Remember what I said a few posts back, that life was about being grateful? Let me make a correction. Life is about learning and seeking happiness for yourself without causing suffering for others. The only way you can get joy out of living is through gratitude. Being grateful for what you have, what you don't have, things you've been able to do, things you haven't had to do.

Think about it.

posted by Sean Collins at 12:55 AM

My dad came to visit last night and he brought gifts. Antique gifts. Yay!

He is clearing out his apartment to live (as he calls it) a Spartan existence. He has been talking about moving down to Cowtown for some time now, as his two sons are here, as well as his rapidly-changing, ever-interesting grandkids. This could be the preparation for the big move. Crikey.

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The master's swim team practices are going just fine, thank you very much for asking. The coach (Jennifer, but not Jenn) has us on a pretty steep milage curve. On Monday we did over 2000 metres. I'm truly loving it. I forgot how good it feels to go to bed with sore shoulders and arms. I also love to see my shadow on the bottom of the pool, long and stretched out, as I glide away from a well-executed flip turn.

When the coach asked me if I wanted to 'compete', I felt like Fred Flintstone in his compulsive gambler sketch when someone asked him if he wanted to 'bet'. That wasn't the original plan, but I'll just have to see if my competitive spirit gets the best of me. I already find myself racing other lanemates in practice.

posted by Sean Collins at 12:24 AM

It was good to get out of the office and away from the incessant drone of CNN and coverage of the terrorist attack in New York. I did some work-related cleaning up today and it felt very good to be working towards the end of our company (most of us are greatly looking forward to getting out. I happily chucked out a bunch of outdated software and manuals. I'm big on recycling, but most of this stuff was so old it was of no use to anyone.

During this cleanup, I was reminded of the fact that I like order in my work life. I enjoy knowing that things are being done a certain way, items are put away into the places that they belong, cords are wrapped up neatly, that sort of thing. I guess this is good, considering that I am ultimately responsible for delivering and safeguarding the data that keeps my company going.

I also noticed that I make some people that I work with uncomfortable - unconfortable in the way that they interact socially with me.

Hmmmmm.

posted by Sean Collins at 11:56 PM

Quote of the Day:

"... we failed a long time before someone missed a threat, before someone slipped knives passed airport security. We failed when we failed to understand just how angry, just how hateful, some people had become. Anger and hatred *are* the materials from which hell is made, and that hell right now is lower Manhattan."

Thanks for those calm words, Meg. We're all thinkin' of you yanks, and hopin' those tormented crazies find some peace in their souls.

posted by Sean Collins at 11:31 PM

Evangelists and zealots need to live in tolerance. Please let this be a time of clear heads, tolerance, prudence, empathy, forgiveness and support.

Pax Vobiscus.

posted by Sean Collins at 11:44 PM

Sean's Technical Talk corner:

A friend asked me to have a look at his laptop and see why it was randomly freezing up. I wanted to clear off the old system (which looked pretty messed up) and reinstall the operating system. After I had repartitioned the hard drive (the point of no return, all his old stuff was GONE) I found that the drive had fatal errors and was toast. So, this is me going out to buy ond of those teeny, tiny form factor hard drives and wedge it into the ultra-compact, non-user-serviceable super-slim laptops.

Well, guess what? I got it in. I had to remove about 37 little screws, drop out the keyboard, pop out the DIMM, partially pry open the case, remove the CPU cooling fan and get my big ol' hands into the tiny innards to remove eight more screws and the drive rails along with the hard drive. After finding an EXCELLENT price on a big laptop hard drive I was able to put everything back together, not have a single screw left over (or missing) and I got everything installed and restored. Now it works good as new. The hard part may be convincing my buddy that he really needed to spend $300 on the new hard drive.

So, how about that IEEE 1394 standard? Do you think it will pass the mustard?

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If you found the above interesting, go have a look at this hard drive modification, or print this jargon file out on your old nine-pin and read it while you're sitting on the can in the bathroom.

Ar! Ar! Ar!

posted by Sean Collins at 1:01 AM

When I'm reading someone's blog, I like to know if they were listening to music and what music they were listening to when they wrote the entry. It helps me picture the mindset. Music is such a powerful influence to what we are thinking and feeling.

In case you're wondering, I'm playing the soundtrack from American Beauty.

posted by Sean Collins at 12:32 AM

This Weekend's Relevations and Realizations:

• E-mail is not communication - it is just sending information.
  
• Putting kids in their room and going away so that you don't kill them is a very good and perfectly acceptable thing to do.
  
• When someone is talking to you, give them your full attention and look at them.
  
• Life is about making conscious decisions and not letting the wind blow you through (and around) your short time here.
  
• Life is the process of learning from your mistakes.
  
  
• Most of all, life is about being grateful.

posted by Sean Collins at 11:51 PM

My infatuation with gardening implements continues. I went to Canadian Tire yesterday, and fell in love. Inside the front door, they had placed this slick, go-kart-looking vehicle. Long, low-slung, black metal-tubed frame, racecar red accents around the engine ... then I noticed that it had two 24"-swath grass-cutting blades. It was a ride-on lawnmower the likes of which I had never seen.

I'm gonna save up and buy an acreage now just so I can cut the grass.

posted by Sean Collins at 3:05 PM

Well, look at what my company's stock price is doing. I can just hear the flushing sound now ...

I think I'll wait until it gets to around $4 a share, gather up all the loose change from my dresser and from between the sofa cushions, then execute a hostile takeover.

posted by Sean Collins at 4:06 PM