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ARCHIVE - September, 2005

----- 09.25.2005 --------
OK, it's only been a week but it seems like a million things have happened since my last post. Last Monday was the Pearl Jam concert. I had mixed emotions about the concert. On one hand, they played all their classics, and I loved every one of them. And they played them well too! However, there was very little "show". Eddie stayed in the same spot pretty much all night. At the end, Bono from U2 made a surprise appearance and did "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" with Vedder & the boys. All in all, it was definately worth the cost of the ticket.

What else? This week as work was crazy-busy and seemed to end before it began! Or did it really end? Unfortunately the Royal Trust Tower was having their annual power outage for maintenance so I had to pop into work a while yesterday and today to power servers down, then power them back up. As my luck would have it, I had 2 dead ones. I was able to get them going eventually, Macguyver-style. Good job I had lots of bubble gum! ;) What else? Yes, this weekend was my sister Laura's graduation. She graduated with her Masters in Teaching from Griffith University, Australia. Since their were so many Canadians in the course (over 100), they had a ceremony here in Toronto. Friday night we had a small hotel party with my family and a few friends. Saturday we went out to dinner at Le Bifteque, and then later Jen, Laura, Tom & I went to the Charlotte room to play some pool. I am SO out of practice! But I was reminded how much I love the game!

Yesterday while I was in the office, I had my camera on me. So, I went into our boardroom to take some pics to create a new panorama. Great view, eh? My condo is the building on the far left. I know this pic isn't perfect.... the seam in the CN Tower is horrible, but I whipped it together in no time. I think I might even purchase a copy of ptgui and start spending more time making better ones. Any suggestions? OK, that's all for now. Cheers!

----- 09.18.2005 --------
Last night was the Jack Johnson concert at the Molson Amphitheatre. Jen & I went with Chris & Melissa. It was a great concert! We had lawn seats. I had never been to the Amphitheatre with lawns before and I really enjoyed it. I think I'd prefer that over seats, like we had for the Black Eyed Peas. I guess the biggest difference is with good seats, you get a good show. But the audio seemed a lot better from the Lawn then up close to the stage. And it's MUSIC band, so the audio is more important to me. I brought my sleeping bad and stretched it out for us. It was nice to be able to take off my sandals and chill on the blanket. The ground was moist from last night so the bag kept our butts dry too... a huge plus!

Anyway, got up this morning and Jen made me an amazing brunch: Eggs benedict on bagels. Yum! Today was fairly lazy but I had a bit of a creative hankering to be on the computer and create something. Last night while BBQing on the roof before the concert, I took a bunch of skyline pictures. I thought I'd be able to find some software to stitch them together into a high resolution panoramic picture. So, that's what I did today... stitched.... digitally of course! After doing a nice panoramic view of downtown, I need more. After all, my first was only a string of 6 or 7 pictures. So, I went up today and shot more pictures. A LOT more! I've been working on a huge panoramic picture and so far my computer has used more then 5.5 GB's of swap space just to try and process it!!! It's a long, slow process, but my preliminary results are pretty cool. And the picture? A composition of over 6 high res 6.3 Mega pixel shots! Actually, that REALLy choked my machine up so first I dropped the image size down to 800 x 600. Next I used a Beta of PTgui. It is some pretty impressive software! What isn't impressive is my 1.8 GHz computer that is struggling to keep up. Strangely, I'm not sure where the resources are needed. It's not taking much in terms of hardware resources... CPU or memory. It seems to favour using temp space and writing large files. Remeber that 5.5 GB I mentioned it took? I check again and it's at 6.2 GB. I have 65 GB free.... hopefully that will be enough to render the final pic! The final pics will be WAY too huge to post, but if you're interested, we can arrange a way for me to send you a copy. What I will post are these stitches... lower res, but you can still get the picture. Literally. Expect to see a lot more of this in the future :) I'm so interested in this I am actually contemplating buying the software to remove the watermarks. If I'm going to do a lot, it's worth it. If it's just an afternoon's curiosity (which is most likely), then the watermarks can stay. I keep saving the projects so that atleast I can redo the images with a registered copy if I buy it. OK, that's all for now. Oh, in case you haven't, click for a higher res images. They are larger, but not too HUGE to post, like the ones I've kept locally on my PC.




----- 09.17.2005 --------


I was going through some of my pictures (and I have a LOT!) and I came across the one above and a couple others like it. Click here for the gallery. I took these back in May of this year and totally forgot to post them. So, here they are. Who knows.... this could lead to a whole new series of pics.... Toronto, through my eyes. Or through my shades I guess. Anyway, for more detail on this photo, the first photo in the gallery has a small writeup. OK, gotta run. I have to pack back some food quick, then meet Chris at the gym for an afternoon workout at 1. After that we'll prepare for an early BBQ, then it's off to the Molson Amphitheatre for the Jack Johnson concert tonight. Should be great :)

----- 09.16.2005 --------
After a long hiatus off the squash court, I finally stepped on it! I don't think I've played a match since January! Anyway, a buddy of mine sent me an email out of the blue to see if I wanted to play. So, last night I did. It was round robin night so I got in a quite a few games. I think I played 7 or 8 games against 3 different people. I never won one.... but that's to be expected after being off so long. My knees aren't tooooo bad right now, but it's only 1 day later. I'm really hoping they've gotten better and I can begin playing again. I did realize one thing... I miss that game! It's such great exercise and a LOT of fun. Sure it was a little frustrating because I had definately lost my game, but I wasn't too disappointed with my play. In some ways, I think I'm in a better position to get better then I ever was. Instead of hitting the courts, I've been hitting the weights. I found it almost easy to dig the ball out of the back corners.... something I always had difficulty with. And my shots are a lot more powerful now. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on whether or not I really get into it or not. I still have a LOT of blading to catch up on!!! I'll pass the 200 KM mark this year... maybe the 250 if I can get my act together, but I'm afraid the original 500 KM goal is just too far out of reach. I guess I never anticipated the intense heat and the sloth-like motivation levels it brings with it! Next year maybe I'll set the goal a little more realistic... but definately work harder at achieving it! Or not. Take care all.... and have a great weekend! Cheers!

----- 09.12.2005 --------



This past Saturday Jen threw a party for Mine & 80K's birthday. Above are a couple pics from the party. The first is 80K (aka Cousin Andrew), myself & Jen. The 2nd is Jen, Trixie (aka Kristy), & Myself. Speaking of Trix, my adoption papers are in and we're going through the adoption process. I really hope this work out in our favour... she's a great dog! Anyway, back to the party. Unfortunately a number of people that were supposed to come couldn't make it at the last minute. So, there were enough jello shooters for 50 people.... like 2 each. So with only about 30 people at the party, and even less by the time we brought the shooters out (sorry folks... I know we should have brought them out earlier!). So, 80 & I went to town on them! This pic was taken just after J-E-L-L-O-fest 2005! Anyway, it was a lot of fun! And thanks again Jen.... you did a great job and everything turned out great! You're awesome :) Oh, and thanks for the hangover on Sunday! ;)

Oh, before I sign out.... one more thing. I would like you all to bow your heads in a moment of silence. Late after the party was done and Jen & I had finally finished cleaning up, I picked up a six pack to bring upstairs from the party room to Jen's apartment. I grabbed the handle, lifted, and about when the 6er got to my waist.... the bottom fell out! Oh the horror! Only one survived :( 5 exploded on the floor of the party room kitchen.... and the REAL cleanup began! And we were soooo close to finally being able to get to bed! Eventually, we cleaned it all up and could retire for the night. Retire? I mean CRASH!!!! Speaking of which, that's what I'm going to do know! Thanks again to everyone who came and a special thanks to Sam & Dave, Sean & Antoinette, Laura & Tom, Nicole, Chris, Cousin Scott, Ronatron, and last but certainly not least, my girlfriend Jen.

----- 09.06.2005 --------


Well, I hope you all had a great long weekend. For a change, I stayed in Toronto with Jen & Trixie, the little dog we're currently fostering. She's really cute! And she's such a good dog! Very quiet.... a perfect condo dog. And as an added bonus, she even gets along with Sleeman (my cat). So, I put in an app to adopt her. I really hope I can keep her.... she'll make a great addition to my life. I was so happy to see her when I got home from work... and I think she was happier to see me. She was jumping all over the place! Anyway, here's a pic of the little babe... HOpefully many more will follow over the years. OK, I'm going to hit the hay... it's getting late and more importantly, I'm tired! I went out for a blade tonight... 14.4K... that'll do it! I really don't think I can hit the 500 K mark... things just didn't go as planned! When I set the goal, I don't think I counted on it being so hot. And I definately didn't remember how the heat saps your energy, making it tough to go even after it cools off a bit. Or atleast that's my excuse for July & August :) I'm pretty sure I can hit 300 K before the season's up, so I'll just keep at it and do what I can. Hopefully next year I'll have a more realistic goal. What's realistic? Plus 20% ? Plus 25% ? I dunno... but I'll figure it out :) Take care all!

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