Paul Hammond's Blog

Late last year I got a FlickrMail from the people at schmap.com asking for permission to use a photo I took of the Rogers Centre in Toronto as part of their Schmap Toronto Guide.  Of course I readily gave permission, it was fantastic to have been picked!

You can see the schmap.com guide by clicking this link – my photo appears (albeit very small) in the top right hand corner among a collection of other photos of the Rogers Centre.  Despite the size, I still find its inclusion fulfilling. 

As an aside, the schmap.com site is actually an excellent source of information when you travel.  I had actually discovered it a while before they mailed me, when I was testing an iPhone.  As well as being a great resource for “normal” internet browsers, it works really well as an iPhone site – the information is shown in text format when the phone is held in portrait mode, and it re-orients the page to add mapping when you rotate the phone to landscape mode.  Check it out at http://www.schmap.com/.

A long while ago, I posted about the fact that every office has a Kevin, and that ours was called Paul.  Well, Paul has moved on from my team now, but apparently he hasn’t moved on from his inate Kevin-ness.  Here is a transcript from an IM conversation I had with him the other day.

Paul says (16:11):
  I've just outdone any accident that I've ever done before (in an office).
Paul says (16:12):
  New contract, been here 2 weeks.. I'm the Scrum admin this week. I open the scrum draw,
  and there is what looks a toy gun with soft balls in it.  I pick it up and as i do so, 
  I manage to actually, non-intentionally pull the trigger.
  Turns out, it's a high powered professional paint ball gun.
Paul says (16:13):
  I shot the team secretary the other side of the office!!
Paul says (16:15):
  So, I'm new here... and second week I nail the secretary in the back with a paintball.

Honestly, I have so many questions about why there was a loaded paintball gun in an office drawer, but that’s another blog post...

The best bit was when he finished up with this comment:

Paul says (16:16):
  Still, at least I haven't spilt anything yet...

Fantastic.  But not for the secretary.

I was in our local grocery store on the 29th of December, and this section stood out as potentially a little premature:

What on earth?  I know shops like to get their displays out early for the holidays, but the 29th of December 2008 for Easter 2009?  I think that might be a record.