30 posts tagged “qotd”
If you had to write your autobiography in 6 words, what would you write?
Submitted by mitzie.
I came. I saw. I pedalled.
What are you most looking forward to this weekend?
Now that I'm back from my trip to the New Jersey office and got to hug my wonderful wife (who came to the airport to get me in the wee hours this morning after my flight was delayed), I'm really looking forward to riding the Owl's Roost trail again. We "discovered" this challenging single-track last weekend and I was pleasantly surprised that it was both technically challenging and had some fast stretches.
Lately, we've been riding around Country Park and Tanglewood, but Owl's Roost reminds us of the Kenna Cartwright trails back in Kamloops (before the pine beetle ate all the trees). We'll bring a camera sometime and get our own shots of Owl's Roost, but the pics on the Owl's Roost page give you an idea.
Do you think real love can last throughout any distance, or will long distance end most relationships?
Submitted by Miss Joy.
I don't think it is a question about how "real" love is. Two people can love each other but not have the ability to keep their feelings "fresh" when they don't see the person everyday. I believe that a relationship's ability to withstand distance is more a question with how confident and secure the people are as individuals.
What would you do with your extra time off next time you are in-between jobs?
Submitted by Oleg Dulin.
As I am actually "expecting" such an event, this QotD was a must-answer.
Biking: It has been a long, cold winter (by North Carolina standards) and I've not been as diligent about spinning on my stationary bike as I could have been. If I get far enough on my website design this week, I might even hit a trail or two this weekend. But nothing would be as great as getting into a daily ride for a few weeks while I am in-between jobs. I want to spend some more time at Tanglewood because its such a fast trail and provides a decent length with some interesting challenges. Then there's Country Park with its tight and twisty loop and plenty of roots and logs to keep my full-suspension bike working hard. I also want to try out Bur-Mil, because every person I talk to asks me "Have you ridden Bur-Mil yet??" and I'm tired of not being able to say "Of course!".
Programming: I have at least 5 projects that are in various states of completion that I haven't had time to revisit lately. I'll have a few Flash projects done soon but I really need some time to work out the fuzzy logic navigation and swarm intelligence projects. It will be nice to get those two projects out of the way because I keep "dreaming code" at night.
Arranging living space: Our son is moving here this summer and we need to 'create' a bedroom for him. We are V E R Y happy that he is coming here to live! Moving away from the town where he lives was the hardest thing I ever had to do, so we were super-excited when he decided that he wanted to live with us in N.C. on a permanent basis! He will be coming down here in June or July and starting his first year in high school as a US student. Exciting!!
Play "Hide and go Squeak": Our cat likes to play her own brand of 'Hide and go seek' and when she finds her human, she makes the cutest little "SQUEAK-Meow!".. and then runs away. Fun!
What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't?
Submitted by Janette.
10. Got run over by Nigel Mansell (okay, it was only my toes).
9. Rode my bike on the San Andreas fault line.
8. Snuck into a foreign country.
7. Met my wife "online" (not through a 'match' site).
6. Hiked through Death Valley.
5. Saw DEVO in concert (yeah yeah.. not many actually want to).
4. Rode the "Dueling Dragons" roller coaster at Universal Studios with my wife and son over 20 times in one day.
3. Rode the 'flume trail' over Lake Tahoe (despite my issue with heights..)
2. Hit 60MPH (97KM/h) on a bike (not motorcycle).
1. Quit smoking, cold-turkey, on my first try and never had a 'relapse'.
If you were suddenly granted the day off today, how would you go spend your free time?
Looking for a new job.
If you could easily choose to live in another country without all the red tape and legal stuff, which one would you select and why?
Submitted by Matthew 25.
Well, I already made my choice on where to live: the United States. But I could really do without "the red tape and legal stuff" that I was put through, and soon my son will have to endure. Between all the forms and their filing expenses, lawyer fees and travel costs to get to the DHS office in Charlotte, medical costs for the blood tests and innoculations, and now we're starting the process all over again for my son, the cost is approaching $10K!
Nevertheless, its worth every cent. There is no other place I would rather live than here. Since my son has decided that he wants to live here with my wife and I, this clears up my #1 point why I miss Canada and makes being here perfect.
Well, almost.. there's still an election coming up.
What's your alma mater?
Submitted by Lies.
The city where I lived most of my life, Kamloops BC, has grown in many ways. For example, the place where I got my BSc. in computing science is called Thompson Rivers University, but it hasn't always been called that. The first classes I ever took there were your basic first year arts classes with a few computer programming courses thrown in. At that time, it wasn't even a university and was called "Cariboo College" (yeah, Caribou is misspelled, just like it was back then).
There was an instructor there by the name of Wayne Hilmo who was my Pascal instructor. Yes, I'm so old that I took a course programming Pascal. He was a pretty good instructor, but he unfortunately didn't stay for too long and went to another university in Alberta.
I didn't take those classes too seriously, except for the computing, which really messed up my GPA. What really sucks is that this particular institution does not grandfather GPA - I had to battle those bombed classes from 1985 to get my GPA up high enough to graduate in 2006!
After Cariboo College, they adopted the somewhat schizophrenic University College of the Cariboo, or UCC (yeah, still spelled wrong). Its a college.. its a university.. what is it?!?! When I started my BSc degree, it was called UCC but in the middle of my studies the name changed once again to Thompson Rivers University. That is a better name, at least its not ambiguous, but I really liked that it had achieved "real" University status before my wife and I graduated.
TRU is all grown up now and attracts many students from around the world. I would have to say the TRU is the best thing about Kamloops.
What video game is your personal Game of the Year? Guild Wars - My home away from home
Submitted by SimpleNate.
Meet Kraeken Nek.. my alter ego. He's a Ranger with a mean bow and likes to set things ablaze whenever he can. Similar to Jeff Bridges in the world of Tron, my alter ego spends his day puttering around inside a network of computers. Except instead of a world populated with Recognizers and digital guards, Ranger Nek blasts the daylights out of Fanged Ibogas and Killer Termites.
I've not really been 'hooked' on a game since the days of "Quake" and that interest didn't even last until "Quake 2". I've always enjoyed sitting down for a few minutes here and there with racing sims like Gran Turismo and more recently Forza 2 and Dirt, both for the XBOX360, but Guild Wars is the first MMORPG that's caught my eye. At first, it was the cost (free, after you buy the game.. no monthly cost) and of course the endorsement of my game-expert son. But once I was "in", the whole concept of the MMORPG gripped me.
Here, I can wander around towns and talk to people or trade/sell items, team up with other people to do adventuring, or just stand in a corner and play my air-guitar (not sure why that's even an option, but it is..). The size and scope of the world that the Guild Wars people have created is very nicely detailed and from a technical standpoint, the software is very well developed and the user interface is very natural.
Since my 12 year old plays it, is it kid-safe? The game isn't excessively violent and there's no blood, there isn't any questionable language and although there is alcohol, the negative effects of drinking too much are very apparent. There is NO smoking. The one thing that I'm not entirely keen on is that everyone can hear everything that is said in the city you're in, and sometimes the conversation diverges from game-play. However, I can't control what my son hears at school or on the street, either, so why make this a point of contention?
Socializing, bartering, defending good and quashing evil.. all in a day's work.
Finish this sentence: "I am glad to say that I have never ___."
Submitted by chl*.
"..crossed the streams".
