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40 is a Big Number

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

Today is my fortieth birthday. 39 had its ups and downs. Lots of health issues and lots of bureaucratic frustration. I hope this year will be better.

It’s also around the age that my father was diagnosed with brain cancer and my mother was diagnosed with diabetes. Both of whom died far too young (47 and 56). Those numbers are terrifyingly close now.

Despite my health issues the past year, I’m in better health (my heart, pancreas, and brain seem to be fine) than either of them were at my age and I’ve lived a very different life. (Significantly easier in many ways.) I’ll feel better when I have the results from the MRI I took last Friday.

I have a lot of stories left to tell and a lot of life to see. (I want to know what happens in the 100th anniversary of Doctor Who (2063) and Star Trek (2066).)

Pre-Order Yourself a Birthday Gift for me

The Mystery of the Dancing Lights by Éric Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

Pre-order Crushing It by Jen Desmarais now!
Physical version, electronic version (Coming Soon)

Thank you reading!

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

When did I get old?

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Douglas Adams had some rules about technology:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

I started looking at replacing an old CD player and found out that home audio CD players that plug into an amp are now antiquated. You can buy the high end stuff, but nothing at the lower end. I was hoping they were 50-100, but in that range you need to get a blu-ray player or a bluetooth CD player that looks suspiciously like my Sony Discman from 2003.

I had the same issue when looking for burnable CDs, and blu-ray burners.

I guess the technology that I’m used to using is slowly dying. I’m going to be very salty when optical disks die. Streaming is great, but rights change and disappear. Owning the physical media means you can watch it whenever you want. Even during a nation-wide internet outage.

Okay… I’ll go back to yelling at clouds. (Nothing like a 20 year old meme right?)

Éric

Top 5 Things I Never Thought I’d say – Public Servant Edition

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I received my certificate for being in the public service for 10 years (only 20 more to go. Woo!)

I have seen a lot and said a lot in that time. Countless amounts of, “Huh?” and “Why?” but some things have really blindsided me.

 

5. Do we still have pens/highlighters?

A few years ago the government released a directive to lower the amount of paper we use. I never liked printing things anyway and most of my work is digital but every once in a while I need a pen and can’t find it.

There’s a little area that has some, but nothing compared to the stationary closets of the past.

4. Template, form, mock-up, or style?

Surprisingly depending on people’s background, all these things can mean the same product. It can be:

  • an example file used to recreate the same look
  • a fillable document meant to collect information
  • a technical product that has all the styles and look built into it for easy formatting
  • a list of detailed instructions or examples that show how something should be done.

It’s not always obvious what people want and trying to navigate that without sounding condescending is a pain.

3. Free food? I’ll pass.

I love free food, like a starving college/university student loves free food.

There are a lot of events that are held where they give free food. I’m still learning which ones are worth it and which are, “standing in line for an hour in the hot sun wishing I was dead”.

Some of these events are just not worth the burger and bag of chips that’s offered.

2. My Agency has an Instagram strategy…

It was bound to happen. I’m so old and out of touch with social media and tech that my agency is outpacing me. They are looking into Instagram as a way to spread the accomplishments of the public service.

That means that it’s possible that my workplace will have an Instagram account before me.

It both makes me want to sign up and not want to… yikes.

1. You’ve reached a government phone… stop calling me

Three years ago my office got rid of landlines in favour of cellphones. That, unfortunately, meant the death of extensions and government specific numbers. Which meant the rise of spam calls.

Since I don’t deal with clients directly I get very few, real, calls.

The fake CRA scam, duct cleaning, credit card scam, Chinese Embassy, and people looking for Genevieve call me on a regular basis.

My favourite thing to do is answer the phone with my name, position, and agency and then repeat it twice. Most of them hang up or laugh and then threaten me.

 

What odd things have you said in your day job?

Éric