Heavy winds [30/46]

So, I've been able to do 2 days in a row now.  Yesterday was a crazy amount of wind going home.  It wasn't bad wind going 'in' to work, as it was still early and a little with me.

On the way home it was gusts of 33km/h.  Crazy... it took me a little longer to bike then.

trust me... it was windy

Normally I can do home -> work in about 15-20 minutes.  But from my parents' to home was 20 minutes itself.  I wish I had some better stats for that, but Endomodo didn't find a gps until I was near the house.  So it says I only want a 1/2 mile.  Hrmm..

Really should remember to use that app more when I bike.  I like stats and graphs.  Maybe when I get some NFC tags that will help to remind me.

Well, I biked this morning, and it was a little blustery, very cool and starting to spit for rain.  Hrmm...  we got an email yesterday about teeball.  If it rains today and is raining by 5pm then we're cancelled.  If it's just off and on, then we'll play.

Also, we'll make up a couple of the missed games by having a 'make up' day on Saturday [*ahem*, my birthday] with a game, some hot dogs, then another game.  Should be awesome.

Couple of parades down and sleeping in my old bed [28/44]

Another week is in the books, and the first week of piping for grads is done.  The full uni still fits.. yay.  There's just no killing this outfit... no matter how hard I try.

After the Thursday gig we got to do something we haven't done in a while - take a full band photo.  Jarron had a great idea this time in doing a photo recreation.  In 1967 the band had some "Canada Centennial" photos done up and the 'famous' one was done at Hillcrest Park.  So he set up to recreate the photo.  A nice touch for our centennial now.

Facebook woes [22/32]

Ugh, I've just about had it with Facebook.

Ironic as today was a day that I helped out on a workshop on how to do it for business.

Saw a plethora of businesses today (not at the workshop though) who masquerade as a profile, add it just irked me.

Then the app is just annoying me... A lot! It's not my phone...
Speaking of my phone, I finally couldn't take it anymore and wanted on the phone about how terrible the reception had been lately.  Of course they kept saying they're working on it, but that's about it ... Well I did get a 25% off until they are supposed to be done, which is October.

That's right, they said to essentially grin and beer it until October.  Horrific.  It's been two years and they still haven't done one ounce if improvement... If anything they've gone backward.

So, yeah, Facebook sucks... My cell provider sucks...
And I haven't been able to bike this week yet (will probably not be able to bike tomorrow, and can't on Friday, so the whole week is a write off).

May Long Weekend "Stay-cation" [22/30]

Had a great after business and then a hectic scrambling for our newsletter... Which made me forget that I had a lunch meeting when I biked, so I had a good lunch biking excursion.

Ended the week subbing at Hammarskjold... not sure if I should count that against my score or not... ah, well, left it in.

So all that much in a week meant I really was looking forward to the stay-cation this weekend, we were staying at the Victoria Inn (fitting no?) with Karen and Justin (and their kids).

A good time was had... Dean even got to share his new love of Peter Pan with Alexis (after having to get the front desk guy take forever to install the replacement as the one we had wouldn't work).

photo is us hanging out by the poolside eating some Eat Local pizza (with brownies) ... Hope times

Am I becoming an Android douche? [10/16]

So, today I stopped by the Tbaytel store to check out the One X, as HTC hasn't responded to any of my emails about getting a demo unit to play with.

The deal with Tbaytel would mean not only $20/month cheaper on my plan (but I'd lose picture MMS) but the phone would practically be free.

Anyhow, as I was checking out the phone, I wanted to test the NFC on it (and couldn't get it to work) a bloke behind me who must have been all of 16, or 18 or so ... obviously he knows his stuff say to his mom that "that's the phone to get... IT'S THE BEST PHONE OUT THERE"

[note, that aside form the Galaxy Note, it's the most expensive]

"I compared it to the Nexus, and it's better".

That's when I should have walked away... but I didn't.  I turn around and ask for clarification:  "you're saying that this One X is better than my Nexus?"

"Oh, yeah, I've read ALL the reviews out there... the Nexus has only basic Android, whereas the One has the latest."

Again, should have just walked away.  But I gave him a quizzical look and just said "well, I write for an Android blog, and actually, the Nexus devices are meant to have the latest, versus HTC bloat.  Plus, you can't compare the Qualcomm processor of the One X to the OMAP processor in the Nexus.  I'll say mine is faster."

I conceded the camera may be better, but left it at that and walked away.  I had too much spilling around in my brain to try to educate this redneck on... oh look, it only has 4.0.3, whereas mine's running on 4.0.4... what's that?  HTC has the WORST track record for firmware update?  Oh, yeah bigger screen...


I could have gone on, but I didn't.  So I left it at that.  I'm still kinda miffed... but at the same time a little embarrassed about myself that I acted so "hipster-ish" or like an iSheep-ster.

Was I wrong?

--------------------------------
10 / 16 ... had to drive today as I got a chance to supply at Hamm for the afternoon...
62.5% not bad!
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update on my dad... still haven't really digested the whole thing and I'm scared to ask questions, but my mom was mentioning something about it being stage 3 colon cancer, of which there's a 73% survival rate.

that's supposed to be good right?

Bikin' up a storm [9/14]

So, starting to bike up a storm lately... 3 for 3 this week thus far.
It's still a little chilly with slightly below freezing when I leave, but warms up on the bike home.


...except for today.  It's supposed to rain on the way home; but I'm committed.  And besides, biking HOME in the rain isn't an issue as it would be biking TO WORK.


9/14 = 64%  It's climbing!


And nothing's really holding me back for Thursday/Friday.


It was a lot of fun to take Dean out for a bike the other day to the corner and back.  He REALLY wants to go for a bike ride with me... not sure how I'll do that without having to just walk the bike.


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On the poorer side of things, last night was pretty rough.  I'm not putting this stuff in the title, because I don't want people reading it as my topic, and most likely folk aren't reading this, so it'll be my chance to vent.


I hadn't really talked about this, I don't think, as I'm not one to really talk about my family.  Dean, sure.  But anybody else... no.


My dad has had some health issues ever since he retired.  There was his quintuple bypass, his hernia, his complications (?) with his prostate, etc...  He and my mom are on quite the regimen of pills and supplements.  Druggies we joke with them.


Well, with all these issues, I've seen him deteriorate... not a lot.  But this was the man who ran nearly every day, did the 10 mile road race every year, could paddle 30km a day, biked to work every day, etc... etc... etc...


Anyways, the most recent is he had appendicitis come on pretty quickly and had it removed.  While having it out, the doctor found a 'growth' on his lower intestine, and removed that... that complication really slowed his recovery and he was very weak after that operation.


Last night the biopsy results came back in.  It was cancer.  I don't remember much else of what my mom told me, and rightfully it's still early right now to get any real answers.  Lots more questions than answers at this time.


But something about 3 out of 12 nodes, and something about liver.


This is rough. For those of you that really know me, I don't deal well with death or stuff like that.  I'm not sure I'm even over Alister's death at the moment.


And to add on top of it that this is a man that I've admired all my life.  He's been a strong support for me, and a pillar of what I should be in my life... despite all my attempts to ignore that fact.


And as he's been the 'healthy' one in my life, and yet has had more to deal with in the last few years than many of his less healthy counterparts.  There's a portion of me that is upset with the 'unfairness' of it all.


I think my li'l bro said it best.  He's more willing to speak publicly than I...