Christmas and thoughts

So here I am Christmas eve and what am I doing? Blogging of course. I don't blog as regularly as I'd like for so many reasons, but I thought it was fitting that I'd blog at least a little on this most special evening. As I sit in my basement office and type quietly the rest of the house is slowly going to sleep. My little daughter is asleep not realizing the wonders that await her tomorrow, my wife is off to slumber land in anticipation of the hosting that she'll be doing tomorrow. Our cats too are getting comfortable and settled in for another night of sleep interrupted only slightly by their rounds as they walk around the house making sure everything is in order. I really should do a whole blog one day on their activities, the cat blog I'll call it, might be interesting for the new year. Almost inevitably every year the holidays for me bring a time of reflection where I look upon the year that has passed and ask myself if I have learned anything, progressed on my projects, made any inroads with my goals and hopes. This year is no different, only in this year's case, there seems to be so much more to look forward to than to look back upon. This new year will bring with it challenges, some of my own doing as I want to get back into some programming and continue my work on my music composition. I have some wood sculpture work that beckons in my workshop and I still have thoughts of my model railroading that has taken quite the backseat in the last few years. Other challenges may come from outside as the company I work for recently was purchased and with it will come welcome changes and challenges. I look forward to seeing what will happen in this new year. My health will have to take a front seat this coming year as my heart, now more recuperated from my Myocarditis, is still somewhat enlarged and so my cardiologist has decided to keep me on all my medication for another year. I don't feel too bad as I don't have many side-effects and I feel basically normal for all intents and purposes. I would like to lose another 10 lbs or so and if I can I will make it a point next year to excercise at least semi-regularly. A walk here and there and maybe get on the treadmill I have sitting in my office. I will close here and wish everyone or anyone that might be reading this blog a wonderful holiday season and a glorious New year.

Winter is upon us

Well what a week, I'm just about to leave the office, but I thought I'd just blog for a few minutes. A strange thing happened at the end of this week with my Internet Service provider. Let me explain, last night my wife was trying to get on the Internet and couldn't connect. Now I've had this happen before so I simply restarted the DSL MODEM and then tried logging on again but to no avail it just wouldn't connect. Thinking this was a temporary issue I waited about 30 minutes and tried again with the same results. This went on during the whole evening and I finally gave up around 11:00 PM and went to bed. This morning I tried again, but couldn't get through and decided to send them an e-mail from work. When I got to the office I fired up my firefox browser and went to their website only to be greeted by a very surprising memo mentioning that the local big phone company had disconnected my ISP's phone lines because of some accounting dispute so basically the ISP was off-line. This would defintely explain our lack of connection last night. Anyhow, I monitored their website as they announced that they would be posting more information and as of 16H00 today their systems seemed to be back up and running. I just found this kind of peculiar and a funny thing to have happened. Not funny for them, but I was relieved to know it wasn't my setup or my account.



OK back to my topic for this blog, Winter. Eventhough its official arrival isn't for another 18 days, Winter did rear its ugly white head this morning in Montreal. The mercury plummeted to a chilly -8 Celcius according to my Weather Watcherand it sure felt like it as I bundled up my daughter and brought her to the daycare. I normally look forward to the changes in season, it's almost like an old friend coming to visit reminding you of good times. Well as I get older I don't look forward to the cold and the inconvenience that Winter brings. The drives to and from work become more difficult, the approaching Christmas season brings with it a frenetic pace of shoppers and angry mini-van drivers who are upset because their local Toyaresaurus doesn't have the latest fad toy of the season. Guess I've become somewhat of a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas and this year doesn't seem to be any different, although I must admit I get a chuckle listening to my daughter asking to see Santa Claus. I suppose just for that this Christmas may have a little more magic than most in the past. Dressing in Winter is also a bit of a hassle and getting in and out of the car with long coats and boots, well it's something I could just do without now.



Winter for me also signals the fact that most of my hobbies and projects will have to move inside. As I had mentioned in my last blog, the window installations are now finished and the weather was cooperative enough to let me finish the chaulking. Now I have many projects to tackle on the inside and I hope to be able to blog about them in the next few months.



I should think about packing up and getting out on the road as the traffic may be a bit heavy as it's lightly snowing. If my Internet connection is up and running this evening I may blog some more later on tonight.

Changes

Well not much to write about tonight, had a nice quiet weekend with the wife and daughter. I cancelled my dial-up account and cancelled my webhosting on clickhost. They were really great, but now that I'm a few months from putting up my Linux web server I figure it's about time I let them go. This will put about $7/mth back into the till and I can add this to my dial-up account which cost me about $16/mth so I'm now at $23.00 which almost pays for my high-speed DSL line. My site is now hosted temporarily back on Geocities and I plan on putting up an audio blog when I get the chance just to be able to experiment with that. That's it for now I guess, oh yeah I almost forgot lately I've been listening to Rant Radio http://www.rantradio.com it's a streaming Internet radio station that is very interesting to listen to. So far I've only been listening to Nuts and Bolts, but I'm hoping on downloading some more .mp3 files of some of the other shows. I'll have more on this at a later entry in my blog.

On the home front

I was just reading my last post and contemplating how useful this blog can be for posting news about myself for my family to read. I heard from my sister today, she phoned me at work and asked me to go and take a look at a neighbourhood as she saw a house for sale and would like to know what the surroundings are like. So I plan on going sometime soon and take some photos to show her the house and the neighbourhood.



On the gadget front I found and purchased a Palm IIIc on ebay for $40 USD, I'm pretty excited as it's the same as my current Palm IIIxe, but has a rechargeable lithium battery and a nice Active Matrix colour screen. Since I use the Palm extensively now I just want something with a nicer overall screen and that won't cost me a king's ransom in batteries.



I'm finally back on high-speed Internet at home after hemming and hawing about it and wondering if I should take the plunge. I decided to go back to high-speed as I found a DSL router on sale at a computer store for $40 CDN and just couldn't pass up the offer. I've gone to a company called istop (http://www.istop.com) and bought a wireless router so now I can sit in bed and surf, blog and e-mail to my heart's content.



I'm a few days from assembling my Linux machine. I did some computer repairs for a couple of people and put away some money for a 120 GB Hard Drive so come this weekend I'll assemble and start installing Mandrake Linux 10.0 then it's a whole new world to explore.



I'm just about finished the chaulking on the windows in the house, the whole project has taken several months from the first measurement I took back in the Spring to ordering and then to finally installing the last of the windows a few weeks ago. So far the project has cost me $1,200.0o0 CDN and once I get the last two large windows installed the total will jump to $3,000.00 CDN`which is not bad considering some of the quotes I had for changing all the windows ran anywhere from $6,000 - $9,200 CDN. Would I do it again? No, not if I could avoid it, it was a long project and I made a miscalculation on the kitchen window requiring me to cut the window down to make it fit. Thankfully the technology used in these windows allowed me to remove the glass panes, cut the window, get the panes cut and then re-assemble the unit. This alone saved me the cost of the window, but did put back the project about 2-3 weeks. So now that this project is finished it's time to look forward to the next large project, the re-finishing of my basement. This project alone will require it's own blog page never mind a blog entry. More on this in later blogs.

OK where the heck have I been?

Boy if I look back at the date of my last post it's almost criminal. August! Wow and here we are the middle of November, where the heck has time flown? I've been really busy with home renovations and work, so no blogging for me, just don't have time. I've also been busy building my Linux box and so haven't had a ready computer to blog on. Things have been crazy busy around here as I put in the last of the second set of windows I bought. So now I have the master bedroom, guest bedroom, kitchen and my daughter's windows installed. The last two big windows will be installed by someone else, I've had just about enough. I'm going to keep this short as I'd like to go hit the hay, really nothing exciting happening around now, but I hope things will pick up after the Christmas rush, I always seem to get melancholic around Christmas time.

On the death of Laura Branigan

It was with a saddened heart that I found out that Laura Branigan died at the age of 47 in her New York home. She was very popular when I was a young man and when the music of the time was very important to me. Her hits like Gloria, Solitaire and How Am I suppose to Live without you? were chart toppers and my favorite Self Control was almost a theme song for me in my early rambuncious youth. Although I haven't listened to her music in years and did not follow her career I'm saddened to find out that the world has lost a lovely and strong voice and a good performer.

on sleep

"Sleep is the body's way of applying service packs"

An on-line guide to Creating Newsletters

I just came across a really nice comprehesive site illustrating how to create a Newsletter. Although they concentrate on School newsletters it could easily apply to newsletters for a company, club or charitable organisation. The site can be found at the link below.



Creating School Newsletters

Hurricane watch

... On a more serious note



Another fellow Blogger who lives in Florida had started blogging about the hurricane, but I believe that with the 2 million people they have asked to evacuate she may not be in the area any longer. I wish her and everyone in Florida luck and hope they make it through this without any injuries.



http://candiegoodyear.blogspot.com

A funny thought

"If someone comes up to you offering to involve you in an activity

requiring a rubber chicken, a scuba diving mask and a jar of

Mayonnaise. RUN......."



ok ok, but look at the time of this post!

Robert's Online Spreadsheet!

Hey everyone it's me... OK you are at a friend's house and you're going over some numbers for a project and you desperately need a spreadsheet program, but you have none in sight, don't dispair, this little website has come to your rescue. It's a free on-line JAVA spreadsheet.



Robert's Online Spreadsheet!



have fun and surf safely.



Stef

Could SPAM-free email be a reality

Well I thought I'd take a moment from my rather hectic day fighting this new "New_Price" virus and let you know about a FREE service I have found on the Internet. Like many of you I find myself receiving more and more SPAM and virus-laiden emails in my inbox. During the last 4-5 years I have had to change email addresses at least three times due to SPAM alone and I was just about to give up when I came across Blue Bottle. Blue Bottle is a FREE email service that gives it's users 250 MB of email space, POP3 access and has an authorization scheme to prevent unwanted emails. Although their website explains it best, basically it goes like this.



If someone wants to send you an email they will receive an email back from the Blue Bottle system asking them to go to a special web site and 'authorize' their email address. Once this is done you will receive their email intact and they will be added to your 'allowed list'. Anyone trying to send you SPAM or someone whom you do not know trys to send you a virus-laiden email will not be on your list and thus you will not receive those emails. I think the system is good and only requires your friends, family and business associates to go to this special link once to get on your list. To those of you who are on mailinglists you can add a whole domain to your allowed list with a simple step and from then on receive emails from anyone on the mailinglist.



I think it's a simple method by which you can control your SPAM and keep your system safe. You can reach them at Bluebottle :: Spam free email



happy surfing

Quick tip! July 21, 2004 - FREE E-mail

Here's a quick tip for today.



As part of my blogging I like to share things I've found on the internet. I work as a Network Administrator and part of my job consists in looking for information, services and software on the Internet. From time to time I come across little tidbits, hints and links to software or services. I'm not affiliated in any way to any of these companies, but offer these to readers who might find them interesting and useful.



I recently came across a company who offers free POP3 compliant email accounts, you can find them at Nerdshack ..::.. Home. You will get a 100MB Inbox and you can use either Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Incredimail, Thunderbird or any other POP3 compliant email client you wish. They don't have email access from the web, but you can do that from this site mail2web.com. Mail2Web is a free service that allows you to check any POP3 email account from the Internet, you can send and reply to email as well.

SPAM control??

OK I'm sitting at work and just went through what has become quite a ritual for me, the sorting and subsequent deleting of SPAM from my email Inbox. The funny thing is that I receive SPAM telling me how to fight SPAM. Now seriously what are these people thinking? Do they expect me to buy or use a product from someone who uses the very delivery method that their product it designed to alleviate. Besides why would I trust my business to someone who uses rather questionable tactics to get me to read their email in the first place, things like making cryptic subject lines or adding a whole bunch of legitimate or seemingly legitimate phrases at the bottom of their emails to ward off email filters just doesn't inspire confidence in me. Email is getting less and less productive and at times there is so much junk mail that I can actually sit here and watch MS Outlook's email filter working away on each email that comes in. OK back to work and my wonderful email (tongue firmly planted in cheek)

ARGH!!!! Or why I hate shopping at music instrument stores

Alright, so perhaps I don't look like a rock star and yes perhaps I don't know a C Major Chord from an electrical Cord, but give me a break. I was just at a music store this afternoon shopping around for a USB - MIDI Interface and the store clerk didn't treat me all that well or perhaps was it just me. I don't know, but of most of the music store clerks that I've met all but one has given me this feeling like they are all frustrate wanna be musicians that never made it and now are mad at the world. Basically what bothers me is the attitude most of them give me, it's like they don't have time for me nor do they want to bother with an obvious beginner (re: please see chord referal at top of this blog entry) What this lolely little clerk did not realize is that at moments like today when I'm in buying a small adapter I am at my most vulnerable and there I was staring at some digital drum kits. These days I've been obsessed with playing drums and recording some kind of tunes on my computer. I will have more information on this on my music page, but basically I've been slowly buying up parts to create a small home studio. It's all based around a synthesizer I purchased a while ago and will have more details on my music page. Right now I don't have a very good setup for drumming and so I was looking at building a set of digital drums and was asking this chap at this store, that will remain nameless, if they had drum practice pads to make the trigger pads. He showed me them, but proceeded to explain to me that my plans were not going to work, but what he didn't do is offer me an alternative! I would have perhaps listened to him at that point. This is all besides the point as I plan on keeping with my original plan and building a set. More on this later.

So what has everyone lost it?

I've been noticing that people seem to be getting more stupid as time goes by. Take for instance holiday weekends, just this past Canada day 16 people lost their lives in Quebec due to car accidents and this while supposedly enjoying a holiday weekend. Have you seen the way people act on holiday weekends now. They start sometime around mid-afternoon on Friday as is apparent when they leave work early and clog up city streets with their frantic pace to get home and start relaxing with their families. You see them running around like chickens with their heads chopped off going to and through pushing anything and anyone who gets in their way. Now I'm not against people having a good time and enjoying their weekends, but come on can they not slow down a bit. The stupidity doesn't end here, there seems to be an abundance of it in many different facets of living from buying a simple device down the road to dealing with people in the hospital. I just don't understand it at all. I'll try from time to time to blog some of my situations and when I get into these predicaments just to show you what I mean. In the meantime keep your eyes open and you too will see that people seem to be getting more stupid as time goes by.

First entry

Well this is it, my first entry in my new blog. I had a blog before, but it really didn't go anywhere and besides a friend of mine Stéphane would like to collaborate on a blog on different topics. He speaks and writes in French and I speak and write English so it will be interesting to be able to share information and collaborate on different topics in two languages.



Ceci est ma premiere insertion dans mon 'blog', en passant le mot 'blog' est une contractions de mots anglais 'Web Log'. Si quelq'un dit 'Web log' assez vite pour assez longtemps ca devient 'blog' essayez-le! J'ai dèja eu un 'blog' mais je n'etait pas satisfait avec mes articles et donc je l'ai changé pour celui-ci. Mon ami Stéphane a voulu partir un 'blog' et collaborer avec moi sur divers sujets. Lui il écrit et parle français tandis que moi je suis plus abile avec l'anglais. Ca sera interesant de pouvoir ecrire sur des sujet variés en deux langues.



a la prochain