Somewhere, a Telus rep is congratulating himself.

Four months ago, I was completely ready to ditch Telus and switch my phone service to an MVNO. Indeed, if Zehrs hadn’t been repeatedly sold out of the handset I wanted, I’d probably be on the President’s Choice pay-as-you-go service. For light usage such as mine, it really is—by far—the most sensible and economical option.

In doing some soul-searching and bill-examination, however, it became apparent that my usage level really wasn’t light enough to realise a savings from switching to prepaid. So I called Telus and made a deal. Read on…

I had an opportunity recently to do some design work for a now-just-released app for iPhone.

Although visual design is not something I have ever studied in a formal setting, it’s an area of interest to me, and something I believe is as much a matter of inherent taste as it is of formally stated rules. As with good writing, there are guiding principles and empirically derived standards, but ultimately, you become a good writer by reading good writing, and by practicing it.

So I’m always up for more design, as the opportunity presents itself. Read on…

As with many things in my life, I view clothing and footwear as practical matters of necessity more than as vehicles for much personal expression. I wear the occasional funny t-shirt, and I’ll dress up for a dance now and then, but those are the exception. As items wear out, they are tossed with little thought; a dwindling wardrobe is replenished as necessary.

But this pair of shoes is different. They will be retained as backup for some time, I expect, but here and now at the end of their useful life, they deserve a modest eulogy. In their two years of service, they’ve seen a lot of floors in a lot of cities—it’s time for a few shout-outs.

Traveling has become a way of life for me now. I enjoy seeing different places and people; the variety and adventure is thrilling. But this is not something of my upbringing—indeed, perhaps it was the stability of having lived in the same house my entire childhood and youth that mentally prepared me for moving about later on. That later, though, has a very specific starting point, and the shoes have been with me since exactly that date. Read on…

I’ve been in beautiful Seattle nearly three months—in just a few short weeks, it will be time to head back home again! It’s been good to be away; it’ll be good to be home.

In the spirit of tradition, here are a few notes on life and times in the Northwest. Read on…

This weekend was Thanksgiving for my Canadian friends and family. I thought I’d challenge myself a little and spent Sunday afternoon attempting to bake a pumpkin pie. How were the results? I was pleased, especially for a first attempt.

The recipes I followed for both filling and crust are easy to read and pretty straightforward. I still ran into a few gotchas, though; I’ll be noting those as I can. Read on…

I took a Richard Powers waltz workshop in Toronto a few months ago. I’m not very good at it and haven’t had enough chances to practice, but I can now hold down the basics of cross step and rotary. Since learning it, I’ve begun to notice much more distinctly songs that are in 3/4 or 6/8 rather than common time. All swing and related dances are strictly in four, so the lilting rhythm of waltz time can be a lovely change for the ears and feet.

The traditional music of waltz is, I think, largely Strauss and a number of other pre-20th century composers. And there’s merit in doing a dance to its traditional music. However, waltzing seems to work well to plenty of modern tunes too; here’s a selection of my favourite popular songs in 3/4 and 6/8 time. I’ve linked each to somewhere you can hear at least a sample of it—Amazon MP3, YouTube, or an artist’s page. Read on…

We moved house a little over a week ago, and for the first time, it was to a completely unfurnished pad. My housemates had conspired to acquire common area furniture from various sources, and Melina found us a bunch of flat-pack desks for our bedrooms.

But I still needed to actually get a bed. Feeling inspired by the success of my shelves from last summer and the work of Matthias on a construction lumber bed, I purchased a mattress and decided to attempt another woodworking project. In the end, the cost was about $90 in materials, and 5 hours of time. Read on…

I’ve now been dancing swing for a little over two years. The people I’ve met through it have been overwhelmingly some of the nicest, most generous-spirited people anywhere… and also, a lot of the guys are pretty geeky.

Why?

The least charitable answer is “the geeks are there because there are women there,” but that’s not the whole story. Certainly lots of guys get into dancing because they followed (or were dragged by) a woman into it, but those who stay seem to do so for reasons apart from that. Indeed, the scenes I’ve participated in (Toronto, New York, Sydney) seem almost completely free of the creepy behaviour you would expect given that assertion. And that is despite being totally welcoming to guys and gals who might not be as accepted in other circles.

So what is it about the niceness of the swing community? What makes it so appealing to geeky guys? I think it’s the nature of the dance itself that attracts them, and once there, their presence and personality is reflected in the culture that develops around the dance. Read on…