Litui.Net

Oh, hello again blog.  It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?  I know I’ve been neglecting you and I can’t promise to be any better about it, but I’ll feed you some scraps and hopefully that will tide you over for awhile.

While writing this I’ve been obsessively pressing F12 to check on my UPS shipment of a Samsung NC10 netbook [update: just now arrived!  yummy!].  I’ll likely be installing an alternative OS of some sort on it.  Probably Ubuntu Linux, but if I decide to change out the wireless adapter I may take a stab at turning it into a Hackintosh.  I recently spent some time (and factually, am still spending time) converting my desktop system, Butlertron, over to OS X.  Miraculously, it mostly works with only a few issues (occasional kernel panics on SATA controller).  It reminds me of all the effort I had to put into getting Linux working on my hardware back in the late ’90s.

Work at Cansel continues to go swimmingly.  I’m getting closer to the end of my third year of employment here (July) and looking back I can’t believe how much I’ve learned and accomplished here so far.  It’s not all fun and games, but it’s often stimulating and I feel the work I do is appreciated.  Work is still sending me traveling quite frequently.  In December, my boss and I traveled together to both Vancouver and Toronto to bring Global CADD Systems into the company fold.  Next week I’ll be going to St. John’s, Newfoundland to visit our new branch at MF Kelly.  Later in the week, I’ll be visiting our Halifax (Dartmouth) branch.  I also have several major projects due within a month.  Busy times.

I’ve been doing a lot of programming lately and I’m actually starting to feel like a programmer.  Those who know me will likely be rolling their eyes at this point, but it’s true that I rarely consider myself a programmer by nature.  I still feel insecure about the quality of my programming, but it’s finally getting to the point where I can pretty well sit down and write up whatever I need for the purpose in any of a handful of languages.  That’s a pretty nice feeling.

I continue to swing dance and will be in attendance at Frankie Manning’s 95th Birthday Party in New York in May.  This will be my first trip to New York as well so expect some crappy pics of Lady Liberty and the Empire State Building to surface a couple months from now.  In the more immediate future I’ll be attending 9PLEX A.K.A.: PLEX and the City here in Calgary.  This coming Friday and Saturday nights there will be dances with the Bow Djangos and the Polyjesters, respectively.  Both are very fast bands and I’ve been working hard at improving my Balboa accordingly.

This year I also introduced my girlfriend to Lindy Hop and she seems to be enjoying herself though she lacks the time in her busy school schedule to take dance classes at present.  Oh yes, I have a girlfriend named Jodie who makes me very happy. ♥

Facebook has become my online social networking site of choice lately, for better or worse, so I’m seldom to be found on the ol’ LJ. Therefore, some of you may not be aware of what’s up lately in the life of Aron.

I’m still working at the same place as last year, which is nice. It’s the longest I’ve worked full time in a single IT position, and I’m very happy to be there. My boss is still amazing, and I’m keeping challenged. My main project as of the past couple/few months has been to integrate our GPS infrastructure backend with our ERP/accounting system and it continues to be fun. I’ve been using Ruby and Ruby on Rails lately and have been rediscovering a love for programming that was soured by PHP for some time. I’ve also been doing a bit of contract work on the side.

I miss school somewhat, but I don’t miss having a student budget. I’m still in debt, but slowly whittling it down while living reasonably well. It’s been a refreshing change to be able to buy what I want and give gifts without worrying about how I’m going to afford to feed myself. I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for that to end yet.

I’m in the white fedora.

Since the end of January, I’ve been learning to Lindy Hop with the U of C Swing Dance club and attending weekly dances with Swing Dance Calgary. Previously, I had never been very taken with or good at any particular styles of dance, but after just one class and one dance I was completely sold on Lindy. Having only learned some basic East Coast Swing in junior high school, I didn’t have any idea that there were different types of swing or that what we were learning at the time was really a regulated ballroom version of often far more entertaining classic swing styles.

The classes at the University consist of an hour or so of class followed by social dancing at The Den (which is where I can be found after 9PM every Tuesday). Since one can never get enough extra instruction, I signed on for a second beginners’ course with Swing Dance Calgary (I’ve had 2 lessons so far of that one) and next weekend I’m going to the Prairie Lindy EXchange (PLEX) in Edmonton which will be a weekend of dance events, activities and live music.

I’ve been really busy the past few months with work, social activities, being ill a couple times, kung fu, and other things.

Just last week I was in Denver for two days for a conference. I absorbed a fair amount of info on the GPS-related technologies we work with and enjoyed the weather (and the pool, and the hottub, and the sauna). My company may be shipping me to Ottawa within the next few weeks as the beginning of an attempt to get me out to all the offices for mainentance, active directory rollouts, and inventory audits. Fun fun. I’m going to try to manage a weekend stay in a couple of locations as well. If I can co-ordinate my stays in Edmonton and Burnaby around AnimeThon and Anime Evolution, I’d be very happy as I’d just have to pay for accommodations.

Work is going pretty well in general. I’ve been a bit late in the mornings lately, which I need to correct soon, but in all I’ve got a good sense that my work is appreciated and the general perception among staff is that I’m doing a good job. The pay could be better, but I’m pretty satisfied otherwise. This is the first job I’ve had that actually feels like I could make a career out of it. It’s a strange feeling.

For kicks, I’ve been going to Nanta (a local Korean karaoke bar) a fair bit lately with various groups of people. I hate that my singing sucks so much compared to how it used to be, but I’m getting my confidence back on the mic and learning how to sing in different genres a bit more. When I sang classical I couldn’t sing anything else really.

About a month or two ago I went to a Korean language meetup at Nanta and met a guy named Jun who’s here studying ESL conversation. I ran into him again on Monday and we decided to do a language exchange. So I’m learning Korean in exchange for using my mad Linguistics skillz to tutor him in pronunciation. He’s already said I’m better than his teacher and we’re meeting again next week. Huzzah.

Hmm…life is…interesting…in the same context as the Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times.” I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad but it’s keeping me on my toes for sure.

Work has been an odd matter lately. I’ve been worried for the past week or two about the security of my job. Turns out it was merely a case of the boss not telling us anything. Always worrisome. I’d go in depth but I’m not really at liberty to right now, I don’t think.

I’ve started studying for A+ as of yesterday. So far the subject matter is not too difficult, but rather strikes me as a good exam to prevent a company from hiring incompetant morons. At least passing the exam ensures that you have some useful computer knowledge. Whether you can apply it or not is another matter…

I’ve been studying Buddhism again since my trip to Thailand though the locals there are primarily Theravada and I’ve been leaning more towards Tibetan buddhism and derivatives of Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) such as Sil Lum (Shaolin). Though much is said about the importance of following the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path much is also said about the importance of not grasping for beliefs (and if one does hold beliefs, to see them as beliefs and not undeniable truth). That in itself appeals to my non-conformist outlook on spirituality. Interesting stuff anyway.