the flying squirrel

2010! All in all, I think it was a good year. Personally, I mean. I have some issues with it geopolitically, but I don’t think we need to go into that. And, for a change, it went by without any significant job turmoil. That’s something! Back in January, I got myself dragged into the long-running [...]

As I was leaving for work yesterday, there was an interview with a guy on The Current on CBC yesterday morning about the Marshmallow Test. Basic premise is you sit a kid down in a room with a marshmallow and tell them that they can eat the marshmallow whenever they want. However, the experimenter tells [...]

So I left for work this morning, intending to walk to work as usual, braving uncleared sidewalks and bitter winds. After my fall on the ice a few years ago, I started using Yaktrax, which I highly recommend. They’re a bit of a pain to get on, though. So I left my house this morning [...]

Another six months, another Ubuntu release party! Holly was wonderful and decorated a maverick meerkat cake for us again. Ubuntu 10.10 was released on 2010-10-10 (at 10:10am). But that was Thanksgiving, so we had our party the next weekend, on the 16th.

It’s voting day! I’m kinda sad I didn’t get around to posting about amalgamation or the LRT, but neither of those issues are ending today, so there’ll be more time. This blog endorses Jane Mitchell and Sean Strickland for Regional Council and Ken Seiling for Regional Chair. I’ve been particularly disappointed about how the campaign [...]

Moving on… The race in Waterloo’s Ward 3 is between incumbent Angela Vieth and last minute challenger Michael Gagnon. Gagnon is a self-styled “regular guy”. And I have to say, I’m grateful to him for running. Throwing yourself into the political arena is tough. Acclamations are bad for democracy, so I think he has done [...]

The mayoral race in Waterloo is probably the most interesting in the region. None of the candidates are perfect, but none of them are really that terrible either. But I’ve got to pick one, so… This blog endorses Jan d’Ailly for Mayor of Waterloo Honestly, I wouldn’t be upset if Brenda Halloran was re-elected. I [...]

Municipal elections are a bit tricky. You don’t have parties to fall back on. You actually have to listen to the candidates and judge whether or not they’d be good in the job. You have to work a bit. It’s even worse in Waterloo, where there are five different races I’m asked to weigh in [...]

I ended up doing a lot of driving over the weekend, visiting people in Belleville and Ottawa and briefly crossing the border. Driving on long trips is the perfect environment for listening to Doctor Who audio dramas. I’d caught up on the regular series with The Whispering Forest. And I’d made it all the way [...]

From Ubuntu LAN Party Kwartzlab has been talking about throwing a LAN party for a while now. We’ve got power, a network and drinks, so it’s ideal. Eric and I got to talking, though, and with the Ubuntu stuff in Waterloo centered largely around Kwartzlab it would be extra awesome if it was a free [...]