Category: It Happened to Me

Heading to work this morning, with the sun in a bright cloudless sky, the temperature unusually cool for the middle of August (23 degrees C, or about 73 degrees F for my American readers) and a cool breeze blowing about, I got hit with deja vu. Then it struck me: this is what the weather is usually like when it’s time to go back to school.

It’s funny how that feeling came up; I haven’t been in school since the end of 1994, when I wrote my last final exam ever. It was for my fourth-year databases course, and to commemorate the end of an era, I wore a suit to the exam, after which I joined my database prof, the late Dr. McLeod, at Crazy Go Nuts University’s Grad Club for some Glenfiddich.

I toasted the Good Doctor with John Belushi’s line from Animal House: “Christ! Seven years of college…down the drain!” [52 KB .WAV sound file]

Good times.

Do you still get school-related deja vu? Or anxiety dreams? (Very occasionally, I still have the nightmare where I’m being hit with a surprise exam or realize that I’d never even heard of the assignment due today.) Or are you still in school? Comment away!

One of the nice things about working at Tucows is that the Toronto office is a pretty decent space, being an old warehouse in the Accordion City neighbourhood known as Liberty Village. When your biggest complaint is an overabundance of natural light (which makes it hard to read a screen), things can’t be too bad.

The company recently picked up a couple of gas barbecues and hooked them up to a natural gas line on the deck. We inaugurated them last Friday with an after-work company barbecue where our CEO Elliot Noss played chef:

Fearless Leader barbecues on the Tucows deck.

Naturally, a company named Tucows would serve beef (and beef-like veggieburgers for those of us lower on the food chain).

I should check to see what the rules — if any exist — about using the barbecue are. I’d like to fire it up and make my own lunch sometime.

Even when I haven’t yet thrown my hat in the ring, a skirmish in the comments often makes me think of the line from Patton: “I love it. God help me, I do love it so. I love it more than my life”. If you haven’t checked it out yet, go see the comments to the post about the audiobook billboards poking fun at Dubya, as well as a premature declaration of victory by Kathy “Relapsed Catholic” Shaidle and Martey Dodoo’s apt summary.

If you’re going to be in Accordion City tomorrow night — Saturday, August 5th — we’ll be chilling out with Dave (who’s here from Chicago) on the patio of the Green Room (296 Brunswick, the entrance is in the alley just south of Bloor) starting around 9 p.m.

Why Your Squishy Cow Hasn’t Arrived Yet

You may remember that a little while back, I offered to send a Tucows squishy cow to anyone who asked for one. Due to popular demand, I had to set a cut-off date after which you couldn’t request one.

It’s a couple of weeks later, and you might be wondering why your squishy cow hasn’t arrived yet. That’s because I’m still awaiting a shipment of squishy cows. They’re coming soon, but in the meantime, I must ask that those of you who got the “just a quick note to let you know that your squishy cow is on the way” email from me be patient — as soon as I get my shipment of cows, I’ll put yours in the mail.

For those of you who missed your chance to request one, don’t worry: we will have more squishy cow giveaways.

A Tour of the Tucows Stash

In the meantime, I thought I’d show you this video I put together [21MB QuickTime], in which I go through the Tucows swag in our storage room and explain why you haven’t got your Squishy Cow yet. They’re coming soon, we promise!