ARCHIVE - MAY, 2003

----- 05.25.2003 ---------
Well, this weekend sure bit the big one! What was supposed to be a nice, relaxing weekend turned ugly, and fast. Let me back up to friday... I was upgrading MTL's exchange server from 5.5 to 2000. All precautions were taken and all the preliminary stuff (CA's, forestprep, domain prep, recipient update services, 1-to-1 mappings, etc...) was taken care of a few weeks ago. So, really, it was run update and go. Throw a service pack on and I should have been out of the office on my way to a pub for a beer by about 7PM, max. Nope. Everything went well, and then it came time for SP3 for exch2k. Having already run it on several servers prior to this, I did not expect what happened to happen. It killed the underlying IIS services. What does this mean? It means it's f-cked! After trying everything under the sun, I saw the sun. 6:30 AM rolled around and it was time to get my sorry-ass to bed. Nothing like a 20+ hour day :) So, I went home, had a sweet sleep and headed back into the office in the afternoon. I worked for a few hours and got it to a point where atleast I knew the data was in tact and manageable, but again, the underlying services were trashed. So, I left to go to a buddy house-warming party. That was a ton of fun!!! And just what the doctor ordered! Anyway, slept in a bit, got up today and came into the office this afternoon. Now I'm sitting here (3 AM) waiting for things to happen on this server.... with 8:30 AM approaching mighty quick! Obviously the goal is to have employees come in and not know anything went wrong. I mean, what would happen if they couldn't access their email??? I'm quite sure the moon may come crashing into the earth :) OK... it's late, I'm tired and wish these machines would work quicker! On the bright side, I've had Dan, our MTL admin, on the phone with me the whole time. I've been at the driver's seat over term services with Dan in the navigator's seat, interacting with it through netmeeting. I love technology :) Anyway, lots fun. Right. I was supposed to go climbing today, but that couldn't work for obvious reasons. I think I'll go Wednesday though. I haven't been since my shoulder got injured, so I'm really excited! And my fingers are just about healed from my bridge-building last week. If anything, they're tougher now. Ha ha... a computer geek building stuff :) Well, before I really start to go on about nothing, I'll end it here. I hope you're all enjoying sleep :)

----- 05.20.2003 ---------
Where to start... well, I guess I'll start where my last post left off... The Matrix Reloaded. Personally, I thought it totally kicked ass! I thought it was better then the first (most would disagree with me), but only because I saw the first one. Without the first one, this movie wouldn't really stand up on its own. But that's not what's intended... it's part two in a trilogy. Having said that, I just can't wait until November when the 3rd "installation" comes out. This one left me with questions and theories I can only guess at. I'm hoping part III is going to tie it all together is one neat package. Others didn't like it. Others liked it but not as much as the first. You've heard my opinion, now go see it and get your own opinion. I can't really add much more since I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I may create a seperate link for more thoughts that would spoil it for others, but it's intention would purely be for those who have seen it and want my take on it. Anyway, enough Matrix. How was my weekend? It was great! As you know (if you read my previous post), I went out to Seaforth this weekend to help set up for the Open Eye Festival. I spent pretty much all of my time working on the bridge to cross the Bayfield River. The distance from land to land is around 18 feet right now. Mind you, this is during spring thaw. You could see the river was much higher, but is lowering nicely. I took a bunch of pictures of the progress, but unfortunately my battery died before I could show you a finished product. It's no big deal anyway since the finished product just isn't finished yet anyway. We weren't able to get wood because the place was closed Sunday & Monday (Victoria Day in Canada). We weren't really ready for it anyway... there was tons of work involved before we even got there. First we used galvanized chain link fence to create 2 huge cylinders with will hold rocks. These will be the supports. The original idea was to put them in the water, but found out a permit would be needed if we did that. So, we put them on land. Land that was intended to stay, so another chore was protect the land from errosion. Doing so took me most of the 2nd day working on it. As well, the river gets canoeists, meaning the bridge had to be tall enough for them to cross under. Well, we were able to do all that. In fact, even with the spring thaw, the bridge will be high enough to keep it above water. We moved tons of rock from the river bed to put into the pillars. After that, we needed to minimize the width of the river and take the pressure off the sides to protect the land. To do so, we dredged the centre. The river went from a fairly consistent depth of about 1 foot across 18 feet wide, to about 2 feet down the centre deep, and only about 4 - 6 inches on the sides. We moved so much rock! Man, was I ever sore after! I could barely move this morning! And my finger tips... ouch! Hundreds of tiny cuts from the rocks. Why didn't I wear gloves? It would have been pointless in the current. The current was pretty strong to begin with, but during and after the dredging, the middle carried the brunt of the pressure. My legs were killing me today! Stabalizing yourself for 6 - 8 hours in that is draining! Anyway, I feel great about it and had fun doing it. I can't wait until we lay the boards and finish it off. That should be the easy part. Well, I'm sure you've stopped reading by now, but if you haven't, stayed tuned for the pics! Well, take care, I'm off to bed ;)

----- 05.13.2003 ---------
I had a court date tonight and it went really well. No, not what you're thinking... I'm innocent. Seriously! OK, not that court... the squash court. I made my return today after being out of it for the last 7 1/2 weeks. It felt great! My shoulder hurt a bit on the backhand shots, but all in all, I was feeling pretty good! And I won most of my games too, which came as a surprise. One of the guys I was playing usually beats me, but tonight I took him 3 straight. I had tons of energy... and still do! I'm just happy to be able to play again. The blading was great, and still is, and I intend to keep it up, yadda yadda yadda, but it's just not squash. I can't make myself sweat enough on blades. Where as in the court...? Oh ya, feel the burn! I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Next on my "got to get back to" list is climbing. I know my shoulder isn't full strength and climbing right now would probably set me back a month so I'll hold off. I can't wait though! Get back into climbing once/week, squash 3 to 4 times/week, and blading the rest of the time. In fact, Joe Rockhead's (climbing) is a nice blade away. Not too far, but enough for maybe 20 minutes each way. I guess I'll just have to go and see how long it takes. Tonight I'm feeling more energetic and healthy then ever. Speaking of healthy, I'm 2 weeks smoke-free as of today! The patch is working out great! I'm looking forward to when the 10 weeks is up and I'm smoke-free and patch-free. Only 8 more weeks till then :) Well, time to go burn some energy elsewhere. I got a copy of XBox magazine today which has some playable demos on it. Time to go play :) One more thing though... have you booked off June 6 - 8 yet? It's the Open Eye Festival! Come on out! It should be a blast! This weekend I'm going out to the site to help set up. It should be a lot of fun. I'll bring my camera and hopefully get you some great pictures. Some before and after pics would be great too, depending on how much we get down. We've got some things to build (a bridge, a water-tight sound booth, a fence, some kind of pavillion area and more). Like I said, it should be great. Well, that's it for now!

----- 05.11.2003 ---------
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there... especially mine! Love you Mom :) Well, another weekend, but this time I couldn't go out blading. It's finally stopped raining and if it dries up a bit out there, I still may be able to get a skate in. But, since I've been stuck inside, I decided to catch up on my site. I finally made a new spinning head to replace the others. My hair's grown back in quite a bit since I shaved it, but I think it's for the better. Either way... it's a current pic. If you want to see the previous ones, you still can by clicking on the spinning head, or here. Enough about spinning heads. Last week I went to see X2 (X-men 2). I liked it! Lots of action, great effects, and less cheese then the first one. Actually, I wasn't a huge fan of the first one, so this 2nd one is way better in my opinion. If you get a chance, this one is theatre-worthy and I'll probably buy it when it comes out on DVD. While I'm on the topics of movies and DVD's... I just got Jackass: The Movie on Friday. It is sooo funny! I can't believe the shit they pull on there! Those guys are insane! If you haven't seen it yet... see it. You'll laugh your ass off! And probably wince in pain every now and then as well. Still on the topics of movies, I'm taking this Thursday off to go see the Matrix Reloaded. I've got tickets for the first showing at noon. I can't wait! I loved the first one and probably have a little too much anticipation for this one. Either way, the effects are going to kick ass. Well, I think I'm going to call this update quits for now. I've got some new links on my link page, so check them out. Just so you know, newest links are now at the top of each list. Take it easy.

----- 05.05.2003 ---------
For someone who doesn't smoke, and never did, you can't imagine how hard it can be to quit. For those of you who have smoked and quit... you know what I'm going through. Actually, to be quite honest, it's going much easier then that. Sure, it's only been 6 days, but you have to start somewhere, right? The patch has made things so much easier this time around. So much EASIER, but not easy by any stretch! Well, it's monday, and there's no pool since we're out of the playoffs. My shoulder's not back to full strength yet, so no squash or climbing. Roller blading? I'd love to but it's pooring rain. So, that leaves me with a quiet night in, updating my site. This weekend was great! I went out a couple times blading... the weather was nice (still a little cool) and I had tons of energy. I didn't realize it until after I scoped it out on mapquest, but I bladed 16.5 km yesterday. Not bad... but now I can only think bigger numbers. By the end of the summer, I want to have bladed atleast a 50 km route. Sure, it's a stretch, but I'll work up to it. The tougest part about this is finding a long stretch of nice pavement. I'd prefer a loop, but a back and forth, back and forth trail may just have to do it if I can't find one. Actually, if I blade to the Beaches from my place, and then all the way back to the Humber bridge and back to my place, that should be about 50. Hey, no problem! Everyone needs goals, right? Well, you may have noticed the new link on the left for "Open Eye". The Open Eye Festival is coming up again this year and it should be great! Interested? Visit the site for details or drop me a line. I plan to go out to the site May 24 weekend to volunteer & help setup. Speaking of which, I've got a meeting for it this saturday that I better not miss. I missed the others through simple bad timing. Being in the hospital with my shoulder was one of them, the other is probably just some lame excuse why I couldn't make it ;). Well, this weather better clear up. It can rain during the week... but not over the weekend. Oh ya... forgot to mention why this weekend was so great outside of the blading. It was my first weekend on the roof this year. A buddy and I were up there... Bubba of Blue, tunes, and a BBQ loaded with chicken, steaks, and pork chops. Oh ya... let the summer begin! After the bubba was done and it was getting dark anyway, we took off to "My Apartment" for a few. It was a good night. Man, the scenary! Hotties everywhere! They're all coming out of the wood-work now! Now all I gotta do is grow the balls to go introduce myself... without needing a bunch of beers, that is. Although I hear nothing turns a woman on more then a guy who's loaded out of his tree, I've yet to see it. And anytime I have.... well let's not go there! LOL ! Anyway, I think I'm going to finish this, add a couple links to my links page and call it quits for now. I tried to watch the new Harry Potter DVD last night but dozed off about 30 minutes into it. Maybe I'll have better luck tonight. Later!

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