Steamed

Little by little, I realize that I am, indeed, getting older.

I recently celebrated my 37th birthday, but my realisation of the aging process comes not so much from events you can mark on a calendar. Instead, it's a collection of little observations that, taken individually, can be easily explained or overlooked. Put all of these "little observations" into the Big Picture, however, and the result is somewhat more depressing.

I do my best to stay young. Some might even say I'm childish or immature. Others may say that I'm trying to recapture my lost youth. Well, to those I say, "Pshhht!" I'm plenty grown-up, and you can't recapture something you haven't let go. Still, though my brain insists we are only 20-something, my body has begun to point out that 40-something isn't far away.

For instance...

I've always liked to play Frisbee. Most of all, I like jumping for high ones or diving for just-out-of-reach ones. There's nothing more satisfying than the look on someone's face as you magically snag out of mid-air a Frisbee that they were sure was going to send you running across the park. During coffee breaks at work, we used to go out in the back lot and toss a couple discs around. I'd always try for the catch, no matter how impossible it looked. I'd grab one skimming an inch off the pavement... I'd lunge and trap one just about to hit a wall... I'd jump over the guy in front of me to make sure I got the next one instead of him...

I can still try to do all of these things, but a recent trip to the park with an 11-year old has shown me that 180lbs does not achieve the same height or hang-time that 135lbs used to. Nor does it tend to stop very easily once urged into a lunging motion. Such maneuvers are now typically followed by a tumble in the grass and a 5-minute time-out for recovery.

Damn inertia.

And then there's food. I used to have an iron stomach and unbeatable metabolism. I could eat absolutely anything I wanted, without consequence. As an example, there was a time when I was counselling 9- to 12-year old boys at a summer camp, and I was challenged to a lasagna eating contest by another counsellor of, shall we say, greater corporeal girth. Well, as heavy as that pasta can be, I packed it away and kept pace with the big guy, bite for bite. In fact, about 1 full tray into the contest, it became obvious he was on the verge of throwing in the towel. So, he sent one of the young boys from his cabin to sabotage my lasagna with a big scoop of ice cream (the rest of the campers and counsellors had long since moved on to dessert). Nonplussed, I stirred the extra dairy into my meal and, by the time a tray and a half had been consumed between the two of us, I was declared the winner. The big guy moaned and groaned for the rest of the evening, but I was more than ready for hot chocolate and marshmallows at campfire time.

There's no way I could repeat that performance today. For starters, my relationship with dairy has taken a turn for the worse in recent years. We just don't seem to see eye-to-eye like we once did. Cramming that much cheese and ice cream down my throat now would either have me running for the nearest washroom equipped with an industrial-strength ventilation fan, or wishing that I was. It's a purge-or-bloat scenario, if you catch my drift.

Aside from that, I've also been introduced to this lovely phenomenon called heart burn. All I can say about that is, "WTF?!?" Apparently, the supposed one-way valve at the top of my stomach has become confused with the definition of "one-way". No longer does my stomach have a monopoly on all that wonderful acid some foods seem to produce. Now my esophagus gets to enjoy all that burning goodness too. Yay. It's especially fun when it happens in the middle of the night and my brain is too sleepy to differentiate between acid reflux and a heart attack.

Fun times.

There are lots of other physical manifestations of this thing called "aging": a 100-foot dash to catch a bus that feels like sprinting the last 100m up Mt. Everest... joints that tend to fuse solid if allowed to go unmoved for more than 10 minutes... a knee-cap that enjoys wandering around the general knee region without actually staying on the knee itself... muscles that spasm and cramp in places I didn't even know I had muscles...

The list goes on but the reality of it all hit home yesterday, not with a pain, or a burp, or the crack of a hip. It was something that just sort of snuck up on me...

We were at the wavepool last night with our kids, enjoying being out of the rain. The place we go to is pretty cool, too. The wavepool is shallow enough for the two younger girls, who aren't the strongest swimmers, to go without life jackets, there's a portion called "The River" where they run a current you can float in or swim against, lots of fun water toys for the little ones, and a nice big hot tub that never seems to have too many people in it. My favorites, though, are the steam room and dry sauna. Unlike at most facilities, these amenities are right beside the pool (as opposed to down the hall to the change rooms) so I don't have to abandon the kids just to enjoy a little heat.

Well, as I was contemplating going in the sauna last night, I noticed a couple of girls, probably no older than 13 or 14, going in and out, holding the door open, and letting all the heat out. I could actually watch the temperature drop on a digital thermometer outside the room. As I walked towards the sauna, one of them snaked past me with two flippers full of water from the hot tub and dashed it on the hot rocks. Great idea if this was a steam sauna, but totally forbidden by the facility because... well... it's not.

As they were about to run back for more water, I stopped one of them and said, "Hey! Can't you read? This is a dry sauna!" Then, jerking my thumb toward the foggy glass door not two feet away, I said, "If you're looking for the steam room, it's RIGHT THERE!!!"

Yep, I'm the cranky old guy at the public pool. It's all downhill from here, I'm afraid.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go yell at some kids on my lawn, Wil Wheaton-style.

Friday's Foto: Industrial

The top of the Waterworks at Glenmore Dam.

Boring Childhood Stories: Farmhouse on Fire

When I was 13, we lived on a farm. We weren't farmers, but we lived on a farm. To be exact, we lived in a house on a farm. We lived in a house on a one-acre portion of a 160-acre farm. The other 159 acres were rented to somebody else who used the land to raise cattle. So maybe we lived on a ranch. Anyway, since that "somebody" was only ever there to feed his cattle from time to time, we had the run of the whole place.

Now, don't be put off with the idea of living on a farm (or ranch). You're probably picturing something like endless flat fields of wheat, a big red barn, a couple grain silos, and broken down farm machinery. In short: Boring. Until I moved to ours, that's exactly how I envisioned a farm, too. Luckily for me, they aren't all like that.

What we called the Upper Pasture looked like typical farmland. For the most part, it was flat, bordered by barbed-wire fences and forest. Though it looked ideal for planting, there was nothing but wild grass growing for the cattle to graze on. A narrow, dusty gravel road snaked its way from the main gate to the house, sitting at the edge of a forested bluff overlooking the Lower Pasture. A second "road", really little more than two tire ruts in the grass, ran out from behind the house, skirted the bluff, and eventually made its way to the Lower Pasture.

The Lower Pasture was much more interesting and was where my brothers and I spent most of our time. Where the road wound down from our house, there was an old abandoned homestead and a swayback barn. These would have been a blast to explore and use as forts, but our parents warned us of a dangerous gas leak there that could kill us... and we were young enough to believe them.

The other way down was to follow the cattle trails through the forest and down the bluff. These ended at a flat plain of more wild grass, bordered by more forest, more fence, and the meandering Little Red Deer River. And smack-dab in the middle was an honest-to-goodness marsh. Amidst all that grass, here was a spot with low scrub-brush, mucky ground that would suck the boots right off your feet, and the remains of an old wooden hay wagon half-sunk into the earth.

As if this wasn't enough to keep three boys busy with exploring and make-believe, there was also "The Island".

As I said, the Little Red Deer River did a few twists and turns through the Lower Pasture. As it did so, it created "The Island", a few acres of land bordered by water on three sides and a neighboring farm on the fourth. The great thing about this little bit of land wasn't just that you could only get to it by wading in bare feet or jumping from stone to stone, it was "The Hill". That's right... "The Island" had "The Hill", a hill nearly as high as the bluff and the Upper Pasture. From here, we could look out over the entire Lower Pasture... homestead, barn, marsh, river, and all.

The real magic, however, happened in the winter when "The Hill" was transformed into "The Toboggan Hill"!

One sunny winter Saturday, our parents made the 3-hour round-trip into Calgary for groceries, taking my younger brother, Jeff, and baby sister, Crystal, with them. That left my other younger brother, Mike, and me to figure out what to do with the day. As I said, getting groceries was only a 3-hour venture, but my parents often took time to visit other family and friends when they "went to town", so we knew we'd be on our own for quite a while.

I can't say for sure, but in all likely-hood, we sat around in our underwear eating Corn Flakes and watching Saturday morning cartoons until noon. You see, up until puberty set in well and good, this was just a natural part of the weekly routine for us boys. Once the two-and-half channels we could get reception on started broadcasting sports and fishing shows, though, we would have been looking for something a little more entertaining. Sure, we had tons of dinky cars, loads of GI-Joe, and even a few Transformers, but what we really wanted to do was go tobogganing.

The two of us suited up in ugly parkas, mitts still damp from the day before, and running shoes (because we were too cool for boots) and made our way down the bluff, across the frozen river, and up "The Hill", toboggan in tow.

The snow was good and deep, I remember. The sun was out and it wasn't exactly warm, but not so cold that the snow was fluffy or crunchy. Instead, it was that perfect "packable" kind of snow that lets you carve trails on your first few runs down the hill that become like bobsled tracks your toboggan will follow faithfully forever after. I don't know how long we were out there, but the sun was still high in the sky when we got the fright of our lives.

Although we could see the entire Lower Pasture from "The Hill", the Upper Pasture and, subsequently, our house, was obscured by the line of trees at the top of the bluff. Those trees weren't nearly tall enough, though, to hide the thick, black smoke billowing from the exact spot we knew our house to be.

Had I used the stove that morning? Was I doing any ironing before we left? Had Mom left her blow dryer on and had it somehow slipped off the counter and into a pile of damp towels left behind after being used to mop up the water that overflowed the tub when my step-father fell asleep in the bath the night before, sparking into a smoldering fire that grew into an all-consuming blaze? These and other equally-improbable thoughts flashed through my mind before being replaced by, "FIRE!!!"

We dropped the sled and took off at top speed for the house, half-tumbling down the hill, skidding across the ice, and scrambling blindly up the cattle trail. The entire way, images of everything I owned going up in flames flashed before my eyes. The thought of my parents coming home to find us standing beside the smoking ruins of what was once our home was too much to bear.

The smoke was thicker and blacker than ever.

All of a sudden, Mike called out breathlessly, "Oh no! Boots!" Boots was our cat. Clearly, Mike was also contemplating losing everything dear to him, and the family pet was at the top of the list. I learned later that all Mike could picture as we raced to the house was that little cat, surrounded by flames, hurling himself through the fire and smashing out through the glass of the sliding French Doors on the balcony. Years later, an incident involving myself running full-tilt into a similar set of sliding French Doors would sink, once and for all, the notion of Boots saving himself this way, but that's another story.

As we broke from the trees at the top of the bluff, the house came into full view. No flames poured from the windows or lept from the rooftop. In fact, there were no flames to be seen at all. And there was an eerie silence, not the snap, crackle, pop of a house ablaze. Still, thick, black smoke continued to billow into the sky. From our new vantage point, however, it was obviously coming from the other side of the building. The garage?

I held apart 2 strands of the barbed wire fence for my brother, then hastily climbed through myself. My mind was numb at this point, completely incapable of understanding what was going on. But, as we rounded the corner of the house, it all become clear in a flood of relief and spent adrenaline.

There, in the driveway, stood my step-father, back from town far early than expected. In his hand was a stick which he was using to poke and prod a pile of burning tires. Although this Indian Smoke Signal approach was an effective way of calling us in to put away groceries, I can't help but think there must have been another way that was easier on the environment... not to mention our hearts!

Friday's Foto: Flare

Taken on a photowalk from my house to Nose Hill Park and back.

A shot into the afternoon sun.

Bunged Up

It has been brought to my attention that I don't write enough. And it's true... A dehydrated fat man subsisting on a diet of cheese and codeine is more regular than this blog.

You just pictured that, didn't you? Come on, if I can take the time to think it up, the least you can do is visualize...

Well, I'm putting on a pot of strong coffee and we're gonna get this thing flowing again, all right?

Oh, and you can stop visualizing now.

Rubik's Revenge is Right

As a thank you for helping them out with a small computer problem, my girlfriend's parents insisted on thanking me with a present, despite my protests to the contrary. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that they had managed to track down a Rubik's Revenge Cube. I've been looking all over town for one, only to be told that they are sold out.

Okay, time for a little back story...

I've been obsessed with the Rubik's Cube since the summer after 8th grade. For hours and hours I studied a How to Solve the Rubik's Cube paperback, committing to memory the multitude of color combinations, twists, and turns that ultimately make up a very monotonous formula for solving the Cube. Now, more than 20 years later, I can still actually "solve" a scrambled Rubik's Cube in under 3 minutes almost every time.

So...

My daughter got a 2x2x2 Pocket Cube in her stocking from Santa this past Christmas. I don't know what the jolly old elf was thinking, though... He should have put it in mine because I'm the one always playing with it! It didn't take me long to discover that the original formula I had memorized (with a few minor modifications) was all I needed to solve the smaller cousin. Well! That got me thinking... How hard could the 4x4x4 Rubik's Revenge be?

I may never know the answer to that question. Although no less than 18 hours ago I became the proud owner of a Rubik's Revenge Cube, no less than 30 minutes ago said cube became little more than a pile of useless plastic pieces.

Those of you who know me (maybe a little too well) have probably already jumped to the conclusion that I became easily frustrated by this new puzzle and flung it at a wall. A pretty fair guess, considering a similar incident with Rubik's Magic back in the early 90's. But that's another story. No, this one can't be blamed on my immaturity or lack of patience.

It turns out that 24 of the 56 moving pieces on a Rubik's Revenge Cube are only held in place by a piece of plastic about 1mm thick. It also turns out that turning the portions of the cube containing these pieces with any more force than what is absolutely necessary to overcome friction and inertia can cause this incredibly thin piece of brittle plastic to break, resulting in the rapid disintegration from cube to the aforementioned pile of useless plastic pieces.

The first thing I did was swear. The second thing I did was swear again. The third thing I did was to see if I could glue the broken piece and reassemble the puzzle. Yes, it can be glued. No, it can't be put back together the way the original 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube could. So, with gluing not an option, I went to Google.

I'd say it's a bad sign that it took me all of 12 seconds to discover that I'm not the first person to uncover this design flaw.

So, I guess we'll have to see if this puzzle can be returned, which I honestly have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I don't want my girlfriend's parents to be out the money, but I also don't want to be the guy that says, "Hey, thanks for the present. By the way, it's junk."

Maybe, after all those years of mocking Rubik by making his puzzle look like child's play, this is just his way of getting back at me from beyond the grave.

Yeah...

That, or a little phenomenon I like call "Made in China".

'Nuff said.

The Greed Consumes

It's a plain and simple fact that Microsoft is here to stay. No matter what the Linux-Heads and MAC-Daddies of the world say, Good Ol' Bill has secured his company's presence in our marketplace for a long time to come. Whether through better innovation, clever marketing, or sheer dollar-power, Microsoft has stood its ground against all comers so far.

Something tells me that's about to change...

It's no secret that Microsoft has been eyeing a piece of the Web 2.0 pie currently dominated by Google, the Little-Search-Engine-That-Could. And why not? The "Do No Evil" start up has not only made a name for itself with quicker, more relevant search results, but they are rapidly becoming an integrated part of life for anyone who spends any amount of time online. Be it blogging with Blogger, sharing photos with Picasa, surfing videos on Google Video and YouTube, or emailing friends and family gargantuan attachments with Gmail, we're all skinny-dipping in the Google-Pond or, at the very least, dipping our feet in to test the waters. Why wouldn't Microsoft want to join in the fun?

Traditionally, Mr. Gates' response to the Google-Pond (if I'm allowed to extend the analogy just a bit too far), would be to build an overly complicated and outrageously expensive Sports-Plex, complete with wavepool and waterslides. Of course, there would be no less than 12 checkpoints to pass on the way in (just to make sure you're authorized to be there and really want to use the hot tub), the pools would spontaneously drain at random times for no reason whatsoever, and lifeguards would only be added to the staff after a sufficient number of drownings proved their necessity.

And there you'd have it: The Leisure Center del Vista.

But, not unlike getting a Blue Screen of Death right after applying the latest Windows Updates, Microsoft doesn't always do things the way we expect them to. Such is the case with the news yesterday that the software giant is planning to go head-to-head with Google in the free apps arena with a project code-named "Albany". You can read the PCWorld article here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143873/article.html

Aside from the fact that I feel Microsoft is like a teenage girl who has taken too long to decide on a dress for the Prom and is now rushing off, late to the dance, with her garters unfastened, hoping to snag some poor desperate boy before the night is over, I see a couple of problems with this approach.

For starters, Microsoft has a penchant for re-inventing the wheel. Granted, they've come up with some pretty astounding advances in home and business computing because of this habit, but it's no way to play catch-up. Google's headstart can be credited as much to their acquisition of smaller start-ups who have already put in the hours and hours of R&D, beta testing, and quality assurance for their Web 2.0 services as it can to their foresight and vision. If Microsoft wants to have any chance of narrowing the gap, they can't waste time by sending their team back to the drawing board. Perhaps I am as mistaken about this as I would have been about the wavepool analogy... so we'll have to wait and see.

Another stumbling block that I'm sure Microsoft is bound to stub its multi-billion dollar toe on is its reputation... good or bad.

On the one hand, there are going to be users out there who will adamantly avoid these services, free or not, based purely on the Microsoft brand and the flying Window logo. Is this fair? No. Is it rational? Certainly not. Is it inevitable. Yup. Brand-power is a double-edged sword and it's next to impossible to win back people you have disappointed in the past. It's going to take more than a flamboyant stage appearance by Steve Ballmer and clever use of a Golden Oldie by The Stones, Tom Cochrane, or Van Halen to sway the nay-sayers this time around.

On the other hand, you're going to have die-hard fans of Microsoft's apps who just can't wait to take the Web 2.0 plunge. I'm thinking specifically of Microsoft Office users. Let's face it, when it comes to productivity software, Office is the be all and end all... so far. Sure, there are plenty of less-expensive alternatives out there (OpenOffice, Google Docs, et al) but, for the serious user, nothing beats the raw power that Microsoft has put into its industry-leading products. But will this same power make the cut when Microsoft trims the fat for the online environment? Sadly, I don't think it will. We've already seen the inferiority of Mobile Office in comparison to it's desktop predecessor, why should we believe a web-based version will be any better? Heck, it will likely be worse!

In the end, Microsoft is obviously committed now and my mere arguments aren't enough to even give a programming supervisor holed up in a basement lab somewhere on the Redmond compound pause, let alone stop the wheels of the massive machine from rolling forward. It won't be long before "Albany" gets released under a name-way-less-cool-name-than-its-codename and we'll see the results of Microsoft's efforts.

Just Google it.

Our Maiden Voyage

I finally got out to the mountains last Sunday with that special someone for our very first road trip ever. It was just for the day, but we had a great time.

Surprisingly, she had never seen Bow Falls... I didn't think that was even POSSIBLE for a native Calgarian!

I fully intended to take a ton of pictures, like I usually do, but somehow only came home with 7 or so decent shots. I guess I was too busy enjoying the real world to put a camera between me and it.

And I thought I had a good eye...