ARCHIVE: Novemeber, 2007

----- 11.17.2007 --------
Something happened to me this morning that will stick with me forever, but not necessarily in a good way. Jen & I were walking the dogs, on our way to take Trixie to the vet for a checkup. Way up ahead of us on Jarvis, at the park, I heard a screech and saw a dog get hit by a car. The poor owner... he had 2 dogs and the other slipped out of his hand and ran into the street... just a young golden, around 6 - 8 months old if I had to guess. His other dog went running into the park and the poor guy was whaling, not sure what to do.... stay with his hurt dog, or chase the other. Immediately, I ran as fast as I could and caught the other dog and ran him over. With his injured dog in his arms and his other dog in mine, we raced across the street to the hotel where he was staying. I will never forget the moment in the elevator when we realized the dog wasn't going to make it. Didn't make it. His girlfriend/wife is a vet so we raced to their room and he frantically banged on the door and called to her. They disappeared inside and she did what she could, but it was already too late. I was standing outside the door holding his other dog. I knocked, they took the dog, both were obviously distraught & heart-broken, full of adrenaline. I gave them their other dog, gave the guy a hug and tried to reassure him that everything would be OK. I then left them alone and walked solemly down the hall back to the elevator, then out to the street and met back up with Jen and our 2 dogs.

There is no moral to this story. There may or may not be lessons to be learned from it either. Sure, you can be holding your dog tightly on a leash, but in an instant, it could get loose, from any number of ways: broken leash, broken harness, slip out of the harness, leash out of your hand. Anyway... I've had a leash break before with Sally and fortunately it was away from a busy street. But you never know when things will change. Part of me was sad, but another part realized the circle of life and that the energy of that dog moved on to another form. And fortunately, it happened really fast and the dog slipped away very peacefully, and seemingly without pain. But those of us left behind felt pain. And that man and his girlfriend/wife will be in my thoughts and prayers for some time. I only hope he can get past the guilt... it wasn't his fault. Some things just happen. And no, they don't need a reason. They simply happen and afterwards, everyting is different. And things are happening all the time and things are changing all the time for that reason. Most events don't even register in our sense of being. Other events stay with us forever. This is one that I'll carry forever... whether I want it or not.

----- 11.16.2007 --------
Although I am probably sounding like a broken record, wow, have I been busy. Doing what? That part I'm not totally sure about. Work takes up a fair bit of time, which is easy to account for. But then there's this chunk most evenings that completely disappears! I think part of it is my longer walk. I love it, but it does add to my commute time. I think the greatest part is being able to listen to my audio books longer. The new walk is about 25-30 minutes, as opposed to about 15-17 mins before. I finally made it into the gym for a workout this week. With moving and everything, it slipped out of my schedule, but I am frantically getting it back in there. I need to find a new gym I think... something between work & home, that seems to be best. But then I give up my work-out buddy Steve. Some days the only reason I get to the gym is because he emailed and said let's go. I'll eventually figure something out.

[GEEK ALERT] This past weekend FLEW by! Mostly because I was doing an exchange defrag (a work thing), and that can be stressful figuring out timing and all the what-ifs along the way. I find my mind goes nuts worrying about back-out strategies and "drop-dead" times where I need to revert. It's a tough thing when reverting takes about 12 hours. If you want it up by 7 AM on Monday morning, that means you need to back out at 7PM on Sunday. Well if your process is at 90% at 5 PM, should you consider a backout? My calculations tell me the last 10% should take 3 or 4 more hours.... bringing me to 8 or 9PM, but if anything is wrong with the final database, I'm already too late to effectively pull off a smooth backout before 7 AM. See what I mean? Fortunately, things went really smooth this time around... but I've had experiences in the past that haven't. Anyone who's ever battled and exchange server over a weekend (or worse... mid-week!) knows where I'm coming from! [/GEEK ALERT]

OK.... so what else? I played some paintball on Saturday night... that was awesome! Tonight, I got a new DVI KVM so I can easily switch between my mac & PC. Yes... I have a mac as well now.... needed it for some 3D stuff I am working on. Figures, the week after I get it, the hack finally comes out for a "Hackintosh Mac PC".... installing the latest Mac OS on PC hardware! Damn it, I could have totally done that! But since this is for my 3D work, which will primarily be in beta development, I don't need the added complexities to add to an already difficult-to-support & diagnose situation. If I had Mac skills, I'd be all over it...but I'm still a newb.

Anyway, I am apparently rambling more then the norm, so that's my cue to stop, post this, and continue geeking out with my mac & PC. Hope you're all doing great! Cheers!

----- 11.06.2007 --------
Finally, we're into our new place! No, not the "new, new place", but a new temporary place until that one's built. Unfortunately our last landlord broke a deal we had and sold out from under us, but we'll get over it. This weekend was crazy busy. We moved into our new place and we're finally getting settled in. I got my computer setup tonight and I'm happy to be writing my first update from the new place.

For those of you who haven't moved in a while, let me just remind you how much it sucks. K, I'm over it now. Well... although it's not TOO late, I've had a hectic day at work and I'm pretty tired. An early morning and a long day ahead of me tomorrow, I better get to bed. Hope you're all doing great and wanted to let you know we're moved in safe & sound. Cheers!

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