Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Author: Garry

  • New template & stuff

    You may have noticed the new look, I hope so as it’s quite different and a big improvement over the old theme. The new theme is Alexified and it’s working out great. Now the theme colours match my bike!

    The previous theme was working OK in Firefox, but one day I looked at the blog in IE and OH MY, what a mess! There must have been some evil CSS or non-compliant or for sure non-IE friendly stuff in that theme. Rather that figure it out, I switched, it’s easier and more fun.

    On another note, after being all excited about Pandora I’m now having a listen to last.FM. It’s a little early to tell but it’s interesting and has a plugin that tracks what I play in iTunes. Hey, that might be a bad thing eh? Where are the privacy police when you need them. Pandora still has the browser simplicity going for it and has served up some pretty good tunes. I’m still pretty keen on the Squeezebox connection, that looks so sweet.

  • He came all the way

    I’ve been reading the Purpose Driven Life daily devotionals via email, and they are all quite good. Today’s especially hit home, perhaps because I can relate all too well to the authors “peace at all costs” strategy. But the final paragraph really make me stop in my tracks and take some extra time to think about what I was reading. It must have something to do with where I am personally but you probably know the feeling. You see or read something and it has an impact on your heart, a deep down impact that is kind of hard to explain, that makes you stop and think in that special way.

    I’m so grateful that “He came all the way” for me.

    Purpose Driven Life

    If there is a chasm in a relationship, you may have to reach further than you thought to establish peace. You can’t always count on the other person meeting you somewhere in the middle. Thank goodness God didn’t meet us halfway or he’d still be waiting there for us. That’s much too far for us to reach. God did the only thing that could bridge the chasm between us. He came all the way.

  • Quick Trip & Father’s Day

    We made a quick trip out to the lake this weekend going out Friday at about 5pm and back for the Father’s Day service at church on Sunday at 11:30 am. The weather was great at the lake and very hot until late Saturday night when the temperature dropped back into the high teens. This was one of the rare times when we actually ran the air conditioner non-stop for 24hrs. I’m normally a purist at the lake preferring to just deal with the heat by spending more time in the lake, but it was quite nice for sleeping on Friday hight when the humidity was thru the roof.

    Eric & Dez were out and we enjoyed a great sun tanning day on Saturday with them. I took care of the last few “opening up” tasks by fixing the gear shift of the outboard, the one I broke putting the motor on the boat this year. It’s interesting how after doing the same thing for over 25 years, one year you can get a different result. For some reason the tilt mechanism jammed up a bit just as I was lowering the outboard onto the transom of the boat. Instead of investigating I forced the throttle into Forward gear (required to get it to tilt up for the install) but instead of that working there was this funny little “pop” sound as the linkage broke under the hood. Well after being given the wrong part a couple of weeks ago and only finding out last weekend, I got the correct part this week and everything went back together just fine and all is good.

    Father’s Day service at church was very good, and quite an elaborate production with several special events. It’s also interesting how a day that is set aside to value, honor and affirm fathers can cause you to  think  a lot about where you’ve been in your own personal journey as a dad. Not only the things you did that were good and right but also the things you did or didn’t do where there are regrets. On of the best bits of advise I heard this morning when you’re thinking like that is Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

    13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

    I’ve been blessed with two wonderful sons whom I love, respect and I am very proud of them both. As they get older I tend to think that they need me less and less as they are so much more independent (I guess that’s a good thing as one is married).However, I’m reminded that once a father always a father and no mater what the age or what has happened or not happened to date I can always strive to be a better father to my children in days ahead.

    The best is yet to come, Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads.

  • Art of Possibility

    The entire Rational Conference just became very very worthwhile. While the conference it self has been good and the sessions covering a wide range of topics have been excellent, this mornings presentation by Benjamin Zander was outstanding.

    While most conferences will have a motivational or featured speaker, I think in the long term, this one will be different. In his presentation he positioned his talk as transformational rather that motivational, likening motivational talks to Chinese food, a few hours later and you’re hungry for more. With me, thinking back over the last several conferences there are few I can recall and fewer that made a lasting impact. Actually, I remember one keynote speaker at Lotusphere a few year back when they had Gene Kranz the flight director on the Apollo 13 mission who established the phrase “Failure is not an option”. This may be because I was at the Kennedy Space Center this week and they use that phrase heavily on their merchandising in the store.

    Zander’s highly energetic and yes motivational presentation got me to but the book and I’ve read half of it on the plane back to Winnipeg, and it’s great stuff.

  • Kennedy Space Center

    I spent Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed the day. I thought I’d get up rarely early an hit Cocoa Beach first, but I slept in a bit too much so I went straight to KSC and got there shortly after 9am and caught the first tour.  


    Kennedy Space Center
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    What a great day! The tour was very informative and it’s amazing to see where the space program has come over the last 30 years. We take everything so much for granted now that we don’t even notice when a shuttle goes up any more, only when things go very wrong do we pay attention. I was amazed to learn that the International Space Station has been continuously manned and worked on for over 3 years. And, as the shuttle returns to space on July 1 to continue building the ISS. If you’re interested, have a look at my Flickr photos

    Two of the many attractions were the IMAX 3D movies, Magnificent Desolation with Tom Hanks and Space Station with Tom Cruise. Wow, 3D has come a long way and even though you still need the glasses, the effect is great. Of the two films, by far the Space station one was incredible. I saw it late in the day and was a little tired and had closed my eyes a couple of times in Magnificent Desolation but not so with this one. The footage was exceptional and riveting. It’s totally amazing what is being built high above the earth and it was especially interesting after touring the clean room area where the next 3 actual  modules were being prepped for delivery to the station. I think I’ll be tracking the launch and progress of STS-121 Discovery for sure.

    The KSC was worth the trip and deserves the entire day is you at all interested in the space program and it’s history.

    NASA – Kennedy Space Center – America’s Spaceport

    Where else in the world do history and the future, nature and technology, young and old meet for an unforgettable and inspirational journey through space and time? The Kennedy Space Center has hosted millions of guests from around the world for more than 30 years — telling the story of how the United States built a space program that launched men to the Moon, orbited satellites that have improved our lives, and sent probes into distant space to solve the mysteries of the cosmos.

  • Racing down south

    A friend, Daniel Nemetchek, landed a fifth place finish in the first stage of the Monumental Memorial race in Beatrice Nebraska on Saturday May 27th. Way to go Daniel! It must have been quite the finish with the winner taking it by 1 second, and then 12 riders crossing in the next second.

    This photo is from the second stage and the good looking guy in the red shorts is Daniel, so un-officially, this would look like a fourth place in the second stage.

    No wonder nobody can keep up with him when we ride at Maah Daah Hey.

    Five Man Break Photo
    NebraskaCyclingNews – News

  • Simple UI

    It made me laugh, which was good. But, I often wonder who spends there time creating this kind of stuff?

    from just stumbling along

  • Commuting by Bike

    Today was my first experience with cycling to work and it went very well.

    Last night it took a little planning to get the required gear, including the laptop, into a backpack and to decide what kind of clothes can be rolled up and still look OK at the office. The good thing was I didn’t forget anything and I think I looked presentable.

    The ride was about 20 minutes and there were no major problems. I’m used to riding in the traffic so that wasn’t an issue, but it was a little heavier than usual at rush hour. One slowdown was getting behind a slower biker and being trapped between the curb lane traffic and the guy ahead. As traffic pulled away from a light I was able to slip into the lane and get around the guy and back up to speed.

    Here at IBM there is a bike cage compound under a surveillance camera and people lock the bike inside the cage so I hope it will still be there when I head out for home tonight. There is a small change and shower room on the 3rd floor and I had it to myself. If there were more the two guys at the same time, it would be very close quarters. The ride end-to-end took longer that the car, probably close to 1 hour home to desk by the time I locked up the bike, showered and changed etc.

    So all in all it’s been a good experience and I think I’ll make it a regular option for traveling into the office. I hope it doesn’t rain on the way home, it’s looking a little dark out there right now and the forecast is 60% for showers.

  • Maximum Impact

    This is my second time attending the Maximum Impact simulcast at our church’s conference
    facility     here in Winnipeg. We’re on the afternoon break and the speakers so far have been just excellent. There certainly has been some solid practical information and great insight into
    various aspects of being a leader. Just one of the many points from John Maxwell that really hits home is that you must lead yourself exceptionally well. I need to lead myself with integrity and possess excellent self-management if I expect to impact others. Who would follow someone who obviously can’t or won’t manage themselves? My actions must be in line with my intentions and my intentions must be focused on helping others. I think it’s called being congruent.

    The financial talk by Dave Ramsey was very insightful. He asserts that we all know what to do when it comes to sound financial practices, it’s our behavior that’s the issue. We frequently don’t behave in a way that aligns with our knowledge. There’s that congruence thing again! He had five simple steps and you know them already.

    1. Live on less than you make
    2. Get out of debt.
    3. Get on a budget.
    4. Save some money
    5. Give / Tithe – we’re designed to do it.

    See, you knew all that didn’t you? It’s just our behavior that we need to get in line.

  • Light Year to Quarks

    This site has a great little java applet that zooms you from 10 million light years away from earth down to the smallest particles currently known to man. While I was watching this fascinating display I couldn’t help but be in awe of God’s incredible and magnificent creation. It’s so big, so amazing it’s hard to imagine. Most of the time we don’t thing outside of are small little part of our “universe”, so it was a good reminder of the size and  our place in the world. How much more amazing and incredible is the creator himself?

    Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You – Secret Worlds: The Universe Within – Interactive Java Tutorial

    View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.