What is On Jeffs' Mind

It has been a real long time since I have made a post. Life the last few months has been a bit unexpected at times, but I think it is starting to get more predictable, or at least I am getting better at how I handle it. I am going to be on the lookout for some cool things to blog about. Also, I will be putting in some more effort on my Collecting Podcast very soon, my basement is nearly completed, and I have a few days off coming up soon, so I can set things up a bit more in my basement to facilitate it.

From looking at the control Panel, looks like their is an update for the wordpress software I am using, so I guess I should update that, looks like a bit of a release as jumping up a number, so I guess there might be some changes coming soon on the layout. Not sure what they are, but I guess I will find out after the update.

The Annual Edmonton Indy Car race is coming up soon, so I will probably have something to say about that. Will lie if I say I am pumped for it, as I still find the racing package to be underwhelming, and from all reports, still have a nother season to go until their is any updates. But I will put a post in about the weekend.

A few weeks back, had a busy music weekend. On Saturday, went to see Iron Maiden, and they were great. This time around, they played songs mostly off of their last few CD’s, so it was cool to hear songs I had never heard live. They were touring in support of their latest CD called The Final Frontier, even though it is not released yet. On Sunday I went to see Star Wars in Concert. A great experience, and I really enjoyed it, cool experience, I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars.

Tags: IndyCar, Iron Maiden, Star Wars in Concert

I have really been enjoying Hockey lately. Last Friday I went to the Edmonton Oilers game with my brother, they lost to the Dallas Star, but the game was entertaining enough. Actually the Oilers have yet to win in 2010 and the worst team in the league. I am not sure what it is but I am enjoying the games quite a bit. Maybe it is the race for last place in the league is thrilling, or watching all the new ways the team can lose, or maybe since the season is done, just doesn’t matter and can just watch the game for what it is, and not be concerned about wins. My wife doesn’t really under stand, and gets upset at me if I turn an Oilers game on, she was giving me strange looks as I was watching the Oilers get run over by the Chicago Black Hawks. On Thursday I was watching the Oilers play the St. Louis Blues, I was enjoying the game, but had to step away to do some work, and alas the Oilers Lost. Saturday will be a big game, the Calgary Flames are in town, lately they have been as woeful as the Oilers have, so it will be interesting to see who comes out with the win. The battle of Alberta takes on a bit of a new meaning.

Formula 1 teams are starting to launch their cars for 2010. So far it looks like there have been Launches for Ferrari and McLaren and a livery reveal for Mercedes. Both Mercedes and McLaren are going with a silver paint scheme, and of course Ferrari has its traditional red. I must say the McLaren looks very stylish, the Shark Fin on the back of the car gives it a different look then the Ferrari which does not. I always think it is interesting the production the teams put into these launches. Way different then in Indycar, where the only news lately is that Tony George is finally gone after all the irreparable damage he has caused, and who is not going to be showing up this season instead of who will. Check out the launch pictures here

Also, here is a cool Video from Redbull

Tags: Edmonton Oilers, Formula 1, IndyCar

Yay

Today we got an extra hour do to Day Light Savings Time. So I spent it not being overly productive. There is a few more things I can do in the backyard, but I will save that for some other day. Well, unless it snows, then Cest la vie. I need to start priming the basement walls for painting, but I think that will be a project for next weekend. There are a few boxes of books and CD’s that I should unpack, so I might work on that. It might be alright as well as I can flip through them a bit and look at them, since they are mostly Star Wars and Star Trek books. I also like Organizing my CD’s, call me OCD, but I like to put them in Order of release and Artist.

I still have a bit of TV recorded to catch up on, this morning I watched the final Formula 1 race from Abu Dhabi. Real cool looking track, some interesting racing near the end for second, but for the most part it was the locale that was interesting to me. Some of these F1 tracks look like something out of a Video game. The one things I really love about Formula 1 is the in car cameras, with my TV and HD, you really do get to see the excitement of being in one of those cars. I love it every time they cut to one of those cameras. I wish every car was mounted with one, and someday maybe have a channel or feed devoted strictly to those. Just really great stuff. After that I watched the last half of the Nascar race from Talledega, Typical plate racing, with a few big wrecks at the end. Looks like Jimmy Johnson pretty much has the championship wrapped up again. I don’t watch a lot of Nascar races, but things like Talledega get me watching. Maybe partly as waiting for the big wreck, but also reminds me of my online racing sim days, and all the laps I put in at Talledega in the Sierra/Papyrus Nascar Racing game. Those were some fun times, and not sure how many online races I did at Talledega, but it was by far the one I raced the most. I just got Forza 3 the other day for my X-Box 360, so over the winter months, looking forward to putting in some time with that. 3 Nascar races left, Texas is up next, but will skip that as don’t care for that track. Will watch Phoenix, as I like that track, and reminds me of my Online Sim days as I had a big Victory at Phoenix.

Days is moving away, so I should get to something else. I picked up reading again, and maing some good progress on the Star Trek book I am reading. I will have to go to the book store and get a few more books, and hopefully I can get back on pace to at least 1 book a month.

A quote from Calvin and Hobbes on Weekends, I pretty much believe this.

“Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.”

Tags: Calvin and Hobbes, Formula 1, Forza 3, Nascar, Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Box 360

It is nice to get out and see things, but it is always nice to come home.

Last week I was in Ottawa for some training for work. It was a nice trip, nothing eventful really happened, everything seemed to come off without a hitch. The training was interesting enough, as I took a course on Open SSO from Sun. I did not know anything about this software before I left, but have a much better idea of it now and how it fits in to the Enterprise workspace. I did reaffirm as well, that I dont think I ever want a job as a Unix Sysadmin, as the long command line commands really challenge my rather limited typing skills. I have limited knowledge of Unix, so at least it was nice to learn a bit more about it, but I think at the end of the day, I prefer working on Windows systems.

It had been a very long time since the last time I was in Ottawa, I had gone on a family vacation back in the early 80′s, so it was almost like going some place new for me. It was an interesting city, and since it is our Nations Capitol, it had a mix of really old buildings and more modern office towers. The downtown core where I stayed seemed very busy during the weekdays, the streets narrow at times, and lots of people going about their days. The evenings, in the part of downtown I was staying, it cleared out pretty fast. When I arrived on Sunday, I actually thought the town was shut down, as I walked the streets looking for a place to eat, and could not find anything. Later I learned, that just past the Parliament buildings, there was a market area with a lot of restaurants. I was able to make it over there later in the week, and it was interesting.

The first few days I found the weather a bit humid, and found myself gasping for air a few times. It probably was not all that humid, but coming from a dry place like Edmonton, I notice any little bit of humidity. The Hotel I stayed at was ok, though I am not sure if I would stay there again if I went back to Ottawa. Like most Hotels, the Lobby and reception area is very nice, but the rooms are not as nice. There were a few complaints I had about the room, as the window never really shut properly, the rooms were not very sound proof from what was outside of them, and the fan in my room never stopped running. The Internet access was really good, though probably too good as I ended up doing more work in the evenings then I had originally had planned.

I got home on Friday, and felt really nice to be home. On Saturday I went for Dim Sum with friends, and then after that Dave, Tao Tao and I went to see Surrogates. I thought the movie was ok, but nothing really overly special, the concept of the movie was interesting enough, and could see society possibly going that way. In the evening I played cards at Paul’s house. but in the end Jason won. Sunday was a nice relaxing day, I watched the F1 race from Singapore and then the last 100 laps of the Nascar race.

It is nice to be home, looking forward to this upcoming week finishing up as then I will be on Vacation for 2 weeks. I am debating on maybe adding another week to my Vacation to make it 3 as I really feel I need a break. Want to get started on some renovations and put some work in some fun type projects.

Tags: Dave, Edmonton, F1, Jason, Nascar, Ottawa, Paul, Tao tao, Travel