Breakfast Fail

Sometimes, I question the tastes and palettes of the "Other Half".

Carrie and I went to this cafe in Madison Park, which is a pretty well-to-do area of Seattle located along the western shore of Lake Washington. We saw all manner of well-heeled (or so they like to think, I guess) individuals lapping up their $10 salmon bagels and 8$ sourdough waffles. While those prices may not seem to be exorbant, considering the facts that (1) I've gotten better salmon bagels at Noah's and Pike Place (and Blue Brick in Silverdale) for $2-4 less, (2) the sourdough waffles were wafer thin, (3) the sourdough waffles tasted like crap, (4) the butter pats on the waffles were frozen (which in my book is an automatic 1 star deduction for any breakfast place), and (5) the waitress acted like she was tweaking, I'd say that this place is overpriced, to say the least.

And here were these well-heeled fools, lapping it up, smiling and nodding, happy to be with their own.

Quality doesn't matter, Image is everything.

Catharsis is as Catharsis does

Carrie and I took the opportunity this past weekend to get rid of a bunch of photos that we had collected over the years. On the whole, it was a pretty emotional experience - at one point in time, some of the people in the pictures had played a pretty pivotal role in helping to shape who we were as people at the time - which, in turn, has played a pivotal role in shaping who we are as individuals now. So how long are we as individuals obligated to acknowledge the role that person played in shaping our lives?

Perhaps the answer cannot always be communicated objectively, but I feel that once a person's actions and presence no longer influence your being, even to the most infetismal degree, you are no longer beholden to the active memory of that individual. This does not in any way mean "Out of sight, out of mind"; far from it, the memories of loved ones both alive and deceased influence our lives to a degree that cannot be described. But I do happen to think that holding onto the physical manifestations of memories of indivuduals who no longer influence your life - willingly or no - is excessive, especially when the chances of that person once again taking an active part in your life are slender.

Finally...

Furthermore....

Okay, so I forgot to mention...

Carrie (my wife) and I have an arrangement - we each have eight New Years' goals and collectively we have eight goals. If we make progress on 1/2 of our own goals for any given month, we get an additional $50 at the beginning of the month; if we make progress on 1/2 of our collective goal, then we each get another $50.

Sweet, eh?

So, here is what I have done so far:
1 - Finished documenting and testing 4 out of the 5 Java projects that I have been working on. Next step - pubishing!
2 - Read 1 book. Just a throwaway, nothing important.
3 - Joined two meetup groups - French Language and Coffee Lovers
4 - Did one session on the WiiFit, I walked home one day (3.5 miles in 43 minutes! Some of it uphill!), and I'll get a good session in this weekend....

And it's just the beginning of January! Insert vision of Dancing Dollars here...

New Years Resolutions

1 - Study two of the languages that I have been picking up over the years. Over the years, I've picked up an impressive bit of French, Italian, Spanish and German -so why not dig down and get to know at least two of them? I'm pretty comfortable with French, and I actually had a lot of fun with Spanish in Argentina, so those two seem to be the best candidates

2 - Work out three times a week

This may sound trite, but this is my attempt at spending less time working on my wonderful body, and more time doing other things!

3 - Expand my Social Circle

I'm a pretty sociable person, but I really don't have that many friends. Honestly.

4 - Finish the myriad of Java programming projects that I have started

I'll be tracking these on my other blog at http://c-a-fe.ca. But, they are:

1. Common


2. Session


3. BasicDataType


4. AuditLog


5. DataBaseGateWay

5 - Read at least 1 book a month

This one is already started! :)

6 - Work on my health

Well, what's a guy with MS supposed to do...but I gotta take this more seriously.

7 - Write the great Charlie novel

I've a couple of cool ideas. Choose one (<-- purely a note to self).

8 - ...

I know that there is another one, but I'm forgetting it...