Restored Site

Good god am I ever stoooooopid. I just made a huge mistake this morning, and basically wiped out my site. rm -r is a powerful weapon, and somehow I used it wrong. I only wanted to delete a specific directory, and instead I blew away everything including that directory. My main blog has now been restored (I think), but I am still missing all my galleries. Some of them may be gone for good since I wasn’t very diligent about backing them up (again, a very stoopid thing to do).

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Time to contact my webhost to see if they can do a restore on a directory. I WILL be more diligent about that myself from now on.

Oh yeah, if you see anything amiss (outside of the galleries), please drop me a line.

Hurried Blocking

cross
I was a bit of an asshole today. I kind of feel good about it though.

When driving back to work from the mall today, I needed to turn left into the driveway at VMI. Problem was there was a lady stopped in front of if letting out a passenger. I honked, and she looked up at me I gave her a dirty look, but she didn’t really do much beyond that. Her passenger hurried a bit then scurried off. She pulled out, gave a little half smile as if to say oops, then drove off.

The thing that really got me was that 5 feet away (just in the driveway she was blocking), was a parking spot for visitors. She couldn’t use that eh? Stoopid lady. For that she should have her licence revoked.

The part that made me an asshole was the fact that her passenger was using a cane. Doesn’t matter to me though, she was blocking the driveway for no good reason at all.

Hilarious Mumbler

Tuesday night was another great concert night. Sue and I travelled to Vancouver to see Dave Matthews Band at GM Place. We met up with Erin and Christine ahead of time for dinner, then it was off to the show.

I had seen DMB one other time, and that concert was absoutely amazing. Excellent sound, wicked energy from the band, and by far the best light show at a concert I have ever seen.

This show had a lot to live up to.

I lived up to my hype though. Again the sound was excellent, the band was full of energy, and the light show excellent (not quite as good as last time). The music was so fluid that I had a hard time not believing I was listening to a CD. Of course the songs had some of the best solos I have heard, flowing from the song to solo after solo until each band member had their turn, then again blending back into the song.

Few concerts are perfect though. There was a large Jumbotron (for lack of a better word) that was above the band. It was a beautiful screen with crisp clear, and bright images. The problem was that it was so easy to watch the band on the screen, it distracted from watching the band. Several times I shook my head and realized that I had been staring at the screen for the past while, and hadn’t even really been watching the band (something I normally love to do).

Another distraction was that they sometimes toook large breaks in between the songs. To me it ruined the flow of the show, but I did notice that during a couple of the breaks, a technician was attempting to repair something on the massive drum kit. The breaks did highlight one aspect of the band, and that is their timing. After one long break, just as the crowd was starting to relax, all at once there was an explosion of sound and light emanating from the stage. It actually startled me.

The negatives aside, I really enjoyed the concert. The drummer was amazing, and alway, always, always had a huge grin on his face. The fiddler, had such energy, and really seemd to be having fun up there. The sax player, blended in perfectly. The keyboardist was OK, and basically did his job. The bassist was hilarious. Usually when the camera was on him he started dancing really funny, and aking fishy faces. I am not sure if he as in a strange mood, or if that is what he does.

Dave. What needs to be said about him. He is a mumbler. Smiling We were talking about it at dinner, and the few times he talked to the crowd, I had no clue what he was saying. Singing is a different matter, and that was excellent.

I all, I would rate this an excellent show, and would recomend anyone who likes his music to see him live.

Certainly Chaotic

What a weekend! A long weekend is something to be enjoyed, and I certainly have enjoyed this weekend. Sue and I sort of turned our house into a dog kennel when we agreed to look after Digger and Chester (in addition to Yoshi of course). A little chaotic at times, but how could we resist their little faces?
chesterchesterchester

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, Sunday was a work kind of day, amd I took Digger and Yoshi mountain biking, and today Sue and I went to visit Steve, Rhiannon, and Teagan.

Tomorrow we brave the ferries to go to Vancouver to see Dave Matthews! I am really looking forward to the show. It should be awesome. Time to go pack!

Awesome Ballet

the snowbirdsThis past Wednesday Victoria was treated to a wonderful show by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. They performed over the water just off Dallas Road just after 7pm.

Their acrobatics are amazing! So precise, in such close formation. Their head on passes are heart wrenching. It is almost like watching a ballet in the air. They can make their planes do a sort of dance that is beyond believable. Truly awesome!

The pics I took can be viewed here.

WiFi Frame

digital picture frame Now this seems like a great idea to display your digital pictures in your home. I definitely want one. I would have to get two though, one for horizontal pictures, and one for vertical. Very high tech though, and I love how it uses WiFi to get the pictures to the frame. One downside is that it looks like you have to drill a couple holes in your walls to power it. Small price to pay though.

911 Streetlights

blinky lights
Saturday night I had planned to head out to Luminara to check out and photograph the lanterns people had created. I had attended last year, before I was into photography, and really enjoyed myself. Once your eyes adjust to hte darkness, the lanterns really stand out, and become quite magical.

This year was not to be. I left late, a few minutes before ten, and drove down to Beacon Hill park. I missed the entrance to the parking, so I cirlced around, discovered that too many people were leaving to allow newcomers to park, so I circled back and parked along Dallas Road.

I jumped out of my truck, grabbed my gear, and started walking towards the park. There were lots of cars out, and people were snapping up the parking spots as quickly as they could.

The next sequence of events happened rather quickly, but I will try to explain them as best I can. I was looking up the road for a good place to cross. I noticed a vehicle coming towards me, then noticed the right hand light looked funny. I realized there was a motorbike in front of a car, and that is when I heard the engine from the bike. Next, a car coming in the opposite direction (same direction as I am walking) turns left in front of the bike. I saw the headlights on the bike dive a few inches as the driver of the motorbike hit the brakes.

I thought to myself “This is going to be close”, and then bam, the motorbike hit the car. The riders were catapulted over the car and slid along the ground a bit.

I was slightly stunned, but I took off running towards the acident, jumping over some bike parts as they slid down the road. I got to the passenger from the bike, and I stopped there. I tried talking to her, but she didn’t say anything. I told her not to move, and that she was going to be alright. I grabbed my cellphone, dialed 911, hit send, then someone else said they were already calling. Myself and another gentleman waited with the girl until some help arrived.

Some people from nearby vehicles brought some blankets to cover the girl. It was pretty freaky, and my legs were quivering from the adrenaline. After some police officers arrived, I backed up and let them do their business. I had to hang around and give a statement.

As I stood there waiting, I was looking around the scene a bit. There were about 6 police cars in the vicinity (later I noticed two more down the road directing cars), two ambulances, and a firetruck. There were no streetlights at all, so the only illumination was the red and blue blinky lights from the police, ambulance, and fire vehicles. This cast an eery aura onto the scence. I stood there freezing my butt off from the breeze coming off the ocean. I surveyed the bike, and sort of vowed I would never get one.

I discovered that the driver of the car had jumped the curb, and his car was in the middle of a field. He was sitting there looking very stunned. I felt for him. I was in a similar situation many years (car vs pedestrian instead of car vs motorbike).

After giving my statement, I reallly didn’t feel like going to the festival. I had been really looking forward to it for about two months now, and I was a little disappointed that I would miss it, but I really was a walking zombie after that. I grabbed my gear, walked back to my truck, took the above picture, then left.

There is always next year. I just hope the motorbike riders come away ok. I also hope the driver of the car can get on with his life. It is quite devastating to go through something like that.