parabola.ca » General

Thanks for Helping with the Packing

Steve — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:04:54 +0000

MJ Helping to Pack

Painting in Progress

Steve — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:58:07 +0000

We took posession of the condo on Friday and are in the process of doing some painting. Here are some in-progress pics:

Downtown Driving

Steve — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:45:31 +0000

There are no good commuting options for me for going downtown after 9am during the week. My first movie this morning wasn’t until 11am, so by the time I arrived at the GO station it was absolutely jammed; all the official spaces were taken and so too were just about all the ones “outside the lines” but not completely blocking the laneways. After much searching, it was one of these that I found.

Last night I thought about driving to the Kipling subway station, but from what I’ve heard the parking lot situtation is like this in the mornings, too. At least at the GO station it’s much closer and I can allot more time to searching for parking.

I don’t really want to drive downtown on weekday mornings, since traffic is unpredictable, parking for the entire day is really expensive, and I think I’d have to deal with full parking lots from the tail end of rush hour.

At the end of the day, driving my own car would be great! 2nd best option would be the flexibility of taking the subway, but this takes about an hour to get home (granted, I can count on it being this duration all the time). GO is the most comfortable, but only has hourly service later at night.

For earlier in the morning, parking for GO isn’t so bad and considering that traffic is much worse at that time, then this is definitely the best option. Maybe I should think about walking to the station (about 25mins) or look into city buses that go there.

RIP – srdalmon @ UW

Steve — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:36:43 +0000

After eight years, I am no longer reachable at a plain old @uwaterloo.ca e-mail address. It took them a term+ since graduating, but my accounts have finally been retired. I just realized it was even older than my JediNet address, by at least a few months.

Lord of the Spam Fest Pornographers

Steve — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 04:21:55 +0000

I’m feeling like such a (pop) cultured guy. Here’s what I’ve got lined up over the next little while:

Lord of the Rings ‘musical’ with Sakina next weekend
Spamalot with Sven, Mandy, and Laura a few days later on the Tuesday
Toronto Film Festival starts on the Thursday, and I’m taking the following week off to geek out on movies
just found out that The New Pornographers (including Immaculate Machine!) will be playing the Kool Haus on October 11th. I’m so there … anyone else in?

August, You Say?

Steve — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:04:10 +0000

Do all my posts from this year seriously fit onto one page? Ouch. It’s amazing how quickly you can fall *out* of a habit — not that I was all that prolific in my postings before, but still.

It’s a long weekend coming up, and I’ve got some crazy (geeky) ideas with how to occupy my time. And strangely enough it will involve this website. Now, I’m going to Sven & Mandy’s in Guelph on Saturday, but that won’t be until the evening once Sven’s done work. And I’m hoping to leave my own at a normal time on Friday (i.e. not long after noon), despite a big deadline next week; luckily, I think we’re in good shape. So what I’m saying is I’ll have plenty of time on my hands.

I might even take the opportunity to recap some fun stuff from the past few months … heck, from the past 6 months is more accurate. Concerts in the spring, movies, trip to cottage, birthdays … and the marathon 16 hour game of Axis and Allies this past weekend with Dean.

10K!

Steve — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 04:37:37 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve been spotted in these parts. But I’ve emerged with some fantastic news: I finally broke the 10K mark in BrickBreaker on my BlackBerry! And it only took me over a year to do it.

Now if only I could find a free Yatzhee game for newer BBs. Obsessing about BrickBreaker scores is nothing compared to the days of Rimzee on my old 950 & 957.

Long Time No See

Steve — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:39:48 +0000

Oh website, how I’ve ignored thee.

February went by in a blur … trip to London for birthday, Sven & Mandy returned from Japan and promptly hosted a Movie Day, then they were in my neck of the woods a few weeks later and we went to a Danny Michel show in Toronto. And throughout the month, I was slowly gearing up to really get going on my Master’s research essay. Reviewing notes, realizing I didn’t have enough material, digging deeeper for more sources, trying to read through it all.

Outside of work, March was pretty much dedicated to researching & writing. Finished taking notes, organized said notes appropriately, then a couple of weeks for actual writing. Sounds simple enough, but I’m not a quick writer at the best of times. And really, weekends were far more productive: by the time I get home from work, make supper, eat it, clean up afterwards, + any other chores, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time. Especially since I’m not one to just jump right back into where I left off … have to get back into the rhythm, so to speak.

I finished it off during the first weekend of this month, pretty much sticking to the schedule I had set out for myself. It has since been officially signed off on by Profs Lawless and Thompson — they only had a couple of minor suggestions between them, besides catching some typos, so revisions weren’t much at all. The paper now appears as a credited milestone on my transcript, so the only thing left is for Prof Lawless to sign my degree completion form, then that’s it!

In other news, I’m not only a biostatistician by training, but now also in name. Yes, after much waiting on other things to fall into place I’m now full-time (as opposed to being on contract) at GSK. The official title is Biostatistician I, in the Global Biostatistics & Programming group.

So that’s a mini-update for now. Hopefully I can get around to other updates as well as general site improvements.

Bring on the Stanley Cup Finals!

Steve — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 03:34:18 +0000

Phew, the was a close one! It took double overtime in the sixth game of the series, after being down two games to none, but I came back and beat those pesky Devils in the Eastern finals. That would have been a fine waste of four months of NHL 2k6 and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

Had to get that series finished up tonight, since I won’t be playing for a few days at least. I’m off to Niagara Falls tomorrow for some offsite meetings, and then London this weekend.

Movie Day the 15th is the following weekend! More on that later.

Stephen Harper is Our Next Prime Minister

Steve — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:24:22 +0000

Who else feels dirty?