The New matthewmiddleton.ca…

Heads up! I’m going to be participating in the Walk For Kids Help Phone again this year, and I need your help to reach my goal of $500! From what I can tell, that’s equivalent to an hour and 20 minutes of counselling time for kids!

This will be my 3rd year participating in the Walk for Kids Help Phone, and this year I’m making my own pledge – if I raise $500 this year, I will participate in the Walk wearing my Gi (Aikido uniform) AND on the Sunday after, I will do 1000 cuts with my Bokken (wooden practice sword) at Aikido Shugyo Dojo.

So come out and sponsor me here!

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As a bit of a follow-up to my last post, I’ve decided to make this my personal motto for 2010, as it fits pretty much all of my planned projects.

I came across this last year in a few of the blogs I follow, including the one & only Wil Wheaton, and I think it sums up a really positive and forward-thinking attitude. Considering how things have gone thus far in the 21st century, I think we could use a bit more of this perspective.

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Welcome to 2010, please watch your step as you board the new decade!

Unlike previous years, I’ve decided to skip my predictions for IT, other than to say that things will likely tick along as they have thus far – no big shifts in tech. I think the lack of predictions is mainly because I don’t see anything coming that really fires me up in IT – doesn’t feel like there are any big new things on the immediate horizon.

Instead, this year I’m going to talk about the things that I’m looking forward to in 2010. I’ve got some projects in mind that definitely qualify as personal development, and you never know where these kinds of projects can lead.

Make my own beer and/or cider: I’ve got a couple of friends who make their own fermented beverages, and both make some pretty high quality stuff! This year, I want to start making my own for a few reasons:

Cheaper per glass than the store-bought stuff

Make interesting concotions

Better information about the source of the ingredients

Get an Arduino and start playing around with electronics: This one might have somewhat less practical application than the first, but I’ve been wanting to try out this platform for a while. I think it probably stems from my childhood fascination with robots, and other automated devices. Plus, I can learn about electronics in general this way, and that might be a handy skill!


Join Jamie’s Food Revolution with Virginia: My wife and I saw Jamie Oliver speak when he was in Toronto, and has inspired us to take on the challenge he put out in his book “Jamie’s Food Revolution”. We’re planning on each making a different dish from each chapter, then blogging about our own dishes as well as each others.


Test for 5th Kyu in Aikido: Now that my schedule has become a little more sane again, I’m getting back in the dojo regularly. I don’t know if I’ll pass or not, but I’m going to work my butt off to get ready for my next test.


Learn how to can food: Living in Ontario, we get a lot of awesome produce (especially tomatoes!), and I want to start preserving the harvest for the colder parts of the year.

Now, I turn the microphone over to you: what are your exciting 2010 projects.

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As you may have read in my previous post, I recently had a less-than-stellar experience with my ISP, TekSavvy. However, I’d like to comment on what they’ve done to repair their reputation with me.

First off, once I brought the issue to their attention, they got a new modem to me the next day, no questions asked (other than correcting my shipping address *LOL*). Then, when I emailed them requesting a credit for the 10 days I was unable to use a service I was paying for, they gave me a full month’s credit. Even if the credit is only because they can’t credit less than that in their billing system*, I appreciate the gesture.

So, to sum up, they made a pretty nasty mistake, but when it was brought to them, they went in and addressed it as quickly as possible and owned up to the mistake. This, to me, is the sign of a great company. So, if you’re in the market for a new ISP, and you’re in Canada, definitely check them out.

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Caution: Incoming Rant-ish Post

When my wife and I moved in to our apartment 3 years ago, I didn’t want to get our internet from one of the two big providers in my area (I’m looking at you, Bell and Rogers). After asking around my office, it sounded like TekSavvy was the way to go; their rates were reasonable, and they had some key features like static IP address and such a high download cap as to be essentially unlimited. For 3 years, I recieved excellent internet access, and the rare occasions when I had issues, their technical support was exceptionally knowledgeable. I sang their praises to anyone who needed an ISP, or who hated their current one. Then, last Sunday, my modem died. No fault of TekSavvy’s – stuff breaks down. I had opted to buy my modem instead of renting, so after spending the weekend trying to coax a bit more life out of my modem, I called in to order a new one. That’s when things started to go wrong…

The person I spoke with in Customer Service was reasonably plesant, considering it was a Sunday afternoon – I know how much it sucks to work weekends – and we got down to the billing for the modem. Initially, I indicated that I wanted the cost put on my regular bill, but the Customer Service agent explained that it can take a LOT longer to get it that way, since they have to get the money from the Bank before they ship the modem. Seems like a fair policy to me, so I asked to put it on my credit card. I gave them all the info, and was told to expect to see the notice in 2-3 business days. I hung up, confident that by Wednesday, I’d have a shiny new modem and be reconnected to the tubes.

Wednesday came and went, and no modem. At first, I chalked it up to Canada Post – it’s a busy time of year for them, what with Christmas coming and all. By Friday, I was getting a little annoyed, but resolved to be patient and wait until Monday. By Monday evening, I was pretty cranky – a week of paying for internet access that I couldn’t have didn’t exactly sit well. I called their customer service, and they tracked the package to a post office halfway across the city (according to Canada Post). After talking to someone at that outlet, I was able to figure out that there was something seriously amiss with the package – they didn’t have anything that was addressed to my address!

In the end, I’ve been able to clear it up with their Customer Service department – my new modem will be shipped ASAP, and delivered tomorrow. While I was glad that they resolved the issue quickly, the fact that this issue happened in the first place has done some serious damage to their reputation in my books. I won’t be recommending them again any time soon – their technical side is great, but their Customer Service definitely needs some work. Hopefully, they’ll remind their Customer Service agents that (a) confirming a shipping address is very important, and (b) if a customer says they want to bill their credit card, and give you the card information, then bill their damn card.

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I’ve been reading a lot lately about the whole “Climate-gate” story that broke a couple of weeks ago, and I’m getting a little tired of the people saying “See, see! You guys lied!” I expect that this won’t change any minds – those who believe that human beings are affecting the global temperatures will still believe that, and those that don’t will continue to not believe. I happen to be part of the first camp – living in a cold climate like Canada, I’ve seen the changes happening. Anyone in Toronto remember last winter? However, regardless of which camp you belong to, our species’ behaviour towards our home is still very important.

Global Warming isn’t the only reason we should be very concerned about humanity’s impact on its environment. Even our CO2 output isn’t heating up the earth, the vast majority of the activities which cause that output – Coal Power Plants, Gas-powered vehicles, etc. – do all sorts of other horrible things to our environment:

They pollute the air, contributing to higher rates of asthma and other respitory illnsses

The particulate contains really unplesant toxins that end up in our water supply

They use up a non-renewable resource; that is, when the oil’s gone, it’s gone for good

To me, these seem like pretty damn good reasons to be working our collective butts off to come up with a better solution. Even if we don’t cook ourselves, or drown ourselves by melting the polar ice caps, or completely bugger up the weather patterns, we can still very easily poison ourselves. Heck, we’ve been doing it for a while now!

So before you use this recent “scandal” as an excuse to go out and buy that Land Rover to drive to the grocery store a block away, consider that we have all sorts of other impacts on our environment.

Tags: Environmentalism, Global Warming, Pollution
Posted in Green |  | 1 Comment »

I recently attended the open house at my dojo in Toronto, Aikido Shugyo Dojo.  The turnout was great, and it was a lot of fun to see people trying aikido for the first time.  My parents came down as well, and I was really glad to have a chance to show them what I’ve been up to for the past (almost) year.

My awesome wife Virginia took a lot of photos, as well as a few videos, and I’ve compiled the videos in to a playlist, which you can see below:

Tags: Aikido, Aikido Shugyo Dojo, Toronto
Posted in Aikido |  | 2 Comments »

On Tuesday evening, I completed and passed my 6th Kyu test at Aikido Shugyo Dojo. To say I was nervous is putting it mildly – not because I was unprepared, but (ironically I suppose) because I was worried about getting nervous and forgetting some key component. However, I managed to avoid any major snafus, other than one on my roll (which I suspected I would flub on the test).

I’ve been in training for this test for the last 3 months, and had a LOT of help from my uke (the person on whom I performed the techniques), as well as several of the other students, and of course the instructors, so I was certainly prepared on a technical level. I felt like I understood the technique, at least at the level I needed to pass. I had all the etiquette down, and finally made that connection in my brain between the Japanese names for the techniques and what my body needed to do when those techniques were called upon. As far as I could see, I was all set.

We had a pretty active warm-up, lead by Fran Turner Sensei, and since the lowest ranks test first, I was already a bit sweaty when I was called up. Being in front of a large number of aikidoka whom I have a great deal of respect quickly became nerve-wracking, but I managed to focus on the technique. When I caught my mind and heart racing, I forced myself to slow down and think carefully about what I was doing. As anyone who isn’t used to performing can tell you, this can be rather challenging.

At the end of the tests, the 3 sensei each gave their reviews of the tests. Overall, they seemed fairly pleased with my performance, with the exception of my roll. Their other warning was regarding my speed; one of the sensei felt I was a bit slow, while another felt that for this test it was fine, but the general consensus was that I’ll need to be ready to move more quickly for the next test.

Luckily, I’ve got 60 class hours to prepare for that!

I think the biggest surprise for me was the outpouring of positive energy I received from the people who watched my test.  It meant a great deal to me that everyone was so supportive – I think I’m starting to understand why this is such a close-knit community.

Tags: Aikido
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I recently put my name on the waiting list for a Google Voice account, and noticed that it was U.S. only.  As someone who deals with web-based software, I can definitely understand limited geographical rollouts, especially with things like addresses and phone numbers.  So I was exceptionally pleased to see an invite in my Gmail inbox, indicating that I had an invite to Google Voice!  That is until I clicked the link to sign up.

As a side note, I have a Google Profile, have been using Gmail for years, and have been using Google Analytics for my .CA website for several months now.  When I signed up to the waiting list for Google Voice, I used the account that is associated with all these things, so that it would be one unified system.

When I clicked “Sign In”, the system simply said “Google Voice is not available in your country.  Thanks for visiting Google Voice. We’re not yet open for users outside the US, but are planning to expand our service to additional countries in the future.”

So, essentially, the Google Voice waiting list request, which is tied to all the rest of my Google identity that quite clearly identifies me as Canadian, is unable to know this and avoid inviting me until my country is part of the rollout.  This seems like a pretty big fail on their part – heck, all they needed to do was look at my Google Profile!  Considering that Google has a reputation for being pretty damn good at sifting through data, I’m extremely surprised that they couldn’t do a simple check on their internal DB (that they had to query anyway to get my account),  and say “Hey, this guy’s in Canada, maybe we shouldn’t give him an invite yet.”

So, for the time being, I’ll wait until they get Canada added.  I’m not annoyed with the lack of Canadian support, I just would have prefered not to have been teased with the opportunity to try out their new service, then told “nope, we didn’t check our data before, but now we checked it and you can’t have our shiny new product.”

Tags: Fail, Google, Google Voice
Posted in General Geekiness, Google, Internet |  | No Comments »

Getting in the paper recently about my success at finding a new job got me thinking about my overall experience. While the majority of what I talked about with the reporter didn’t end up in the article, I think that at least some of it would be useful for those who may potentially be facing a layoff or are already laid off.

One of the most important things that I found is that you must NOT allow your layoff to affect your self-respect and self-esteem.  Keeping these things in mind may help avoid getting depressed about the layoff:

• Layoffs are about numbers, not people; being laid off doesn’t reflect on your skills, abilities, or your worth as a person
• Companies who jump to layoffs as an early cost-cutting measure damage their long-term worth, but yours is still very much intact
• There ARE jobs out there

It’s important to keep busy when unemployed.  If you’ve got projects that have only been lacking the time necessary to devote to them, get started and make sure to let people know what you’re working on via blogging/Twitter/Facebook/MySpace/What Have You*.  If you don’t have projects, find an organization or two that you feel could benefit from your efforts and volunteer with them.  Besides keeping you busy, it helps the community, and when you’re looking for a job a little good karma doesn’t hurt.

Finally, tell EVERYONE that you’re looking for work!!  This is a big one, and something that I think a lot of people have trouble with.  There’s still a stigma in some people’s minds with regards to being laid off, but the reality is that we’ve all been there or know someone who has, and know it’s not a reflection on the person.  Another point to consider: The more people that know you’re looking for a job, the more likely it is that someone will know of a position or will know a valuable contact that can help you find a new job.  Don’t be afraid to appeal to people’s egos – if they help you find a job, they’ll feel good about themselves for helping you, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Ultimately, this all boils down to one thing: stay positive!  Sometimes it can be tough – I found it difficult during stretches of time where my resumes were going out, but few responses were coming in – but if you can present yourself as a positive person even in the adversity of being laid off, it will make you a much more appealing candidate for a new job.

*Not an actual website

Tags: Job Hunting, Unemployment
Posted in Internet, Job Hunt, Social |  | 2 Comments »