Entries by Matthew Purdon

After about nine months of reading, I have finally finished the book "War and Peace". To be fair, I have also read three other titles during that time period. To give further perspective to the immensity of the book, it took me 11 days to read my latest Clive Cussler book.

I should also tell you that this has not been my first attempt at reading this book. Last time, I was only able to make it about one hundred pages in. I was prompted to attempt the book again after hearing about a gentleman that had a list of things he wanted to accomplish before he died. He said that reading War and Peace was one of the most rewarding because it requires a long-term commitment, whereas bungee jumping takes a few seconds.

The thing with W&P is that it takes a lot of work at the start because you meet so many characters at all of the parties that are going on. Once you get past the first part though, people start dying off and the plot becomes more and more focused. The number of battles and the level of detail is impressive but not monotonous, the flow of the book overall is great. Far and away my favourite part of the book was the commentary by Mr. Tolstoy on the ability and biases of Historians when examining the happenings of the period that W&P is set in. On top of this fresh perspective on Historical events, I really like the way that he pictured the general morale of the Russian and French armies as being the true driving force behind events, not the actions or desires of individuals such as Napoleon or Alexander or their war councils.

To be completely honest with you, I was a little disappointed in the ending of the book. It felt like there was too much winding down after the grand finale. After nine months, I expected the unexpected but the book actually finishes in a pretty predictable manner. Be that as it may, between the slow start and the slow end were hundreds of pages of excellent reading. Long story short, if you haven't made a list of the one hundred things you want to do before you die, make one now. And put reading War and Peace near the top of the list.

Okay, so I had this 2003 Pontiac Vibe. Nice car, all wheel drive, all of the options except leather. It had 115k on it and the engine just dies for no good reason. I have taken it to get regular maintenance like oil changes and stuff from the dealership ever since we bought it. When I took the thing in, it had a slight tick when it was cold. It was also due for oil change and tire rotation as well as it's semi-bi-multi year inspection. The mechanics at Gus Browne's (GB) here in Oshawa couldn't figure out where the sounds were coming from so it was reported to me that there would need to be some investigation done so as to determine the seriousness of the situation. I agreed to have them take it apart as I really needed to know what I was going to do in a hurry since the Vibe was our only vehicle.

Long story short, the found that the bearings had spun on the crank shaft (a serious problem) and offered the following three solutions:
1) Order a brand new engine from GM: $12,000. The engine would have to be shipped from the plant to GM and then to Gus Browne's - possibly weeks to get the car back on the road
2) Rebuild the bottom end of the engine: $8,000. A tick to me is in the top end of the engine (valves or lifters) and if the bottom end rebuild didn't fix it, GB would not do anything to help me out despite the fact that it was their advice that I would be taking in doing the lower rebuild. This part was also on consignment so who knows how long it would take to come in anyway.
3) Get a used engine from a wreckers: $5,700 +tax. WTF!?!?! Worse, when I asked the guy if there was any sort of warranty on the work, he said that there was going to be a 60 day warranty on the engine itself from the wreckers and ... that's it. If they mechanics left a clamp loose and the engine seized on the way home from the shop, they wouldn't do anything to help me out.

Turns out if they had tried to wash their hands of the situation that I could have brought out a copy of the Consumer Protection Act which has an entire section on Motor Vehicle Repairs. Part VI, Section 63, Subsections 1-8 to be exact. But more on that later...

I am leaving for vacation in a few hours, I can't wait to get away from work for a while. I'll be staying in Costa Rica for a week - I have kind of built that Country up in my mind so I am hoping that I am not going to be disappointed. I am pretty easy to please though, so I am not too worried. I kinda wish that I could have made it into the Schematic Office in Costa Rica to see some of friends from past projects, but I will be in Liberia which is at least 4 hours away from San Jose.

To be honest, all I care about is getting back into the ocean. I am dying to go surfing and I have found myself day dreaming about when I lived in St Vincent and surfed every day. It's hard to describe how amazing surfing is and I miss it a lot. All I want for Christmas is an overhead glassy wave. Well, I wouldn't complain about a tube or two...

See you in a week!


PS: It will also be my first time back surfing since Doms died. It won't be the same without you buddy.

So it finally happened, I took my pay check into the bank today and actually lost money. As you may or may not know, I work for a US based company and so I get paid in good ol' green backs. It's hard to believe how far the US dollar has fallen in a few short months. Being a tremendous nerd, I keep track of the amount of money I have lost as a result of the falling US dollar. If the rate now was what it was in January the extra amount would be enough to take a really nice vacation.

Of course, I am not complaining exactly, I do really well for a PHP programmer that lives in Canada. I guess having 2 million PHP'ers isn't a good thing in terms of supply and demand. Maybe I'll take up a new language...

PS: So I was looking on craigslist and there is only one Python job in Toronto. It's for the Art Gallery of Ontario, turns out Python pay is crap as well.

All of them.

You know for all of our so called "Canadian Politeness", that all goes out the window as soon as we get behind the wheel of a vehicle. I just got back from my Brother's place last night after being a Godfather to my nephew. I can honestly say that it was the worst drive of my life. And I love driving long distance.

On the way up to Kingston I would say that I was cut off at least half a dozen times. Once I even had to go out onto the paved shoulder as this woman casually eased over into my lane. She was quite surprised when I put my foot to the floor and pulled back in ahead of her. I could see her looking in her rear view mirror in much the same manner as a tennis player checks their racket after sending the ball into the net. then I had one of those guys that tailgated so close that I could see the whites of his eyes, every couple of minutes he would pull into the middle lane and charge up beside me only to come up behind a slower moving car where he would then have to slam on the brakes and cut off the person behind me in order to get back into the "fast lane", He wasn't really affecting me, but I started to get embarrassed for him because he looked like such a wanker. In the end I performed the same maneuver as he was attempting but because I was observing the traffic patterns way in advance I knew when my opportunity was coming. I never saw that guy again.

The absolute worst though was the drive home. The traffic was fairly heavy, but not as bad as I thought. Unfortunately it started to rain. Not hard mind you, in fact I had my wipers on the longest delay for most of the rainy spots. We were going along nicely at 120 km/h when all of the sudden there was a few drops on the windshield, immediately everyone hit the brakes and I spent the next 40 minutes going 20km/h tops in stop and go traffic. Seriously, a little rain throws off your driving ability that much? Whomever was at the start of that traffic jam should have had their license cut up and fed to them.

When you drive through the US, everyone knows how the Interstates work. You drive in the rightmost lane unless you are going to pass someone, then you merge out into the faster traffic in the left lane. Then you return to the right most lane. Sooooo simple! Instead in Canada you have people of all speeds in all lanes merely because they consider it the right of way. If you are in the left lane then no one can pass you and make you afraid and you are furthest away from those mean old transport trucks. Never mind the fact that you are causing people to have to pass you on the right, which is just asking for an accident. It simple, if there was no one behind you for some distance and then a vehicle appears behind you, they are going faster than you and you should get over into the middle lane. Of course you won't be involved in the accident, you will be merrily driving along full of confidence in your driving ability as you don't have to actually make any choices. Too bad the little children are dying behind you...

Long story short, you should have to have a license qualification to drive on the 400 series of roads. If you don't have it, you can't be out there. Take Highway 7 instead Camper Boy.

So I just got back from watching The Phantom of the Opera with Jenny and Erin. It is always amazing to me that a small thing like going to see The Phantom in Toronto can cost just as much as it would be for one person to stay at an all-inclusive 5 star resort in Dominican. Don't get my wrong, we all loved the show and were glad to have gone to see it, but we have often run into the concept that it's a better value to fly somewhere than to try to do a weekend adventure in our own country.

I have been involved with computers for most of my life now and I have learned one thing in all of that time. They never work. Come to think of it, nothing ever works out as you hoped or planned.