Category: Uncategorized

My friend Chris Cummer has entered the blogging world with ObBlog. It’s some programming, some slice-of-life and some “what the hell, people?”. Go give it a look.

Somebody get this man a milkshake!

Vancouver/Whistler won the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics by a 3-vote margin. Congrats, guys!

This is good news for lots of people, including those of us who like snowboarding (or if you really must, skiing), as this will probably lead to the addition of facilities and runs at what’s been called the world’s best mountain. It’s where I learned how to snowboard.

Three Python postings in The Happiest Geek on Earth:

• Eckel on Python. After writing two of the most highly-regarded books on C++ and Java, Bruce Eckel’s discovered his new favourite programming language…you get three guesses as to what it is.
• Baranowski on Python. After writing one of the most talked-about censorship-bypassing applications in C++, Paul Baranowski says that he has a new favourite programming language…which language is left as an exercise for the reader.
• Guido on Python. You’ll never guess what programming language this guy created! C’mon, guess!

Just a quick note to all my blogging friends: I updated the blogroll yesterday (see the right-hand-side column of this page). If you link to me and you’re not there, drop me a line and I’ll add you to the list.

My parents, bless ’em, made sure that my sister Eileen and I didn’t end up becoming fussy eaters by exposing us to as many types of cuisine as possible. This is an asset in Accordion City, North America’s most multicultural metropolis, and is required when enjoying cultural mash-ups such as the “Chicken Satay Burrito” from the sandwich shop down the street from my house.

When I was younger, my parents had to deal with cases where the children of their friends coming over for dinner were fussy eaters. The adults were there for the Filipino food — if you’ve never tried it, a very oversimplified way to think of it is “Chinese food cross-bred with Spanish” — but sometimes the kids wouldn’t eat anything “strange”. The universal “safe food” for these culinary cowards was the hot dog, which my parents prepared as the Emergency Fussy Eater Food. The hot dog is safe, familiar…and bland.

(But sometimes, it’s not bland enough. I remember seeing an American ad for a brand of hot dogs whose name I forget. The “mom” in the voice-over said the particular brand of hot dogs being hawked weren’t “spiced as much as the other ones”.)

The hot dog’s come so far from its much tastier, spicier German origins that it now requires dressing up. Hence the North American tradition of hot dog condiments. The condiments aren’t really a bad thing — I’m rather fond of the sweet-and-sour taste of corn relish and sauerkraut on my bratwurst from the nearby 24-hour hot dog cart. I draw the line at coloured ketchup, though.

Condiments are not the final frontier. Just as late-night TV once marketed things that turned tomatoes into roses and potatoes into starch Slinkies (or it the plural spelling “Slinkys”?), we now have the Octodog. It turns the humble hot dog into a octopus shape.

Who knows, maybe it’s a way to slowly ease kids into eating calamari.

(Thanks to Asparagirl for the link.)

Lessons learned from Peekabooty, and how its name gave me grief at a recruiting interview.

Hey Canada, it’s your birthday / Party like it’s your birthday!

Yup, it’s July 1st, which is the anniversary of the founding of this rather nice country, my home for the past 28 years. I raise a pint of Upper Canada Dark Ale to everyone today. Cheers!

If you choose to go by months, July 1st also marks the start of the second half of the year. Yup, we’re 50% of the way through 2003. The first half had its share of excitement, and I certainly looking forward to what the second half’s got in store.

Recommended Reading

The New Canada. A multi-part series from the Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail on how Canada’s younger generations — many of whom, like myself, are “New Canadians”, are redefining the country. One of the installments is a piece on the cultural salad bar that is Accordion City, where you can get biryani, bulgogi, bouillabaisse, bratwurst and Big Macs, all in the space of a few blocks.

Canadian fashion quiz. We don’t wall wear accordions on our backs and flaming cowboy hats…yet.

Canadian World Domination. Well, we can dream, can’t we?

Rush. The Canadian band that turned rock on its ear. “What you say about his companyyyyy / Is what you say about societyyyyyy!”

Men Without Hats. The people who brought back maypole dancing and midgets to rock videos and gave us all The Safety Dance!

Degrassi Junior High. Low budget, as Canadian as all get-out, corny and cheesy, but yet so addictive. Filmmaker Kevin Smith is a big fan.

And where does the really good kind bud come from these days?

Avalon. What could be geekier than Canadian online comic high school melodrama?

Crazy Go Nuts University. My alma mater, Queen’s University. And yes, I was there for the “Chaos of ’87”. I remember my first job interview out of school — the interviewer asked “So you went to Queen’s, right?”. I answered “Yes,” to which he replied “but you’re sober!!!”

And last but not least, our favourite mutant:

Wolverine’s still the best at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice.