Allow me to indulge in a little self-aggrandization — I was in the paper last Monday! I guess a reporter at the Edmonton Sun found a bill in her pocket marked Where’s Willy.com, took a look at it, and found my contact information on that website. A phone interview, a quick photo shoot, and a day later, I found my picture in the paper!

I sit down at my computer with an idea that’s been running around in my head for a week or two and start typing. An hour later, I examine my handiwork — it’s beautiful! But as I look closer, I start asking myself “So what’s the point, anyway? Why would anyone else care?” What good is a piece if it is nothing more than me rambling? I want people to be able to take something away from my ramblings…. The next question is, What do I do? Do I scrape this piece? Or do I rewrite it? Neither option presents an easy solution. I’ve been down this road a couple times now…

Garrrr! Why does good writing have to be so hard?!?

I enjoy tinkering, but due to time constraints and what I have laying around, most of my tinkering involves either my website or my computer. However, the other day I read about how to turn a TI-83 into an intervalometer, connect it to a a camera, let it take pictures for a while, and then turn the stream of photos in a time lapse movie. Well, I had both the calculator and a camera at home, so I was off to the races! Check out my finished result - I’m pretty impressed with how it turned out.

I came across I quote this week that really got me thinking.

When in situations of stress, we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacities perfectly placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail… When we have been weighted and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and found equal to our tasks.

— Neal Maxwell

One of the classic time management tools is a list of things that need your attention; a “To Do” list. In its simplest form, it is a list. However, when keeping such a general list, I often find myself overwhelmed by the number of items and the fact that the more I used the list the longer it would grow. I found that if I separated those items that needed my attention now from those that I wanted to keep on my list for reference, my “To Do” list was still useful, and I didn’t find myself overwhelmed. I break my list into three sections: To Do, Should Do, and Could Do.

I couple of days ago I got an email from the CIRA announcing their “Tell Us Your dot CA Story” contest. At first I brushed it off thinking “I have no chance of winning”, but I decided, on second thought, to write something because I wouldn’t mind a new computer, and I figured it would make a good post. Looking at it now, I think it’s probably good enough to end up on my “About Me” page on my site! My entry:

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.

— “Little Gidding”, by T.S. Eliot

The holiday season is drawing to a close, and for many of us, that means going back to familiar routines of school and work and life in general. I have always enjoyed the break the Christmas season brings, and the chance to catch up to friends and family, some of which I haven’t seen since the year previous. This year also brought the occasion to travel, and so I went to California for a week. I had an absolutely amazing time; I spent New Year’s Eve wandering through the redwoods and walking along the beach with a wonderful girl — it was the stuff memories are made of. But I discovered something more. As I visited the places, and conversed with the locals, I came to understand something of the differences between the two places — California and home. Things that I had rarely questioned were questioned, and I wondered the logic of some of the things they took for granted.

I’ve had this little presence on the web for just over a year now, and thought I would make a list of the few things that I’ve learnt along the way, some from reading, and some from doing.

Exams are now done…boy does that feel good. I walked out knowing I should have studied more, but I knew that walking in. Now I wait to see what my marks are. I’m sure they’ll be fine - I’m not worried about failing a class - but I had wanted to improve my GPA from where it was last semester. I think my resolve held out till earlier this week, when I started flipping through the Internet to discover all of Google’s many projects (here, be sure to check out Google Labs).

I have a couple of exams tomorrow, but I find myself drawn here instead. I guess I already knew I spent too much time on the Internet. I really haven’t been on that long today, but I’ve still found some interesting things, including:

• Airlines taking the polar route to Asia
• Addictions drain the Canadian economy of $40B/year
• JoneSoft’s File Splitter
• a potential “miracle pill” that started with figuring out how pot works