Posted
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:15:36 GMT
to Posted in Life
Tags reflection
We are now in the end of times. The end of classes, the end of a term, the end of a year. In 12 hours I will be in the air traveling to Ontario to spend Christmas with my family. 10 days of health appointments, visiting people I haven’t seen in 2 years, and of course, sleeping in.
It will also be a time of reflection. I personally feel that I have done a lot this year, whether it be all the work I did community wise (Society, TigerEvents), bringing up my GPA (almost where I want it to be. We’ll see what this term does to it), job wise (Satlantic = best job I ever had), and social wise (too many examples to count, but most importantly, all the cool people I now consider friends).
It has been a busy, yet fulfilling year. Let’s see if we can top things in the new one.
Catch you all on the flip side.
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Posted
Thu, 15 Dec 2005 19:36:03 GMT
to Posted in Life
So today I celebrated my birthday. And by celebrated, I mean, kinda woke up, said ‘oh, right, it’s my birthday’ and then kinda went on as normal.
So here is to 23 successful years of my one year plan. May the upcoming year be just as successful.
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Posted
Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:57:44 GMT
to Posted in Life
Tags gaming, social
There are some periods where a guy just has to have some fun. This weekend was one of those times.
While the weekend did start off with a 7-10pm Networking final worth a third of my mark, I believe (as I always do) that I did pretty well overall. We’ll see when the marks finally come in, but that is neither here nor there.
So anyway, fun. After Networking, a group of us got together for what has become more or less a weekly poker game. Texas Hold-em with a $5 buy in. We usually play at least 3 games, which usually prove to be entertaining. While I don’t win every round (if I did, I would lose my invite. No one likes to lose all the time after all), I have been doing well enough over the times I have played to not be in debt, and to continue playing. Add in the fact that there is usually a bunch of alcohol around, and you have yourself a good evening. This Friday was also the night of the first snowstorm of the winter. Which resulted in no cabs for me and eventually playing video games until the wee hours of the morn until I could get a lift. What happens when a person’s internal alarm clock wakes them up between 7 and 8 and they don’t get home until after 6am? Not very much in the way of sleep. Worth it? You betcha.
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Posted
Sun, 04 Dec 2005 20:38:41 GMT
to Posted in Entertainment
Tags humor
Say what you want about Microsoft, but the following Visual Studio 2005 advertising is HILARIOUS.
Ready2005.Com
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Posted
Fri, 02 Dec 2005 22:21:37 GMT
to Posted in Life, Geek
As time goes on, I feel that I should give this, my little piece of the internet, a real home with a real domain name. A place where I don’t have to worry too much about anything. A place where I can actually see my own log files. A place where I can actually have more than one mysql account that has my name. But, honestly, I have no clue on a) what hosting services are good (though I could get this baby hosted on the Dal-ACM production server and get all of the above). b) What domain name to get. Since I want it to be somewhat professional, and my name is already gone six ways from Sunday, I am aimlessly kicking ideas around.
Anyone have any thoughts/comments either way?
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Posted
Fri, 02 Dec 2005 10:34:40 GMT
to Posted in Life, Projects
Tags acm, dal, tigerevents
Last week, Oliver and I were interviewed by the Dalhouse Gazette regarding TigerEvents, my.dsu.ca and Dal-ACM related items. The original plan, at least to my understanding, was that there would be a small blurb this week, with a larger article in the new year. I was not, however, expecting the article that actually was produced. Unfortunatly, I have to agree with several individuals that felt that it was poorly written and misleading. I don’t have any explanations, but thought that I would try to rewrite things so that they were clearer.
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Posted
Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:37:22 GMT
to Posted in Life
Snowball wasn’t bad all things considering. Sure the chicken was dry, the dean forgot what awards he was supposed to present, my end of year slideshow crashed, and the place was apparently too dark and none of the award presentation photos came through clear. But in the end, people said they enjoyed themselves, that my speech wasn’t too shabby, and that they wanted a copy of my slideshow to take a look at it.
And once all my work was done, I could luxiriate in a Friday night off, drink, and dance.
It was fun, but I am oh so glad I don’t have to plan that ever again.
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Posted
Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:12:24 GMT
to Posted in Programming
Tags migrations, rails, ruby
As I recently said, I switched TigerEvents over from using a MySQL input file to migrations. There were many decisions behind this choice.
- I wanted the code to be database neutral. Using migrations would allow me to automatically support MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite by making changes to one file instead of 3.
- I know that the database for TigerEvents is going to change at some point in the near future. Rather than write multiple upgrade scripts manually, I could just use the built in migration functions to do it better.
- If for some reason I make a mistake and problems occur on the production site, it is easier to roll back to a previous version using migrations than dump the database, roll back the code, reload the database, etc. (Note, we still make sure to back up the database, cause not doing that is just tempting fate)
- Migrations will, in theory, make development easier. Someone made a change to the schema? Just run rake migrate, and your database is automatically updated. I think this is easier than reinitializing a database and then loading it with data repeatedly (though the second part of this can be handled with Fixtures).
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Posted
Tue, 22 Nov 2005 20:51:31 GMT
to Posted in Life, Ideas
Tags humor
Today, someone mentioned that all disputes in the Computer Science Building should be settled through battle on the beams suspended over the atrium. This individual also went so far as to state that this was a traditional mode of challenge on a certain mailing list in the past (which remains to be seen). Obviously, I missed out on quite a bit in the past here, but I feel it might be worthwhile to revive this tradition.
However, a few changes:
Install a cross beam (or two) in between the two central beams already there. Then combatants can start of on their own beam without arguments of who steps out first. Additionally, this would allow individuals to jump from beam to beam, thus hightening the overall entertainment value.
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Posted
Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:48:12 GMT
to Posted in Life, Entertainment
As some of you might know, I enjoy going to formal events. Weddings, balls, whatever, you invite me to a function where I can get spiffy and wear a suit, and I am there.
Ball season has once again begun, and better than ever. Things kicked off last night with the DASSS/DSS Formal Ball. Much fun was had in between drinking, dancing, and conversation with various arts students. I am very glad that I was invited and went to this.
Upcoming:
Friday, November 25th – Snowball
You should all come. Seriously. Buy tickets from the CS Infodesk. I’m going to be MC and all that.
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