Navigation

John Babcock.

At home now....carving pumpkins, getting crazy mask together...

In Orlando, this week. Here is a session i would go to; idm data governance.

Martlet.ca | The University of Victoria

Settlement reached in bitter UVSS strike : Macleans OnCampus

All the short stories are sitting in a pile. Or two. A pile of ideas left in the back of my mind. A pile of notes I took and left somewhere in my stack of journals. A pile of feelings that have yet to be churned for narrative value. More than a pile or two? An academic exercise that I thought was complete. The stories not told, or those stories only exposed to a very small audience. A reader or two. All the writings. The writing down of the bones. Even the writing down of the flesh. Just left sitting there........

And what to do with them now? The possibilities are endless.....

Lesson Plan: to make it real, I have to write it down. Somewhere. Write it down somwhere. I remember the transition from hard-copy to soft. The stroke of the pen was so real. So manual. From such a young age. The final copy was not in dispute. It was there, in blue ink, from the left hand. The times changed. The transition onto the keys was more than physical. The connection between the pen and the mind was no longer there, but the mind and hands were still connected. To feel the words come out and see them bounce off the screen. For immediate consumption, reflection, and modification, in near-real time.

To what degree will the editor constrict the flow ? What form does the resistance take.....?

The constricted flow has stopped me. But not here.

The tears are flowing through the words....

Cold symptoms, head-ache
I've even tossed my cookies
I fear for the runs.

A major ouch for the DNCL site debut.

Yes, it is very complicated, this whole financial scandal in the US. Check out this fun and easy to follow subprime primer, which explains it quite clearly.

This Sunday is the big Apple Festival on Saltspring.

Anyone looking for replica Ford Granada toys for the kids, look no further.

Or would that be a multi-purpose vehicle? In any case, we decided to buy the Mazda MPV! After much research, test drives, and consideration, we picked it up from the local Mazda dealer last Friday. It is so nice to have all 6 of us travel all in 1 vehicle when we need to go somewhere.....like early AM swimming out at the JDF!

Turns out that this is the first van I took out a few weeks ago, and wasn's sure if it was *the one*. The dealer let me take it home overnight, and everybody had a good crack at trying it out for a whole day. That was handy, to see if the car seats and everybody fit in OK. And to check out the various features. Like 2nd-row windows that roll down - yes! You only get that in MPV, and Toyota Sienna after 2004. Ended up taking the vehicle back to Mazda as I was not sure it was the *one*. Had to try out the rest....

Tried out Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Dodge Caravan, and Ford Freestar. The Hondas are nice, but a little too pricey. Decided not to buy a domestic, so that ruled out Ford and Dodge. Tried out a couple of Siennas, and they have nice features, but this particular Mazda was a great buy. This is the 2003 ES model and is loaded with all sorts of options like leather, moonroof, premium audio system, etc. and it had low KMs (69,000). Turns out the dealer needed to clear this baby off the lot, as it had been sitting around too long, so it was priced sweet. And third-row tumble-under seating! Oh yeah, I'll have to show you the 3rd row tailgate-party seating configuration - very slick.

Been having a great time zooming this van around.....

Just out taking a Mazda van for a cruise....very nice zoom zoom. Whoom Whoom, Zoom Zoom.

Thousands of learners now on campus. Went out for the free BBQ yesterday, and took down a veggie burg while enjoying live music under sunny skies. Everyone gearing up to engage brains and pack in tons of new knowledge.....

Things getting a bit more busy on campus now. Lots of students roaming about getting themselves organized.....the buzz is building....next week will bring a certain festival-environment to campus, as thousands of eager students will descend on campus, starting things up for yet another year. I really like the summer semester on campus, as things are so darn quiet.....but September is also a good time....before the sun sets on the summer....

Am looking for a minivan now. Need the 6-seater, with room for stuff. Have been homing in on a Toyota Sienna over the last couple days. Also have taken a liking to Mazda MPV. Been doing lots of research online, and gathering as much info as possible. Honda Odyssey does look very nice, but not so many of those used around - yes, shopping used, not new.....

Ok, I went to my 20-year high-school reunion last night. Cow High - Grad 88 - whoo-hoo! It really was a quite a hoot. A whole pile of us gathered in downtown Duncan, at the brew pub. I reunited with a lot of old friends, and actually got into quite a number of good conversations, despite the noise-level in the pub. With all us grads upstairs drinking bevvies and chatting it up it certainly got noisy! Clearing outside to the rooftop patio was a good option, and for those of us still there at closing time, we were nicely ushered out the front door. Well, what to do. Our cab driver on the way into town gave us some tips on where we might go for late-late night food and bevvies - but we ended up at the Phoenix, a club down across from the train station. Oh well, just like old times - at least we didn't end up at the Galaxy....is that even still possible ?

Heh heh....sounds like the golf-game yesterday was fun, even for those that got kicked off the course - oops! Tonight there is a dinner/dance for grads and their partners, but I am not going to that. I am back at home now, after quite a nice Saturday cruise down-island in the Granada. Speaking of the wheels, I listed it for sale on usedvictoria a couple of weeks back. Have been getting in some nice rides lately, never knowing if the next might be the last......*sigh*

Anyhoo......all the best to the Cow High grads this weekend.......it was great to see you all....

Yes....just got Wolfie down for a sleep.....he's been quite a bit more fussy lately, than compared to the first month or so. He fussed and fussed for a bit there, then just passed out. He's in the crib in the living room now.....I'm watching a bit of CBC Olympic coverage - the beach volleyball men's final.

Not tracking too many updates online here, as am spending very little time by the home-keyboard. Well - wait a minute. I'm online looking for a mini-van, so I am doing a bunch of research, and looking for a new ride - that is where most of the home-keyboarding time is going. And keeping up with the online banking - the essential stuff. Not too much time for recreational web browsing or blogging.

Here is an action-shot of Wolfe having a day-time snooze. He's growing quite a bit, putting on over 3 lbs. in the past month. All that growing requires a bit more sleeping, and sometimes he has fairly sleepy-days.....

Great video, if you do IT technical support, and want a couple of laffs. The Website Is Down. I'd say it is NOT work-safe, so view at home.....

Now that I have a beard, I'm checking out some online beard-oriented content, like this bit about beard styles. Charlotte took this picture of me one night while we were out on a walk along Dallas Road, near Holland Pt. She's just getting the hang of the digital camera, so I had to encourage her to point the lens at Daddy and press the button....

Mostly task-switching these days. Not too much chance to pause, and provide an update. Got s brief chance on the kitchen-laptop here. Charlotte and I are down in here involved in the morning routine. Looks like she might be getting interested in the crayons and colouring books for a few milli-seconds, so that's good. We just pulled our bran muffins out of the oven, so that's also good. We had a bit of a snack, and I think we'll get oriented to the next activity shortly. We might head ....

Just sat down to unload the photos from the digital camera, and I see we have several weeks of shots on there. We did the Tall Ships, the beach, a pool-party at home, a pool-party up the road, and we have lots of pics of Wolfe just hanging out. Like this one! We've got a small crib for him set up in the living room, where he can snooze and we're all still close by. He's had a couple of sleepy days, and 1 really-wide-awake-all-day day this week.

We're back into the busy routine of having a newborn around, which has many blessings - like many mornings, he and I are up in the wee-wee hours, to enjoy the start of the day. We caught the sunrise a couple mornings ago, and it was nice to see those first few sunbeams piercing through the trees around 520 AM. And last week, he and I were sitting in Charlotte's room, peacefully enjoying the first few glimpses of daylight just prior to 4 AM. Yes, we like those peaceful morning times together.....

We're farting around with the good ol' dilbert mission statement generator on this lovely Friday evening.....

Mom and Babe were home on Thursday afternoon, as both received a clean bill of health from the crew up at VGH. Although the care up there was great (thanks to all on the 3rd floor!), Justine really wanted to come home as soon as possible. So, with infant-seat re-installed in truck, we got Wolfe home safely.

I have pictures from the digital camera, and a few from the cam on my new phone, and am just now getting some of them onto the home network.

Hey, it looks like I need a new category for Wolfe on the blog here - after all, if Charlotte has *her* own category....!

So far he has been quite a good boy here....his internal systems seem to be working quite nicely. He nurses, he poops, he sleeps, he wakes, and sometimes he even cries! Not often though, he has been fairly quiet, and peaceful.....whew! Charlotte now has to wait her turn when it comes to nursing....and that, she is having to get used to....

In a delivery that one of the attending nurses described as "precipitous", our new baby boy arrived in a real hurry this morning at 0310 AM. Unlike Charlotte's arduous labour and delivery episode in 2005, our 8 lb. 6 oz. boy wanted to get out into the outside world really fast, and did so after only 11 minutes of pushing. Mom, Dad, and baby are all doing very well this morning......more updates to come here, via twitter, and over on Justine's blog....when Justine returns to blogging that is.....

Ok, so today's main event was going up to the turf farm to get 33 rolls of turf sod to put down in the yard. By the "real" end of the day, this is the scene we had in the back yard.

Oh wait, also had to go to the recycle depot and drop off all the plastics, and some no-longer-used electronics. And, just for another surprise, we had to take the dog to the vet because he was suffering from a couple of issues this morning. First, he was barfing all night, and then this morning, some sort of bump on his chest that was bleeding. Nice. Oh yeah, Mom and Bev stopped by as well for a quick visit before they left town. Busy day.

The turf project went pretty well. I made 2 trips up to the turf farm on Blenkinsop to get the sod, and Lance installed it in the yard. So nice to have a clean scene out there....

I've been at it again - networking water through the yard. This time, we're aiming to roll out some turf in the back yard, and I wanted to lay in the pipes and sprinkler-heads before the turf goes down.

So, the project rolls out in fairly simple phases : design, plan, acquire resources, execute, test, close-out. On this project, I did the design last night. I finalized the plan this morning. I went out to see the guys at Westech Irrigation around noon to get the parts I needed. They're awesome. I went to the Full-Service counter, and went over the plan with the one of irrigation consultants on site. He gave it the OK stamp, and helped me shop for all the parts. Awesome. I came home to execute the installation of all the tubing and sprinklers, and was done by 1700. Good stuff.

Luckily I've done this type of thing before, so my past project experience in this area was a true asset. As I ran the system test, I slugged back a frosty, bottled beverage, and thought about drafting the project close-out report. Things look good so far......

..on each of the last 2 June 13, we have been on a return road-trip from Tofino. Not this year, though. I did take the day off work, and do an irrigation project in the back yard. Pictures to follow...and Little C helped Daddy with the pipes and tools.....good girl!

I have some electronic items that I was planning to take over to Breakdown Recycle to get rid of. Turns out they're no longer listed in the phone book. and their number is out of service. Bummer. Guess I'll have to consult the Encorp Pacific (Canada) - Electronics Recycling in BC web page for another solution.

I told Justine I would link to her blog at apprenticemom.com, if she got 10 posts. Ta Da! So, she is blogging lots about diapers and knitting these days, but there is lots more than that! Check it out!

I just told her that she was a top-tier blogger because she was blogging on the LAMP-stack. Huh?! Yah. Her blog is powered by Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, all the cool stuff that she has no idea about. She is also indexed in Google already! Yay!

Just got back from Mom's....she wants me to have all of Dad's records. Mostly 33 RPM...mebee a few 45 RPM if I dig around a bit more up there. Lots of good stuff from the 60's I can spin. Will do.

I've always wanted Dad's records. And Dad's old stereo. He had this Sansui receiver/amplifier. Ever since he got his new stereo, I wanted the old one as a hand-me-down. You know, because I was a student and needed an amp for my pad. I could "borrow" it. Nope - he told me I couldn't have it. I guess because he was really attached to the unit. And so was I. Because I grew up listening to records on it. Oh well - I ended up getting a unit like it down at the Value Village for like $40. And part of the left-channel was hosed. Didn't matter. Played lots of tunes on it. The back-light glowed green, and it had this sweet tuner with a heavy knob that rolled really nice. That treated me right - until the back-light burnt out, and I had a bit more trouble tuning in my preferred FM-band stations. No biggee.

Somewhere along the way, I secured a number of the albums - I must not have advised my Dad that I was taking them down to my place to spin them. Some of my favourites from his collection. Some of the Beatles albums that I wanted - but not all of them. This turned out to be quite a shame, because Dad had some of his records stored downstairs in the rumpus room, behind the bar, next to the bar's beer fridge. Somehow, my folks had a fridge accident a few years ago, and it caused a small flood around the back of the bar. Ended up soaking the jackets of a bunch of the albums. Like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And the so-called "White Album". And the Magical Mystery Tour. The jackets, formerly in used-condition, are now in a sad condition of being soaked, dried, and mildewed. I've checked out a couple of the platters, and I think I can save them, as long as I clean them properly. I'll talk to Guy about that. Luckily, other titles have been at my place for a while; Abbey Road, Revolver, Let it Be. They're OK.

Let it Be.

Mom chose that track to play at the Service in April. Yes, Dad liked that track. And here we were, approx. 450 folks on that day, listening to this track, over the glorious sound system that had been installed in the church. It was to be surrounded by, immersed in, and enveloped in the sound. I recall feeling like I was cloaked in song, feeling in a state of suspended emotion. It's a track I've heard so many times - and played on vinyl at my place. My Dad's vinyl.

Turns out that in recent months, Reg had taken quite a liking to the film Across the Universe. She keeps telling me he watched it 10 times over the winter. I'll need to see this film.

I've got the records now. And I imagine my Mom will soon be cleaning out the rumpus room, and want to get rid of that old Sansui receiver/amplifier. I'll gladly take it, even though the FM-tuner section is fried. My Dad doesn't need it now.