The post’s title is an aphorism from Robert Fripp’s http://www.dgmlive.com/.

It is a struggle to come up with a blog post every couple of weeks; it’s a struggle to do the photo of the day thing every day. I’m half way through the month of pictures, and I need to persevere to get to the end of May having posted a picture I took during that day, every day – to complete the task.

Back in 1981 Fripp’s band, King Crimson, released Discipline which had this on the cover: Discipline is never an end in itself, only an means to an end.

Here’s to completion and the joy of making it to the goal.

Finally May has arrived, lent is over, taxes are filed, the Royal Wedding was delightful, and the promise of longer days with better weather presents the possibility of outdoor activities.

A friend who visited recently publishes a picture of the day every day. My plan for May is to see if I can do that for a month. Let’s see how that goes!

For a few years I have been gradually forgetting phone numbers as all the important numbers got stored in my cell phone and home phone.

Now I’m memorizing important numbers, and using my mobile phone to check and reinforce my memory. When I complete dialing the number correctly using the keypad, the name associated with the number in the phone’s directory is displayed and I can be sure it’s OK before hitting the “Call” button.

Maybe now I’ll be able to call my wife and daughter on their mobile from memory, no matter where I am or whether I have access to my mobile phone.

Time to stop the rot and start exercising my memory…

Unexpected time off. No plans, no demands, no goals. A great opportunity to goof around and see what comes up.

I had an unexpected surprise at Service Ontario when I went to renew my driving license, health card, and license plate sticker. There were two people ahead of me in the queue and five people, including a trainee, serving. I was in and out of the office in around ten minutes. Great service, and a good use of my tax dollars.

I wasn’t expecting to spot REWORK in the book store while out buying birthday presents. Let’s see if it meshes with Peopleware‘s take on the world.

I didn’t expect to be stumped by what to do with some time off. I’m working on this, and after going through a couple of Ryan Bates’ Railscasts (well, the ASCIIcasts) I finally got sucked into having some fun starting to understand what was really going on.

I unexpectedly came across some instrumental versions of some tracks on the 40th anniversary re-issue of King Crimson’s Red, and was reminded of my wish to have instrumental versions of much of my music collections…

All in all the week has been pleasantly full of unexpected surprises. If expectation is a prison then this week has given me several glimpses of freedom.

One of my christmas presents to my wife was a 2011 calendar to be put in the kitchen. Cunningly I had selected the Pudding Club calendar which has a different pudding for each month. This has been a fine way to try some new recipes, and this evening we are trying out another steamed pudding, syrup pudding, in anticipation of unleashing it on some guests this weekend.

Before this year it had been a long time since I had consumed steamed puddings. Memories of boarding school surface, and it is only a matter of time before Bird’s custard makes another appearance…

A couple of days off work before the weekend give me a chance to look into building a RESTful application on top of Sinatra. Or not.

If I really want to get some rest then a break from all programming-related activities is what’s needed. This extended weekend it’s time to start re-ripping some of my CDs at a better bit rate now that I have put a bigger disc in my laptop. It’s funny to look at music I bought a couple of decades ago and rip even the “embarrassing” stuff – it’s still fun to listen to it and be transported back to a different time and place.

Taking a rest from alcohol for lent means that my Sunday beer has become a matter of importance. The alcohol-free beers seem to have almost no interesting flavours – maybe they are too subtle for me. This Sunday’s Fuller’s vintage ale was a delight to taste, made doubly delightful because I was able to catch up with a friend and talk about pretty much anything except computers and programming.

So that was a pretty restful weekend, I wonder how long I’ll feel the benefits for once I’m back in my normal routine.

At a recent Toronto Perl Mongers meeting I asserted that I had been interested in Ruby for well over a decade, and went looking for an old photo of Dave Thomas, Hal Fulton and a few of us enjoying a beer at the Dog and Duck pub in Austin in 2001. Alas rubygarden has vanished into the mists of time (or the Wayback Machine), but I was able to find the picture on Hal Fulton’s web site.

From Hal Fulton’s site:

Ruby has a long history in Austin, Texas, and I have pictures to prove it. This first picture was taken outside the Dog & Duck Pub in April of 2001. Dave Thomas flew down from Dallas to meet us all. Left to right: Dave Thomas; Conrad Schneiker (who created comp.lang.ruby and helped flesh out the structure of The Ruby Way); Suzanne Senay (wife of Mike Stok); Unknown Person 1; Unknown Person 2; Anthony Cagle (?); Mike Stok; and Hal Fulton. If I got any of that wrong, please yell.

Almost a decade later, I’m looking forward to my first Toronto Ruby Brigade meetup on 15 March 2011.

Cameron Balloons will have been in business for forty years come April, as they note that’s a ruby anniversary.

For me ballooning and Ruby share some desirable features: they mix artistic and engineering sensibilities, being around balloonists and rubyists is always an interesting and energizing.

Sometimes so many things happen so quickly that the world seems to be a blur. I find that this reduces my confidence in dealing with things, and puts me a little on edge.

One of the swirling events was the birth of a new nephew. During a congratulatory Skype call my brother commented on his new glasses, and intimated that he was the last of us to get glasses. He underestimated my vanity – although I have probably needed glasses to read comfortable for some time, I have never got around to getting them in the hope of making it to fifty before succumbing to them. Now I am the proud owner of some reading glasses, and seemingly without effort one type of blurriness has gone from my life.

I wish it was as easy to pull focus on the swirl of events and problems during the day in as effortlessly in an environment seemingly designed to frustrate that end. If I can master that then I will get more done, maybe exhibit some grace under pressure, and find some joy in abandoning myself to the tempest.

For a while I was concerned that I might be circling the bowl of middle-aged irrelevance, buy yesterday I think I had a hipster experience which means that mid-life is not as close as I feared.

A few days ago we decided that my wife needed a laptop to un-tether her from her computer while grading papers or battling Blackboard. Desirable features included a sensible sized keyboard, light weight, and easy interoperability with her Mac Mini. Somehow we ended up with an 11″ MacBook Air, a little sister to my MacBook Pro.

The logical next step was to head out to Starbucks to show off our pair of computers while enjoying a hot chocolate or two. Unfortunately there were many other Apple toting youngsters enjoying the free WiFi and caffeinated beverages, so rather than sit in prime visibility seats in the comfy chairs by the window we lurked deeper in the bowels of the store.

That didn’t quite hit the aspiring hipster spot. We slunk back home to watch a Truffaut movie, rented from iTunes of course.

Our experience was complete. We had connected with our inner hipsters. Youth reclaimed. Thank you, Apple and Starbucks.