Happy new year

Just want to wish everyone a happy new year!

All the best in '07

Merry x-mas

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, it has pretty much been a whirlwind since we've gotten back from vacation - good and bad. The good, went to Mexico with Susie for a nice all inclusive trip. We had a great time, lots of activities, food and booze. Check out the pictures at http://www.tonedefgroove.com/gallery2 . When we got back into town on the Sunday, I received a call to let me know my grandfather had passed away, it was like going from your highest high, to your lowest low (see my previous posts for some deja-vu). I didn't sleep much that week, spent time with Grandma and my parents for a few days, picked up a nasty cold and had to sift through over 500 emails when I returned to work on the Friday.

Work has been actually going well, I've finished my major project, variable rewards, and it looks amazing. I'm really hoping we drive redemptions in January - its definitely an interesting test, a test that if successful should drive some of our ambitious goals. I've also been able to request a new PC for work, I wouldn't really call it a PC, its more like a server. It will be a dual Xeon - 5160 (3.0 ghz, 16 or 32 gigs of ram, 500 gigs of hd) to help run the model - my boss says it will get approved, but we'll see if it actually does. The coolest part of my project is I build it all using open-source programs (php, mysql) - the mysql database sitting on my local machine is slightly slower than our dedicated oracle box, but the network slows down data import and export. The new machine should be able to compete with the oracle box. I want to put ubuntu on it, but I don't think my IT department will go for it. I'll test windows 64 bit and see if it can perform adequate enough - I'm pretty sure that the database will be able to sit in memory, plus the extra horsepower should drastically improve results.

The new year will be challenging, a lot of new initiatives will keep me busy, plus trying to keep up with maintaining the regular jobs will be a tough balancing act, but at least I can stop thinking about work around x-mas and enjoy the time with family and friends. Susie on the other hand has been really busy at work - it seems one of us is always swamped.

Every year for my b-day I have my eye on a toy - last year was JBL e90 northbridge speakers. This year, I have my eyes on two things - one a new center channel speaker - I'm torn what to do, my current polk audio cs175 isn't powerful enough to keep up with the e90's so I'm looking to upgrade. I have my eye on the JBL ec35 (the matching center channel for the e90's), but its an older model and hard to find in canada - I might be able to order them off ebay, but I'm old school when it comes to buying audio equipment - I have to listen to them before I buy. The other toy I have my eye on is a Archos 504/604 mp3/video player. I really don't have a need for one until I start taking the subway again so I might hold off until July '07 - and by then, I'm sure I'll get it much cheaper.

I only have my mom left to buy for - mom why is it so difficult to buy a gift for you? I've never had a problem before except for this year - sigh and I don't feel like giving gift certificates this year.

Happy holidays everyone!