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August 2, 2004 - 4:40 PM  Happy Long Weekend! Bo and I went back country camping in K-Country up to a little place called Lillian Lake and it was BEAUTIFUL! I just got home and dumped all the pictures into the camping section, although I do hope to sort them into at least two or more categories at some point during this week, but this way you can see them all in their original order (for anyone who really cares I guess.) There are 133 images in total and that's not including any of Bo's or Jolene's pictures yet. (Hopefully you aren't visiting on a dialup connection! hehehe) But what a weekend. It was only a 6 kilometer hike, less than half of our Mt. Romulus trip, but this time it was almost entirely up-hill. According to Bo's GPS we climbed about 2,500 feet over the course of that 6 kilometers! Bo had three wet suits, all his snorkel gear, not to mention food, clothes, and of course -- his guitar... Sadly we never once used his video camera this weekend but I think I just might have made up for some of that in pictures... I tried to get a video clip of all the fishies jumping in the lake on my camera but I havent' looked at it yet to see how well it turned out. It was a really cool experience though. There are 17 (I think) 'sites' to camp on at the lake, but only two fire-pits so everyone shares the fires for warmth and for cooking. (Well, most other back country campers brought little stoves with them but I cooked over the fire... Allright, for those who know my cooking... I boiled water over the fire and made soup.) But it was breathtakingly beautiful, especially the Lower Galatea lake we hiked up to on Sunday. Bluest water I've ever seen! Several people in our group actually saw a Grizzly Bear on the side of one of the mountains our campsite was in the valley of! Knowing that, you can imagine the tension that overtook the group of campers sitting around a firepit in the pitch dark, fogged in night when we heard the sound of rocks sliding down the mountainside... Bo said he even heard something making it's way through the trees in the middle of the night but it could have just been another camper... That's what we were telling ourselves anyways. When Bo and I climbed up to the Lower Galatea lake on Sunday and it was incredible. We made up and played 5 or 6 different rock-throwing games along the banks of its' water. And although we brought up a foursquare ball and even made a foursquare court, we never actually got around to playing the infamous game this time. I was very disappointed because Jolene and Nadine were some of the original NCCA'ers who brought that game to life back when we were in grade 6 (and 5 for Nadine.) Still we had an awesome time, I am exhausted though I'm finding that with each trip I feel less and less sore. We were so hot after the hike back to the vehicles Bo and I ran back down the suicide hill at the beginning of the trail and actually laid down in the river, allowing it's freezing, glacier-fed waters to run over our bodies before bolting up out of said water and claiming that this was " ridiculously cold." Still I hope you enjoy the pictures, they're all under Camping Trips -> Lillian & Galatea Lakes. I'm off to have a shower and then I need to get some work done for Custom Linen. All this camping has put me seriously behind at a time when really I should not be behind! But it's totally worth it, and Bo and I are getting ready to finish our raft so that we can bring it with us when we go camping Next Weekend too! Lake camping is SO much different than back country camping though... August 3, 2004 - 1:13 AM  What an awesome weekend. I really have to say that although this was probably the hardest back country camping trip I've done this far, it was definately the most fun. It's funny how memories work. I know that the whole way up the side of the mountain we were looking at the 45 degree incline that seemed to go on forever and wondered if we would ever make it, how much farther it could be, why mountains had to be so steep, and on and on we went. It was tiring, it was challenging, I started to think of all the things I had packed that I really didn't need... Yet tonight as I sit here and recall details from the weekend and look at the pictures, my memoirs are not focused on the hard parts but the good times and all the positive things that are actually worth remembering. Life is a lot like that, you have good times and you have bad times but (hopefully) you only remember the good times. I've really been enjoying this hobby I seem to have taken up of photographing significant moments in my life. There is something that intrigues me about showing complete strangers the parts of my life I find fascinating, sharing some of the challenges I face through my writings in the journal and the details of my walk through life, noting a song I've taken a particular liking to that day... Right now it is that new one by Matthew Good called Alert Status Red. I've never been able to pinpoint exactly what it is about his music I like so much, but so many of his songs really get into me. There are few bands I know of, the vast majority of their songs I thoroughly enjoy. Moist would be one, Matthew Good would be another, Newsboys -- there are very few songs by any of these artists (that I've heard) that I don't like. I think it would not be out of place to say that I am not a generous person. I find life is most satisfying when you are sharing what you have with someone else. Whether it's by sharing your knowledge and helping them fix their computer or sharing your time and listening to them talk, or even sharing my thoughts through the web site here. I love to give of myself to others. Now I just need to find someone to share my life with on a less generic level. Tonight Jason and I were helping Luke change the deck in his Jimmy and installed a Sub and amp in the back for him. We had everything hooked up and ready to test when we found out that the output chip on the deck was fried. The deck had been given to him some time ago under the pretense of "I'm not sure if it 
works or not but you can have it." Usually that's almost always a nice way of saying "It doesn't work but
I don't want to throw it out so I'm giving it to you." The only thing was that this was an older Pioneer
deck and I've long had a great respect and appreciation for Pioneer CD players. It has been my experience
that they are by far the most forgiving when it comes to badly scratched CD's, and their quality is
maintained right across the board. And although this was an older Pioneer deck, it was a 1 1/2 height
drive which fit the deck slot in Luke's Jimmy just perfectly whereas a normal sized deck left a big hole
above it in the dash. He really wanted this deck to work, so I looked at the other (normal sized and
slightly newer) Pioneer he had and decided it was worth taking them apart to see if they had the same
output chips. What would you know it but you have to take absolutely every part out of the deck just to
SEE the chip because of all the heat dissapation hardware. We yanked them both apart though and sure
enough, the model numbers were identical. I even checked the pinouts on the bottom (since Pioneer is
nice enough to write the pin descriptions beside all of the major components) and it was a perfect match.
I un-soldered the 'good' chip from the new deck, put it in the 'older-but-better-fitting' deck and we
brought it out to the Jimmy. What would you know it?! All four speakers had perfect sound! And the sub
sounds awesome too! It's nothing fancy, all generic hardware but it definately adds to the musical
quality of the sound in his vehicle. The deck fits perfectly in the dash and he was one happy driver.
I too was also very pleased with the outcome because although I've always known 'how' to do such an
operation, I've never had the means nor motivation to actually try it out. I took a number of pictures
of the operation which will be posted in the Fix-It section of the photo album shortly. I've always
been particurlarly fond of repairing audio hardware. The thrill and pure satisfaction of turning it on
and listening to your favorite song after you've performed whatever work on an aparatus is un-paralleled.
Anyways, it's almost two already and I'm very tired. Becky gets home in 14 days! That's 13 big sleeps!
I'm getting excited to see her again. It seems like ages. Anyhow, goodnight!August 4, 2004 - 11:24 PM I had all but forgotten what those butterflies felt like until I heard you knock on the door. And I had almost forgotten what it was like to ride in a downpour until my ride home! Lightning so bright it made you blind for a moment, heavy rain that just kept falling, hard hitting hail, and car wakes so high they could wash the bird poop off the top of a Greyhound bus! I can't remember it raining like this in years. It just seems like every time I try to plan a trip out to the warm lake everything falls apart at the last minute. People cancel or their plans change and they can't make it, can't get time off work or don't have any money... Now all I'd need is Bo dropping out and I'll be going there by myself. Oh well. We'll still have a good time. It's a hot tub lake! How can you not have a good time!? I just hope we can get the raft finished in time. 12:59 AM I just opened my back pack to help it dry out and when I removed my camera from it's case (which was in the back pack) I was very irritated to discover that the LCD screen in it has broken again. I have NO idea how it happened, the camera has been inside it's case all day, in a backpack that was empty... The camera was fine two days ago and I haven't taken it out of the case since... I really have NO idea how it could have broken, but there goes another $80.00 I didn't want to have to spend... It is kind of a poor design though, there is absolutely ZERO protection against any sort of impact, scratching, etc. for that screen... But you'd think that being in it's carrying case it would be safe! That's twice now that screen has broken without any explanation. I have a few video clips to share with you... One is a long-awaited one from a few years ago... If you ever heard the story of me dancing at The Fox club while I was still dating Jessica, this is a re-enactment of that dance. Bo actually falls to the ground he's laughing so hard while videotaping it. The other clip Luke and I made the other night while we were testing his deck after transferring the output chips.
August 6, 2004 - 12:49 AM It's always kind of neat to watch movies with the audio commentary turned on because you can learn a lot about the making of the film, discover little glitches in the photography, get behind-the-scene information that you'd otherwise never know... So I'm going to give you the reader a bit of a behind the scene walk through of the John Dances video clip. First of all, if you look at about 6 seconds into the clip I set my digital camera on the picnic table. If you look closely you can see that the lens 'snoot' is sticking out, meaning that the camera is on at this point. I set the camera on the table and do my little dance, but then around 11 seconds into the clip just before I go out of the picture you can see I pick the camera back up. While Bo is on the ground, I took a picture of him filming me, and that picture I took can be found Here. Actually, once on that page in the photo album if you click on Previous Picture you can see another picture I took just before the clip begins with a bit more background on the dance. Ok so it's not exactly a DVD commentary, but now you know, the rest of the story! Last night I changed the battery in my alarm clock and what a difference. I think it actually woke me up this morning. Now it looks like we are only going out to Sheerness on Sunday afternoon... Did I not call the wheels falling off that plan? I guess it works out better all around though, it gives me some extra time to get more done on my web site at work, Bo's got a fight club meeting he's got to be at on Saturday (which is why he can't go overnight anymore) and they want me to play drums at church on Sunday morning which I can now do. I brought my camera in to get the LCD fixed this morning. I guess Canon is a little backed up right now because of all the photographers getting their equipment tuned up, fixed, and cleaned who are going to the Olympics this year. I don't really have anything else to write about right now, so I will go to bed. August 10, 2004 2:11 AM Man oh man! When I went outside to go home tonight after visiting my parents' house I had to wipe the condensation off my bike seat, the windscreen and both mirrors were covered, and I could see my breath! This AUGUST! Not November! And just yesterday morning as I was riding to church it honestly felt like a fall morning. Cold, damp, you almost expected to see yellow leaves on trees and perhaps even some frost on the grass! I couldn't believe it. I'm still waiting for summer to arrive. Oh well, what can you do. Have to put winter tires on the bike or something... Hardcore biker ya know... August 12, 2004 - 12:11 AM Dag nabbit, I did something today I swore I'd never do. I went to pick my camera up from the Canon repair depot up the street from where I work, and as I was backing my bike out of the stall, I'm not 100% sure quite how it happened, but maybe because the stall was on a bit of an angle -- I burnt my leg on one of my exhaust pipes! Funny too, because even though I couldn't see where I burnt it, I sure could feel it. It seems that today wasn't only a day of firsts for me either. One less person can say that they've never been for a ride on a motorcycle. But man I am tired though! It's funny how the only time I ever seem to have time to write in this thing is when I am exhausted at the end my day, just moments away from passing out. Going to Calaway Park yesterday really took a lot out of me. I even went to bed early last night but that didn't seem to help. I will let you in on a little secret about me though. I feel the best about myself whenever I can help someone. Whether it's by fixing their computer or just offering them some useful advice about a situation -- what gives me the most pleasure and satisfaction in life is that feeling of serving a purpose -- helping someone out. Tonight I came home and Luke and Jason had been trying to solve an electrical problem for hours without success. After hearing the symptoms of their problem, I thought for a moment and then told them I knew how to fix it. Their reaction was priceless, especially when I went and actually solved the problem they'd spent hours struggling with, to no avail. Problem solving in general makes me feel good. There's a sense of satisfaction that comes with overcoming an obstacle that is difficult or even impossible to match. I've told people for a long time now, life is 20% what happens to you and 80% what you do about it. Certainly things outside your conrol that happen affect you, but not nearly as much as your reaction to them. I think that's all the philosophizing I can do for this night. I'm almost falling out of my chair! That cupboard is looking mighty good at the moment! It's funny, yes -- I do sleep in a cupboard, but it has got to be one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in. Not THE most comfortable mind you, but on a night like this it ranks pretty high! Speaking of comfortable beds, Becky gets back in 5 days!!! I could almost start counting the hours if I can find out what time her flight gets in. Maybe I will try to do that tomorrow! I can't wait to see her! Oh how I've missed you, Beck! And I've got lots of stories to tell you when you do finally get back! Marriage is quite over-rated these days. Just find someone you can't stand... And then give them your house! August 16, 2004 - 1:59 PM  I don't know why I ever bought that dern Seadoo... (But I'm sure glad I did!) August 17, 2004 - 8:13 AM Counter-productivity is running to Safeway and back only to buy ice cream August 18, 2004 - 8:30 AM BECKY COMES HOME TODAY! Air Canada Flight AC177 at 11:58 AM brings that Silly Goose back to Calgary. After seven long months (Well, long to me, probably not that long to her...) she's finally coming home. That means that in about 3 hours I'll see her again! Unfortunately she leaves again on Friday to go to BC for (I think) two weeks to visit some relatives, but still. I am very excited (and I'll admit even a little nervous) about seeing her again but it will all be good.  Have a great day!August 19, 2004 - 9:44 PM Lavishly our lives are wasted Humbleness is left untasted You can't live your life to please yourself, yeah That's a tip from my mistakes Exactly what it doesn't take To win you've got to come in last place To live your life you've got to lose it And all the losers get a crown All I need's another day Where I can't seem to get away From the many things that drag me down, yeah I'm sure you've had a day like me Where nothing seems to set you free From the burdens you can't carry all alone In your weakness He is stronger In Your darkness He shines through When you're crying He's your comfort When your all alone, He's carrying you Sitting in my little office at work plugging away at the web site with the tunes cranked. About all my laptop can do these days is play music so that's the task I have assigned it. Drinking water from a Pepsi can and reminiscing, this song for some reason has found it's way through my speakers a number of times. Every so often (I) find a song I can really get into and for a moment it lifts me out of the present into a realm without time or dimension, full of emotional scenery and sweet, warm, summer air. This particular one, entitled "Get Down" by Audio Adrenaline seems strangely suiting to my situation. These days it's as if I'm free-falling from a great height, hoping desperately something catches me before there is a John- shaped dent in the ground. Sometimes I write what I mean and feel, sometimes I just write because I can. Becky got home from her Katimavik trip yesterday, and what a joy it was to embrace her again. It's been seven months since I watched her walk through the security gates at the airport, and finally yesterday I was able to see her coming out of them instead. I think she was already crying before she even got to the doors but as soon as she saw her mom her face turned bright red and she began to sob as she ran towards Wendy. As soon as her arms were clasped around her mother her legs gave out and the two of them crouched on the ground, hugging and sobbing together. Then she went to each of her friends who had come to the airport and we all took turns holding the sight for sore eyes that was our Rebecca. After we had eaten a bite at Tim Horton's in the airport, we gathered at her house and sat outside on the front lawn talking with her and listening to stories. You could tell she'd been away a long time because at one point she began an explanation by saying, "Why, where I come from..." and then we all laughed. Like so many things that are beyond verbal expression, it was wonderful to see her again. A short-lived reunion it was though, as tomorrow (Friday) she leaves for BC to visit some family out there for 10 days. After that though, she'll be back for good, or at least for the forseeable future. Pizza Hut is Beckoning... August 21, 2004 - 9:58 PM Well you'd never guess where I am right now... I am sitting in my van typing on my laptop. Really nothing new there, but the catch is that I am writing this on my computer at HOME, using the laptop to connect to it. Pretty nifty, huh. I suppose I should say that I am in the parking lot at work and I've got a wireless network card in my laptop connecting me to the office network, thus enabling my little stunt. But still, I thought it was pretty cool. I've been at work many ridiculous hours the past two days, trying to prepare a backup Primary Domain Controller for when our main NT4 server crashes. One of it's hard drives has been making those all-too-familiar end of life sounds so I've been frantically working on backing it up and getting a replacement server ready to slip in once it does die, however also taking the opportunity to do some network upgrades in the process. For example, instead of using Windows (or Microsoft, for that matter) software to run the new PDC, I will be using Fedora Core with Samba as a primary domain controller. We'll see how well it works anyways. The other part of my labours over the past 48 hours has been the backing up of many gigabytes of (old) data files from our company. Given the sheer quantity of them, I installed a DVD burner into the file server so that these masses of documents could be efficiently backed up onto DVD's instead of multiples of CD's. Well this process alone was yielding nothing but headaches as disc after disc burnt 'fine' but resulted in unreadable media, even by the burner that wrote them. I could not figure out why. Sometimes it would read, most times it wouldn't and dvd+rw-mediainfo kept saying the last session on the DVD was damaged/reserved. Whatever that means I have no idea. (I'm doing all this under Linux by the way) but then after some reading on the subject I found that the drive I'm using, a Lite-On LDW-411S has had numerous firmware upgrade releases since it's production, so I flashed the latest firmware into the drive and what would you know it? Now it burns disc after disc perfectly, every time. What a relief! It seems that the server is only fast enough to make the file system for it on-the-fly at about 2.5x so I run the drive at 2x which seems to run a little more efficiently. (That's still about 2.7 MB / second including running mkisofs in the background to generate the filesystem AS it's being burnt. None to shabby for a PIII - 500Mhz with only 128 Megs of ram. Did I mention I love Linux?  Haha, sorry. I am in a big geek mood tonight. And sitting in my
van here listening to the rain as I type is really putting me in a good mood. I'm going over to Maeve's to hang out with
Jason as soon as this next DVD finishes burning inside. With a high of 8 degrees for tomorrow (Last time I checked this
was supposed to be August! Maybe I slept a few months) it's not hard to picture fall fast approaching. But strangely
enough I'm not dreading fall and the inevitable winter as much right now, because for me that means that I'll get to
spend more time driving my van! hahaha I love Rusty. The Red Dragon is still going strong. I need to do some body work
before the weather really gets bad (and maybe I'll actually build that center heater I've been putting off for the past
3 years) Man you know, one good saturday at it and I could have this thing warmer than a Canadian Summer in the winter
months... I even have most, if not all of the parts I'd need. Maybe a couple of hoses and connectors, Y's and that sort
of thing. I'm such a procrastinator. Oh well. Time to go check on that DVD. Talk to you later!August 22, 2004 - 4:58 PM How come you ALWAYS come up with the perfect thing to say 10 minutes AFTER it's too late? I don't remember what I said but I SHOULD have said, "No, but It's never a bad thing to start the day off with a pleasant surprise..." hahaha Oh well. Maybe next time. What a crazy weekend! I hate to say it, but I saw a whole WHACK of yellow leaves lying on the ground on my way to Robyn Lee's place this morning... Reminded me of that commercial where the lady's out and about on a sunny day, but then suddenly stops, looks down and starts screaming bloody murder. The camera zooms in on the ground and there's a single yellow leaf lying on the ground. That's pretty much how I felt. I'm almost looking forward to fall though, can't really explain why. There is something nice about coming in out of the cold. When hot chocolate is seasonable again and you can sit [that] much closer to the fire. Of course, knowing our falls we'll probably still have decent weather right up till Christmas, then it will snow for two weeks and we'll be stuck in a deep freeze for another 6 months. I'm at work right now, sad eh? Sunday afternoon and I'm trying to figure out how to set up an LDAP server. It's an interesting concept, especially how it integrates with both the linux and windows worlds and makes them that much more friendly with each other in terms of authentication and access control. I'm trying to come up with a new layout for our office network BEFORE I start implementing the changes. This is the kind of stuff I would have liked to have had a bit of schooling on, but beggars can't be chooser's so I'll just have to learn it myself like everything else. The nice thing is that we actually have a number of desktop PC's that aren't being used for anything right now which gives me a chance to test some of this stuff before I force everyone to migrate. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun at all this too, despite the hours. If they still had a shower here I'd almost have to pay rent! haha Anyways, enough ramblings. Back to the studying! August 23, 2004 - 12:04 PM Man, I am beside myself. I think I've run into a bug with this software because everything I've read says this should work but it doesn't. "What doesn't work?" you ask? Well let me try to describe the situation to you. First of all, imagine you have an office with about 20 desktop computers in it. All these computers are connected together on a network, and most of them have very similar configurations. Every day, people come to work and use these computers to do their work. First they have to log in so that they can access their files and shares, which are all protected by security measures so that not just 'anybody' on the network can read their files. Obviously there are certain documents and maybe even programs that the average employee should not have access to (IE: Company payroll information, etc.), so it is important that only the correct people have access to such files. Now because everyone works on their own computers but have several shared resources (folders on the server, printers, etc.) it is necessary that the permission information for this network is stored in a cenrtal location. If it were set on each individual computer, when user A logs into their own computer they might have access to a printer, but not when they log into a different computer under their account, if that computer even allows them to log on with their username and password. Make sense so far? I'm exhausted so feel free to stop reading if this doesn't make sense. In a perfect world, things would work like this: All user information (IE: Login username, password, access control lists (ACL's), contact information, etc) are centrally stored in a server. Whenever any user attempts to log into any workstation computer, that computer contacts the server, verifies the username and password the user provided against the stored information in the server, and if it matches the server will send the rest of that user's credentials to the workstation so the user can access their files, their shares, their printers, and programs. Because the information is centrally stored, it wouldn't matter (a whole lot, but there are exceptions) where that user logged in -- they should be able to log in with the same username and password from any machine (assuming they had permission to do so.) and have all the same access they normally would at their 'home' computer. Sounds good, right? Well it is, and if set up correctly it can work very well. As I hinted at, there are a few situations where things might not work quite the way they are supposed to, but what would life be without exceptions? However, since the type of information available on the server about each user could vary greatly, the type database we'd need to hold it is called an object oriented database instead of the other kind, whose name is currently eluding me. Normally in a database (such as mySQL) you pre-determine the row types for each table in the database. For example, you might have a table called phonebook and it would have the following rows: first_name, last_name, address, phone_number, fax_number, and email_address. Now in the database for every entry in that table you would have space allocated for each of those fields. If you didn't have a fax number or email address for a person in the table, those columns would simply be empty or NULL. However if you wanted to add more information about a person that the current table definition didn't accomodate, you'd have to modify the whole table -- affecting all rows in it. This might not be very efficient, especially if the additional information is only needed for a relatively few number of accounts. The alternative is a 'directory' style database, or object database. Each entry is treated as an object, which can have any number of 'components'. One entry in the database might just have a first & last name with a phone number, another entry might have name, phone number, fax, email, and a jpeg picture of the person! Because the database stores objects instead of rows, it allows an incredible amount of flexability. This is precisely the type of database that we need for our example with the centralized login server, and there is such a beast out there. LDAP stands for Light-weight Directory Access Protocol and it has the ability to store precisely the kind of information we need to do our authentication. (Plus a lot more, but that's topic for another nights' discussion.) This brings me roughly to where I am right now, but the problem I am facing is that it seems the version of the LDAP server I am using (presently OpenLDAP 2.2.13) uses newer schema definitions than the migration tools know how to translate for. So when I try to convert my existing user lists and group definitions to the LDAP 'format', the server complains about things such as invalid structural object class chain and invalid value for attribute objectClass. Probably the best thing to do is wait for them to update the migration tools to accomodate the current set of schema definitions... Because I've wracked my brain on this one for many hours tonight and one problem getting solved simply opens up the door for another one to appear. Would you believe I've been programming to Hillary Duff? I've got that new song of hers' "Come Clean" playing and sheepishly admit that I quite enjoy it. It's catchy, what can I say?? Anyhow, I've given up on trying to figure this out tonight and I've got to give a presentation on my web site tomorrow so getting SOME sleep tonight would be a good thing. One last thing to add, I'm not sure if she told you or not but I really was sorry I missed you this afternoon. Let the rain fall down and break my dreams, let it wash away my sanity. Cuz I wanna feel the thunder, I want to scream. Let the rain fall down -- I'm coming clean. August 25, 2004 - 7:45 PM  Need I say more? Today I sat in my office all day (well, technically I am still in my office...) watching a light but steady rain fall outside my window, leaving streaks across the glass through which I watch the world outside. Yet for as dreary a day as it was, when I went outside to take some pictures I couldn't help but notice that everything I saw was incredibly green! I don't know if the moisture on the leaves and branches just makes the colors more vivid or if some things are in fact continuing to grow and thrive in this cooler-but-damp weather we've been having lately. Despite the lack of activity outside my window, inside my window there was a great number of accomplishments made. First of all I successfully joined my first Windows 2000 Professional workstation to my newly-created Samba-based Primary Domain Controller, using OpenLDAP for a passdb backend and so far I have to admit even I am surprised at how well everything seems to be working. There were a number of bugs to work out at first, all of them my fault... (Mis-spelled directives in configuration files mostly) but really everything seems to be working very smoothly now. I let out a loud and definite cheer when that first workstation gave me that very-long-awaited, "Welcome to the domain" screen. I don't think there was anyone else in the offices at the time or they would have undoubtably come to query the source of this exuberant outburst. So now I have some more testing to do, see how the ACL's work... Basically the Windows workstation, running Win2Kpro *thinks* it is talking to a Windows NT based domain controller, when in fact it is actually a linux based computer entirely running software that does not cost one cent! I've also been forced through this endeavour to learn more and more about LDAP, and as I was sitting here at my desk suddenly, without warning, the whole concept of a directory service on a network became clear to me. It was a moment of realization, the proverbial light went on. (And it was a big one! Probably an M400/U at least, maybe even a M1000/U! Haha. Still have some lightbulb- changer-ese in me!) Anyhow, time to do some more testing but I thought I'd take a break, take a few pictures and take some time to write about my accomplishment on my site. This thing's been pretty dead lately, even my Official Guestbook Signee has only signed once in the past couple of weeks... Kind of makes me feel less bad about not updating it very often but seriously I've had no time in the past week to do ANYTHING! Last night I passed out on the couch I was so tired. Tonight we're having Amature Night but I am running purely on the excitement of success and the feeling of accomplishment. I know what I want for my birthday -- REST!  August 27, 2004 - 12:26 AM  Not sure who that guy is, but Jolene dropped her pictures from the Lillian camping trip this evening and I put them up in the photo album. It's under Camping for those of you who are interested. She had a few underwater ones that turned out pretty good, an amazing feat considering her camera didn't have a flash... But then again that water was so clear and when the sun was out you could see everything... I stopped by Sylvania today to say hi... I had to go to Nedco to pick up some network stuff so I thought I'd pop in. I had to laugh just a few minutes ago, however -- as I was emptying my pockets. Here if I didn't have a marrette which I'd picked up at Sylvania. I just can't seem to go there without coming home with a pocket full of marrettes! In this case I only had one, but still. It made me laugh. Actually I found a piece of pipe and I was shooting them at Steve while he was on the phone. I don't know if I ever wrote about it before but you have NO idea how fast or how far those things can fly when you blow them through a piece of 1/4" pipe! Conduit, standard water copper, I'd imagine even the right diameter of Pex piping (that might be spelled wrong... I'm not sure) and a simple, everyday household Marrette can become more painful than a paintball! (The yellow ones at least... The orange ones don't work so well because they're smaller and more air passes around them instead of pushing behind them.) It occured to me that so far this year I have not taken my bike outside of the City of Calgary limits! How sad is that??? So what I am planning, or at least as things stand right now, is this: Tomorrow I'm going to get up, shower, do all that, pick up Jessica, give her a ride to work. Return the faulty hub I bought at Nedco and get a new, working one instead, then go to work myself, give my little presentation, find something to do the rest of the day, then take off North on highway two. Stop in Red Deer to get a few chicken kabobs and a milk shake, then continue on to Edmonton. I have some things to drop off for someone there, the only trouble is that they don't know I'm coming and I don't know where they live. So this could be interesting. But in any case, it will be a good ride. But then, we'll have to see what I end up doing that night, maybe I'll find somewhere to stay in Edmonton or come back to Red Deer and crash there. Again, not really sure what's going to happen. But then on Saturday I've got to get to Lethbridge before 7:00 because Bo is in a big tournament and it starts at 7:00. Now I could be mistaken but I believe it's actually going to be on Pay-Per-View. I believe it's called The Right of Passage and it's UFC-style fighting. Anyways, win or lose there's going to be a big party for Bo in Lethbridge so I will stay there Sunday night and then, if I can still stradle the bike, I'll get back on it and come home. Or at least that's the plan anyways. But as we all know, Plans change! August 29, 2004 - 10:51 PM What a weekend! Bo's fight in Lethbridge was incredible! Bo was in a tournament this weekend down in Lethbridge called Right of Passage, which is actually the first time I've seen him fight. And I will admit, when I saw that guy he was supposed to fight get into the ring with him, standing a good 6-8 inches taller and looking pretty ripped, the nerves were definately grinding... But Bo's first move took the guy to the ground. Unbeknownst to us though, it also dislocated Bo's left shoulder. Nobody watching the fight could tell though, as Bo continued to hammer the guy, albeit a lot more with his right than with his left. Watching the video clip I shot on my camera, you can actually SEE his shoulder sticking out where it's not supposed to stick out. So essentially, Bo fought this guy with one arm! He took the fight right through the two five-minute rounds and although he never knocked his opponent out, the judges voted by unanimous decision that the fight belonged to Bo. It was awesome! We were so proud of him! I will post the pictures I took and perhaps even the video clips as well, it really is something to see. Being that the world IS so small and all, it turned out that Bo wasn't the only competitor in this fight that I knew! Brett, Jackie's older brother (Jackie from the lake, that is) was also enrolled in Right of Passage and KO'd his opponent in 32 seconds flat! It was incredible! I believe the word would be clobbered. I'm definately going to buy a copy of the 'official' video of this tournament, it would definately be something to have! But anyways, Bo was treated for his shoulder by paramedics at the scene, had his arm in a sling and needless to say, was being offered drink after drink after drink by everyone around him at the bar. After we left the Roadhouse and went to another establishment of entertainment, in typical Bo fashion he decided he no longer needed his arm in the sling and began helping people out by providing them with chairs he was throwing over his head. Well, if such a thought isn't already making you cringe, needless to say his shoulder went out again... And we had to take him to Emergency at the hospital in Lethbridge to get it treated as this time it was really giving him some grief. Still, we had a pretty good time after the tournament was over, and Bo's mom made a home cooked breakfast for all of us this morning at her house. One thing I have to note, ever since I installed that K&N air filter in the bike, my fuel ecconomy has gone through the roof! At 140km/hr on the highway, I'm almost doing 20 km / litre of gas! I don't know what that is in MPG but it's pretty awesome. I drove from Bo's house in Lethbridge to about 7 kilometers away from my house before my reserve light came on! That was 232 kilometers on 12L of gas, at an average speed of 140. Normally I used to get about 180 Km at that speed on the highway. After I got home from Lethbridge and had showered and changed and all that, I went down to Robyn Lee's place where I spent the rest of the afternoon and had a really good time, as usual. Now I am off to bed to try to catch up on some of the sleep I missed during the weekend. It was a busy one! Have a good night August 30, 2004 - 2:48 PM  Right of Passage, 2004 This weekend I went to watch Bo fight in the Right of Passage tournament in Lethbridge. It would be the first time I've ever watched Bo fight, and to begin this segment with an understatement -- I was impressed. The two stood off from each other for a moment or two at the opening ring of the bell, and suddenly Bo lunged for Veejay. A lightning fast struggle ensued for a moment and suddenly Veejay was on his back on the mat with Bo on top of him. Bo worked his opponent down with shots to the kidneys and head, using his powerful arms to keep Veejay from doing much retaliatory damage. Once Veejay managed to get out of Bo's hold but only for a brief moment until he was back on the mat. A number of times the referee had to move them away from the edges of the ring, and even stood them up twice to make sure both competitors were still allright. Veejay did manage to get Bo into a number of holds from the bottom throughout the match, but Bo continued to punch and deliver knees to Veejay's gut whenever he could, and at the end of the match, two five minute rounds, there was no dispute amongst the judges as to who the victor of the fight was. It was an impressive display of technique and force as this relative new-comer overpowered and out-performed a much more experienced fighter. Even today my voice is still a bit hoarse from cheering. Needless to say I am very proud of Bo, (although it really wouldn't have mattered if he had won or lost) but what we learned after the match was over made the fight take on a whole new level of appreciation. In that first takedown, Bo dislocated his left shoulder! He fought that entire fight with the use of only one of his arms! As we watched the clips I took on my camera, you could see his shoulder sticking out and yet he was still trying to throw punches with it. Even now I cringe as I think about it, and to watch the fight with that knowledge now makes it look that much more impressive! Bo recounted to us later his experience coming out of the ring after winning the fight. "I went down into the locker room to have the paramedics check me out and the guy told me to bite on something. I didn't even know it was out until he went to put it back in. I remember trying to punch with it a few times and it just felt weak but I had no idea it was dislocated. When you're in that ring it feels like a dream but I could hear you guys cheering!" Awesome job, Bo! You rock! BACK to Journal Index | ||||
