Concert time

Greetings all,

I had another topic planned for tonight but thanks to a post on Facebook I have something else to report. Rammstein will be touring the US and Canada this year. They had two shows last year and I missed both. The first one was in Quebec city, I only found out about it a few days before the concert and it was already sold out. Next up was New York city, this one I could have gotten tickets but they were pricey, not to mention making it down to NY, accomodations it was too much. Today they announced their North America dates. I want to go to the Toronto show, sadly I am on call that week end. I will be looking to switch as soon as possible, I can't imagine it will be impossible. I have two other options somewhat close Montreal and Chicago(on call that date too) but I am pretty sure I can swing Toronto, just hope the decent seats don't cost an arm and a leg.
Tour dates

I am not usually a big concert guy, too many bands out there that I only like a few songs. I don't like all of Rammsteins stuff but I do like most of it. The thing that I really want to see is their live show. The pyrotechnics are the best and their overall showmanship is great. Here is a clip from one of their shows.

I can't wait for this concert.

Driver training

Sorry I missed my deadline yesterday. Was out with a friend and it was getting late for posting.

The other day I saw driver training car. A few mistakes were made, but that is to be expected from a new driver. A couple things he did though made me wonder what his instructor was doing. Nothing serious really, like at one point he was in the left lane and merged to the right lane. The thing is the right lane was ending in less that half a kilometre. He remained in the right lane until the absolute end despite plenty of opportunity to merge back ahead of time. All this to say how well do we train our trainers? I already think it's too easy to get your licence, heck you aren't even required to take a driver training class.
The next step is the testers. How well are they trained? Do they simply follow a check list or are they properly trained to recognise a bad driver.

I would actually like to open up a driver training centre. We would train new drivers, retrain older drivers, teach advanced courses. What would set us apart is out facilities.  Something like this old Honda Proving centre would be great although admittedly a little overkill. The thing is the cost for such a venture is quite high and I just don't see enough people interested in the type of training I want to offer.

The bed

Greetings all,
Well I got my bed. One problem though it does not fit through the door to my room. I never thought of measuring because I previously had a queen size bed in here before. It was however a water bed, being a water bed it actually comes in pieces so doorway are a non issue. I stored it in the garage for now. Two days went by and I said screw it, I got it set up and tried it out. Yep I am sleeping in the garage, it is heated and has a tv so really why not?

Obviously this is a temporary solution, I am currently looking for a place of my own. Not too sure where yet but I will make sure I can fit my bed in the bedroom.

An update about the phones I talked about last week. They have arrive but not everyone has gotten theirs yet, including me. There is one issue though our billing software Jonas is not compatible with the BlackBerry. This was found out before ordering yet we still went ahead, oh well not my call. I do hope to utilize the various apps related to the refrigeration field, I haven't bothered looking through them yet but I am told there are many good ones.

I do have a minor incident to report, also some safety advice. If using a pipe wrench be sure to use the right size. On Monday I was disconnecting an old gas line. The line was 1" black iron pipe. I had to break open the union. Well my pipe wrench was a little too small for the job. The pipe was a little over waist high. I had the wrench on the union pushing down with most of my weight, BAM it let go, I lost my balance and my face went into the pipe. Thankfully I hit with my cheek bone. The glasses would have been damaged quite badly, and I am afraid to think of what my nose would look like had I gone in nose first. It no longer hurts (let me tell you it did when it happened) but I look like I got into a fight. I have an abrasion on my cheek and some bruising under my eye. Maybe I should go to the bar and hit on the women who like tough guys.

Bed time

I finally got myself a new bed. Well not yet it arrives tomorrow. I got a pretty good deal on it too. My friend Pat's uncle owns a mattress factory/store, so he got me a deal. It's a standard inner spring style with a foam top I went for the firmest one in the store. I remember sleeping on a very firm bed on my first night in Japan, it could have been the whole jet lag thing but it was a great night sleep even though at first impression it seemed too hard. This is actually going to be my very first new bed. All my life I got second or third hand beds and most of those were water beds. I am actually quite excited for this.

As some of you may remember I had to buy a new cell phone a few months back. I wanted a smart phone but since work only covered the cell phone bill, or at least most of it if I got a direct connect phone I stayed with direct connect. Well since the whole new management at work things have changed. We are getting company provided BlackBerry's (the Bold). We will no longet be using the direct connect phones. There is a BlackBerry with that function but the Mike direct connect network is very slow anything bigger than an e-mail does not work very well. The hope is to eventually do our billing and dispatching directly from the phone. For now we will eliminate the pager for our on call system. Ordering parts and such will also be easier no more needing to relay long model numbers over the phone a simple e-mail will do the trick. The dispatcher will also enjoy this since she is also responsible for taking customer calls and ordering parts, no longer having to take our calls will save her lots of time.  There is a dilemma in all this though what do I do with my current phone? I don't remember renewing my plan when I got the new phone but my current contract runs out in 2013 so I must have. Overall my plan isn't too bad but $15 every month is for direct connect which I will no longer be using.
Some guys will be dropping their plan entirely but I want to keep a personal phone even though most of my calls are work related. We are allowed to use the company phone for personal calls as long as we don't go over our minutes but from the sounds of our plan it will be difficult. One of my co workers current Mike phone just died since the new phones will be arriving very soon he said screw it and got a new HTC Desire. I may do the same thing his plan is reasonable and the fee to change his contract wasn't too bad. It sounds odd to go from no smartphone to two but I just don't feel comfortable using my work phone for entertainment purposes. No I don't mean watching porn at coffee shops, if I want an app I want it. I don't want to have to repay my company for everything I download. If my company phone starts having issues I don't want to get them blame for all that fancy stuff I installed.

Anyway that's enough rambling for the night check back next week for another post.

Why do we care?

Greetings followers,

More or a question today. Why do we care so much what people think of us? The other day I was talking to a friend, somehow the subject of the Miata came up. I mentioned that I almost bought one. My friend was almost shocked. He said he would never buy one. I can understand that the car isn't for everyone but his main reason, he wouldn't want to be seen in it. Really? It's a cheap reliable fun to drive car. If you take it to the track it can keep up with much more expensive cars. But if seen driving it he would be "gay". I didn't get the car myself because it was in rough shape and I could not afford two cars, Miata's are not winter cars. But frankly I would not have given a shit what people thought when I was behind the wheel. It's not just cars almost everything really. Would we be happier if we just got/dressed/did what we want and not cared what others thought of how it makes us look?

It's Winter in Canada buy boots.

A small rant today. Last night was a small snow storm, the roads and side-walks were snow covered. Because it takes a few days to clear the side-walks people were walking on the roads. This is not too bad a side street on the main roads however it downright dangerous. The snow was not that deep, well not that deep if you have proper footwear but regular shoes will get wet, still better that getting hit by a car.

Happy new year.

Welcome to 2011 loyal followers. 2010 was neither good or bad really just another year, I am hoping for a good 2011. I have no major plans yet other than moving out of my basement. Not too sure where or when yet. The only other event on the list is the dragon, but that is on the list for the next several years.
Have a good one all.