The overcast continues. It rained yesterday at least - glad to see the weather finally getting on with what it’s been promising for over a week now. Supposedly they’ve got flooding happening upstream of us, but unless they totally mismanage the Diefenbaker Dam, we shouldn’t see any serious problems here.

I finally got my MythTV frontend working on the server PC (I’ve had an XBox frontend working for some time now, and love it to death) Next step is to set up the remote control on it, and hook it up to the projector - then I’ll be done with it. Honest.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Faster Knightboat! We’ve got to catch those starfish poachers!” - Michael Knight

There was a retirement here earlier this month, and I’ve moved into the retiree’s responsibilities (sorta - I get to keep some of my current projects as well) so I’ve got a new boss and stuff like that. It’ll be a switch from what I’ve been working on, and I’ve been assured that if it doesn’t work out, there’s always room for me in the group I’m currently in :) It’s exciting and a little scary, but all in a good way.

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy what I’m doing now, I just think there’s an opportunity here, and if I didn’t take a stab at it, I’d wind up regretting it down the road. I’ve worked with my new boss before (actually he was my supervisor when I first started here.) and we get along well, so there’s no concerns there. It’ll be a new challenge, and a new group of users to attempt to appease, so it’s a new chapter in my employment here.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Put down that hors d’oeuvre. It’s time for the main course.” - Groundskeeper Willy

As Jason mentioned, we played some ball this weekend. I actually got to pitch a bit, because it was a one-pitch “pitch to your own team” tournament, so when Jason came up to bat, he needed someone to pitch to him. He didn’t get much to swing at during our first game, so I gave pitching a brief try between the first and second games, and seemed to find a groove. I got hit all over the diamond in that game (which we won handily) and Jason himself got two triples. It took me a while to feel good at the plate (hitting my first foul ball of the year sucked in a one pitch tournament when it meant I was out ;) )

I did pot a couple of doubles though, and had a bunch of RBI’s on the day. I’m usually pretty selective at the plate, so being forced to swing at whatever pitch you’re given was a difficult adjustment for me. I managed to put the ball in play every time though, even if I did pop it up to the infield a couple of times. It was good fun though, and I don’t think there was much bad blood on the field when we were playing (though I witnessed a few heated discussions on other diamonds…)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Silly customer! You cannot hurt a Twinkie!” - Apu

It’s been gloomy and overcast here for what seems like a million years. I don’t think I could handle living in a coastal area that saw this kind of weather all the time (I’m looking at you Seattle and Vancouver) without going insane.

I still keep forgetting my camera at Mom & Dad’s place, so I can’t put any pictures up on either of the kids’ sites. Speaking of which though, there’s a movement afoot to combine the two sites into one. Those of you who check them both religiously will have one less place to visit in the coming weeks. Haven’t done it yet though.

I’m going to drop an email that I sent out in here verbatim. The subject under discussion was Roy Shivers’ comments in an interview, and the reaction they’ve generated.

I think it’s a situation where in a population of 100 people you will have 5 that have had a humourectomy, and get offended by anything and everything. Time was they’d hide behind the “Politically Correct” crap,but the other 95 people got fed up with them and told them to “go to a non-denominational place of punishment” and “attempt to reproduce with yourself.”

Those 5 people are still around though, ready to pounce on anything that anyone says that could be construed as “bad.”

Of course being in the media might turn you into one of those bozos so that you can manufacture sensational stories on a deadline. Then there are the 35 people out of the original 100 that allow the media to spoonfeed them their opinion, and next thing you know, you’ve got a fullblown controversy, and fines will be levied by the league (mark my words.)

Meanwhile, of the 40 people in total who were offended, only three of them have ever been to a Stamps game (one being the guy who wrote the “I’m offended” article in the first place)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Bart, you’re saying butt-kisser like it’s a bad thing.” Homer

Despite the fact that it rained virtually all day yesterday, the skies cleared for the couple of hours that we needed to play ball, and the diamonds were in decent shape. Jason was pitching really well, and hitting just as well to boot. His pitches were looking so nasty that I was feeling badly for the other team…

Wednesday nights when we play ball don’t leave a lot of time for other things - in fact I feel like I was barely at home yesterday. It does seem like Erin, William and Julia are getting into more of a rhythm at home, though William still has issues with not wanting to go to bed, or not wanting to wear pants, or whatever.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Hey Einsteen, how much for the mood pants?” - Bart to Professor Frink

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. - Hanlon’s law

I was giving William a bath last night, when I noticed something peculiar about one of his bath “toys” which is really just the empty container from some Crayola Bathtub Tints that were given to him as a gift. I should mention that William loves pouring water from one container to another and back again - that’s his whole reason for having a bath in fact - so he has a lot of different container sizes and shapes.

Anyway, back to my point. I noticed that this particular container exhibited a very strange behaviour. While most containers with that sort of shape will float upright when filled with almost any amount of water, this container would only float upright when completely empty. In other words, adding anything to the inside of the container causes it to tip over, spilling the contents into the bathwater. It’s a pretty curious thing, so I investigated why that would be the case. What I found is that the container has a “false” bottom and a fairly large pocket of air trapped underneath the contents. End result is that if you accidentally knocked a full/just opened jar into the tub, all 30 bath tablets would always wind up in the water, rendering the water a muddy colour and the tablets used up, instead of sometimes getting “saved by the float” and having just a little splash of water get into the jar.

Now obviously this never happened to me, or you’d have heard about it. It’s just because I kept them in a cupboard out of William’s reach and brought one tablet at a time to the bathtub until they were all gone.

I have no evidence that this design flaw was created on purpose, but when has that ever stopped me from posting crazy conspiracy theories before?

Simpson’s quote of the day: “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth. No truth-handler, you. I deride your truth-handling abilities.” - Sideshow Bob