Out of The PIT

Hrm, in about an hour after posting the forum website on Facebook, the forum server, as well as the static server (which was not directly linked), have both been brought down to their knees. I am having a hard time accessing either one to find out what the heck is going on - which is quite annoying. I am tempted to change the DNS listing so that I can at least have a look see - but then I'll probably have to look into cobbling together a MUCH more powerful server quick if it is indeed a horsepower issue. I have the resources available - I just did not think it was necessary. I'm wondering if it's more of a spider/bot issue rather than actual people accessing the sites. But then again, it could just be the service itself is not designed for this type of activity. I'll give it an hour before I pull the plug.

Yesterday I found a spider mite on my keyboard. I picked it up on a sheet of paper and tested the pen ink trap on it and it worked! I hadn't realized that the last time I played with a mite was over three years ago . I decided to show it to some of the co-workers who was surprised at the mite's reluctance to cross the line. I was going to show it off to someone else when it dropped off the paper on to the carpet. There was no way I was going to find it again, so I went back to my desk. About twenty minutes later, I saw yet another spider mite on one of my loose pieces of paper, so I picked it up and brought it back to the common area. Unfortunately at this time, RM had turned on one of the stand up fans and I walked, with paper in front of me, right in front of it not realizing that it was blowing. In an instant, the mite was gone. I went back to my desk. No more than ten minutes later, I saw yet another spider mite on yet another sheet of paper. (It could have been the

RM came in and noticed my helmet, so he stated, "Oh, you brought your bike to work today." But I corrected him, "No, the bike brought me." I could also have easily responded with, "Yeah, and my back is killing me. I should've got a lighter bike." But the moment was lost, but we did come up with other versions (like the flying in - arms tired joke).

I've upgraded the virtual server by doubling the CPUs and quadrupling the RAM and the web server is running much faster now. It also helps that the new server is not being spammed by those ad hits. Things have been quiet for the past day or so, so I think it's ready for prime time. I will look into retiring the old server in the next little while. Just want to make sure that there is nothing on there that I still need. I've turned off the web service so hopefully the logs will not blow up in my face again.

My website is suffering a DoS event, related to what looks like some sort of website ad redirection to my IP address. In any case, it might explain the spotty performance of the web server since its inception, but I need to move the stuff quickly off the server while I can before it becomes too hard to access - I cannot change the IP address of the server. My only recourse is to create another one and copy the contents over.

I had a potential kijiji buyer coming by the house early this morning (0800) to pick up the wardrobe and bookshelf. This meant that I did not get all that much sleep last night. Don't take it the wrong way, I am glad that all of that extra furniture is gone now. The living room looks more livable, but I really need to hit the sack soon before I fall asleep on my keyboard. Oh, now that the big ticket items are out, I can now see some of the smaller ticket items that need to be dealt with, like the shoe cabinet. Kijiji (or Craigslist) to the rescue! I spent most of the rest of the day catching up on e-mail, chores, and what have you. There are three weddings to attend (so far) this year and we are trying to keep everything in check. I should say I am trying to keep things in check. MJNL has her hands full with placement work so I have been holding down the fort organization-wise. Yay for task lists and apps! I also got a chance to bike down to the shoe store to buy some clearan

I had a dental appointment this morning so I had to get up somewhat early. I had wanted to ride my bicycle to the clinic, but it was just a tad bit too cold that morning, and I think my joints would have frozen by the time I got into the dentist's chair. In the end, the ride was chilly, but at least I got there fairly quickly. Nothing interesting was found, so I rode back home to shower before we headed out for brunch at Panagio's All Day Grill. I definitely loaded up on carbs, but next up was heading down to East York to check out a couple of open houses before going to the beginner archery session at Shawn's Archery . I was not expecting to learn much, until he suggested that I shoot left handed. Why left handed you ask? I'm glad you asked, because that was my first question. My dominant eye is my left eye. I've known this since University. However, in high school, everybody shot right. I do not recall doing a eye dominance test, but I do remember that I learn

So I mentioned how we tried out the original room escape a couple of months ago . I scheduled another meet up with the same crew to try out volume two of the mysterious room series, but this time we were unable to get two of the original participants. Instead, we replaced two of the girls Growly's wedding with one of the groomsmen from Growly's wedding. As with last time, we had dinner at One of A Kind Pasta & Grill and funny enough, people arrived at the restaurant in the same order as last time! We nearly did not escape the restaurant in time this time as our party did not all arrive until half an hour past the reservation time, we didn't order until 45 minutes after, and our mains took around an hour to arrive after ordering. So even after factoring in a two hour dinner, we were left with fifteen minutes to eat and rush down to the site. Fortunately this time I double checked the location of the room and it was only a five minute walk from the restaurant. Our vang

Sometimes when tapping into a large repository of something, the resources you expect to extract do not always flow out like you expect it to. Sometimes you need to prime the pumps to get the flow started.

I had a relatively small lunch so I had a hankering for some chocolate from Trader Joe's that MJNL got for me a couple of months ago. I tried to break off a small piece to eat and in the process ended up "randomly" breaking it up into four unequal sizes. When I eyed the pieces, it looked like they were pretty much proportional to each other. Each piece half the size of the large piece. It really started to bother me after I ate the first piece, so I took a picture. Each piece - half the size of the next larger piece. I am not too much bothered by it to actually try measuring the bits to see how big each piece is, but visually it does look close no? (Try imaging what that first small piece of chocolate looked like.) Also, to get this sort of ratio, one can not just break the bar in half again and again. Mathematically that does not work. The first break needs to be 8:7, then 4:3, then 2:1. All this math is making me hungry. I am going to finish off that bar.

I was planning to go through the box with my old cards and letters and try to organize them some way, some how. I had started to split apart some of the cards into separate smaller boxes and then I came across some photos I had stashed inside, and it is amazing how long ago those pictures were taken. How old I already felt at that time, and how much I thought I knew. Now I look back at the me that was there and I feel like kicking him a few times. Meh. I put the cards, letters, and photos back more or less how I found them, but moved them into a bigger box. That's so I can keep collecting more cards, letters, and photos. So that my future me can look back at me now and feel like kicking me a few times. Perhaps I should do it anyway just for his.. my sake.

We had a drain pipe burst in our office. Fortunately, it was in an area that was away from most electronics, and the water was contained before it reached any electrical equipment. I took some pictures, but I figure that I should not be posting them here. I think there was a leak there before, but not of this magnitude, as the ceiling tile had some water discolouration before the pipe itself burst.

I spent the last two nights organizing our stuff in my parents' basement. Now that MJNL has moved her stuff here, I've been able to finally reorganize the stuff into something that's a little less disorganized, and a little easier to get around. It also helped moving MJNL's clothing upstairs. I can probably fit all of my clothing into three tubs. That reminds me, I should pick up more tubs. Those seven tubs were not enough. One of the first things I wanted to do was to take some of the more personal items and move them off the floor. Yearbooks and photos that don't react well to water were moved up a little higher so that they don't end up wicking up the moisture from the carpet. Also, if for some reason the basement floods, they'll be okay so long as the water doesn't rise more than a foot.

I went downtown to Snakes and Lagers with Laz and AK. I think it was the first time I've been to that establishment as the only other boardgame cafe I have been to was Snakes and Lattes. We had a pretty good time playing Kingdoms and Cards Against Humanity . I had played neither before, and I found Kingdoms surprisingly fun. There's quite a bit of counting involved, but the scoring is straightforward and the tactics are fairly simple. I had never played Cards Against Humanity either, but it too was pretty fun even though there were three of us. I can see how entertaining that game can be with more players and more selection, although a lot of our responses seemed to be eerily similar to each other.. We were originally slated to meet up at 1930, so I spent the time before meeting up with KK who I had not seen in over two decades. It was good catching up, as he had a number of stories from way back when that I honestly don't recall. I have to verify with the parties involv

I was able to convince my dad to park the car outside, which meant that I could move all of our bikes into the garage. This also meant that I could pop the battery back into my bike and start riding this season! I had been watching the riders out on the streets for the past few weeks with a bit of envy, but I knew that I needed to wait until at least MJNL had moved everything back home first. Anyway, it felt good going on a test ride on the bike. I think I'll be riding a fair bit this week..