Posts

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I realized this morning that I haven’t really written a blog entry in quite a few days. Truth is, I’ve just been feeling a little under the weather with the surgery and everything. I’m definitely healing, even though my face is a weird shade of yellow now. I don’t really feel that much pain since the left side of my face is still completely numb, but my eye socket hurts from time to time. The last few days I’ve woken up in the morning with extremely itchy eyes, and have spent the better part of 20 minutes just trying to get them to stop watering. I’m not sure what causes that (probably ...

Friends

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So tonight John and Rebecca stopped by for some moral support, and we spent the night hanging out, eating BBQ food, watching Trailer Park Boys, listening to music, and of course, having some drinks. It was a really awesome night, and I laughed enough that my face really, really hurts now. I’m definitely chewing two T3’s before bed. I’ll be spending the rest of the weekend close to home, watching movies and hopefully relaxing. ...

Back at Home After Surgery

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I’m not up to writing a full blog entry, but just wanted to let everyone know I made it home and that I’m recovering. The whole hospital procedure was far harder on me this time than last time, and I still feel really shaky. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel alot better. ...

Orbital Floor Surgery, Take Two

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As I said in my last entry, I am now at home recoupering from what is hopefully my last surgery to correct the damage from November. I’ll go through a quick walk through of yesterday. I woke up around 10am and basically just tried to kill some time until I was supposed to be at the hospital. I was originally going to take a cab down there at around 12:30pm, but it was such a nice day out that I decided to just walk the whole distance myself. Surprisingly, it only took me a half hour. Once I got there, everyone was immediately friendly. Even though I had to answer a pile more questions that I ...

Transformers the Movie Trailer

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Ok, so this is super geeky, but as a kid I used to love playing Transformers. For those of you who don’t know, Michael Bay (Armageddon) has been working on a full length action movie about the transformers, and it’s coming out July 4th. The new exclusive trailer was just released a few minutes ago on Yahoo, and it looks pretty wild. It will probably suck as a movie, but it should be entertaining. Check it out here. ** Update — I have a new posting up about The Transformers Movie, so check it out. ...

A Quick Walk Tonight

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[ ](http://www.flickr.com/photos/duanestorey/499059903/) I know I said I wouldn’t post again until after my surgery, but I took a few shots tonight, and liked this one the most. So enjoy. The countdown is officially on — I had that exciting call with the nurse today, and got the green light from Houston to go ahead with the launch. I find out tomorrow afternoon the exact time of my surgery, and will spend part of the day cleaning up and getting ready for it. Take care of the internet for me for a few days while I’m gone. Talk to you soon guys. ...

New RSS Feed

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For those of you that primarily read this blog via my RSS feed, I’d appreciate it if you can update to my new feedburner one. I plan to add some flickr photos to the stream from time to time, as well some goodies from a few other sites. You can access the new link here. I’ll override the old one too at some point when I have time, but it helps if you do this manually for now. Thanks. ...

Last Entry for a Few Days

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I don’t really have much to say, but I thought I’d write one last entry before my big surgery day. I spent most of the weekend putting in some hours for work, since I had a few meetings last week that took up too much time. Except for the party down at Bryght on Friday night, I didn’t really accomplish too much. Well, that’s not entirely true — today I went into my room and finally sat down to do my taxes.. I think I’m technically a few weeks late, but since I don’t owe any money, I don’t think anybody will kick up a big fuss (in fact, those sneaky bastards owe me $1100). About ...

SuperHappyDevHouse

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Photo by Kris Krug Starting at 1pm this afternoon, a group of internet enthusiasts will be gathering down at the Bryght offices for some food, drinks, Nintendo Wii and lots of fun. It’s going to be a chance to mingle with like-minded people, enjoy some music, and even catch up on whatever internet-related project you currently have on the go. I’ll be meeting up later tonight with Kris, Kim, Boris, Rebecca, John, and a whack of other people I haven’t met yet. I think Kim even challenged me to a drinking contest, something I’m sure she’ll regret tomorrow. ...

Orbital Floor Surgery Appointment

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Today I headed out to The University of British Columbia for an appointment with Dr. Kevin Bush, one of the best plastic surgeons (who specializes in cranial-facial reconstruction) in the province. I had some time to kill, so I spent 30 minutes just walking around enjoying the sunshine, reminiscing about the nearly eight years I spent wandering around the campus. It’s really weird being on campus in the summer. Most students don’t really have a chance to see the rose garden in full bloom, or enjoy campus life when the weather is nice out (since the school year coincides with the bad weather ...

New Kickers

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First, I just want to say how bad Aldo shoes suck. I’ve blogged about that fact before I’m sure, but now as I am about to throw away a $110 pair of Aldo shoes that didn’t last six months, I am suddenly reminded of it. After the first two months, one of the soles came off. I told the guys at the store, and they just assumed I was way too hard on my shoes. So, I coughed up some cash and had the shoes fixed by a shoe-fixer guy. Two months later, same deal, except on the other side. So, I coughed up some more cash and had another shoe repair person fix the second one. Jump forward two months, ...

Duane Reduction Program

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A few blog posts ago, I mentioned that I was going to do my best to return back to my pre-last-relationship weight. To that end, I have spent the last week hitting the gym from time to time and attempting to watch what I eat. The first week has been a bit rocky, and I hit a few tasty speed bumps at Rebecca’s Cinqo de Mayo party, but for the most part I’ve been on track. Since my life is a bit crazy thesedays, it’s challenging for me to always have access to “healthy” food, but I’ve been doing the best I can. So without further ado, the progress after week #1 is (RSS drum roll please): 5.5 ...

Payback, Air Canada

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You thought this day would never come, didn’t you Air Canada? All your posturing, your laughing. You may not remember us, but we sure remember you. Oh yes, we haven’t forgotten the night we had together, have we precious? We remember landing in Toronto, coming back from a brief trip to Boston, so anxious to finally get into our own bed in Vancouver and fall asleep later that night. And dream. Yes, we dreamed once. Of fields and sunshine. But it took that from us. Yes, took it from us they did, my precious. Upon arriving in Toronto, one of its minions came forth, only to announce that our ...

A Case of the Mondays

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Monday is typically the crappiest day of my week. A big contributing factor to that is the lack of sleep I usually get on Sunday nights, partially because of the coffee I usually end up drinking during the day, and also because I tend to stay up late working on something I’ve been meaning to accomplish all week. Last night I had my second big battle with Garageband, and I’m starting to learn more about the inner workings of it. The one problem I already see is that most of the recordings tend to be slightly noisy and echoey. The echo is obviously due to the fact that I’m recording in my ...

Gaboogie

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When I first started my current job, the COO and one of the founders was a guy named Erik Lagerway. During the time he was at our company, we shared many a beer and even a plane ride or two together (the most memorable being the one to Phillidelphia where we got to witness first-hand drunken broomball in Horsham and Whatchamachukinchunk). His current brainchild is a service called Gaboogie which was designed in an attempt to simplify conference calls in the enterprise environment. Most conference calls today are setup via email, and involve participants calling into a conference bridge at a specified ...

A Year of Flickr

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A few days ago, Flickr gave me the not-so-subtle warning that my account was about to expire. Since I’ve had a pro-Flickr account for a full year now, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on the service so far. Flickr sort of came to the limelight about 18-24 months ago as one of the leading websites that had real Web 2.0 technology. If you haven’t been there you should definitely check it out. Most of the website utilizes Ajax and as you use it, sometimes it feels more like an application than a mere website, and that was really one of their original selling points. Most ...

Del.icio.us

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I’ve finally set up a del.icio.us account. You can add me by visiting my page at http://del.icio.us/duanestorey. ...

David vs Goliath

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I wanted to pen this entry really quick before bed. A few days ago, one of the main encryption keys for the HD-DVD platform was leaked, apparently by an insider within the video industry. Basically, having this key will allow anyone with access to the hardware the full ability to decode and decrypt every HD-DVD that has been manufactured so far. Oops. The key, which amounts to no more than a 128 bit string, has been circling the internet, pulling a string of cease and desist orders along with it. Many a webowner has tried to publish the key online, only to be given a legal letter demanding they ...

New Microphone

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Tonight I went down to Tom Lee music in Vancouver and picked up a new microphone. Originally I was going to get something that would simply allow me to record a few guitar tracks into GarageBand, but I think it’s pretty decent for Podcasting as well. Check out the audio here. The microphone discussed is the Samson C01U. ...

On the downhill slide

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When I left Ottawa years ago, I was a pretty chubby guy. Two years of working crazy hours, drinking tons of beer, and eating primarily in restaurants had taken its toll, and my old university self had been replaced with your stereotypical software engineering stature. As soon as I got settled in Vancouver and started classes again at UBC, I decided to undo all the damage of my Ottawa experience — I started watching what I ate, getting a bit more exercise (mostly by rollerblading and hiking), and even sleeping in a bit more. In about six months, I had dropped 40 lbs, and ended up being substantially ...