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Monthly Archives: December 2013

2013, in no particular order

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

  1. “TWO PINK LINES in the Result Window. One line may be lighter than the other. Appearance of the results may vary.”
  2. hawkguy200px Riosucio Saga. Locke & Key. Hawkeye.
  3. Chatting with the parents, Luc and the Lee Brochu fam on FaceTime, on a tiny magic robocomputer that I sometimes have to check my pocket to make sure I have it on me. The future has finally arrived and it fits so well into the present it’s easy to forget how new it is.
  4. iDev 360 Game Jam: Maybe I could make a stealth puzzle/RPG hybrid for iPhone? DungeonRaid with ninjas.
  5. I think Upstream Color is probably my favourite film of the decade so far.
  6. Listening to the Flop House while washing dishes, ’cause it’s the one podcast that could make me laugh out loud on the Skytrain.
  7. I had a novel-length dream about guilt, redemption and Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.
  8. Is our apartment okay for a baby? No matter, we’re not moving, so it’s just going to have to be. Our ancestors had babies in mud huts and sod huts and caves, right?
  9. Mount Pleasant -> Chinatown -> DTES -> Strathcona -> Railtown. 4000-4100m. 50-55 minute walk.
  10. juxt200pxJuxtaposer Version 3.0. “Juxtaposer 3.0 is the biggest update since we first released the app over 5 years ago! We’ve kept the fun and powerful editing you’ve come to expect, but added a great-looking new UI, a new icon, and many of the features you’ve requested. We hope you’ll love it.”
  11. Damn you, Spelunky. Damn you and your Goddamned tiki traps.
  12. Well, I just read the comments section of the Globe & Mail and now my whole day is ruined. This is the year I pretty much gave up reading non-tech/film news.
  13. What’s the appropriate age at which to show a child Jaws? Jaws 2?
  14. Al pastor and carnitas tacos from La Taqueria.
  15. Vieux Carré: 1/2 ounce rye, 1/2 ounce Cognac, 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth. Add Bénédictine, Peychaud’s Bitters, angostura bitters, pour over ice.
  16. And another generation leaves the prairie for the coast, as my 92-year-old grandmother moves from Winnipeg to Vancouver Island.
  17. Best meal: Six-course dinner with a table full of strangers at Beast, in Portland.
  18. Henry, the Home by Jan vacuum cleaner sidekick. Beloved of children, terror of dogs.
  19. Orson Atticus Dash ? Oliver Rocket Hugo Jasper
  20. pebbles200pxNever mind all that, we’re expecting a girl!
  21. I don’t think I’ve read a Machine Learning paper in months. I’m starting to feel like a rusty tool. I need to educate myself about Deep Learning.
  22. Developery-person meetups. “It’s been a while, but I think I’ve recovered from the last developer beer-‘n’-bitch session to put out the call again this week. Who wants to come out for a drink on Thursday to talk about the merits of Linkedin and speculate about WWDC dates?”
  23. Walking home late at night through Mount Pleasant from The Cascade Room with Janelle.
  24. Escorted away from the stage by overzealous security at Morrissey’s Portland concert.
  25. Eating dinner and watching teevee on the sofa with the wife.
  26. Visiting friends, some not seem in years, in Toronto and New York. Amy, Dave, David, Andy et al.
  27. See, Janelle? Vancouver is not all there is to Canada. Some part of it are Toronto.
  28. Bugaboo? UPPABaby Vista?
  29. Baby kicks my hand.
  30. aupetite200pxHam, paté and hot pepper bánh mì from Au Petit Café.
  31. Nine Inch Nails concert with a pregnant wife. Took a video so baby will know how rockin’ her folks were even before she came along.
  32. “Think I’ll finally give this Mad Men show another shot.”
  33. You know, we should just do it. At the end of the year let’s just pick up and go to Yunnan, China and Northern Vietnam. All of Vietnam! Oh, and back to Cambodia Bangkok, too. That place was awesome.
  34. Color Splash Version 2.1. “We redesigned and polished the user interface and added some new features we hope you will love.”
  35. Ultrasound technology is pretty amazing. I had no idea.
  36. I used to think Twitter was like Facebook in some way, but it’s not. It’s like an RSS reader without the stress of feeling like you have to catch up on the thousand unread articles waiting for you every time you look at it. Drink from the hose.
  37. The last third of this year is all caught up in anticipation of a momentous 2014.
  38. The ending episodes of Breaking Bad were powerful, appropriate and brilliant. Why don’t they linger in my mind as long as I thought they should?
  39. I just want our daughter to be healthy and happy.
  40. elemental200pxGenerating page after page of ideas I will surely never have time to implement for Elemental, my iOS Roguelike prototype. I can see the appeal of being a Tarn Adams with my own Dwarf Fortress as my life’s work.
  41. You know, Pacific Rim was actually pretty great. I should watch it again.
  42. I want my daughter to also be intelligent and beautiful and strong and tough and witty and creative. She can maybe be a comic book artist or a microbiologist.
  43. commit 86408b833ed66c3d32c1ce23597a “When using copy to clipboard, schedule the copy after the menu is dismissed. Old devices don’t like starting a copy in the middle of an animation, and new devices finish it so fast the HUD is disorienting.”
  44. 12 hours coding, then saw a Man or Astro-Man show complete w/theremin solo & then ate some Brie.
  45. Drunken Project Runway Night with Tyson & Gill.
  46. Color Splash for iPad Version 2.0. “This is our biggest update yet, adding some great new features and a new look.”
  47. From the v1.7.3 release notes of Brogue, my favourite Roguelike of 2013: “Submerging monsters cannot have the ‘explosive’ mutation. ” “Summoners can continue to summon while they are fleeing.” “Pit bloats are a lighter shade of blue.” “Bloodwort pods no longer appear in the side bar; only the stalk is listed.”
  48. 12 Years a Slave. Gravity. The World’s End.
  49. bkkFlight200pxTwo one-way tickets to Bangkok, please. Round-trip tickets are for cowards.
  50. Expecting Better. The Happiest Baby on the Block. Bringing Up Bebé.
  51. It’s too bad SpriteKit was released after I started working on Elemental, but the code base is already such a mess a rewrite might be in order if and when I pick it up again, anyway.
  52. iOS 7. No operating system update has had as much of an impact on my life.
  53. I don’t think spending eight hours on a Chinese bus barrelling through the mountains with our backpacks is going to be as much fun when preggers. How ’bout more of a budget resort and private car vacation?
  54. Tenth anniversary of the final (?) version of Nethack. Clunkiness and rough edges be damned, it still has a depth and charm I’ve yet to see in another game.
  55. Half a dozen trips to the dentist later, my teeth hurt more than ever and I’m significantly poorer.
  56. Still haven’t found a gaming or game development podcast I really like, though I’ve definitely enjoyed episodes and parts of Roguelike Radio and the late Gameological Podcast.
  57. Al Pacino night. Tracing one man’s increasingly bizarre acting choices, from The Godfather to Cruising to Donnie Brasco to Righteous Kill.
  58. homebyjan200pxSo long, Home By Jan. It was the perfect job for Janelle for a while!
  59. Boards of Canada. Four Tet. Moderat.
  60. Kommunist babies: Violet, Hazel and Penny.
  61. I know exactly what my next tattoo will be, but I guess this is not the year I get it.
  62. More ultrasound. Baby gots long limbs, not like dad.
  63. Papers, Please. Gone Home.
  64. Best neighbourhood eats: Shiro, Kirin, Beircraft, “the good 24-hour Vietnamese place”, Pronto Caffe, Benkei.
  65. Flights this year: Toronto, New York, Denver, Bangkok, Portland. Plus sea plane flights from Nanaimo to Vancouver.
  66. I assume I’m still growing. As a person.
  67. Listening to Apple tech podcasts on the way to work. Debug. Accidental Tech Podcast. The Talk Show. Developing Perspective.
  68. Janelle in Hawaii with her friends, little suspecting this would be her last big blowout before getting pregnant. (Well, somewhat suspecting.)
  69. Just a number.
  70. bitter200pxMidnight summer beers and Scotch eggs at Bitter Tasting Room.
  71. “‘This is a story about you,” said the man on the radio, and you were pleased, because you always wanted to hear about yourself on the radio.” Welcome to Night Vale.
  72. Deep Learning
  73. commit f11d7bbd5c41e64dc8d8285cc415 “[issue #148] If the user used CS 2.1 and did not enable the loupe, we should keep it disabled in 2.2.”
  74. A Separation
  75. Hope I can be a good dad. No, wait, a GREAT dad. The best. Or at least, competent.
  76. XCOM: Enemy Within. Finally got two level 3 MECs. Sectopods, you’re in for an asskicking.
  77. Hendrik’s, Tanqueray and Botanist.
  78. Grey Goose, Belvedere.
  79. Buffalo Trace, Bulleit, Maker’s Mark, and Woodford Reserve
  80. 868hack200pxFor a full fifteen minutes, getting a score of 54 in 868-Hack feels the biggest accomplishment of my life.
  81. I will be 40 next year. How odd that feels. I should think about some kind of party or something.
  82. Pregnancy worries. Are we doing everything right? What will affect the baby?
  83. But also, what are we going to do, put Janelle in a plastic bubble until the baby is born? And then live as terrified, overprotective parents?
  84. Getting to know the staff at my dental clinic pretty well.
  85. Chimay Bleue, Traquair Jacobite and Liefmans cuvée brut.
  86. Our daughter can take a gap year and get a tattoo and go backpack around the world when she’s 19, I guess, if she wants. Not 18, that’s too young.
  87. Girls has to be the biggest gap between how much I would have thought I’d like a show and how much I do.
  88. After nearly three years, eight new episodes of The Venture Bros. I want the show to keep being great, but God, I want more of it, too.
  89. A List of Things to See and Do in Vietnam While Pregnant
  90. bonetaClosed200pxGood bye, Boneta.
  91. Vancouver -> Guangzhou -> Bangkok in just 17 crushing hours.
  92. Reprints of Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing.
  93. Aeropress.
  94. Oh, man, I have a withering rejoinder to this random jackass’ anonymous interweb comment. Withering. You are so lucky I can’t be bothered to sign in, random jackass.
  95. French Manhattan (my version): 2 ounces bourbon, 1/2 ounce Chambord, angostura bitters. Stir with ice, pour into cocktail glass.
  96. Looks like I’ll be spending 2014 getting caught up on all the 2013 movies I’ve been meaning to see: Her. Inside Llewyn Davis. The Act of Killing. Frances Ha. Leviathan. The Conjuring. The Past. Blue is the Warmest Color. All is Lost. The Wolf of Wall Street. For starters.
  97. Guangzhou is a good antidote to the idea air travel used to be sophisticated and glamorous. Sharing a terminal with a couple of hundred people chain-smoking and coughing between flights.
  98. How very fortunate to be able to work helping create things I’m proud of, with people I like.
  99. Let’s, I dunno, let’s keep the pink princess shit to a minimum, is the depth of my parenting philosophy.
  100. Ending the year on the beach at Mui Ne, Vietnam. Seafood, Vietnamese coffee, cheap drinks and endless free entertainment watching the kitesurfers.
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