Last May I wrote about the delights of the Humble Indie Bundle, a package of five games which could be downloaded by donating an amount of your choice to a selection of charities. Well, as it turns out the Humble Bundle is back again since the Humble Indie Bundle 2 went on sale today.

For the next six days, with a minimum donation of $0.01 to charity, you can download the following games: Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos and Revenge of the Titans. You can also direct your donation to one or more of the following charities: Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

I'll be buying the bundle today and I recommend you do the same. I need something to waste my time on over Christmas and this appears to be the answer.

It's time to talk about my upcoming week.

After spending two months studying the time has come for me to write the Uniform Final Examination (UFE). The UFE is the final exam which is required to become a chartered accountant.

The UFE spans three days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

On Tuesday the exam takes the form of a five hour case, and on Wednesday and Thursday the exam is composed of three cases which are to be written in four hours. By the end, I will have written seven cases over the span of thirteen hours.

Right now I am a bit nervous, but that is to be expected considering the nature of the exam. Consequently, I am focusing on relaxing until the exam starts. The time for studying is over and the time for exam writing is about to begin.

Around 17:00 on July 5th 2010 the winds picked up and gave my neighbourhood a good walloping.

We got off easy, all that happened was a window blew off its hinges. My neighbours had a tree hit both their house and their car, talk about bad luck.

The good that came of this is that natural disasters are a great way to meet your neighbours.

Similar but unrelated: Nutimik wind storm of 2006

Yesterday I downloaded the Humble Indie Bundle and I recommend you do the same.

The humble bundle is a collection of six indie computer games that have all gathered high praise. The games are World of Goo, Gish, Lugaru, Aquaria, Penumbra Overture, and Samorost 2. The real catch to this sale is you can choose your own price, and then chose to your payment directed to the developers, Child's Play and/or the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Last night was spent playing World of Goo and the only question I'm asking myself now is why I haven't played it before. (I guess another question is "Where did those four hours go?", but that is less pressing)

The humble indie bundle sale lasts only one more day, so you've been warned.

This week marks the beginning of CASB Module 5, the last of the regular correspondence courses I have been taking to become a chartered accountant. Why am I apologizing? Module 5 will be taking up a lot of my time for the next eight weeks, so finding stuff to post here will be a bit harder.

I won't be any less busy when I'm done Module 5 though, since I'll be spending the entire summer studying for the uniform final exam (UFE) that occurs in September. Basically it's going to be a long, busy summer for me.

The one redeeming factor in all this is I will be on study leave from work when I finish Module 5 in June. Having only studying to focus on should give me a bit of time for my hobbies, but until then I am as busy as ever.

Ever been sitting at your desk and catch a smell of burning rubber, only to have the fire alarm go off a couple minutes later?

I guess it's just me.

Time to trudge down sixteen stories worth of stairs and spend my lunch at Starbucks.

I was extremely happy to read the Winnipeg Tweed Ride website and learn that they are attempting to start a tweed ride in Winnipeg.

What is a tweed ride? you ask. Well the tweed ride is simply an organized bicycle ride around town with everyone decked out in tweed. It has a British lower class feel about it and could be described as a critical mass ride, but with style.

I'm very excited to be able participate in this.

This morning I learned that my best friend, Mikael Chan, took his own life last night. Mikael and I had been friends since high school and he was the best man at my wedding. Mikael was a close and loyal friend. He was incredibly creative and was known to always have a number of projects on the go.

Over the past 14 months Mikael struggled with some mental health issues and last night he decided to put an end to it all. I am profoundly sad that he is gone, but I hope he got the peace he sought.

It is hard not to think that I could have done something differently in the past day which would have saved him. I guess the fact is that I (and no one else for that fact) can watch over someone all the time, even if that is what they need the most.

Below is his last blog entry, made last evening. You can click to read it, but only if you want to.

After a long and difficult search Emily and I have purchased our first house. We have been searching since May and have put in offers on a number of houses, but none were accepted. None until now that is.

As you can see from the pictures the house has a gorgeous brick and wooden exterior, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a semi-finished basement. Its located on a quiet street in Saint Boniface and has beautiful landscaping. I can't wait to move in.

Yesterday Heather and I met up with Mikael at Folk Fest to see Neko Case. I invited Heather since I knew she was a huge Neko Case fan and I went since I trust my sisters taste in music. I wasn't disappointed.

Happily, and unlike the day before, it didn't rain but the weather was slightly cold for this time of year. That didn't detract from the experience since we still managed to have a lot of fun listening, dancing, and slipping in the mud.

I enjoy going to Folk Fest since it is a great way to be exposed to new types of music. I have a rather narrow range of genres I listen to and I don't listen to the radio, so my music often lacks slightly in diversity. Yesterday I learned an appreciation for not only Neko Case, but also for Mirah and the Del McCoury Band. These are some artists I would previously never have listened to of my own volition, but after hearing them at Folk Fest I definitely want to hear more.