I found out on Friday that my friend and founder of the Alexandrian, just released the Fall issue. I haven’t read the entire issue yet, but it looks like a great issue.
I’m particularly excited about this issue because it contains my first ever non-self-published short story: Learning to Love God
http://thealexandrian.org/journal/learning-to-love-god
I can’t speak for all the other Android developers in the world, but I know that I don’t. But I can’t pass up a good opportunity for a terrible pun at the late Phillip Dick’s expense.
However I am enjoying living in the Android ecosystem both as a developer and as a user. Just right now I am trying out a blogging application for Android. And even without the slide-out keyboard, using the Swype input app and using an unfamiliar app, I feel more at home on the Samsung Galaxy S than on my Nokia N900…
As a developer I really enjoy working with the APIs. And I appreciate using a widely used platform. No it is not a perfect platform. But it is a joy to work with compared to some mobile platforms and much better than plain old Java development. I guess the saying that the Android development is where old Java developers feel young again is true.
Now if only Google keeps on doing and good job, the manufacturers keep on churning out good handsets, and the fine legal team at Oracle lays off then we’ll all be well off.
On Wednesday evening, I went to the 17th Annual Totally Unknown Writers Festival. As always organized by the great folks from Life Rattle Radio and originally founded by two of my professional writing professors, Guy Allen and Arnie Achtman. As with every year, great stories written and read by talented authors from around Toronto.
I hoped to read this year, but I’ll get ready for next year’s festival. I did meet up with some of my old classmates from university. And I was able to catch up with them and Guy. If you want to hear great stories of life experiences from the GTA, I highly recommend coming out to the festival.
Update: My sincere apologies for blogging for not fact checking before posting. Apparently Poland’s occupation by her neighbors officially only lasted 123 years rather than 200. However the partitioning of Poland’s borders started before that time, so my initial past may not far off. Still I apologize about that error.
Today is Rememberance Day. Originally commerating the end to the senseless slaughter of World War I with the signing of the Armstice. Today we commerate the sacrifices of men and women in the armed forces and resistance forces. But we should also remember all those died because of that most hideous of human acts, war. Since the French Revolution, the total war doctrine expanded the scope of war to include civilians and many innocents have been massacred in front of altars of War. We too need to remember them.
Rememberance should not end at wearing a poppy and a gloomy look. It should not be done for a few minutes of silence once a year. (But please the least you can do is offer those few minutes.) No we should try to learn about these sacrifices and why they happened. Knowledge for its own sake is of little value. Knowledge must be acted upon for it have value. We must act upon the knowledge of these wars, their victims and their consequences. For the consequences of even wars that happened hundreds of years ago, live with us today.
I’ll make the bold claim that it is our duty to help eliminate or minimize these horrors from touching future generations. Unfortunately, our current actions don’t speak well to a better future.
For Poles today is also our Independence Day from the combined empires of Russia, Austro-Hungarian & Prussia. The end of World War I ended 123 years of foreign occupation and resistance. Today as a Pole I remember about the many sacrifices done for our national identity and voice. And I pray that Poland does not lightly dismiss these gifts, for profit and conformity to the European Union.
Remember, remember the 5th of November. A very merry Guy Fawkes Day to ye all!
Some thoughts:
A new month begins and a new twist to life. This is the first day at a new office in downtown Toronto. Not that I’ve changed positions, I’m still working as a mobile developer for Web Impact. For my coworkers, this is nothing new since they all worked at the Toronto office before moving out to Mississauga. Unfortunately the Mississauga location did not provide what we needed and so we are moving back for now.
This morning everything is a little different. Figuring out new schedules, new routes and a new location. Should be fun. Other than that I’ll still get to enjoy working on mobile coding, with all its unique challenges.
One challenge I worked on this past while is writing. Not a lot of progress on the novel. But I did manage to submit two short stories for publishing. One to the Fall issue of the Alexandrian, which should come out soon. And one to 365 Tomorrows, which will hopefully get accepted too.
Other than that I still have load of catching up on work. I still feel a bit behind. Anyways, this next stop is mine. Catch you later.