evanroberts.com

Haha…

There is good news and bad news for President George W. Bush as he pursues his valedictory tour of Europe this week, according to a new worldwide study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

On the one hand, the image of the United States has improved slightly in many countries over the past year. On the other, the new optimism appears to be driven largely by the fact that Bush will soon be leaving office.

- source -

Personally, I really REALLY hope that Obama is elected. Not only would having a black President be a great thing to help end the continuing racial issues we’re always hearing about on the news, but the last thing the world needs right now is another four year stint with the Republicans in charge. Best to have the Democrats in power so they can clean up the mess left behind by the Bush administration before the Republicans can fuck things up further.

Come on America! Be smart! Vote Democrat!

Today, I hit a milestone: I weigh 179.1 pounds. I haven’t weighed this much (or less) since before I started working at easyDNS in 2004.

Two and a half months of eating right (for the most part), being more active (biking, Ultimate, Spinning, etc), and drinking less. 20 pounds. I picked up one of the 20 pound weights I have, and was somewhat taken aback… this is what I am no longer carrying? Good lord.

So, as my target weight was 175 pounds, and I am almost there, I started thinking: If 20, why not 30…? I’m not starving myself; I’m working hard, and eating right (again, for the most part), so 170 pounds shouldn’t be too hard to achieve. As such, I have updated my target weight: 170 pounds. Hopefully, the extra 10 pounds is all contained within my gut.

If I can do all this in two and a half months, I’m sure I can do a bit more before the summer is over. I’m not at the point where I am considering signing up for a year membership with Quad just yet, but once it gets too cold to ride my bike to and from work, I’ll seriously think about it. I’m really liking the extra energy I have these days, and also liking the fact that I’m not as chubby in the face!!

I wonder how long it’ll take to hit 170…

So, the UPS is charged, installed, everything is plugged into it (server, router, cable modem), and I can monitor it’s stats at my leisure. Its a GREAT relief to finally have a UPS ensuring my server isn’t brought down due to a brownout, or even a blackout… as long as it doesn’t last more than 68.9 minutes.  

Stepping away from my usual naming convention of planets and moons (and sometimes sci-fi), I decided to name the UPS “Thor”. If you don’t know who that is, then I suggest some light reading here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor

Many thanks to “System Control” (aka, my Father) for setting the hardware up and plugging everything in!!

Biking to and from work isn’t that big of a deal anymore. Sure, when I started, 6.1km each way sounded daunting, and the hills killed me. That was then. With the addition of Ultimate Frisbee and Spinning to my activity palette, I’ve found that my endurance is up, as well as my energy. All very good things.

However, I’ve never biked to and from work AND taken a Spinning class in the same day. Realising that I hadn’t done so, I made a point today to ensure that I tested my legs. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult at all. I didn’t take my bike to Quad, as I don’t like the idea of locking it outside, and there isn’t space in the room for me to put it, so I took the streetcar across King… which took FOREVER. I was really concerned that I wasn’t going to make it in time; isn’t that the case when you REALLY need to get somewhere fast, the world just seems to want to try it’s darndest and make you late. Waiting for the streetcar to arrive took at least 10 minutes, and as we got going it was moving so slowly that I briefly considered getting off at Strachan and walking from there, but decided against it (hey, a bit of laziness during a crazy exercise day is acceptable!). In the end, I got to Quad with minutes to spare, but enough time to set up my preferred bike.

After the class, being all sweaty, and because it was so nice out, I decided to not take the TTC, and walked with Adam for a bit along King as I made my way back to the office. Once there, I packed up all my gear, and made the journey home on the bike. I thought that my legs would be rubber, especially considering that this was the hardest Spinning class I’ve gone to (Quentin seemed to be in hardcore mode), but it was all good.

Still, while it doesn’t hurt now, tomorrow is another day. We’ll see how that goes.

The thunderstorms we’ve had here in Toronto have pretty much made me aware of two things:

• My love of watching lightning strike things is fairly normal.
• I need a UPS for the server.

All it takes is a minor brownout to bring the server down, which isn’t too much of an issue as the machine is set to turn itself back on should the power go out, but it can lead to database corruption… which isn’t so cool. Last night I had to restore a part of the database that my website is based upon, which was a pain in the ass. Never did something like that before, and there’s no better way to learn how to do something than by flying by the seat of your pants!

One could argue that this is only MY site, and it’s not like it is a company website worth millions of dollars, but I like my site, and I’m sure some of you do as well. Thank you for visiting.

Anyway, Sparky has had a UPS for a number of years now, and it has worked fairly well for him. His server remains up, his connection to the ‘net remains up, and should he want to watch TV during a blackout, he can… for about 20 minutes. At his recommendation, we got an APC RS-900, which can theoretically provide around 40+ minutes of power; more than enough for one Mac Mini, router, and cable modem. Another thing that is completely cool is that there is a daemon for Linux known as “apcupsd”, which can be used to monitor, manage, and grab information from the UPS, which just rocks.

Check it out:

I *really* like how the UPS logs the “recent events”. For example, with last night’s thunderstorms, Sparky’s UPS logged when there was a power failure, noted that the batteries were being used, and then logged when power was restored. He’s also mentioned how you can set the daemon to send emails detailing the status of the outage (which should work, as a power outage doesn’t necessarily affect cable or phone lines), and that you can even set it to perform a controlled shutdown should the batteries get low. How neat is that!?

We’ll see how this works out, but I’m sure it will be MUCH better than the current configuration.

WOOHOO!!!

July 11th cannot come fast enough!

http://www.apple.com/ca/iphone/buy/

As expected, Rogers will be providing the service for the iPhone when it is released in Canada. This rocks, as I am currently with Rogers.

Still, I’m going to wait a bit to see how well the new iPhone works on the Rogers network before shelling out cash to get one. Always a good idea when dealing with new hardware upon a network. As well, I want to be sure that I won’t have any issues when it comes to using my calendar.

Either way, it’s about time we got the iPhone up here!

So, the widely-anticipated WWDC keynote by Steve Jobs starts in a little over an hour.

Here’s hoping that he’ll announce the new iPhone that everyone is talking about and eager to snap up, and also that he’ll announce that it’ll finally be available in Canada. I can’t BELIEVE that it still isn’t available up here. Sure, you can snag one and unlock it and make it work on Rogers if you really want to, but I prefer to have a legit one that I don’t have to hack and worry about bricking when installing future updates.

If we do get the iPhone up here, hopefully Apple has pressured Rogers (whom I’m assuming will get the iPhone contract) to have a fair price when it comes to unlimited data transfer. For far too long, Canadians have been raped when it comes to cellular charges, and the CRTC has done fuck all about it. Maybe the demand for the iPhone will turn some heads and make the greedy bastards running the telcos realise that charging the prices they do isn’t in their best interest.

Then again, most likely not. I plan on getting the new iPhone as long as a few things are for sure:

• An affordable data plan with Rogers.
• An affordable iPhone with Rogers.
• WebDAV support with the iPhone iCal app.

We’ll see.

I don’t have a large sweet tooth, but there are various candies that I am partial to:

• Peps
• Nerds
• Linda’s Lollies
• Starburst
• Gobstoppers
• Skittles
• Smarties
• Caramilk
• Aero (mint or milk chocolate)

…and I believe that’s it… or at least, as far as I’m willing to admit as this list was larger than I thought it would be.

Anyway, while at Costco on Friday with Mike F., I was looking for more Premier Nutrition Protein bars, as I was tired of always searching for them at the Hasty Market. Turns out, they didn’t have any, but I got a good deal on light Babybels; 22 for $9.79. Not bad, considering that at Dominion they’re 10 for $9.99.

On our way to the cashiers, we passed by some candies, and I initially didn’t think anything about them, but then I spied one of my weaknesses: a box of Peps. 18 for $11.79. Normally, they’re $2.50 each at the convenience store I go to, so I was thinking “Hey, that’s a deal!”. For his part, Mike did try and tell me to walk away and just leave them… but I didn’t listen. I even got scolded by Molly, and rightly so, as they’re NOT good for the diet… but they taste good!

In the end, yesterday I ate four of them, and lo and behold, I’m up to 184 pounds again. Fak. If they stay in my fridge, they WILL BE EATEN, so I have to get rid of them. Me thinks I’ll bring them to work, or hand them out… test how many people actually listen to the rule of “Never accept candy from a stranger”.

…what a disappointment, in my opinion.

Last night, Molly and I met up with Sparky, Seth, Perry and Alison at the Black Bull for some drinks and some eats, prior to making our way down to see “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull“. I didn’t have high hopes for this movie, partly based on what I’ve heard, but mostly due to the fact that a lot of the times when directors and movie companies try to revive a previous franchise, they also try to “modernise” it, in an attempt to appeal to today’s generation. More often than not, the result is a poor representation of the original franchise.

That is exactly what happened with the new Indy.

Ignoring the use of computer graphics and chomekey for a bunch of the scenes, the story just didn’t have the same feel as the previous Indiana Jones movies. Personally, I rank them in this order:

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• The TV commercials that played prior to the movie
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The Last Crusade is by far my favourite and I thought it was an amazing story that dealt with religious overtones, and at the same time had a underlying feeling of a battle between good and evil. There was a sense of wonder, anticipation, excitement, and I really felt like I was there with Indy, and couldn’t wait to see how he would get out of the situations he found himself in. The other two movies were good in their own regard, but they didn’t captivate me in the way that the Last Crusade did.

But this new one, 19 years after the Last Crusade, seems to have lost what the previous movies had. The story had giant holes in it, it was easy to guess what would happen next, the enemies seemed over the top, and the movie just didn’t seem to try and test the intelligence of those who watched it. Seems that these days, people expect a movie to throw everything at you, explain everything, so you just sit there, turning your brain off, taking it all in. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just didn’t seem to engage the mind, mostly because it was so over the top.

I’m glad that I bought the three original movies on DVD, as I will watch them over and over again, without ever getting bored. This new Indiana Jones movie, however, is one that I have viewed once, and don’t plan to subject myself to a second time. Basically, it’s another case of George Lucasism: releasing more movies in a franchise that should have been left where it ended in the 80s.

While playing GTA IV last night, I came across an armoured truck. I recalled that there was something special you could do with them to get lots of cash, so I decided to look it up on the ‘net to see what you needed to do. Turns out, all you have to do is blow the thing up, and cash is littered around the burning remains of the vehicle. Good to know.

However, before I found that helpful little tidbit, I came across this on Yahoo Answers:

For those who don’t know, Yahoo Answers is a place where someone can post a question, and those who frequent the site can collaboratively provide a number of answers to said question. This works… in theory. Obviously, the above didn’t help the dude asking the question (or me, for that matter), but it provided a good laugh.