As of Saturday, I have seen The Tragically Hip play live 13 times- that’s 1 more than I’ve seen Alanis Morissette- which means they now hold the trophy as the Most Prolific Live Artist In My Life. I’m sure Gord would love knowing that.

I’ve seen a lot of concerts, and only really bother writing about the exceptional ones, but wow- The Hip at the NAC on Saturday was hands-down one of the best shows I’ve attended. Mid-sized venue, great seats, the usual antics, ringing ears the next day (I didn’t need that auditory spectrum, anyhow), and one horrendous case of vertigo (my left ear is telling my brain I’m falling to the right, which causes me to fall to the left trying to compensate) today: All the hallmarks of a great live concert!

Despite the worst opening act I’ve ever experienced, Trent Reznor and his touring group erased the bad karma and pulled off an astounding, dazzling, technophilic masterpiece last night. The “Lights In The Sky” tour really is everything it’s hyped to be, with a one-of-a-kind LED light “show” that borders on science-fiction.The crowd was exceptional, and the energy: crackling.

I may update this later depending how pics turned out.

Last night was a sold out show of Apocalyptica in Ottawa, at the Capital City Music Hall. CCMH has moved, and the new venue is… different. That said, being in the front-row of a standing-room-only packed house is amazing, regardless of the venue.

The set was a phenomenal mix of their traditional covers as well as their new material; the crowd the normal Canadian boisterous bunch; and the experience was truly priceless. Having flirted with the band briefly in 2001, not really enjoying their music much, I’m happy to see they’ve “grown up”: A little compromise here and there has led to a full-time drummer and touring vocalist, which completely changes their color and the duration I can listen to three-to-four cellos without wanting to behead myself.

Yeah, cellos. Go listen. I would, but I’m still deaf from last night.

Unsurprisingly, the Tragically Hip show at the Landmark in Syracuse was exceptional. It was the most raucous concert I’ve ever been a part of at that venue, but very very entertaining. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

So…. New Years Eve was spent at e360 in the CN Tower, Toronto. Woooo!
January 10th was the Evanescence and  Stone Sour concert at Scotiabank Place, Kanata. Amazing concert.. They made it snow, inside the stadium… Amazing!!!!

I’m transitioning pretty damned slowly into my new role as the campus Information Security Officer (ISO). I have some stuff that I still do from the systems-side that needs to get done sooner rather than later, and that requires someone to prioritize it… So I do it, which pushes back the new stuff. I’m planning on getting things to a certain level and then divest them by fiat. We’ve been doing some great stuff lately, so don’t read too negatively into that.

As previously mentioned,  RT has become a new buzz around here. The people that matter like it, even some people that I didn’t think would. We’ll see where it goes, but for now it’s all pretty positive. I’ve written a number of things for it, the most externally notable is DCL2RT, a tool to move DCL workorders (not tickets, as we never used them) to RT. Without that, we may not have been able to get certain people over to the Light Side.