Rorschach.net

I guess it’s the rainy season, because everyone is freaking out about the big winter storm we’re having. I guess 3 inches of rain without a single bolt of lightning can be considered a storm when you live in pretty much a desert. Oh, and no one around here knows how to drive in the rain (most don’t know how to drive period) and they blame it on the roads. “Well since it doesn’t rain here, all the oil builds up on the roads and makes them slick.” Puh-leeze. Although most roadways drain into the ocean, so I can expect beach warnings for the next few days.

But the rain is pretty, and it sounds nice. Time to go get a jacket.

I carry a camera – but constantly forget to take pictures. Once again, a wonderful trip this weekend and I failed to photgraph much of it. I have a lovely shot of Paul at breakfast with Vancouver in the background and our very cool hotel bathroom in Seattle which I will post tonight on the gallary. That’s pretty much it. Still, I want a video camera for my birthday so I can forget to take pictures in two media types instead of one.

On Saturday we drove down from Vancouver to Seattle. I could have stayed longer in Vancouver – such a great looking city. The reverse boarder crossing was lengthier. Apparently, the Canadians are less worried about those entering than the Americans. But the sky was clear and the drive short enough once we made it passed the checkpoint.

We checked into the Edgewater and soon Felice arrived for a chat. I’ve known Felice since 1994 and she counts as one of those unique individuals who remain a friend even as years pass without time together. We had three years to catch up on so we never made it out of the lounge chairs by the fireplace until we headed down to have drinks with Paul & her husband Rob at the restaraunt bar while we waited for a table to be ready in the restaraunt.

A great meal with freinds and the kind of easy conversation that runs hours without thought is one of the “top ten” things I love in life and that was Saturday night. Not that I have any photos or anything. And true to Edgwater form – in the three times we’ve eaten or stayed there, something strange happened. This time, we were joined at our table by a man who we assumed was a friend of Felice & Rob’s but really was a patron about to be thrown out of the bar who thought he could “hide” in plain sight with us. As they quietly hauled him away (he was there for a funeral of a family memeber and had taken solice in the bar for the day) we scored a bonus compliments of the manager – a round of free dessert.

Which means I am not in the US anymore.
I knew the money would cause trouble from the start. We arrived and found a to-good-to-be-true parking spot but soon realized our money didn’t work in the slot in the parking meter.
Now I am at a place called the Keg in downtown Vancouver, BC eating a fantastic steak and wondering if the 23.95 means I just got a good deal – or have been ripped of. The song hungry like a wolf playing in the background makes me think the latter – but it is still a pretty good steak.
Our flight was painless – thanks to a combination of good company [paul], technology [a 9 in. dvd player] and a good book. The drive up was beautiful – and warm at 33 degrees during the daytime. It’s a very good thing we figured out which box we’d packed our coats in before we tried to go it without them. Driving up through the mountains and topping the massive bridge leading to Vancouver this morning was breathtaking. The sandy hills of SD seem mild in comparision to the rugged snow capped peeks. Wish I had my skies and an extra week. Paul wouldn’t mind – he’s going to be hard pressed to leave tomorrow.
The groups been great from solving our parking meter woes with change from the correct country and patiently answering my questions about software and work processes. Paul may be a geek for games but I am a geek for work – and the processes and people who make the things we love – like games. Perhaps someday I’ll find my dream job studying how people work and developing ways of helping them work better – bringing more joy to the workplace. Until then – I’ll keep designing.
As I was saying-the groups been wonderful and welcoming – even taking a break to visit a local comic shop and feed us. It will be difficult to remove Paul from his new/old friends.
Now I must surf over to a site that will provide info on currancy exchange – how much do you tip in loonies?

Hope you all have a great Valentines.

We celebrated early at the Cirque Du Soleil this weekend and had a seaside dinner before hand. 6 years ago today, Paul cleaned his apartment and asked me to marry him so Valentines requires slightly more than chocolate for us – although he did get me a bag of M&M’s to eat during the show

Most of the time, that expression is uttered out of a state of relief. In this case, it’s the happy exhaustion of a “good day”. You know, they kind where everything you set out to do largely is accomplished adn things go well. We’re working with a client right now and I am on the reverse side of the furniture bid process from my previous job. It’s not only interesting to see things from this perspective, I am enjoying being able to contribute to my project and my very nice client. Even the traffic jam turned out OK as I took the coastal highway home at sunset.

Now, time to clean the house. If I work ahead – I can have a good Saturday to.

Continuing my review of the new Xbox 360 game console. The killer app for the X360 is the online service called Live. The system really shows it’s power when you connect it to the Internet, and I’m not just talking about playing games of Halo2 or other competitive multiplayer matches. If you’re not going online with the console or if you don’t have an HDTV then you’re probably not going to see what the big deal is about the X360.
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Pierce Brosnan makes this movie. It’s nice to see him break out of the stiff and wooden super-spy acting in the 007 films and really cut loose. He’s an assassin looking at his options in a Grosse Pointe Blank kind of way. He’s dishevled, awkward and “pathologcial not psychotic.” Enter Danny, the down on his luck salesman/consultant, who could easily fit into any sitcom. They meet in an upscale bar in Mexico City and we’re off.

The best thing about this movie is how it stays on course with realism and autheticity. Many times in the movie you think “oh, he’s going to do this” or “ah, in the last movie this this they did that” but really all decisions and actions are made based on the characters, not the contrivance of what Hollywood says you have to do.

It’s a fun movie well worth a viewing or rental if you’re into the Pulp Fiction kind of movie.

Trying out a new theme to change up how this site looks. I know it’s a fixed width, which I hate on websites, but there’s so few unfixed width themes or blogs for that matter out there anymore. I dig the simple, clean look and the font. I also like the green, but that may be because I’ve been playing a lot of Xbox360 lately.

Oh, and I upgraded all the rorschach.net blogs to WordPress 2.01, so that’ll be a bit of a change for Eggserroneous and Frozennorth since they were both back on 1.5.