My life has pretty much devolved into a bunch of to-do lists. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing - unless stuff on the lists don't get checked off in a reasonable amount of time. Then the level of stress just seems to eat away at me. Thankfully, I've been able to get some stuff done and take great satisfaction in either striking out items on my electronic lists or scratching them off the paper lists with a thick black marker. Slash - another thing done. Whoo hoo. How ironic though - one of the things on my to do list (electronic sticky note on my laptop): order the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

The ta da online to do list application is kind of ok. I like the collaboration part of it. Where I set up a couple of lists and shared with D. I think it'll need more testing before any decision on whether it's usable or not. (D promptly transcribed a bunch of his to do's to the big chalkboard in the kitchen at home - I think he just likes erasing stuff as it gets done). Yikes, I just checked my lists and the "things to do this summer" one is pretty ambitious because they're all pretty big projects. Lots of home stuff to do: build a deck, landscape yard, paint some rooms, refloor living room.... Well, one thing at a time I guess, maybe one project a month.

Well it's over. Whew - what a day. It's the kind of day that makes you damn glad you're not Jack. I mean, he woke up that day in his new job, with his new girlfriend and the day went downhill pretty quickly. Chasing terrorists, torturing suspects, matching wits with a nutcase. Now the day is over, America is safe but poor Jack! No girl, no job, no life.

I really like this show though because each episode ends on a nail-biter, however, there are so many silly holes in the plot and so many "huh?" moments it just boggles the mind. Classic "huh?" moment on the season finale episode, Mandy the terrorist/freelance baddie is cornered in a parking garage, Jack holds her attention while she's got her gun on Tony's throat, and Curtis sneaks around to try to surprise her. Eventually Curtis gets close enough to push her away from Tony, she swings at Curtis and WHAM Curtis slams his fist into her face. Mandy drops like a stone. No duh. But later, she comes around and Jack goes over to question her - no brusing at all on her face. Not a red mark, no swelling nada. Now that's one tough broad!

Anyway - with 24 over for now it looks like mainstream TV fare is done for now and the tv will be getting a long needed rest for the summer. Jeez, who knows - maybe I'll even be able to blog more regularly.

Just got back from seeing Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. One word - awwwsome. I think Ian McDiarmid has got to be the greatest hammy actor since good ole Bill Shatner. As Darth Sideous his sense of pacing is outstanding, his words seem to slowly ooze from his mouth.

But watching the movie is like watching a slow motion train-wreck. We know the ending of course, and watching Anakin unravel is conflicting. It's a little sad but I was never really fond of the Anakin character - from know-it-all kid to petulant teenager and now to one messed up young adult. Emotionally weak, mentally fragile and very strong in power - a dangerous combination that Palpatine can easily use against him. So then Anakin's strongest persona is eventually Darth Vader and it's exciting to see him become the Sith Lord. It settles on him and he wears it much more easily than the Jedi Knight Obi Wan wanted him to be. Go figure.

Star Wars 1 and 2 were a yawn but I really enjoyed 3. Not as much as 4 which I saw maybe a bazillion times but 3 was very good.
4.5 stars out of 5, it's a definite go see.

...kind of. I took a vacation day today to stretch out the Victoria Day weekend to a 4-day weekend because every now and then you just need an extra day to catch up on your life. Since the weather's so unsettled I think I'll just end up doing house stuff and blog stuff. Without making any commitments - this could be an opportunity to get on with the redesign I've been "working" on for what seems like an eternity.

Being always on the lookout for productivity enhancement tools, one of the key things for me is the need to be organized so I've decided to try out "Ta Da!" - online to do lists. I like the ability to email the list to yourself and share the lists with people or with everyone and subscribe to the list feed. Very cool. It's basically just the detail task lists of any project management exercise and, well, I see life as a project that needs to be managed ;) So for now, I have created 2 lists of personal things to do: things to do this weekend, and things to do this summer.

Well it's season finales week and I just got finished watching the 2-hour season finale to CSI (the original series). Being a fan of both the series itself and Quentin Tarantino perhaps I was expecting a little more than we got - more substance I mean. The show was great, yet lacking. The characters seemed to be skimming the surface of their personas, like they were uncomfortable playing out this episode. I don't know - maybe I'm just tired but the plot seemed weak. But whatever eh? It's Tarantino man! And he's learned to bury people in plexiglas ® rather than wood so they can't punch their way out. The dream sequence was pretty funny too as was the lonely little pile of intestines in the opening scenes.

Other finales tonight:
E.R. - watched this, the tragedy was really well done. Ripped straight from the headlines, a party in a building with a wooden balcony structure on each of 4 levels. All of a sudden it collapses probably from the weight of all the people dancing on the the top level balcony. Really well done, one minute they're there, the next they're dropping like a stone and collapsing each level beneath them. This really happened a summer or 2 ago.

The O.C. - taped this, will watch it later.

A sunny bit of yellow on a rainy day.

Well, in our line of work I find the hardest part of the project is getting the content delivered when needed. Images for branding, copy - whatever, sometimes takes incredibly long to deliver. The why of this can be for a few reasons: a) the content provider doesn't understand what content is required, b) the content provider doesn't have clear deliverables dates - or c) both of the above.

D. Keith Robinson has written an excellent article on a content brief which addresses both of these concerns - it should prove to be an indispensable part of the project process. I'll definitely be trying this out with on my next project.

It's true that sometimes it seems like all the paperwork tends to bog down the production process but it's actually quite the opposite: the paperwork slows down the front end but speeds up the process overall because everyone is clear on roles, deliverables and dates.

Weekends are so necessary to regenerate and renergize. All week long I spend my days (and sometimes a good part of my nights) in front of the computer screen, and in the summer at least I try to spend my weekends outdoors as much as possible. Yesterday, the load of mulch we had ordered was delivered and thankfully it was sunny and somewhat warmish - so perfect weather to be weeding and mulching the beds and under the hedges. It's always a surprise how tired you feel after a day digging, pulling, and shovelling - and then how sore you feel the next day. But it's a good soreness. Being muscle tired is always more energizing than being mind tired. So I actually started tidying up the back yard when I had planned to work on the front yard first - but heck, the mulch is out back so it made sense to start there. Plus, while I was out inspecting the front yard, I noticed the wood frame around the foyer windows has begun to rot. Wonderful - just great. I think the front yard may now have to wait until we get the foyer fixed, since the beds are mostly foundation plantings. Well, this may be an opportunity to do something interesting with the front entrance - we'll just have to see.

...Finally, the weekend is here. Sweet!
Just to bring you up to date - the last couple of days have been spent (mostly) on preparing and migrating our blogs over from MT2 to a new installation of MT3. It's been a bit of a chore but thanks to Shawn (the database guru) I think we've managed to move it all - that's some 26 blogs in all. Heck, I'm impressed. So, just a bit more cleanup and stuff and we should be back up and running, yay.

And now, I just want to comment on John Oxton's article about CSS flags and find using selection (who was commenting on Doug Bowman's post about flags) both very excellent reads. I believe that documenting your work, flagging your code however you want to put it not only makes sense for the individual (reading through your own stuff can be torturous at times) but it's also essential if you're working in a team situation. I'm sure there are some coders out there who shudder at the thought of adding extraneous material to the pure stylesheet - but man, are we not way past the era of obsessing about the cost of computer time? Surely, the savings in productivity far outweigh the savings in bandwidth. Leave a legacy - document your work.

We went to see Kingdom of Heaven on Saturday night. It hasn't been getting very good reviews but I really liked it. The story was well told, the fight scenes were well done with just enough blood and guts flying about. There's not much that Ridley Scott puts his hands to that doesn't come out good.

Stories like this make you think about the capacity of humanity to live in peace - and the inability of mankind to do just that. Will there ever be a Kingdom of Heaven on earth? Not likely. Not as long as there are those who refuse to live and let live.

4 stars out of 5.

What a great series of numbers! Well - close enough if you omit the year prefix. (Happy Cinco de Mayo for those who celebrate it.)

Now, have you ever had a project which you felt like you'd been working on like forever? That's been my life for the past while, with one project in particular that's been driving me absolutely batty. But I am very persistent and today have completed a major portion of it. So should be fairly smooth sailing henceforth. (yeesh - knock on wood). Of course it was the stylesheets that were particularly tricky this time (mea culpa - I just had to comp up a fairly complex mockup...) and then tried implementing sIFR (which was working ok - but not to my satisfaction) so scrapped it for images. sIFR and fluid layouts don't seem to mix very well - at least not for me - because of the issues with the (lack of) background transparancy. So what was happening was that my design would shrink properly with the viewport but the sIFR text would cover up parts of the page with the stupid background block. Ok - I'll just use it for fixed-width designs from now on. (which will be rare because I like my pages stretchy) ;) .

So at least the front page is done - now to set up the internal page and subsection templates, which should theoretically take no time at all.

... or more minutiae of mundania :)

Man! Is it Tuesday already? The days just seem to be zipping by. This past weekend was full of activity - a belated bowling birthday party for Aliya on Saturday, and a quick trip to Fredericton on Sunday where I competed in the Fencing NB Provincial Championships. I hope I get a chance to relax and do a bit of yard work this coming weekend. Yeesh!

Saturday:


So what better way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon than with a bunch of kids at the bowling lanes. I just love old bowling lanes - the ones with the googie touches in their decor. And these lanes have been around for an eternity - I think they're the oldest ones in Saint John. The party was a success - food first, then cake, then bowling - what more is needed? The kids had a lot of fun chucking balls down the lane (sorry mr. manager!) and a few, quite obviously, had played the game before. And of course, there was the obligatory wipe out - man those stinky bowling shoes can be pretty slippery.

Saturday night: Ahhhh - Aliya went to a sleepover at her friends house - so of course D and I took a run down to Blockbuster and rented "Closer". Hmmm - I'm not a big fan of Jude Law or Julia Roberts but I do like Clive Owen and Natalie Portman. The movie was excellent. I liked the clever segues/timeshifts. I liked the clever dialogue. I really liked the ending. It's a definite see.

Sunday:
All night long it rained a deluge and the next day Billie and I were to go to Fredericton to the competition. The St. John river has been in flood stage for the past couple of days and parts of Fredericton were flooded - yikes - but we're adventuresome so off we went. The water was surprisingly high in some areas along the road (which is kind of creepy) but we managed to get to the venue just fine. Maybe the news people are overhyping the flood stuff somewhat... Anyway - the tournament was fun and I managed to get into the top 8 pool again (yes!) and even though I got smoked (only one victory in the pool - sigh) I was still pretty happy with my performance over all. In the women's finals I took the gold again - so was pretty elated about that too. In the open I ended up 8th. Not a bad way to end the season. Now I've got the summer to think about and plan what I want to do with my fencing and set some goals for the coming season.