September 27, 2010

Oops... Somebody hates me

So I just logged into World of Warcraft for some relaxing zombie-fighting after a long hard day and the kiddo had finally fallen asleep. I noticed I had a new in-game mail message, so I happily opened it thinking that perhaps that cool piece of armor I'd put up for sale in the auction house had generated me some cash.

But no. It was a full page of text from someone who was obviously upset. I recognized the name; it was another player who had buffed me once in passing, and added me to their friends list (I reciprocated) and since then this player would occasionally send me a "hello, how are you" type message, and I'd reply back with an equally shallow but friendly/conversational message. We never grouped or had any meaningful interaction.

Back to the angry message. I won't reproduce it word for word here, because who knows, maybe the player will Google it and find me. :-/ The message was something to this effect:

I was trying to message you last night but you kept IGNORING me, and I KNOW you were online and at the computer because I could see you MOVING AROUND the map, and I was messaging you for OVER AN HOUR and you should at least have the DECENCY to reply to me.... COMMON COURTESY...

etc...

I was like, "Holy crap, this person seems really angry."

Then I remembered, "Oh yeah, I *was* playing last night for over an hour, wasn't I? It was fun."

Then I thought, "Crap. They probably WERE messaging me for over an hour. I didn't realize it AT ALL. I had the sound turned way down because I didn't want to wake up the kiddo. And I had the chat text hidden behind the action text. (I like to see the descriptions of damage done during fights.)" Crap. That must have sucked for them to have been "ignored". But it was completely unintentional.

But here's the kicker -- as soon as I logged in, like, seriously, about 15 seconds, this player sends me a direct message (a.k.a. a "whisper"). So I tell them that I received their message, I was sorry and didn't mean to cause any sad feelings. Then - crappy timing -- my kiddo came into the room crying "Mommy! Mommy!" so I had to tell the person I was sorry I had to log. They didn't get the chance to reply to me. Oh dear. But if my kid needs me, anybody who is talking to me on World of Warcraft is going to get ditched. I have my priorities. :)

So for a fleeting moment I felt bad for this person. But then I thought, "This is a freaking game. I shouldn't have to deal with this crap." So this player is going on my Ignore/Block list. I'm terminating this relationship, no questions asked.

I'm surprised at how much this upset me. I'm a really sensitive person and I don't want to hurt anyone.

And Thus Ends Another Online Misunderstanding. Sigh.

Okay, thanks for listening. :)

September 04, 2010

Zen Habits - Stillness returns

I like reading Zen Habits a lot. In fact, I am reading it right now and I was pleased to see a recent entry about Stillness, which I was also talking about recently.

I think my favourite Zen Habits entry of all time is 5 Ways To Combat Reactionary Workflow.

August 09, 2010

Microsoft Bob

I have an urge to sit down and design a workspace for myself using Microsoft Bob. I used to spend hours with this software; I guess I must have been about 15 years old when we got it. I really miss it, and I wish I could find something similar. The closest I can think of is some cross between my Eclipse IDE and Second Life.

If you have never used Bob, here is an article explaining it. Unlike me, the author ridicules the software. But the article's summary of the software's functions is consistent with my memory. Obviously, the software isn't helpful for
Everyone. But, gosh, I sure liked it!

July 24, 2010

I never thought...

... that my daughter would be able to climb her daddy's work step ladder before she was 2.

(Don't worry, I was standing very close to ensure her safety.)

May 30, 2010

Livescribe dot paper

In my previous entry, I scribbled out 2 diagrams for you. I used a LiveScribe pen (ugh, I feel like an advertisement, but I will give you the link for the purpose of identifying to you what I am talking about).

I happened to have a dot paper notebook on my desk. I casually reached for my pen, drew the diagram, docked the pen, and the software automatically "scanned" the diagram out of my pen onto my computer screen. On my mac, I used command-shift-4 to get what I needed and I uploaded the pics to my blog.

This was WAY faster than booting up my graphics program to draw these diagrams. I didn't want anything pretty, I just wanted to spew out a thought. I heart my magic pen and paper.

This magical pen and paper was a gift to me from my husband, James. Hello my Love!!! Are you reading this??? heh heh heh

May 16, 2010

Candid photo

I attended a conference recently where sessions were video recorded and published on the web. There were several sessions that I missed that I would like to go back and watch. However, I couldn't help looking at the recording of one of the sessions I *did* attend, and was amused to watch myself eat an apple.

April 20, 2010

If I had spare time...

Here are the things I would watch:

- TED talk by Michael Specter about the danger of science denial
- ddmeyer at TEDxNYED - Math Education related
- role of openness in education TEDxNYED
- I forget what this one was about but I remember thinking that it looked really cool and I wanted to learn about it

March 30, 2010

Toys & Papers

An amusing analogy:

As I scanned our living room, I noted the dozens of my daughter's toys spraweled everywhere. I questioned the frequency in which she engaged with each one and weighed it against the risk of having said toys in such prominent spatial locations (where someone could trip on them, or have to kick them out of the way in order to reach a lamp, for instance).

Then I thought about my collection of academic papers, and I questioned the frequency in which I engaged with each one and weighed it with the prominence or "guilt" held in my mind about my desire to read it and follow up on the references.

In both cases, with the Toys & Papers, it usually takes another person to engage with the Toy or Paper, and THEN it becomes interesting because you can talk about the artifact and compare it and so on.

Just a random thought... :)

March 20, 2010

Lucky, Comp Sci

Reading about the challenges of other scientists, I feel lucky that my love turned out to be Computer Science. Most of the time, in order to conduct my research, all I need is a computer, an internet connection, some spare time, and a quiet place to work. And access to journal publications through my institution is fabulous, too.

Anyway, my point is that I have been able to conduct research on my own. If I were a chemist or a biologist or something, I would need lab equipment and supplies - like chemicals and tissues and whatever those types of scientists need. I don't know if I'd have been able to get as far with my research as I have as a computer scientist. Hmmm.

Just an idle thought.

February 11, 2010

I still got it

Frozone leans back at her desk and puts her feet up, flashing the heels in satisfaction.

Booyeah, I still got it. I am gloating so good that I actually took a picture of my feet right now.

It's been YEARS since I closed the programmer book of my life and moved into technology management. I used to be so uber, I mean, just look at the stuff I used to write. Life has led me to embrace new opportunity and much more responsibility, but at the cost of devoting time away from coding and towards leadership and management. But I got an opportunity recently to break open some code, and by golly I'm LOVIN it!

I am feeling proud because my development experience has been on Windows but in recent years I've preferred the Mac, and today when I wanted to install a Tomcat and run some JSP scripts, I wasn't sure how it would be different. Also, I was intimidated at the Jakarta download page because "in my day", it was Tomcat 4.x, (or am wondering if it was actually 3.x), but now it's Tomcat 6.x and I was all scared that I am too old, it's been too long, and what are all these hotshot kids doing these days anyway. What is this web two point oh you speak of? Ajax?

But it was fine. I got my environment up, hello world works. And it took me less than 10 minutes. I still got it, man. Even after all these years, I can still configure a web application server.

...

Oops, I forgot the mysql database. I gload too soon. Gimmeasec.

...

January 16, 2010

Haircut

I got a haircut!

December 26, 2009

New Year's Resolutions 2010

What are you thinking about as we begin a new year? What are your goals and reflections?

I have two major themes in my life right now, I think:

- Carving out what *I* want in my life and pruning out the rest

- Becoming a better mentor, learning to empower and support the people around me

Also I'm finding it hard to cling to my optimistic nature lately. This is important to me, so I'm going to try to keep working on this as well.

December 14, 2009

Freaky

It's like 3 a.m. and I just woke up from a bad dream. I haven't had a nightmare in a really long time. The dream started out okay, and I was in control of the situation, but then when I reached out for love & comfort the thing twisted around and tried to kill me with a needle. I was in my parents' house from when I was a little and growing up. Our house was haunted by a pirate. We would hear voices and occasionally see its form manifested as coloured light. Originally, it was "here" and didn't want to hurt anyone. At the end of the dream it started giving us ethereal objects from its life (candlesticks, cutlery, like from a sunken ship). Each person in my family was given a gift, and the object manifested itself as a clear swirly whispy thing that you could pick up, for real. As I was handing out the gifts to Everyone I was saying how this must mean that our ghost loves us and wants to protect us. But when it was my turn, it manifested a needle and when I picked it up it twisted around with a life of its own and tried to poison me.

*shiver*

okay I feel a little better after having typed that out. Freaky! Do you ever have scary dreams?

December 09, 2009

Random

This is a picture of me teaching, thanks to Donna for the snapshot. I am about 5 months pregnant in this pic.

I am so busy right now that I should not be spending time on my blog.

November 05, 2009

Computer Tip

Every so often the scroll ball on my Apple mouse goes wonky and one of the scroll directions doesn't work. Huge pain in the butt. But someone told me: just turn the mouse upside down and rub the scroll ball around in all directions on a piece of paper. Works like a charm!

September 19, 2009

Ohs

Next month, my husband is turning 40. My youngest brother is turning 20. I had a conversation with my dad yesterday about how he's thinking about turning 60 in a couple years. I've been thinking about hitting 30 myself (but not this year). In February, my father-in-law turns 70.

Neat. :)

August 16, 2009

h4, h4, h4

I spilled tea on my keyboard last night. Consequently, I can no longer use the letter "a", the "q", the "tab" or the exclamation point. (In order to type this post, I've been using Edit --> Special Characters option on my browser.)

It's amazing how much I relied on those little wee buttons without even knowing it. How I took them for granted! It's like losing a finger or something.

Getting new keyboard ASAP!

Going to write my notes on pper tody. Or mybe I could just type normlly, nd see wht comes out. It's not tht bd, right? LOL

March 05, 2009

Nice muscles

Yesterday, I was cold. As I always do when I'm cold, I wrap my arms around myself in a self-hug and rub my arms until I can go find a sweater. This time, my brain did a double-take: "Hey, something is different!"

I realized that I was feeling some very nice biceps! My arms have sure shaped up in the last few months; I'm sure it's from lifting my increasingly heavy baby over and over and over again.

So, I went into the bathroom and spent a few minutes in front of the mirror flexing and posing with my new muscles. I probably won't have them forever!

heh heh

July 07, 2008

Saw a psychic

I don't get a chance to write here very much. I've regressed to keeping mostly unfinished pen-and-paper blog entries that never really get into complete, publishable, bloggable form. Hrm. Maybe I will have more time during my maternity leave...?

Anyway, tonight I do have something to write about that's short enough that I can actually write about it! I went with my friend/co-worker Donna to go see Sylvia Browne tonight. It was enjoyable, albeit pricey.

The first part of the evening was just Sylvia talking. It was nice to see her in person and listen to that rich, storytelling voice. I confess to having read many of her books, and if you've read them then you probably wouldn't get much out of the live show that you don't already get from her books. ('Other than the experience of hearing her in person, as with listening to any author who speaks to a live audience.)

I'd have to say that my favourite part was the meditation exercise. It was relaxing, and easy enough to repeat if I ever wanted to relax that way again.

I'd have to say that my least favourite part was Sylvia's dismissal of mathematics and science. When she talked about the world on "The Other Side", it was always about art or music or literature. I would be very disappointed if I died and learned I couldn't continue to be a scientist!

But all in all it was an enjoyable evening.

Ta ta for now!

December 07, 2007

Frosssone the Snake

I don't have anything academic to report on today, but I wanted to inject a little life into this blog so that it doesn't whither away completely from lack of attention. (Sorry, blog!)

I will tell you a story about a challenge I took yesterday. I'm still feeling traces of side-effects, in fact.

So it's noon hour and I'm sitting in the Marquis Hall cafeteria, having lunch with the girls from work. I had ordered the turkey special that day, and had a heaping plate of potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Mmmmm! I leaned back in my chair, pleasantly stuffed, with a mound of potatoes & a couple slivers of turkey left over. My colleague Liv said that she'd wondered whether or not I would be able to finish the whole meal. Because I am so thin, she said: "It's like watching a snake eat a whole rat!"

We all thought this was deliriously funny, and I interpreted that as a challenge. So, I cleaned the plate! I think that the effects were indeed visible.

! :)

September 11, 2006

Household objects on the University Bridge

This morning as I was driving to work, I remarked a straw broom lying casually in the middle of the University Bridge amidst the rush hour traffic. At the end of last week, I noticed a battered black shoe.

I wonder what other objects people lose on the bridge. I think I saw a pillow once.

August 02, 2006

Spot of humour

Yesterday, my husband and I drove into the parking lot of Market Mall and were greeted with a sign in neon-yellow, large blaring letters:

WEDNESDAY - FARMERS MARKET

Today, we drove again by the same sign. It had been modified:

WEDNESDAY - FARTERS MARKME

Perhaps it was because I'd had a long day, but I simply couldn't stop laughing.

May 18, 2006

Women's stockings

With all of our modern technology that can create materials to protect our fragile human bodies deep below the ocen surface and even beyond the borders of our own atmosphere, why can't anyone invent women's stockings that won't be destroyed when we accidentally brush our feet against our Velcro shoes?

I shopped for the most expensive, durable-looking stocking with the highest available thread count. (I paid $7, WonderBra "Silky resistance" brand.) Today I wore them, brand new out of the package, and -still-, the damned things ripped on my shoe. GAH!