Colin Ferguson’s Blog

I met up with a friend last night. A friend I hadn’t seen in a year or so. We met during my first job at Schenker of Canada. Overall a good job, and one that talk me a lot about how companies really work. (Nothing like being the newbie gopher/right hand of a branch manager to feel the knives go in. Especially as many branches were merging into one, and everyone needed to fight for jobs.) Not fun at the time, but amazing experience for understanding my clients in later jobs.

I digress. My friend was from that first job, and she asked me “Do you miss the Corporate World?” My first response was to laugh, but then I realised there are parts I do miss. The personal companionship. Going out for dinner and beers after work. Birthday party cakes and singing. Watching another professional in action doing their job very well. The job of LEAVING the office for the weekend.

Almost all of those things I have working from home, but they are all virtual. So it’s not that I miss those things; it’s that I miss doing them in person.

I play a game called StarPirates. It’s more a Social Media MMO than a graphics one. Lots of community involvement, with Role Playing and Community-driven storyline development. Cool.

But sometimes we get random polls, like this one. Evidently it’s to match a debate from CBC’s the Debaters from this weekend past.

Vote – Which one do you want after dinner tonight?

Cake 51% [356 Votes]
Pie 49% [344 Votes]
Votes: 700

It’s essentially a dead heat. Let’s count the chads. Then eat both!

Most Cubicle Dwellers loathe their office space.  The pale lighting, the unnatural fabrics, the coffee slurping of smelly rog in the corner all conspire to destory the fun of a work day.  Oh and don’t get ‘em started on the commute.  Ugh!

Well grass always seems greener when seen over a corporate wall, my friend. Working from home is far more stressful than an office.  At least for me.  Let me list the three big things I hate about you…err, I mean working from home.

1) Loneliness: you may hate that John always stops in to talk about the scores last night, or his dog’s movements, but my god at least he’s a human you see in person.  IM chats are ok, but they are the Tofu of the chat world. I want steak.

2) Mixing of Fun/Work Zones: Cubicle Dwellers dream about talking their lunch in front of the tube, and catching up on last nights Dexter. Rocking!  But then what happens at night? Do you sit on the exact same couch, watching the exact same TV program?  If so then you’ll soon start to feel that your night shift is just like your day shift.  When you work from home your kitchen and living room become part of your work space.  It’s hard to take ‘em back for chill zones at night.

3) Long, Confusing Lists of Things to Do:  It’s great to throw a load of laundry in while waiting for a call.  But then that means your list of things to do during office hours just doubles up.  Some can handle that well – I can’t. I need a short, clear list of goals for a day. If not, I start running in circles.  And that drives everyone, including my downstairs neighbour, nuts.

I’ve thought about solutions for each of these, but the main one is to get out of the house.

Until next time, enjoy the cubicle….you don’t know how good you got it!

CF

Avatar, the latest release of James Cameron, is mesmerising.  For many visual and storytelling reasons it’s the next truly great SciFi film – after Matrix.  As with Matrix, the movie’s visual advances weren’t just showing off, they were used to aid storytelling. In fact it’d be hard to have made that movie come alive as it did without the amazing graphics.

I understand that true movie critics might have some issues with some technical sides – that’s beyond me.  I do recognise also that if you wanted you could call “heavy handed” on criticism of how Canada specifically destroys communities while gathering “legal” resources for the benefit of shareholders.  I disagree, as even the villains were perfectly rational and even kind characters.  They just had different interests.  So no  mustache-twirling villains here.

But to say it’s simplistic – that’s just plain wrong.

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano says that despite “so much stupefying, enchanting technology,” there are “few genuine emotions.”  Vatican Radio called it “rather harmless” but said the movie was no sci-fi masterpiece.

I disagree with a lot the Vatican says but stay out of it as that’s their business to help or mess up their followers as they please.  But when they come into MY space, the SciFi space, and start spouting jibberish…that’s when they’re over the line.

No not me, I’m off to Cuba on Thursday. But my buddy Rob did a biiiiiiiiiiiit more travel. He’s in the Antarctic Ocean, on a tall ship.

“A cruise ship” you say?”

No. Listen carefully, a Tall Ship. Wood, masts, rigging — like they did 150 years back.  Bloody hell!

Or better yet, read all about it here:

http://tallships-antarctica-2009.blogspot.com/

Sometimes Canada’s Telcos make it too easy.  Not to get a plan at a reasonable price, nor to even avoid having to GET a plan.  But rather in this case I mean they make it to easy to find topics to write blogs about.

Right now there is a HUGE marketing battle betwteen the 3 main telcos here to jam the iPhone 3G down every Canadian’s throat.  So be it, we live in a marketing-oriented world.  I ignore the crap tho and go check out the plans.  For all Bell’s aggressiveness, Rogers has the best rate out of the two for what I want.  Now, I go to evaluate telus and get this…

Wow…the page I am looking for is 404. The top result for “iphone Telus” can’t be found in google. Owwww…fire that SEO.  today. Now.

Prepare to Energize! Punch it Chewy! Warp Factor 9 Ensign Crusher!

Whatever your declarative for interplanetary travel, warm it up, as Mars missions are looking more likely.  One of the (many) huge problems with missions to Mars is the huge timeframe to get them there, and then back again.  Not only is that a problem for the amount of time in spacem, and all that implies, but also the lay over time. See, unlike say a truck you can’t just launch the return jaunt anytime you like. You have to ensure that Earth and Mars are relatively close together.   With the existing theories and engines, that’d mean a TWO year layover. And realistically there would be way to many issues, forseen and unforseen, on the ground to expect the Aresnauts to live during that.  At least without having a series of missions to set up base camps.

The big win is that these are looking likely within a few weeks timeframe to get there, and the same to return. The win is the ion engine, built with a mix of US, Canadian and other’s know how.  Cool!  The big difference is payload, and firing times.  Less fuel is used, but shot from the butt of the ship at much faster speeds. Neuton’s law of equal and opposite reactions mean that the rocket can indeed go much faster in the end, using less mass. A win all around.

And fun too; I mean don’t we all love saying “Ion Engines”, even if we’re just making fun of Star Trek techy talk? Heheheh…

Badluck, good luck. Interesting mix for a guy stuck in the mud in a river in Alberta, Canada.  He was found by a patrol of firemen looking for a place to have an out of the way practice run later in the year.  They were not looking for him, nor would anyone normally have been near where he was.  If the young man believes in any deity, I’m sure their temple’s floor will be worn out by his knees over the next few months.

The details: Edmonton firefighters scouting an area for future exercises along the North Saskatchewan River heard calls for help from an 18-year-old man was suffering from hypothermia as he had been stuck overnight waist-deep in the “slow quicksand-like mud”.  Although the weather was unseasonably mild that night, he was in bad shape and was taken to hospital for treatment for exposure.

Firefighter Sean Desmarais says it was “an amazing coincidence”. I’d say I know why the guy sunk into the mud — his arse was loaded with horseshoes…and now he’s used them all up.