Setup Bits

Friday, August 30
The Webmaster is frantically backing up all of his data before he ships this PC out to the DZ. Thanks to all of you who previewed the pages and pointed out the it's Majik (not Makic) and all those broken links. Chief Omniskore Engineer Ted "T1" Wagner has reported that all the scoring systems that have been in Europe have cleared Eurocrat customs and he is headed out tomorrow...

Wednesday, September 4
0900
We were at the airport in Phoenix yesterday, munching on our breakfast at the gate, when I glanced up and here comes Eliana Rodriguez on crutches. Eliana! You're supposed to break your ankle on round 10, not in training! So it looks like Airspeed Zulu will have Alan Metni filling the slot.

It's approaching noon here at the DZ now, and I'm waiting for my PC and digital VCR to arrive via Fedex in a few hours (after which I'll post some pictures). Skydive Chicago is looking really good for this competition. Roger has set the theater in his big (huge!) hanger to hold the judges along one side behind a windowed wall, with the DZTV control booth in the projector room in the back. It's a real sweet setup, and if I can figger out how to connect all these here wires then it's going to be one heck of a good show...

1100
;-(((((((((((
My PC showed up. I double-boxed it, insured it for $2K and Fedex STILL managed to bend the case and kill it. Won't even power on. Any computer stores in Ottawa? On the verge of panic mode here...where's my blood pressure medicine...

1300
;-)))))))))))
A trip to town and a $65 power supply later, and IT'S ALIVE! Oh, thank my lucky stars it was just the power supply. Now, where was I...oh yeah, we're setting up for the nationals...where's that digital camera...

...I'm still counting my lucky stars...the computer case has a steel frame and the whole top of the case is knocked a half inch off of square...I count one dead power supply and two dead CDROM/DVDROM drives, all of which resided in the top of the case...but the hard drives and M/B live on...

1800
A busy day of setting up and hobbing knobs is done. Me thinks this is shaping up to be a great show. The Big Three -- Airspeed Vertical, Majik, and the Knights -- all say they are ready for showtime. I had sneak peek at 8-way team Arizona Vengeane, the new squad headed by Dan BC, and they should be a team to watch in 8-way...some serious weekend warriors, those boys are, I hope they put up a good showing.

Beer thirty, more hobbing of knobs and poking wires around tomorrow...