Better late than…

It’s weeks like the last two that make maintaining a blog rather difficult – so much happening, so many meetings, so much code to write/evaluate/re-write… between that and my busy social life, there isn’t much time at the end of the day to gather one’s thoughts into anything approaching coherence. At any rate, a brief rundown would have to at least include mention of our ever-improving API, now being written in ASP and .NET versions for all you Microsoft victims, our expanding network – we’re now returning results continent-wide from FedEx and UPS, with Dynamex soon to come – and our continuing efforts to get our second round of capital in place. As the company has grown over the last 12 months, I’m somewhat less hands-on when it comes to decisionmaking on the corporate level, as I’m busy in the trenches building the technology that the firm is valued on. That said, I am still in close contact with the partners and all decisions made are unanimous – aside from a few…

Out in the real world, I was devastated to find out that Friday’s Booka Shade concert was cancelled when the band got snowed in at NYC; it was rescheduled to Sunday, but that didn’t suit me as Monday promised to be insanely busy – I now have the dubious pleasure of having missed my favourite band in London AND Toronto. Still, we compensated somewhat beforehand by heading to the Trane Studio to see my good friend Waleed Abdulhamid kick it with his band of jazz musicians, and they were on fire that night.

Currently reading: ‘Woolmer’s death treated as murder‘ – intrigue in the intl cricketing community

Currently hearing: Neon Bible – The Arcade Fire

Currently watching: Fast Food Nation (dir: Richard Linklater)

The good, the bad, and the very good

Headed out to Koolhaus last night to catch Damon Albern’s latest incarnation, The Good, The Bad and The Queen.  While the album seems a bit mopey and introspective, the live sound was massive and dynamic, and the show was dynamite.  The band performed a fairly short set – understandable since they only have one album – with Damon and bassist Paul Simonen (ex of the Clash) alternating bandleader position.  Afrofunk legend Tony Allen laid down a rock-solid groove, and the band was accompanied by a string quartet.  All in all, a worthwhile Sunday evening.

I find Albern’s new direction to be intriguing – there’s a delicacy and deliberate anti-pop sensibility which really forces you to listen.  As the composer of some of the most absurdly catchy music of the last two decades – Blur’s Girls and Boys, almost anything by the Gorillaz – it must have taken a lot of discipline to retain the skeletal, subdued tone of GBQ.  Either way, he once again takes off in a new direction, proving himself to be the most creative voice of the (woefully named) Britpop generation.

Currently reading: The Looming Tower – Lawrence Wright

Currently hearing: The Good, The Bad and The Queen

Currently watching: Pan’s Labyrinth (dir. Guillermo del Toro)

Work, music, batteries, placebos

I don’t have a lot of time to post this week as we finally wrap up our API build, coming soon to www.shippingpal-api.com. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of coding to do myself, as well as integrating all the third party work that has gotten us this far. Such dedication – I even elected to stay in last night rather than check out the Toronto debut of a band that’s been getting a fair bit of play in my iTunes, the Submarines. Oh well, they were only the opening act.

In other news, my MacBook Pro is experiencing battery issues, a total pain as I can’t afford the time to put it in for repairs, but it has only about half the battery life I had two weeks ago, and it cuts off without any warning, leaving me in the middle of a major project without a reliable, portable system. So I’m somewhat chained to my desk, which might be advantageous considering the amount of work I face in the next few days.  Strangely, running diagnostics using the hand coconutBattery app shows no problems – it’s still running at full capacity, but it dies well before the battery indicator goes into the red.

Across the web, I see that – centuries of anecdotal evidence notwithstanding – a bunch of scientists are claiming that coffee does not in fact wake you up in the morning. I don’t drink it every day, but I have in the past, and this sounds patently absurd. I know entire companies that run on the stuff, and I’m not inclined to think it a placebo…

Currently reading: Apple discussion board – MacBook Pro battery

Currently hearing: Declare a New State – The Submarines

Currently watching: No Reservations (Discovery Travel)