Work

It's been busy lately, but good. Today we got out another release of ExchangeItEvolution, which brings a few new features, several bugfixes, support for v4 of the protocol, and is built against WvStreams 4.0. Some of the coolest new stuff in this version was done by hub, who seems to have gotten pretty cozy with the code pretty quickly.

Saturday and today I spent a bunch of time packaging things. I actually find packaging strangely relaxing, at times. Other times it's just tedious. Fortunately, today was mostly just relaxing.

Numerous people have now suggested that it would probably be a good idea for me to go somewhere else for my next term, and I'm now considering that pretty seriously. I really like it at Niti, enough to buy the office an espresso machine! But I think one of the opportunities co-op provides is the opportunity to get a variety of experience, and I should probably take advantage of that. I'm pretty sure it'll just be an excercise in convincing me that everywhere else sucks, but you never know, I guess.

Life

My uncle in Holland is turning 80 on August 28th, and there's going to be a huge party at their place (birthdays are a very big thing in Holland). Since my uncle is fairly well-known, there will be some fairly prominent figures there, former prime ministers and so on. I found out this weekend that I'd been invited, and I'm now toying with the idea of going. It'd be a lot of fun, and a chance to hook up with some friends in Amsterdam, but I was planning on moving all my various pieces of crap back to Waterloo that day. Sigh.

I got into real-time after being on the waiting list for a month. So mag and I will be cracking it up next term, which should be fun. And by fun, I mean the kind of fun you get when a bunch of pasty white computer geeks sit in a lab in MC for 40 hours straight without showering. I might need a nose plug.

Along with real-time, I'm also taking some other incredibly challenging courses, like: French 151, Music 101, and The Physics of How Things Work. All courses whose real names should be "Show up once and we'll pass you". And then I've got CS 370, which I've heard isn't too bad. We'll see, I guess.

mrwise also discovered that the place where we were living last term, 87 Euclid Ave, is up for rent again. Since we're too lazy to look for anywhere else, we're just going to stay there again, which keeps things nice and simple. It also means the neighbours will get treated to my classy belching once again. I bet they missed me.

August 20, 2004 (link)

Work

Apparently, ppatters and wlach thought highly enough of my work this term to give me a good evaluation. And I thought they were going to beat me into submission and then fire me. Or something. Considering dcoombs has claimed to have fired me at least twice now, I was pleasantly surprised :)

I've obviously been very happy at Niti. I really like how co-ops are treated just like any other employee, and can get just as involved in the things they're doing. This wasn't true at the first place I worked, where a lot of things about where the company was going were kept from myself and the other co-ops there, because we were co-ops. I found it a lot harder to relate to what I was doing and be motivated under those circumstances.

Life

I'm going to Holland next week, leaving on Thursday. Which means this weekend I have to write a work report and pack up all my random crap, as well as arrange for some of it be sent to Waterloo by Greyhound. Not the greatest weekend, but I guess we did all have a good time last week at Oka. On that note, I give you a picture of the classiest man alive:

Sorry andrew, jklink has you beat here

It'll be nice to spend some time in Amsterdam though. I've already arranged to meet up with some of my friends, en het zou goed zijn om en beetje Nederlands te praten. Rediculously, the flight was only 650 CDN, on Lufthansa. I've paid more than that to fly from Toronto to Calgary, for crying out loud!

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Next: September 2004