i can't believe i'm writing this again

it still feels like i wrote last year's retrospect just yesterday. i set some pretty aggressive goals for myself that resulted in a work-filled year. although i did accomplish a lot, looking back there wasn't really that much of a balance.

now don't get me wrong, it was a great year with many things to look back on. i bought a car for one, i never thought i would be capable of buying a new car (i'm too cheap and scared of debt) but there it is: sitting in the parking lot. i started a new job at vancouver film school and left bodwell. this caused a lot of stress; good stress mind you, but stress nonetheless. i got moved up the corporate ladder, now i'm a super lemming which meant, less coding and more leading. i'm really starting to get a feel for yelling the phrase: "you! go do my [insert ritchie's house chores here]!!" i also started to get a feel for managing my business. i learned a lot about writing mean and nasty emails that quote deadlines and other scary figures that end with the phrase: "i don't care how you get it done, just get it done!" oh yea, i also bought an ibook, an ipod, a clio, a new cellphone .... the list goes on and on.

so what are my plans for next year? i don't know. i'm sitting here trying to put together my 2005 year goals and i'm drawing a blank right now so i'll leave everyone with this quote that will hopefully define the new year's theme.

Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory... lasts forever.

- Shane Falco

christmas...

first of all..

belated merry christmas to all!

it's been a hectic holiday this year. between shopping, eating, authoring dvd's and reconfiguring the home network i'm a basket case. i did manage to get some relax time in there with my favorite new game: def jam fight for ny.

this year i also decided to take a different approach to boxing day shopping. i did everything online, i stopped by futureshop but decided to leave after seeing the line up snaking through the aisles. the 5 dollar savings on the compact flash memory just isn't worth the hassle. so i hopped on the internet and purchased a few lot of big ticket items. within the first hour, i was head to head with the national debt of a small asian country and i did it all in my pajamas. pretty soon i'll be doing everything online and i can change my name to dotcomguy, put webcams all around my house like a bad reality show and never leave for outside air. what cha mean it's been done?

end of an era...

it has been a year since i started teaching at bodwell. to be honest, i never really knew what i would get out of teaching. they offered me the job, i said yes not really knowing what i was getting myself into. last night was my last day.

for those people who think that teaching is easy, it's not. it's not easy at all: questions, clarification, students talking while you're talking, losing your voice mid sentence while explaining polymorphism, grading, and let's not mention the classroom politics. all to be managed by you: the teacher.

but i stuck with it for over a year and loved every minute of it. i look back at my year in bodwell and have nothing but good memories that i will miss: the students, the stress, the other teachers and corny the .net vs java jokes.

moblogging.... again.

so i'm giving this moblogging business one more go. i tried it before and i failed miserably. one reason was because it was so hard to get the pictures from my phone. this time around, i found an easier way. although i'm not quite sure if it's the cheapest. we're backwards up here in canada eh? free picture uploading is still unheard of.

i'm using flickr and mms to send pictures via my phone. hopefully it doesn't get too expensive or else all you people are going to be seeing is the garbage dump that i'll be diving in to pay for my picture messaging.

trouble with names!

i have trouble remembering names and matching the names to faces. trying to remember 30+ people for 3 different classes is a feat that i have yet to master. i'm usually the noid at a party having to reintroduce myself to someone i just met 5 minutes ago. yes, i'm that bad.

so i'm looking for an approach, a technique, ANYTHING to act as a memory device for remembering names and faces of people. i need to stop using the 'point and hey you dood with the black hair' method in class. especially when you have a group of asian students in the same general direction. it just doesn't work out that well.

i hope none of my students actually find this website because at this point in the term, i do know all of their names. too bad that it's the last day of class. sorry!

a dent!!!!

someone dinged my door. my door on my new car! i'm tempted to walk down to the parking lot with a sledge hammer and "ding" everyone's door.

i'm as teenie bopper as the next 26 year old but this is crazy!

i know i've always been a teenie bopper at heart. i know this because i recently subjected a friend through 6 hours of justin timberlake, usher, lindsay lohan and hilary duff on a drive down to portland where he bought an ipod to escape having to listen to my music on the drive back. anyways, i'm all for the teenie bopper image, i don't mind it at all. i will probably continue to drool over pretty underage girls until the creepy old guy years of my life.

but this new photo shoot of hilary duff has got to take the cake! where she's wearing all pink, acting like she's having a good 'ol fun time all while surfing a lollipop... yes, you heard right. a lollipop.

There's just nothing quite like a teenie-bopped out teenie-bop posing on a giant lollipop to make me want to get totally high on cocaine. I mean giant lollipops? It's like I'm already high.