April has come to a close and I managed to skirt with 100k for the month in running mileage.  I ran a couple of races, and have my sights set on several more over the coming months. I’ve started to mix in some speed training as well, and it feels like it has had a decent impact on getting some of my speed back. I haven’t had the chance to mix in any longer runs yet, but that will come in the next few weeks. The weather has remained on the cold side, but at least the snow appears to be finished for another year!

I’ve been doing a bit of extra contract work recently, which has been primarily illustration work. A change of pace to be sure, as the vast majority of my work is more technical and involves programming. The illustrations are for a first aid course, so the images are very specific and often challenging to find good reference for. For illustrations like these, I will often use photographic reference to ensure the proportions for the participants are correct. And sometimes that means bugging my wife Tammie to be my co-model, with my daughter Samantha taking the pictures!

I’ve ended up doing a lot of work in WordPress recently. I can’t say I am an absolute expect in it, but I am getting to know it pretty well. After having spent lots of time in Drupal, it is interesting to see how two different kinds of software solve some of the same problems. WordPress is definitely the less capable of the two, but what it does, it does very well. Drupal is more powerful and can solve more varied problems, but lacks the UI polish that some of the WordPress components have. For a typical informational site, WordPress is definitely the way to go. For something with lots of custom data types, translations, and very complex functionality, Drupal is the better choice.

The release date for the Avengers nears, and I am very excited to see it. It has made a ton of money overseas, and the reviews have been primarily positive. If they just follow the path laid out in the other Marvel heroes movies, they could not have possibly screwed things up. I watched both Thor and Captain America again recently, and they are top-notch films. Cannot wait to see them together on the screen at the same time! It’s a good time to be a comic-book geek.

We are hoping to take a little trip as a family to Fundy National Park over the long weekend in May. We were there with Samantha when she was just a baby, but I doubt the remembers very much. There is one particular trail that leads you to a beautiful waterfall. Way-back-when, I carried Samantha there in a backpack, and I can remember her little face when she saw the thundering waterfall for the first time. She was awestruck and stood back and watched it with wonder. We’ll have Luke along with us this time, and my only thought it how I am going to stop him from trying to jump into the damn thing! Luke is not the contemplative type; he’s more hands-on. In any event, I am looking forward to the trip, especially if the weather is looking nice. Kids and crappy weather don’t always mix so well.

Well, it’s getting late so I should be off to bed. Until next time!

Randy

So March wasn’t a great month for running, or perhaps I wasn’t great at running in March. I am not entirely sure. My mileage was not where I wanted it to be, so I’m going to have to get more diligent in April. I was doing some contract work in addition to my regular hours this month, so I think that helped me be a little more tired than usual. Plus the weather wasn’t fantastic in some stretches, with quite a blast of snow just a week ago. My current pair of sneakers are well into the 700+ kilometer zone, so they’ll have to be replaced soon. I am trying to get them through the grit and grime of spring running, mainly so that the new pair aren’t subjected to those conditions. I should become an indoor runner! Nah, that’s not for me.

So I get to see a couple of movies this month at the theatre, which is unusual. First up was John Carter, which I really enjoyed. Too bad that it totally bombed at the box office, because it was actually a pretty good movie. I would describe it as Pirate of the Caribbean, but on Mars. And the actress that played Dejah, Lynn Collins, was fantastic as the Martian princess. I also got out to see The Hunger Games, which was also quite good. Tammie wanted to see it because she read the book series and loved them. I thought the movie was enjoyable, and Jennifer Lawrence was well-cast as Katniss. It actually reminded me a lot of Predator, but with a teenage girl lead instead of Arnold. That may seem like kind of a weird observation at first, but give it some though. Next up, The Avengers.

So we finally got a launch date for Diablo III, which is very exciting. I am a sucker for anything made by Blizzard, and this game will be no exception. I wouldn’t dare tell you how much time I spent with Diablo II, but it was a LOT. I don’t have that amount of time for gaming anymore, but I am sure the newest Diablo will get put through its paces. Can’t wait for the middle of May!

Well, gonna be a short post this month, so that’s a wrap. Til next time!

Randy

February is almost at an end. On the weather front, we went from not having winter to being walloped by two storms that left the place buried in snow and ice. That should really come as no surprise, since February always seems to be one of the worst months weather-wise. Thankfully we haven’t had too many really cold days, as I walk to work every day. My limit is -20C, and we’ve only dipped below that a handful of times. I haven’t been running outside very much because of all the ice, but I have been running on the treadmill in our basement a little bit. Running on the treadmill suck is incredibly boring, so it kinda sucks. I have a Blu-ray player set up in front of the treadmill so I can watch “Planet Earth” while I am running, so that helps a little bit. I’m trying to head into the spring with a little better running base then I have had in previous years. I don’t really know that my running goals are for the year, so I’m kind of in maintenance mode right now. As we near the better weather, my mood for running usually picks up.

I recently ordered a full set of warm and cool grey Copic markers. They are basically fancy art markers and I am super excited to get playing with them. A lot of artists that I follow on-line use the Copic markers for sketches and drawings, and I find they have such a nice look to them. When paired together, the warm and cool greys can create real depth in an image, even though you are technically not really using much colour. I have a Wonder Woman image in my head that I want to do in a large format, and I’ll probably start that pretty soon. Not sure if I can translate what is in my head to the paper, but that’s part of what is so fun about the art process.

We were pretty busy at work through January and February as we were preparing the next major revision for our flagship piece of software. Unlike last year where we were putting in 12-14 hour days at this point, we are just putting in regular hours, so that’s a good thing. At home I have started messing around with Java, as I feel like adding another wrinkle to my skill set. Java is very much like ActionScript, which I am very proficient with, so the learning curve is not quite as steep as it would be for other languages. And with Java used in so many areas from the Web to Mobile, I think it’ll be a nice companion technology to know.

Luke’s speech is coming along fantastically recently. He turned two in November, so he’s right on schedule with his vocabulary, but it’s always so interesting to see how a child’s speech evolve. His favourite characters right now are Thomas the Tank Engine and Lightning McQueen from Cars. It’s funny to hear him say Lightning McQueen, because it sounds more like “litten ma kwee”, which I suppose is pretty close. I have Samantha hooked on superhero stuff. We watch X-Men, Spider-Man, Avengers, and all the best stuff together. Each night before bed, she wants me to tell her the origin story of an X-Men character. It’s a good thing there is an almost unlimited supply of current and former X-Men!

I am a huge fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and try to watch as many fights as I can. Although I often miss the pay-per-view events as they are broadcast, but there is usually a set of preliminary fights available on cable TV for free. I used to plunk down on the couch and watch them by myself, but now Tammie watches them with me lots of the time. I babble on about this fighter and that fighter, what technique is being used, and so-on, but she patiently listens to my rambling. I think she is actually starting to enjoy some of the matches. She is still not that happy with the really bloody fights, but I can’t blame her for that. How do you know you have an awesome wife? She’ll watch UFC with you, that’s how.

Well, I have a little bit of contract work to get caught up on, so I best get that done. Until next time!

Randy

We made our way into 2012, and what is typically our worst part of winter has been pretty tame. I took this month off from running, so I haven’t really taken advantage of the weather though. But on the upside, I have been walking to work most days without getting frozen solid! The downside is that the kids really haven’t had a nice winter to play around in the snow. Most days it is wet and muddy, and on the other days it is icy and slick. Luke and I still try and sneak out for our Saturday trail walks though. Last Saturday we saw two different foxes, two flocks of ducks, a whole bunch of crows and seagulls, and were harassed by an angry squirrel. Not bad for a little nature trail in the middle of the city!

Samantha has really taken to the Xbox 360 Kinect. She loves playing all the different games, and can do so without having to use a hand-held controller. The device works remarkably well, although it definitely suits a particular kind of gaming. I doubt anything will be using it to play World of Warcraft, but you could definitely use it for most action games. It am not really a gadget guy, but it is neat to see how technology is creeping more and more into our everyday lives. Sometimes I do wonder if it for the best though. The other day I was at Samantha’s skating lessons, watching her do her drills and skate laps. I looked around and almost every other parent’s eyes were glued to a smartphone or other wireless device. I can watch that YouTube video anytime, but my daughter is only going to grow up once. Oh well, that’s the dad in me, I guess.

I am working my way through the Invincible trade paperback series again, as I just recently got a new collected edition. Every time I get a new part of the story, I go back and read the entire series again. Takes me a few weeks since I don’t read all that much, and I am surprised at how much I still enjoy that book. Ryan Ottley’s art really does it for me. He has such a great sense of characterization and action. Coupled with Robert Kirkman’s crisp scripts, and you have a winner! In my own art endeavours, I have joined up with a weekly sketch group called Illustrious Bits. I love having a regularly scheduled theme to draw a picture for, so it’s been super fun contributing to the group. Some of the other artists are out of my league talent-wise, but it doesn’t mean I still can’t have fun submitting my doodles!

Well, off to read some more Invincible. Til next time!

Randy

The Christmas holidays have just passed, and New Year’s is closing in quickly. The holidays have been great, with lots of wonderful visits with family and friends. The kids scored out like bandits wherever they went, getting a ton of presents. I took some extra time off from work, and don’t head back to the office until the first week of January. We’ve spent the time playing with our new toys, going skating, sledding, building snowmen, and making over Luke’s room. So it’s been a busy set of days off, but very enjoyable.

One of the things we got for Christmas was a Kinect for the Xbox360. It’s pretty neat, and we’ve been messing around with Dance Central 2, Disneyland Adventures, and Kinect Adventures. Samantha really likes the Disney game, and Tammie seems to be really into Dance Central 2. I like the motion and voice control aspects for the new Xbox360 dashboard. The console is definitely becoming a central media platform for us, bringing in content from our Windows Media Centre, Netflix, YouTube, etc. I am looking forward to Microsoft expanding the overall functionality in the coming year.

As of right now, I need to slip in one more run to end the year at 800k. It’s been bitterly cold the last few days (like -15C cold), so the motivation to get the last few runs in have been low. But I’ll get my ass out tomorrow, rain, snow, or shine, and get those last few kilometres in. I didn’t do very much racing this year, so I’ll hopefully get back into that groove in 2012. I’d like to at least maintain my overall mileage as well, if not increase it. Next year 1000k!

I have developed a bit of a love affair with markers for my sketching this year. You can see a bunch of marking drawings in my artwork postings. I had a set of cool gray Prismacolor markers that I have been using, and I really like them. I have used them so much that my 30% and 40% grays are drying out. So in preparation for replacing my Prismacolor markers, I have picked up a few Copic markers. Copics are a higher grade marker and a bit more broadly used by professionals. I have only worked with them a little bit, but I think I like them even more than I liked my Prismacolor ones! Now I just need to get a full set of cool gray and warm gray markers so that I can get all the tonals that I would like in each picture. It’s funny because for a while I almost completely abandoned doing work on paper for working digitally, and now I am starting to swing back the other way!

Well, it’s getting late and tomorrow is looking to be another busy day. So I best be off to get some rest before the kids begin the nighttime routine. Happy New Year!

Randy

We are on the cusp of December, which means that Christmas planning is in full gear at my place. Tammie has the tree up and decorated already, just in case Santa decides to surprise everyone with Christmas in November. One can never be too prepared. The kids have their lists all done up, and the shopping for family and friends is underway. I plan to take a week and a half off at Christmas, which is the first break I’ve taken since early summer. We’ve been too busy at work to be scouting for much time otherwise. So far the winter weather hasn’t hit us too hard, although we know that can change at any moment!

I have tried to keep up my running, and am nearing my 800k goal for this year. Over the weekend I had a rough 10k that seems to have hurt my hip and foot somehow. I must been running in a way that really favoured one leg over the other, hence the stress on my left hip and foot. Anyways, I shall take a few days off and then get back to it. Need to keep fit and trim, even over the winter!

We got a new bed and stuff for Luke’s room, so he is officially out of the baby stuff. His crib has been disassembled and much of his other furniture has been moved out in favour of some car-themed stuff. Next up will be the paint for the walls and some other decorating, which I hope to get done before too much longer. Our weekends seem to fill up fast, so I may just have to schedule it and stick to the plan!

I went skating recently for the first time in around 20 years. It wasn’t quite as bad as I imagined it would be, but I was certainly no dynamo. I would say that Samantha (who is four) and I are just about the same speed right now. I wore Tammie’s roller derby helmet just in case… one should never tempt the head-injury gods unless one needs to. I’m sure we’ll be out again many more times over the winter, and maybe by April I can actually skate more than one lap of a rink in 30 minutes!

Well, it is getting late, so I best be off.

Randy

Last night was a really stormy night, with powerful winds and pounding rain. I lost a blue tarp outside somewhere along the way; goodness knows where it ended up. Wind is one of those things we are never short of here in the Maritimes. I recently ran the half-marathon I was getting ready for, and had a pretty good race. The headwind on race day was pretty tough, and it definitely slowed me down a little bit. I think that if it had been a perfect weather day, I might have had a shot at a personal best time. Alas, we shall never know. I am feeling more positive about my running this year, especially as my mileage approaches 700km year-to-date. I’d like to get to 800km before the year is out, but as the days get shorter, it gets harder and harder to slip outside for a run. I love running outside, but am not a fan of running in the dark. I find that it is hard to see where your footfalls are going to strike, and that makes it unnecessarily treacherous at times. I could probably move my runs indoors, but that means making a special trip somewhere just to run, and that’s not just me.

We just wrapped up Halloween tonight as well, and didn’t get that many trick-or-treaters. I took Samantha and Luke out for about an hour around the block. They ended up getting a nice little stash of goodies. We let them gorge a bit on their spoils, although that made it hard to get them to bed. Luke took about an hour a half to settle down after lights out, which is long even for him. I think he has inherited my sleep habits, heaven help us all. Their costumes were pretty cute this year. Samantha was a fairy and Luke was a prince. We had a dragon costume for Luke as well, but he seemed to prefer the prince costume. I think it was just easier for him to move around in, and Luke is all about mobility. He was extra good walking around from house-to-house though, as Samantha lead the way through the neighborhood.

We went swimming at a local pool recently, and Samantha was able to go down the waterslide by herself for the first time ever. I was very proud of her, but it is also another step that takes her away from being my little girl. You have this great sense of pride and a little twinge of sadness at the same time. I suspect being a parent is filled with such moments, as your children learn and grow into independent people. Luke is a rockstar in the water; he loves it so much. He gravitates towards it whether it is at the pool or the beach, and you have to drag him out of it at the end.

Work is busy, as always. Working in the private sector, the moment you are not busy is the moment you need to start worrying, so I like having lots to do. We are lining up projects for the new year already, and it’s nice to see things flowing through the planning stages into something we can work on. It has been an extremely packed year for us, so it’s time to set some goals for next year and dig into them with abandon. And maybe take a little bit of extra time off around Christmas just to recharge the old batteries.

Still mucking around with World of Warcraft in my spare time, although I’ve been thinking I should ditch it for a little bit and get back into doing some artwork. I started another canvas painting not too long ago, but only got about halfway finished of it. I have a few other visual ideas clattering around in my skull as well that would be nice to get out onto paper. Never seems to be enough time in the day, or perhaps I just don’t have enough energy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Randy

So here we are in September, and the weather has turned out to be nicer than it was all summer! I don’t claim to understand it, nor do I care to. As long as we have warm temperatures and bright sunshine, I’m good to go. I have been pretty diligent about keeping my running schedule into the fall, and am really starting to get my legs back. I’ve done several runs in the 15k+ territory, so have decided to sign up for the half-marathon later this fall. I am not running with any particular time in mind; just running for the satisfaction of it all. I gotten accustomed to running at less than ideal times, like right after eating or at night, but you do what you have to do when the schedule is tight.

I have been sucked back into World of Warcraft recently, and am having fun with the old Orc Hunter. I am an achievement hunter by design, so there is always some obscure part of the world calling my name with some ridiculous task to be performed. Tammie has been playing as well, and she is getting her Blood Elf Warlock closer and closer to the highest level. It’s fun for the two of us to run dungeons together after the kids have gone to bed. My geekness has finally overtaken her!

We took the kids on our annual trip to the zoo not too long ago. Samantha really enjoyed it, but Luke is at the age where he is hard to contain. I hate just dragging him around in the stroller, but you can’t have him running around like a wild child in public places either. Tammie is more patient when it comes to such things, whereas I tend to get more anxious. But it was still a fun trip and I think everyone had a good time. Tammie and I also ventured over to Moncton to see our first live roller derby match. Tammie plays roller derby, but has yet to actually play a real game, so it was interesting to see the whole thing live. There were some hard hits, big spills, and fast plays. All-in-all I was surprised at how entertaining it was.

My younger sister is home for her annual visit, and it’s been fun to hang out with her. We’re head to Red Rock Wrestling tomorrow night, and that should be pretty fun. I can remember her and I watching the old WWF Wrestling back when we were kids. We’d sit in front of the TV and scream at Brett Hart to beat up the bad guys. Ahh, those were the days.

Well, off to get a little questing done in the Azeroth, and then off to bed. Busy day at work tomorrow as we try to get a few projects tied off before week’s end.

Randy

Rumor has it that we’ve had 40 days of rain over the last 60 days here on the east coast, so that should tell you what kind of summer it has been. Feels more like the spring or fall them the summer, for sure. We’ve had a few nice stretches here and there, but certainly not more than a cluster of days at a time. Weather aside, I have been better at getting out for runs this summer than last summer, and am getting my monthly mileage back to 100 km give or take. I still haven’t been in a race this year so far, but that bothers me less and less as the season ticks forward. I can feel myself getting back in shape, which is my primary goal.

Work continues to be very busy, although at least we have been back on a regular schedule for a while now. Those months of overtime through the winter and spring were very tiring. We’re working on some neat stuff with our new development framework, and it’s neat to see how powerful it is when extended to different projects. There was some internal debate on whether or not we should have used something like Zend or CakePHP, but I really like the system we’ve developed. But hey, I am probably biased.

I got out to see Captain America: The First Avenger. I really enjoyed it and I am glad that the creators stayed true to the Captain America character. It was great to see it framed in the 1940′s era, and they made a great transition to modern day. The whole movie had a nostalgic sensation to it, even though they kept the action and dialogue crisp and fluid. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t win any Oscars, but it was a solid summer action flick. The sneak peek of the Avengers movie was also very neat. I am very excited to see the whole team get together on-screen.

I have been playing Dragon Age: Origins in my spare time, trying to finally get to the end of it. I am very slow at finishing games nowadays. I am constantly amazed at how many options and story paths that game has. It must be strange being the developer of a game where you know that much of your game content is hidden away in dialogue choices that many players may never make. I have also spent a little more time with Starcraft 2. Hard to believe it’s been out a whole year and I still suck at it!

Well, Tammie is feeling sick tonight and I have to go send her to bed early, so I best be off.

Randy

I’m in the middle of my summer vacation, as I’ve taken a week and a half off work. I don’t usually take so much time at once, but we slipped in a trip to Winnipeg this year for a wedding. Just Tammie and I went, leaving the kids with the grandparents. It was a pretty nice trip, and we got to explore some of Winnipeg while we were there. In the short three days we had, we visited the Assiniboine Park Zoo, the beautiful Assiniboine Park, the environmental education center Fort Whyte Alive, the partially flooded Forks, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a CFL game. We also travelled north of Winnipeg for the wedding ceremony, seeing some of the countryside. Being an east-coaster, I am not used to seeing terrain that is so flat. In all directions outside of Winnipeg, the land is flat, the roads are straight, and the sky is big. Overall it was a pretty fun trip, and it reminded me how much I like seeing new places. I get kind of nervous driving around in cities I don’t know, but it all seems worth it when you stumble across those really cool locales.

So with no work for the rest of the week, I’ll be mixing in some errands around the house with some downtime to play. I have some art projects I’d like to catch up on, and just play some computer games that I haven’t binged on in a while. If the weather is nice, we’ll try and squeeze in some local activities with the kids (Tammie is still babysitting this week, so our numbers are up by two). I’ll probably hunt up some more horrible movies to watch in Netflix, as is my custom late at night. And of course, try to sneak in a few runs here and there, when time and interest dictate.

Samantha just turned four the other day. It is a total cliche, but it really is hard to believe that she has been with us for four years (five if you include the pregnancy). She is definitely becoming her own little person, with her own take on the world. I believe that one of the most rewarding parts of being a parent is just seeing your kids develop and grow as individuals. Little kids are fun because they play and act silly, and it gives the parent a chance to have a second childhood while playing along. I loved being a kid, so maybe that’s why I like this part. Luke is also getting out of the baby phase and developing in the little trouble-maker that he is destined to become. He is constantly in motion and so curious about the world. On the downside, he hates sleeping because he sees it as a waste of time. I am also not a very good sleeper, so I suppose I can take the blame for that gene.

Well, may grab a snack and head out for a run.

Randy