A conversation from earlier today at work:
Ross: This is important, so I’d rather you didn’t delegate it.
Me: Dude, there’s only you and me in R&I [our department]. Who am I going to delegate it to?
Categories
Category: It Happened to Me
Someone who goes by the handle of “bluechemist” posted this collection that takes me back to my youth: a composite scan of 66 covers from the old Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. I loved these books. They inspired the first computer game I ever wrote, New York Subway, my first serious foray into programming using the BASIC programming language as well as into telling tasteless jokes*. Really, really, really tasteless jokes (hey, I was 13). As my wife will tell you, I’m still programming and still telling tasteless jokes.
* No, the source code no longer exists in readable form: it’s on a TRS-80 cassette tape that has been lost to the ages.
Pictured below is a quick preview of the book covers. Click the image to see it at full size:
Bonus: Someone had the same idea I did and ran with it much farther. Brad: The Game is a very tasteless web game with all the Choose Your Own Adventure interactivity and all the New York Subway tastelessness (perhaps even more!). I’ve played it many times, and have ended up dead, joining the Greek Navy, found my pants and scored 72 times in a single night.
The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century will remain on hiatus until next
Monday, March 13th. My spare time is still quite taken up with all
sorts of things to do with Dad’s passing. I’d like to thank all of you
who commented, blogged or emailed me; it means a lot, and you have the
gratitude not only of me, but that of my entire family. Thanks for all
your kind words, prayers and good thoughts.
I’ve returned to work and the work blogging has resumed over at The Farm
and Tucows Developer. It’s mostly technical stuff, but you’re curious
about the sort of work I do, you might want to give them a look-see.
Categories
Dad
Photo by Rannie “Photojunkie” Turingan.
Dad passed away peacefully at St. Joseph’s Health Centre on February 27, 2006. He was the devoted husband of Dr. Maria A. deVilla and the loving father of me and my sister and Eileen and father-in-law to my wife Wendy and Eileen’s husband Richard. He was also the beloved grandfather of Aidan, Nicholas, and Ryan, who knew him as “Dodo” (their mispronounciation of the Tagalog word for grandfather, lolo) and the adored brother to Thelma Leelin, Regina Morabe, Elizabeth de Villa and the late Scarlet Santos.
Born in San Juan, Batangas, Philippines, he studied at Ateneo de Manila and the University of the Philippines. He trained in the U.S. then lived and practiced medicine in Toronto for over 30 years.
Dad was a friendly, outgoing, and generous man. He was devoted to work and family and was a pillar of the community, playing key roles in the Filipino Centre Toronto and the Filipino Canadian Medical Association. He touched the lives of the many patients he cared for as an obstetrician-gynecologist to the many friends and associates who sought his wise counsel, and to his family who love him and will miss him dearly.
The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century will return to its regular blogging schedule on Monday, March 13th.
I recorded 4 in-between-show segments for the YTV show The Zone‘s “Musical Week” with my accordion this afternoon, and they went quite well. The hosts, Sugar and Carlos, are just as warm and friendly as they are on TV, as were the staff and crew. If you’ve got access to a TV set between 4:00 p.m. and 6 p.m. tomorrow, tune in to catch some accordion action.
I never understand the twisted logic of many retail stores’ “no cameras” policies. They don’t make sense within the context of a place that is open to the public, even if it’s not publicly owned.
A couple of years back, I caught heat from IKEA for taking a snapshot of some of their toys, Urban Outfitters has given me heat for seeing what I look like in a hat with a self-portrait and someone at a Home Depot once thought I was dictating prices into a portable tape recorder (I was actually talking to Cory using the then-new walkie-talkie feature of my cellphone).
The last such incident of this sort took place last summer at the Runnymede and Bloor branch of the retail book chain Chapters, where I saw my friend Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series of books on prominent display. I often carry my camera with me and decided to take a photo to send to her.
“Excuse me, sir,” said a young woman in a golf shirt with a Chapters logo, “but you’re not allowed to…hey, don’t I know you? You’re the guy from the party with the accordion!”
After some brief re-introductions, I told her that I knew Diane Duane and have actually met gone out drinking with both her and her husband, Peter Morwood, she decided that it would be all right — “just this once” — to take the photo. The photo’s since been sitting in my “to be blogged” folder for some time, so here it is at long last.
This is yet another preamble for yet another story that Boing Boing caught first. I thought it was still worthy of blogging since Diane is a friend and I thought it would be nice to promote her work.
The first two volumes of the Feline Wizards trilogy drew a sizable
audience, but not enough to convince Diane’s publisher to pay her to write book three. Over the years, an anxious audience has demanded a conclusion to the series, so back in December, Diane posted an open question to her blog: would her readers support her if she finished the trilogy without a publisher?
The answer’s been a resounding yes — one reader’s even gone so far as to offer a $1,000 matching grant to Diane toward the completion of the book.
For more details, see Diane’s entry about the subject in her blog, Out of Ambit.
Categories
Bad News
While undergoing dialysis at the hospital yesterday, Dad slipped and fell backwards landing on his head, knocking him out and fracturing his skull. He’s currently in the intensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Health Centre and is conscious but confused due to some internal bleeding in his brain. The last diagnosis of which I was aware is that he has a subarachnoid hemmorhage, which to this layperson sounds like pretty bad news. Today’s CAT scan should provide more information.
Wendy and I visited last night, and as soon as I finished whatever work I can’t take with me, I’m headed back to the hospital. I don’t know how many times I’ve asked for your best wishes, prayers or moving the coffee table for better feng shui, but if you can spare some, they’d be appreciated.
As one might expect, non-work-related blogging may be a bit light for the next couple of days. Be well, everyone.