Don't put off till tomorrow what you can back-up today

Last night go down as one of the worst days of my techy life. At around 8:30 PM an event happened that will go down in the annals of this computerfile's technological history. I fired up my trusty Celeron and got a very disturbing disk error on the screen. After several hours and a trip to Western Digital's knowledgebase yielded a diagnosis that the hard drive had suffered a catastrophic failure and would need to be replaced. I'm in a bit of a state of shock at the moment. You see I had booked some time during the Christmas holidays to do something I've been meaning to do for quite some time, back up all of my files. At this moment I have some files backed up on another computer, but unfortunately I have lost a substantial amount of information. I'm at a loss for words especially since over the years I've recommended to friends and family that they back up regularly and often. During the last few years I've lost alot of that diligence due to my busy schedule and other factors. I knew this would come back to bite me in the ass at some point. Safe to say, I've had enough of computers for a while. I will pack away my old Celeron as it will never run again, it has been nothing but problems from day one that I bought that motherboard some four years ago now. Nope, my plan is that a few weeks from now we will be in a new year with new challenges and new rewards and one of these rewards will be a shiny new computer. As it's a new year and we will be on the lee side of the first decade of the 21st century what more fitting time than to change platforms. I also figure that as long as I have to start almost fresh having lost a good portion of my past work, I may as well start fresh with new software, a new operating system and a new paradigm in computing. By now the reader is wondering where I'm going with this, well I will not leave you straddling the fence. Some of you know that I've dabbled in Linux, but that's not where I'm going. Nope! My next machine will be a MAC Mini and I plan on purchasing it sometime in the next month. I'll have more details on the machine and my first impressions in an upcoming post and eventual podcast.

live simple

It's been a month since I last wrote and in that time there has been quite a bit stirring around the old homestead. In my last entry I had mentioned that I was up for a promotion and I was still rather indecisive as to whether or not I was going to accept it. Well safe to say that 11 days ago I took an action that will set in motion a chain of events that will ultimately lead to a cartharsis. That is a bold statement, but I know that my life will undoubtedly change in the coming months and the details will follow as soon as I have them. You see for many years I've lived in a sort of stasis when it came to my career, lately things have changed for me at work radically to the point of having shaken the very foundation of my concepts of what work means to me and how work interelates with the rest of my life. For this reason I've taken upon myself to find a method by which my personal life will take on new meaning and my work life will allow me that ability. Some of you may have heard of the term voluntary simplicity, which the Wikipedia defines as follows:

" voluntary simplicity or voluntary poverty) is a lifestyle considered by its adherents to be an alternative to Western consumerism. Adherents claim various reasons for pursuing this lifestyle, such as personal health, ecological or spiritual motivations.

The term "downshifting" is often used to describe the act of moving toward a lifestyle based on voluntary simplicity. Many who practice simple living subscribe to the axiom "less is more.""

My wife and I have often talked about further downshifting our lives and recently we have both taken measures towards fulfilling those goals. We are not extreme practitioners of this philosophy as we both have our own cars and live in an above average home in a middle-income neighbourhood suburb of Montreal. However, as some of my regular readers know I'm currently converting a 91 Ford Festiva to run on electric power and once this project is successfully on the road I may in fact get rid of my present gas powered vehicle in favour of my alternative powered vehicle. I am an avid Do-it-yourselfer and have tackled everything from plumbing to electricity passing by masonry and carpentry. Nothing is beyond my grasp nor my ambituous undertaking and I consider myself proud to rarely have to call for outside services. In fact I like my way of life and my philosophy so much that I intend to create a small community website in the next several months. The exact details of which will appear on this blog and on my website http://www.slandi.net when it comes back up in late November or early December. I hope to share my own and my wife's experiences with living a more simple life and delve into details on how individuals can live their lives without getting caught up in today's consumerism. Interested? By all means stay tuned.

I am unique

Someone recently referred to me as unique. At first it took me aback, but after careful thought it has come to my attention that I am unique. My own individual, my own perspectives, thoughts, tastes and ultimately my own free spirit. Funny that this should come as such a shock after the many years I've sought to be different, to choose the less travelled path, to live as it were to the beat of my own drum. I suppose that I strove so long to find my own unique identity that I didn't realize that I had found it and that I was living it. As many of you who read this blog know, I don't post very often, my life being the tumultous adventure that it is affords me less time to indulge in my writing as I'd like. It has occurred to me from time to time to get up the energy to blog and then somehow life gets in the way and I forget. Sometimes life is just too routine and I don't reallly have much to say. My own personal journal would attest to this last point. I haven't journaled regularly in weeks and when I do I find myself repeating the same things almost like a meditation. I've come to a point where I'm trying to enjoy life day by day, with Autumn now upon us I'm always reminded how the life around me will slowlly be buried in snow and that the grass and flowers will lie dormant waiting for yet another Spring to come and liberate them from their white blanket. Although it's time for me to move all of my hobbies indoors I can't help but wonder what this Winter will bring. For me personally I have many challenges both personal and professional that will tax my every working and non-working moment. My electric vehicle project has taken a life of its own and will compel me to work long hours during the Winter in a rather chilly garage. My goal is to put the car on the road by Spring time and for this to happen I must be diligent in every step of the conversion and multiply my efforts to reach solutions to some of the problems that have been bothering me.
My work life is also in for some terrific changes, I may be up for a rather imporant promotion and I'm still hesitant as to whether I want to take it or not. It's not that I lack ambition, far from that, it is just that this type of work will tax elements of my psyche that lately have been buried under years of neglect, mainly I'm talking about my people skills. I've worked for the latter part of 8 years in IT and have developed an appreciation for working by myself and getting things done. Now I'm facing having to get other people to apply themselves and finish tasks on time. This will be challenging to say the least and all my years of technological experience will not really help. I'm a few weeks from the actual decisive date and I'll keep this blog posted as to what happens.
My personal life will also see some adjustments as I've been burning the candle at both ends, as they say, keeping a full-time job and moonlighting as a technical writer in the evenings and on weekends. The lack of relaxation and recreational time has started taking its toll. I need to relax in the evenings and not work so hard. To this end I plan on cutting back my moonlighting and allowing myself a bit of breating room. Once I've taken on my new responsibilities at work I will need the time to unwind and to do something completely different. I love listening to podcasts and to music, so I could indulge in a bit more of that. I can spend more time with my wife and daughter or perhaps curl up with a good book which is something I haven't done in a long long time. Regardless of what I decide to do, the next few months will certainly be some of change and getting back to a slower pace, at least at home. I have many projects backlogged in my workshop, small things needing no more than a few nights or a few weekends to finish. I'd like to get those off my chest as well as continue on my basement/office renovations. I recently started to wire up the electric sockets and hope to finish those up in the next few weeks as more walls go up. I'll have more news as work progresses. For now I'll finish here and sitting here in bed I wonder what the next few months will bring. My little girl will be 3 in February, I will be 42 and yet I've still got some zing left in me. I wonder what news will happen and if the world will look any different in the next few years. I have a very short-term life plan for now and perhaps when I have more time I'd like to go through my wish list. For now I'll go to sleep and rest for tomorrow is another new day full of possibilities.

On Katrina and the seasons

I'm resting at home as I've been feeling rather under the weather the past few days. I was going to go back to bed and was just checking my e-mail when I realized that I have not blogged in what seems like forever. So I decided to write down some of my fleeting thoughts before they are gone forever.

I watched some of the coverage of the hurricane Katrina onslaught and my heart goes out to those people who have lost everything and yet will somehow prevail. I find it a small penitance to have to temporarily pay higher gas prices at the pump when I could have lost everything as many of these people did. When I see a natural disaster like this hurricane it makes me step back and see how humans are such an arrogant species. We strut around thinking the world is ours and then mother nature plays with out lives and all the petty little things for which we struggle and work so hard. It puts many things back into perspective and for me at least makes me realize how important are the little things, the small joys in life. A shared cup of coffee with a friend, listening to the rainfall through the leaves of a tree, watching birds fluttering by collecting bits of branches to build their nests or simply absorbing oneself in a good book while curled up in a favourite chair. I suppose as I get older and life seems to throw more challenges at me I sometimes struggle to get back to the simple pleasures. Unfortunately like many people, I too have been pulled into that consumerism maelstrom of the buying frenzy and often wish I had this or that gadget. In the end, when I do, on the occasion, buy some new electronic gizmo I often find that the anticipation is often more exciting than actual ownership. I recently re-discovered my local public library, that bastion of quiet literary sanctity was there all along yet somehow I never took heed. Well my 2 year old daughter re-introduced me to the library as my wife often goes there to borough books for our little girl. I started reading books on UFOs, music composition and even some books on Star Trek. I was surprised at how relaxing it was just sitting for an afternoon in the library leafing through some books without an internet link in sight and without having to strain my eyes on a computer screen, it was rather refreshing.

The kids have gone back to school this week and life has taken that flurry of activity that always accompanies the pre-dawn weeks of Autumn. As my favourite season, Autumn brings with it crisp cooler invigorating mornings and sense that new things abound. In my particular case, I have many projects that have slept during the hot duldroms of Summer and with the upcoming change in season many of these projects will start up again. I will not bore the reader with the details as many of my projects are rather personal, but some of them can be found on my website http://www.slandi.net.

So I leave my blog and head back for some much needed rest. Until next time then...

Good-bye Smokey my dear friend

I thought I was going to be strong enough to type this blog entry this afternoon, but even now as I type this my eyes are starting to water. I had to have our dear cat friend Smokey put down this past Sunday as he had kidney problems and the veterinarian gave him a poor prognosis. I will miss the little guy terribly as he was a great, affectionate little cat with the nicest disposition I'd ever seen in a cat. I've taken his loss rather hard and I can only attribute it to my emotional state at this time in my life. I guess I may be going through my mid-life crisis, I'll have more on this in another blog entry. I will be dedicating my web site to Smokey and will have a whole section devoted to his pictures. Good-bye Smokarooo hope you're chasing lots of birds in heaven :)

Good-bye Mr. Scott

Well what can I say, as a big Star Trek fan the news of Jimmy Doohan's death hit me rather hard. I know, I know he was an actor and Montgomery Scott was only a character, however Star Trek was very influential on me as a child and although I did not become an engineer as many others have following Mr. Scott, I did develop a sense of scientific approach to problems and developed an engineering mind. So we had the death of Deforest Kelly several years back and now Mr. Doohan. Two of the four big pillars of Star Trek are now gone, I can only now endeavour to enjoy the work of Mr. Shatner and Mr. Nimoy as much as possible. I haven't yet purchased it, but it seems there is a great DVD out there called Mind Meld which is basically a candid conversation between Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. After Mr. Doohan's passing I need to get another Star Trek fix and will most likely purchase the video before the end of August. Geez August already, where has the time gone. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (CD?) yet again, I have to admit that time hasn't been in great abundance at the Landi household. Most of my project progress has been slow to non-existant and over all my life is one big routine passing week after week and month after month. My electric vehicle project, which is foremost in my mind now with the fluctuating gas prices, has been trickling along at best, however I'm making some progress and even have a web site up (http://fest-ev-a.slandi.net), albeit rather embryonic at the moment. I'm in the progress of trying to give Sparky a fighting chance with the rust that has accumulated on it's body and frame. It's really not as bad as I had thought and I think once I'm finished the car will be fine as an EV glider. I'll have pics and text on the web page before long and perhaps even a podcast.

Summer at last

Well it's just about Summer at last and as I sit here for a few minutes blogging I'm thinking of everything around me and how much work I have still yet to do. Renovation projects contine as I changed the bathtub faucet for one of those new-fangled one lever jobbies. Works and looks great and wasn't too long in installing, I did however have to remove several tiles and replace them with white shiny new ones which are a stark contrast to the lavender tiles that still adorn 90% of the shower.

Things are going to slow down a bit in the renovation dept. as I decide to get back to some programming. I've been thinking for quite some time to perhaps finding a job as a programmer. Having had many many years of IT support and network administration experience, I think the move to programming may not be an easy one. For one I don't have any strong experience in programming, but undaunted I plan on picking up the books and getting back into VB. Why VB? Well I suppose because it would allow me to create quick and dirty applications that I can show off as part of a portfolio and it would be a almost painless way of getting back into programming. My real language of choice would be C++, but since that would take much more time I plan on starting slow and gearing up.

On the music front things have been rather quite, but I do pick up my bass from time to time and play a little. My synth is sleeping and has been for quite some time, I must find some time to put down some rudimentary tracks.

OK that's it for now, back to your regularly scheduled surfing.

my webpage reborn... again...

Hey everyone, well ok you there in front of the monitor, yeah you with the blank look in your face. Don't turn around, I mean you! OK now that I have your attention, notice the picture on the right of that somewhat handsome geek, yup that's straight from my website. http://www.slandi.net I put the page back up although the content will be slow in coming as I don't have much time these days what with work, home obligations, renovation, outings... etc... I'm putting a slightly different slant on my homepage, specifically it will be a personal page with no pre-conceived notions of being anything but a personal web page. I'd love to have it turn into the next Yahoo! with millions of hits and so on, but honestly, I just don't have that much content, well none that would be of any interest to the normal population of this planet. I am hoping on getting some pictures, articles and perhaps even some of my own music on there one day, but that won't be for some time to come. Things have been buzzing along here at slandi.net headquarters and I'm gearing up for some home renovations and some time with the family during the Summer. Right now I'm fighting a heck of a cold and I really should be under the covers, so that's where I'm heading, but I just wanted to blog this evening about that nifty picture, hey did you notice the SUN keyboard, yeah Sun! Always wanted one, well not the keyboard, but a whole system and now I have one... yeah.

I fell off the earth in March

Yup, I'll admit it I walked to far and fell off the edge of the Earth. It took me a whole month to climb back up and walk all the way back. I'll never walk that far again. Seriously though I've started power walking and it feels great! Right now I'm only walking at lunch time around the block near work, but maybe I'll get into walking in the evenings as well. I haven't had much to blog about lately, things are happening at work and some things have started moving on my home projects, but nothing really worth noting, at least not yet. I hope to have more to say in the upcoming weeks.

of mice and presistance

Well it's Sunday night a little after 10 PM and I'm re-installing Solaris 9 on my Sun Ultra 5 workstation. I just couldn't get the network card to work so I'm hedging my bets that a complete re-install may do the trick. It's been quite the ride with this workstation so far, I purchased it for a song, upgraded the memory only to find out that maybe the NIC is shot! I won't give up yet, have much more research to do on the net to get this puppy going. This little baby is going to be my web server to house a myriad of web pages on all my projects, interests and so forth. I also have my Linux box running Mandrake 10.1 which I'm currently using to blog at this very moment. It is very stable, never gives me any problems, but has to be configured properly as I can't get a few things working on it properly. I think eventually I may go with a Shuttle for my Linux box. I'm not a gamer nor am I a super power user. I'm going to occasionally do some video editing and audio recording, but mostly just coding and web page development. I just would like a very quiet machine that is very very stable. My nephew gave me a bunch of books on UNIX and web programming which just floored me, so in the next few months I hope to get some things done in that department as well, which will mean many late nights as I only get to hack at night after my little girl goes to bed. That's it for now, I'm heading off to bed to do a little work and then hit the hay as they say!

On February blahs, cars, and inner-peace

I had promised in my last entry that I would write about my upcoming trip to go and pick up my EV conversion candidate. The planned trip never transpired as my pick-up truck was diagnosed with a severe allergic reaction to actually being reliable. In truth part of the fuel system was leaking and I decided to forgo repairs and get rid of the truck once and for all. Following a friends suggestion I dontated the truck to the Quebec Kidney foundation where they partner with a salvage company and sell vehicles for parts and recoup a percentage of the funds to help kidney research, finally my old pick-up truck will be put to good use. The car I purchased up at my sister's was in better road condition than we previously thought so I took the bus up last Friday morning and my sister and I returned in the Festiva the next day, the trip was memorable, mechanically un-eventful and provided my sister and I some 8 hours of much-needed catchup time. Needless to say the travelling sapped the energy out of me and so I find myself rather light-headed as I type this entry.

It is the latter, trailing end of February, my little girl is now 2 years old as yesterday was her birthday, where has the time gone? I always find it difficult to deal with the end of February and begining of March, the lack of sunshine and the general slowdown after the busy frenetic pace of the holidays is always a downer. Although I don't partake in the hectic pace, it's always energizing watching people go to and through during the day, now everything is rather calm. You would think that the calmness would actually be welcoming, but somehow it has the adverse affect, or maybe I'm just dealing with my SADS (Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome). I'm just restless and eager to get on with a few things, more on that in another entry of course. All in all I'm at peace with myself for many things, life is good over all, my little girl is healthy and so is my wife, my own health is ok, although lately I've been feeling a bit anxious which is causing my heart some troubles, nothing serious, but my heartbeats have been a bit off.

That's it for now, hopefully I'll have more soon.

Once an ECHO driver always an ECHO driver

Well I brought my Toyota ECHO today to our local Toyota dealer to have them evaluate it . You see as part of my upcoming electric car conversion I will need funds and I was hoping on selling the car back to Toyota and getting some funds to pay down the car loan and put some towards the EV project. Well, they evaluated my car and the offer they made me was laughable, so I've decided to keep the car at least until the Spring and see what happens next. I'm not totally disappointed as I do like my ECHO and it runs really well, I registered my truck this week as I'm going to go pick-up the EV candidate up in my sister's town of Rimouski, Quebec. I'll have more on that trip as I near the date of departure of Feb 18th.

February! Almost February

Well it's been a long long time since I've written. My last post was on Christmas eve and so much has happened since then. New Years came and went as it usually does and was very quiet, not much on TV and the whole family went to bed early. I of course stayed up to welcome 2005 and say good-bye to 2004. So 2005, we are now 28 days into this year which unfortunately has seen the after effects of a horendous Tsunami which killed thousands upon thousands in Asia. I feel terrible for those people and their plight. On the space front, the Huygens probe landed on Titan and sent back amazing pictures and data that astounded the Astronomical society. Much much closer to home my own projects took a huge swing back towards my electric vehicle, a project that was once long put on the back burner for lack of funds and an appropriate chassis. That all changed on the 15th of this month when I found a 1991 Ford Festiva for sale in Rimouski, Quebec. My sister lives in Rimouski and acted as Liason and helped me buy the car. I don't have the car in my possession yet, but the middle of February will find me driving to Rimouski and coming back to Montreal with the Festy in tow. I plan on starting a web page to document the whole slow, painfully pleasant process. This month will also see the renovation of my basement, something which I've been looking forward to as it means I'll be able to put up my music stuff and my computer in a more permanent fashion. That's it for now, I have so much more to write, but it will have to wait.