go in the “airlift” – the local EAA chapter charters an airliner and one fee gets you the flights there and back, and dorm accomodation.
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Ten Things

Ganked from a friend’s friends locked LiveJournal.

Ten Things I’ve Done That I Bet You Haven’t:

  1. Got my pilots license.
  2. Cross country skied 168km in 2 days. Twice. (Canadian Ski Marathon, 1981 and 1982.)
  3. Silver medal in Ontario Orienteering Championships, 1981. Competed in Canadian Orienteering Championships.
  4. Landed at EAA Airventure, Oshkosh 2003 (along with 11,000 other planes).
  5. Only Canadian (out of 4,000+ participants) at Jan Kjellstrom Orienteering Meet, Lake District, UK, 1992.
  6. Backpacked in Banff, canoe tripped in Algonquin Park and Georgian Bay.
  7. Adopted two children from Romania.
  8. Married twice – got it right the second time.
  9. Took the train from Toronto to Vancouver, saw Banff by moonlight.
  10. Registered and then gave away the domain “canoe.com” to the lying assholes at Toronto Sun Publishing.

I’m here, but should I have bothered?

I drove up to Ottawa last night. I definitely was feeling the effects of the sickness – I’d laid off the cough syrup and benedril so I wouldn’t be drowsy, but I noticed a definite slowing of my reaction times and some difficulty with division of attention. For instance, I had to retune my radio because I haven’t made the Ottawa trip since they had to yank the engine a few months ago, so none of the eastern stations were set – but I couldn’t do it in traffic because even feeling for the radio buttons and occassionally glancing at the display would put me over the lane lines. Damn good thing I decided not to fly, since you need be able to do several things at once and prioritize them way more actively than you do driving.
Continue reading “I’m here, but should I have bothered?”