On Saturday, I asked Adina Gillian to marry me. And she said yes! We're thinking sometime in the summer of 2004, maybe June (after convocation). A wedding page is forthcoming.
Archive for November, 2003
I’m getting married!
November 30th, 2003What is The Meatrix?
November 16th, 2003Via Paul: like or dislike meat or The Matrix? Find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
New look for the blog
November 16th, 2003Comments on the new presentation of my blog? I'm going to move all of helmer.ca to a similar layout soon, so tell me what you think now.
New item on my Christmas list
November 13th, 2003Jakob Neilsen's book, Designing Homepage Usability.
TD Waterhouse’s WebBroker sucks
November 13th, 2003I just opened a WebBroker Self-Directed RSP account with TD Waterhouse. The SDRSP allows me to purchase non-TD family mutual funds and fixed income investments, like bonds. I was looking forward to using the new system. But it sucks.
In EasyWeb I can set up a Pre-Authorized Purchase Plan (PPP). This makes mutual fund purchases really easy and painless. I just create and modify PPPs online. It's easy to change what and how much I wish to purchase. I had assumed that this handy feature would be available in WebBroker. Hahaha. That would make too much sense.
Instead, I have to call TD Waterhouse and ask them to send me a form, which I have to send back to them. Then, once the form is processed, I need to call them back to set up my Systematic Investment Plan. What used to be a couple of clicks in EasyWeb is now two phone calls, a bunch of forms, and a void cheque. Unbelievable.
18 days into Ramadan
November 13th, 2003More than half way through Ramadan, I've learned a lot about my habits and fasting.
- Fasting is very hard. On Wednesday, I went home from work because I was suffering from flu-like symptoms (pain in my stomach and nausea). But I think it was just from fasting. On weekends, I get quite irritated and fidgety. I don't know what to do with all the time that I normally spend eating.
- I eat frequently and in large quantities. Until I started fasting, I truly did not appreciate how often or how much I eat. Food is always available, for snacking or for meals.
- Eating is a social activity. I feel like an outsider when others eat lunch; instead of being one of the group, I'm the weirdo. Coworkers don't invite me to lunch anymore.
All in all, observing Ramadan has been very useful. I've learned how automatic many of my eating habits are and started to understand what it must be like to be the outsider (something I haven't understood before). I would recommend observing Ramadan to the naturally curious.
Nine more days to go.
Cool map of wifi users
November 13th, 2003Via Matt: a cool map of connected wifi users at Carnegie Mellon University.
Federation of Students general office budget
November 10th, 2003Produce better digital photos
November 9th, 2003A blast from the past
November 9th, 2003Back in Winter 2001, I worked as a communications associate for CECS. I convinced CECS to move its print newsletter, the Inside sCo-op, to an e-mail HTML newsletter. I recently copied some files from my artsmail account to my main computer and I noticed a PowerPoint presentation about what I did as a communications associate. I was supposed to run the final draft of my presentation by my boss, but I didn't. After I presented to about twenty-five CECS employees, my boss talked to me about how I should have let him review it. Looking back on it, I can see why he gave me shit. Without further ado, here's a PDF of my PowerPoint presentation (I made a QuickTime movie of it, but the text was rendered very poorly).
