Where to begin

It's been a while since I blogged. I guess when you wake up, do the same stuff, and go to bed, every single day; there really isn't much to talk about.

Since my last post, the most significant happenings are that our daughter visited from Hamilton (twice, actually -- once on the way over to the U.S. for the Thanksgiving holiday, and once on the way back), and our son has delighted us with his amazing progress as an adult-student at the local university.

Also related to our son, he decided to sell the car he's almost never driven, to help finance his computer and textbook acquisitions. The car sold over the weekend, and has yet to be delivered to the new owner, although it has been paid for.

On the personal business front, I continue to make progress. Revenues are consistently ahead of expenses (which wasn't always true during my previous year in business), but it's nowhere near the critical mass level yet.

I'm making an effort to get back on better terms with some people in my life. Life is too short to be angry all the time. It's difficult for me to make this effort, so it's too early to say how well it will turn out.

I own a few web domains, as well as owning and managing the one used by my place of worship. They've asked me to take their website to the next level, by not only providing a public service for our members, but also to try to actively recruit additional members and create a revenue stream. This should be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well, that's about it. Nothing much to tell, but just enough to prove to the two readers who noticed not much was happening, that I'm still alive!

Bat Mitzvah day

My cousin's daughter is celebrating her Bat Mitzvah today. We were invited, but decided not to attend the actual ceremony. I attend a very small synagogue, and it's always touch-and-go whether we have enough men to do the entire service. Today, I'm glad I chose to stay local, because we didn't have any extra men show up.

The party is tonight, and we will be going to that. It's taking place somewhere I've never been before, and normally, I would be "mapquesting" in preparation. Tonight, I'll be relying on my GPS. Hopefully, it won't let me down.

Moving day

I didn't tell anyone I was moving, because until yesterday, I didn't know it myself. I had been living at the same home for two years now (26 months actually) and thought I was happy.

Then, I had a problem and had to ask the landlord for assistance. He totally ignored my problem and basically accused me of being a bad tenant! What's up with that? I'd never broken the rules, never asked him a question until yesterday... I thought I was the perfect tenant.

Then he had to nerve to imply I could be thrown out at any time, so I did what any self-respecting person would do. I moved out in the middle of the night.

So it's official. One of my websites has a new home today. And as soon as I can figure out how to redirect the mail from my old place, I'll be able to start getting that again too (along with all that lovely spam!).

Stay tuned for more details.

September has almost passed me by!

It's been a good month, with very few glitches of any kind. Things on the business front are going well, and mostly good things are happening on the personal front. Last week, we celebrated my wife's birthday. That's about the only occasion for the month.

Fall has begun, so of course, the weather started to improve after we closed the pool for the season. This week (and the next) are pretty much taken up with various Jewish holidays, and then we'll head into what I hope will be a nice October.

Time flies when you're having fun!

School's back in session

It's the end of the first week back at school. It's an exciting time at my daughter's house, with her youngest starting Junior Kindergarten this year. And my wife is facing her first fall semester registration crunch at the local university. I don't think she's ever been as swamped in her life, although she confesses to feeling somewhat like a mother figure to the young students. She's enjoying herself at this position more than she ever has at any previous employer.

There's nothing that makes me happier than seeing her beaming face each night when she returns home from work. It's a far cry from the days when she'd get home weeping and despondent over goings-on at the office. I'm so glad she's found herself a wonderful place to call "home".

With school back in session, I'm expecting my business call volume to increase after a somewhat slow summer. Although this summer was much busier than last year's, it still wasn't what I would call "great".

That's it for now.

Happy, Happy, Happy!

Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, haaaaappy anniversary!

It's true. My wife and I have been married a very long time! And today marks the end of yet another year together.

I wish us many more!

Jesse Imeson caught, and other important news!

International news

A high profile killer (I don't have to say alleged killer, because I'm not a reporter) who fled the Windsor area almost two weeks ago has been caught and will now be returned to Ontario to be put on trial.

It's a shame he didn't get caught earlier, before he had the opportunity to kill two more people while on the run. There were missed opportunities -- a witness that didn't come forward in a timely manner. Thankfully, that was not the case with the latest person to spot Imeson, and he was caught shortly after the report.

This isn't the type of story I normally write about. In fact, I rarely write about anything of real substance. I suppose I'm mentioning it because I was one of many people who came forward to police with information about Imeson. I don't think it had any effect in helping track him down, but it was important enough to have merited mention in the local press.

It will be interesting to see if the planned feature on America's Most Wanted will still be aired this weekend. The producers of the show had been in the area filming background material for this weekend's program. Since I normally don't watch the program, I have no idea whether their policy is to shelf footage if the crime has already been solved prior to air date.


Click the picture for a larger image


Family matters

With July over, there's only one more month of summer vacation. My son will be starting university come September. He's always wanted to go, and now, at age 23, he'll finally get his chance. He's really excited, and so am I! And I'm very proud of him for taking this step.

All-time best

I don't think I've ever seen a more riveting video in my life.

Where has the time gone?

It's amazing how quickly time passes. My birthday has come and gone, as has Father's Day. For the most part, things are as they've been - progressing at a snail's pace, but progressing nevertheless.

I took part in a bit of a dog-and-pony show this past week, electing to sponsor a table at the annual Convention and Visitor's Bureau annual meeting. This is my first year as a member of the Bureau, and the opportunity to network and present my "message" to a table of potential clients was a lure I could not resist.

It was billed as an opportunity to present for up to an hour (one half hour scheduled, and another half hour flexible). The half hour of "flexible" time was a ruse - it didn't even appear on the official schedule sheet. And the half hour of scheduled time (which did appear on the official schedule) was cut dramatically short when the business of the day went far beyond the alloted schedule. Rather than extend the event, the original break-up time was observed. This left me with a grand total of seven minutes to present a half hour presentation.

As if that wasn't bad enough, most of the people in the room (thankfully not just those at my table) decided to leave immediately after the keynote addresses, not even affording the courtesy of an audience to those of us who sponsored their SWAG.

Was I pissed? You bet! Did I make a shortened presentation anyway? Absolutely. And of the three people who heard my presentation, one has already become a new client. I won't recoup my investment in time and money, but I did meet some new people.

And I was able to reinforce some impressions I have about people in general. More on that when I have more time.

It's been a good May

May is nearly over. My birthday is tomorrow, and I've already received my gifts. From a business perspective, this has been my most productive month since I began the business, and I'm anxious to see whether this was a blip or a trend. Regardless, I will take things in stride.

I've reached a balance in my life. I'm happy with who I am, what I have, and what is ultimately in store for me. Overall, my relationships are the best they've ever been. While nothing is ever perfect, I am comfortable with the state of things.

For the past few months, I've been trying out various combinations of devices to combat my obstructive sleep apnea. I think I've found a combination that works effectively. Next week, I'll be purchasing the equipment I need. I believe this equipment has helped me achieve a more restful sleep, and in the process has helped me lower my overall level of stress.

That's it for now.

It worked great!

I was off at work during the first "scheduled" run on the Roomba. I came back too late to see whether it had actually gone to work (it was docked and recharged by the time I saw it). But the proof was in the dustbin. Full of dirt and dog hair, I'd say the run was a success.

And, compared to the results from the original brush, I'd have to say the pet brush did a better job holding on to the hair. Transitions from linoleum to carpeted areas were not showing traces of dropped dog hair.

Pets beware

My new pet attachment has arrived from Roomba. I've already tried the enhanced brush cleaner (it's AWESOME!!!), and I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when my first "hands off" cleaning session will take place.

By "hands off", I mean that the Roomba will turn itself on tomorrow, while I'm not at home, and hopefully do a good job before returning to its charging base. Until now, I've been manually starting the Roomba, and monitoring it to make sure it doesn't get itself into any tight spaces (so far, it has managed to stay pretty much clear of obstacles).

Tax season's over

I dreaded filing this year's return. Having "officially" started a new business in 2006, there were extra forms and procedures that needed to be completed, and the bill from my accountant was higher than usual.

After all was said and done, I owned the government more than I expected, and had to dig into savings just to pay them!

Luckily, things are beginning to show improvement on the business front, so I'm hoping that next year at this time, I'll have better things to report.

w.bloggar - RIP

I have been using the w.bloggar tool to create my blogspot entries for about five years. The interface was clean, advanced, and a real pleasure to work with. The work of the author was good enough that I sent a donation shortly after I began using w.bloggar.

Now, however, with Google finally forcing me to convert my blog to the new format, I found that the w.bloggar tool no longer works. I have no choice but to abandon it, since moving to a different journaling system is definitely not a viable option.

Part of the family - please help us name him/her

Our Roomba is part of the family now. While it prefers to hunt in seclusion during lazy afternoons, feasting on dust bunnies and dog hair, it has been known to occasionally hunt during evenings when other members of the household are out and about. I've become convinced that its voracious appetite for dog hair can only be adequately satisfied by equipping it with the specialized pet brushes available from iRobot. Said brushes have already been ordered.

Having joined the user community forum for Roomba owners, I've discovered that many in the community have chosen to name their cleanliness-obsessed companions. Not yet having named ours, and having no idea what to name a robot (except for names heard on movies and TV shows - like 2001, Lost in Space, and the Jetsons), I've decided to invite public comments. If you'd like to suggest a name, please leave a comment. And if we choose to use it, you'll receive a personal email, photograph, and credit for your submission.

21st century begins now

I've entered the new century. Today, I bought a Roomba Discovery robotic vacuum cleaner. It was on sale at Canadian Tire, and I simply could not resist. The Discovery comes with a Home Base for charging the vacuum. After completing the initial charge, I activated the vacuum while the dogs were in the living room. I thought there'd be more commotion, but because the vacuum is relatively quiet and relatively small, the dogs were not intimidated. On the contrary, Buddy was initially aggressive, refusing to yield ground when the Roomba approached. Once he saw that the machine meant him no harm, he allowed it to run without interference.

I was eager to see the Roomba seek its home base, so I activated the "dock" command and watched the Roomba navigate its way back to the Home Base (charging station). It sat there for a few hours charging...

Later in the evening, when the dogs and wife had been put to bed, I activated the Roomba for an actual cleaning cycle. The main level of our home has a front part, and a rear part that is just slightly lower (about 1 inch lower). The Roomba has a sensor that detects drops that are too large to navigate, and the 1 inch drop was sufficient to trigger this detection. Unfortunately, there was one damaged linoleum tile on the lower level that stuck up just enough to fool the sensor into thinking the lower level was not very far away. So, during one of many approaches from the "high" ground towards the "low" ground, the Roomba decided to make the jump. It got hung up on the broken linoleum tile and had to be manually repositioned. At that point, I put up a baby gate to stop the Roomba from approaching the back of the house.

With this path plugged, I was anxious to see whether the Roomba would be able to manouvre itself through all the rooms on the main level (excluding my office, which has far too many loose items - clutter - scattered on the floor). To my surprise, the Roomba did a remarkable job cleaning the area. It found its way into every room during the 45 minutes or so that it was running, and did a decent cleaning job (needing to have its dirt bin emptied three times during that stretch). Being that this was the first time I had tried the Roomba, I was unclear what would happen when the "Power" indicator went from Green to Yellow. I assumed that the unit would start looking for the Home Base to dock itself to, but the unit was busy cleaning an area of the house that was nowhere within sight of the Home Base. On this occasion, I used the remote control to steer the Roomba back into the living room. To my surprise, as soon as it detected the InfraRed beam from the Home Base, the Roomba went into survival mode - totally ignoring my remote commands, and instead finding, then mating with, the Home Base.

The next time I clean, I'll be more patient and see whether the Roomba can actually maintain enough juice to find its Home Base regardless of where it is within the house.

By the way, it did a decent cleaning job, though I wouldn't have been too upset if it hadn't!

I found a video on YouTube that pretty much shows the vacuum in action. While our environment is much more challenging (more furniture, and nothing to stop the Roomba from wandering room-to-room) this video still is interesting. Enjoy.

Windsor, Ontario on review

Yes, I'm from Windsor. It's a small-ish large city (ranked 20th in population in Canada) best known for its strip clubs and its ties to the automotive industry. While the auto industry is in a tailspin, thankfully, the strip clubs have seen their business increasing!

Windsor occasionally makes the national and even international spotlight. Last year, we were featured as the "Sin City" of the north during the Superbowl XL festivities in neighboring Detroit, Michigan. Most recently, Windsor was mentioned on a popular alternative news program. Click on the video below to see what I mean.

I hate computers

OK, it's not computers I hate. It's MICROSOFT. This has been a particularly unhappy week for me thusfar, and it's only Monday! I could have let things pass, but I just suffered a browser crash of monumental proportions, and that was the last straw. Earlier this week (yesterday to be exact), I found that Microsoft's TZEDIT utility is useless. I had used it to update several clients' machines for the Daylight Saving Time situation. It seemed to work as advertised. When I edited the timezone files on various computers ranging from Windows 98 to Windows Me and Windows 2000, the rules seemed to change, and I had confidence that all systems would click over with no issues.

Well, that didn't happen, and I heard from every one of the people whose systems I had "fixed". This made me look incompetent, and I don't like it when someone else makes me look that way.

I also happen to be a dues-paying member of IMDB, and take great pride in contributing many of the episode/cast/crew/plot details for the shows on their website. Today, I was entering information about the episode of Cold Case that was on last night. There were lots of guest appearances on that particular episode, and I was busily entering information for more than 30 individual items. For those not familiar with IMDB, when you submit information, there is a validation process performed by the website. When you enter an actor's name, for example, and there is more than one actor with that name, you are prompted to select which one is the "right" one.

In order to do this, and to ensure that I could quickly alternate between the input screen and a secondary screen used for my internal validation searches, I had two copies of a browser open simultaneously (as opposed to using tabs within a single instance of the browser). During validation, I was informed that one of the names I had submitted as a cast member was not already in the actor database. Rather than saying "Yes, add this person to the database", I decided to do some research to see if this was indeed a brand new actor with no previous credits - as opposed to simply a typographical error on my part.

It was during this search process that Windows decided to crash the browser (whether it was the browser, or Windows task manager that caused the problem is really moot - the bottom line is that the browser window just closed and a system error was displayed). That wouldn't have been so bad, since it was not my data entry browser that suffered the error. But when the browser closed down, BOTH INSTANCES (both independent windows) were terminated. All my work - already completed and saved but just in final verification - was lost. Because this was a web session, and the session was terminated, there was no way for me to resurrect the session cookies that may have been used to control the editing process. My work is out there, somewhere, floating like an orphan in space, but there was no way to get it back. The experience left me so frustrated, I decided not to redo the work. Someone else will have to be the one to record the details of that episode.

And I'm left with a real urge to murder anyone I can find that is somehow responsible for this intolerable piece of shit called Windows.

Congratulations Lancers

The University of Windsor Lancers Men's Basketball team captured it's first OUA (Ontario University Association) championship in nearly 30 years last night. After spending much of the past ten years firmly at the bottom of the pack, a newly hired head coach vowed two years ago to have the Lancers back in the hunt for a championship in only five years. He's three years early on that promise.

Going into last night's game, the Lancers had already made the improbable run to the finals by beating the best ranked teams in its division, including the defending OUA champion in last weekend's semi-final game. Their opponent last night was the Carleton Ravens, ranked #2 in the country, and defending national champions.

Like the March Madness tournament in the U.S., eight teams meet in Halifax to play for the Canadian national championship. Windsor had already been guaranteed a spot in that tournament with its victory last weekend. Last night's game was to determine seeding in the tournament. Even after Windsor's impressive rise to the Ontario finals, they had only been ranked #8 prior to last night's game. It will be interesting how they are seeded in the Halifax tournament.

Happy almost-Daylight-Saving-Time

No, you're not hallucinating. DST comes early this year. Next weekend, in fact. If you're still using an old version of Windows (anything before Windows XP with Service Pack 2 - i.e. Windows XP-SP2) then you will need to tell your computer about the new DST rules. For users of up-to-date operating system versions, the Microsoft Update site takes care of this on its own.

For those of you who are net-savvy, you can find instructions or even utilities to help you update your older operating system without my help. For those of you who don't know how, or want my help anyway, just send an email to DST[at]safe-and-secure-computing.com and I'll send you a return email with a small utility and detailed instructions.

Getting busier

From the standpoint of work, things are getting busier. I've been fielding calls from all over, and even was called by a local radio station to offer advice to those who might experience problems with the Daylight Saving Time coming into force earlier than normal this year. People with relatively new computer operating systems will not have to worry, but if you have portable devices that do not synch to a central server (such as wristwatches, PDAs, some cell phones, home appliances with timers, etc.) or if you are using an out of date operating system or scheduling software, then you will need to take some action.

I've been working on artwork for a new rear-window banner for my business vehicle. I thought I was ready to take it to the sign maker, until I received some very important feedback. It looks like I'll need to reconsider some elements of the artwork before I commit it to vinyl.

We got a new dog at the end of January and that's working out really well. He's fully integrated into the family now, and has a personality all his own. Despite having him for nearly a month, none of my family members have seen him yet. I'm looking forward to the inevitable introductions sometime soon.

Tomorrow, I return to the sleep clinic for my next sleep apnea test. I'm already using a CPAP machine based on the result of my first sleep study in December. But the doctor thinks I have a more serious condition that might require a Bi-PAP machine. We'll see how things go...

Dad would have been proud!

My father grew up in Europe during the depression. He was a big believer in conservation, and never throwing anything away that could be used again. For his 84th birthday, two months before he died, my wife and I had baked him a birthday cake and placed two candles, an "8" and a "4" on the cake. We joked with him that we would save those candles for my wife's 48th birthday, which was to take place four months later. To honour his memory, we kept those candles, and did, indeed, use them for that occasion. Fast forward nearly three years...

I've blogged before about the coincidence of both my grandchildren being born on the same date, four years apart. Today is their birthday. They turn 8 and 4 respectively. And we plan to use those very same candles for their cakes.

Dad would have been proud.

Nothing happens around here

It's not that I don't enjoy keeping up this blog. I do, really! But what the heck are you supposed to write about when absolutely nothing is happening? Every day seems to be like every other. I don't do very much of anything... interesting or otherwise. If I try to focus on any one day and try to recall something memorable, I fail. If it wasn't for the written log I keep for business expense purposes, I wouldn't be able to remember anything distinctive about any recent day.

So, I choose not to write when there is nothing to write about. The only reason for this post is so I can say I posted in January.

That is all.