What is On Jeffs' Mind

This afternoon, I decided to check out a few toy stores, to see what is out in terms of Star Wars collectibles since my afternoon was free as my Wife was playing Mahjong with friends. Recently Hasbro had released a new line of figures, which come on a Vintage style packaging. I went over to Toys r Us to see what was there. They had a few of the new figures, plus they had something I had been wanting for a very long time, the Twin Pod Cloud Car. I must say I was very tempted at getting this. I will get it, but will wait until I go on my trip to the USA in a few weeks. I figure with our dollar being fairly strong right now, and that these toys are usually cheaper in the USA, that I will wait. But it was very hard to walk out of the store and leave that ship behind. My friend Dan from Boston was telling me a few weeks ago how nice this ship was, so I am really excited to get it. So I am hoping that waiting will pay off for me with getting it for a good price.

After I went over to Walmart, and I found they had all the new figures released for this Vintage wave. I picked up a Boba Fett, and a cloud car pilot. They had a few others as well, and I was pretty tempted to get them, but I held back, since I really don’t collect action figures anymore, and at 10 dollars a piece, it is not cheap. With these new figures, I am going to be very selective on what I buy, it will be hard to pass on them as I like the packaging so much, but truth be told, I just don’t really have much space to display these anyways. The Cloud Car pilot, I picked up as I will need for my ship when I get that. I bought some a few years back, when they were issued before, in anticipation of this ship coming, so I should be set for when I get the ship in a few weeks.

Even though I just bought two figures, it was nice to be a bit excited about new figures and ships coming out. It has been a few years since I felt that way towards action figures.

Tags: Boba Fett, Cloud Car Pilot, Star Wars, Twin Pod Cloud Car

The past week was nothing short of a nightmare in regards to work.

Earlier in the month, at work we attempted to migrate our clients Microsoft Sharepoint servers from 2003 to 2007. Our first attempt at it had to be backed out after we discovered some problems with performance and issues with adding users. The adding users was resolved quickly, but the performance problem dogged us for a week and a half. Many calls to Microsoft support, lots of logging and investigation was spent. That troubleshooting led to having to work on the 20th and 21st in attempts to solving the issues. So on the Saturday, I start work, only to find that one of the servers was not operating, after a full day of troubleshooting, it was decided that it was best to reinstall Sharepoint. Boy, was that a mistake, we installed it, but the resource that we had, got busy on other things, and we were left with an unconfigured Sharepoint. Throughout the week we worked on the performance problems, only to find in the end, that it was a netbios issue in that it resolved the SQL servers name slow. So essentially, adding the SQL servers into the local hosts file for the Sharepoint servers fixed the issue with the performance. After that we continued on with the configuration, but ran into a problem well trying to configure the SSP for the farm. Another call to Microsoft, and working late at night with a deadline date looming. After a few stressful hours, the fix was found, and involved running a command on our second Sharepoint server. A few other issues were resolved, and we were ready for our Migration.

Armed with my steps on migrating, I set out on Saturday to start the configuration. Well it could not have gone any worse. Our first attempt failed, when we could not load the front page. We decided to try again, as we felt some other config we had done earlier in the week was causing an issue. The second attempt was a failure as well. People were getting pretty worried, as these servers needed to be done by March 31′st and this would be our last attempt. Another call to Microsoft, and we worked through the night and into Sunday troubleshooting the site. Finally after hours and hours of troubleshooting, we copied over the part of the Sharepoint site that was working from a different server. That fixed the issue, and the servers were done.

The past week was probably the most stressful and most hours I had ever worked. I had worked basically double my hours for the week, and all very stressful. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I did not get a chance to eat my supper until 12:00 am each night. The only bright spot in the work week was the Star Trek comic I received from my friend Rick in the mail, it is cool, and I am looking forward to reading it. I would start work around 7:30 and would not be finishing until 12:00 am, so basically lived the job. The second weekend, I worked from around 7:00 am Saturday morning until 2:00 pm Sunday, only taking a few hours off to go setup for the toy show on Sunday.

Probably the hardest part of the weekend, was that I ended up missing a good part of the toy show. once work had finished on Sunday, I headed to the toy show, but only got to spend a few hours there. I had a table again this year, and was so looking forward to selling and talking to all the different people. Jason shared the Table with me, and covered for me. He actually did a great job selling my stuff, he sold a lot of the stuff I could never the previous few toy shows. By the time I arrived at the show, most of what I brought was sold, so that was a pleasant surprise. But it was a real disappointment to miss so much. I was there to setup and there to tear down, but missed the real heart of the show. I was happy to get there for the final few hours, talk to a few people, wander around, and man the table.

I was so tired after working straight so many hours, but I am really glad I went. My friend Dale had a great setup of all his Kubricks, it was incredible to see all the Star Wars Kubricks in one spot. Dale is the only known person in North America with a complete collection of Star Wars Kubricks, and his display was impressive. Dale also sold me a set of Boba Fett Kubricks that were on the card. They are the first set of carded Kubricks I have ever bought. It is beautiful, as there are six different variations of Boba Fett. I am really impressed, and so happy Dale sold it to me. He told me about it on Saturday well setting up, and then told me again about it. I am just so happy to buy these, they are just so awesome, and since I have been a Fett fan, really something I should have in my collection. I am going to check with my Wife to see if there is some way I can get this mounted so I can hand it on a wall. The car backs for these are cool as well, as they mimic the Vintage Star Wars Kenner figures from back when I was a kid. All I can say, are these are awesome, I am so glad I went to the show, and it helps make up for a hell of a week.

Tags: Boba Fett, Dale, Jason, Microsoft Sharepoint, Rick Moyer, Star Wars Kubricks, work

The contractors came today to finish up on some work in the Basement. The laid the carpet, and finished a few other things as well, such as attaching a light in my display area, and putting down some shelving. I had a redder color wood for the shelving area, but decided to go with a black colour, as it will match the Shelves I have more closely. Now back to me to do some more painting, and to purchase some baseboards, and paint them up. I also have to scrape some ceiling stucco off some of the walls and get those primed and painted also. It was so messy down there, so it was nice to get all the garbage out of there, and clean the basement up a bit. Will make it easier to move some things around, and I will not be trailing dust and dirt around the house after making a trip to the basement.

Carpet looks very close, probably as close as I was going to get, and over time it might fade a bit and match closer to what is already in the basement. I will continue painting the walls, I am painting them a cloud gray and quite happy with the colour so far. I think with White baseboards, should look very sharp.

So I am hoping over the next month I can get my painting finished, and then once the Baseboards are done, I can start moving things down there, and getting things setup. Really looking forward to the day, when I can have my collection setup, and can show to people who come over.

Tags: Basement renovations

Today is my last day of my Vacation, and tomorrow it is back to work for me. Overall I am pretty happy with how my vacation went. I felt I got a lot accomplished around my house. I got a few rooms painted, and the basement development started. I kept fairly busy throughout , but it was nice to be busy with something other then my job. I feel refreshed enough to go back to work, and feel like I have had some time to unwind. The regular work day dos not bother me much just the extra hours that is really what drains me, I guess all I can hope for is that there is not a lot of Overtime left for the year and maybe things slow down a bit. If not it is really up to m to just push it back and handle what I feel I reasonably can.

This week my friend Rick sent me a cool CD he just finished working on called Stargazer. It is some music that he has composed that is meant to be listened to well watching the stars at night. There are 13 songs on the CD, each very unique with a different theme or feeling to it. Rick has also gathered some great audio clips from different space missions and included them with the music. It gives you a real sense that you are on a journey through our galaxy. I think my favorite song on his CD is one called Greetings, it has a great beat, and the organ sound he uses sounds so space age. Rick told me about this project a few months back, so I am amazed how he was able to write and record the music, and then get the CD created and distributed so quickly. This is really an inspiration to myself to maybe work a bit more on some of my own projects with a bit more focus and passion. To check out Ricks Stargazer CD, check it out at the official website for Stargazer.

I still have some more renovations to complete, and getting my basement complete will probably be my major project for the remainder of the year. I am really excited to get to painting it, and a few other finishing touches. Then I can start setting up my collection, that is going to be a lot of fun. Once that is done, I can start on some of my other hobbies such as model building again, I am really looking forward to that. I have quite a few models I have collected over the years, just waiting to be done.

I have to give a big thanks to my friend Dave as well. He helped me out big time on Saturday, as the battery in my car had died, and he came over and boosted it for me. After he helped me take some old paint cans to be disposed. Then to the mall where he pointed out the Diamond Select Back to the Future II Delorean Time Machine, that I picked up. Dave got the Diamond Star Trek II Wrath of Khan phaser, looks really cool, looks of cool settings and sounds.

Tags: Back to the Future II, Dave, Home Renovations, Phaser, Rick Moyer, Star Trek II Wrath of Khan, Stargazer

The past few months I have been so busy with moving, I have had to put my geek habits to the side. I must admit it has been hard to do, and felt that I could only really watch from the sidelines. This weekend I did some work around the house getting things organized and unpacked, and I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am hoping when fall comes, I might have a bit more time. That might sound odd as it is summer, but I haven’t really taken any vacation this year. I have some banked time from OT plus my regular Vacation days to use up in the 4th quarter.

This weekend was fairly productive. Tao tao and her mom went on a trip to Vancouver, so I have been home alone for most of the week. I did not get much done earlier in the week, as I had work to do. But the weekend I was able to get to some things. I setup my Stereo and got a lot of things cleared out my TV room, so it is nice to have everything setup now. I watched some DVD’s in the evenings, so started feeling more like I was home. On Saturday I set to work on getting my office organized. With a little bit of thought, I was able to get all my desks into the office, and be able to move around easily. There are still a few odd things left to do, but at least things are out of the way. My Dad came over today to help me with a problem with my Bathtub Faucet in the main bathroom. We thought it was going to be a big task, but in the end, it was just tightening a screw on the faucet know. Thanks to my Dad, I probably would have never figured it out and called a plumber.

In September and October I am going to start painting some rooms. The colours in the bedrooms are pretty dark, so I want to repaint them and brighten them up. I will have to think of a good colour for them.  I am bouncing some things around in my head, but most likely it will be something neutral and brighter. After I am done with the Bedrooms, I can set one up with all my clothes, and my bookshelves as well. My office I will need to paint as well, since it is a bright Yellow, but it is not to bad, but probably something I will wait until the Winter to paint.

The room that I am most anxious to get done is the basement. I have all my collectibles down there right now, but want to do some renovations so that I can expand it a bit. As well the there is a room down there with a chocolate brown colour, which I want to paint to a neutral color as well. Once I am don’t that, then I can get to work setting my collectibles up. I am really eager to do that, so to have to wait, it making it tough. I will go down stairs and try to visualize what it might look like and where things will go.

I am hoping soon that I can get back to more geeky type things I like to do. Such as working on my Websites, my podcasts and to start back with plastic models that I haven’t been able to do for the past few years. I see other people doing fun things, and I feel a bit frustrated that I can’t do those things as well. All I can do is enjoy what they are doing, and motivate myself to get the things I need done completed. The hardest part is done the moving, no things are starting to fall into place, so I should start seeing more time to pursue some other things I haven’t been able for awhile.

On Saturday, I bought myself a couple models as motivation. I have plenty of others as well, but I bought these to Battlestar Galactica models as a bit of a carrot to keep me inspired to get the renovations done.

Here are some Pictures I took this morning of my house. Hopefully over time I will have some more. The toy room will be the one I will want to get sone and pictures taken

Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Dad, Moving, Plumbing, Tao tao

I realized it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything on my site. I guess all I can say is that I have been busy, I thought it would have been with moving, but unfortunately more with work.

The plan of mine was after I was done with my oncall schedule, that I would focus on getting ready for moving. I had done a bit of that, but so far, not as much as I would have liked. Unfortunately it seems like there is a lot going on at work, which in turn I have had to spend time working after hours. It seems every summer, people like to start up projects, that push into summer. I guess that frustrates me, as staffing is already short, and to me it just seems unfair for people to start up projects which mean that people have to work extra hours through the summer months. I just look at the suit tie people who start these up, and then ask for updates, and then jet away on their holidays, leaving others to meet their time-lines. With covering for holidays of others, and this added work, it makes what is supposed to be a great season, ultimately a miserable one.

Last summer I carried some anger, from both work and outside of work, and at the end, I felt I really missed out on the season. I am worrying I might fall into that mindset again, and I really don’t want to. It will be a busy summer, and I really don’t have time to brood about things. The past few weeks at work has been challenging, and at time it has gotten the better of me, but I have to stamp that out, and focus on the next few months. Work is there between 8 and 5, but after that, I don’t feel I am obligated to it, I have informed my management that I have other priorities. I may have let things creep in this week, but going forward, life after 5 is about different things. I informed who I needed to inform, and really is up to me to follow through with what is my priority right now, which is moving, and ultimately enjoying summer for the next few months. I can change me, as what is around me, I cant really, and some of those things I cant do anything about it regardless.

Last night I met up with a friend of mine, Dale, and he had the new series of Star Wars Kubricks. I had been looking forward to the series,and they look great. Dale also gave me a good price on the chase Commander Gree Kubrick, as I have a minor focus on the character after getting the Helmet a few years ago. The series was based on Episode 3 of Star Wars. They had Anakin, Darth Sideous, Clone Trooper, Darth Vader, Tarful and General Grievous. My only real complaint is the distribution of these. I get a box of these, and have extras, but in the past, they used to have at least 2 or each figure, except for 2. Now 3 of the 6 figures you only get one, and the others you get multiples. The break down for my box was 1 Anakin, 1 Darth Sideous, 1 Tarful, 2 General Grievous, 3 Darth Vader and 4 Clones. It might be that they have Clones in the set, as the last series was similar in breakdown, with a lot of Clones. I guess for me, I only really just like one of each, and before, the way they are distributed, there was more flexibility with the set. I guess I am getting an extra Clone instead of possibly an extra Anakin, Darth Sideous or Tarful. I am hoping if future series that they go back to maybe a more traditional distribution, as other series have had troopers, but never over filled with them. But regardless, I am excited about having these, and adding them to my others.

Tags: Anakin, Commander Gree, Dale, Darth Sideous, Darth Vader, Ep3 Clone Trooper, General Grievous, Star Wars Kubricks, Tarful, work