Thursday, August 31, 2006
Moved
I moved on the weekend and decided to make the symbolic move here as well. So from now on my ramblings will be at:

Chris' Musings

as well as

A Glimpse Into My Mind

until I decide the one on which I will concentrate.

Unfortunately, they do not both have all of my posts, so you have to visit both to get a clear historical picture. The most recent posts are in both blogs however.

See you there (hopefully)!

Cheers!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 2:50 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The deed is done
First, I should mention that after having no luck whatsoever in getting a Full backup started for the server I was talking about yesterday, at 5am the regular backup started and it proceeded without problems. Go figure! I did notice that the backup was killed on purpose late afternoon, but since I had already left the office I do not have the details.

The reason I left the office early is that today was the day where we went to the lawyer's office to sign the papers and hand in the cheque to pay for the house. So that part is done and the dream is almost a reality - 3 days 10 hours and change before the movers show up. We will take possession of the house the day before, so we will have already slept in the new house by the time the movers come.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:07 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Frustration time
Remember that robot I mentioned was bought without a barcode reader? Well it looked like it was going to be work out, but for the last few days we have been having no end of trouble trying to get the backups to work. It looks like when there are a lot of files to backup the gathering of information takes too long and the backup times out. I guess I will be trying to figure out why that is, although probably one of my co-workers will be the one doing that.

Only a few more days! 4 days 9 hours and change to be exact. The excitement is building as I type.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:15 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, August 21, 2006
They did check it out
Although the complex manager had said that he would be showing the townhouse to renters this morning, only the complex handyman was with him when he arrived. He looked around and made notes about things that needed to be fixed and then said that the renters would be coming around 6pm to look at the place. Apparently they had been shown another unit in the complex and had rented this place sight unseen.

Well we were ready for them to show up at 6pm, but they never did. We waited almost 30 minutes and then left to go for dinner. When we came back a couple of hours later, there was a voice mail waiting saying that the people were late and would show up between 7:00 and 7:15pm. Of course we were not there so I do not know if they did come.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:01 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Showing to prospective renters?
We got a letter from the manager of the complex this morning giving us the required 24 hour notice before intending to come and enter our townhouse. The reason for the visit? He is showing the townhouse to prospective renters! I just cannot believe that they are going to show this townhouse to anybody before:
  1. having had a look themselves;
  2. having made any repairs; and
  3. waited until next week when most of the boxes and clutter would have been gone.

We have lived here for 20 years now and there has been minimal maintenance done on the unit. We still have the original carpets from 20 years ago! Oh well... It is not my problem.

I have thrown out more computer equipment today: modems this time. It turns out I had one of pretty much every generation of modems. I was missing the 300 baud one, but otherwise the list is pretty complete: 1200, 2400, 9600, 14400, 28800. I think the only reason I do not have whichever modem comes after the 28800 is that we got onto cable by then. I have also thrown out floppy diskettes by the hundreds: mostly 3.5 inch floppies, but I also had quite a few 5.25 inch ones.

I think the term is pack rat.

Good night!

 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 8:08 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, August 18, 2006
No joy
Well I did not phone around, but I did go on the vendor web site for the autoloader and it turns out that there is no option to install a barcode reader for this particular model. Great....

I missed the change from double to single digits in the countdown yesterday, sorry about that. I guess you will have to make do with knowing that there is now 8 days 11 hours and change before the move begins in earnest. I guess that means that I better get my act together and my stuff in boxes...

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 9:10 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Barcode reader
In a backup environment as large as ours (we have almost 2 petabytes of data stored on about 16 thousand tapes) it is an absolute necessity that we be able to easily find where the data is stored. The way we do this is by using barcode labels on each tape which the tape robots read and pass on to our backup software. Imagine my surprise then when I found out today that our latest robot purchase (a small 8 tape autoloader for a special project) does not have a barcode reader! Which means that we now have no automated way to link a tape to its data. Someone is now going to have to keep track of this information manually! Why do we do these things to ourselves? I guess tomorrow I get to phone around to see if that particular autoloader can have a barcode reader attached to it. What fun...

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:10 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Oh right, change window day
We had an easy change window planned so I was feeling pretty confident that there would be no problems and that we would be able to leave the office at a decent hour. I obviously forgot that change window is synonymous with there's a problem as once again things that should have been routine took much longer to get done. And of course, once we did get those niggling problems sorted out, users came out of the woodwork with their own problems. All of these things combined to ensure that I would not be able to get out of the office until after 6pm. Well I tricked them, I took a cab home instead of trying to figure out the sparse bus schedule after 6pm.

For those of you who do not have their own countdown clock for this momentous event (and why not?) there is now just over 10 days 10 hours before the move begins; and even less than that before we take possession of the house.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:35 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Anonymous comments enabled
Just so the throngs of people just waiting to comment on my blog are no longer stymied, I have enabled anonymous posting. I had disabled that feature to prevent spam comments. To try and make sure that spam comments still cannot be posted, I have enabled moderation which means I have to approve the comment before it will show up on the blog. So if you throng members could sort of pace yourselves so I am not inundated with comments...

Good Day!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 9:45 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
That will teach me
So Blogger has added new features in their beta program so I decided to move my blogs to the Beta release. From what I have seen so far the blog looks the same so you will not notice a difference when you read my blog. Okay there is one, apparently you will not be able to post a comment unless you move the Blogger account you created to post comments to the beta release. So I guess there will be no more comments (for a while anyway).

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was trying out software to post to my blog from the comfort of my home machine. That was going great until, you guessed it, I moved my blog to the beta release. Now the posts I create using the software just go to never never land.... Oh well.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 9:55 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, August 14, 2006
Second thoughts
I am sure everyone has had those. I am having them right now. I have scheduled my vacation to begin the weekend we are moving for one week. I now think that it would have been better to take vacation before the move date so I could be of more help in the getting ready portion of this move. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about changing it now as my coworker has taken her vacation until I begin mine and we cannot both be on vacation at the same time. Another lesson learned, but that is one that probably will not come in handy any time soon.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:22 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Trying out new software
This is apparently a nice way to make blog entries without actually having to be on the site. I say apparently because this is my first time trying it. Of course, anything with spell checking cannot be bad. It is working just like a regular word processor and highlighting misspelled words as they occur. Take that Blogger spellcheck!

I am almost completely recovered from that stomach virus (I think that's what it was anyway) that had me staying home on Friday. I say almost because my stomach is still a little "delicate" for the lack of a better word. I thank my lucky stars that this particular episode did not make me throw up.

If you are keeping track I do not need to remind you, but for everybody else there is just over 13 days 10 hours before the move to end all moves begins.

Hey cool, I think I can actually strike through words with this! Un rien l'amuse...

Good night!

(written while listening to On My Knees from the album "Heavenly Place" by Jaci Velasquez)
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:33 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, August 11, 2006
No entry due to sickness
I must have caught some virus that caused me to need to stay close to a bathroom for most of the day. Also, I think I had a fever as I was freezing. I was so cold I had to get up and layer some clothing on to warm myself up.

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:58 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Thursday, August 10, 2006
You would think I could count
particularly since Math was really my strong subject in school. But obviously I cannot, as I forgot to take BC Day into account when I was giving a count of how many days remained before my co-worker would return. Instead of 1 down 14 to day as I had in the title on Tuesday, it should have been 1 down 13 to go. Which of course no makes tonight entry 3 down 11 to go.

We are having trouble getting the new robot installed in Vancouver. First, the work type of interface card was in the server, and now that the card problem is fixed the backup software refuses to see the new robot. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to figure things out - we really ran out of time today to be able to investigate the new problem fully.

For those wondering, just over 16 days 9 hours before the move to the new house begins...

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:40 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Just a quick note
I was sent a link to this very nice movie called The Dash. Check it out!

Good Night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 7:00 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
One down, fourteen to go
First I should say that I had forgotten to publish my blog entry for yesterday; I had left it in my draft folder. So there are actually two new posts today: this one and yesterday's. I would not want anyone to miss my riveting prose (Ha!)

As I think I mentioned, my co-worker is on vacation for the next 3 weeks and today was day one of "Work without Elaine". I am glad to say that I have survived without much trouble. I do think however that things will get more interesting as days go by and more people realize that they have to talk to me instead of Elaine. Oh well.

I take my MacBook with me, and today I decided to try and see how hard it would be to get my MacBook onto the office wireless network. I expected to have quite a bit of trouble as the office network is encrypted and it had taken at least a couple of hours to get my work IBM Thinkpad set up to use the wireless network. Imagine my surprise (and glee!) when there was no set up required at all, all I had to do is enter my userid/password and voila! I am more and more impressed about my MacBook (and iMac too).

My wife seems to have caught whatever bug that kept my daughter at home sick for two days last week. My wife has been trying to keep working through her illness, but this particular bug seems to just sap all your energy if you try and exert any kind of effort. She has finally decided to give a chance for this illness to run its course while she rests.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:15 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, August 07, 2006
BC Day!
Yes, today was BC Day. And since that is a civic holiday I had the day off. I took advantage of it by sleeping until after 11am, and not getting up until after 12 - and even then it was only because I had a lunch meeting with Brooke (which went really well BTW). Then I had to put a damper on the day by forgetting to bring some food back to my wife. She had not come along as she was not feeling well so she had asked for take-out and stupid me forgot until I was parking the car at home. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

My co-worker is on vacation for the next 3 weeks which should make for an interesting time at the office.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:19 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Sunday situation
Okay, so that was not a very good title. I was trying to come up with an alliteration, and I did, but I had to stretch things a little to make it work.

I came across a presentation on the Philosophy of Liberty on the web which I thought was very nice; have a look at it and see if you like it.

We (mostly my wife of course) are still in the process of packing for the big move which is due to happen in just over 20 days 8 hours from the date of this entry. The goal is to have everything non-essential packed before the last week so we can concentrate on all the things that need to happen for us to take possession of the house.

I have been packing our CD collection and I found a CD I had forgotten all about: Unreal! by The Real Group. They are a Swedish Jazz a cappella group and I think they are just great. I am thinking about lending that CD to our church music director since he is also a Jazz musician.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:58 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, August 04, 2006
No Water?
We came back from having gone out to dinner to find out that there was a very large puddle (more like a lake actually) in the driveway of the complex. Unfortunately, this meant that a water pipe had burst. We have therefore been out of water for about 4 hours so far and I would presume that they are not working on it during the night which means no water until the morning at the earliest. Swell.... Or is it Dohpe... (like I have a clue about today's idioms).

Otherwise it has been a pretty good day.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:54 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Thursday, August 03, 2006
You would think I would learn
Well here I am sitting at the computer at 23:50 on Thursday night, and I have to get up in 5.5 hours to take my younger daughter to work. As I have mentioned before my body prefers over 6 hours of sleep a night, and here I am once again ignoring that particular fact.

23 days, 9 hours and change before the great move begins; it is really beginning to feel real to me (as if all the packing and cleaning that my wife has been doing had not made it feel real already).

I did not have much to say, but I just wanted to make sure I had an entry as I would like to go back to having daily entries.

Good night!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:53 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Catching up on sleep
I have been having trouble getting enough sleep at night and finally on Tuesday morning my body decided to take matters into its own hands and catch up on all the sleep I have been missing. I managed to get up to take my daughter to work at 5:30am. As I have been doing most days, I went back to bed to get another hour and a half of sleep before getting up to go to work. Yesterday however, my body did not get back up until noon! When I finally woke up, I called in sick (well technically I emailed in sick).

Tuesday was break day as far as packing/cleaning was concerned (well mostly anyway). We are making good progress (and by we I really mean my wife) so we could afford to take a break (we == wife once again).

Good Day!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 2:18 PM | Permalink | 0 comments