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August 1, 2007 - 11:17 PM I am trailing very far behind in the recording of events passing by in my life. And not even insignificant ones either! So here, briefly, to remind myself later on what to write and to tease those of you waiting patiently for details, are some point form highlights of the past week or so.
August 5, 2007 - 12:22 PM Cleanup Day  The other day my flytrap's stomach was bigger than it's mouth as it tried to eat this moth. Probably going to lose a mouth over this one, but they do grow back... Pretty ambitious little plant though!  A few weeks ago (it's been a while, I know) Steve and I were at Boston Pizza in Canmore and he ordered an Ice Tea - which comes with a slice of lemon. In this particular case however, the lemon was sliced so thin, it had less width than his straw!  A bunny  One of the many contactor boxes I've had to work in. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot more of these in the future! Yay for sparkies! haha  This cat drove into the Petro Canada station I was working at and filled up with gas. You don't see that every day...  While we were at the Science Centre in Vancouver they have a computer that can age you. You sit down, it takes your picture and then shows what you will (supposedly) look like at various age points. Here's my future at 70 years old... Good thing I have so much to look forward to!  Here's Blair at 70... Apparently he's going to age more gracefully than I. The only drawback is that you have to wait 40 years to find out how accurate it is!  One of the many interesting exhibits at the science center is this vortex, where - by controlling the speed of the funnel you can move this purple ball up or down in the tank. It's pretty wild.  It's a twister!!  Hanging out in a park near downtown Vancouver. Felt very bum-like.  The emergency plaque at our hotel gave instructions on what to do in the event of a fire. However, notice how they spelled the name of the city. You're where? Van-OO-ver!  Blair  I passed by this truck on Blackfoot the other day. Must have been a blond who put his topper on... That's all for now - I've got to clean this place up. Hopefully we can get a jam going this evening! I've been wanting to jam for ages! And tomorrow's also a holiday! Horray! August 8, 2007 - 10:29 PM And thus endith the continued adventures of a lightbulb changer. Actually I was a little surprised at how anti-climactic it was... Half the guys were gone this morning - Pat is in New Brunswick and Al had a doctor's appointment, so there was just Steve, Paul and I. I worked with Paul today, the first (and last) time I've worked with him ever. We serviced a massive variety of lights at a Safeway and when we got back to the shop about 4:40, everyone had gone home already. So I left my shop key with Paul and went home. The end. I've still got to hand in my phone, uniform and a couple of tools - but tomorrow morning I start my new job at Convergint Technologies. I'm pretty excited. Interestingly enough I got a call from the Teamster's union this afternoon asking if I'd be interested in supporting a union at Shaw Cable. Of course, since I no longer work there I do not have a valid vote, but it sounds like things are taking a turn for the worse at my former employer and it's the installers who will be taking the hit in the pocketbook. Apparently they're restructuring the way their installers get paid, and so far on trial runs under the new codes guys are losing $60 - $150 / day when compared to the old codes. Or at least that's what I've been told - I haven't seen any real numbers for myself. I've never regretted leaving Shaw, and it sounds like I got out at a good time. I've run into a few of my buddies who work there still and moral appears to be very low. But that wage has been a hook in the mouth, and a lot of guys have so much invested in their vehicles and tools just to work there that they can't afford to leave! Kind of scarry. If they're going to be cutting wages now, I wouldn't be surprised if more guys left. People Powered... I clogged the toilet at that Safeway this afternoon. Well actually, it wasn't me - I'm pretty sure number one can't clog a toilet. But nevertheless when I went to flush, the water rose up from the bowl and bubbled and spewed forth over the edge of the toilet as I hot-stepped it around the quickly growing pool of toilet water on the floor as it tried to find the nearest incline towards the floor drain. I gave my hands a quick wash and then bolted out the door before there was no dry ground left to stand on, and as I exited the bathroom I passed a Safeway employee. "Your toilet is not functioning correctly!" I told him as I pointed towards the septic eruption in place behind me and quickly made my escape through the front doors of the store. Even though I didn't do it, as the last one in the bathroom I'm the obvious one to blame and since I cannot prove my innocence nor had the time to try - I simply ran away letting whoever think whatever had taken place. After all, with a name like John - who would believe me anyways?  August 12, 2007 - 12:14 PM Yesterday Bo, (a different Luke) and I went to Kananaskis to do some fishing. The spot Bo had picked was a lake, known for it's abundant stock of fish - in fact, the lake was named accordingly. Picklejar was named such because fishing from it was like pulling fish out of a picklejar. It's too easy However, as we were to find out - the hike thereto was anything but as we got hopelessly lost off the path, stumbled through a bear's bedroom, climbed trees to get our bearings and eventually Bo even had to use his bear spray...  Our first stop along the way was at the gas station, where a nearby hill of gopher holes drew my camera's attention and I took a few shots. Whack-A-Mole anyone?  Our hike got underway shortly thereafter and along the path we encountered the remains of a surprising number of animals. Nothing more than a bone here or there, but some specimens of a decent size for sure!  We hiked and hiked and hiked and seemed to be getting nowhere a lake (or even creek) might be, and so finally Bo climbed to the top of a tree to get a better look at the terrain. As it turned out, we had been hiking up the side of a mountain for no apparent reason and now had to make our way through the dense brush all the way back down to where our path was supposed to be.   Nearing the path again, we came across several signs (actually - MANY signs) of a bear or bears. This paw-print was one of the more definitive, but we also came across countless piles of fresh (gleaming) bear poop. We figured later that we must have been chasing a bear along the path.   This frog apparently didn't make it across the road. It would appear he died half way across - and since I nearly stepped on him - you guessed it, he got his picture taken. Move over, chicken-crossing-road jokes, here comes the frog: Why did the frog cross the road? He didn't. Haha (boo)  A look along one of the more defined paths we took.  I would say at least half our journey was not following man-made paths through the forest. And this encounter just goes to prove it. I didn't have time to change to my wider angle lens, so unfortunately you can't see all that is around this - but what you are looking at is the sleeping grounds of a bear. It REEKED of bear pee, obviously he had marked his territory to warn other bears (and animals) to keep away, but dumb humans that we were, we had no idea until we walked right through it. Oddly enough, this bear bed was not more than 60 feet away from the human trail that winds through these woods...  We not only saw some dead, half-road-crossed frogs but also quite a few live, hopping, very fat frogs.     Eventually we had to give up trying to find this lake - we'd hiked around over and under mountains and trails for hours we'd long lost track of, and at long last we came into a clearing where the highway could be seen. Unfortunately, Luke had split off from the group (actually, we all had gone our separate ways for a time but Bo and I ended up running into each other again, and we just assumed Luke had headed back towards the trail head parking lot where our car was. By the time Bo and I got back to the car however, there was no sign of Luke!       We explored the trailhead parking lot for a while, hoping Luke would arrive and found another path along the creek that more than likely lead to the lake we'd been looking for all afternoon in the other direction from that which we took... But still no sign of Luke. So we drove back up the road to the point where we'd come out of the treeline, and started back up the path to see if we could find Luke. Bo ran on ahead, and since I had no bearspray with me and was in no condition to run anywhere at this point, I mozied on back to the car and propped myself up against the passenger side tire. Eventually Bo emerged from the bushes, with no sign of Luke. We were starting to get worried at this point, because while looking for Luke Bo had run into a bear and actually had to spray it with the bear spray. Immediately the bear dropped his head, and after a moment or two's confusion it trotted off into the woods. Needless to say, Bo was shaken by this event, and on high alert from there on out. At one point a little pheasant lept into the air in front of him and, by his own admission, he screamed like a little girl... It would have been even funnier if he'd have maced the bird... We got in the car and drove back to the trailhead where we found Luke waiting. He had apparently emerged from the treeline a bit farther up from the car and hadn't seen it there. Anyway, we all made it out safely and had some great stories to tell, but we still hadn't got to go fishing.  We decided to stop at Barrier Lake to cast a few lines into the water and it turned out to be a very pleasant evening. The lake was almost glass calm until a light breeze picked up, but I don't think any of us caught any fish. I lost half my fishing rod in the forest when it must have got snagged on a tree somewhere and yanked out of my backpack. Every trip, even our day hikes turn into these epic adventures...  Tired and sore but glad to be alive.  My survival kit: A bag of Spitz and the bottom half of a fishing rod.  August 15, 2007 - 9:07 PM Getting used to the earlier mornings. I really hadn't expected so much walking but already I can feel the difference it's making. Being on your feet all day takes it's toll; climbing stairs and ladders, walking back and forth from this room to that room, this floor to that floor. So far the learning curve has been pretty moderate though. More repetition than rocket science. Gotta start at the bottom though, I know. I appologize for the long delays in web site updates. Most of my creative energies have been diverted into another medium. *wink* Luke and Peter came by the other night, a pleasant surprise for sure. Of course, working downtown I've been running into people I know almost every day. I ran into Jaimee on Monday at lunch crossing the street so we stopped and chatted for a bit. I'll have to go and see Conner again soon! Then today I ran into Kramer, an old neighbourhood friend from my paper route days. His mom was the only customer to whom I delivered their Calgary Sun to her coffee table in the morning. Then at the site I ran into Greg Schmidt, one of my youth leaders from Harvest Hills and the son of a man I considered one of my childhood
heroes. Every Sunday morning he would let me sit in with him in the sound booth at church and taught me a good many things about public address,
mixing, and electronics in general. I wonder who I will run into tomorrow!Found a lovely little song on Sirius Chill this evening. It's called Everything by DJ Tiesto. How breathless I feel in your arms How breathless you make me feel so There's no one before in my eyes I take what you give me Everything sounds better Everything looks brighter Everything tastes better Well everything we do feels better (feels better) I pray all this time in your arms How restless I feel when you go With only your life to surround me I take what you give me (I take what you give me) (Give me) Grab the acoustic version and have a listen. There's a dance version as well - acoustic is much better in my opinion. August 21, 2007 - 7:36 PM  I ran into David Gavin yesterday at lunch walking along 7th Avenue downtown. He seemed to be doing pretty good, except for the recent wounds on his face. When asked about it, his explanation was that he'd done The Funky Chicken at an Internet Cafe near my place. 'Nuff said. I think the cut on his nose even warranted stitches! But other than that he seemed his usual, joyous self. One of these days we'll have to take him out for supper. It's been a while - although the last time we went and found him he accused us of stalking him... hahaha Good times hunting down the Gav Man! Week two at Convergint and I'm up to my neck in learningmud. But as complex and complicated as this system I'm learning may be, after wiring two sub-panels in I am already gaining a good understanding of how the system works. I also encountered some of it's limitations today, another excellent opportunity for learning what to avoid in the future. I have to say though, I don't think I've ever felt so tired after coming home from a day's work! All that walking around, climbing stairs, walking around, standing on one's feet really takes it's toll. I mean, we were on our feet and on ladders all the time at Sylvania, but there were still breaks. Driving to and from sites, writing up the paperwork, resting atop scaffolding... On this job site you are always on the move. And great distances too! Often one of the two working elevators is down so it's almost always faster to take the stairs - even climbing them slowly! But then you're almost guarantee'd at least 20 minutes waiting time just to get on it, and sometimes by the time it arrives it is so full you can't get on anyways so you've got to wait another 20 minutes! Swine elevators. But other than that it's definitely going good. This new stuff I'm working on is still pretty challenging which is a nice change for me. It still feels like I'm facing a pretty steep incline on the learning curve at this point. I just about made the full switch to the new server over the weekend. My interim server has been wonky since day one - I think there is a problem on it's motherboard. I've changed just about every other piece of hardware and eliminated them as suspects. It seems to go ok but heavy loads causes it to freeze and give a CPU_SPIN_LOCK error. Kind of strange, since although most processes have died by this point it continues to spew out this error. But I've tried a different processor in it with the same result. Again, leading my focus back to the motherboard. Anyway, the new system will be *MUCH* better in all aspects (except for heat dissapation. Between the new server and the 30 hard drive segment of the Fiber Channel array I've got attached to it at the moment, my little computer room maintains 28 degrees with the door open and cool air flowing down the stairs from the back door. During that heat wave we had a few weeks ago ambient temperatures in that room reached nearly 40 degrees! But have you noticed how cool it's starting to get at night and particularly in the morning? It's chilly! I can see my breath on my way to work in the mornings! Almost through August. What a year. August 22, 2007 - 10:13 PM Today I saw...
There are some strange things out there to be seen, if only you keep your eyes open. I put in a 12 hour day today, but unlike 12 hour days at Shaw, I actually got paid overtime! That fact alone makes all the difference. I didn't run into anybody I knew today. I just put together a little toolkit to bring with me tomorrow to help me with my day. So much time is wasted walking around trying to track people, tools and equipment down that if one can simply [bring] everything one needs - one is SO much more productive in the day! I'm starting to get the feel of things, both at Convergint and at this job site. So far so good. There is still a bit of confusion, but some of this seems to be shared and not my experience alone. I am so tired
right now though, that it's all I can do to stay out of bed. Maybe I'll make a cup of hot chocolate before I retire. Mmmm hot chocolate!August 29, 2007 - 6:30 AM  Last weekend we all went to Lethbridge to watch the fights. Peggy and Mark got a new puppy, who looks an AWFUL lot like Ozzy. BACK to Journal Index |