My eyes are bleeding.

Jeez Louise, you Toronto Trek concom members write long reports... all 134 of them. (Reports, that is... not concom members. ;) )

*rubs eyes vigourously*

So apparently I have to give Tink the opportunity to call me a liar. Let's see, what can I say about last night...

I'm enjoying bowling with the new team - first of all, they actually treat me as a team member, unlike the guys I was with the past two years who would completely ignore me when I walked off the lane. Though I nearly sliced my wrist open on Mario's wrist guard when he gave me a high-five. Yikes.

I got off to a slow start, only bowling a 133 in the first game. I think part of this was because traffic was so bad that I didn't get to the alley until 6:30, and by the time I'd had some food - bacon, ham and pepperoni pizza, the breakfast of champions (yes, I said "6:30" and "breakfast") - it was nearly time to start, so I only got one practice frame in. It took quite a while for me to figure out that I had to move two and a half boards to the left in order to hit the pocket - my ball doesn't normally curve that much. The second game was average - 167 - and then I had a really good third game, 201. So I can relax; I've earned my "200 Club" t-shirt for this year already. (I know, I know... I don't need any more t-shirts. I need hand towels* even less.)

I had a call today from a company requesting a reference for dx4's brother. I hope I wasn't too effusive in my praise... they may not believe it. I ask those of you who know Nik - was saying "he's fantastic to work with, does his work efficiently, without complaint and goes above and beyond what we ask and I would certainly recommend him" too much? I thought it odd that she asked me twice if I still "employed" him; it was almost as though she wouldn't believe that I would tell a possible rival that he was a good employee unless I was trying to get rid of him. I explained that I wasn't so much his "employer" as one of his supervisors in a volunteer capacity, and now I'm wondering whether I should have bothered to make that distinction.

I've gotten several notifications about jobs I may be qualified for over the past week or so; I suppose I should send resumes out, shouldn't I? I'm considering looking into taking some object-oriented programming courses, too; it would have been convenient to take them this fall, but I missed the application deadlines while I was fighting with my mother for the money to be able to afford them. I don't particularly want to go back to school (not to mention the fact that I'm pushing 40 here), but I can't sit around here all day waiting for a mainframe job to open up. I know that eventually, as more baby-boomers retire, there will be more opportunities on legacy systems, but it can't hurt to pick up some more up-to-date knowledge. I could teach myself, now that I have the necessary books (it's how I've picked up what little web programming skills I have now), but for some reason I suspect employers would rather look at people with formal education. Ugh.

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* For "hand towel", read "cum rag."

Sad news.

I hate to be posting this at what is the first thing in the morning for most of you, but I just got this in my email from the Toronto_Fen list:

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From the Titan Rainbow forums:

It is with tremendous sadness that I inform everyone Malcolm Xerxes has passed away.

The details are slow in coming but what we know is that he died on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 sometime in the afternoon.

Police are still attempting to contact family members so if anyone knows how to contact Malcolm's relatives, either in Ontario, Canada or in Manchester, England please have them contact Peel Regional Police in Mississauga Ontario, or the Toronto Police Services directly; or through their local authorities.

I promise that as things calm down and we absorb this devasting news that more information will be posted here, but I felt it important to let everyone know what we could.

Those who have been advised already are grieving each in their own way at the loss of this very special man. I hope each of you find solace in your memories of encounters with him, in person and through these channels. We at Titan shall miss him terribly.

Take care everyone. I am sorry to be the bearer of this sad news.

Gary Davidson

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Some of you are no doubt wondering whom I'm talking about. Malcolm was a Toronto-area member of science fiction fandom, as well as being a stuntman and actor. He had been a panelist at Toronto Trek for the past few years, and more than that... we in local fandom have considered him to be a good and loyal friend.