This post is partially humor, partially conspiracy theory. Comments are welcome, flaming is not.
Like a lot of people in this part of the world, my wife and I shop (at least partially) at Kroger. We have our little Kroger card to get our discount on groceries and .03 a gallon savings on gas. Now once you have built up $100 in grocery purchases, you can purchase up to 35 gallons of gas at .10 off per gallon. Now if Kroger pricing is within 2-5 cents a gallon of what other places nearby sell gas for, then this is a deal. Kroger wants you business and will reward you for it.
Since my wife and I do not shop Kroger for main grocery purchases, it takes us a bigger part of the month to build up to $100 in purchases. So near the end of the month, I stop by Kroger on my way to or from work, scan my Kroger card, insert my debit card, and fill up the tank of my baby. The sight of the price dropping .10 a gallon is refreshing...or is it? Hey, wasn't gas .7-.10 a gallon LESS last week? While I know the price of gas is in constant flux, it seems that gas tends to go up at the end of the month at Kroger and drop a week or two later.
I have often noticed the price of Kroger gasoline goes up .05-.10 cents a gallon near the end of the month, NEGATING my "discount" and coming back down the first couple of weeks in the new month. After looking at this I am wondering, "Why shop there? Why don't I just go to Sam's club like my wife does?" Two simple reasons. One, Sam's is out of the way of my normal commute. I can take that way to and from work, but I face heavier traffic. Two, She only beats me my .01-.02 cents per gallon on the best days (unless it is at the end of the month).
I drive by 2 Krogers almost every day. The one near my house is usually .05 more a gallon than the one that is at the halfway point in my commute to work. They both go up at about the same amount on the same day, but usually at different times.
Kroger is also much more convenient and quicker, as well as easier to get in and out of. I usually do OK on pricing but every now and then, I beat them to the price change and get my gas for .10 off a gallon. When everyone in this area was paying $2.15+ a gallon, I was able to get it for $1.98 a gallon (with my .10 off and good timing). That helps since I have a 22 gallon tank in my 1999 Dodge Dakota and it is not exactly easy on gas.
Is there a conspiracy? Maybe, maybe not. Test this. If you shop at Kroger, start watching their gas prices and see if they tend to go up towards the end of the month while dropping at the beginning of each new month. I know that gasoline prices will always be in flux, but this phenomenon has me believing that there is something going on.
Not that I really care, but it does amaze me that the only two conspiracies I believe in are both related to the oil and gas industry. Look at the auto industry and the fuel efficiency of vehicles. Am I really to believe that after 100+ years we still cannot make a fuel efficient, affordable, durable vehicle? Why must we be slaves to oil?
Coincidence? You decide :)
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Is it Just Me, Mister Predictable, and I Did Not Act Like the Christian I Claim to Be.
Wednesday morning I was getting ready to leave when I noticed that the garbage needed to be taken out. No worries, I grab the bag and open the door to the garage (which is attached to the house), press the button to open the double garage door, and pick up my PC bag and lunch. It is then I spy a small but ill placed pile of recyclable items. I really dislike my wife putting thing in my pathway, and I realize there are few places to put these items, but we have a very full garage with little room to walk around. We have her van (which is right next to the kitchen entrance) that takes up the entire length of where it is parked and my truck on the other side. The space between the wall and her van (where the kitchen entrance is) is maybe 18 inches wide and makes it difficult to get out under the best of conditions. Put a small pile (sometimes a large one) of recyclable materials for me to take out to the BIG bin in the alley and my PC bag and lunch and you have a very tight fit.
My wife likes putting the recyclables there for one of us to take out to the bin on our way out. Makes sense in some ways, but our garage is crowded and this little adventure of trying to get out of the house and into the garage with a full load PLUS recyclables is not fun. I have asked my wife to let me put the bin on the back patio so we can keep the walkway clear. She is not in favor of that since our patio (which has been extended) is already crowded. I agree that it is, but one of these days someone is going to get hurt because they are going to step on something that will cause them to fall. Most likely that will be me and having back problems will only complicate matters.
My wife is not unreasonable. No, just the opposite. She is very reasonable and very caring. She took great care of me while I was mending after back surgery and constantly watches for me. I am wondering if she is even aware of how much this bothers me? I know once I get a smaller vehicle, her van will be on the other side of the garage and my car will be next to the door and that will clear up a lot of space.
Oh well.
I noticed that we are getting so predictable when it comes to trash/recycling. In our area, you can recycle a lot. So much can be recycled, they have issued rolling bins the same size as our rolling trash cans to collect it all in. My wife has really taken to making sure that we recycle as much as we can. We recycle so much that our recyclable to trash ratio is over 2:1. That is right. We recycle over twice as much as we throw away. We only throw away about 2 bags a week (we could get by with one, but the aroma gets to my wife after a few days, so we take it out twice a week). That is very little in our huge rolling bin. The recycle bin on the other hand is the same size as our trash bin and we fill it FULL in 2 weeks. Sometimes we get so much we have to put it in other peoples (who do not recycle much) bins.
We recycle as much as we can. Cardboard, cereal boxes, milk containers, junk mail (yes we can do that here, after I pull out any of stuff that has my name on it and shred it), phone books (we get them every couple of months...and we do not have landline phone service), soda bottles, cans, jars, newspapers, magazines, etc. I think it is the junk mail that takes up the most space!
I have a confession to make that I am not very proud of. This morning I was getting ready for work and noticed that the dishes needed washed and that my wife had started a load of clothes. I was trying to get ready as well as catch up on e-mail and the news when the washer stopped. I went in, grumbling out loud that if I were to ever start a bunch of things and walk off, I would never hear the end of it. It was wrong and I was letting Satan pull my strings. I was wanting to get on the road before traffic got too heavy and my wife was not even in the shower yet. I was letting little things get to me and I reacted, poorly. As things would have it, my wife walked in and heard me grumbling. I had been caught acting like a child. She asked me what I was grumbling about and I told her I was just being selfish and was in a bad mood. We eventually got on the road (after I got the clothes out of the dryer, helped fold them, and washed the dishes) and drove mostly in silence. I felt really rotten for my behavior but I did not know what to say.
Fast forward to me at work (an my wife as well) and my wife sends me a humorous e-mail. It was just what I needed to open up to her. I told her that she really did nothing wrong and I was being selfish. She responded back telling me that she wishes she could remember to give up her hurt feelings to God more often, since this time she did and she was at peace.
What a woman. Thank you God for giving me a time with her. I promise I will treat her better each and every day.
My wife likes putting the recyclables there for one of us to take out to the bin on our way out. Makes sense in some ways, but our garage is crowded and this little adventure of trying to get out of the house and into the garage with a full load PLUS recyclables is not fun. I have asked my wife to let me put the bin on the back patio so we can keep the walkway clear. She is not in favor of that since our patio (which has been extended) is already crowded. I agree that it is, but one of these days someone is going to get hurt because they are going to step on something that will cause them to fall. Most likely that will be me and having back problems will only complicate matters.
My wife is not unreasonable. No, just the opposite. She is very reasonable and very caring. She took great care of me while I was mending after back surgery and constantly watches for me. I am wondering if she is even aware of how much this bothers me? I know once I get a smaller vehicle, her van will be on the other side of the garage and my car will be next to the door and that will clear up a lot of space.
Oh well.
I noticed that we are getting so predictable when it comes to trash/recycling. In our area, you can recycle a lot. So much can be recycled, they have issued rolling bins the same size as our rolling trash cans to collect it all in. My wife has really taken to making sure that we recycle as much as we can. We recycle so much that our recyclable to trash ratio is over 2:1. That is right. We recycle over twice as much as we throw away. We only throw away about 2 bags a week (we could get by with one, but the aroma gets to my wife after a few days, so we take it out twice a week). That is very little in our huge rolling bin. The recycle bin on the other hand is the same size as our trash bin and we fill it FULL in 2 weeks. Sometimes we get so much we have to put it in other peoples (who do not recycle much) bins.
We recycle as much as we can. Cardboard, cereal boxes, milk containers, junk mail (yes we can do that here, after I pull out any of stuff that has my name on it and shred it), phone books (we get them every couple of months...and we do not have landline phone service), soda bottles, cans, jars, newspapers, magazines, etc. I think it is the junk mail that takes up the most space!
I have a confession to make that I am not very proud of. This morning I was getting ready for work and noticed that the dishes needed washed and that my wife had started a load of clothes. I was trying to get ready as well as catch up on e-mail and the news when the washer stopped. I went in, grumbling out loud that if I were to ever start a bunch of things and walk off, I would never hear the end of it. It was wrong and I was letting Satan pull my strings. I was wanting to get on the road before traffic got too heavy and my wife was not even in the shower yet. I was letting little things get to me and I reacted, poorly. As things would have it, my wife walked in and heard me grumbling. I had been caught acting like a child. She asked me what I was grumbling about and I told her I was just being selfish and was in a bad mood. We eventually got on the road (after I got the clothes out of the dryer, helped fold them, and washed the dishes) and drove mostly in silence. I felt really rotten for my behavior but I did not know what to say.
Fast forward to me at work (an my wife as well) and my wife sends me a humorous e-mail. It was just what I needed to open up to her. I told her that she really did nothing wrong and I was being selfish. She responded back telling me that she wishes she could remember to give up her hurt feelings to God more often, since this time she did and she was at peace.
What a woman. Thank you God for giving me a time with her. I promise I will treat her better each and every day.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News
My wife has been concerned about my back (well, I have been concerned as well) so she asked me to give a call to my primary care provider to see if he could offer some relief. I called his office yesterday morning and I was able to get an appointment that afternoon. I was very happy to hear that!
I got to the office and had to fill out paperwork as if I was a new customer. The receptionist mumbled something about missing data and everyone had to fill out the forms again. No big deal, but it is a pain in the posterior to have to do this as often as I do. A couple of minutes after I filled out the forms, the nurse called me back and began to collect data and take my temp and BP. I gave her the rundown and in a few minutes, the doc was able to see me.
He asked my why I did not call my back doctor so I told him the problems I was having just getting a call back from them. I explained to him I think they have been overbooking and I feel that I have been lost in the shuffle. He then had his nurse call (of course she was able to get through!) and set me up an appointment. In the mean time, he examined me.
He thinks that I have sacroillitus, which is an inflammation of the area above the tailbone and below the surgical area. He thinks that since I was in a brace, I was over exerting that area and it has become inflamed. He prescribed some meds and told me to see my back doctor next week. I went to the pharmacy and get my scripts filled and read the warnings and instructions like a good patient. I went home and grabbed some dinner and took one of pills (since it is to be take with food). I had a little time to kill before I went over to Jim and Carrie's* house to do a little bible study with Jim. Jim is my wife's boss and a very good man who I am very happy to know. The bible study was only about an hour so I was able to get home early and watch "24". By bedtime I was tired, but not quite as sore as I was earlier. I actually went to bed at 9 PM. Yeah, I was tired!
I got up feeling pretty good overall. Not 100% by any means, but still much better than I was a couple of days ago. I am supposed to be taking these pills twice a day, so I have been taking them with breakfast and dinner. I was told in a few days I should be feeling pretty good, but to keep taking the meds. I plan on following that advice!
I got to the office and had to fill out paperwork as if I was a new customer. The receptionist mumbled something about missing data and everyone had to fill out the forms again. No big deal, but it is a pain in the posterior to have to do this as often as I do. A couple of minutes after I filled out the forms, the nurse called me back and began to collect data and take my temp and BP. I gave her the rundown and in a few minutes, the doc was able to see me.
He asked my why I did not call my back doctor so I told him the problems I was having just getting a call back from them. I explained to him I think they have been overbooking and I feel that I have been lost in the shuffle. He then had his nurse call (of course she was able to get through!) and set me up an appointment. In the mean time, he examined me.
He thinks that I have sacroillitus, which is an inflammation of the area above the tailbone and below the surgical area. He thinks that since I was in a brace, I was over exerting that area and it has become inflamed. He prescribed some meds and told me to see my back doctor next week. I went to the pharmacy and get my scripts filled and read the warnings and instructions like a good patient. I went home and grabbed some dinner and took one of pills (since it is to be take with food). I had a little time to kill before I went over to Jim and Carrie's* house to do a little bible study with Jim. Jim is my wife's boss and a very good man who I am very happy to know. The bible study was only about an hour so I was able to get home early and watch "24". By bedtime I was tired, but not quite as sore as I was earlier. I actually went to bed at 9 PM. Yeah, I was tired!
I got up feeling pretty good overall. Not 100% by any means, but still much better than I was a couple of days ago. I am supposed to be taking these pills twice a day, so I have been taking them with breakfast and dinner. I was told in a few days I should be feeling pretty good, but to keep taking the meds. I plan on following that advice!
Monday, March 27, 2006
Weekend Recap (Geek Part at the End)
Friday night at Mickey's* went well. We ate bratwurst and chips (Papkilo and Mickey had egg salad as well. I hate eggs), drank soda and watch several hours of "Band of Brothers". It was the first I had seen of that show and I must say I enjoyed it all but the language. War is hell, I guess.
I made it home about 11:30 and my wife was in bed, but still awake. We chatted for a few minutes, prayed, and got some sleep. I slept very well, although I was stiff in the morning.
After a walking the dogs and eating a breakfast of fruit and oatmeal, my wife dropped me over to Jimmy's* house to begin my first ever martial arts practice. There were two other students there, a teenage girl who is a black belt and a late 20's-early 30's Latino man who looked like he could handle himself well. The class went well and learned quite a bit that I am sure I will not be able to remember, but all that takes time. I was a bit sore in my legs from all the leg exercises, but my back was no worse for all the extra movement. That is not to say I was not in pain. I was, but nothing more that I normally have. After 1 hour of exercising we took a water break. Immediately after that we began the training. We learned a dozen or so ways to get out of single and double arm grabs. I was amazed on how a small person can escape a much larger opponent just by using body mechanics. The teenage girl was able to escape every time I grabbed her arm. Most impressive.
After the class was over, my wife picked me up and we went home. She picked up some sandwich stuff and she made us some very tasty roast beef and pastromi sandwiches (I had the pastromi). After chatting for a few minutes, I went outside to begin mowing grass. I needed to do both ours and our neighbor's lawn, a 3 hour job under normal circumstances. Since the grass was not very high, I was able to get it all done in about 2 hours. I was very pleased :).
After a quick shower and a few minutes rest, I started the vacuuming. I began to get very tired after the first few rooms, but I did not stop until I got the entire house done, sans the kitchen. Before I started that room (which I normally save for last), I took a 15 minute break.
After I was done with the kitchen and utility room, I fired up the grill and cooked a couple of steaks for me and my wife (she found me a bacon wrapped filet...yum). Mine took a lot longer because it was so thick, but it was done before the sides were and that was okay with me. I chased my steak down with a Shiner Bock (it really tasted good!) and my wife did the dishes while I walked the dogs.
By Saturday night, I was exhausted. I think I hit the hay at 10 or so.
Sunday was a laid back day of church, lunch with our son (who is shipping off to AIT in a week), a phone call to my mom, and a little rest. Lunch was nice, but not very efficient. We went to Ghengis Grill and it was crowded and the line to get your food was long. We did not have a whole lot of time to chat. What little time we had was good, but just not enough. We did not discuss any of our son's (reported) behavior. I wanted the time to be low key.
Peppering my time on Saturday and Sunday I read scripture (my normal morning activity), watched an episode or two of Babylon 5 and Farscape, and did some damage control on my Linux box. I tried a new desktop (XFCE) but something went wrong and X refused to start. The error was not clear to me so I tried to reinstall the video drivers, but as in all Linux driver installations, there were problems and I had to purge almost everything Nvidia from the system and reinstall the latest drivers (as well as the kernel) just to get it running again. It now runs, but the video does not seem as good as before. Tuxkart looks a little weird though the OpenGL screensavers look okay. I guess I need a better way to verify video. My video files appear to play okay, so it may be just my imagination.
It was a very busy weekend and next weekend looks about the same. Instead of martial arts, I was hoping to go help put up the carport that was supposed to be put up 2 weeks ago. AS long as the weather holds out, I may have grass to cut again and a house to vacuum as well. Oh, and on Friday, I am helping my wife at the Acquire the Fire rally in Dallas and as a treat, I get to see Pillar perform. Not a bad trade off.
*Not his real name.
I made it home about 11:30 and my wife was in bed, but still awake. We chatted for a few minutes, prayed, and got some sleep. I slept very well, although I was stiff in the morning.
After a walking the dogs and eating a breakfast of fruit and oatmeal, my wife dropped me over to Jimmy's* house to begin my first ever martial arts practice. There were two other students there, a teenage girl who is a black belt and a late 20's-early 30's Latino man who looked like he could handle himself well. The class went well and learned quite a bit that I am sure I will not be able to remember, but all that takes time. I was a bit sore in my legs from all the leg exercises, but my back was no worse for all the extra movement. That is not to say I was not in pain. I was, but nothing more that I normally have. After 1 hour of exercising we took a water break. Immediately after that we began the training. We learned a dozen or so ways to get out of single and double arm grabs. I was amazed on how a small person can escape a much larger opponent just by using body mechanics. The teenage girl was able to escape every time I grabbed her arm. Most impressive.
After the class was over, my wife picked me up and we went home. She picked up some sandwich stuff and she made us some very tasty roast beef and pastromi sandwiches (I had the pastromi). After chatting for a few minutes, I went outside to begin mowing grass. I needed to do both ours and our neighbor's lawn, a 3 hour job under normal circumstances. Since the grass was not very high, I was able to get it all done in about 2 hours. I was very pleased :).
After a quick shower and a few minutes rest, I started the vacuuming. I began to get very tired after the first few rooms, but I did not stop until I got the entire house done, sans the kitchen. Before I started that room (which I normally save for last), I took a 15 minute break.
After I was done with the kitchen and utility room, I fired up the grill and cooked a couple of steaks for me and my wife (she found me a bacon wrapped filet...yum). Mine took a lot longer because it was so thick, but it was done before the sides were and that was okay with me. I chased my steak down with a Shiner Bock (it really tasted good!) and my wife did the dishes while I walked the dogs.
By Saturday night, I was exhausted. I think I hit the hay at 10 or so.
Sunday was a laid back day of church, lunch with our son (who is shipping off to AIT in a week), a phone call to my mom, and a little rest. Lunch was nice, but not very efficient. We went to Ghengis Grill and it was crowded and the line to get your food was long. We did not have a whole lot of time to chat. What little time we had was good, but just not enough. We did not discuss any of our son's (reported) behavior. I wanted the time to be low key.
Peppering my time on Saturday and Sunday I read scripture (my normal morning activity), watched an episode or two of Babylon 5 and Farscape, and did some damage control on my Linux box. I tried a new desktop (XFCE) but something went wrong and X refused to start. The error was not clear to me so I tried to reinstall the video drivers, but as in all Linux driver installations, there were problems and I had to purge almost everything Nvidia from the system and reinstall the latest drivers (as well as the kernel) just to get it running again. It now runs, but the video does not seem as good as before. Tuxkart looks a little weird though the OpenGL screensavers look okay. I guess I need a better way to verify video. My video files appear to play okay, so it may be just my imagination.
It was a very busy weekend and next weekend looks about the same. Instead of martial arts, I was hoping to go help put up the carport that was supposed to be put up 2 weeks ago. AS long as the weather holds out, I may have grass to cut again and a house to vacuum as well. Oh, and on Friday, I am helping my wife at the Acquire the Fire rally in Dallas and as a treat, I get to see Pillar perform. Not a bad trade off.
*Not his real name.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Health, Tournament News, and Silly Group Names
Sheesh...as if my back pain was not enough, I have to go and catch a cold. Dayquil by day, Nyquil by night and Airborn every three hours to help strengthen my immune symptoms. The first day was the worst. VERY achy and coughing my darned head off. Today I am feeling better, but of course my back is still very sore. I am beginning to get rid of my sinus congestion, but I tell you (this is gross), I did not know the human sinus cavity could hold so much snot!
Regarding my back, I have tried (called) twice to get an appointment with my back doctor, but no one there is returning my calls. I guess I am just going to have to call my PCP and see if he can help some. I need to find out what is wrong. I hate the pain. It cramps my style.
Well, my prediction came true about Duke, but one round earlier than I had anticipated. They lost to LSU last night, 62-54. I did not see the game, but the reports strengthen by observations about Duke. The relied completely on J.J. Redick and Sheldon Williams. If either of them have an off night, the game is in jeopardy. J.J. had an off night and even though Sheldon had a great night, it was not enough to hold of the balanced attack of LSU. Williams and Redick stayed at Duke their senior year hoping to get an NCAA championship and most likely go pro with that on their resume. Williams will do well in the pros, but I think J.J. will not. JMHO.
In other tourney news, Gonzaga lost to UCLA, which was a huge surprise to me. I assumed Gonzaga would make it to the Final Four. Another surprise was the WVU-Texas game. WVU refused to give up, blood and all. They wanted a shot at the brass ring and *almost* grabbed it. They lost in the final seconds by a well placed 3 at the buzzer. WVU is a national basketball power. They have done well the past 3 years. Coach Beilein has done a great job with his rag-tag group of hardwood warriors.
I was perusing the internal web pages for the company I support and noticed they are finally changing a group name that I found very unprofessional. The group "Business Unit Transmission & Transport Networks" had an acronym BUTTN (Button) but many just called them BUTT. They are changing the name to simply "Broadband Networks". Thank goodness.
They have another one that we always laugh at "Business Unit Global Services". Yep, you guessed it, BUGS. How is that for brilliant? Memorable, but silly in my opinion. However, it is not my choice, I just support them. I wish them much success.
Tonight I am going north 30 miles or so to visit my buddy Mickey*. He is having a few of the BiC's (Brothers in Christ) over for a "Band of Brothers" marathon. Many of the women are having a "slumber party" at Papakilo's place (his wife is hosting it) and he is spending the night at "Mickey's". I am going up for a few hours and then driving home. Saturday morning I am going over to Jimmy's* house to work out with him. Jimmy teaches martial arts and has offered to help me get into shape, strengthen my back, condition my body and my mind as well as teach me some discipline. I hope to pick up a few self defense tactics as well. His focus is on "soft" disables, where you strike pressure points. This causes the attacker to fall or lose all advantage when the strikes are applied. They are not meant to hurt the attacker, just disable him for a few seconds for you to get away. I figure at 40 I am mature enough to handle the responsibility.
After that, I need to mow grass and clean the house. We are way behind on that!
*Not his real name...but you knew that!
Regarding my back, I have tried (called) twice to get an appointment with my back doctor, but no one there is returning my calls. I guess I am just going to have to call my PCP and see if he can help some. I need to find out what is wrong. I hate the pain. It cramps my style.
Well, my prediction came true about Duke, but one round earlier than I had anticipated. They lost to LSU last night, 62-54. I did not see the game, but the reports strengthen by observations about Duke. The relied completely on J.J. Redick and Sheldon Williams. If either of them have an off night, the game is in jeopardy. J.J. had an off night and even though Sheldon had a great night, it was not enough to hold of the balanced attack of LSU. Williams and Redick stayed at Duke their senior year hoping to get an NCAA championship and most likely go pro with that on their resume. Williams will do well in the pros, but I think J.J. will not. JMHO.
In other tourney news, Gonzaga lost to UCLA, which was a huge surprise to me. I assumed Gonzaga would make it to the Final Four. Another surprise was the WVU-Texas game. WVU refused to give up, blood and all. They wanted a shot at the brass ring and *almost* grabbed it. They lost in the final seconds by a well placed 3 at the buzzer. WVU is a national basketball power. They have done well the past 3 years. Coach Beilein has done a great job with his rag-tag group of hardwood warriors.
I was perusing the internal web pages for the company I support and noticed they are finally changing a group name that I found very unprofessional. The group "Business Unit Transmission & Transport Networks" had an acronym BUTTN (Button) but many just called them BUTT. They are changing the name to simply "Broadband Networks". Thank goodness.
They have another one that we always laugh at "Business Unit Global Services". Yep, you guessed it, BUGS. How is that for brilliant? Memorable, but silly in my opinion. However, it is not my choice, I just support them. I wish them much success.
Tonight I am going north 30 miles or so to visit my buddy Mickey*. He is having a few of the BiC's (Brothers in Christ) over for a "Band of Brothers" marathon. Many of the women are having a "slumber party" at Papakilo's place (his wife is hosting it) and he is spending the night at "Mickey's". I am going up for a few hours and then driving home. Saturday morning I am going over to Jimmy's* house to work out with him. Jimmy teaches martial arts and has offered to help me get into shape, strengthen my back, condition my body and my mind as well as teach me some discipline. I hope to pick up a few self defense tactics as well. His focus is on "soft" disables, where you strike pressure points. This causes the attacker to fall or lose all advantage when the strikes are applied. They are not meant to hurt the attacker, just disable him for a few seconds for you to get away. I figure at 40 I am mature enough to handle the responsibility.
After that, I need to mow grass and clean the house. We are way behind on that!
*Not his real name...but you knew that!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
"Baby, That's NASTY" and "Hey, Give Me a Call Sometime"
I had cold Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo for lunch. That is one nasty dish. Why did I have it cold? It wasn't cold when I started eating it, but it was by the time I was done. I was eating in my office (no truck today...I car pooled) and my phone rang. I instinctively picked it up and got on a very long call. It was not the techs (who called me) fault. He had a problem and I was there to try to help. It turns out it was a network issue, not a *nix issue, so I could not help him. I later got an e-mail from his dispatcher thanking me for my time. Nice of them to do so.
My wife has been after me to make an appointment with my back doctor regarding the pain I have been having for the past few weeks. I finally did what she asked...I called the doctors office. The bad thing is, I keep getting a machine and no one calls me back. I am wondering if I should call my PCP (Primary Care Provider) and see if he can give me a diagnosis. I do not think it is related to my operation, but I cannot be sure. Taking Tylenol helps some, but I do not want to live on the stuff (it is not good for your liver) and besides, I should not have pain ALL the time. I twist certain ways and the pain is pretty bad. I was wondering if it may be osteo arthritis.
The damage is not extensive to our house after the bathroom flooded. We think the damage was restricted to the flooring. The bad news is that my wife does not want to replace the flooring until we replace the vanity and the toilet. Right now we do not have that kind of money. It will just have to site unfinished for a while. Oh well, it would not be the first time we have had an unusable bathroom. In our old house in NC, I started tearing out a bathroom and it took me a year to finish remodeling it. To be fair, the only reason it took me that long was because we were not sure that we would be in NC very long (rumors of relocation to Texas...which came true) and we did not want to make the bathroom look like a million bucks on a house we were selling. If we were going to keep it, then we would do it very fancy, but since it was not going to be used by us, then we decided not to spend money on something that would not add value to the house.
Work is going well but I still have not heard back from the other company that I was interested in. I think they had "champagne dreams on a beer budget" as my dad used to say. They wanted a lot of things done, but I was not sure they could get them all implemented on such a small budget. The story is all the same. Cut costs on IT/Customer Service but expect great returns for little investment. Oh well!
My wife has been after me to make an appointment with my back doctor regarding the pain I have been having for the past few weeks. I finally did what she asked...I called the doctors office. The bad thing is, I keep getting a machine and no one calls me back. I am wondering if I should call my PCP (Primary Care Provider) and see if he can give me a diagnosis. I do not think it is related to my operation, but I cannot be sure. Taking Tylenol helps some, but I do not want to live on the stuff (it is not good for your liver) and besides, I should not have pain ALL the time. I twist certain ways and the pain is pretty bad. I was wondering if it may be osteo arthritis.
The damage is not extensive to our house after the bathroom flooded. We think the damage was restricted to the flooring. The bad news is that my wife does not want to replace the flooring until we replace the vanity and the toilet. Right now we do not have that kind of money. It will just have to site unfinished for a while. Oh well, it would not be the first time we have had an unusable bathroom. In our old house in NC, I started tearing out a bathroom and it took me a year to finish remodeling it. To be fair, the only reason it took me that long was because we were not sure that we would be in NC very long (rumors of relocation to Texas...which came true) and we did not want to make the bathroom look like a million bucks on a house we were selling. If we were going to keep it, then we would do it very fancy, but since it was not going to be used by us, then we decided not to spend money on something that would not add value to the house.
Work is going well but I still have not heard back from the other company that I was interested in. I think they had "champagne dreams on a beer budget" as my dad used to say. They wanted a lot of things done, but I was not sure they could get them all implemented on such a small budget. The story is all the same. Cut costs on IT/Customer Service but expect great returns for little investment. Oh well!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Hillary Makes Me Sick and "You Will Do Anything To Get Me To Remodel"
I am working from home today, a story which I will relate at the end of this missive, and stumbled upon this doozy. The nerve of that woman! Quote:
"It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," Clinton said, "because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."
I did not know she was all that familiar with the Bible. I never would have guessed by her husbands actions while he was in office (Zippergate). I can see that she thinks that ACTING like a Christian will get her elected into some higher office (the Presidency?) in the future.
Well let me tell you something, Hillary. Jesus nor the Good Samaritan were trying to blow up Israel. We want control over what is ours. We are not happy with a revolving screen door at our borders.
Oh well, on to lighthearted news...the reason I am at home today. I got a call sometime around 9:30 AM from my wife. She was very upset and it took a while to calm her down. What had happened was the toilet in the hall bathroom had overflowed and flooded the bathroom and a small part of the hall. The carpet had to be removed as well as the padding and the carpet tacking strips. The whole area (floor, tub, vanity, doors, and walls) had to be sanitized and dried out. We are using several box fans to dry the area as best as we can. I do not think there will be any real problems. The areas adjacent/connecting to the bathroom do not appear wet (hall closet, my office closet, garage wall) but we are ventilating the area just in case.
The odd thing about this is that our friends Ben* and Darlene* had the SAME THING happen this morning, only they have a 2 story home and the bathroom was upstairs. We have a single story home and the damage was limited. "Ben" went home (just like I did) and began using the shop vac to suck up the water. He cleaned up the place the best he could but he was water going downstairs into his kitchen, so he will need to get some home repairs done via insurance. I am really hurting for him.
What are the odds the exact same thing would happen to two friends on the same morning? Freaky!
*Not their real names.
"It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," Clinton said, "because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."
I did not know she was all that familiar with the Bible. I never would have guessed by her husbands actions while he was in office (Zippergate). I can see that she thinks that ACTING like a Christian will get her elected into some higher office (the Presidency?) in the future.
Well let me tell you something, Hillary. Jesus nor the Good Samaritan were trying to blow up Israel. We want control over what is ours. We are not happy with a revolving screen door at our borders.
Oh well, on to lighthearted news...the reason I am at home today. I got a call sometime around 9:30 AM from my wife. She was very upset and it took a while to calm her down. What had happened was the toilet in the hall bathroom had overflowed and flooded the bathroom and a small part of the hall. The carpet had to be removed as well as the padding and the carpet tacking strips. The whole area (floor, tub, vanity, doors, and walls) had to be sanitized and dried out. We are using several box fans to dry the area as best as we can. I do not think there will be any real problems. The areas adjacent/connecting to the bathroom do not appear wet (hall closet, my office closet, garage wall) but we are ventilating the area just in case.
The odd thing about this is that our friends Ben* and Darlene* had the SAME THING happen this morning, only they have a 2 story home and the bathroom was upstairs. We have a single story home and the damage was limited. "Ben" went home (just like I did) and began using the shop vac to suck up the water. He cleaned up the place the best he could but he was water going downstairs into his kitchen, so he will need to get some home repairs done via insurance. I am really hurting for him.
What are the odds the exact same thing would happen to two friends on the same morning? Freaky!
*Not their real names.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Rain Rain, Go Away... and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
This weekend I had plans to do a lot of outside work, but God thought differently. I was going to help with a construction project with my church and mow two yards, plus my normal Saturday routine. I knew it was a lot but I really wanted to get it done. However since we received over 4 inches of rain this weekend, none of the outdoor stuff was completed. I guess it is no big deal. There is always next week! I guess that overall this may have been a good thing. I had a "bad back day" on Sunday, requiring me to take a Vicodin (which is something I do not take very often) and had I worked on Saturday, the pain may have been worse. I am still is a fair amount of pain today, but I took Tylenol instead. While Vicodin is good, it can cause me to stray a bit in my thinking.
I was able to vacuum the house, strip and make the bed, and wash several dishes. The rain kept me from walking the dogs any great distance. It came down hard at times and the ground is saturated. It stopped/slowed down enough to get them outside so they could use the bathroom, but not long enough to give them the exercise they needed.
My wife received notice that my son was kicked out of the house he is living in. He has since found a temporary solution, but I am not sure how long that will last. I do not want to disparage my son, but his choices make no sense to me. I guess I understand why some parents feel their kids will drive them crazy. When you love your kids, you want to do things for them but you have to let them learn some things the hard way. I know I learned things the hard way, however I did not have a Christian role model to look up to. My son had several.
I also was sent the link to his "myspace.com" web page. I was rather disappointed in it. He has turn his back on all things holy and is living just like every other teen is. He lives for today, the heck with tomorrow. He has sexually based cartoons on his page, references to beer drinking, etc. My wife is so upset by this. I know that this is going to give her trouble sleeping.
We even received a phone call from the mother of the girl he is "dating". I am not sure how she got our number (we only have cell phones, which are not listed publicly), but she talked with my wife for about an hour or so on Saturday. The day before, the man our son has been staying with came over and talked with my wife for about an hour. The amount/type of information that we received was heartbreaking.
This type of behavior appears to be a bit of an epidemic right now. I know of 3-4 teens at our church (we have a rather small church) who are straying from the path that they have been following. These kids are good kids. They have strong family values, grew up in the church, and some attended Christian schools. I want to reach out and help, but I do not want to be an enabler. I am praying that these teens wake up from the slumber they are in and get back on track with their Christian walk.
Son, if you are reading this, you need to make some changes quickly. The things we have been told reinforce the things that already had suspected (and in some cases knew). You are a very bright young man, but the things we see you doing are not the smartest things you can do.
If you need to talk, come by. We are your parents and we love you.
I was able to vacuum the house, strip and make the bed, and wash several dishes. The rain kept me from walking the dogs any great distance. It came down hard at times and the ground is saturated. It stopped/slowed down enough to get them outside so they could use the bathroom, but not long enough to give them the exercise they needed.
My wife received notice that my son was kicked out of the house he is living in. He has since found a temporary solution, but I am not sure how long that will last. I do not want to disparage my son, but his choices make no sense to me. I guess I understand why some parents feel their kids will drive them crazy. When you love your kids, you want to do things for them but you have to let them learn some things the hard way. I know I learned things the hard way, however I did not have a Christian role model to look up to. My son had several.
I also was sent the link to his "myspace.com" web page. I was rather disappointed in it. He has turn his back on all things holy and is living just like every other teen is. He lives for today, the heck with tomorrow. He has sexually based cartoons on his page, references to beer drinking, etc. My wife is so upset by this. I know that this is going to give her trouble sleeping.
We even received a phone call from the mother of the girl he is "dating". I am not sure how she got our number (we only have cell phones, which are not listed publicly), but she talked with my wife for about an hour or so on Saturday. The day before, the man our son has been staying with came over and talked with my wife for about an hour. The amount/type of information that we received was heartbreaking.
This type of behavior appears to be a bit of an epidemic right now. I know of 3-4 teens at our church (we have a rather small church) who are straying from the path that they have been following. These kids are good kids. They have strong family values, grew up in the church, and some attended Christian schools. I want to reach out and help, but I do not want to be an enabler. I am praying that these teens wake up from the slumber they are in and get back on track with their Christian walk.
Son, if you are reading this, you need to make some changes quickly. The things we have been told reinforce the things that already had suspected (and in some cases knew). You are a very bright young man, but the things we see you doing are not the smartest things you can do.
If you need to talk, come by. We are your parents and we love you.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Minimal Pain, Low Stress and The Heels Play Tonight
I woke up feeling 100% better than I did yesterday. That does not mean I am pain free, it just means that the pain is tolerable with Tylenol. My lower back still hurts, but I can walk relatively well and bend a little. I have been stretching several times a day for the past 3 days, taking Tylenol for pain for the past 2 days, and doing a lot of praying. I hope to feel well enough to help with a small, non-lifting project for a member of our church this weekend. He bought a car port kit and needs it installed. I have a brand new Firestorm 24 volt cordless drill I am itching to try out! As long as I wake up feeling OK, stretch, and take some Tylenol, I should be OK. I have a few errands to run and a few chores to do tomorrow, but I should be able to get most of it done:
* Men's breakfast at church 8-10 AM
* Take an old freezer to the dump (I am just going along to get the guys in .. I am not lifting it!)
* Haircut at 12:20 PM
* Help build the carport
* Mow my neighbors grass (ours as well if time permits)
* Vacuum the house
The day has a lot less stress in it thanx to my colleagues in Canada and my TL. They worked on a script that allowed me to get a big chunk of my project done very quickly. I have about 1/3 of the servers at my site done and the cron job took care of all the workstations. I feel very much at ease right now :).
I hope to get to see my beloved UNC Tarheels play Murray State in the first round of the NCAA tourney. Being a nationally ranked team SHOULD allow me to see the game. I hope the Heels do well. They do not have to win, but if they can get to the Elite 8, then they have proven something. After winning last years NCAA tourney and losing 7 of their top scorers, many people expected UNC to have a pretty lackluster year. Boy did those hardwood warriors prove all of us wrong! They have done very well for such a young team and ended the regular season second in the ACC after losing to Duke in the regular season and Boston College during the ACC tourney. Go Heels!
Please continue to pray for my back. I know that God allows all things to happen for reason. He wants someone to learn or gain something from every malady that occurs. I know this injury has made me realize how much I need my brothers and sisters in Christ. While I may not get a chance to tell you in person, your prayers mean so much to me. Thank you!
* Men's breakfast at church 8-10 AM
* Take an old freezer to the dump (I am just going along to get the guys in .. I am not lifting it!)
* Haircut at 12:20 PM
* Help build the carport
* Mow my neighbors grass (ours as well if time permits)
* Vacuum the house
The day has a lot less stress in it thanx to my colleagues in Canada and my TL. They worked on a script that allowed me to get a big chunk of my project done very quickly. I have about 1/3 of the servers at my site done and the cron job took care of all the workstations. I feel very much at ease right now :).
I hope to get to see my beloved UNC Tarheels play Murray State in the first round of the NCAA tourney. Being a nationally ranked team SHOULD allow me to see the game. I hope the Heels do well. They do not have to win, but if they can get to the Elite 8, then they have proven something. After winning last years NCAA tourney and losing 7 of their top scorers, many people expected UNC to have a pretty lackluster year. Boy did those hardwood warriors prove all of us wrong! They have done very well for such a young team and ended the regular season second in the ACC after losing to Duke in the regular season and Boston College during the ACC tourney. Go Heels!
Please continue to pray for my back. I know that God allows all things to happen for reason. He wants someone to learn or gain something from every malady that occurs. I know this injury has made me realize how much I need my brothers and sisters in Christ. While I may not get a chance to tell you in person, your prayers mean so much to me. Thank you!
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Never Underestimate The Power of Prayer
Today started out bad. Real bad. First, my back was the worst it has been in months. I was not sure I could work. I was in horrible pain. Second, my wife was acting like she was upset, but she would not talk. I gave her some room and kept my mouth shut during the drive to work (we carpooled today).
I got to work, kissed my wife, said hi to my boss and then realized I did not pack any bottled water with my lunch. I did not want to drink tap water and I only had a soda to drink. I check my secret stash at work and found I had a half liter bottle of water. At least I would be able to drink.
I start my usual daily grind (dispatch tickets, compile and distribute reports, check my work queue, read my e-mail, etc) and then I start on my project that was given to me yesterday and is due in a week. It looks like a lot of typing and manual data entry and I am not looking forward to it. It will take me a week to get all data entered on 400 servers and 500 workstations.
I then remembered I had 2 open tickets from the day before so I looked into them. It seems my TL took some pity on me and installed the drivers for the custom Sun workstations that were the subject of my tickets. I ran our normal build on the Sun's but the customer bought high end cards for them that we did not have in our image. Being new to our department, I was not sure how we handled that, so I left a message for my TL to get back to me. He was kind and downloaded and installed the drivers which allowed me to knock two more tickets out of the way.
The e-mails and phone calls were pouring in and a few hours later I still had not started my project. During that time my TL and one of the old timers to the department got into a heated disagreement over how the project should be completed. I asked if part of it could be scripted and my TL said it could. The old timer said it could, but it would take him some time to figure out all the "ifs" in our environment. I cannot code or write scripts, although I have a general idea of what a script will do when I look into it.
The constant fighting and bickering between my TL and the old timer were getting on my nerves. I already was in pain, now I was stressed. I honestly felt like quitting. I was overwhelmed at the thought of me trying to finish this with these two "helping" me. I almost lost it. It was not pretty. Then I remembered my new inspirational chant/prayer..."Just one more round, Lord." I bowed my head and began to earnestly pray for peace. I did not want the project to go away, but I did want the serenity to finish it properly. I actually did this a couple of times before lunch.
Lunch time arrived and I began to eat at my desk (we have not breakroom and I did not have my truck to go to the park). Shortly after that, my TL comes in with a new list of things he would like me to do pertaining to the project I am doing. I told him I would get to it after lunch. He then said, "You are at lunch? I did not know...sorry." I told him not to worry about it. I tend to work through a lot of lunches.
After lunch, I was too busy with little things to get any of the things he wanted done completed and it was very close to our meeting time. We go to the meeting and we start our round table and when it comes to me, I describe the situation that I find myself in and my boss seems to be concerned. He gets on phone and finds the person who made the scripts that were used in Canada for the same project and asks me if it can be used for my project. OH YES! That little bit of data saved me hours of typing.
My back was really giving me fits before lunch so I took two Tylenol. They really did not seem to help much so at 4 PM I took 2 more. By the time my wife picked me up at 5 PM I was feeling pretty good. The pain was minimal and I was not stressed. My prayers had been answered.
My TL later confided in me that he caught me praying earlier in the day. He is a Christian, but he is very quiet about his faith. Too bad, I think he has a lot to say, but chooses not to. I hope one day that we can have a real good conversation as BiC's.
My wife and I stopped at Jason's Deli for dinner and I had enough leftover to have for lunch tomorrow. We ran a few errand (grocery store and the bank) before we headed home. After we got home and unloaded, I walked our dogs. I really enjoyed it since I was not in very much pain.
I thank God for giving me a few hours of relief. I really needed it. I was stressed and hurting and God knew what I needed. He answered my prayers and provided for me. That is a friend.
I got to work, kissed my wife, said hi to my boss and then realized I did not pack any bottled water with my lunch. I did not want to drink tap water and I only had a soda to drink. I check my secret stash at work and found I had a half liter bottle of water. At least I would be able to drink.
I start my usual daily grind (dispatch tickets, compile and distribute reports, check my work queue, read my e-mail, etc) and then I start on my project that was given to me yesterday and is due in a week. It looks like a lot of typing and manual data entry and I am not looking forward to it. It will take me a week to get all data entered on 400 servers and 500 workstations.
I then remembered I had 2 open tickets from the day before so I looked into them. It seems my TL took some pity on me and installed the drivers for the custom Sun workstations that were the subject of my tickets. I ran our normal build on the Sun's but the customer bought high end cards for them that we did not have in our image. Being new to our department, I was not sure how we handled that, so I left a message for my TL to get back to me. He was kind and downloaded and installed the drivers which allowed me to knock two more tickets out of the way.
The e-mails and phone calls were pouring in and a few hours later I still had not started my project. During that time my TL and one of the old timers to the department got into a heated disagreement over how the project should be completed. I asked if part of it could be scripted and my TL said it could. The old timer said it could, but it would take him some time to figure out all the "ifs" in our environment. I cannot code or write scripts, although I have a general idea of what a script will do when I look into it.
The constant fighting and bickering between my TL and the old timer were getting on my nerves. I already was in pain, now I was stressed. I honestly felt like quitting. I was overwhelmed at the thought of me trying to finish this with these two "helping" me. I almost lost it. It was not pretty. Then I remembered my new inspirational chant/prayer..."Just one more round, Lord." I bowed my head and began to earnestly pray for peace. I did not want the project to go away, but I did want the serenity to finish it properly. I actually did this a couple of times before lunch.
Lunch time arrived and I began to eat at my desk (we have not breakroom and I did not have my truck to go to the park). Shortly after that, my TL comes in with a new list of things he would like me to do pertaining to the project I am doing. I told him I would get to it after lunch. He then said, "You are at lunch? I did not know...sorry." I told him not to worry about it. I tend to work through a lot of lunches.
After lunch, I was too busy with little things to get any of the things he wanted done completed and it was very close to our meeting time. We go to the meeting and we start our round table and when it comes to me, I describe the situation that I find myself in and my boss seems to be concerned. He gets on phone and finds the person who made the scripts that were used in Canada for the same project and asks me if it can be used for my project. OH YES! That little bit of data saved me hours of typing.
My back was really giving me fits before lunch so I took two Tylenol. They really did not seem to help much so at 4 PM I took 2 more. By the time my wife picked me up at 5 PM I was feeling pretty good. The pain was minimal and I was not stressed. My prayers had been answered.
My TL later confided in me that he caught me praying earlier in the day. He is a Christian, but he is very quiet about his faith. Too bad, I think he has a lot to say, but chooses not to. I hope one day that we can have a real good conversation as BiC's.
My wife and I stopped at Jason's Deli for dinner and I had enough leftover to have for lunch tomorrow. We ran a few errand (grocery store and the bank) before we headed home. After we got home and unloaded, I walked our dogs. I really enjoyed it since I was not in very much pain.
I thank God for giving me a few hours of relief. I really needed it. I was stressed and hurting and God knew what I needed. He answered my prayers and provided for me. That is a friend.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
One More Round and Just Do It
This morning on KWRD-FM the guest speaker was a preacher from an inner city church who really had a great message for all of us "dormant" Christians. While it was full of details, I will give you what I pulled from the message.
Christians have become lax and are willing to give up after just a few rounds of defeat (to use a boxing analogy). The speaker told of a boxer who was cut, pummeled, dazed, knocked down, and bleeding in each round of a fight. The trainer kept asking the battered warrior if he wanted to stop the fight and the warrior said, "Let me go just one more round." He said this after each punishing round. At the end of 20-25 rounds of total and complete punishment, the battered warrior was able to KNOCK OUT his opponent.
We are like that battered warrior and the Devil is our opponent. We tend to give up after only a few rounds of attacks from our enemy and if we just stood up and said, "Just one more round" and let God do his thing, we would eventually overcome Satan's attack. The nice thing about this strategy is that we become very tough over time (since we are assaulted daily) and able to resist the fiery arrows that our Enemy slings at us. How many marriages could have saved or how many suicides could have been prevented if the people involved would have just gone "one more round". If you have Jesus Christ in your corner, you can go the distance.
As you most likely know, I had back surgery a couple of months ago. Immediately after the surgery, I was sore but I felt pretty good. After about 30 days, the back brace was removed and I was instructed to exercise my back so it would get stronger. I thought I was doing enough, but I have a feeling I wasn't. A couple of weeks ago my entire lower back was very sore and still. It was incredibly painful to bend more than 20-30 degrees and I was unable to reach my knees without horrible pain. I took the rest of my Feldene and I felt better in a few days, but a week later, I was in pain again. My boss noticed this and asked me if I was OK so I explained to him the situation. He told me that his wife had the same problem after her surgery and it was due to the fact she did not exercise her back enough. I was a bit surprised. I thought I was giving my back enough exercise (I had mowed the grass, I stretched a bit, did various yard tasks, and I walk the dogs 1-2 times a day) but maybe I was not.
I slowly picked up the stretching and notice that while I was still sore, I felt a bit better. Then, last night after a lot of stretching I jogged a bit while I walked my dog. Oh my, HOW IT HURT. I know you must be thinking that I am insane, but when I got back to the house, I felt good! Not 25 year old good, but but as good as I did 12 months ago. Now of course this morning I am sore, but I am stretching. I am also going to make sure I walk as much as I can to keep the muscles warm and limber.
This morning I tried jogging a bit but I was not able to go but 100 meters before I had to stop and walk.
BTW, AAA thank you for you note. Your blog and your comments are missed, but as a student you are busy. I understand that.
And for anyone who is going to have back surgery, listen to the doctor and exercise that back. I will not lie to you and say it will be fun. Physical therapy after surgery is more painful than the recovery period, but it is worth it. I shared this information with my neighbor who is going to have disks fused in his back soon. He had no idea what he was facing. I was not trying to scare him, just prepare him.
Keep me in your prayers as I continue down the painful road to a healthier back.
Christians have become lax and are willing to give up after just a few rounds of defeat (to use a boxing analogy). The speaker told of a boxer who was cut, pummeled, dazed, knocked down, and bleeding in each round of a fight. The trainer kept asking the battered warrior if he wanted to stop the fight and the warrior said, "Let me go just one more round." He said this after each punishing round. At the end of 20-25 rounds of total and complete punishment, the battered warrior was able to KNOCK OUT his opponent.
We are like that battered warrior and the Devil is our opponent. We tend to give up after only a few rounds of attacks from our enemy and if we just stood up and said, "Just one more round" and let God do his thing, we would eventually overcome Satan's attack. The nice thing about this strategy is that we become very tough over time (since we are assaulted daily) and able to resist the fiery arrows that our Enemy slings at us. How many marriages could have saved or how many suicides could have been prevented if the people involved would have just gone "one more round". If you have Jesus Christ in your corner, you can go the distance.
As you most likely know, I had back surgery a couple of months ago. Immediately after the surgery, I was sore but I felt pretty good. After about 30 days, the back brace was removed and I was instructed to exercise my back so it would get stronger. I thought I was doing enough, but I have a feeling I wasn't. A couple of weeks ago my entire lower back was very sore and still. It was incredibly painful to bend more than 20-30 degrees and I was unable to reach my knees without horrible pain. I took the rest of my Feldene and I felt better in a few days, but a week later, I was in pain again. My boss noticed this and asked me if I was OK so I explained to him the situation. He told me that his wife had the same problem after her surgery and it was due to the fact she did not exercise her back enough. I was a bit surprised. I thought I was giving my back enough exercise (I had mowed the grass, I stretched a bit, did various yard tasks, and I walk the dogs 1-2 times a day) but maybe I was not.
I slowly picked up the stretching and notice that while I was still sore, I felt a bit better. Then, last night after a lot of stretching I jogged a bit while I walked my dog. Oh my, HOW IT HURT. I know you must be thinking that I am insane, but when I got back to the house, I felt good! Not 25 year old good, but but as good as I did 12 months ago. Now of course this morning I am sore, but I am stretching. I am also going to make sure I walk as much as I can to keep the muscles warm and limber.
This morning I tried jogging a bit but I was not able to go but 100 meters before I had to stop and walk.
BTW, AAA thank you for you note. Your blog and your comments are missed, but as a student you are busy. I understand that.
And for anyone who is going to have back surgery, listen to the doctor and exercise that back. I will not lie to you and say it will be fun. Physical therapy after surgery is more painful than the recovery period, but it is worth it. I shared this information with my neighbor who is going to have disks fused in his back soon. He had no idea what he was facing. I was not trying to scare him, just prepare him.
Keep me in your prayers as I continue down the painful road to a healthier back.
Monday, March 13, 2006
It Made Me Think...
I was listening to KWRD-FM (Talk Radio) today on the way to work. I was just going to drive in silence, just me and God, but something told me to turn on the radio. I am glad I listened.
The speaker that half hour was Ken Davis, a very gifted speaker and comedian. He was speaking about all sorts of things but the one thing he ended on (for this segment...part two will be tomorrow) was how at 16, he "got it". He was not gifted with outstanding athletic ability, which was one thing that was admired (and still is) in school. He realized (after much trial and error) that life is not about what you do, it is about what you do WITH IT. Find your purpose and give it all you have.
I did not "get it" for a long time. In high school, I really did not fit it with any of the groups. I was not athletic enough to hang out with the jocks (even though I did letter in Track and Field my Senior year), nor was I smart enough to hang out with the brainiacs. I was not bad enough to hang with the "bad crowd" (thankfully!) and I had no musical ability so the band kids were not overly accepting either. I was not "popular" or "good looking" or overly smart (even though I graduated in the top 15% of my class). I had no group to call my own. Being poor, I tried to hang with the poorer kids, but because a large number of the poorer kids were smokers, drinkers, or drug users and did not do any of that, I failed to fit in there. I even tried hanging with the thespians since I had been in a few productions at school. No place I went made me fill like I fit. I ended up floating from group to group looking for my niche until my senior year, when I was able to leave school after my last class of the day at 11:33 AM. Of course that did not solve things, that only gave me a chance to venture further down the dark path.
I was not a "bad" kid, although I think my actions were pretty typical of many kids who are not raised in a Christian home. I smoked for a few months until I started running Track, then I switched to dipping snuff. I dipped snuff for a few years but it really was not for me. I drank only after high school (although I tried beer a couple of times before I graduated, I never "drank"), but I experimented with drugs a couple of times a year from 16-20. From 16-20 I was somewhat sexually active. A few were "1 nighters" but most were "friends with benefits" as the kids call it.
Why did I do all the things that I did then? To fit in. My family life was not Christian based (although my mother was a Christian and my father later gave his life to Christ before he died) and since I did not have that as a solid foundation, I looked to my peers for answers and approval. The groups I floated in and out of had different ways of socializing. One smoked, another drank, and a third slept around. While I did not stay with those groups long, their influence was received and when I found/created my group, the patterns were set.
Parents should be interested in what their children/teens are doing and with whom they are doing those things. If you family is not practicing Christianity and you are not providing a foundation of rules/guidelines/morals, you are setting your kids up to get hurt. I had a lot of issues from 16-20 that I was looking to fix...and a relationship with Jesus Christ was not the fix I got. It is not that I did not know better, but I did not have a strong Christian man (father) explain to me where I was failing. I was looking for answers in beer and wine bottles, the back seat of my car, in baggies of pot, and packs of cigarettes. I wasted so much time trying to figure "it" out and I can never get those years back.
Things did not get much better after 20. In some ways they got worse. I found myself a father as well as a husband to a women who did not really want me nor did I love her. Our past sins crept into our marriage life and our lives fell apart. Drugs, alcohol, abuse (mental and physical) scarred both of us. The next 5 years were a nightmare. When that relationship ended, neither one of us came out unscathed. We both were wounded and scarred mentally. We literally hated each other.
Over the next 2 years I attempted to get my life back on track but made errors along the way that again were attempts to fit in. At first it was pretty harmless. I was the designated driver when we went out. No booze while I drove 3-5 drunks around and had them pay for my food and sodas. Things eventually intensified as I began spending what little disposable income I had at strip clubs. Oddly enough, I was celibate the entire time I was separated and divorced from my first wife until I met my current wife, the love of my life. I drank and visited strip clubs before I met Mrs El Gee, but after we started dating, I began to understand. I was beginning to get "it".
I will be 41 this year. Out of the 41 years, I have only bee a Christian about 10. And of those 10, only about 3 have been spent "getting it". It took a lot. I am not a very flexible person with some things. I can get stubborn. I am arrogant and prideful at times. However, there is a a good thing about that. 5 years ago, I did not KNOW I was arrogant and prideful. I know that now and that helps keep me grounded.
If you were to ask my wife if all the years of putting up with my pride and arrogance was worth the fight, she would say "yes". I know it has been hard for her. As a matter of fact, being married to me the first 10 years or so was most likely the most difficult thing she has ever done. How did she do it? She put her faith in God. He had given here all the tools she needed to stand beside me as I grew as a Christian and a man. She did not think she would make it. She ALMOST gave up (not that I would have blamed her). But she did not.
Families need to stick together and work on issues. They need a base that they can build off of and I cannot think of a more stable foundation than the love of Jesus Christ.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
The speaker that half hour was Ken Davis, a very gifted speaker and comedian. He was speaking about all sorts of things but the one thing he ended on (for this segment...part two will be tomorrow) was how at 16, he "got it". He was not gifted with outstanding athletic ability, which was one thing that was admired (and still is) in school. He realized (after much trial and error) that life is not about what you do, it is about what you do WITH IT. Find your purpose and give it all you have.
I did not "get it" for a long time. In high school, I really did not fit it with any of the groups. I was not athletic enough to hang out with the jocks (even though I did letter in Track and Field my Senior year), nor was I smart enough to hang out with the brainiacs. I was not bad enough to hang with the "bad crowd" (thankfully!) and I had no musical ability so the band kids were not overly accepting either. I was not "popular" or "good looking" or overly smart (even though I graduated in the top 15% of my class). I had no group to call my own. Being poor, I tried to hang with the poorer kids, but because a large number of the poorer kids were smokers, drinkers, or drug users and did not do any of that, I failed to fit in there. I even tried hanging with the thespians since I had been in a few productions at school. No place I went made me fill like I fit. I ended up floating from group to group looking for my niche until my senior year, when I was able to leave school after my last class of the day at 11:33 AM. Of course that did not solve things, that only gave me a chance to venture further down the dark path.
I was not a "bad" kid, although I think my actions were pretty typical of many kids who are not raised in a Christian home. I smoked for a few months until I started running Track, then I switched to dipping snuff. I dipped snuff for a few years but it really was not for me. I drank only after high school (although I tried beer a couple of times before I graduated, I never "drank"), but I experimented with drugs a couple of times a year from 16-20. From 16-20 I was somewhat sexually active. A few were "1 nighters" but most were "friends with benefits" as the kids call it.
Why did I do all the things that I did then? To fit in. My family life was not Christian based (although my mother was a Christian and my father later gave his life to Christ before he died) and since I did not have that as a solid foundation, I looked to my peers for answers and approval. The groups I floated in and out of had different ways of socializing. One smoked, another drank, and a third slept around. While I did not stay with those groups long, their influence was received and when I found/created my group, the patterns were set.
Parents should be interested in what their children/teens are doing and with whom they are doing those things. If you family is not practicing Christianity and you are not providing a foundation of rules/guidelines/morals, you are setting your kids up to get hurt. I had a lot of issues from 16-20 that I was looking to fix...and a relationship with Jesus Christ was not the fix I got. It is not that I did not know better, but I did not have a strong Christian man (father) explain to me where I was failing. I was looking for answers in beer and wine bottles, the back seat of my car, in baggies of pot, and packs of cigarettes. I wasted so much time trying to figure "it" out and I can never get those years back.
Things did not get much better after 20. In some ways they got worse. I found myself a father as well as a husband to a women who did not really want me nor did I love her. Our past sins crept into our marriage life and our lives fell apart. Drugs, alcohol, abuse (mental and physical) scarred both of us. The next 5 years were a nightmare. When that relationship ended, neither one of us came out unscathed. We both were wounded and scarred mentally. We literally hated each other.
Over the next 2 years I attempted to get my life back on track but made errors along the way that again were attempts to fit in. At first it was pretty harmless. I was the designated driver when we went out. No booze while I drove 3-5 drunks around and had them pay for my food and sodas. Things eventually intensified as I began spending what little disposable income I had at strip clubs. Oddly enough, I was celibate the entire time I was separated and divorced from my first wife until I met my current wife, the love of my life. I drank and visited strip clubs before I met Mrs El Gee, but after we started dating, I began to understand. I was beginning to get "it".
I will be 41 this year. Out of the 41 years, I have only bee a Christian about 10. And of those 10, only about 3 have been spent "getting it". It took a lot. I am not a very flexible person with some things. I can get stubborn. I am arrogant and prideful at times. However, there is a a good thing about that. 5 years ago, I did not KNOW I was arrogant and prideful. I know that now and that helps keep me grounded.
If you were to ask my wife if all the years of putting up with my pride and arrogance was worth the fight, she would say "yes". I know it has been hard for her. As a matter of fact, being married to me the first 10 years or so was most likely the most difficult thing she has ever done. How did she do it? She put her faith in God. He had given here all the tools she needed to stand beside me as I grew as a Christian and a man. She did not think she would make it. She ALMOST gave up (not that I would have blamed her). But she did not.
Families need to stick together and work on issues. They need a base that they can build off of and I cannot think of a more stable foundation than the love of Jesus Christ.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
Friday, March 10, 2006
ACC Tourney, Busy, Busy, and Soreness
It has been busy the past few days at work. I am happy for that. Sitting idle can be dangerous. I have, however been running the ACC tournament scoreboard from ESPN in my browser so I can check on the games. If the Duke-Miami game is any indication of what will come, then I am sorry I don't have cable. Miami almost broke Duke's heart today during the second round. J.J. Redick was not having a good first half and Miami was taking advantage of it. Final score - Duke 80, Miami 76.
The game being played now is Wake Forrest / NC State. State is getting spanked, 37-20 at the end of the first half. My Heels play Virginia at 6 EST and Boston College takes on Maryland at 8:30 EST. Both games should be very interesting. I miss my ACC TV! Living in Texas and being an ACC fan without cable or satellite is inhuman!
My chores at work have changed a bit. I am still doing stats and dispatching, but now I get to do new account creation and account removal. There are other things going on as well, but I am not very proficient in them yet. Building a Solaris image is not fun (at least on our customers network) and the follow-up on some old tickets has been not so pretty. My TL is trying to be patient, but I bet he wishes I was a real Unix Admin instead of some wannabe greenhorn :)
My back has been giving me a lot of trouble lately. It started with some tingling in my left leg and foot. That cleared up some and now my lower back (the entire area) is very sore. I think it is caused by a lack of exercise, so I picked up the stretching as much as I can.
Just about 2 hours left of my day and I can go home. Once I get home I have more things I need to do, but at least it is not work at my job.
If I remember correctly, tonight is the season finale of Battlestar Galactica, part 2 of a 2 part show. Part 1 was pretty good, I hope 2 kicks it up a notch.
The game being played now is Wake Forrest / NC State. State is getting spanked, 37-20 at the end of the first half. My Heels play Virginia at 6 EST and Boston College takes on Maryland at 8:30 EST. Both games should be very interesting. I miss my ACC TV! Living in Texas and being an ACC fan without cable or satellite is inhuman!
My chores at work have changed a bit. I am still doing stats and dispatching, but now I get to do new account creation and account removal. There are other things going on as well, but I am not very proficient in them yet. Building a Solaris image is not fun (at least on our customers network) and the follow-up on some old tickets has been not so pretty. My TL is trying to be patient, but I bet he wishes I was a real Unix Admin instead of some wannabe greenhorn :)
My back has been giving me a lot of trouble lately. It started with some tingling in my left leg and foot. That cleared up some and now my lower back (the entire area) is very sore. I think it is caused by a lack of exercise, so I picked up the stretching as much as I can.
Just about 2 hours left of my day and I can go home. Once I get home I have more things I need to do, but at least it is not work at my job.
If I remember correctly, tonight is the season finale of Battlestar Galactica, part 2 of a 2 part show. Part 1 was pretty good, I hope 2 kicks it up a notch.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
No Disclaimers, Please and Sometimes My Work PC Sucks
It seems that some Conservative Christians are asking that a disclaimer be made BEFORE the showing of "The DaVinci Code". The people asking for this state it will confuse people who are on the fence about Christianity. I say that the disclaimer idea is wrong. This gives Christians an EXCELLENT chance to evangelize to those who saw the movie and have questions. I am not the only one who thinks that. Scott Wilder, Christian talk show host, agrees. If a disclaimer is issued, this could start a new era of censorship. While I realize the need to shield children from harmful content, I believe adults need to make their own decisions.
JMHO / YMMV
There was a mandatory update to the Windows operating environment at work 2 days ago. I always follow the rules when updates are concerned. I accepted the update and rebooted as instructed. The PC booted very slowly and after being on 8 hours or so, it bluescreens with an error message regarding new hardware (which there is none) and atapi.sys . I ignored it since I have never had issues with my work PC. I reboot and try again. It runs, but runs very slow. It is near the end of my day so I do not worry. I go home and eat a quiet dinner with my beautiful wife. When dinner is done and the dishes are washed, I try to boot my work PC. It boots. I run some diagnostics and cannot find anything wrong. The only software that has been installed is the updates from work and a little HDD utility from Panterasoft. I was curious on how much life I had left on the HD, since there is a history of failures on this model laptop. It boots OK, but slow. I shut it down and walk the dogs with my wife.
The next day I get to work and my PC takes about 7 minutes to boot. It normally takes less than a minute. It runs OK most of the day, but I still call our official IT to lodge a concern. The polite, but mostly helpless agent (must have been new, like me :)) told me he would let the OS team know. Later that day about 8 hours into my day, the PC crashes and will not boot again. I decide to use the older box and Citrix in from the customers environment. It is slow and drop frequently, but it is better than nothing.
One of the guys I know who does PC support stated that my problem may be software (Windows) instead of hardware. The diagnostics say the hard drive is fine. So I ran the tool he suggested (Sysinternals "NTFS ChkDsk") and tried to boot again. Nothing. I drove home and tried to boot the PC before I went to our care group and I got another error regarding "partmgr.sys". I have not looked up these errors yet to see what they really mean. A little later I tried to boot again and got an "unmountable boot device error". Ack! I was thinking the boot sector was trashed, but I got to work and after two failed boot attempts, the PC is running. The fan is not (and it should -- I have it set to run all the time) and the temp is a bit warm (46 degrees C.) but it is running. Part of the problem may be heat. This PC has a tendency to run warm. I have done all I can to keep it cool, but it still runs mid 40's C. Maybe there are other tools I can run...
JMHO / YMMV
There was a mandatory update to the Windows operating environment at work 2 days ago. I always follow the rules when updates are concerned. I accepted the update and rebooted as instructed. The PC booted very slowly and after being on 8 hours or so, it bluescreens with an error message regarding new hardware (which there is none) and atapi.sys . I ignored it since I have never had issues with my work PC. I reboot and try again. It runs, but runs very slow. It is near the end of my day so I do not worry. I go home and eat a quiet dinner with my beautiful wife. When dinner is done and the dishes are washed, I try to boot my work PC. It boots. I run some diagnostics and cannot find anything wrong. The only software that has been installed is the updates from work and a little HDD utility from Panterasoft. I was curious on how much life I had left on the HD, since there is a history of failures on this model laptop. It boots OK, but slow. I shut it down and walk the dogs with my wife.
The next day I get to work and my PC takes about 7 minutes to boot. It normally takes less than a minute. It runs OK most of the day, but I still call our official IT to lodge a concern. The polite, but mostly helpless agent (must have been new, like me :)) told me he would let the OS team know. Later that day about 8 hours into my day, the PC crashes and will not boot again. I decide to use the older box and Citrix in from the customers environment. It is slow and drop frequently, but it is better than nothing.
One of the guys I know who does PC support stated that my problem may be software (Windows) instead of hardware. The diagnostics say the hard drive is fine. So I ran the tool he suggested (Sysinternals "NTFS ChkDsk") and tried to boot again. Nothing. I drove home and tried to boot the PC before I went to our care group and I got another error regarding "partmgr.sys". I have not looked up these errors yet to see what they really mean. A little later I tried to boot again and got an "unmountable boot device error". Ack! I was thinking the boot sector was trashed, but I got to work and after two failed boot attempts, the PC is running. The fan is not (and it should -- I have it set to run all the time) and the temp is a bit warm (46 degrees C.) but it is running. Part of the problem may be heat. This PC has a tendency to run warm. I have done all I can to keep it cool, but it still runs mid 40's C. Maybe there are other tools I can run...
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
People Can Be Sooooo Mean
I did my quick morning glance at Matt Drudge's web site (www.drudgereport.com) and clicked on a link mentioning a lawsuit filed against Walgreens. I was HORRIFIED at the comments made in the article. The comments are as mean as anything kids would do in middle school.
From the article:
"Typed in a field reserved for patient information and dated March 17, 2005, was "CrAzY!!" In another field, dated Sept. 30, 2004, it read: "She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when ... " The information continued onto another page but was not attached."
I know that in my lifetime, I have used private note fields to put comments that I wish I had never typed. None of them were in the category of what the Walgreens employees did, but I still feel bad nonetheless. Usually the comments were just warnings to other CSR's who may have to deal with the person.
Almost every company I have worked for had some sort of ticketing system that allows for free form comments. Most of the time this is used in a positive, professional manner. However, sometimes someone fails to use good judgment and types in something completely out of line. One case I can remember rather well was back when I was a help desk manager. I had brought on several temps to assist us at a time when we were overwhelmed with phone calls. One young man, who I did not interview, typed in the comment "Customer is a real hard a$$" in field that got e-mailed to the customer when the ticket was submitted. The customer called me and gave me an earful and rightfully so. The CSR was my responsibility. I told her I would have the CSR contact her immediately and I would sit in if she wanted me to. Long story short, the CSR was let go a few weeks later, with this incident being the straw that broke the camels back.
Poor judgment is a fact of life. I feel sorry (deeply sorry) for the woman who was wronged by this incident. At the very least the offending employee should be fired. The statements made in the computer system than be read by thousands of employees are damaging to this young woman in her current conditioned, medicated or not.
From the article:
"Typed in a field reserved for patient information and dated March 17, 2005, was "CrAzY!!" In another field, dated Sept. 30, 2004, it read: "She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when ... " The information continued onto another page but was not attached."
I know that in my lifetime, I have used private note fields to put comments that I wish I had never typed. None of them were in the category of what the Walgreens employees did, but I still feel bad nonetheless. Usually the comments were just warnings to other CSR's who may have to deal with the person.
Almost every company I have worked for had some sort of ticketing system that allows for free form comments. Most of the time this is used in a positive, professional manner. However, sometimes someone fails to use good judgment and types in something completely out of line. One case I can remember rather well was back when I was a help desk manager. I had brought on several temps to assist us at a time when we were overwhelmed with phone calls. One young man, who I did not interview, typed in the comment "Customer is a real hard a$$" in field that got e-mailed to the customer when the ticket was submitted. The customer called me and gave me an earful and rightfully so. The CSR was my responsibility. I told her I would have the CSR contact her immediately and I would sit in if she wanted me to. Long story short, the CSR was let go a few weeks later, with this incident being the straw that broke the camels back.
Poor judgment is a fact of life. I feel sorry (deeply sorry) for the woman who was wronged by this incident. At the very least the offending employee should be fired. The statements made in the computer system than be read by thousands of employees are damaging to this young woman in her current conditioned, medicated or not.
OK, I Thought This Was Amusing
From my Blogger web log file:
216-239-45-4.google.com (Google Inc) -- California, Mountain View, United States
Now, whoever at Google saw this did not stay long, but it was funny nonetheless. Maybe it means nothing. Who knows.
Oh, and the other one that I thought was interesting:
(NIB (National Internet Backbone)) -- Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, India
This appears to have been a link e-mailed to someone in India. Glad to see they have time to goof off on the web like we Americans do :-) .
216-239-45-4.google.com (Google Inc) -- California, Mountain View, United States
| Date | Time | WebPage | ||||||||||
| March 7th 2006 | 04:29:31 PM | mcwtlg.blogspot.com/2006/03/1984.html blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=%22google earth%22&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&filter=0&sa=N&start=10 |
Now, whoever at Google saw this did not stay long, but it was funny nonetheless. Maybe it means nothing. Who knows.
Oh, and the other one that I thought was interesting:
(NIB (National Internet Backbone)) -- Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, India
| Date | Time | WebPage | ||
| March 8th 2006 | 03:42:09 AM | mcwtlg.blogspot.com/2006/02/from-cienna2000-via-dakboy.html dmail.creativesandlogics.com/src/read_body.php?mailbox=INBOX&passed_id=6&startMessage=1 |
This appears to have been a link e-mailed to someone in India. Glad to see they have time to goof off on the web like we Americans do :-) .
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
1984?
I just read this and a shiver went down my spine. Google wants to have it ALL.
Whiles some people will find this appealing (for bookmarks, contact info, etc) there is NO WAY I am putting my private data (tax info, finances, etc) on a Google Drive. Will we fall for this? Will we have a choice?
What is the ultimate goal of Google? Are they trying to get us to all use a thin client PC, with all the data we collect and save stored online? There is an old saying, "Information is power." If that is true, then Google is very powerful. Dangerously powerful.
Google is considered the golden child to many in the world today, simply because they can stick a thumb in the eye of Microsoft. While I am happy that someone is giving Redmond a challenge, Google is really beginning to scare me. They are just getting too big and collecting too much data. I am beginning to wonder if maybe I should slow down my Google use:
1) Google search -- I have nothing to hide here. I look for images and Linux stuff, addresses, maps (which is still pretty poor overall). Better that what I used to use, Hotbot.
2) Gmail - I usually give this out as spam catcher. I have a Hotmail account, but I am trying to wean myself off of Hotmail. I have had it a long time, way before MS acquired them. They are getting better, that I have to say.
3) Google Talk -- When I log onto Gmail, I am logged on to Google talk. I do not chat much and I never put personal/private info in a chat window.
4) Blogger -- While I do post personal info here, none of it is damaging. I do this because there have been times that I know someone from my workplace has checked this blog. I saw the entries in my hit counter. I like blogging and could take the time to put it on my private web site, but the storage here is free and I refuse to put info on here that is damaging.
I do not use any of Google's other services (and there are a lot of them). I once used the toolbar, but now that I use Firefox and Linux, that is no longer needed. I have never liked Picasa, so that is not a problem. I do have Google Earth installed, but I have not used that in a while. It is more of a toy than anything (at least to me) so that is not really a threat.
If Google does decide to get into the Linux game, then I think a lot of Linux geeks are going to jump on it and later be sorry. I hope I do not go that route. I like my data as local as possible. Keeping it online is a scary thought. I know that I tend to keep all my work data on the network, but that is different. That data is theirs. I am just manipulating it. Outside of work, the data I manipulate is most likely mine and I do not want it away from me.
I am scared. Google is beginning to frighten me and I do not like the future I see before me.
If and when the GDrive service comes out, I am sure I will put up my bookmarks and maybe some other innoculous things, but I know my private info will remain in my hard drive and backed up monthly.
JMHO / YMMV.
Whiles some people will find this appealing (for bookmarks, contact info, etc) there is NO WAY I am putting my private data (tax info, finances, etc) on a Google Drive. Will we fall for this? Will we have a choice?
What is the ultimate goal of Google? Are they trying to get us to all use a thin client PC, with all the data we collect and save stored online? There is an old saying, "Information is power." If that is true, then Google is very powerful. Dangerously powerful.
Google is considered the golden child to many in the world today, simply because they can stick a thumb in the eye of Microsoft. While I am happy that someone is giving Redmond a challenge, Google is really beginning to scare me. They are just getting too big and collecting too much data. I am beginning to wonder if maybe I should slow down my Google use:
1) Google search -- I have nothing to hide here. I look for images and Linux stuff, addresses, maps (which is still pretty poor overall). Better that what I used to use, Hotbot.
2) Gmail - I usually give this out as spam catcher. I have a Hotmail account, but I am trying to wean myself off of Hotmail. I have had it a long time, way before MS acquired them. They are getting better, that I have to say.
3) Google Talk -- When I log onto Gmail, I am logged on to Google talk. I do not chat much and I never put personal/private info in a chat window.
4) Blogger -- While I do post personal info here, none of it is damaging. I do this because there have been times that I know someone from my workplace has checked this blog. I saw the entries in my hit counter. I like blogging and could take the time to put it on my private web site, but the storage here is free and I refuse to put info on here that is damaging.
I do not use any of Google's other services (and there are a lot of them). I once used the toolbar, but now that I use Firefox and Linux, that is no longer needed. I have never liked Picasa, so that is not a problem. I do have Google Earth installed, but I have not used that in a while. It is more of a toy than anything (at least to me) so that is not really a threat.
If Google does decide to get into the Linux game, then I think a lot of Linux geeks are going to jump on it and later be sorry. I hope I do not go that route. I like my data as local as possible. Keeping it online is a scary thought. I know that I tend to keep all my work data on the network, but that is different. That data is theirs. I am just manipulating it. Outside of work, the data I manipulate is most likely mine and I do not want it away from me.
I am scared. Google is beginning to frighten me and I do not like the future I see before me.
If and when the GDrive service comes out, I am sure I will put up my bookmarks and maybe some other innoculous things, but I know my private info will remain in my hard drive and backed up monthly.
JMHO / YMMV.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Just Like Linux...
...only it costs more.
Leave it to Microsoft to make it "easy" to upgrade to a version of Windows with more features. Linux has been able to do that for years...and you don't have to pay more to do so. Oh how I love "apt-get".
MS will also offer 6 flavors of Windows. I guess the more flavors you have, the more you can entice people to buy your software. It is a novel concept. Apple does not sell more than one version of its OS.
I still wish they would just make the OS modular. Install the base and install and/or remove what you want until you get what you want. It works for Linux.
I have a colleague at work who's roommate works at Microsoft. That being said, he gets to see all the toys. He has Vista at home and likes it (but he is a Windows guy). He will admit that it will take quite a bit of PC horsepower to run Vista with all the bells and whistles, but he won't have any problems there. He always owns good hardware and what he does not need, he gives/sells to me.
Vista is shiny...no arguments there. Linux can be shiny as well, but it is not as stable as Windows in that department (Oh how I never thought I would actually hear myself say that). I guess the reason is that MS wants to attract people who like shiny to Windows. Shiny sells.
Most Linux guys I know have a Windows box, or at least dual boot Windows and Linux. They may not brag about it, but they do. They will tweak and play on the Windows box almost as a hobby, but will do all the serious computing on the Linux box. I cannot get rid of Windows even if I wanted to, simply because I KNOW I will need it. I cannot properly synch my PDA in Linux and two programs I use in Windows either do not run or they do not run properly under WINE in Linux. I still have not burned a CD yet in Linux. I am not sure how that will go.
I wanted to put in a plug for a good source of information online, Tux Magazine. It is designed for the new Linux user, but more seasoned users will find it interesting as well. I have read every issue so far and have not been disappointed. Check it out.
Leave it to Microsoft to make it "easy" to upgrade to a version of Windows with more features. Linux has been able to do that for years...and you don't have to pay more to do so. Oh how I love "apt-get".
MS will also offer 6 flavors of Windows. I guess the more flavors you have, the more you can entice people to buy your software. It is a novel concept. Apple does not sell more than one version of its OS.
I still wish they would just make the OS modular. Install the base and install and/or remove what you want until you get what you want. It works for Linux.
I have a colleague at work who's roommate works at Microsoft. That being said, he gets to see all the toys. He has Vista at home and likes it (but he is a Windows guy). He will admit that it will take quite a bit of PC horsepower to run Vista with all the bells and whistles, but he won't have any problems there. He always owns good hardware and what he does not need, he gives/sells to me.
Vista is shiny...no arguments there. Linux can be shiny as well, but it is not as stable as Windows in that department (Oh how I never thought I would actually hear myself say that). I guess the reason is that MS wants to attract people who like shiny to Windows. Shiny sells.
Most Linux guys I know have a Windows box, or at least dual boot Windows and Linux. They may not brag about it, but they do. They will tweak and play on the Windows box almost as a hobby, but will do all the serious computing on the Linux box. I cannot get rid of Windows even if I wanted to, simply because I KNOW I will need it. I cannot properly synch my PDA in Linux and two programs I use in Windows either do not run or they do not run properly under WINE in Linux. I still have not burned a CD yet in Linux. I am not sure how that will go.
I wanted to put in a plug for a good source of information online, Tux Magazine. It is designed for the new Linux user, but more seasoned users will find it interesting as well. I have read every issue so far and have not been disappointed. Check it out.
Typical Monday
Well, I am at work and it is a typical Monday. My boss is a tad stressed because a project that we are working on is not going well. It is sensitive so I cannot go into detail. All I can say is that we spent a lot of money on technology that will not perform as expected. It is not a complete waste, but it is going to throw us back several months.
I had to take a 1/2 day Friday for personal business and during that time I was included on SEVERAL e-mails regarding a SNAFU on the west coast. We have equipment that is not under warranty and we have no service contract for it either. We need 3 spare drives and they are not going to be cheap. The estimate was given for them but it required a managers OK before they could be ordered. That OK came just about an hour ago. This is bad because our help desk held on to an e-mail for a week before submitting it as a ticket for the field guys. So we could have had this a week ago, but now it is delayed.
Our dispatcher for quick response cases (not high severity, just political quick response) in Canada is on vacation this week. I am not mad at this person...we all need vacation, but it would have been nice to have some notice. I have a life as well as work to do. I guess the thing that really bothers me is that she sent the e-mail to a group of people and it appears that no one has bothered helping out. 3 came in and sat for 30 minutes before I took them and dispatched them. I am supposed to handle only the quick response for the US, help out with SOX audit prep, and work on Linux builds, but since no one responded to the quick response tickets this morning, I guess I will be busy doing other things as well. I hope the other people step up some.
I slept well last night and had no problem getting up. I only had enough coffee for 1 cup, so I added some of my wife's decaf to it so I could have my normal 2. It was not bad, just not the normal level of caffeine I am used to. It is completely my fault. I should have picked up a few things at the store last night but I go selfish and was watching some UFC matches from Spike TV. I have not seen many but I can tell you that it is intense. I can see it becoming more popular than "Professional Wresting". This is the real deal.
Hmmm...I was just told by a colleague that the auditors are here today. I better get my stuff ready!
I had to take a 1/2 day Friday for personal business and during that time I was included on SEVERAL e-mails regarding a SNAFU on the west coast. We have equipment that is not under warranty and we have no service contract for it either. We need 3 spare drives and they are not going to be cheap. The estimate was given for them but it required a managers OK before they could be ordered. That OK came just about an hour ago. This is bad because our help desk held on to an e-mail for a week before submitting it as a ticket for the field guys. So we could have had this a week ago, but now it is delayed.
Our dispatcher for quick response cases (not high severity, just political quick response) in Canada is on vacation this week. I am not mad at this person...we all need vacation, but it would have been nice to have some notice. I have a life as well as work to do. I guess the thing that really bothers me is that she sent the e-mail to a group of people and it appears that no one has bothered helping out. 3 came in and sat for 30 minutes before I took them and dispatched them. I am supposed to handle only the quick response for the US, help out with SOX audit prep, and work on Linux builds, but since no one responded to the quick response tickets this morning, I guess I will be busy doing other things as well. I hope the other people step up some.
I slept well last night and had no problem getting up. I only had enough coffee for 1 cup, so I added some of my wife's decaf to it so I could have my normal 2. It was not bad, just not the normal level of caffeine I am used to. It is completely my fault. I should have picked up a few things at the store last night but I go selfish and was watching some UFC matches from Spike TV. I have not seen many but I can tell you that it is intense. I can see it becoming more popular than "Professional Wresting". This is the real deal.
Hmmm...I was just told by a colleague that the auditors are here today. I better get my stuff ready!
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Busy and Productive and Duke Who?
Yesterday I accomplish most everything I wanted to...and more. It is a great feeling to have a task list and complete it.
I managed to get the entire house vacuumed thoroughly. When I mean thoroughly I mean under all the furniture, in all the corners with the edge tool moving movable items out of the way, etc. I did this for every room but the kitchen, where I just vacuumed and edged.
I also stripped, vacuumed, and made the bed. I shook out the comforter to get any stray dog hair off of it. My wife washed it last week so I that chore was done. After all that I washed some dishes and put away a load of clothes that were in the dryer.
My next chore was a trip to the Home Depot to pick up weed killer, crab grass preventer, fertilizer, edger blades, and a propane refill. It did not take me long to find what I was looking for since I knew where all this stuff was (I shop there often) and I also wanted to get home to do the last part of my punch list: edging and trimming mine and my neighbors yard. That took a little longer than expected, but I still was on schedule...enough that I put down crab grass preventer (Scot's with HALT...supposed to be good stuff) and fertilize both yards (except our back yard. Our dogs need a place to do their duty). My arms were tired from lugging all those heavy bags around (I am still not 100%, but getting there) and need to rest.
I jumped in the shower and was almost done when my cell phone rang. My wife answered told me it was Ray*. She told him I would call him back and I did once I was done washing off the chemicals.
"Ray" was shopping for some Christian Rock CD's and wanted to know what I thought of his choices. He was picking up Disciple's self titled CD and one from Pillar. Both are great choices. "Ray" is like me in that he loves heavier rock and had trouble finding Christian stuff that we liked. I think we have solved that!
After all this my wife an I bought some salad fixins' and drove 30 minutes north to Mickey and Mary's* house. They had invited us up to eat and so I could get his network up and running. There was not much to do on that last part. I just had to make a couple of setting changes and move the wireless hardware so he could get better reception.
They had made chicken legs and had some leftover beef ribs for dinner. There were also pork laced pinto beans, pasta salad, biscuits, the tossed salad we brought and cookies for dessert. I work better with a good meal in my belly.
When all the eating and work had been done, I asked "Mickey" if we could watch the UNC-Duke game on ESPN. He agreed and we settled down to watch a battle. It actually started before we were finished with the network and all the while my wife (A huge Duke fan) was taunting me since Duke got out to a quick and rather large lead. I was not worried and let her gloat a bit. About half way through the first half, UNC started to reverse the flow and made Duke a bit nervous. At the half, the 'Heels who were down 11 very early on, were down 1 and were fighting hard. I could try to recap the game, but I will let you read about it here.
During halftime, we loaded up the van with all the moving boxes that Mickey had used, so they could be recycled. Even flattened, there were a lot.
The second half of the game, my wife nursed a Mike's Hard Lemonade. If Duke were to lose, she might need the whole six pack. She was talking serious trash. When the game was over, I did not gloat. Duke played as well as they could. They have 2 stand out players who have carried the team this far. They finally broke down.
To be honest, it was a good game that ended with a group of young Tarheels winning 83-76 at Duke on Duke Senior Day. There have not been many of those lately. Duke has a strong program and Carolina has been rebuilding ever since Dean Smith left. Then after winning a national championship last year and having SEVEN of their top scorers leave (NBA or graduate), the job got harder. Roy Williams got a very talented group of freshman to come to Carolina and they are doing a great job. I am a very happy man this morning, despite the fact I need more sleep!
*Not their real names.
I managed to get the entire house vacuumed thoroughly. When I mean thoroughly I mean under all the furniture, in all the corners with the edge tool moving movable items out of the way, etc. I did this for every room but the kitchen, where I just vacuumed and edged.
I also stripped, vacuumed, and made the bed. I shook out the comforter to get any stray dog hair off of it. My wife washed it last week so I that chore was done. After all that I washed some dishes and put away a load of clothes that were in the dryer.
My next chore was a trip to the Home Depot to pick up weed killer, crab grass preventer, fertilizer, edger blades, and a propane refill. It did not take me long to find what I was looking for since I knew where all this stuff was (I shop there often) and I also wanted to get home to do the last part of my punch list: edging and trimming mine and my neighbors yard. That took a little longer than expected, but I still was on schedule...enough that I put down crab grass preventer (Scot's with HALT...supposed to be good stuff) and fertilize both yards (except our back yard. Our dogs need a place to do their duty). My arms were tired from lugging all those heavy bags around (I am still not 100%, but getting there) and need to rest.
I jumped in the shower and was almost done when my cell phone rang. My wife answered told me it was Ray*. She told him I would call him back and I did once I was done washing off the chemicals.
"Ray" was shopping for some Christian Rock CD's and wanted to know what I thought of his choices. He was picking up Disciple's self titled CD and one from Pillar. Both are great choices. "Ray" is like me in that he loves heavier rock and had trouble finding Christian stuff that we liked. I think we have solved that!
After all this my wife an I bought some salad fixins' and drove 30 minutes north to Mickey and Mary's* house. They had invited us up to eat and so I could get his network up and running. There was not much to do on that last part. I just had to make a couple of setting changes and move the wireless hardware so he could get better reception.
They had made chicken legs and had some leftover beef ribs for dinner. There were also pork laced pinto beans, pasta salad, biscuits, the tossed salad we brought and cookies for dessert. I work better with a good meal in my belly.
When all the eating and work had been done, I asked "Mickey" if we could watch the UNC-Duke game on ESPN. He agreed and we settled down to watch a battle. It actually started before we were finished with the network and all the while my wife (A huge Duke fan) was taunting me since Duke got out to a quick and rather large lead. I was not worried and let her gloat a bit. About half way through the first half, UNC started to reverse the flow and made Duke a bit nervous. At the half, the 'Heels who were down 11 very early on, were down 1 and were fighting hard. I could try to recap the game, but I will let you read about it here.
During halftime, we loaded up the van with all the moving boxes that Mickey had used, so they could be recycled. Even flattened, there were a lot.
The second half of the game, my wife nursed a Mike's Hard Lemonade. If Duke were to lose, she might need the whole six pack. She was talking serious trash. When the game was over, I did not gloat. Duke played as well as they could. They have 2 stand out players who have carried the team this far. They finally broke down.
To be honest, it was a good game that ended with a group of young Tarheels winning 83-76 at Duke on Duke Senior Day. There have not been many of those lately. Duke has a strong program and Carolina has been rebuilding ever since Dean Smith left. Then after winning a national championship last year and having SEVEN of their top scorers leave (NBA or graduate), the job got harder. Roy Williams got a very talented group of freshman to come to Carolina and they are doing a great job. I am a very happy man this morning, despite the fact I need more sleep!
*Not their real names.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Go Heels!
Today is the last game of the regular season for my beloved UNC Tarheels. As is with tradition, they face Duke...at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, AKA "the sweat box". Although I most likely will not see the game, or even get to watch the play by play, I will be there in spirit. This young team who lost SEVEN of its top scorers last year (graduated or went to the NBA) has done rather well and is tied for second in the ACC.
They most likely will not win the ACC tourney and they definitely are not going to win an NCAA title again this year. They are going to the NCAA Tourney, and for that I am happy. Coach Williams has coached this team very well. He should be coach of the year.
One of the most painful things I have faced in cutting our cable down to the bare minimum is the ACC basketball games on ESPN and ESPN2. I did not realize how much I enjoyed them until they were gone.
Today's task list:
1) Vacuum the house
2) Strip and make the bed
3) Trim and edge our yard
4) Help my BiC, Mickey* with his networking issue, which includes dinner at his house.
If time permits, I am going to apply weed killer (preventive) and fertilizer in mine and my neighbors yards, but I think that is pushing it.
Off to work!
* Not his real name.
They most likely will not win the ACC tourney and they definitely are not going to win an NCAA title again this year. They are going to the NCAA Tourney, and for that I am happy. Coach Williams has coached this team very well. He should be coach of the year.
One of the most painful things I have faced in cutting our cable down to the bare minimum is the ACC basketball games on ESPN and ESPN2. I did not realize how much I enjoyed them until they were gone.
Today's task list:
1) Vacuum the house
2) Strip and make the bed
3) Trim and edge our yard
4) Help my BiC, Mickey* with his networking issue, which includes dinner at his house.
If time permits, I am going to apply weed killer (preventive) and fertilizer in mine and my neighbors yards, but I think that is pushing it.
Off to work!
* Not his real name.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Yeah, it is Winter in Texas, Care Group Update
Yesterday it was 88 degrees (31 for my non-American readers) here in North Central Texas while today's expected high is 70. A couple of weeks ago it was cold and windy. That is what winter is like here. Shorts one day, heavy coat the next.
It is always windy here and hot winds are not bad (they sort of remind me of the beach) but the colder ones are not so pleasant. It may not get too cold here normally, but add a 20 mph wind behind it and you will chill very quickly. Add rain to the mix (which is predicted tonight and tomorrow) and you have fun time.
I left the building yesterday (shocker!!) at lunch time and enjoyed the sun. I rolled down the windows in my truck and worked a couple of crossword puzzles. I recently have rediscovered working puzzles. It used to be one of my favorite quiet hobbies, but I stopped doing them for years. I guess since I have slacked off reading quite so many novels, this is a good thing.
I walked my yard last night after I got home and before we left for care groups. I see very few weeds, only a couple patches of crab grass, but a lot of winter rye grass. Here they normally only plant drought resistance grass (Bermuda, St. Augustine, etc) that dies in the late fall/early winter and does not green up again until March. So 4-5 months of the year, your grass is nice and icky brown. Some people plant less hearty grass (Fescues, rye, etc) but water the crap out of it so they can have green all year long. Some of those grass seeds get blown into yards and mix with the other grass. The result is brown spots in the summer and bright green sections in the winter where the less hearty grass is. Right now, I have a perimeter around my house and fence that is bright green. It is also 8+ inches high. Since firing up the lawn mower is useless right now, I will just pull out my trimmer and cut it down low. I will most likely have to start mowing at the end of this month. That will be kinda nice, since it offers me a bit of extra cash to pay bills with.
I was rather tired when my wife and I made it to care groups. The meal was chicken fajita's and it was great. We had a variety of dips and tortilla chips (blue corn, etc), fresh guacamole and pinto beans. I was glad it turned out so well. The meal helped perk me up for the small group discussion.
Our group has about 15 members, which is bigger than what we really need. We are going to split at some point, but know one knows for sure when that will be. I have suggested splitting by gender and that has been received well by a few people, some of which assumed would not like that idea. I was happy to be wrong.
We got home and watched "Law and Order", one of the few shows we watch with any regularity. After that was over, we hit the hay. I was actually falling asleep during the last few minutes and was very much looking for bed. Despite only getting 6 hours sleep, I woke up felling pretty refreshed. Being a commute day, I did not have to work as hard to get ready on time. My wife usually is not ready until 7:20 to 7:30, so I get that time as extra.
This afternoon is going to be busy. I have 2 meetings scheduled that I have to attend as well as waiting (still) on instructions to complete the data cable assembly.
Well, I am going to see if I can bum a ride to Wendy's for lunch. No leftovers or frozen food for me to munch on...and we are out of bread.
Oh well.
It is always windy here and hot winds are not bad (they sort of remind me of the beach) but the colder ones are not so pleasant. It may not get too cold here normally, but add a 20 mph wind behind it and you will chill very quickly. Add rain to the mix (which is predicted tonight and tomorrow) and you have fun time.
I left the building yesterday (shocker!!) at lunch time and enjoyed the sun. I rolled down the windows in my truck and worked a couple of crossword puzzles. I recently have rediscovered working puzzles. It used to be one of my favorite quiet hobbies, but I stopped doing them for years. I guess since I have slacked off reading quite so many novels, this is a good thing.
I walked my yard last night after I got home and before we left for care groups. I see very few weeds, only a couple patches of crab grass, but a lot of winter rye grass. Here they normally only plant drought resistance grass (Bermuda, St. Augustine, etc) that dies in the late fall/early winter and does not green up again until March. So 4-5 months of the year, your grass is nice and icky brown. Some people plant less hearty grass (Fescues, rye, etc) but water the crap out of it so they can have green all year long. Some of those grass seeds get blown into yards and mix with the other grass. The result is brown spots in the summer and bright green sections in the winter where the less hearty grass is. Right now, I have a perimeter around my house and fence that is bright green. It is also 8+ inches high. Since firing up the lawn mower is useless right now, I will just pull out my trimmer and cut it down low. I will most likely have to start mowing at the end of this month. That will be kinda nice, since it offers me a bit of extra cash to pay bills with.
I was rather tired when my wife and I made it to care groups. The meal was chicken fajita's and it was great. We had a variety of dips and tortilla chips (blue corn, etc), fresh guacamole and pinto beans. I was glad it turned out so well. The meal helped perk me up for the small group discussion.
Our group has about 15 members, which is bigger than what we really need. We are going to split at some point, but know one knows for sure when that will be. I have suggested splitting by gender and that has been received well by a few people, some of which assumed would not like that idea. I was happy to be wrong.
We got home and watched "Law and Order", one of the few shows we watch with any regularity. After that was over, we hit the hay. I was actually falling asleep during the last few minutes and was very much looking for bed. Despite only getting 6 hours sleep, I woke up felling pretty refreshed. Being a commute day, I did not have to work as hard to get ready on time. My wife usually is not ready until 7:20 to 7:30, so I get that time as extra.
This afternoon is going to be busy. I have 2 meetings scheduled that I have to attend as well as waiting (still) on instructions to complete the data cable assembly.
Well, I am going to see if I can bum a ride to Wendy's for lunch. No leftovers or frozen food for me to munch on...and we are out of bread.
Oh well.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Solder, SOX, Stress, and Searching
My Tech Lead (who used to be my boss a month ago) came into my office and asked me if I had ever done any soldering. I told him "no" since the one time I tried it I ruined the project. He said he would like me to give it a try and I told him that I would. He brought in most of what I needed (solder, iron, the data connectors, pliers, crimpers) and told me that he would bring the rest tomorrow (today). I wore jeans and a polo shirt, thinking that I did not want to ruin my khakis with hot solder. He said he would show me exactly what I needed to do and provided me with schematics so I would have a guide. I personally thought that was mighty nice of him. If I am shown one time how to do something and I have notes or schematics, I can *usually* get the task done. I made 20 crossover cables for him a few months ago and that was not hard, just time consuming. Well it is 1:23 CST and he still have not given me a tutorial. I hope his chow me session is better than the last one. He showed me how to make 8 pin, flat serial cables (with an RJ45 connector) but he did not show me how to get the wires lined up properly, I had to figure that out for myself. If any of you do-it-yourselfers are snubbing your nose at me, please be reminded I have never been given the opportunity to do these types of things.
My new boss (who used to be my old boss -- weird story I have blogged about before) asked me last week to help with the SOX audit coming up in 2 weeks. I have not been involved AT ALL with this prep work and I was/am a little nervous. I can do the right thing, but finding documentation and proof that we do the right thing is a lot harder. When I went with the SOX lead for direction, he told me to sit in with a group from Latin America that were visiting us this week to get the full understanding on what we need to do. That is tomorrow afternoon. How much do you want to bet that my Tech Lead will hand me the stuff tomorrow after lunch and want connectors finished before I leave?
Today started out in hi stress mode. Before I could even unlock my office door, the Incident Manager was waiting on me. We had a major issue at one of our facilities on the east coast. The NetApp was at 99% capacity and the site was having major issues. The site tech was called and he conferenced in one of the experts to help him find ways to free up space. The only problem was ... nothing could really be done. He was able to get a gig of space, but it was nowhere near enough for the demands of an R&D site running Clearcase. The tech and the expert made a decision and contacted the Unix manager to present it. During this time I had 2 reports to get out and several tickets to dispatch to the local techs, not to mention getting info for the issue on the east coast. I was just waiting for the Tech Lead to come in and ask me to start working on his connectors.
I just got a call on my mobile (which I did not know was published) for a job just a few miles south of where I live. They are building a help desk with 8-10 agents and wanted to know if I was interested. I am always interested in improving my situation. While I like the company and benefits I get, the work environment leaves a lot to be desired. Besides, building a help desk again might be fun!
My new boss (who used to be my old boss -- weird story I have blogged about before) asked me last week to help with the SOX audit coming up in 2 weeks. I have not been involved AT ALL with this prep work and I was/am a little nervous. I can do the right thing, but finding documentation and proof that we do the right thing is a lot harder. When I went with the SOX lead for direction, he told me to sit in with a group from Latin America that were visiting us this week to get the full understanding on what we need to do. That is tomorrow afternoon. How much do you want to bet that my Tech Lead will hand me the stuff tomorrow after lunch and want connectors finished before I leave?
Today started out in hi stress mode. Before I could even unlock my office door, the Incident Manager was waiting on me. We had a major issue at one of our facilities on the east coast. The NetApp was at 99% capacity and the site was having major issues. The site tech was called and he conferenced in one of the experts to help him find ways to free up space. The only problem was ... nothing could really be done. He was able to get a gig of space, but it was nowhere near enough for the demands of an R&D site running Clearcase. The tech and the expert made a decision and contacted the Unix manager to present it. During this time I had 2 reports to get out and several tickets to dispatch to the local techs, not to mention getting info for the issue on the east coast. I was just waiting for the Tech Lead to come in and ask me to start working on his connectors.
I just got a call on my mobile (which I did not know was published) for a job just a few miles south of where I live. They are building a help desk with 8-10 agents and wanted to know if I was interested. I am always interested in improving my situation. While I like the company and benefits I get, the work environment leaves a lot to be desired. Besides, building a help desk again might be fun!
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