Always remember, this is the life I chose

I'm moving across the world to somewhere undisclosed, to work on something undisclosed, for an undisclosed amount of time. I'll be going back to Vancouver again afterward (and, obviously, to LA - once I get a visa sorted out).

It means not seeing Samantha for a while :( Somehow, she has decided to stay with this workaholic madman. I'm a lucky guy.

Catchup, again

Been busy.

Work continues apace.

Samantha starts in UCLA today, this pleases me.

Going home next month for a week, looking forward to it.

Had the busiest Sunday ever yesterday - started off packing up 6 months worth of recycling and driving it out to the dump with my landlord; then drove out to pick up a Yamaha Virago 1000 he managed to spot for free on Craigslist. Got the bike loaded onto the trailer, drove it home. Did some gardening - cut the grass, dug up all the weeds, fertilized the beds. Help landlord take bike apart slightly.

Really need to get on with TargetScheme development - all the hard bits are done, just need to hook up dumping the scores out to SD card, and some menu contexts and it's ready for a public alpha. I've been using my ADP1 as my primary phone, and I've been very happy with it. The only issue I've encountered so far is Google Latitude sometimes stops updating my location, from googling this appears to be a known issue.

I've had some good progress in archery - it occurred to me whilst reading ArcheryTalk that I was rotating my bowshoulder toward the string instead of rotating my scapula / shoulderblade toward the string. I changed this, and my bowarm became a lot more stable, and I was able to shoot more. Time will tell if this is viable long-term, as setting it up doesn't quite feel natural.

Still haven't pulled the trigger on any new archery gear - going to wait and see for a while, no hurry.

There is a pawnshop around the corner from where I live - I'd never been in a pawnshop, so I wandered in over the weekend. Turns out they have quite the selection of XBox and PS2 games - got myself Spiderman II for 10CAD.

My sister Miriam texted me the other day to inform me I am to have a nephew soon enough. Wee.

My WRT54GL died quite suddenly - flashing power light and capacitor whine, it's well and truly dead. Shipped it back to Linksys today.

Memorial Day weekend

Finishing out the memorial day weekend watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and banging out a blog post. Samantha arrived Thursday night with my Casio Exilim FC100, and my HTC ADP1. Went to watch Ireland win vs Canada in rugby on Saturday. Samantha wasn't feeling that well, so spent the remainder of the weekend looking after her and generally trying to keep her comfortable. In between, I got a prototype of TargetScheme running on the ADP1 - needed to rework it a bit to take into account that I'm pointing with my finger instead of a stylus, but I think I have a workable solution. Currently have the UI layout hardcoded, need to figure out how to use the XML layout so I can add in menus, score lists etc.

Samantha just landed at LAX - I'm looking forward to doing the same, I'll find out in July if I'm here for 6 months or a year. It can't go quick enough (don't get me wrong, Vancouver is nice, and everyone I've met up here has been lovely), but I want to get on with my life with Samantha, and my career with Treyarch.

Samantha

I miss her an epic amount. She's sick with the chickenpox and miserable, and all I want in the world is to wrap my arms around her and make her feel better. But I can't, because I'm stuck up here in the frozen wastelands of the north. Fucking visas.

Catch up

It occurs to me that I haven't updated the blog since I moved to Vancouver. Have found a really great house to live in, just off Commercial Drive.Really great landlord, and really friendly housemates. Sharing a house has really worked out, as living in an apartment didn't seem like a good idea when I'm here on my own.

I've joined an archery meetup group - it's proving to be a lot of fun, as I can just shoot a wooden bow, relax and concentrate on my form. I've ordered some low poundage KAP limbs from a local archery supplier so I can really go to town on my form with the X-Factor. I've been thinking about a complete gear change - right now it's a toss-up between the Bernardini Luxor and the W&W TF Apecs. Very different bows, and I'll have to think about it carefully. The torque compensator in the Apecs is very interesting, and from what I've seen Frangilli has switched back from the Bernardini to the Apecs, and I've moved away from heavy risers since I gave up the 2001 VBS. More research needed. Either way, I'll be pairing the riser with W&W Apecs Prime Limbs and some form of stiff single rod stabilization, like the Soma CEX2 or Fiberbow S3 or something similar.

I dropped Samantha off at the airport earlier today, she came up to visit for a week. I miss her. It was really good to see her. She's very good to me.

Work has been busy; they've given me my own office, which has been kind of odd, and a little bit lonely sometimes, but such is life. I walk the 1.8km to and from work every day, and it's doing me good. I have a bike getting fixed up in the local bike shop, which will be useful for getting around.

Moving country again

Got up early this morning, rented a UHaul - after driving an mx5 for a year, it felt like driving a tank - and moved all the stuff I'm not bringing with me to storage. I then drove out to my awesome friend Neil's house, and parked up the mx5 there, as a rear wheel drive convertible in Vancouver wouldn't really be worth the hassle, not to mention having to drive it up there.

I then headed for LAX, where I said goodbye to the love of my live, my wonderful one of a kind girlfriend Samantha. She's coming up to visit often, but I shall miss her terribly none the less. I'm sitting in a departure lounge at LAX feeling rather sorry for myself.

As I've said before, always remember, this is the life I chose. Canada will be the 4th country I've lived in - Ireland, Germany, USA, and now Canada. Not bad for a 26 year old hacker from Drogheda.

Banana Republic

As many of you will know, I refer to my home country of Ireland as "The Glorious Republic" from time to time. This is part piss-take, part nostalgia for the old country. The current Irish government, along with a long line of its predecessors, frankly couldn't find their own arse with a compass, two hands, an a judicial enquiry costing hundreds of millions.

Recently, a guerrilla artist hung a number of nude portraits of our current Glorious Leader, Brian Cowen, in a number of art galleries in Ireland. RTE, the "national broadcaster", dutifully reported on this. Someone in the current... regime didn't like this, and the next day RTE issued a swift apology.

Ten minutes of economic turmoil, and we're back to the 70s - strikes, public funding cuts, crumbling infrastructure, and infallible taoiseachs. The "celtic tiger" has been for nothing. We're right back where we started.

Sorry Brian, at least Haughey was a charmer.

Edit: Fellow ILUG blogger Donncha has put it better than I ever could.