When a Geek smiles, the whole world suffers….

So I am writing this as I just finished cleaning the laneway after we got slammed by an ice storm, followed by some snowfall. It took over 3 hours to get the job done.

So the good news is if all goes well in about 10 days I will hopefully have my transfer truck license!
Think good thoughts for me people….

On new years eve I made the decision to make the move into trucking.  I want a change, and this seems like a good idea.  I have been lucky enough to have a local company show me the ropes and help me get my license, also a god mentor.

So I have been into a lot of trucking stuff, trying to find out as much as possible.  I came across the concept of a cab-under design.  I wouldnt want to drive one, but here are some pics.

Well were into the new year!  For new years I made 3 resolutions:

1. No more pop – started a site to track this – A Year Without Pop
2. Loose weight
3. Get my class 1a license.

Lets start with #1 – A year without pop.  Well were 17 days in, no pop, energy drinks etc.  In the first week I lost 3.8lbs!

#2 – loose weight.  My goal is 225lbs, when I started I was 324.2lbs and I want to loose 100lbs.

#3 – Get my class 1a license.  A class 1a license will allow me to operate an 18 wheeler with air brakes.  Why do I want this? Why not, it could be a good career change, plus I would be getting paid to drive a really big truck which for the record is cool.

So far no pop. down some weight, and got my medical and my air brake test done.

This may be the first year I get any/all my resolutions!

Its that time again, where I have to relive the night I lost a good friend, who was also a great father.

I miss all the good times we had working together in the garage, building and fixing cars, trucks and whatever else needed our attention.

I also am thinking what would be going on if you were not taken before your time.  Would we have finished the 1 ton dually suburban we planed on building for my project?  How would your 56 Chev truck have turned out? Would you be helping me with my solar business? Of course you would, that’s the father you were.

We all miss you, and wish you were still here to share in the good things we have going on, and to help us get through the bad.

I know a person like you is in heaven, I hope it is everything you deserve Dad.

Today is the last day that can be seen as a binary expression until the year 10,000!

From Wikipedia:

A binary code is a way of representing text or computer processor instructions by the use of the binary number system‘s two-binary digits 0 and 1. This is accomplished by assigning a bit string to each particular symbol or instruction. For example, a binary string of eight binary digits (bits) can represent any of 256 possible values and can therefore correspond to a variety of different symbols, letters or instructions.

7989 years, or roughly 2915985 days until a date composed only of 0 or 1.

I seen on the news tonight about 2 ferries being scrapped in a dangerous manner to people and to the environment in India.  LINK to CBC story.  Its not the first time….

Below is from an email I got years ago.  Father worked on both of these ships, and I remember going to see him on the ships,  him giving me the tour of the engine room etc.

Alang is on the west coast of India near Bombay and has the world’s
largest shipbreaking yard – a 50 km stretch of beach in a bay that sees a
high tide only twice a month, so the ships are driven at full speed onto the
beach during the high tide, then armies of peasant workers (over
50,000-100,000 in total) go to town with the cutting torches, not worrying
about environmental or safety concerns…  people killed every day.  Oil
tankers and gas tankers are sometimes still filled with fumes when they’re
torched apart and explosions and death are common.  The metal goes straight
to nearby railways and then to India’s steel mills.  These two boats being
icebreakers would have had a large proportion of high-tensile steel in the
hulls – much more than other ships their size.

This is the rough history that I know:

MV John Hamilton Gray

Built:  1968, Sorel QC

Served CN, then CN Marine and then Marine Atlantic until April 1997.
Sailed to Sydney, NS in April.

Sold July 1997 by Canadian Gov’t to Contessa International and modified in
Les Mechins, QC to become a casino cruise ship.  Renamed MV Contessa I and
sailed to West Palm Beach, FL in November 1997.

Renamed MV Texas Treasure II and sailed to Port Aransas, TX around 2000,
sailed as casino cruise ship until around 2003 when she failed US FDA’s
hygiene tests, then failed USCG’s ship safety tests.  Sailed in fall 2003 to
Freeport, Bahamas and listed for sale.

Sailed to Alang, India in winter 2004.  Reported demolished at Alang on
March 15, 2004.

MV Abegweit

Built:  1982, Saint John NB

Served CN Marine and then Marine Atlantic until June 1997.  Sailed to
Sydney, NS in June.Sold July 1999 by Canadian Gov’t to Accrued Investments of Houston TX.
Renamed MV Accrued Mariner and sailed to Galveston TX that month.  Accrued
tried to re-sell her as a rail/cargo ferry for many years with no success.

She was sold January 1, 2004 to a company in India, she was renamed MV
Mariner and was registered under a flag-of-convenience in the Carribean.
She departed Galveston around the end of February on 2 engines, crossing the
Atlantic, Mediterranean and transiting the Suez and through the Red Sea to
the Indian Ocean at about 4-5 knots (very slow, burning off rest of her
fuel)…

Reported demolished at Alang on May 9, 2004.

I have been watching Diaspora for awhile now and waiting for it to go full public.  Diaspora  is a P2P social network and runs on self hosted servers.  This doesnt mean you will have to run your own server for it, a friend can host one, or I imagine there will be plenty of ones on the go.

But is this the end to facebook?  Maybe.  I think they have more to worry about with the upcoming hacker attack…

So I get this email

Hi,

I would like to know if you would have an interest in purchasing this domain name (I found your contact information online and see that you own jeffkingonline.com correct?).

je-online.net can provide a SEO boost in this market, which includes leads that pay for themselves saving you Adsense money (advertisers are paying $0.05 per click). It is very simple to type in/remember; and can help improve, secure, and protect your web branding identity. There are also 8,100 global searches via Google per month for these exact keywords.

If you are not interested in acquiring this domain, I sincerely apologize and thank you for your time. However, if you would like to acquire it please let me know. I will be offering it to several related sites/businesses in the next few days for just $200, and it will go to the first company who replies.

Regards,
Sam
Admin@TransferBroker.com

My reply:

You really suck with teeth, you dont even own je-online.net.  fucking lame ass scammer…..

I can buy it right now at godaddy for $10.  Please fornicate yourself with a rusty cheese grader you sad excuse for a “Broker”

PS, this probably will make my blog!

BONUS PICTURE PROOF!!!!

My advice is to always check things out when someone tries to sell a lame domain that no one would want….

also if anyone wants to take the time to sign Sam (Admin@TransferBroker.com) up for as much daily porn spam as possible, I am pretty sure Karma will get your back……

So, I will now say it, I am starting a second business. I am now also working with renewable energy solutions for home and commercial use. This is a prototype for a new solar heater design I am working on.

So, if your like me you have a smart phone or some other portable net ready device. One thing I hate with these devices is trying to send mail.

Most internet provides these days will only let you send mail by being connected on their connection, and using their mail server settings. On my phone to send email I had to use the eastlink outbound mail server (smtp.eastlink.ca) since I am connected at home with eastlink. This works great if I am on an eastlink connection.

If I go to some of my friends places they use Aliant to get their internet. When I connect there I cannot sent email because my account is not set up to use anything other than the eastlink server.

Below is  how to set up your device to use the Gmail mail servers to send outbound email.  By doing this, you should be able to send emails from your portable device no matter where you are, or what internet service you connect with.  You will have to have Gmail address already. (By having an account you get the use of the Gmail servers and its free)

1. Set your outgoing mail server to smtp.gmail.com
2. Set the username to your full gmail address ex. yourgmailname@gmail.com
3. Enter your gmail password
4. Check off “use secure connection” and select the “TLS” option

After changing your outgoing setting to these you should have no problems sending mail.