They say Engineering school is hard. But there’s a point at which you simply become numbed to it… when 78 of 99 students get a midterm mark below 50%, it’s not hard to start fantasizing about a long and successful career as a line worker screwing lids on toothpaste tubes.

And apologies to arts majors for the image. We think it’s funny. (They think it’s funny at UBC, too…)

It’s a verb, a noun, an adjective and nothing if not an enigmatic company; the greatest place for a hacker to work, a pattern for the future, and more romantically, a cathedral awaiting Alan Turing’s soul. In January, I’ll be heading to NYC for a few months of working with the Google Maps Team—it’s hard not to be a little excited.

Once again it is that my life has taken a bizarre and unpredictable turn. Surprise is the flavour that keeps one anchored in the present; I have no complaints.

Around the end of the summer, I titled a post “Five Resolutions” and began drafting some pledges for the upcoming school term. Looking at it now, I realise that there were only ever three, and I’ve really just kept the easiest one of them.

What’s to say? It’s back to school: studying, cooking, hanging out, cycling, and dancing, but less of each than I feel like I’d like. It’s not that I’m wasting huge tracts of time either; there’s simply a lot going on.

One of the byproducts of being busy is that it seems to make the mind a fertile breeding ground. It’s frustrating to feel full of interesting notions and project ideas when I have the least amount of time to explore them.

These days are just packed.

I surprised myself in senior year when I signed up to take Writer’s Craft. I’d never liked the writing process; my so-called poetry was a disaster of fictitious emotion, my stories seemed to launch grandiose plots that went nowhere, I regarded essay composition as the sort of suspicious art mastered by those whom I felt sure would vault themselves directly from business school to corporate management.

But I did take Writer’s Craft, and I enjoyed it; when inspired, and not under duress, I could enjoy writing. I’ve always been good at explaining things to people: teaching and tutoring are incredibly rewarding activities.

So in some ways it’s perfectly understandable that I’d have spent the two intervening years writing on a website and writing a book. And in others, it’s very strange. Read on…

A review of my book has just made Slashdot. Michael J. Ross gives us an 8/10 and an overwhelmingly positive run-down, concluding thus:

Overall, Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax is an excellent introduction to extending the power of Google Maps on the Web, and provides enough detail to both help and entice readers to build their own Google Maps mashups.

Within the next day or two, I’ll have a very sweet example ready to show off on the blog; stay tuned. (ht)

It’s often easy to draw a word’s meaning from context, but in the age of Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary, and Google Define, there’s little excuse for not knowing a word’s precise definition. Here are a handful that I’ve clarified recently, courtesy of my browser history.

Insouciant — Marked by a blithe lack of concern.

Dandy — A dandy is a man who rejects bourgeois values, devotes particular attention to his physical appearance, refines his language, and cultivates his hobbies. Wing may be a spoiled dandy, but he’s an expert swordsman.

Cephalopod — A member of the group of molluscs that includes octopuses, squid, nautiluses and cuttlefishes. There was a strong cephalopod theme [in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest]

Gamine — A girl or woman of impish appeal. Audrey Hepburn

Pastiche — A work of art that imitates the style of some previous work.

Wanly — Suggestive or indicative of weariness, illness, or unhappiness. My wan expression suggested hours of studying.

Oblique — An indirect or evasive angle. The salesperson’s oblique answers served only to dodge my true questions.

Poncey — The actions of a pompous tosser who thinks their value is higher than it is actually worth.

Cadaver — A dead body intended for dissection. One minute to midnight we hit the street, cold as a cadaver, hard as concrete.

We’ve just posted up the fourth chapter of Beginning Google Maps Applications, which is about the art of geocoding.

Cam was the primary author on this chapter, and did splendid job of researching and presenting the multiple options available—Google, Yahoo, Geocoder.us/ca—and then also demonstrating a finished project, located here. (You can see all of Chapter 4’s source code here.)

I lost my credit card a few days ago, and had to call to have it cancelled. When they asked me when I’d last used it, I had to say, “Well, I used the physical card a week and a half ago at a Harvey’s, but I made an online software purchase last week, and my monthly donation to Wikipedia went through a few days ago.”

In the two years that I’ve had my MasterCard—and thus, PayPal—I’ve tried to make an effort to support those folks who are willing to give away the fruits of their labour. This post isn’t about trumpeting my generosity; most of these donations were only $5 or $10. The post is about highlighting quality, and thanking those that let me try their creations for free, and pay for them in my own time. Read on…

My birthday is fast approaching. Turning twenty is a pretty major milestone, but it’s hard to feel particularly emotional about it.

The curtains are being drawn on my adolescent years—my last chance (for about fifty years) to use age as an excuse for irresponsible behaviour. Should I get smashed and burn something down, channelling years of unspent teen angst into a single concentrated act of catharsis? Read on…