So I was fortunate enough to spend Valentine’s Day discovering the lovely town of Natchez, Mississippi, where antebellum elegance and warm Southern charm combine to create a relaxing, romantic atmosphere. Whether admiring the mighty Mississippi, wandering the silently sprawling grounds of peacefully preserved plantations, or sitting down for some catfish and crab cake, Natchez is an enchanted place.

Eat:

• Magnolia Grill, “under the hill”, and looking out over the Mississippi from a lovely enclosed deck. Try the grilled shrimp with the Beringer White Zin, topped off with a slice of chocolate pecan pie.
• Mammy’s Cupboard, a restaurant built into a 28-foot tall wooden woman, only open for lunch, and not on Sundays. Didn’t actually get a chance to eat here… but it’s supposedly amazing, especially the desserts.

See:

• Take your pick of tours of the numerous plantations and antebellum mansions adorning the town and nearby area. Be sure to walk around both inside and out, to appreciate both the opulent interiors and the magnificent grounds.
• The Mississippi – you can’t miss it (it’s a big river…), but you can’t forget it either. Maybe you’ll be inspired to write the next Great American Novel?

Do:

• Go out dancing, enjoy some live Southern rock. Various bars in downtown area to suit your fancy.
• Imagine yourself in Gone With the Wind (”As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”)
• Walk along a boardwalk, holding hands, under the shade of stately oak trees (works best when you’re not travelling alone).

Don’t Do:

• Gamble on the casino river boats. How trashy can you be? (Apologies to people who enjoy gambling on casino river boats. But seriously, go to Vegas instead…)

so full of love and hope

Ya I really don’t blog enough anymore. Not that I ever really updated “frequently”, but it’s been way too long since my last post.

Since then, a lot has happened that I should have blogged about earlier…

I had a really amazing, magical Christmas, definitely one I’ll remember forever. It was the start of a new tradition, and the significance and joy of that resonates with me still. New Years Eve was really special too, and it was the perfect way to celebrate 2008 and welcome the start of 2009. 2008 was a banner year for me, unquestionably the best year of my entire life. It was a year of discovery: I found an exciting new city to move to, a great new career to enjoy, and an amazing, incredible, beautiful woman to fall in love with. And I know that 2009 will be even better, a year of building on the success and happiness of 2008, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the year with unparalleled excitement and anticipation.

There’s a new president in the United States, the guy I’ve been hoping would win for the past couple years. That’s exciting, more so for me than ever before, considering my plans for the future. The whole economic situation freaks me out a bit, to be honest, especially considering my industry and my visa situation. But I’m still very optimistic about my career and my immigration hopes. No matter what happens, the future has so much opportunity, and I intend to seize those chances and make the most of them.

The coming months will be months of transition for me – finally moving to my new city, my new place, my new life. I’m looking forward to it more than I can describe. Yes I love Calgary, my family, my friends here, and what the city has meant to me for my entire life – but at the same time, I’m ready to move on. To move on to new possibilities, new experiences, and to be closer to the most important person in the world to me.

Along the way, I’ll still be blogging, so keep reading. The best is yet to come.

I said oooh, girl, shock me like an electric eel

O hushed December midnight mild,
Thy lights have brightened to enthral;
Tomorrow’s snow, if it be piled,
Should hide them all.
The bulbs along the houses pall;
Lingering there we turn and go.
O hushed December midnight mild,
In shadows of this night aglow,
Make the dark seem to us less deep.
Hearts longing to be blanketed,
Blanket us in benighted snow.
We slumber at the break of day;
At noon we reach a deeper sleep;
Awake at night, a light display.
Dismiss the sun with slow descent;
Enchant the land as albescent.
Snow, snow!
For the stars’ sake, if they were all,
Whose bulbs already are burnt with frost,
Whose fragile glow must else be lost -
For the stars’ sake along the wall.

put them on the tree

But in a different way. It’s not something I think about as often anymore. I realize that now. I suppose that’s normal though, healthy even. A coping mechanism, but a beneficial one.

Janet’s death rocked my world, in various ways, but I can’t live my whole life in the shadow of any one event, even something as tragic as the sudden death of a close friend in the prime of her life. And so I’ve “moved on”, in a sense, while still trying to preserve and dignify her legacy, and the memory of our friendship.

But too much introspection here would be selfish, and so instead, one of my favourite Janet-stories:

In grade one, I lived in a Toronto neighbourhood that had a large proportion of uneducated immigrant families. Although many people did not understand a word of English, they nonetheless lovingly attended their children’s school events as often as they could.

One evening, just before a school concert was about to start, the janitor went to the front of the room and reminded everybody to please place their litter into the appropriate garbage bins.

Nobody understood a word he said. Everybody applauded politely.

Miss you Janet. I wish I could still talk to you, a lot has happened in two years. Some things I’m sure you’d jokingly tease me about (uh, moving to Texas) but in other ways you’d be proud of me, happy for me. I know I’d have things to both jest and celebrate about you too.

I owe you a lot. In retrospect, it’s more obvious now than ever. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it at the time, or thank you for it. But I don’t think you realized it either, you were just being you, doing what you did best – being a friend to people who needed one.

You were always a good friend to me, and I’m a better person for having known you. Thank you for that, for everything.

and I’m feeling so

Nevertheless, here’s my prediction for how the electoral college points breakdown will go today:

My guesstimates include:

• Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico, all “leaning Obama”, will go his way
• Minnesota and Wisconsin, also “leaning Obama” will go his way
• McCain will hold onto Arizona, despite the embarrassment of it being closer than it should be
• Similarly, the GOP will also hold onto Montana and North Dakota, although the race will be closer than any Republican would care to admit
• Arkansas, Georgia, and West Virginia will remain red states
• Missouri, where the race is super close, will go for Obama by a very small margin
• Key battleground states of Indiana and Ohio will go to McCain and Obama respectively – the former should have been an easy pickup for McCain, but I think he can still win it; the latter is always a crucial state, and I don’t see Obama losing it
• Virgina will go blue, a major indicator of how much ground the Republicans will lose tonight
• North Carolina will stay red, by a slim margin, despite a much closer battle
• Pennsylvania, which the GOP tried really hard to win, will still go for Obama
• And finally, Florida will go to blue in a close race, cementing a landslide victory for Obama

So there you have it, my predicted score is 349-189 for Obama. And, if I may add – WOOT WOOT!

The close wins (and, for the matter, the close loses) for Obama in certain swing or even traditionally red states will be partially attributable to increased voter turnout among minority and youth voters. Similarly, the overall voter turnout should be the highest by number of votes it’s ever been, and the highest by percentage of the population it’s been since JFK won. And beyond just winning the electoral points, I think Obama will capture a majority of the overall popular vote – probably around 55%.

Although I haven’t posted about it here so I don’t really have “proof”, it’s been pretty obvious to those who know me that I’ve favoured Obama from Day 1 – over the other Democratic candidates, over Hillary, and especially over McCain. I didn’t always expect that Obama would win, but I always certainly hoped for it.

And now, after a couple of years, waiting and watching, the audacity of that hope is becoming a brave new reality. God bless America.

here in my heart, yeah I do believe

Overall, I honestly don’t expect this election to change a whole lot in parliament: I predict another Conservative minority government, which leaves us with pretty much the exact same situation as before: the Conservatives form the government, and Harper remains as PM – but not having enough seats to force their own legislation through the House of Commons means that the other parties can still lambaste the Conservatives for not doing enough, while simultaneously blocking them from taking action.

I do think the Conservative party will pick up some seats though. They won 124 last time in 2006, and I’d expect that to increase to 130-something, maybe even push 140. So not enough to gain the magical 155 necessary for a majority, but at least enough to give Conservative supporters something to cheer about. And really, I expect almost all of those Conservative victories to come at the expense of the Liberals. They should almost certainly drop below 100, from their past total of 103 seats in 2006 to somewhere below 90 this time. Pretty good score for a rookie golfer, not so good for Stéphane Dion.

But really, I doubt Harper is going to achieve as much as he hoped for when he called this election. The left is weak – the Liberal brand has taken some solid hits in the past few years, and Dion definitely lacks popular appeal. And yet the Liberals are still going to do reasonably well, as their centrist stance continues to attract people who see both the NDP and the Conservatives as too far either way. And really, the Liberals have Toronto, the red stronghold that is the GTA is worth an incredible 44 seats. Last election, the Liberals won 36 of them, the Conservatives 5, and the NDP 3. I really don’t see that changing too much, maybe the Conservatives and NDP will each win a few more, but the Liberals should still get at least 33 Toronto-area seats.

In the rest of Ontario, it should be very typical – NDP and Liberal in the North, while the Southwest should produce Conservatives in all the non-urban areas, with the urban areas going Liberal or NDP (K-W goes red, Windsor and Hamilton go orange). Ottawa-Hull and London are more interesting – they should be split, perhaps among all three.

Heading west, Manitoba will vote Liberal in Churchill, and then all blue in the south – except for Winnipeg, which should produce at least 3 NDP MPs and maybe even another Liberal or two. Winnipeg South should vote Conservative though. Saint Boniface is too close to call, with the Liberal incumbent (Simard) winning last time by < 2000 votes.

Saskatchewan will go all Conservative blue, except for the Liberal red island of Wascana where Goodale hasn’t lost in over three decades.

As for Alberta, three word summary – all blue baby! Talk about provincial unity.

B.C. will be good for a lot of Conservative seats too, mostly reelected incumbents. Everything in the east should match the Alberta blue, with the possible exception of Southern Interior. Interesting to see whether Atamenko gets reelected for the NDP, or if they switch back to Conservative. On the coast, the Skeena Bulkley Valley should go NDP orange again, as will Victoria and Nanaimo Cowichan. Every other riding outside of Vancouver should go to the Conservatives.

Vancouver itself is a puzzle – certainly all three parties will take victories here, it’s hard to say how many for each. Richmond, Quadra, Kingsway, Burnaby Douglas and Surrey North were all “too close to call” based on the very last pre-election polls.

In the north, Yukon goes red, NWT goes orange, and Nunavut will probably go red again, despite official endorsement of the federal Conservatives by the local government. All different candidates this time, we’ll see how that goes.

And now, let’s head all the way back over to Quebec, where another party suddenly appears, and should be good for +/- 5 seats of their past 51 seat total. I think the BQ has really established itself as more of a Quebec-issues party than a true “separatist” party as this point. Honestly, the separatist movement in Quebec is the weakest its been in decades (and I’m thankful for that). But the genius of the BQ is that they’re a powerful federal party who only caters to one province, and thus the residents of that province realize it’s their best way to ensure representation on a national level. Northern Quebec will go all BQ, while Southern Quebec will produce a number of BQ wins – with the notable exception of Liberal Montreal and the 12 to 14 seats they should pick up on the island city. Sherbrooke and Longueuil will also go all to the BQ. The Conservatives should still be able to win Pontiac, and at least 5 others in the Quebec City area. There are some “too close to calls” there too, particularly Beauport – Limoilou, Charlesbourg – Haute – Saint-Charles, and Louis – Hébert – all very, very close Conservative wins last time. (Luc Harvey won by 103 votes). If the Liberals gain even 1000 votes in each riding (which is likely, due to Dion being solidly Francophone, and more likely to be at the expense of the Conservatives than the Bloc), then I could see all 3 going back to the BQ.

As for Atlantic Canada, there should again be a three-party mix here. NB has some close ridings, like Madawaska – Restigouche (<3% Liberal victory in 2006) and Tobique – Mactaquac (<1% Conservative victory in 2006). I’m gonna say that in 2008, both go blue. Saint John, a 3% Liberal victory last time, is probably going to stay red.

PEI is definitely good for three Liberal seats, the only other province (besides Alberta) to give all their seats to just one party.

Nova Scotia is another three-party game, with a couple seats going to each.

And finally, NFLD is a pretty safe bet for the Liberals, except for the St. John’s area, where Avalon should go Conservative, and the two seats in St. John’s itself are tight in the polls, but should ultimately both go blue as well.

So, ultimately, my prediction is:

• The Conservatives will win 130-140 seats (slight gain)
• The Liberals will win 80-90 seats (slight loss)
• The NDP will win 30-35 seats (very slight gain)
• The BQ will win right around 50 seats (almost no change)
• Independents will win the same 2 seats as last time (no change)
• And the Green Party won’t win any seats, but will score higher in the overall popular vote than they did last election, thus claiming victory. (Although technically, they’ll lose that 1 seat they had from the party-switching Liberal Blair Wilson)

Anyhow, enough talk, time for me to go vote!

gonna take what we might take away

The main JavaScript function from that badge is:

function twitterCallback2(obj) {
	var twitters = obj;
	var statusHTML = "";
	var username = "";
	for (var i=0; i<twitters.length; i++){
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		statusHTML += ('<li><span>'+twitters[i].text+'</span> <a style="font-size:85%" href="http://twitter.com/'+username+'/statuses/'+twitters[i].id+'">'+relative_time(twitters[i].created_at)+'</a></li>')
	}
	document.getElementById('twitter_update_list').innerHTML = statusHTML;
}

So basically it’s just inserting into the twitter_update_list  (the list in the sidebar)  the text of each tweet, and then a link to that particular tweet with the “relative time” as the link text, with a separate relative_time(datetime) function that just converts an actual timestamp to an ordinal name.

So because there’s no formatting inside the twitters[i].text, links are displayed in the same formatting as any other text.

So even though this is kind of a major design flaw (imho), especially coming from Twitter themselves as the official blog badge, it’s just them being simple with their function – low frills.

BUT, we can be a bit fancy with regular expressions. So, if we add another script that replaces the twitter_update_list with a formatted version (that we subject to a search-and-format for links using regexes), then we can force the Twitter sidebar to have true links.

document.getElementById('twitter_update_list').innerHTML = document.getElementById('twitter_update_list').innerHTML.replace(/https?:\/\/([-\w\.]+)+(:\d+)?(\/([\w/_\.]*(\?\S+)?)?)?/g,"<a href="$&">$&</a>");

Overall, this shows that regexes can indeed, save the day.

this way is a waterslide-away-from-me-to-chase-her-fuller-everyday

I’m not really sure what I thought I’d accomplish by this age, back when I was like 18 or so. I’ve probably succeeded in most of my “big goal” stuff though:

1. Got my degree – oh how far away that seemed, 6 years ago, when I was just getting into my very first semester, and the initial thrill of campus began to wear off, and the reality of life in first-year engineering began to set in. 8am statics lectures with (now retired) Dr. Brown, who remains one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever had, even though his class was a necessary wake-up call regarding the effort required in engg vs. high school.
2. Got a good job – sometimes I really stop and think about how sweet my job is. Here I am, software developer, working from home. That’s the freakin’ dream. I realize I don’t work for Google or something, but really, I’m getting a great chance to learn, and I’m entrusted with an at-times-shockingly-large amount of responsibility, considering my experience. I’m the lead developer (ok, often the only developer, but still!) on multiple projects of significant importance – my apps need to work, or bad things happen. Sure, if I didn’t do it, somebody else would, but everybody in my group is swamped with their own projects, so they need me to take care of my stuff. I like to think I’m getting pretty good at it – meeting with people, figuring out what they need, and delivering on that.
3. Move out – ok, ok, so I moved out, came back, moved out, came back again, and moving out again as soon as homeland security lets me. Overall though I’ve spent well over 2 years away from home, as a working professional, in cities other than my hometown, so I think that counts for something.

Ok that’s a pretty short list, but I’m not really sure what else I’d hoped to have done in 6 years. I maybe thought I’d get a Master’s degree right away (and thus be done that by now), but I’m glad I didn’t. In my profession, industry experience is more valuable in many ways, or at least the balance between industry and academia needs to be there, as formal methods proves :P

Overall though, “success” is an arbitrary measure – I definitely could have done more with my life thus far, and sometimes regret that I haven’t; I worry that I didn’t do things well enough. But really, there’s nothing I can change about that now, I can only look forward. And hey, the future looks pretty good.

And not just because I’ve accomplished things I set out to do, and because I see a lot of opportunity for myself in the years ahead. I’m legitimately happy, like really amazingly happy, and that is what really brightens my future – and each day.

I’m just thinking ’bout you on this production platform

I discovered the art of Sean Galloway due to his awesome Ironman piece (below), and I just thought I’d give a shout-out to the guy, and encourage you to check out his site.

I really like his style: it’s comic exaggeration mixed with accurate representation; sharp, crisp lines and subdued but well-employed use of colour; and an interestingly distinctive blend of Japanese/American influences. I think this guy could be a great webcomic artist!

These are some of my favourites.

I leaned on the wall, and the wall leaned away

there’s a hundred hearts soar free