I knew the random crash I experienced while playing Rock Band 2 last week wasn't a good sign......

At 1:15am this morning, 3 red lights appeared on my XBox 360 console...... my first RRoD.

*sigh*

Tonight my dream comes true!

Back in 1995, I was with the Youth Singers of Calgary. We had done a medley of Lion King songs, and I was actually the king. I have a lot of fond memories of this performance, and it helped make The Lion King my favorite movie of all time.

Ever since I heard there was a broadway show for Lion King, I knew that someday, somehow I would get to see it. When I found out that it was coming to Calgary, I knew I'd do whatever it took to go (even nearly missing out on a LAN party).

Tonight is the night it all happens. I have my ticket in hand and am about to head out. Words cannot describe how I feel right now. It's my first musical, and one that I've wanted to see for years.

Can't wait for this one!

It all started with the purchase of a video card.....

I picked up a new ATI Radeon HD4870 video card to replace the dual-GPU card I had beforehand. I plugged everything in, pressed the power button, and then..... POP! I saw a bright spark emit from the power supply area, and then silence. I immediately unplugged the system, and then freaked out (fire and electricity scare me -- I'm afraid to go near anything if it sparks like that!)

I called my local computer buddy (or shall I say, my brother did), and he decided to come over for a look. After a thorough inspection of the system, he decided to try powering it up again just to see if anything worked. The fans turned on, the motherboard turned on, but it wouldn't enter the POST routine. Upon hooking the power supply to a tester I have, we discovered the unit's 5v rail was shot. That would explain the no-POST scenario.

I then bought a new power supply (a Corsair HX1000W), and upon getting it home I realized it was too big for the case. Considering my eventual upgrade will consist of 2 graphics cards and the use of my extreme cooling solution, I didn't want to limit myself. I had my friend run to Memory Express to grab a new lightweight aluminum case and we transplanted everything in. Toggled the power button, and the same thing happened (no POST).

At this point I'm going to bring the system to Memory Express to have their techs find out what else failed. If it's the board, I'll replace it. If it's the CPU, I'll replace it. If it's BOTH, then I'm (unfortunately) going in debt and buying the shiny new i7 system I've been wanting.

Something bad always happens with my friend and I just before the yearly LAN party we attend -- and I guess this year isn't any different. His motherboard died after a watercooling leak occurred, so both of us got hit.

No fun!

I can't believe I never posted these. Here were two pics I took a few weeks ago at the Calgary Zoo. I borrowed a nice 80-400mm telephoto lens to take these pics:

Yesterday a package arrived from NCIX with a few goodies to play with. Here's the result:



This program measures hard drive transfer speeds using various file sizes. For reference, my older Seagate 1TB drive hit a maximum of 90MB / second for read & write.

Well I followed through on my word and picked up my first Blackberry device yesterday.

I went into the Bell store and after (finally) having the chance to try out a Storm, I decided it was indeed the device for me. Sure, it was pricey, but I love the touch screen (and find that the click screen works quite well).

Transferring contacts from Outlook was a breeze, though I later found out that I could have just plugged in both my HTC Touch and the Storm and have synced data that way.

So in a week I'll finally be getting rid of Windows Mobile, and moving to a REAL Smartphone... yup, my little HTC Touch has annoyed me enough that it's time for an upgrade.

I'm going to be upgrading to a Blackberry! I'm still torn between the Curve and the Storm, but after I play with a Storm I'll make my decision. I like the Curve because of the keyboard, but I like the Storm because of the large screen (and more recent OS -- it's the same version as the Bold).

So yes, in a week I'll probably post my PIN for anyone who has a Blackberry (once I figure out how to get PIN info and such).

(Dare I start a poll to see how long it takes for me to get addicted to the Crackb....I mean Blackberry?)

I've just heard the new Rankin Family single "Never Alone" and I have to say, it is a really great tune. It is a cover, but from what I saw from YouTube videos, Rayleen from the Rankin Family does the best version. Go download it on iTunes or something! :) Here's the lyrics:

May the angels protect you
And trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you when its time to go home
May you always have plenty
Your glass never empty
And know in your belly
You're never alone

May your tears come from laughing
May you find friends worth having
With every year passing
Their worth more than gold
May you win but stay humble
Smile more than grumble
And know when you stumble
You're never alone

Never alone
Never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart
When you face the unknown
Wherever you fly
This isn't goodbye
My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone

Oh I have to be honest
As much as I wanted
I'm not gonna promise the cold winds won't blow
So when hard times have found you
Your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you
And you're never alone

Never alone
Never alone
I'll be in every beat of your heart
When you face the unknown
Wherever you fly
This isn't goodbye
My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone

My love will follow you stay with you
Baby you're never alone

Well, at the beginning of the year I indicated I wanted to get back into music.... and now, I've put the plan into motion.



This little guy is a Roland E-60 arranger. It has over 1000 voices, lots of drums, and quite a few pre-arranged styles as well for me to really play around with.

Should work well for what I want to use it for, and at least if I run into problems I can contact the sales rep at Mother's Music for help. :)

On a different note though, I'll be SO glad once I can get rid of this darn dry cough (I got hit with a flu-like bug last week, and the cough is pretty much what's left -- but it just...won't....go....away. No fun at all!

So my last entry was filled with sad things on a weekend I should be celebrating. Why?

I got myself a new job! Yup, after being unemployed for a month, I've managed to find a new job that I hope I'll be able to enjoy. I'll be doing IT helpdesk stuff for EDS. They handle a lot of IT projects for some big companies, and I see a potential for far more growth and advancement than I ever did at Husky.

Best part? Although it's a 24-hour helpdesk, the shifts are steady. This means I won't have to swap around my schedule each week as I did at Husky (and was the prime reason for me leaving).

*sigh*

I am so fed up with the ITG community these days. Nearly quadding a 10 is no longer "legit" and if you can only ** Hard charts, you suck. "OMG! My scorez PWN j0o!" seems to be the ongoing battlecry of the community.

I "quit" ITG a while back because I was fed up with what I saw, and for some reason I came back..... what the heck was I thinking? Things haven't gotten better; they've just gotten worse.

Whatever happened to all the fun? Now it's all filled with angst and flames...... How can I have fun if there's no motivation for me to improve? What do I have to gain out of this? I'm not necessarily asking for recognition -- I just don't want to feel bad because I can't clear a 10. I realize part of this is my fault for even looking in the Accomplishment thread, but it's invading other parts of the forums too!

I guess times change. For better or for worse, it is inevitable.

....At least I have IIDX (a game where I do have motivation to improve -- and actually do manage to see improvements every time I play.

All this being said, there are a few people who earn my respect... Brent, Krisi, Steven, Jeremiah, Chris, and Darrin just to name a few. None of you guys have made me feel inferior and demotivated. Thank you very much!

Well, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the first group of 12 singers take to the stage on American Idol and show us what they've got... Here's how I see things (this is before I see the results show).

1) Jackie Tohn. Definitely not a good vocal for me. She does have stage presence, but the way she sings some notes just irked me. Definitely not a way to start off the night IMO.

2) Ricky Braddy. Did we even see this guy in the auditions? If not, I'm presuming they wanted to surprise us for the Top 36 round -- and surprise, they did. He's got an excellent tone to his voice, and I felt he really connected with the song.

3) Alexis Grace. I don't think she'll win the competition, but I'm sure she'll make it into the Top 12. Despite not being a fan of the original song, she sang it extremely well.

4) Brent Keith. Thank you Kara for agreeing with me that this was a safe performance for him. I expected more -- even if he sticks with the country theme.

5) Stevie Wright. *yawn* Boring performance, poor vocals, complete wrong song choice for her. Need I say more?

6) Anoop Desai. This performance was simply "OK" for me. If this were one of the first Top 12 performances, he could get away with this one. Now, I can only hope he gets a wildcard chance.

7) Casey Carlson. The Police? What the heck were you THINKING? Pitchy, bland, and just awkward. Again, Kara raised a good point in that you just don't touch iconic groups like The Police unless you are 100% positive you can do it. Big mistake.

8) Michael Sarver. When I found out he was singing "I Don't Wanna Be" my first reaction was "AWESOME!" Unfortunately, the performance didn't wow me. Considering how well some previous contestants have done with this tune, I expected a lot more. My last statement about Anoop holds true here too.

9) Ann Marie Boskovich. The judges seemed a little too harsh on her. It wasn't an awesome performance, but I didn't mind this one. I hope she manages to sneak through to the top 12, as I want to see a few more performances to really form an opinion of her.

10) Stephen Fowler. His sound is very generic, and he didn't connect with the song. Nothing really stood out for me on this one.

11) Tatiana Del Toro. One acronym for the judges tonight: STFU! We don't WANT to see the crazy side of Tatiana -- it's way over the top and annoying. That said, she did pretty good with her song tonight, and it was great to see a more serious side of her. I had my finger on my mute button, but luckily I didn't need to push it. THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!

12) Danny Gokey. If you aren't voted into the Top 12, I'll be shocked. "Hero" is such a big song to sing, and I never expected a guy to impress me with a performance of this tune. It wasn't quite as good as Ricky in my opinion, but it was extremely close. Considering what he's gone through, he was definitely able to connect with the song and it showed.

Well it's finally 2009 - and frankly, I couldn't be happier to see 2008 behind me. Sure, there were some highlights (as in, getting to see my mother after more than 15 years), and discovering my creative side when it came to photography, but there were quite a few disappointments as well.

Nonetheless, I am thinking positive for 2009 - I sense a lot of change is in store for me.

For starters, seeing the joy my brother has recently expressed by being able to work on puzzles again has sparked the creative energy in myself. Two of my hobbies (outside computers) involves photography, and music. I've already started exploring the former aspect by purchasing my digital SLR camera and trying to go out more to take pictures, and now I've decided I want to get back into music.

I've been saying for a while that I wanted to get a new keyboard/synthesizer/workstation, as the "digital piano" I have now is about 20 years old and does not interface with a PC well. Now that I'll have a room where I can set this up easily, I'm going to take the plunge and actually go ahead with this plan. No "maybe I should" comments anymore, I will do this. There has been too many times when a random melody will pop in my head, and I have nowhere to actually record it.

Furthermore, I've been evaluating my computer usage, and came to a startling conclusion that I don't need a gaming computer. In the past year, other than Fragapalooza, I haven't played many PC games at all (PORTAL being the exception). Ideally, I'd want my computer for web browsing and multimedia creation (audio and photo, and possibly some video down the road). Basically, even a micro-ATX case would handle that easily -- and be almost silent to boot. No more jet-engine sounds from my computer, and best of all, no more needing to upgrade every year because the system can't handle the latest game.

For the record, I do still play games, but it's now focused on the XBox 360 and my PSP. Most PC games I've wanted to play are on the 360, and I'm not a professional gamer anyways (so keyboard/mouse controls aren't necessarily superior in my case).

Seems like it's going to be an interesting year, that's for sure!

My turn for the Christmas gift list.

DVD's:

Wall-E (2-disc version)
Family Guy: Volume 6
Batman Begins
Batman: The Dark Knight

Games:

Left 4 Dead (360 or PC)
Patapon (PSP)
Call of Duty 5: World At War (360 or PC)
Ninja Gaiden II (360)
R-Type Command (PSP)
Gears of War (360)
Gears of War 2 (360)
Halo 3 (360)
Prince of Persia (360)
Guitar Hero: World Tour (Game only -- no peripherals) (360)

XBox 360 Stuff:

1400 or 2800 points cards
3 or 12 month XBox Live Gold membership

That should give people somewhat of an idea.

Well, the mists enveloped our land for part of the night, but luckily there were no monsters lurking about. (and if anyone other than gavic or finnyb can figure out the game reference here, you'll win a token!)

Anyways, we discovered it was very foggy out tonight, so we all decided to go for a walk. As soon as I stepped outside, I realized this would be a good opportunity to get some night shots with my digital SLR camera. Thus, I ran back inside to grab the camera and tripod. We went up to the hill near my place where I got a few cool photos, then we went to a nearby field where the fog just enveloped us and there was very little light in sight. It completely reminded us of Silent Hill or something like that!

Overall it was a pleasant evening, and the three of us enjoyed it quite a bit. Here's a few photos I took:

I could go and write a novel about how I feel about them, but there simply is no point. I have opinions of them, they have opinions of me..... and we're never going to be able to sway each other. All parties involved handled the situation improperly (whether we'll admit it or not), and the end result is that I ended up moving out. Right decision? Wrong decision? Time will tell. What's done is done, and we all have to live with the consequences.

Why dwell on the past when there's a bright future waiting for me to take hold of it? The clock will still tick, the seasons will still change, and life will still go on.... with or without you.

Hello again, and welcome to my world -- it's a crazy place right now, but here goes:

Last month's vacation to Montreal went very well. I had a blast at the NASCAR devents held in Montreal on August 1-2. I did take quite a few pictures at the track, but haven't gone through and posted my best ones yet (but at least they're off the camera now!) :)

Over the course of the summer, I was involved with a karaoke contest. This was a lot of fun, though in the end we found out some judges decided to skew the results. The general consensus however was that everyone did have a good time, and we made a lot of friends in the process. You guys all rock!

As for work, well....... I'm starting to feel the effects of a rotating shift schedule pretty bad. Going from graveyard shifts to a 9am-6pm shift with only a day's rest between is really tough, and is something I'm being forced to do quite often at this job unfortunately. Yes, it's true! One of the reasons I left Starchoice back in the day is coming back to haunt me at this job, and I'm starting to question if it's all worth it. $40k is nice for a salary, but not at the expense of my personal health. Time will tell what happens, but in the meantime I'm just going to go with the flow. I do know I eventually want to get an IT position, and I do know the experience I have here will help.

Guess that helps provide a quick update as to how things are with me. Until next time......

Tonight I was reminded about the calls I hated while I was at Star Choice. Customer calls up, needing help with their DVR530 receiver. As part of the troubleshooting, I walk them through a factory reset -- at which point, the entire unit fails to turn back on. Cue the screaming & yelling at the other end of the line.

Luckily my "customer" this time wasn't yelling and screaming -- but I still hate it when I'm troubleshooting something and THEN it gives up the ghost entirely! Sure makes me look bad. :(

*sigh* Electronics can be such a pain. :(

The times, they are 'a changing!

1) I now have an official hobby that is getting me outside more and more: Photography. The purchase of my Nikon D80 has motivated me to get out there and take more pictures, and I'm having a blast with it. I'm learning a lot, and I soon hope to meet up with several photo enthusiasts here in Calgary so that we can swap tips & techniques.

1) Now that I've secured a good job that seems quite stable, I am going to be taking my first true vacation by myself. Most of my other trips were either planned with family (such as the trip to Nova Scotia back in 2003), or ones that I was obligated to do stuff (Europe 1995 with the Youth Singers). This time, I paid for my own tickets, and am going myself to have fun. All I know right now is that it will include NASCAR & Fireworks.... and LOTS of picture taking! I also plan to try & stay away from the computer for this time, though I might have to log in just to upload photos or something).

2) The main reason for the trip though is to see someone I haven't seen in about 20 years now: my mother. After a very rocky relationship when I was younger, I never dreamed I'd actually want to see her again, but it's happening in 1 week. It will be great to share the memories I have of growing up.

3) I'm movin' out! On the weekend of August 16-17th, I'll be moving in with some good friends of mine (Hi Silverblue & sledene!) Who would have thought this would happen? Certainly not me a few years ago!

One thing's for sure -- things are going to be rather interesting over the next bit. I can't wait for this. :)

Well, I did end up using my digital SLR yesterday.

Here's a couple of my favorite shots I took:


(Shrek! I'm lookin' down!)