Kevin's Ramblings…

Back to work – as I have noted, I have a tough two day work-week this week. I have some lieu time that I wanted to use.

We have a co-op student starting @ work today – he seems like a good kid and seems to know a thing or two at least about computers. Hopefully he will learn something and enjoy his time at the Region. It is a co-workers son (from a different department) but I didn’t take that into consideration when we decided to take him on. Welcome HQ.

I am looking forward to going to the Toronto International Auto Show (http://www.autoshow.ca) on Thursday. I have never been but have always wanted to go. Should be a good time. The only downside is actually having to drive to Toronto. Oh well – we are leaving late enough in the morning as to avoid the BAD traffic on the way there and we will either leave early (before 3pm) or late (after 7pm) to avoid the worse of it on the return trip. I will be sure to post some pics and will Tweet (http://twitter.com/DancesWithZeus) from the show.

Speaking of Tweeting, I hear that there are a bunch of people at the Olympics that are on all expenses paid trips and all they have to do is Tweet – how do I sign up? Nice deal …

That’s it – gotta ready myself. Out.

Today is Family Day.  It is a made-up holiday by the Provincial Government – I would guess that they enacted it for some sort of political gain, quite sure of that much – what else have the Provincial Liberal bastards done for Ontario?  Hmmm…

So, anyway, off of that mini-rant – don’t get me going…  I am happy enough to have a day off with pay, that’s for sure.  It is nice to have something in the month of February.  We should have something every month, something to look forward to.  At least all of the stores, etc., were closed today as well.   It is nice that “those” people (in retail) had the day off too.  Poor restaurant people, they have to work.  I suppose that is their choice when they go into that line of work.  Hopefully the employer recognizes that will some extra coin for them.

I suppose I did some Family Day stuff.  I visited my sister and brother-in-law at least.  I borrowed their old LCD monitor, will return it once I can afford another one.  I am going to need it.  I am planning on doing a fair amount of work on the side and I need something other than my primary monitor…  I have a switch box, have had it for YEARS and finally am putting it to use.

Went out for lunch today as well – BP’s pick-up.  We went to Montana’s, had a pretty good turkey club sandwich.  Hmmm…  A club – that is supposed to have bacon on it, no?  I don’t think it did – oh well…

Had a nap this afternoon and I am SURE that I will pay for it tonight.  Gotta STOP napping…

Back to work tomorrow – it will be a gruelling 2-day work week.  I am hitting the Toronto Auto Show on Thursday (lieu time) and am off on Friday (ADO).  So, it is a 3-day weekend followed by a 4-day weekend – not a bad deal.

Well, that’s it – that was Family Day.  Hope yours was good too.

Well, I think that I am going to have to stop having afternoon naps – they really screw up my sleeping.  I had issues falling asleep last night and I stayed up late finishing up the office.

I am happy to have that project done.  The desk was a bit of a bitch to put together.  Luckily, I have an excellent and VERY handy brother in law who is really good at such things.  He’s a carpenter by trade but in general is a rather handy guy.  I, on the other hand, am NOT particularly handy with putting things together – especially Ikea furniture.  I love Ikea, really do, BUT, I think it is really Sweedish for “impossibly to put together”…

We didn’t have to put it together from scratch, it was only in 4 pieces or so.  We just had to connect them.  I am glad that I didn’t have to do more than that…

So, the office project is done – happy about that.  I have some PC work to do today, gotta be done for tomorrow.  I plan on watching some of the horrible coverage of the Winter Olympics on CTV.  The TSN coverage isn’t any better but, as you may know, TSN is owned by the same company that owns CTV.  Rogers Sportsnet might be better, haven’t tried it much yet.

Well, I will stop complaining, for now.  🙂

Thanks to T for picking up my Keurig – I love it and I am going to become addicted to coffee – again.

I am out.

As you may recall, quite a while ago (before Christmas I believe) I wrote that I was going to clean and reorganize my home office.  Well, I didn’t know that it was going to turn into a multi-month job.  My goodness, complete home renovations have been completed in less time than I have taken to do something pretty straight forward.

I’ll admit it, I am S—L—O—W to get moving.  Not sure why, it is something that I really do want to get done.

Well, looks like today is the day.  Sister Joan and Brother Dave are coming over for dinner and I have enlisted Dave to assist me in moving my new desk into the office and assembling it. 

This means that I MUST have the office organized by the time that they get here.

Hmmm…  It is 17:25 – they are coming over for 19:00 (I think, better call and verify).  That leaves me with 1:25 to get it completed.  I have done some work on it today so it isn’t like I haven’t started…

There is a LOT of junk that needs to be tossed.  There is a lot of other stuff that just needs to get organized.

I have unofficially started my home business again.  I will be working on people’s home computers – cleaning viruses, spyware, malware, etc.  There is GOOD money to be made in doing it and it is pretty easy work.

I have my first customer this weekend.  That is what finally pushed me into doing the office – finally…

Anyway, wish me luck.  I will post an update later tonight or tomorrow and a picture of the completed office.

Go, go, go …  🙂

UPDATE – 22:50

Well, believe it or not, the office is DONE.  Thanks for your help DB 🙂

What is with CTV’s coverage of the Olympics? I have watched it since the opening ceremonies and all they are showing (for the most part) are:

• interviews
• their various boring personalities drone one about things that most of us don’t care about
• commercials

Who decided that CTV should cover the Olympics? As I remember, CBC’s coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics was excellent. I actually remember watching some of the events – really, I do.

So, my question is this – am I alone in my thinking or do you agree? Pathetic as far as I am concerned.

I am also shocked that CTV chose to show footage of the ahtlete from Georgia who lost his life on Thursday in a practice run. That wasn’t necessary – I can only imagine how his family and country feel watching that. Tasteless CTV, totally tasteless.

Imagine that I liked this one eh?  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone !!!

A good day today all in all.  I was up rather early but that seems to be some new pattern that I am sticking to.

I was out of coffee so I made a 5am trip to Tim’s.  Zeus likes going to rides in the Jeep anyway so he was happy.  He won’t be a passenger in the Grand Prix unless it is an emergency.  I do have a blanket in the trunk for such an emergency though.  I guess I am afraid that he’ll punch through the leather seats.  He’d likely be ok, but, I’d rather not risk it.

Got a trim of the old head this morning – looking sexy as usual…  ;-)  Hit the Pen Centre to return some shoes that I really didn’t need.  Dropped into work to get my external hard drive and then went shopping with T.

After shopping we hit Johnny Rocco’s in St. Catharines for lunch.  Really nice restaurant – they have done an excellent job on the building.  Apparently the rest of the building is going to be turned into a hotel – very cool indeed.  It is an odd location for a hotel, however…  We’ll see if it works.

Dropped T off and now watching the Olympics.  I figure that I will be watching a fair amount of Olympic action over the next couple of weeks. 

Here’s to Canada winning a lions share of medals.  🙂

It is the first day of a 3-day long weekend.  Family Day on Monday.  I do enjoy long weekends, but, they can be a tad boring if you have no plans.  I do have some stuff to do around the house but generally, nothing is going on.  That’s ok though.

Next week will be a pretty easy week all in all.  I am off on Monday of course.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be my only working days.  I am taking a lieu day on Thursday and hitting the auto show in Toronto – never been and have always wanted to go.  Friday is an ADO.

We have a slave-labour co-op student from SWC starting on Tuesday, I am hoping that he will work out well.  If he is as good as he appeared in his interview I think he’ll work out well.

So, what to do this weekend.  Well, I am getting a haircut today and then zipping into work for a bit.  Gotta return some shoes that I bought at the Pen and have since decided that I don’t need/want.  They were a good deal, but…

I don’t think that there is much else happening.  The Olympics are on and I am sure that I will watch it quite a bit.  I got HD programming back on the TV just for this so that will be good.  I watched a LOT of the summer games which seem like just yesterday – they were a year and a half ago now.

I hope that Canada lives up to the expectations that we have seen advertised for the last few months.  I wonder how the men’s hockey team will do?  Better than how we did in 2006 in Italy – that was just awful…  Curling was the event that we all watched back then.  I will admit that I don’t know too much about curling but Canada made some shots that to me defy the laws of physics… 

Tragic what happened to that athlete from Georgia.  I am also shocked that CTV news chose to show that on TV – a tad morbid I think and VERY tasteless.  I do prefer when CBC is the network showing the Olympics – I like their people better than CTV’s.  I hope a LOT of people send complaints to the CRTC about CTV showing that accident – there was no need for it.

I watched the end of the opening ceremonies this morning.  Not too bad, too bad that there was a technical glitch with the 4th arm of the cauldron that wouldn’t rise.  Good thing that Wayne Gretzky didn’t have to run from BC Place to the harbourfront to light the second cauldron – that was a 15 minute drive and he’s getting old, I am not sure that he would have made it…  🙂

Enjoy the games…

Have I ever mentioned that I think that I actually hate most people.  In general, I guess that I give people the benefit of the doubt.  I have been rather disappointed recently. 

Most of the disappointment is with the people that I work with on the SCMBA Board of Directors.  Not all of them, just three of them, two in particular and one that I really don’t care about.

In all honesty, I don’t think that any of the three give a damn about baseball – I really don’t.  I am not sure why they are there, but they have no love for the game.  I suppose that they joined out of some sense of loyalty perhaps, not wanting to see the league fold a few years ago when that was a possibility.

I feel as if I am facing roadblock after roadblock.  I try to get some answers and people refuse to help.  I send an email and I can just about count on NOT getting a response.  I make a phone call and I can just about guarantee not getting them to 1) pick up the call and 2) don’t return my voice mail message.

As far as I am concerned, that is plain rude.  If someone can’t get off their ass and return a call, 5 minutes, that’s all I am asking for then I have no use for them.  Is that asking for too much?  I don’t think so.

I am not going to step down as VP.  I think that is what a few people might want, I don’t know for sure though.  I think that I am done as a coach for Peewee and my idea of coaching Rookie is also out the window.  I can’t do it with the lack of support that I am getting from this BOD.

The Board is limiting to paying for two tournaments.  I understand and support that, totally, 100%.  I applied for three tournaments and have requested cheques for three.  The President, surprisingly enough replied to “that” email and said yes, the League will advance funds for the 3rd tournament.  I then get an email from the Treasurer stating that she “will not write a cheque” for the 3rd.  Who does she think she is?  I really want to know…  I suppose she will claim that she didn’t see the President’s email.

Oh well, I don’t care any more – it isn’t worth the stress.  I will let someone else coach that team, any team they want, whatever.  It more than likely won’t happen anyway, I don’t think that there are enough interested players.  Good luck to whoever decides to try to coach All Star baseball in SCMBA during the 2010 season. 

So, I think that I am done.  Of course, I won’t get a return call tonight – it was promised at 8pm.  It is 9:36pm as I am writing this, no call.  Am I surprised?  No, not at all.

I will go to the indoor clinic on the 19th and see what the turnout is like.  Maybe, if hell freezes over between now and then, a complete team will show up.  I doubt it – it hasn’t been that cold.

I guess that I will assist in Senior this year.  That should be OK.  My only other option is to get right out of it.  I suppose that is an option but I don’t want to go down that route.  I really think that I can help, I do.

It is DAMN frustrating though, let me assure you of that.

Well, it is Thursday morning, I have received two positive replies and one negative reply to my email to all of the 2009 Minor Peewee players in SCMBA. I guess after 36 hours or so that isn’t too bad. I only had one bounce back to me. I am hoping that there will be slew of other replies on the positive side – if not, well, we’ll see.

I don’ t need to make any decisions until the end of the month or so. The clock it ticking on getting money to the various tournaments – they won’t wait forever. I have no idea when the Treasurer will get me my cheques, thus far it has been over a week.

So, that in a nutshell is what has been going on with baseball for the last week – not a heck of a lot of fun… On the plus-side, if, for any of the reasons that I have stated in various posts the Peewee club doesn’t form, there is a good chance that there could be a Rookie club. I wouldn’t mind starting over with the 8 and 9 year olds – that could work very well. Time will tell I guess.

What else is going on? Hmmm… Not too much really. I have my new domain name registered. It is darcy-pc.com. I will have the web site added in the next week or so – gotta get going on that for sure. I am moving kevindarcy.ca over there as well. My experiement with BlueFur is OVER. What a joke that was… I decided to give GoDaddy.com a try and they’ve been great.

I have also been playing with GoToMyPC.com. It is a great product but at over $20 per month, that’s quite insane. I have configured my router to allow me to RDP from the outside. I will cancel GoToMyPC – loved the service, can’t understand why it is so much. They aren’t providing internet service after all…

Oh well – that’s it for now – gotta go to work.