New Comments and Nanaimo

I noticed hardly anyone leaves comments. Now it's way easier to do! Click on the Comments for a post, then hit 'Post Comment'. Now a pop-up window is displayed and you can choose to be anonymous or leave your name and website address (by selecting 'Other'). So try leaving some comments! It's nice to know someone's reading this page. :)

In my life, Amanda moved up to Nanaimo to work for a while. It sucks that the US doesn't allow Canadian students to work while on their student Visa's more easily. If you have a job prospect let her or I know ASAP. The plus side is I'll be seeing more of my family when I go to visit her! Nanaimo is nice in the summer and I'm looking forward to hitting the river and wakeboarding on Brannen lake.

This weekend I hope to go snowboarding if there's any snow left. I picked up a new Ride Prophet off ebay for cheap. George, Alan and Phil have headed to Vegas for Niraj's bachelor party. There should be some good stories from that trip. Congrats Niraj!

I'm practicing for a Halo II competition which my division holds every year. If you're interested in playing with me online let me know. My XBOX gamer-tag is 'Sunrider7'.

RIP HST

Author Hunter S. Thompson took his own life yesterday. His chaotic form of journalism is admired by many and reminds me of the poem The Jabberwocky. His writing gives readers a queasy understanding of the revalations of a journalist on a 7-day acid bender . Some of you may not know Thompson was a motorcycle fan and wrote a disturbing piece on the Ducati called Song of the Sausage Creature, it's quite good. RIP HST.

2005 MotoGP

The early tests for the 2005 MotoGP riders and bikes are now underway in Sepang. The Honda team has an improved version of the RC211V and Biaggi has been quoted saying "no more excuses, I have the best team and the best bike"... that remains to be seen. The Americans Nicky Hayden and Collin Edwards are now riding with Honda and Yamaha respectively. It will be a fun season to watch as Rossi (Yamaha) tries to defend his championship title against the new Honda fleet, and last years new Ducatis. Capirossi (Ducati) should make a top three appearance this year and I think Gibernau can give Rossi a run for it. For a full list of riders goto http://motogp.tiscali.com/en/motogp/riders.htm?menu=riders and there are some wicked backgrounds posted for the 2005 season calendar.

In Seattle... this weekend Amanda's friend Sarah (on left) comes down to dance it up at the clubs. Watchout boys. The weather has been beautiful and sunny everyday but fairly chilly. The ski-mountains still have very little snow and Dan FINALLY updated his site with new pictures and the news that he's MARRIED. Congrats Dan and Sarah.

Photos from Kabul plane crash

You may have heard about the terrible crash of a flight in Afganistan killing 104 people. The ISAF, NATO force responsible for investigating the crash, have posted some incredible pictures of the crash site which show how hard it is to get to. Apparently the airport has no system to guide planes in electronically during a storm.

I give a lot, to get what I got

Wow I haven't posted in a while. It's mostly because I'm working my ass off. It's nothing new... every year it starts off with a bang. I have a theory that in January most high-tech workers feel refreshed by the holidays and decide to work a few extra hours. This creates a wave of productivity. This wave builds exponentially and soon you have lots of people working weekends and many extra hours. Fortunately most employees in the industry have flex time and work a few less hours (like 8-10 instead of 10-12) in the summer. It picks up again in the Fall until November and then productivity drops like a rock until January... repeat.

Speaking of work hours and vacations... did you know that all Euro-nations have a 35 hour full-time workweek and mandatory 4 weeks paid vacation a year. This time is not accrued. If you work even 13 weeks part-time you get it PAID. I met a bunch of students on vacation in Spain who had worked for the summer and were celebrating their 4 weeks paid vacation in Barcelona.

There are further studies to show people are more productive when they work less hours. I know after 12 hours of staring at a monitor that I start making stupid mistakes. However, any student will tell you that meeting a deadline takes long days (and nights). It is also true that giving everyone a 35 hour work-week costs a lot of money up front... but are there enough benefits to outweight the costs?

For the moment I'm happy working 45-55 hours a week. I'm learning a lot and although I don't have as much time to spend at home I'd probably just be playing Halo II anyway. I'm lucky to have a job where I get to do some cool stuff... there are a lot of jobs where the need to work extra hours gets you nothing but a headache.

Here's a full article on "Work Week and Vacation Variances" around the world with some links at the bottom to further research this topic.

On the lighter side... this guy rules!