just passing through part i

"it's raining, it's pouring, the old man..." wishes he was snoring. and he's definitely got an old man's legs.
funny how it's july already and the weather still isn't summer yet.

as for the legs: it took three days for my injured one to begin bruising, and some of the bruising is black so it terrifies my hypochondriac that it might be necrosis. but it's warm to the touch, so i suspect i might just be unnecessarily paranoid. it was feeling great after training, then stiff, then fine, and since this morning it's been pretty sore. i hope it heals correctly...

---friday:

a relaxed morning. botswana wanted new features after i'd already explained how the process works, and why his approach has cut into time we should have been spending on other, higher priority work.

network difficulties + dedicated server issues + no wifi at the coffee shop (i think it was my mac's fault) + jira's web interface being useless for mobile devices made me want to break or throw out all our tech and start again. a bad workman blames his tools? we're an internet-based company with no internet and all my devices are failing in different ways.

i had less beer than before so that i'd be sharper at training. our instructor didn't arrive and for the first time there wasn't a replacement, so the couple of us there warmed up and hit the punching bags. i'm happy with the workout i got.

for the first time in a long time i ran an actual hot bath just so that i could soak my legs. my back needed it too.

i watched american drug war: the last white hope and then kick ass. the former was good, a different angle from the union: the business of getting high and highly recommended. the latter was as awesome the second time. brilliant. absolutely brilliant.

---saturday:

i had a sleepy start and then went out with godmother and yin for lunch. that was a bit complicated because yin's barely able to limp and struggles with crutches, but we managed and it was pleasant. i gave up trying to defend my style when they told me "you have no style". i have a style they don't appreciate, that's for sure, but that's like saying "this isn't music" when you don't share someone else's taste in music.

i almost lost an important office key when doing laundry. i count myself very lucky indeed.

---an important realization: i've been calling myself a supplementarian since i coined the term, but now that 70g of my protein intake per day is from supplements i guess it's for real.

[continued...]

healing

1. jiu-jitsu partnered with a man slightly shorter than me and about twice my weight. i couldn't get my legs around him and my leg was hurting so much i had to pause to breathe through my teeth a few times.

2. kickboxing totally loosened my up and by the time i got to working on the bags i was ready to kick the shit out of it. i think i might have relieved myself of a little of the work pressure that built up this week, i walked away totally satisfied and ready for more.

3. wall stretching: the tall, strong dude i was partnered with was working harder than i was, to the point where someone else noticed and laughed because it was clear that i was using him to stretch myself instead of being stretched. and he was shaking more than i was :P

4. during a break i asked a question and got a really helpful answer. plus a solid shot to the liver for my troubles.
"that's so you remember".
scrapper's influence on me: stumbling, not falling, and wheezing "thank you sir, may i have another!".

---the day began with a double "you done good" from the cfo and aota: the way i dealt with botswana was appreciated by everyone. i also had a little chat with my team and made it clear that they're to report to me both professionally and personally.

the network will be down at least until wednesday, so i took ceh out to l'artere to eat and use their wifi. firstly, their vegan take on shepherd's pie (sweet potato and lentils) was delicious and too much for me. secondly, ceh's attitude towards documentation and project constraints doesn't fit with mine and it's going to take work to bring him to a compromise. at least i think he realizes now that i'm not simply being anal about everything.

while he was playing with a remote server i was being told by k-twang how bad my blog design is. so i took his advice and modified my template accordingly, i hope it's a better experience for everyone.

the cto arrived and we had a number of different talks throughout the day. they were all positive and i think he'd forgotten how organized i am since he's started interfacing with megaman. one of our talks was quite exciting, especially as i had his attention long enough to pitch an idea i had ages ago that developed into something even more awesome as i was speaking. we may not see eye to eye on everything, but there's a shared vision for where our tech should go that makes me feel like all the annoying and frustrating things that have happened over the past couple of months were totally worth it.

the rest of my day was broken into small fires and management. overall things are going smoothly and i'm happy with how this week's ending. also, amazed at how quickly it's gone by and how much i feel has happened!

on my way out i realized i could control my limp at the cost of each step hurting (which is subconsciously where the limp came from). the last thing i wanted was to stop using my muscles correctly.

---right, it's 11pm and i've had much less sleep this week than i've wanted. i've also got a big stack of things that need doing, including making dinner.

training and protections

shit, it's past bedtime and i needed to go to bed hours ago but i had two reports to write and they took forever.

---i had to train someone outside the company this afternoon and i woke up this morning with no idea what i'd be teaching him because the cto had ignored me yesterday. at 8.30am, pre-coffee and before leaving for the office i managed to catch him and we spent the next two hours going over everything. it wasn't bad, but it was tiring.

---i was on my way out when i realized that i'd made a grievous error: on monday, the drying machine was bust and it completely slipped my mind that the pile of underwear i dumped on a chair (i'm a bachelor!) was wet. this morning i finally got around to sorting and folding and it was still wet and quite smelly. not cool at all :(

so i was already stressing about how complicated dealing with that was going to be (i've been informed that it's not normal to have time limits on laundry nor to have to pay for each cycle) when i hurriedly took my shoes out the freezer (see previous post). as amusing as it was to remove two shoe-shaped blocks of ice, they were obviously still going to be waterlogged when i got home. i stuffed them with newspaper and chucked them on the patio.

[oh, shit! it's summer and i have a patio. i totally forgot.]

---my office day began with bad multitasking - there's nothing like having everything going wrong all around you and everyone clamoring for your attention when you need to focus on creating a lesson plan. and our network issues were at least as bad as they've been the past few days, which was frustrating for all of us.

the training session actually went a lot smoother than anticipated, and it inspired a little chat with the cfo afterwards. he was surprised to hear me evangelize (apparently he wasn't aware of our software's potential) and asked me to put together a memo, which i've just done. it includes marketing suggestions and it's been hinted that this might be good for me, whatever that means.

---it was the end of the day and i was in a hurry to get out in time for muay thai. i went past all the desks to make sure that everyone was on track and was horrified to find one of my developers on the verge of tears because botswana and our graphic lead had convinced him that he had to pull a surprise all-nighter because they'd switched the design after the project's due date. remember i mentioned his relationship with the developers?

i - was - pissed. as he's an executive, i was relatively careful with my tone but from his reaction i think he might have sensed potential violence. i have made it clear to everyone involved that nobody is to talk to developers without consulting me, and then i made it clear to the developer in question that he was to go home at his regular time and not a moment later for these assholes.

i'm going to have to have a little chat with the team in the morning, apparently our "chain of command" is not clear and i have been remiss in my duties if they don't feel they should come to me the instant anything causes them distress of any kind.

---aota relieved me of an enormous amount of stress by not only giving me a ride home but by offering to handle my problem laundry as well. thanks to her i made it to muay thai just in time.

i only barely survived muay thai today, limping away with my first injury in a long time and the knowledge that my assessment of my defensive skills was entirely correct: there's not much difference between gloves up or down, i just know how to put my nose and chin right into everything.

the injury is the deep tissue on my inner thigh, which was kicked hard and repeatedly by a fellow taekwondo graduate. i'm now sporting a rather sensitive limp, which i hope will be better in time for tomorrow's kickboxing.

afterwards i headed to aota's for a great "family" dinner with her, her daughter, newk'd and her daughter's friend from the other day. it was really nice and a wonderful end to a rough day.

i got home, found my unfrozen shoes to be dry but smelly and stuffed them back in the freezer.

...

after reports and an internet, i'm definitely, definitely ready to sleep.

studious

wow, what a day. and it's already past my bedtime and i haven't done even a tiny bit of what i'd had planned.

being enjoyably distracted by a track from horseman didn't help :P

---day begins: sunshine through the windows and the strip search finale. the series was excellent, and while the contender i was gunning for didn't win (i'm a vasquez fan, it was a no-brainer :P) i'm really pleased to see all the good things that have come out of it! heartwarming stuff.

work:
1. rollerblading to work and spending the day in shorts and flip-flops. very cool.
2. splitting the development team into three to reduce scrum time. it was a little awkward for the first time.
3. botswana - i didn't shout "don't touch my developers!" at him but i should have. he upset one by demanding things that made no sense when he has no authority to demand anything. and he can't understand why i find him irritating.
4. the building's network has been terrible for two days now, and their (not our) it guy is not only a dumbass but he's leaving soon and doesn't care. we had to go out to l'artere for lunch just to use their wifi.
5. one of the new guys (ceh) came to me at the end of the day for a php bitch session. i could totally sympathize. he really wants to move to clojure.

blading back: to was faster than metro, back was with the wind. and a bit of inspiration from it being a beautiful afternoon. and the fact that i'd left work early and was on my way to muay thai.

muay thai was crazy, the warm-up even tougher than before and the training really good.

i spent the evening learning ruby on rails, stopping after realizing that it's most likely not as good a fit for my needs as python. dammit.

scribbles i

damn. i don't want to write posts anymore because i don't feel like i have the time. but i can't not, with my info ocd.

---wednesday:

1. birds singing, wrapped in sheets and re-dreaming [dreaming dreams i've dreamed before]

2. sleeping on the metro to tool - reflection

3. botswana demo crisis: again. how is it this man doesn't learn not to come to us with a malfunction just as everyone's leaving the day before a morning demo? this one averted by agreeing with megaman that we don't respond.

4. walking into jock's cubicle just in time to catch him saying "i hate you" to his phone and put it down. i couldn't get my hate poem out of my head for the next two days.

5. what on earth reminded me of spot the braincell? [this link is to a version slightly different to the one in my head, but that's because i memorized my brother's audio collection]

6. ringworm paranoia after the previous day's training: ever since my mma partner told me about it, i've been itching all over. i'm pretty sure it's psychosomatic, as i don't see any signs of anything. i've been looking to purchase rash guards, but i can't figure out what the right style is for me.

7. i spent the day knocking off items from my to-do list that have been accumulating over the past couple of months. it was incredibly cathartic!

8. mason made contact, apparently he'd lost his phone. later he sent me a draft for the cover, and it's good.

9. tracking my intake with fitday has helped me get into a routine; i'm now consuming a lot more calories and my protein intake's averaging double!

10. it's grand prix week, and a few of us agreed to meet up at crescent street to partake in the celebrations. i rushed laundry, shopped and snacked before heading out. i was falling asleep waiting for horseman to show up, but a good cup of coffee took care of that. before meeting up with the others the two of us walked around talking music and rapping: he's setting his digs up as a studio this summer and wants to get busy producing. i'm all in!

crescent street was still being set up, although it was filled with beautiful locals. we went to peel instead. my dinner, once again, was beer and fries (it's becoming a thing, and i like it). we all had a great time, and i was amused when jock's friend asked who i am and he didn't know how to respond.
"he's my... boss? he can't be my boss."
i am, but i'm glad that i don't set off the traditional "boss" flags. one's team should feel comfortable sharing everything, in my opinion, while still respecting one's authority.

two of us almost missed the last trains, but fortunately we ran quickly enough. i was quite tipsy; i spent the entire ride working on memorizing preacher.

climbing up

three out of five ain't bad. level up! aota didn't realize those were my first interviews. it's tiring and there's no clear and easy route to pick a candidate; but pick we did.

that took most of the day, the rest was consumed by a surprise demo that i need to train botswana for... and he's old-school non-tech. hoo boy.

---
i went to the bank to order a credit card, but after waiting in line for twenty minutes was advised to book an appointment because with no credit rating i'll have to front some cash. i'm cool with that! once that's done, the only urgent thing to do is register with the authorities for an SIN, so that i can be treated like a canadian. and get myself on the payroll! being paid will be very cool after bleeding cash for something like four months.

---
pg and i returned to the climbing wall tonight, and it was hard. hard, but fair, and i felt that my successes meant something :)

act casual friday

i got up early (by my standards), struggled out of bed for breakfast and caught the bus to the metro to work. the friday atmosphere was palpable: everyone was more relaxed and chirpier than usual.

botswana (the dude who worked in botswana) came to my cubicle for a chat, and it turns out he's big into skiing. he's a well of exciting information about the snow opportunities that are coming!

i began the day automating an ugly task with perl; it didn't take me too long, and the big boss was well impressed with my efficiency. the two of us debated database design for a while, eventually coming to a satisfactory compromise; by then it dawned on me that the morning had somehow abandoned me.

i took a brisk walk through the drizzle to pick up a few commensal boxes, and returned to have lunch with moonlighter. why do i call him that?

---because i discovered, during the course of our conversation, that his second job is publishing comics. my jaw hit the table when he shyly told me why he wouldn't be in the office all the time.

so... he's a comic artist, and he's involved with a large group of comic artists, and he appreciates my concept from what little i pitched, at least enough to give it a look and to give me some interesting advice.

what the hell are the chances?!?!

---a little later, aota asked me if pg and i are happy with montreal. that started a discussion with her and moonlighter that covered winter clothing, ice rain and snow season, including the idea that the extreme cold brings everyone together and that other idea that people here have problems, just not real ones. i mean, shit, that's twice in one day that i've been told that i'll be able to go snowboarding every day after work if i so please.

let's just say that my submission of our apartment application was accompanied by a smile.

i spent the afternoon struggling with a mysql server that didn't want to communicate, eventually compromising (phpmyadmin) and leaving with the most basic of test pages in place and a general sense of what's coming next.

it looks like my experience working with mmf was worth something after all.

i left the office late, having arrived early, but with a sense of inner peace and excitement i walked out into the beautiful, wintery air puffing clouds of breath and sinking myself into tim powers - on stranger tides while psychedelic rock accompanied me on my metro ride home.

dinner, x-men and now... it doesn't matter. i'm happy.