Spring/summer is here...well, sort of.  It's more like RAIN season! (but I love the rain so that is cool).

Most of you know that I am back in the world of academics.  I am very excited indeed!  I did quite enjoy my time in industry for the most part, meeting some very interesting, kind people and doing some exciting work.  However, I realized somewhere along the way that I am more of an academic type person; a researcher, an idealist, one who has the freedom and ability to devote intense and large amounts of time to investigate why things are the way they are; and one who has the freedom of opinion and choice and the ability to act on such (e.g. to use and be a proponent of open source software ala Richard Stallman style and not to simply succumb to the windoze way of life that is indicative of industry...cough...yuk!).  I found out that industry is not as tolerant in these respects.

That all said, the primary reason for my decision to head back to school was that during the last half year while working in industry, my research had all but come to a halt.  Having completed a large chunk of my degree program and realizing that this aspect of my life was going nowhere fast, I decided to move on it.  After all, I have found out that researching and teaching are the things I truly get excited about; what I really love.  Although things were going very well for me in industry, I decided to resign my position and head back to complete the ol' PhD.  It was a very difficult choice/decision but one that needed to be made and I'm glad I did it.

So, in terms of my academic life.  Over the summer I will be working with Daryl to finish up old business and refine new ideas.  Daryl and I have come up with a very interesting research path - one that I think will enable me to be a part of something great and I am very excited about the potential of it all. 

I have also re-integrated my web consulting activities back into my life, having been asked by Luther College to come back as a part-time web consultant over the summer.  And of course there is my continued work with RCE Saskatchewan.  While working in industry I was barred from doing such activities as they posed a conflict of interest (I never really did see how though).  Regardless, I am happy to be back working with these two organizations as we are really doing great work (especially with RCE Saskatchewan).

With this new found exploration in academia I have obtained a renewed vigor and energy to complete my degree and successfully defend.  It is really great!  I am also taking steps in a similar sense in my home life, having a renewed energy and drive to become a more healthy individual, integrating healthier eating and exercise into my daily routines.  For me, the exercise has never been an issue as I do quite a bit of walking and weights, it's the eating that I need to work on. It will be hard as I lead quite a busy lifestyle and it's so easy, perhaps this is a cop-out, to eat all the garbage and processed foods out there; It's something I need to work on - changing my habits.  I have been reading Michael Pollan's books on the subject and have found them to be quite enlightening.  The great thing about this aspect of my life is that it relates to my academic research so, in essence, I can be a guinea pig for my own work which is truly exciting!

I have also had a rejuvenation of sorts re: my musical endeavors.  I have recently picked up the ol' electric guitar again.  Having been strictly an acoustic guy for the last 3 years, I have found playing ol' blackie (my fender strat) to be quite refreshing.  Before resigning my industry position I was able to purchase some musical upgrades - a new amp (Fender Blues Junior tube amp that sounds most spectacular) and some effects pedals.  With these mods/additions I have begun writing new material and hope to have an album released by the end of this year under the moniker interaction.  My ideas for musical exploration include exploring the possible musical interactions between humans and computer generated music and augmented human/computer musical devices.  I've written some very raw new songs, all of which have a jam type feel very reminiscent to what Brett and I used to do back in our high school years oh so many years ago :-)  I'm very excited about it!  I also have a number of songs written for my next acoustic album which will also hopefully be out this year; I have about 10 songs written - they just need to be recorded!  Jason and I will hopefully get things back going again too!

Other stuff: Both sisters are having babies this summer...so many baaaabbbbiiieessss....ewww :-)  It should be good though.  Tess is on #3 and Krista #1.  Exciting news for them indeed!  Iron Maiden, Tool, Rush, and the Folk Fest are all music concerts I am really looking forward to.  As well, I'm the conference chair of the 2011 graduate student conference - I'm really looking forward to this - planning is starting very early (next month), Rider season!!, IPAD! (need I say more), and Ubuntu on my Macbook...awesome!

All in all, a great summer is planned.  Like always, I'll try to post more regularly. -tMac

Sideways sheets of rain, fat drops of rain, lightening, wet, {WET}, everything WET! 

Regardless of Mother Earth cleaning house (to be the topic of another post very soon), Joey and I headed out to the Centre of the Arts Tuesday night to see one of the truly great Canadian bands, BNL.  There is no question.  I put BNL in the same likeness as some of Canada's other greats: The Tragically Hip, The Rheostatics, Blue Rodeo, Great Big Sea, among a few.  Truly these are Canada's greats!  BNL, in my mind, are very close to the top of this list.

Now I've been a fan of BNL since the very early days of Gordon.  Actually, they were the second live band I've seen (the first being...ha...Glass Tiger!..oh ya!).  Joey and I saw them in Regina a couple years ago at the Agridome and it was so much a treat indeed.  They are just such quality musicians and showmans.  It's just a good, fun time!

This is one of the reasons I like their music so much - is that it's fun.  I often get caught up in my own music and the indie music I love so much - stories with meaning or messages or life expereinces being part of what draws me to such music.  BNL on the other hand are just fun, but to boot they are some of the best musicians that the world has to offer {Kevin Hearn=EXCELLENCE}.

Upon hearing that they were coming back to Regina, Joey and I decided to go check it out.  The change from the last time we saw them was that Steven Page had left the building so to speak.  Some would argue how BNL could go on.  Afterall, Steven Page brought such a unique element to the band.  For surely I would agree.  However, I decided the benefit of the doubt was called for.  After hearing their new album, which came free with concert ticket purchase, I thought, hey, this is still pretty excellent stuff.  Finally after seeing the live thing last night brought it back into light - BNL lives and thrives.  Not to discount Steven Page.  I really like Steven Page and he will be sorley missed.  Songs such as "Brian Wilson", "Good Boy", which Ed Robertson ended the Regina show on, "Old Apartment", "Be My Yoko Ono", and the countless other gems with his unique brand are just not going to be the same.  This perhaps leads to my only negative critique of the show which was I felt, at times, that the band was trying to hard to make the point that "everything is ok."  Songs like "Good Boy" need to be left alone in my opinion; left for when the band gets back together {I'm envisioning in 10 years!...fingers crossed}. It's interesting though as I also feel that perhaps someone new to the BNL would think that there is no "real" issue with Steven being gone.  This is how good the 4 were.  However, those in the know could be tainted as we know what is missing in some of these classic tunes.  I can't lie, there were some tunes I thought well, this is not the same. It's still good, but just not the same.

That all said, I really had a blast at the concert.  There is no question that Ed, Kevin, Tyler, and Jim are going to be a great success on their own. Their new album is really a treat and has great potential to be on my top 10 of 2010.  Songs like "You Run Away", "Another Heartbreak", "Four Seconds", "Ordinary", "Every Subway Car", and "I Saw It" are instant classics for me and I was happy that they played many new tunes and that the crowd was diggin' it all.

Now that all said I really am hoping that Steven Page comes back into the fold but am willing to give the band time to do their thing.  Steven Page's new album has also been purchased and I'll review it soon.  I'm hoping to see him live in Regina too soon, hopefully he comes this way.  Letting the band do their thing and get through this phase of the band's timeline, well, it's the least we fans can do for them providing us with quality tunes for the last couple decades and a bit. I truly think it will all work out all in good time.

I would definately go see them again, very good indeed!  And, oh ya, Joel Plaskett was {EXCELLENT} as well.  I can't wait to see him again, hopefully this year! -tMac

Over the last couple days I was fortunate enough to attend the CIPS {Canadian Information Processing Society} 2010 Spring Seminar and had a very good time.  Highlights for me included meeting up with some previous students of mine (lab and class) as well as meeting some new folks but also the very inspirational talks that were had, espeically by Jesse Wilson from Google, David Gerhard from the U of Regina, and Michael Geist from the U of Ottawa. 

What hit me the most during the 2-day event was the fact that I need to become more engaged with what I am a proponent of.  As those who actually read this awesome blogosphere of mine {ha}, know that I am very much a proponent of open source technologies.  I use open source software as alternatives to mainstream softwares whenever possible.  I do this because open source provides the most choice for me personally, gives me the freedom to customize and personalize my experiences, among other things.  I am also a fan of the atmosphere/environment of open source, where we have communities of developers and users all working together for something good.  It's just awesome!

That said, I can, and see that I should do more than just spew my beliefs and ideologies.  What I am trying to say here is that I am a computer scientist.  I love computers; teaching and doing research and coming up with design concepts is really what I want to do in this life.  In this respect though I am very much a front-end designer of things, the GUI {graphical user interface} is my focus, i.e. what you see and do when you interact with a program.  This involves developing lo/hi-fidelity prototypes and testing designs with users, seeing what works and what doesn't and improving accordingly.  This I love!  What has been lacking lately though is the back-end programming experiences that are also very much an integral part of the whole teaching, research, and design process.  Jesse Wilson's seminars, which both talked about Google; one about Google Android {open source mobile goodness} and the other about being a software engineer at Google, and David Gerhard's seminar, which talked about alternatives to mainstream software solutions, really brought this aspect to light for me. Specifically, Jesse talked about the beauty of code and the power of it in the development of something, and the feeling one gets from contributing with a team the necessary bits and bites that actually comprise a product.  I had somewhat forgotten this aspect along my academic and industry journey {totally non-existent in my industry experiences thus far}.  I've been viewing coding as a necessary step, albeit somewhat a secondary one.  Really, when I think about it now after Jesse's and David's talks, I see now that it's just as important as the research and design of things {I knew this before, maybe just had forgotten it a tad}.

What I'm really trying to say is that I need to start getting my hands dirty again, back to delving into code.  Now don't get me wrong, in my experiences as a web designer and web system administrator, I've kept up my experiences in code; scripting here and there {ugly scripting no less}, but I think I really need to delve more into writing beautiful code.  Jesse's and David's very inspirational talks have led me to map out a plan which will have me getting more engaged, doing {aka Yodda}, planning the development of code-rich projects in my future {both in Android and other platform environments, bigger web stuffs and other}, more than just what I am planning for my PhD work.

Now, the linkages back to open source, how I started this whole blog posting.  Instead of just being a proponent and user of open source technologies, I see, and now feel the need to start contributing back.  I need to be more engaged in the actual coding/design/research of open source tools, espeically the ones I use daily.  Perhaps I could start by contributing to the documentation side of things {maybe with Drupal or Ubuntu}, leading into something more substantial like contributing code.  Truth of the matter is that I am in a position to contribute so the question is why am I not?  Thank you Jesse and David for giving me that spark of inspiration! -tMac

{PS: To be posted later is my experiences listening to the discussions on fair copyright by Michael Geist, who was also a highlight of the 2010 Spring Seminar.  However, that really deserves it's own post as it is a very important issue and Michael Geist is the leading expert.  His talks were also both educational and very inspiring indeed}