I’ve been playing with a number of things lately. Project Ubuntu is still ongoing and I am a proud and loud proponent of open source software now. Gone are the shackles of the Microsoft overlords, and I’m happy about it.

In other nerdy news I’ve really come to love the ever popular site Life Hacker since I found this article explaining how to turn my point and shoot cannon into a super camera with a non destructive firmware hack (CHDK) I can now use the camera to take my regular point and shoots, but in parallel save the RAW files which I can tweak (develop) when loaded into GIMP or Photoshop.

In life news, it’s time for a new furnace and air conditioner. Our yearly inspection brought to light some deficiencies which required an upgrade. One of the greatest deficiencies of note is that the furnace was approximately 65% efficient. Not so good some someone like myself who is becoming ever more concerned with his environmental footprint and fuel usage.

Our new unit is rated at 96%, which will do wonders for the heating bill, and my conscience. This will be installed tomorrow. We have also arranged a home energy audit which will identify areas for improvement, as well as make us eligible for sizable government of Ontario rebates for the furnace, and anything we fix that is flagged in the initial audit.

A long weekend approaches. I’ve taken an extra Friday off, for no other reason than I am not a fan of working. We will be taking Lily to the Zoo with her friend Sadie for a picnic. This past weekend we realized Lily is a bit of a jerk, when at Sadie’s first birthday party, Lily stole her happy birthday balloon and made Sadie cry. What are you going to do, someone’s got to raise the trouble makers of the world, may as well be us.

Work is work, and little has changed.  Laura is beginning to fear the realization that she will be required to return to work in a few short months.    I don’t blame her.  I leave Lily behind every morning and it still causes me pain daily.  It’s such an unnatural feeling to leave.  Life in the modern commerce driven society…

I suppose I should cut this short and get back to auditing some bills sent to us by contractors.  How this falls into my job title of network specialist, I don’t know, but that’s the story of my life.  I very rarely do what I am getting paid to do, but no one ever seems to mind.  I suppose I can’t complain…