The Lands of Phalse Impressions

Whooping Cough no more!

2011-03-10T20:23:00.002-05:00

So about a month ago where Baby E goes for day care there was a confirmed diagnosis of Whooping Cough. Last week I came down with a severe cough and feared that it might be whooping so I have been working from home. Well I just got back from the doctor's and it is her opinion that it is just an acute case of bronchitis that I had poorly timed with the possible onset of whooping. Well with a clean bill of health I will be headed back to the office tomorrow and reconnect with the people there.

For as great as it was to be able to work from home, sleep in an extra two hours, 30 second commute vs. 75 minutes, PJ ware vs. business casual, there are definitely aspects of actually being in the office that I miss. One of those things is the interaction with other people, especially those I'm trying to help. Somewhere along the way it all kind of gets disjointed and work becomes work and not the fun that it is in the office. Well tomorrow at lunch I get to pick up some drugs for myself and baby, same thing actually just different dosages, over lunch and try to have a nice and relaxing day.

Shopping for something ....

2011-02-16T21:14:00.003-05:00

I need some INSIGHT about a small thing. I'm looking for something SWIFT but still something suitable for a CIVIC minded guy like me. I was thinking something like an INTREPID EXPLORER that could cover both TOWN & COUNTRY from the YUKON to MONTANA but that kind of EXCURSION doesn't seem to suit me. Can anyone help me come to an ACCORD? I'm not looking for it now but maybe after the next EQUINOX or the one after. Please send me your TORRENT of answers if you have any suggestions for me. All I know is that I don't need anything large because I don't GOLF. Perhaps I just need a little international flare with a FUSION of something else for a hybrid answer.
(Some days I think I'm just too funny)

Seriously a good sedan is what I'm looking for and if it drinks more than 6.0L/100KM I'm not interested. I'm thinking the Honda Civic Hybrid or the VW Jetta TDI any other suggestions? Companies I should look at or some that I should avoid?

New fridge

2010-05-02T21:30:00.002-04:00

We purchased a new fridge last week and they said it would take about three weeks before it would be deliverable. Well it seems that time doesn't flow normally in the delivery world and we have our new fridge plugged in and going. Some great features of the new fridge:
- It isn't 27 years old
- It has a built in ice maker
- It dispenses filtered water
- It is close to 50% more space
- The logical arrangement means we can get a wine bottle in there
- It's new!
- As there is a 27 year difference we expect a significant drop in our hydro bill

Other things that happened this weekend that are equally cool. My parents came down to help with stuff around the house, including:
- Did the gardening (Tilled area, planted tomatoes, squash, zucchini, peas, green beans, watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, basil, oregano, pansys, snap dragons, some others)
- Installed dual flush toilet
- Strung wiring for network in the house
- Installed some insulation in basement
- Ate very well
- Cut the grass
- Installed two light switches
- Killed tent worms (Five infestations)
- And some other stuff

Really I had a killer weekend and I'm ready for bed now.

Yea!

2010-02-04T18:45:00.002-05:00

Oh my gosh! Fallout: New Vegas is coming out later this year! Drool I can't wait. Check out the trailer here

Oh ya I'm off contract now and working full time. Mom and dad want to come over and help us with the basement?

To all my librarian friends

2010-01-19T13:49:00.002-05:00

Slashdot pulled up an interesting article that might resonate with those that also keep track of the MPAA/RIAA groups.

The part that I find really funny about all of this is the fact that no one has brought this up before as a major issue. Above all the problem is redistribution of CDs and DVDs.

Well back to my FREE media sources to keep track of what is happening in the world.

Christmas

2009-12-28T07:38:00.002-05:00

Well another successful Christmas has come and gone. My family had both sides get together over the past week and we did the usual Christmas Eve dinner and Midnight Mass thing as well. Over all everyone involved had a great time.

The funniest thing post Christmas was trying out the new Wii Fit. It seems to think that I'm fat and old. I do know that over the past little while I have put on some weight but I blame my current employer for that.

To everyone out there I wish you all a great New Year's celebration and see you all in 2010.

Fun times

2009-12-17T22:20:00.003-05:00

Well as Bubbles and I noticed the furnace wasn't acting up to par over the past little while. The heat exchanger was popping and creaking when the furnace turned on. Heat output on the second floor was marginal at best and when the heat did come up it was only on for a few seconds before the furnace turned off again.

With all that we decided that we needed a new one. This was the plan but it was next year's plan not this years :( Anyway we got the new one installed yesterday, along with a new water heater, and everything is going along just fine. The house is a more normal temperature and better regulated cycle to cycle. Tomorrow's experiment will be if I actually drain the hot water tank when I take a shower, I could with the old one and it was only for half an hour.

Before everyone is up in arms about "Why not get them fixed?" it should be noted that both were house original pieces which dated them at about 26 years of age. Both have had their due and could be replaced without shame. Besides you can't get parts for a "Clare" furnace any more.

Somehow this seems right

2009-12-04T07:54:00.003-05:00

Well most of it at least. Maybe not the donkey but the rest does. C-A-D you kill me sometimes. Anyone else think that it is true to life?

Funny in a painful way

2009-10-24T11:13:00.002-04:00

Now most people know that I have a wild talent for injuring myself on broad/blunt/simple things. Well I managed to really wound myself yesterday with something that I figured was unimaginable. This actually tops my lemon burn. Yesterday I was pulling apart a cabbage leaf by leaf and low and behold I managed to wound myself under my thumb to the point of bleeding.

Does this make it a new high or low for me?

Final destination

2009-10-23T19:38:00.004-04:00

We got Five's ashes back yesterday and found a surprising thing in there as well. They took a clay footprint of him before the cremation. It was sweet and something I will hold onto for a long time.

Final Journey

2009-10-09T19:23:00.003-04:00

Well today when I came home after a long day out of the house I found that Five had about every symptom to look for when deciding when to put him down. His eye had so much goop in it there were bubbles forming. His back end wasn't walking the same path that the front end was walking. He hadn't cleaned his paws or his body since walking in the rain hours before hand. All of that made both my wife and I decide that now would be the best time to put him down.

I found an animal hospital that was open that could do the job so I packed Five up for the last time and took him away. The process was quick and painless from what I could see and I held his head until well after the fact. Now he is taking a journey that has no return and I hope he finds his paradise along that path.

For now I'll be thinking about him while trying to juggle a new born baby. Oh what conflicted times.

Fading Five

2009-10-06T15:15:00.004-04:00

Most of you know what is going on in my personal life so no point recapping that except that photos will be coming soon.

Anyway Five is starting to fade faster than I thought he would. It looks like the problems have spread to his left eye and maybe his spinal cord. He has problems walking sometimes and going up and down stairs. Rarely right now his back end doesn't follow the front end when it is going places. He gave his head a shake like he had water on his head and the back end almost fell flat on the ground.

His condition is distinctly more troubled than it was, especially since last Friday.

Where's Waldo

2009-10-01T13:20:00.002-04:00

Actually it is closer to "Where is Five"? but he hides so well. The funny part is watching him watch squirrels wander by and not do anything. Silly kitty.

Five's new activities

2009-09-23T12:02:00.003-04:00

Well over the past week Five has been more and more cat like outside. His hunting skills are improving enough that this morning he actually caught something. You know those large bugs that look like mosquitoes but are about two inches in size? Well he caught one today, then promptly ate it. This is a vast improvement on just sitting there and staring at the world going by.

He hasn't clued in about defending his territory against squirrels though. I saw three of them in the yard and wondered where Five was. When I looked down I got my answer.

After the specialist

2009-09-16T21:29:00.004-04:00

Well we visited the cancer specialist and the short version is he has two months to live if we do nothing. If we put him on prednisone it will add two more months and if we give him chemotherapy that will give him an extra four months. All of that is considering if he fell in the average. Prednisone is only a couple of hundred dollars and mostly covered by insurance while we don't think that chemotherapy is covered at all and is ~$5 100.

Needless to say that sometime between Christmas and my birthday Five will pass away and there isn't much that can be done about that. In the mean time I will be keeping everyone up to date about what is going on with him and posting pictures when I have a chance so we can all remember the crazy beast.

Health update

2009-09-16T10:45:00.007-04:00

Well we are off to see the specialist tonight at 19:00 to see what, if anything, can be done for Five.

The good news is currently he doesn't seem to be in chronic pain. He has been outside recently, off leash, hunting, poorly, the local wild life. The best he has managed to do is be half the yard away when his intended pray flees. The only painful part for him from what I can tell is going up and down stairs. This isn't too surprising right now as his kidneys keep getting in the way when he climbs.

Five is eating less these days and having a few issues going to the bathroom. His bladder isn't suffering any at least.

Aside from that he is still acting Five-ish and all is going well for now.

Sick definied

2009-09-10T14:04:00.000-04:00

To say that I'm sad about this seems unfair to Five as he doesn't know what is happening.

As I noted we went to a vet yesterday to see why Five was loosing so much weight so suddenly. Initially it was though that he had more room to run around in and that he wasn't eating as much so a little weight loss was expected. After a little time the weight loss didn't stop and became an issue.

The vet felt around and noticed something odd about his kidneys which needed a specialist to look into. An appointment was made today for 12:00 which I arrived at 11:45 for.

Initial view from the specialist's assistant was that the kidneys were definitely enlarged and needed to have a closer look. The specialist came in and commented that the best go would be an ultrasound to see what was wrong and a quick "thin needle biopsy" to see what was going on. Luckily the all the resources were available and they could get it all done in 20 minutes.

When they came back they said that Five's kidneys were between two and three times the size they should be, should be 3.2cm were 9.0cm. This was being caused by cancer that had developed. They weren't sure how serious it is but a new specialist would be showing up on Saturday to take a look at the results and get a better idea of what can be done for Five.

Right now the given options were a) steroids which would delay the inevitable or b) chemotherapy which would delay the inevitable or even possible remission. They didn't say it but the chance that Five will see Baby E's first birthday is close to zero.

So right now I'm sad that I'll be loosing a friend but also sad because that friend will never know why this is happening.

Sick cat

2009-09-09T15:36:00.002-04:00

Well Five has taken ill but we aren't too sure how ill. We went off to the vet today to see if we could find out. The result was that Five's kidneys are "wrong" and need more help than what a simple vet can provide. We will be off to see a specialist tomorrow to see what they can see.

I'm not looking forward to the long drive into the City.

Strange things

2009-08-22T13:21:00.003-04:00

Ok the strangest thing that I have seen in the past little while is that our "Cat" likes to eat yogurt. Though really it isn't as strange as Bubbles and I owning a house. How strange is that?

Ender in Exile

2009-07-02T09:10:00.007-04:00

Well here is my first review of something so I hope it will read well.

Ender in Exile is the fourth book written in the Ender's Game Series however, it takes place as book two chronologically. The book starts shortly after the attempted take over of the I.F. by the Warsaw Pact. The children of Battle School are still in flux about what is happening and when/if they will be going home.

The book tracks the life primarily of Ender Wiggin and his sister Valentine as they pass though close to sixty years of Earth based time. Very little time passes for them as they spend most of their time at relativistic speeds and thus only see about four of their own years pass.

Hyrum Graff is also followed in this book from his departure from the Military to other duties and finally retirement. He keeps Ender up to date over time to the goings on of Earth and other political events that he may want to know of.

The other Wiggins are also talked about in the book as well. For those that have read "Shadow of the Hegemon" you also get to have updates to the events as they transpire. There is a lot of overlap of the Bean Series as they both cover the same time span. If you haven't read the Bean Series you will find a few spoilers in here as some events are revealed, I haven't read "Shadow of the Giant" so there were some spoilers that I expected.

Overall this brings nothing new to the series that couldn't be guessed at before. The only enlightening thing that happened was the finding of the Chrysalis in great detail. Before it was always cited that "he found it exactly where the game said he would" but after that nothing. To wait until chapter 18 to find out so little seemed to be a bit of a let down for me.

Characters get introduced that seem to be discarded halfway through the book as if they were just filler. There are some characters that seem to last a chapter or two and then they are left by the way side creating plot lines that aren't needed to actually propel the story forward in any way.

Humor in the book is rare but worth a good laugh when it does happen. A good snippet is:

   ...."Has anyone ever mentioned that when you smile,
   it would melt steel?"
   "Inconvenient, in a spaceship.  I'll smile less."

Overall I would rank this book as a "skip it" but not as bad as a "beating a dead horse for more money". I guess that means it gets two out of five stars.

Chain e-mail

2009-06-10T12:49:00.004-04:00

Ok. I received an e-mail that included 140+ e-mail addresses in it. Considering that e-mail addresses should be private the question was rattling around in my head about what I should do about this. This has happened two other times this year so I have had a thought. My conclusion is this. If anyone sends me an e-mail that doesn't have trimmed e-mail addresses I will add all of them to a mailing list and send all material back through it. Not in an evil sense just saves myself some time posting back to everyone. I'll even be nice and unsubscribe people, at year's end, if they don't want to be there.

Oh before anyone gets annoyed about this it is actually better than publicly posting private information for all to see.

Teeth

2009-05-13T15:14:00.002-04:00

Well I'm out four more teeth. This puts me down 8 from a full mouth. I'm having a nice time recovery and good food thanks to the parents.

Conference

2009-05-04T17:30:00.004-04:00

Well Conference this year was a good conference. There was only one minor oversight that lead to an issue but it was quickly corrected. There was plenty of time to go walking around and enjoy the conference and again see what was going on. Well that was true until I started taking video of the various events which then resulted in me having to edit them and get them ready for publication. I had hopes that I would be able to get everything done before the end of the conference but that didn't happen but the good thing is that I should be finished by the end of this week and be ready for the wrap up meeting in a few weeks. This means there will be many happy people as they will have a good memento of what happened.

The new laptop made all of this work very easy and quick. I am very pleased with my new toy and looking forward to many more happy conference years. Good bye year 15 and hello year 16!

Hardware purchase

2009-04-06T15:38:00.003-04:00

Ok I finally broke down and got myself my first new laptop. Even though I have had two previous laptops, \\Fenris and \\Murgatroid, both of these were second hand. Both have served me very well so I figure now that I have a laptop that is my pick it should last longer. The only downside is that it comes with Windows Vista. Now I'm not a fan especially after all the press it got but I figured I should at least try it out. So far I'm not completely disappointed but the boot time and application load times are .... terrible.

Many years ago my APC SUA-1000XL died because it was involved in a flood has finally been replaced with an SUA-1500 which is oddly cheaper but has a longer batter life and higher output. I'm not sure how that works but there you have it. Even though this is for the entertainment centre it matches the one that I have safe guarding the workstations/servers so if anything happens I can easily switch them while worrying about the recovery later.

Last but not least I got a new Acer 19" LCD for my main system. This brings me to using dual monitors which personally I think is long over due but will allow me to be more productive on the book work that I have ahead of myself. I know this isn't a grand monitor but it isn't intended to be. I love my Viewsonic PS790 and it still works great. The best part is that it doesn't have the ghosting issues, and other technical faults of LCDs.

Busy life

2009-03-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

Well it looks like life has become busy enough that I have been withdrawing from the virtual life. At best I have been checking my e-mail accounts and the social networks about one a week and as you can tell my blogging has kind of come to a stop.

The short news is:

Fallout 3 looks great with the new video card. It makes it playable now.

I have completed another contract and I'm out looking for a new one so if anyone is looking for an Windows System Administrator feel free to drop me a line

Tax season is looking good this year!

Fallout 3

2008-11-17T19:48:00.003-05:00

Ok so from what I have seen Fallout 3 is really cool to play and looks great. The only problem is that the video card in my system isn't good enough to play the game well :( I need to find a new video card that will do the rest of my system justice. That and have component video out.

Geekdom

2008-11-15T09:55:00.002-05:00

I'm in the PROCESS of losing weight to get rid of my love HANDLES. Unfortunately this means I need new THREADS.

This bad joke brought to you by me.

Personal Privacy

2008-11-10T18:53:00.003-05:00

Really is it so hard to understand that e-mail addresses are private things? It isn't like this isn't a discussed topic. But in the past 30 days I had two events where my e-mail address was publicly posted. As this is the internet I must now say that everyone in the world has my address.

The worst part was the first one was about some kid in Burkina Faso who was suffering from some kind of horrible cancer brought on my hanging around too much Einsteinium and was going to die and wanted everyone to know it. The second was about a kid that went missing after his parents took away his X-Box asking everyone to help find him even though he was located and it hit the news stream two hours before hand.

More conference

2008-11-04T18:34:00.002-05:00

Ah the fondness never ends. XKCD FTW!

Conference

2008-10-20T19:22:00.003-04:00

Ok some people might think it was foolish to start being the Guidebook Publisher and I laughed at them. This will be easier than I thought!

Whoa did I screw that up! I just got the information from the Academic Committee and it consists of 23 files. 10 jpeg files and 13 text documents is what makes their section of the guidebook. Now the interesting part ISN'T going to be integrating all the text files into a single file. Oh no that will be simple compared to the typing of all the 10 jpegs into actual text, they are images of text, and then adding them to the master document.

Now I can already hear the wise among you saying "Hey Phalse why don't you just use OCR?" Good question but the problem is that it is all in Greek! That and I don't own an OCR application.

Wish me luck on this one. It took about four hours to do the Athletic section which is only 17 pages long. I might be done before next year _IF_ I am lucky.

Finally ....

2008-09-22T20:33:00.002-04:00

Things have finally settled down enough for me to be able to start blogging again. Things are slowing down around here even though there are piles of stuff all around. The good thing is at least there is a foreseeable end to it all.

I'm not sure if I posted about this before, just checked and I did, but I'm now working until the end of the year. The good thing is that it means I'll be staying out of trouble. The bad thing means that I won't be home to unpack crap for the next long while so there will be boxes everywhere for at least a couple of months.

The new apartment is looking great so far considering it is covered in boxes. The best part is that we have SO much more room that we might be getting a billiard table to fill the space! The cat seems to be settling down in the new place ok. I can't wait to find the leash so I can start taking him out for walks. I think he misses the amount of natural light the last place got. He is a little squirrely but none the worse for wear. Soon we will have a very happy cat and things will be good once again.

For those that missed the fun I had a pilonidal cyst which I think was less fun than possibly doing your own dentistry. I have found new levels of pain in my life and I would be happy to know that I never have to deal with that again. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment to find out if I need surgery to see if this actually gets worse or better for me. Worse would be that I do need surgery. After two weeks of getting home care to come over I would really be happy if I don't have to see them again.

Offline for a while

2008-09-01T07:53:00.000-04:00

As I'm starting moving today I'm going to be offline for a while. See everyone later (Wave)

New stuff

2008-08-21T18:25:00.002-04:00

Ok so it has been a while since I posted I readily admit that. So here is a short post just to keep some people in the look.

As noted by my other half, we went to an international conference followed by whale watching for our first year anniversary. This was exciting and interesting. The conference gave me some time to actually explore the city which was easy for the first couple of days but it rained on day three.

We are also changing the moving plan today because as of the new month I will be working at a previous employer's place. This is an easy out for both of us as we were both looking for something and found each other. Naturally this makes the current transportation arrangement unsupportable. So as of the first we are moving at least the bed and most of our kitchen stuff. So anyone who wants to help us move feel free to drop me/us a line and we will find you something to do :P

Blizzard Entertainment

2008-06-26T08:48:00.003-04:00

Ok as far as I know everyone that reads my blog either likes or loves Blizzard Entertainment. Now it looks like they are on the verge of releasing new information about an upcoming game. If you go to the website you are given just a simple jpeg which has been growing over the days. This has been going on for not one, two, three, but four days. Judging by the still incomplete image it will go on for at least a fifth day. People are saying that it will be the news release for Diablo 3 while others are saying new Warcraft. There is lots of guesses all over the web but really for me it looks like they are just creating a new splash screen and seeing what people say. Nothing like a good teaser to get people going. I do have to ask though if it is D3 what is left to do? Seriously the plot is over now that the three prime evils are dead. Sure the Worldstone is destroyed but they could leave that world as is. Heaven help me, Bubbles, and our bank account if it is World of Diablo.

In light of the weather

2008-06-17T07:28:00.000-04:00

*laughs*

Metallica are at it again

2008-06-11T12:49:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine went to describe a co worker as "I was always told by my mother if I had nothing nice to say about someone say nothing at all. How are the Blue Jays doing?"

Personally at this point I think the same thing can be said of Metallica. ArsTechnica has a review of people doing the pre-release review of Metallica's latest .... effort. Once again they are shunning their own audience trying to make something good out of it. As usual the amount of negative publicity out of this is creating more problems then good. Oh well they will learn one of these days. Maybe when they go back to being a band and not a bunch of money grabbing jerks.

Hot day = Cold shower

2008-06-09T19:39:00.001-04:00

You have to admit that there is no better feeling after a long, hot, muggy day that a good cold shower can't fix.

XP/SP3 goodness

2008-06-06T07:19:00.002-04:00

For a while now whenever I have had to shut down the laptop it would always do so willingly until the point where it should have powered down the fans and turned off. At that point the system would BSOD and reboot. This naturally made the shutdown procedure a little more complicated than it should have been because I would have to use the power button to turn it off.

No more! After installing SP3 and last night's first shutdown it turned off with no BSOD. Three cheers to Microsoft for finally getting it right .... three services packs later and many patches.

.

.

.

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Where is my linux box?

Why XP is better than Vista

2008-05-31T08:34:00.001-04:00

On equally aged systems this should be considered:

Windows XP Service Pack 3 deployment time: 20 minutes

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 deployment time: 90 minutes

Funny

2008-05-28T15:53:00.002-04:00

Insert Nelson laugh here. If there are any doubts about it check Dell Hell on Google and you will see some pretty unhappy people.

All things conference

2008-05-27T18:19:00.003-04:00

Ok so the conference post meeting wasn't too bad. Out of everything that happened only one person stepped out of line and it was someone's right hand. Over all things were quite civil and it seemed like things were actually getting accomplished. Well this was true until I looked back and reflected on it. Actually out of all the pressing issues they were all delayed to be taken up at the end of the meeting which came early because we ran out of time. So like every other meeting important issues were unresolved. However, this year they will change that and it has been agreed that a meeting take place over the summer to resolve some of the more pressing issues. That will be about as fun as doing your own appendectomy.

The good thing about this meeting is that everyone agreed that they will try to step in and help when and where they can when they see and opportunity. This might actually make the conference go better next year or it might make things a complete mess depending on the kind of "helpful" people become. I think it will make a vast improvement to the conference and the year should go better than most. All praise the new conference year! May the year of the joint hosting of schools 10 and 22 be the best yet!

Post conference

2008-05-07T11:22:00.005-04:00

Well this year's goal was to spend less time managing the conference and more time enjoying the conference. I would like to post a big "Mission Complete" to that task. This year I had seen at least twice as more this year as I had in previous years. This made it far more enjoyable. I think in the progress of doing that though I might have annoyed a few people. The biggest time saver this year was instead of waiting around for things to be done I just enjoyed the conference. After dinner I then attended to my duties which I normally did over the day. This resulted in much more time away. For the Thursday and Friday days this didn't impact the flow of the conference that much as our committee doesn't actually have a noticeable impact until the very end.

Overall I think this year was better than most except for "The Issue" that occurred. Really it shouldn't have but what ever. Each year has an issue just sometimes it is something bigger than other years.

The craziness that normally happens in our little pocket on Saturday didn't occur this year. Actually it was quite relaxed. The only problem was that it took a while for us to get the Athletic group out due to an unexpected clause that I missed in the report. Once I got around to that it was quickly fixed.

I'm not looking forward to the wrap up meeting this year. To say "fur will fly" and "stuff will hit the fan" I think will be an understatement.

Conference!

2008-04-30T09:15:00.002-04:00

Away From Internet. Be back Sunday evening.

Template changes

2008-04-22T17:09:00.002-04:00

I have made a couple of changes to the base template. Nothing major really but a good protest against Dilbert.com. The problem that happened is that Dilbert's site went all flash. Now I like flash games but having your main part of the website run as flash is just dumb so I have changed it to the Yahoo syndication.

I have also now added "Order of the Stick" which I'm now caught up on. For all you role-players out there I would highly suggest reading the strip.

In tribute....

2008-04-17T11:52:00.002-04:00

.... to the upcoming conference. Check this out.

(Rant) High gas prices

2008-04-16T11:44:00.003-04:00

Ok so I have been meaning to post about this for a while now. As you can imagine after hearing from the newspaper profits that gas will be hitting $1.50 a litre this summer I was shocked. After that wore off I realized they are probably right. This naturally flooded my e-mail over the past little while about "High gas prices" and "Save on Gas" approaches to make things right.

Now let me say that in principal I agree with the e-mail. Actually if anyone has watched me over the past few years they would realize that I have been following through with these e-mails. I have been a frequent user of SunCor Energy and have actually avoided places like Esso. Now I realize that the follow website is a bit bias but even if there is a grain of truth, I'm too lazy to confirm myself, to the stuff there then you would understand. Stop Esso, ExxonMobil child company, that some companies are worth boycotting not because of trying to drive down prices but because they are evil. Esso has joined the list of companies that I avoid like Bell (poor support), Electronic Arts (poor employee relations), Nike (child labour) and Walmart (oppresive pricing practices).

I'm not asking anyone to follow my lead. These are my choices and if you agree you can follow them but that will be your choice. There is my rant and I'm done now.

Breakfast

2008-04-01T12:18:00.004-04:00

So it turns out that we found a recipe for cooking home fries. Naturally you can't very well have a meal consisting of just that so I thought I would check out how well my omelette skills are. Well they aren't 133t but they aren't that bad.

I settled on a green pepper, green onion and feta omelette for food. Let's just say I wish I could eat like this every day.

Conference update

2008-03-18T21:38:00.005-04:00

Ok I have been planning for a few years now to redo the entire report generator and I have finally done it. It took a lot of side work for the past few months but it is done. I have also compared it to some of the results from last year to see if it is functioning properly.

Some updates that are in the new version:

Moved from DAO to ADO data connections

Changed all code away from MS Jet to pure SQL

Created option boxes for each report so the entire routine isn't needed for one report

Created accurate progress bars to reflect what is being done

Made liberal use of "DoEvents" commands to the processor isn't killed

Reduced excessive code

Removed redundant code

With all those changes the report generator which, from what I recall, took minutes to run is now down to 26 seconds for all reports. This includes the most difficult and twisted ones. This should make our job much easier when it comes time to actually use the report generator.

Out of everything listed there I'm not done with it though. Right now it is set to a static database which I need to change to something more dynamic. I'll be including a standard open file dialog box for this use. After that I'm not sure how much more I need to do to make it a better program. The reports are nice and snappy and still accurate so what can I do?

Actually there is two things that need to happen. I need the full documentation of all the reports to make sure that what I am generating is what should be generated. I did find a fault in the previous version of the report generator though. The swimming award doesn't work and from what I can see never did. I'm not sure what I was generating in previous years but it isn't want they wanted LOL.

Well no more updates on this subject at least until Purple Mangos gets back to me about the reports. [Insert not so subtle nudge here.]

Update: It seems my understanding of the report was incorrect. The design of the tables involved were very flawed. Enough that they shouldn't have been published like that in the first place. Anyway a new table will be introduced that will help slipstream the process and make it faster than before. To relax people let it be known that the system before was completely functional just very clumsy. If I wanted to go to Vancouver and back again I wouldn't take a cruise ship to get there I would take a plane. Both will get you there one will just take longer.

And so a truth comes out ....

2008-03-14T13:36:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if it is the real truth or just a convenient truth but it is something. At last I have a reason why my employment was not continued. It seems that I wasn't "management enough" to be able to stay there. Considering the way that people were talking I'm not sure if this is the real reason but it is something closer than anything else that I have heard. The only part that makes this funny is I'm not sure if my boss actually knew that was the reason.

I'm not sorry to go though. The place was nice but I did start to notice some undercurrents throughout the company that I'm not sure I would have enjoyed. This saved me time about what was going on. Also the release resulted me in not having to drive through way too much snow. The other advantage is that I really don't want to be management at this stage of my life. I enjoy what I do right now and I'm not sure I could step away from that to be able to do more. I'm a System Administrator and I'm happy with that.

A sweet goodbye

2008-03-09T08:14:00.001-04:00

One of my co-workers sent me this e-mail after my departure:

"Thanks a lot for your assistance in the past, and if need be in the future. The only person that was here to provide stimulating conversation is no longer - you. Days and afternoons will be boring now.

I do wish you all the best that can possibly come to you, and that you find deserving employment soon. I am sure that my surprise was equal to yours on Friday, but I guess the "perfect fit" was more important than an individual who was willing at all times to assist, and one who had work ethics similar to mine.

I am sorry for their loss - not yours.

Keep well and good luck."

I think that is the nicest thing anyone has said to me after I have left a company.

A little update

2008-03-02T14:12:00.003-05:00

Ok I have my domain back and it is actually working. I have been responding to various e-mails and what not since it has been back online.

As most people know when you first get a job there is a certain probation period that you are in where both parties have an option of ending the working relationship without notice or reason. Well Monday would have marked the passing of that time at my employment but it seems I won't be there to see it. As management said they didn't think I was the "right fit" for the company. So I'm out looking again for employment and we shall see how that goes. Anyone know of a company hiring a Windows System Administrator? If anyone wants to see my public resume you can find it here.

Just kidding

2008-02-09T12:47:00.000-05:00

Looks like my domain is still in limbo.

My Domain

2008-02-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

It is back online. I guess the domain transfer from my previous provider to the new one went well. I'm going to be testing the accounts tonight to make sure everything is backup up ok.

Day of sadness

2008-01-25T12:39:00.001-05:00

I would just like to inform everyone that today reaches a bit of sadness that I have been expecting for a while now. My very first e-mail account has been closed. This account has been with me since I was in grade 8, for those mathematically challenged that makes it about 15 years. The service from the provider eventually forced me away to find greener pastures.

Because of this change please be aware that all my domain related accounts will be inactive for a week as domain ownership moves from my previous hosting service to my new one. At one point I can actually say I was a proud member of the internet community through the host but as they grew bigger they also grew less feeling to the community around them. I liked the idea of getting messages from the president every Christmas season wishing everyone a happy _______, the greeting was in about 20 different celebrations. I liked the idea that they would work on firming up the local infrastructure by connecting directly with other ISPs to create a bigger web then relying on the local major providers. But alas all that has passed and with it I sign my first e-mail account to the eternal ether and hope that things get better from here.

Happy new year

2008-01-09T19:26:00.000-05:00

Ok so I'm late but so have all my thoughts of new posts. All that is ok because right now I'm rocking out to the new Foo Fighters album called Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace which I must say is quite cool when played at about 20db louder than you should listen to it. (Hmmmm. Wonder where the neighbours are because they aren't complaining)

As promised here is the post about "Management's spin on bad ideas".

I found out though some accidental cyber stalking that one of my previous managers listed quite a number of interesting achievements from the company he left. The most interesting of them is the fact that he managed to "Lead initives to outsource email management". This on it's own seems like a great idea. A medium sized company now allowing a third party to offload some of the IT processes and freeing up staff to do more worthy things.

Let us look under the covers just a little first shall we? The company in question had a well established e-mail system in place prior to his arrival. The processes in place to be able to manage the previous mail system were well defined. The Linux administrators made sure that everything was up to snuff and working on a shoe string budget was more than possible for them. They had the mail server working with over 300 users on a small little P2-400, I believe, with a paltry 64 megs of ram for the longest time without causing any issues.

So what happened? Why did such a good system get thrown out and replaced with a Microsoft Exchange system? The answer is simple. After a select removal of staff, me, the rest of the staff saw little to no reason to say and starting looking for new places of employ. The two Linux administrators that were there left with little time between them. With no administrators for the mail system something had to be done to keep the world turning?

The solution was outsourcing the mail services to someone who could handle the problem and do it quickly. It was done with I'm guessing with some issues but a mostly transparent transition from one system to the next. The manager was undoubtedly hailed as a hero for another successful project.

The real problem. After successfully destroying a great IT group for selfish and misguided gains the manager managed to incur an on going expense to the company because of his inability to lead.

As a footnote it seems that said manager has yet to hold a job for more than a year and a half anywhere he goes.

In a way I think I may continue the quiet cyber stalking. Should I ever be in a position where I can hire someone it would be good to use the Internet to find out how some of the IT community works. There are good people out there that shouldn't have to deal with people like him.

A week of work

2007-12-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

Ok I have now done six days of work at my new place and it has made me very happy.

The people there are very receptive to having new team members join. It is a small enough organization that I will eventually get to know everyone there. It is great and filled with many learning opportunities which is what drove me there in the first place.

Naturally there is a down side to every place that you work. So far the one I have found is it seems that there are boxes of doughnuts at every turn. This is a test of will to see how long I can hold out without over indulging myself. The company really knows how to keep T.H. in business.

I can see a lot of things that I can do at the company both as my hired role of Network Administrator and as System Administrator. Some will take some convincing while I hope others will be much easier but I won't know until I try. It is times like this I wish I payed more attention to what Luc was doing in years gone by.

The best I can say is I'm happy to work there and I can see a me spending a long time there. Previous posts I had held always had an iffy feel about them but not here. I'm happy and I think I will stay awhile.

The Monday Post

2007-11-26T18:22:00.000-05:00

Ok as promised here is the Monday post.

As you all know I have been working at finding a job for the past couple of months. I can now say that I have found one. As of 4:30 today I signed a offer of employment and am now working at TotalLine Transportation.

Some of the finer points are still up in the air but from now on I'll be working from 8:30 to 17:00 at a good job. The people there are great from the ones that I met and and I'm sure that I will enjoy it as there is plenty of learning opportunities there.

Oh and it is still Monday so if anyone was saying anything about "Where is the post?" remember I never promised a time.

The Nerd Handbook

2007-11-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

The Nerd Handbook was posted on Digg today. Naturally this is some kind of fluff material that is closer to humor for wild thoughts. Not this piece though. Some of it struck close to home. I can also think of a few people this could apply to as well for understanding .... at least if I left my 'Cave'.

How religion failed my friends

2007-11-09T20:59:00.000-05:00

A little while ago I was walking along with my wife and a couple of friends and they were discussing the changes that were happening at their church.

Now let's start off with the fact that I don't care that much for religion and I excluded myself from this conversation and was more of just an observer. Anyway I observed the following.

Over the years through faithful service my friends have been having the feeling of being pushed out of their church as things have changed. These reasons are long and complex but the summary is that after trying hard to keep the better parts of the weekly services in they are now being dropped by the current clergy. This results in less of a role for the choir and a borderline insult to choir as well.

I don't hear many people saying that these are good changes. If church is for the masses then this is a failure of the church as they are no longer working for the masses but a select number of individuals who, frankly, may not be around for much longer.

Coming posts

2007-11-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

I have been a little on the lazy side for posting I know but I have thought up of three more posts I just have to get around to them.
1) How religion failed my friends
2) Management's spin on bad ideas
3) (I actually forget)

Anyway I will work on posting them when I have a chance this is more of a reminder of what I want to post on.

And everyone thought....

2007-10-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

That my cat was crazy.

Working

2007-10-25T11:58:00.000-04:00

I found this on Digg. It is someone's blog about working or the lack of. I'm surprised to read a story like this because it shows that there are people out there that are happy doing nothing. In essence getting a free pay cheque. I find this troubling because I like to work and actually feel that I earn something. I enjoy creating things to make my life and other's lives easier in the field. I strive to make everyone's life this easy. Until then there is far too much work to do for everyone and free rides like this shouldn't be allowed.

That is just my opinion and I'll stick to it.

Youtube

2007-10-21T22:28:00.000-04:00

Just saw the chess master Gerry Kasparov kill Bill Maher in a live interview. This was an entertaining interview. Gerry puts on a good show.

Employment news

2007-10-20T22:46:00.000-04:00

Well it seems that two more job positions have slipped from my grasp. The first one I don't fault really though. It started off as an System Administrator role but then mutated into a development role. I have some tendencies for development but nothing near what they had in mind. Oh well.

As for the other role I was up for it seems that I was not selected as the candidate but not given a reason why I was over looked. I have asked why but the question seems to have gone into limbo. I don't hold my breath for a response as it is a large company but I do hope I get some kind of answer.

So here I am still unemployed and still looking.

New toy

2007-10-15T16:27:00.000-04:00

Now here is something that I would like. mccoe64g8mpr-03a

Job hunting

2007-10-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update since I haven't posted in a while. I'm still looking for a job and things are going about as normal as one can expect. Just heard back and I didn't get the job at both Rogers and the Zoo.

I'm not surprised about either really. Rogers is a Linux/Unix/AIX show while I'm a Windows Administrator and the Zoo changed what they wanted to be more of a development role rather than an administrative role. I'm still staying positive as good things come to those that wait.

Anyone looking for a Windows System Administrator with junior skills in Network Administration, Visual Basic development?

Sharing the joy

2007-09-25T21:58:00.000-04:00

This ranks right up there with semi-conductors.

Par!

2007-09-20T14:45:00.000-04:00

WooHoo. We hit par with the US dollar!

Anyone up for some shopping in the US?

Back home

2007-09-02T11:24:00.000-04:00

After what seems like a month of being a way we have finally returned. Everything seems normal for the time being and everything is good. Now there is still the issue of dealing with space. Space for all the wedding gifts that we didn't get around to packing away before we left. Finding space on the network for the near 30 gigs of photos we took while we were away. Finding space in the calendar to just sit back and relax.

Photos will be posted but as Bubbles said it will take time. There are many photos that need to be stitched together so they will take a while but they will come eventually.

Greetings from Italy!

2007-08-21T15:51:00.000-04:00

Ha I'm in Italy and having fun. Been here a few hours already and had some real pizza while my new wife has had some real seafood.

Yummy. Pictures to follow on our return.

Honeymoon

2007-08-14T17:28:00.000-04:00

Be back after Greece and Italy.

HP LaserJet 2600N

2007-08-09T11:34:00.000-04:00

If one more person asks "Is it too late to change my wedding RSVP?" I'm going to scream and hunt them down and hurt them.

To parody Homer Simpson:
I have a colour printer, that is good.
It has a problem printing on some card stock paper, that is bad.
It connect directly to the network so no print server is required, that is good.
It is now not receiving data across the network for printing, that is bad.
The printer is far faster than the ink jet we have, that is good.
For the wedding we have used about $600 worth of toner, that is bad.
It cost less in ink that the ink jet we have for the wedding, that is good.
This is the end of my post, that is bad.

I'm glad

2007-08-02T14:58:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter has a sense of humor.

Harry Potter

2007-08-01T11:44:00.003-04:00

Almost done the book. I should be able to finish it in the next night or two.

Harry Potter guesses

2007-07-18T12:10:00.000-04:00

Seeing that it is only a few days away from release I thought I would get everyone's opinion on what they think of the next book. Any guesses?

Here are mine:

Most of the Weasleys well be dead by the end of the book

Current standing members of the order of the Phoenix will also be dead with the exceptions of Lupin and Alastor Moody

Ron and Hermione will be a couple during most of the book but Hermione will sacrifice herself for Ron

Harry will loose all his magical powers in the final confrontation

There are my opening guesses for the book. Anyone else want to post theirs?

The past week

2007-07-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

Well here is a quick update for the past week. I have:

Had two interviews

Had the car serviced for it's 100 000 km checkup

Celebrated a couple of birthdays

Celebrated Canada's birthday

Aside from that life has been routine and just trying to keep up on all the wedding things. Due process is taking time but that is fine as it currently is spreading out all the expenses to something that can be managed.

Fireworks and sunset

2007-07-04T09:49:00.001-04:00

Here are some photos from the weekend. Hope everyone enjoys!

Fireworks: Small / Large

Sunset: Small / Large

Favorite photo is dsc07296.jpg in the fireworks group.

Finally figuring it out

2007-06-29T12:35:00.000-04:00

Ok so for a long time now people have been asking "What can I do to help with the wedding?" because:

It's a wedding and intended to be a huge event

My brother and wife threw their's together in four months

There is a lot to do

For an equally long time I have been saying "Nothing everything is under control" because:

We have been arranging this for the better part of two years now

Mostly it is just contacting the responsible people and getting them to "make it happen"

Two years is a lot of time to get everything in motion for the most part

We are generally not that picky about the way things are done, if things are just off electric blue we won't panic

We have lots of friends actually taking care of various aspects of the wedding and we all casually talk about it

So really for all those that think they should be doing "more". There is already enough more going around it is just so thin that no one really sees it. Ha. I guess that is the way it should be. However, for those who really want more wait until the last two days because then there will be enough more to go around.

Oh in case it hasn't been mentioned yet for all you happy groomsmen out there. You are also bouncers/security enforcement for the wedding .... just in case :)

Job interview

2007-06-23T09:24:00.000-04:00

As I'm sure may of you know I was in a job interview yesterday for the OSSA. They are a great company and their work is very impressive. The thing that I found most surprising is that they are only 80 people. Out of everything they do I would expect a larger company to be able to do so much.

I thought the interview went great and everything went well. At the end of the interview I asked when everything would be settled for the job. To my surprise I found that they were going to be making a decision that night to who would move on to the next phase of the interview process. After leaving I was thinking how great it would be to hear Nicole call up and say "Great we would like to have you in next Monday for the technical review!". I was a little surprised when the call was "Thanks for coming and we think that you had some great skills but we don't think you would be a very good fit."

Damn job hunting.

Surprise!

2007-06-11T12:39:00.000-04:00

Well there was a big surprise wedding shower that happened yesterday. I would like to thank everyone that came from out of town to join in. I was really surprised at the turn out!

Thanks to everyone who made the surprise party such an event!

The 100th post!

2007-06-06T09:47:00.000-04:00

Yea I have finally hit the 100 post mark!

Now I didn't intend this to happen but here is a question. As you may know I'm on Facebook. Now it seems that my previous previous employer found me there. Now I wouldn't have a problem but it is the Director of IT that found me which I particularly don't like. Here is the question is it better to just leave the friend request hanging or should I reject it?

Job hunting

2007-06-04T11:09:00.000-04:00

Funny thing job hunting. You can spend weeks trying to get a job, then when out of the blue something comes along that you are perfect for they say "I'm sorry you aren't senior enough." To say I'm a little miffed over this is being nice. So now comes the fun of trying to make myself senior enough.

On the off note I was planning on getting a quick job at Staples, just to fill time, since it is close and the staff like me but, I was told that I would get a call last week and I never got one. Oh well that avenue is closed. I think the problem was that I had too much experience.

Have I commented that I hate job hunting?

Two tragedies from last week

2007-05-30T19:44:00.001-04:00

Ok two things went horribly wrong last week. The first I posted about which was probably the bigger of the two. As a recap I'll just say that StarCraft 2 was announced. The other is that I can't find my copy of Brood War for StarCraft 1!

I know these are trivial matters compared to the larger world but right now I want to play Brood War!

Ow

2007-05-25T13:03:00.001-04:00

I just spent most of yesterday wandering around town delivering invitations to various households. My legs are sore from all the walking even though I did make good use of the local transit. *sigh*

In other news the cat attacked me yet again this morning. Insane beast.

New computer research

2007-05-22T13:27:00.001-04:00

Darn. Safe to say that old Dolphin can't run it. FTPServ doesn't stand a chance and Mugatroid will be underpowered as it had a hard time with just the website. Good to know this won't come out for a year or so. Give me some time to get a good computer together.

Wedding stuff

2007-05-18T11:22:00.001-04:00

Ahhhh! So much wedding stuff. We have done the registry thing and got the wedding invitations setup. All is good! So much left to do though. I'm working on it a little at a time.

A little humor. I could see a couple of people doing that. One more for the smokers out there.

Links ....

2007-05-11T16:42:00.000-04:00

Technical Support:
Ah the good old days when I had to call Bell for support. This best demonstrates how it works.

Which Family Guy Character Are You?
Surprisingly I'm both Brian and Lois.

New Point of Contact:
Facebook

Conference reprise

2007-05-07T11:31:00.000-04:00

Ok the conference is now over and everyone is tired and wants to sleep. On the good side I did sleep for a stupid long time last night and I'm feeling better this morning. I'm sitting in the SO's office right now figuring out what to do next.

Conference was good and lots of new ideas came out that should hopefully make next year an easier year to manage from the Scoring perspective. For the most part it was a flawless year except for a few awards that were causing issues at the very end which made everyone stay up later than anyone wanted to.

A few stats for people:

Lines of Code:

Scoring: 534

Reporting: 1597

Post Web Registration: 1141

Number of Records:

.... of Participants: 478

.... of Staff: 99

.... of Events: 98

.... of Results: 1239

Other stats:

.... of hours writing last minute reports: more than 12

.... movies watched: 0

.... of pizzas ordered: 2

Until next year folks enjoy the time off for next years preperation!

Conference

2007-05-03T09:43:00.000-04:00

Ah! back to the joys of conference for this year. Anyway things are quite normal now that we have our happy rooms of 831* so we don't have to go walking around to just do our work.

Well since I'm here I don't think I'll be doing a lot of talking so have fun everyone!

Oh ya photos and video to follow. I hope.

Last day of work

2007-04-30T20:14:00.000-04:00

So I have finished my last day working at CGI under contract. I have to admit that working with those people was a good experience. The team, approximately 20, is a really friendly group that works well together. They joke around and act more as a bunch of friends than co-workers. This made for a really comfortable atmosphere that I enjoyed going to every day.

Since I was contract the only overtime I had to deal with was when a specific issue needed to be solved by the end of the day. I think the worst day was 3 hours overtime. There is something to be said about working in a 24x7 environment then changing to a 9 to 5er job. Somehow it doesn't seem like enough work gets done in a day and I should be at home writing e-mails or other support events.

The good news is it seems that my team leader, Dave, really enjoyed having me there and thought I would make a good addition to the team. The bad news is that they don't have any openings right now. The good news is that they are working on that and trying to create an opening for some new team members. The bad news is that they don't know when that will be. The good news is that I will be given first dibs on the position.

Ok good news comes out on top. I guess that is great then right?

That which I thought would never pass....

2007-04-29T20:56:00.000-04:00

You know how you are young and you always think that your parents will be around forever? You grow up and you realize that this isn't true but somehow some of your innocence is then lost. Well our family has had a cottage for as long as I can remember. I always thought that it would be part of the family. Even when there was fighting between the family members I always thought that it would be around. Sadly this isn't the case.

It was decided about a week and a half ago that the cottage will be sold. It has been on the auction block for a while and it was finally purchased. The owner takes possession of it next week if I have my timing right. So the previous weekend we went up and took what we thought we needed. Everyone is having their turn to clear out the cottage. Anything left will go to the new owner.

Anyway here are a few pictures of the old cottage. It was nice while we had it and I didn't visit it as often as I should but now it will really be missed. Here are a few photos that we took with the Alpha.

Driving to work

2007-04-12T11:10:00.000-04:00

Makes me feel like this. I'm getting to the point of just wanting to ram my car into that stupid BMW/Lexus SUV that keeps cutting me off just before I get off the highway!

Maybe I should get some stress relief.

Punctuation

2007-04-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

The great thing about typing everything out is that I can actually proof things before actually committing them to paper/message. Now I have noticed that lately I have had random punctuation creeping into my typing. I have been getting ? in places where . should be like wise random ! have been showing up.

I need a vacation. Thank goodness in 3 weeks I'll have at least two weeks off.

Morning funnies

2007-04-03T08:55:00.000-04:00

When I walked into work I saw the funnies thing. The building I'm at we have a concourse level where everyone parks outside and then we go up to the ground level for all important things. Well on the retaining wall between the lower concourse level and the actual ground floor there were a "silly goose". He was staring at the building which is mirrored and complaining highly at the goose that he saw in the building. As geese do he was very loud about it too. Very funny seeing the goose get all bent out of shape about his reflection.

I found this at Worse Than Failure today. Best search string for Google ever. "how to hook up a hose to a kitchen sink". The best is the "Did you mean:" section.

Oh the toaster oven of doom in the office has been taken away :(

Bell the stupid

2007-03-29T14:43:00.000-04:00

Ok LF dropped us a line a couple of days ago about an outstanding modem charge after canceling our account in APRIL!

Well there was a minor bandwidth charge back in December and there was no comment about about hardware costs. Anyway we got a message from a collection agency about a charge of ~$84 outstanding on our account.

So I call the agency to find out what is going wrong. They are just out to collect the $$ so they don't know any of the real details. So I call the dreaded Bell. I start talking to someone at One-Bill billing. "I'm sorry you need Sympatico billing. Please hold on." (Transfer to Sympatico billing). There was a quick discussion about what was going on and then the person confirmed that the modem was returned in January. Excellent! Bill has now been zeroed and we owe Bell nothing. Again. For the third time since April.

Call agency back again and say all is good and you should hear from Bell about this soon. They have confirmed that the modem was returned in January and all is good. This is when the abilities of Bell far exceeded what they have previously done.

-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-
Me: They have confirmed that the modem was returned back in January and that the value of the bill has been reduced to zero in reflection of that.

Agency: Well that is odd why would they have done that? If the reason for the charge was fixed in January why did they send this notice to me in February?

Me: Because Bell is a wonderful company that is highly orderly and stands at the peak of customer service.

Agency: I detect a little sarcasm.
-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-

Anyway the conversation continued happily and all is good once again with the world with Bell fixing their problems .... Again .... For the 10 ^ 8 th time. I hope it stays that way.

I'll be calling the agency in 30 days to confirm that all is good.

Phantom of the Opera

2007-03-28T10:09:00.000-04:00

Well went and saw Phantom last night and it was great! The seats we had were good seats but naturally they came at a bit of a cost.

The show was good and the guy that played the Phantom did a great job. I would cite his name but I don't have the booklet with me here at work. Anyway the story and presentation was as great this time as it was the first time I saw it.

I have to say that there were two minor flaws with it though.

1) Raoul didn't provide a very emotional performance. Though from what I gather he is getting better.

2) One of the stage props has squeaky wheels which destroyed the "suspension of disbelief" during the second act.

Still that aside it was a great performance and I'm glad we went.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2007-03-20T08:56:00.000-04:00

Just found a new trailer today. Funniest point:
>Barbossa "Thar's not been a gathering like this in our life time."
>Sparrow "And I owe them all money."

Check out the trailer.

Bored

2007-03-14T20:10:00.000-04:00

Ok so right now I have a mess of things on my plate. Conference related issues need to be resolved before too long. This is more work than I feel up to doing. I have already done some of the simpler stuff but the real functionality tests still need to be done.

Really I'm just tired. I blame my lack of sleep.

Something else that makes me bored is my job. I just don't do enough there. I'm better than what I'm doing. *sigh* At least they pay me well enough so it doesn't bother me all the time. I guess just I'm feeling a little down about being in a job that doesn't seem to have any forward potential.

Installing Ubuntu Part 2

2007-03-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

Ok so one defective disk can can really screw up an install.

The coolest thing about installing Ubuntu is that you can load up Firefox while installing it on a second desktop. So while Ubuntu was installing I was browsing Digg while the install occurred.

Post install I was politely told that I had 138 updates pending download. So now I wait for my 226.3 megs.

Installing Ubuntu Part 1

2007-03-09T10:23:00.000-05:00

Ok I started an install of Ubuntu last night. I figured I would let it install all night. I think it froze because it was still at 23% done just like when I went to bed last night.

Tonight will be take 2.