Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

What do they all have in common? They’re me!

My friend Steve called me tonight.  Of all my distant friends, he’s one of the better, perhaps the best, at keeping in touch with me.  I really appreciate that.  Which makes it even crappier than I wasn’t able to talk to him and didn’t call him back.  He even sounded like he had something to tell me. Drat.

Sorry, Steve.

I did have a good reason: financial troubles.

Not anything super bad, but today we discovered that our semi-automated invoicing system was definitely under-counting our billable hours this month, and that it was likely it has done this for a significant number of months.

Because most of our projects are quote based, this isn’t as bad as it sounds.  But it’s still a big stress, and no fun at all to a) contemplate redoing many months of billing, and b) deciding how to handle those hours—do we bill clients for them well after the fact, or silently eat the mistake, or some other alternative?

Speaking of silently eating the mistake, I personally had one of the worst food spills that I’ve recently caused, and it came out of nowhere.  I was sitting on the couch with a lovely bowl of coconut rice, mango chicken and ginger sunflower broccoli (thanks, Boris!). I was holding the bowl in one hand and I leaned over and my hand accidently hit the end of the fork, which was resting in the bowl tucked under the food.

The sudden blow acted like a combination lever and rocket tank, and immediately a 4th-of-July rice-pectacular covered me with fresh white rice.  There was rice everywhere: It looked like I’d been punched by a bag of rice.  Cleanup was laborious because the sticky rice was true to its word.

I tried to go for a bike ride on Saturday, lured in by the false promise of sun in the morning that eventually overcame my intertia.  Four minutes out from my garage, the weather suddenly shifted to this: ice crap raining from the sky.  I went to the bank machine and then home but still got soaked throught, hat to socks.

When God wants you to stay home and play Super Smash Bros. video games, you should do what you’re told, so I did.

I called my Mom to tell her about the weather, and she said it was warmer in Calgary than here in Vancouver.  She didn’t laugh, but it was implied.  She’s at home most of this month because she’s recovering from an operation.  Nothing serious (now) but it’s never easy to get anesthetic, and to put your life on hold without the benefit of getting to travel while you’re not working.

I took my kneeling chair in to get it reupholstered.  It had worn through so much it looked like a baboon’s butt.  I wish I had a before picture.

I played magic last Sunday, and may be playing some Wednesday night, we’ll see.  I’m also signed up to do Ultimate again this season, but the team hasn’t gelled yet.  Hmmm.

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

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