What is On Jeffs' Mind

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

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

This weekend I did not much, past sit in my house for most of it. A bit cold outside, and some things have come up, which will probably make me stick close to home for the next few months. But I digress, this weekend there were a couple of races on TV. On Saturday evening I watched the IRL race from Texas. I will be honest it is not a race that I look forward to, given the high banks, the full throttle racing and the complete Nascar bias by the track administration does more then enough to turn me off. Anyways, I watched it, the few Champ car drivers left in the series were pretty much uncompetitive, highlighted by a second lap accident of Graham Rahal. The race ended with Helio Castroneves winning the race. On Sunday was the Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix. Brawn GP continues their dominance of the season, with Jensen Button grabbing another Victory. This race was tough on the past World Champions as all 3 of them in the field could not get into the points. I guess my biggest complaint about both races was team orders, this is where teams dictate how their cars are to race ( or more correctly not race) In the IRL race, I was upset that Ryan Briscoe who was dominant for a good part of the race, ended up coming in second after a suspect yellow flag from the IRL, and then what I felt was favoritism on the part of his own team in terms of Castroneves. After the last pit stops, Castroneves got the front spot based off of where his pit stall was located. Team orders over the radio was for both drivers to not race, and put distance between them and team Target. Well by the time they had made some distance, Briscoe’s chance was pretty much gone, and I am sure he was told to just hold his spot. In the F1 race, not for the win, but for second place, the two Redbull drivers were told not to race as well. After some bad pit strategy, Sebastian Vettel was behind his team mate Mark Webber, at the end of the race, Vettel was coming on, but got the order that Webber was faster and to preserve the car. It was obvious to me that Vettel looked like he had something, but told to back off. I guess I felt frustrated, as in both instances, the faster driver was told to not challenge. I guess the IRL one really upset me the most, but it would be nice to go back to the days when people raced each other regardless of team. I understand not taking team mates out, but it really does take whatever excitement might be in the race, out.

This morning a friend of mine Dale, sent me an email about the next series of Star Wars Kubricks. This series will be based off of Episode III Revenge of the Sith. The series will include Anakin, Tarful, General Grievous, Darth Vader and a Episode 3 Clone Trooper. The chases are Tion Medden, Commander Gree and 4 arm version of General Grievous. Normally I don’t go for the chases, but this time, I really want a Commander Gree, to go with some of the other Gree items I have. It looks pretty cool, all the figures look cool, so I am excited for this to arrive. Dale said they should arrive in the next few weeks, and I am hoping the Canadian Dollar will keep strong.

Tags: Anakin, Commander Gree, Darth Vader, Formula 1, General Grievous, IndyCar, Star Wars Kubricks

Today Dave and I went to a Toy Show called the Pop Culture Fair. It is part toy show and part other things such as records. I guess fortunate for me (depending on how you look at it) I left without buying anything. There were a few things that I was really close on buying, but decided to hold back on. Dave picked up a nice Obi-Wan 12 inch figure and a communicator and phaser. Dave’s friend Tim came as well, but just like me was just looking. Bumped into my friend Dale at the show, he told me that the next series of Star Wars Kubricks will be coming soon, so looking forward to that. Talked a bit of Terminator and collecting, nice chat. Saw a few others I knew as well. I thought the show was average, as I even saw a lady selling dishes, and not even collectors dishes, just dishes that you would eat your dinner on. To me that pushes this show to almost a flea market level. All in all it was a good way to spend the morning, just unfortunately an average show.

After Tao tao and I went to the mall as she was looking for jobs, nothing much there. I grabbed some more Pop Shoppe pop at Zellers and then we headed over to Walmart to get a job application. After that we had some Ice Cream and then headed home. I cleaned up the back yard for a bit. It did not look to weedy, but I did manage to get a garbage bag full. At times it feels like a never ending war against weeds in the yard. I sprayed them down as well with weed killer, and will do that for the next few days, in hopes of killing them.

Reflecting, I sure lead an interesting life by judging my Sunday . Since I am on call this week, it limits what I can do. I wanted to see Wolverine, but was worried I would get called, so I will go later to see that.

Tags: Dale, Dave, Obi-Wan, Pop Culture Fair, Star Wars Kubricks, Tao tao, Terminator, The Pop Shoppe