Devauld.ca

At first I figured that the final chapter of the The Man Under The Stairs (TMUTS) had been written and the book closed. Turns out I was very wrong.

Ever since the hammer fell over a month ago, I've feared that the vindictive soul that resided in my basement would strike at me. I was right from the start, as three days after I gave him written notice to leave, I got a letter from the city saying that I was reported for having an illegal basement suite.

I don't really need Bayes' Theorem to show me there is a relationship between those two events.

Anyway, I did some research and figured there was a couple areas where I could use a little improvement, but didn't see anything that would pose a problem, given enough time and money. My fears were lifted further when I met with Elizabeth for my inspection. She was a nice lady who was very helpful. She told me I was pretty much in the clear, except that my lot was a little too narrow.

Turns out you need to be 15m wide to have a legal suite, and my lot is 14.94m wide. The width of my hand is going to bring me a great deal of pain. Anyway Elizabeth told me that it might not be a big deal, but she would check up on it and get back to me.

I know that my knuckle dragging, beady eyed ex-tenent with the sloped forhead is probably having a good chuckle at my expense right now. The letter came in that says that I am in fact illegal as an up-down duplex. The City of Calgary was kind enough to send me the checklist for what I'll need in order to get a Development Permit fo a relaxation of the required lot width. The beautiful document, in its eleven pages, include items such as:

• Colour Photographs of the site, with a minimum of two views
• Six (6) copies of Site Plans
• Six (6) copies of Floor Plans
• Six (6) copies of Elevation Drawings
• A current copy of the Certificate of Title (To me this is the only one that makes sense)
• A completed Site Contamination Statement
• A completed Public Tree Disclosure Statement
• The Administration Fee, of course

When I saw this list of stuff, I started to wonder if it was even worth it. I mean, I don't even know where to start getting an Elevation Drawing including windows, doors, loading bays, projections, fascia trim, decorative elements, lighting, exterior materials, roof materials, fascia, trim and colours of all major exterior building materials all dimensioned from grade and main floor.

The cherry on the top is the Fees. Innocently found as the eleventh page of the package is the two sided schedule of fees. By my rough calculations after I have paid for the application, get the appropriate paperwork pushed through and pay for my Certificate of Compliance I'm going to be out close to one grand. That's not including what it's going to cost me to round up all the nonsense I need just to complete the checklist for application. I'm sure pulling title will be reasonable, but six copies of the floor plans aren't going to be cheap.

Now I'm asking myself if it's even worth the bother. I could rip out all the cooking facilities, and it's no longer a suite. Pick up a couple room mates, and put in a home theatre and climbing wall in the basement. I won't have my own private space, save my bedroom, but I won't have to deal with this nonsense. Especially since I could jump through every hoop and they could still deny me my certificate.

Yesterday when I was out on a farm in Priddis, I managed to capture this photo out the south end of the house. I was pretty happy, and was thinking about lightning all the way through dinner. On my way home, I noticed some dark, dark clouds running in from the north, and I started to see a light show up on Nose Hill Park.

It wasn't long and this PhotoNut was up on the top of Nose Hill (beside a tall pole, for safety) crouched under a tiny wind blown umbrella (more for the camera than for me) and snapping away into the darkness. The best of the best can be found in this flickr photo set.

Tonight, I was planning on doing some yard work, but on my way home, fate ensured that wouldn't happen. I was happy, car dancing to whatever was on the radio, when suddenly there was an annoying beeping on the radio. I just figured that the radio station lost their collective mind and switched stations. The annoying beeping jumped to the other station as well. I mashed through the stations preprogrammed into the radio and every one produced the same annoying sound.

The kid in me immediately thought of an alien invasion, but soon I was alerted to the fact that it was the emergency broadcast system. Apparently there is a severe storm warning in effect with heavy hail, winds and the possibility of a tornado. Doesn't sound like the kind of weather in which I want to toss around top soil.

This month's PhotoFriday challenge caught me by surprise. I didn't have anything in my portfolio that spoke Private.

Since I'm destined to be a professional photographer, I took the challenge as a deadline of one week where I would need to fill a particular niche. Therefore, I sought out this picture, and I'd definitely say it's 'Private'.

The long weekend treated me really well, which is exactly what I needed before heading into a week of pain. Saturday started the long weekend out with a great gathering of friends. We met in the north west at Kilkenny's for a few adult beverages before heading to the Stampeders game. The game was against the green rivals from the east, and we were seated right in the middle of Rider Nation. It was a great day to be outside, in the sun watching football with some friends. In the end the good guys won, and I was able to rub it in the faces of all the Sask. fans that came to the game with us.

Sunday we decided to take a trip down the Elbow river. The trip was organized by Penny-Lane entertainment, but it wasn't very well done. We didn't get any of the stuff we were promised, but that didn't stop us from making the absolute best of the day. The bus driver dropped us off at 'Sandy Beach' which was basically a bend in the river with a tonne of rocks. We took our inflatible toys, mattresses, dingys and the pink lady and flowed lazily down the Elbow. It took us nearly 5 hours to float a few kilometers down the river, but it was the best way I could think of to spend the afternoon. After the Elbow trip we headed over to Calvin and Heather's for a BBQ and some sitting out on the patio telling stories.

Monday was ..... lazy. Lounging, movies, snacking and napping made up the majority of the day. I'd like to think I'm saving my strength for the battles of the week

The upcoming week promises to be awkward and painful. TMUTs has had his 30 days to vacate the premisis and as of the last time I looked out the window, I don't think he's going to make the noon deadline for tomorrow. This means a lot of running around and retarded actions as I show the city my suite (because he reported it to be illegal), and try to get him out of my house. It's going to be interesting.

For about the last month, I've been swamped with various undertakings ranging from improving my home through removing vermin and landscaping to trying to push my alternate sources of income. As is usual when I get into that frame of mind, I find that my stress level goes way up, time flies by way too fast, and before I know it: It's Christmas and I'm sick. Being pro-active, I've been scheduling time to relax.

Since I'm a geek at heart, and once aspired to get into electronic entertainment, I find that most of my scheduled down time has been indulging in video games.

It came about when I heard that Heroes of Might and Magic V was on store shelves, and since I was a huge fan of the franchise, I got myself a copy. I played it a few times and was really frustrated when the computer, as Glen put it, played the I'm going to win card. It always happened when I went from the surface to the subterranian world or vice versa. Although, I did come close to victory as the Necromancers, I never managed to get past that point with any of the other races. I wasn't having much fun getting my ass handed to me by the unfair AI.

Since HOMMV was about as fun as getting your drunken ass kicked by a bouncer, I stopped playing it. In fact, I may not touch another game in the franchise unless someone glowingly refers me back to it. For the time being I went back to playing the immensly fun Rise of Legends.

I was a fan of RoL's predecesor Rise of Nations, so trying it out was natural. I love how the game plays, and it can be set up so that you can very quickly and easily walk through the AI in order to relieve some aggression, or you can crank the AI up for the challenge of a lifetime. The best part is the variety and the control. I was very happy and content with RoL, that was, until I got my hands on Hitman: Blood Money.

I knew that the newest of the Hitman games were out, but had yet to get around to playing it, instead betting (incorrectly) on my favored genre of strategy (ala HOMMV). A co-worker picked the game up one day, and as he's prone to do, started talking about it. Suddenly my time sitting in my University dorm run, sneaking around wiring people in Hitman 2 came flooding back to me. As is true to the franchise, the game is fun. It's a unique roll together of a first person shooter and an opened ended puzzle. So far I've enjoyed the first few missions, and plan on enjoying a few more.

More and more I've been thinking about how much fun is within a game. My old room mates would climb onto my system with the latest and greatest first person shooters, real time strategy and city simulators and play games distributed free by PopCap. This has recently led me to spending a lot of time thinking about game design with the bulk of the console wars rearing it's head as we come closer and closer to the Christmas season. My bet is on Nintendo, because they make fun games. They have Mario in their corner, and buildings full of people worrying about how much fun a game is going to be to play. They've bet the future of the company that people will take fun over the next iteration of cool graphics, and antialiasing. Sure the other two consoles will have some fun games, but Nintendo makes games with lasting appeal. This is important, because in the end it's only the Fun that matters.