How You Doin?

I would have liked to have posted more, but I have not had much to post about. Wednesday it rained pretty much all day, so we did very little...certainly no geocaching. We watched some TV (we finished up "Heroes" season 1 and started season two yesterday) and cooked/cleaned up, but mostly we rested.

On Thursday, I was stir crazy so my wife let me go out geocaching while she we shopping with the gift cards she received for Christmas (she got some good bargains, but selection was unusually poor this year. I guess the retailers did better than they thought. Of course she spent some of it on me but that is just how she is. She has fun shopping no matter who she is buying for.

My geocaching adventure spanned 6 hours but only netted me 5 caches. The reason for that was I went after several hard ones and spent quite a bit of time trying to get to some of them...I was on the wrong side of the creek a lot of the time. I managed to get 5 of 7 I went after, which is not too bad. One of them was a terracache, my first ever. Terracaching is just like geocaching but instead of "park and grabs", terracaches will require at least 1/2 of a mile of walking or be very technical in nature. The one I found was on a trestle along an abandoned rail line. It was hidden very well...much better than I would have expected. There was a geocache there as well, but I could not find it. The geocache was rated a 4.5 stars on difficulty because most GPSr's cannot lock on to a signal with that much steel above them. That and the hide is a micro and while I think I understand what it is, I need to go back to see if I am right.

Friday, my last official day of vacation before the weekend, I did not go out geocaching, even though my wife told me she did not mind. Instead, I dusted and vacuumed the living room and dining room. We had not dusted in a while and since my wife had dust some and vacuumed half the house the day before I figured I could do my part...so I did. Out side of goofing off on the web, watching a little TV and eating, the only other thing that was done constructive was that I caught up on my work e-mail (which reminds me I need to do a little work today...I have a report I need to write).

I contacted one of the local geocaching gurus and we agreed to go and do a little caching in a Richardson park tomorrow after we get out of church and finish with lunch. My wife thought it was a great idea. While we will not have a lot of daylight to work with (3-4 hours tops) I should be able to get a few caches in.

Tonight we are going to Mickey and Mary's for dinner. Bob and Christi will be there as well as Bob's son Rick. While we are not close to Bob and Christi, the evening should be fun, none the less.

I am not sure what all I need to do today since a lot of the house work has bee completed, so I need to ask my wife before I get involved too much with anything.

I had failed to mention that on Thursday when I went to bed, I thought for sure I was coming down with the flu. I felt terrible but after a good nights sleep, I woke up feeling great. Now I still have some chest congestion, but overall I feel great.

How are you doin?

Snort!

Anyone else find this ironic?

Out Of The Loop

It has been almost a week since my last update (this feels like confession!) and while I really do not have an excuse, I will just blame it on the Christmas season like everyone else does ;) .

Let's start with work. My colleague called off Wed-Fri last week, allowing me the honor of working by myself. I felt kinda bad for him since he found out he had a sinus infection...he was in real pain and work was not possible. I was glad for my sake it was slow.

On Friday I received my yearly review, which could be summed up with, "You are a great employee, we have big plans for you and $Colleague, but we have no real money to offer you...maybe we can work on comp time instead."

I need not remind you that my company had a fantastic year but my division was pulled down (supposedly) by one account (ours did very well) and getting a bonus that was less than the one my wife (who used to work part time for a small roofing company) got. My bonus was less than half of one weeks take home pay...yes, my bonus was 1/8 of my monthly take home pay.

When I asked about real raises (we tend to get them every other year and we got one last year), my boss said he would not know until February or so...they tend to show up in March. Now in March we lose our on call pay, but gain 2 percent as compensation. If we qualified for a raise then it would be on top of that. I will not hold my breath. The guy who told me about the bonuses was dead on in regards to the amount and he told me our raises would be less than 1 percent. At least we get something. Other than that bit of news, my review was very shiny.

Moving on to Christmas...I finished my shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. I felt like I cheated my wife (I had plans to get her a Wii and a laptop) but lack of a real bonus shot that plan out of the sky. We settled on meager gifts for each other this year...mostly clothing and gift cards. It has been a while since I have spoiled my wife at Christmas.

There was a service on Christmas eve at our church that went well. I had a small reading to do as well as a prayer (my wife had one as well) and overall the service went well. During the candle lighting service at the end, my candle kept going out and I had to keep getting it relit...somewhat humorous although it was not meant to be.

My wife and I opened gifts Christmas Day around 10 AM or so. We were both up much earlier and she was dying to give me my gifts (I had a Geocaching Christmas) so after a few hours of her looking a bit down, I agreed to open gifts.

After the gifts had been opened and the wrapping paper/boxes cleaned up (recycling what we could, trashing the rest) we fixed lunch. The hardest part of cooking lunch was already done...the turkey was already done (my wife started it at 4 AM) we just through together some sides (it was just me and her for lunch) and enjoyed the meal. We had a great lunch together.

After lunch we got dressed and put in a few hours of Geocaching, collecting some stragglers I had missed in the past. Many of these were not hard, but took patience and one even had me climbing a cedar tree about 20+ feet. I dropped the lid to it and since my wife was with me, she was able to retrieve it and keep me from climbing all the way down to get it. All in all we nabbed 7 and did not whiff on any of them. I even found the oldest active cache in our town, although it took a while...even in the winter the overgrowth made it difficult to spot.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up, eating a light dinner (salad) with more pecan pie for dessert. Once that was done, I walked the dogs and settled in with my wife to watch 3 more episodes of "Heroes". Two more to watch and season one will be complete.

I am off all this week but I will be working next week solo while my colleague takes his vacation. I think he got the better end of the bargain, but I am not going to complain. I will get to see how well I can handle working a busy week on my own. Look on the bright side...I have only 4 months to go until vacation!

Pattern Forming?

Not only does the lack of cold weather and snow keep it from feeling like Christmas, but the inability to join the other people at an off site Christmas party held during business hours does not help matters any. I think I have been to about half of the Christmas parties they have thrown for us over the past 6 years I have been in Texas.

My wife is right...I need a new job.

Oh Well

Day two of my colleague being out sick...he has a sinus infection. He had been coughing (a dry raspy cough) on Monday, so I told him to leave early. Yesterday he called me while I was on the way to work (I usually show up early) to let me know. It was not busy at all, however we had one issue come up 1 hour before I left that I had to hand over to this weeks on call grunt (He is in Brazil) and another came up after handover. There were problems with both, but I think we have them all straightened out. Thankfully Wednesdays are historically slow days. If the averages hold true, I should have 1 or 2 issues to deal with today.

One drawback to my colleague begin out is that I cannot report the extra time I am working into our time entry system. They closed it out on the 18th and we cannot make any changes to it. Any changes I make will be after the fact and may not even be allowed. I know it does not affect my pay, but I like to be as accurate as possible.

With my colleague being out, I am pretty much stuck in the office all day. 9-10 hours is a long time to be siting at your desk and not being able to go to lunch or take a real break. Cry me a river, El Gee...cry me a river.

I have not been geocaching in a while. I have been on call or the weather has not been cooperative. I was hoping to do some Saturday, but it looks like God has other plans...it is supposed to rain. I guess he really wants me to finish cleaning my office at home.

We still have not sent out any Christmas cards. My wife wanted to do them last weekend but something got in the way and we did not do them. We have gotten 20 or so...pretty much our average. My wife sends out 3 times that number each and every year...many to people who do not reciprocate or even write us e-mails. Normally I will send out an e-letter to everyone a week or so before Christmas, but this year I just have not been motivated to do so. Even if I did try, I am not sure what I would write.

I noticed that the last two van payments cleared the bank on the 18th. I had one scheduled for the 14th and one for the 17th. Odd how they both cleared on the same day. With that, the van is paid for. We now only owe on 2 knee surgeries for our dog and our house. With God's blessing, we can have the surgeries paid off in 2007. Doing so means paying a lot of money each month (two dog knees cost about the same as an average used car) but I am so tired of debt I am willing to suffer a while longer (we have been paying a lot of money on debt the past year or so) just to get out. I still plan, however to take a real vacation again. So far, the past 4 or so have all been in cash. If we are blessed even more, I can go visit my mom during 2008 in WV and not cut so many corners, like I have been the past 2 years.

Race To The White House

I have not politi-blogged in a while. While some of the news is interesting, I really have not bee compelled to blog about it. However yesterday I did some thinking about our choices for the presidency.

The candidates running frighten me. While I realize that no candidate will be the "ideal" choice for the bulk of America, that candidate should reflect the views (or the majority thereof) of the citizens. Initially I thought I had made up my mind on who I wanted, but lately I am not sure. I also thought I knew what I wanted in a candidate, but again, lately I am not so sure.

My candidate needs to have a tough stance on border/homeland security...that I am positive of. He/she also needs to have a pro-life stance on abortion. The candidate should favor a small government (which less spending supports). Those things are important to me. The candidate should also understand the constitution in regards to religion. While I do not want to see a theocracy, I feel that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values (monotheism, morals, etc) and our laws should reflect that.

Early on I had supported the presidents choice to invade Iraq, but I get the feeling that what we think Iraq needs is not what they think they need. I am not sure the people in that part of the world are ready for a democracy of any kind. They are so used to living under tyranny that they do not know how to deal with real freedom. Should our troops stay there and keep trying or should we turn it all over to the fledgling government and let them deal with it? I am torn.

Our economy is also important to me. I have a small IRA and a larger 401k plan that has lost all of last years gains over the past 2 weeks. These are not bad funds mind you, but ones that historically have grown over the years. It hurts to see my money go poof!

While not a die hard Republican, I have voted Republican in the past (I am a registered Independent) and could vote Republican again if the candidate is right.

Thompson and Romney both looked good for awhile, but lately Huckabee has gained momentum. Guilianni is not even on the radar for me and my wife since he supports a woman's right to choose and we are both pro life.

My wife is leaning towards Huckabee and I am favoring Ron Paul, currently, however I still have a lot of research to do. I do not want to make a blind choice.

Typical Monday

The one good thing I can say about yesterday is that it went by quickly. We had five new issues we had to coordinate...all of which occurred before lunch. With all that in the morning, we spent the afternoon "cleaning up", meaning doing all the required paperwork. Look at it like this. I am detective and after the case is solved, I have to send my captain a report. I write the report, post it on an internal web site, create a "ticket" in the report system, link it with the original report. IF any third parties are involved, I have to go one step further and create a report in a separate system they third parties have access to. Depending on how complex the issue, it could take all day to write the reports.

When quitting time rolled around, I handed over the phone line to my relief who works in Brazil. He was happy to hear that nothing was ongoing and that all he had to do was answer the phone if it rang. Once handover was complete, I headed off to Family Christian Bookstore to pick up some last minute gifts for my wife. I am not a good shopper. Nothing looked like something she wanted. I did manage to pickup a few little things for her but nothing substantial other than a gift card.

Traffic was pretty heavy (I left work at 5:00 PM) and the drive to the store plus shopping time and the trip home was almost two hours. We only live 15 miles away and i was only in the store for 45 minutes. I really don't like being out during this time of the year.

I got home, exhausted and was greeted by my wife (who called me as I was en route home) with a hot plate of spaghetti. A salad and some crusty bread would have been nice, but her day was kinda stressful and expecting her to have the perfect meal is a little unfair. I ate what she made, paid her a compliment, and then walked Little Man. By the time I got home and checked e-mail and opened my snail mail, I was exhausted.

Looking Forward To Monday

Most people do not like Monday's, but this week I was looking forward to it. Monday means I am off call. The only bad news is I go on call in three weeks instead of four due to a scheduling snafu. Yeah, I am on call the week of New Years (at least I am off the week of Christmas)...the week our customers close the books for the previous year. Any bets on how that week will go?

I got called five or six times this weekend. On Friday night, someone in Canada called (along with three colleagues) stating they could not connect to e-mail. Had the customer read their e-mail, they would have known about the maintenance that was taking place during that time.

On Saturday morning, I go a call regarding a web service that had failed yet again (the fourth time in a week). By the time I was notified, our global team was already working on it, so I was free.

Sunday afternoon and into the evening I was called every few hours regarding e-mail in the US. Had most of these people read their mail, they would have known about the maintenance on the US servers during that time. Only the last call was a valid issue and it was still related to the maintenance (the server needed rebooted). I did get a call from one of the techs telling me DNS was not working properly on the customer domain. At the moment it did not affect customers so I called the tech who handles DNS issues and left him a message. I figured that if I got a customer call I could always follow up with the tech.

I slept well until 1:30 AM when I got up to use the toilet. Once I got up I could not fall asleep for a couple of hours. I had this happen once before a few weeks ago. I was dead by the end of the day.

Since I am not on call, I am very much interested in finalizing my Christmas shopping today if at all possible. It really does not feel like Christmas around our house. We have not decorated in a few years...no tree, lights, wreath...nothing. My wife has taken a very anti-secular stance and does not want to get into all the decorating. I am sure that I could get her to change her mind but I am not sure it is worth the hassle.

I have really enjoyed walking the neighborhood and looking at all the lights. There aer some great displays in our town.

I called mom last night and she informed me that our son, Soldier Boy, had stopped in for a visit. I am glad that he finally made it in to see her. It has been a long time.

It Will Be A Miracle

Yesterday was quasi-busy for us...quasi because things were slow up until 1 or 2 PM, then we received a trickle of issues that bled over into my night, allowing me the pleasure (smirk) to put in 5 more hours of OT this week (we are up to 12 so far).

The most agonizing of these started around 3 PM or so. Our customer's Corporate IT Team (CITT) called and asked us to raise the priority of a case regarding the time entry system they use which is tied to SAP. One of the modules that calculates vacation has gone wonky and while this is not normally a high sev, we are at the end of the year and all calculations have to be perfect to close the books.

I get the case and investigate. The partner group (major IT provider) who supports this app has a tech (consultant) working on the issue, but they have stopped working because they cannot connect to the DB. Up until last year, DB issues were theirs to deal with, but that now has been passed to us. Instead of CALLING the DB for support, she E-MAILS them and then puts the case into a pending status until she gets and answer. I decide to step in and get a DB and the consultant talking. I set up a confcall and we begin working. She works with the DBA for 10 minutes or so then she says she has to drop off, but she wants me to call her in 5 minutes. I agree. I try to call her several times but no luck. She does not pick up. I ask the DBA to try to call her a couple of times before he leaves and he agrees. Both he a and I are trying to get out of the office. Him to his wife and me so I can be on call the rest of the night.

I get home and take care of the dogs (feed, water, let them out to pee...) and my phone rings...another priority ticket that I need to coordinate. No worries. I get that one started (after logging my laptop onto the VPN and calling the tech working on the issue) and decide to call the consultant from the earlier case. To my surprise she has not even TRIED to log on to the DB. She spends the next 5-10 minutes making excuses on why she has not resolved the case yet. She could not get in touch with the DBA, she was not home (it was 3 :00 AM and she was on call), she can't make international calls...cry me a river, PLEASE. We have had nothing but problems lately with this sort of thing from the thord party provider our customer has chosen to support their software. We cannot blame them because we singed the contract to "manage" IT for our customer no matter who they chose to support them. It makes a hard job...interesting to say the least.

Well anyways, after listening to this consultant from a land far, far away I ripped into her on the merits of cooperating, her lack of dedication, etc and how I was going to file a formal complaint. If I manage to escape getting written up by our management for "unsportsmanlike conduct" then God is really watching out for me. I pulled no punches, stopping short of swearing. I was mad.

A couple of hours later I get confirmation the issue appears to be resolved. I wonder if my temper tamtrum helped or hindered that?

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

While this is not official, I can be 95% sure it is accurate (it came from a manager who is rahter upset at the whole issue). Our company bonus this year will be around...$700...before taxes and our annual (smirk) raise will be less than 1%. While I am thankful that we get at least something, I am rather hurt by the fact that the company had a FANTASTIC year...one of the best...and we get this token bonus and pay raise. Now to be fair, I work for a group that is not in the mainstream. The main group will get more but considering that the group I work for was in the red this year, we get very little. I guess it is fair...sort of.

In the 6 years that I have been working in Texas, my salary has gone up 10%. To put that in perspective, let's pretend that I make 40k a year. Now imagine my raises each year for six years to get to $44k a year. Just add that to the list of things that make me feel that my company is looking for ways to get us to quit:

* Vacation accrual capped at 80 hrs per year. I get 160 hours per year. Currently I have 135 hours built up that I cannot possibly use due to the way my dept works. It will be set aside for 2.5 years and if I do not use it in that time (while still accruing the 160 per year) I lose it.
* Pension plan has been terminated. They did raise our 401k plan to match dollar for dollar up to 6%. While it is not as much as my pension, at least it is something.
* On-call pay is being taken away. That premium was 5%. We were told our base pay will go up 2% to help offset the loss. Yeah....2% != 5%.
* The cost of our benefits has gone up again as well as the cost of our deductible.

I am really trying hard not to be bitter, but it is losing battle. The on call part is the most upsetting because my group is one that is pretty visible to the customer we support. We have a hotline that can be called 24x7 that we pick up. We work nights, weekends, and some holidays (we usually trade around). With only two people locally (and two in Latin America), when one person is out, it really puts the rest of the team in a bind. Taking all the time off we have is darn near impossible without causing problems for the other guys.

We are constantly being told to work harder and make a difference on the account we support. My question to mgmt is...if you want to cut what you are offering to us to do the job, why would we work harder for less?

Sorry for the rant, but coupled with a ton of things to do tonight (I am on call...fun) today has not been a party.

Confused

I found this reader comment on Michelle Malkins's blog:

"Let me see if I have this straight.
If you name your son Muhammad, but strangle your daughter to death for not wearing a hajib, you’re devout.
If you name a teddy bear Muhammad, you must be jailed, lashed and perhaps beheaded.
I think my head is going to explode. Maybe Rosie O’Donell can explain why Islam is moderate and Christianity is extremist, because I’m lost."

Maybe someone more intelligent than I am (e.g. most of my readers...) can explain this to me. BTW if you do nto read MM's blog, you need to.

On a side note, I received my free copy of the Qur'an the other day from a group in Houston. I was amazed how quickly it arrived. Had this been something I needed from our state or federal government, I would have waited weeks.

The copy I ordered is fro educational purposes. Anytime I find a quote that is referred to I want to look it up and put it in context.

Cold Winter Dreams

What gives with the Texas weather? 80 degrees one day, 30 the next, 70 the day after, 30's the next. Lather, rinse, repeat.


Monday was a pretty busy day for us. we had seven high severity request...six before 8:30 AM. Usually that many requests coming in have several that are related but according to those who know...that is not the case. I am glad Tuesday was a lot quieter...we only had three requests, which is the normal amount.

I have hidden a couple geocaches in the past 3 days. One is hidden in a park near our house and one is hidden in a park near my work. Both were found the same night they were published. Some grocachers are serious when it comes to being FTF (First To Find). I am glad I am not that addicted.

I am still watching season one of "Heroes". It is not bad...some epi's are better than others but overall I like it. It can be dark, but it is also humorous in places. It has piqued my curiosity enough I will watch season two when I can get it.

I really have not been in a blogging mood so bear with me as I go through this phase. I am sure it will pass.

I Would Like To Blame It On The Holidays...

...but that would be lying. I have not been updating this blog very often (once every 3 days or so) and I guess I am falling down on my duties.

We started off last week at work on a tear...we were busy. By the end of the week it had slacked off and i was looking forward to my last weekend off before I went on call. I actually will go on call again in three weeks instead of four to allow us to take our holiday time off. So I will be on call New Years. I hope that is a good thing.

Saturday the weather started out nice so I did my chores and ate lunch. After lunch my wife and I decided to do a little geocaching. We were out three hours, looked for six caches and found four. Not overly bad but not as good as when I am by myself. However with my wife along, I find a better percentage because she can help me look. As a matter of fact, she found one all by herself (she found stage two by herself and had a good idea about stage one) and helped re-camo some of the others that were found.

On the way home we stopped to get some hamburgers from Scotty P's. They screwed up the order but I ate it anyway. Scotty P's splits their hot dogs and serves them on hamburger buns...first time I had ever seen that. it tasted okay, but since I had hot dogs for lunch, a hamburger would have been better.

Sunday was pretty much the same old same old with the exception of my teaching a one on one discipling class with one of the younger Christians at church. After we made it through the lesson, I cam home and started watching "Heroes". I had the whole season and since I had not seen any of it yet, I wanted to get started. So far I like it.

Hats Off To Him

A few days ago I noticed an article on our internal we b page that criticized the way HR has been communication the reduction of our benefits and the actual reductions themselves. When I read the article, I immediately thought, "This guy has written what I have been feeling for weeks!" The quote that got me was this:

"...I wonder how much more can be squeezed out of us before the career becomes just a job — and the job is done just according to spec. If my pay and benefits are set by the industry benchmark, should the quantity and quality of the time I spend on the job also be industry-average?"

I took the time to send him an e-mail expressing my thanks to him for doing this . I figured that was the end of it. Boy was I surprised when I got this today after lunch:

"On the BCC: list are the 200+ people from all businesses and regions who wrote me notes over the past two days about the article. I am not “publishing” your names since I want to protect your right to privacy, but a big thank you to all who wrote. Some of your notes were quick thanks, some longer stories of how HR’s messaging and actions have impacted you and your teams, and a few were, sadly, “this is why I’m leaving” notes.

After years for either consulting with or working for large organizations, I was not surprised to hear from the majority of you that you thought writing the note was an act of “courage.” The right to free speech, unencumbered by the fear of retaliation, is an ideal and not a reality. However, my mother’s favorite quote about her son is that “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

Thanks again for your kind words. Keep the faith"

He also sent this message are some of the people he works with at Corporate Communications who have an interest in the article he wrote from a professional perspective.

On the CC: list were the people responsible for running the internal employee sounding off program.

He explains in the e-mail that the note "was written in September, and put in the queue for publication, after I read the August HR note announcing the change in the Layoff Compensation plan, not to be confused with the wonderfully timed Thanksgiving day note announcing more changes in the Layoff Compensation plan."

Amazing? I think so. Over 200 people wrote to him thanking him for speaking out is such a public way and on such a public forum. The other impressive thing is that corporate actually published it. Many companies would have hidden it some place and hoped it blew over.

I think that if this manifested into something that changed the path we are on we should be proud. One man speaks out, 200+ encourage, and history is made.

It Takes Guts(y)

Recently I reloaded (from scratch) my Ubuntu Linux install. My previous install was and Edgy Eft, upgraded to Feisty Fawn, upgraded to Gutsy Gibbon. Since some boo-boos were made along the way (and considering Linux installs are faster than Windows installs), I reloaded.

In the past I used Automatix to get my machine tweaked for multimedia. I had read that in Fiesty, this was not really all the necessary since Ubuntu would try to find the codc you need to play a specific file. With that in mind, I decided to try updating multimedia without Automatix.

First, the basic install went well. I ran into some issues partitioning the HD (I dual boot and did not want to screw up my Windows partition) but I finally figured it out (it seemed harder than the last time I did this, but maybe I am just imagining that).

After the basic install, I ran into the "no link error" that I later found was a problem with the new driver I upgraded on the Windows side. That issue was resolved (this was not any fault of Ubuntu) and I then started trying things out.

While the details are fuzzy, I remember that I had some issues with Totem and some of the file types was trying to play. Ubuntu prompted me to allow it to search for the codecs and after it found and installed them, some played while others would not. I eventually found that for multimedia, I needed to add the Medibuntu repo's to give me full control over DVD's and other media.

For the most part, this was the most frustrating part of the install. All my Windows partitions (two of them fat-32 and one NTFS) were recognized, as was all my hardware. Everything "just worked", although I just realized I have not set up printing yet. My friend Knightmare Duck states this will be no problem at all.

I have not tried wireless with Gutsy yet, but Compiz, the 3D desktop effect package, has worked pretty well...much better than I had expected.

I tested my multimedia upgrades last night by watching a PC DVR recording of Battlestar Galactica - "Razor". Tehre was some flicker but the over impression was pretty good. Audio formats have played well.

If I were to judge this distro to previous Ubuntu releases, I would have mixed reviews. While having the eye candy work nearly flawlessly is nice, I would rather have multimedia work "out of the box". This is what the majority of the end users are going to want. If Linux is to be a serious threat to Mac OSX and Windows Vista, it needs to be more friendly towards multimedia.

JMHO.

It Has Been Three Days

...since my last update. I guess the reason has been the workload, which is about the same as it has been the last two weeks. As usual, my colleague and I are in the thick of the issues and we are doing pretty well, even if he is on call this week. The number of issues has been the same, but the stress has been less. For that I am thankful.

The guy who took over my old job had announced that he was quitting, but it appears that he took the offer of a weeks vacation to see if quitting was what he really wanted to do. The stress on the poor guy has been very high and to be honest I was expecting him to snap. I know that when I did that role, I was ready to quit myself. No one likes to be on call and available 24x7x365...and that is what the role demands. Now according to one of the mid level mgrs, this has been redueced to 8x7x365...but I am not sure how long that will last. if a customer is awake somewhere in the word, we have to be as well.

My Linus box seems to be running well. I turned on Compiz effects (medium amount) and it slows down the boot by a few seconds and apps launch a touch slower, but the effects are worth it to me. Now if I ahd a slower machine, then I would have to turn them off.

The weather has returned to 60-70 during the day and 30's at night. It is supposed to be dry all week long until Sunday, meaning my wife and I can Geocache this weekend as a team again. I am looking foreward to that. Sunday is is supposed to rain.

Another Reason I Hate Microsoft

If you have read this blog for a while, you know I prefer Linux (especially Ubuntu) over Windows. While Windows "just works" most of the time, the crashing, obscure errors, lack of good programming in the software, etc has left me wanting more...ergo I use Linux. It may not be overly flashy, but it does work pretty well, most of the time. I have installed it on laptops and desktops as well as servers. It works good enough and is much more stable than Windows, IMHO.

The other day, I was updating my dual boot (WinXP/Ubuntu Linux) machine with all the latest patches from Microsoft. I noticed there was a new NIC driver (that was 6+ months old) that I had not installed yet (from Microsoft) so I let the "Windows Update" program do its thing. Once installed I rebooted and made sure everything worked.

The next day I go to log on to the PC, but since I am using it, I log onto Linux (I do not use Windows at home very much). The machine boots and the first thing I notice is that there is no network link. The router does not show a powered on machine plugged into it. I panic, thinking the on-board NIC has failed. I gather myself and reboot the router and cable modem (not in that order though) and then reset the IP address. Nothing. I am not getting any DHCP. I reboot into Windows and oddly enough, I am able to get online, so the NIC is not dead.

I reboot back into Linux and the same thing occurs. Frustrated, I grab my laptop and start looking for answers but find nothing. Puzzled, I decided to do a backup of all my important data (what little of it was on the Linux partition) and reload the machine since it has been upgraded a few times over the original install and was acting a bit funky sometimes.
After I reload the machine, I notice I am still not getting any network. Now I am really starting to panic because I cannot figure out why a fresh install cannot detect one of the most common chipset in the world for NIC's (Realtek 8139). I unplug the router and plug the cable modem directly into the PC...same thing.

I grab the laptop and frantically search the web (Googling "realtek 8139" and "gutsy gibbon") and hit upon the answer. It seems that the new driver I installed has a "feature" that turns off the NIC until WINDOWS boots up again. The Linux kernel tries to wake up the NIC but it can't (the kernel does not have the newest driver) so it just leaves it alone. The article said I had a couple of choices. I could: recompile the kernel with the newest drivers on the Linux side, turn on "wake on LAN" from the Windows side, roll back the Windows driver, or just unplug the power from the PC for 15 seconds when I want to boot to Linux.

Since my efforts to recompile the Linux kernel have not been successful in the past and unplugging the machine seems silly and that rolling back a Windows driver can be a disaster, I decided to just turn on the "Wake on Lan" feature in Windows and live with a mild security risk.

I think this "feature"is a pile of crap. This only affects people who dual boot Windows and another OS. When Windows shuts down, it puts the NIC into a "coma" that can only be reversed if Windows boots up or you unplug the PC. Turning off your PC does not stop the flow of power into the mobo. Only unplugging does that and you need to break the power to get the NIC to clear the "coma" flag that is set when Windows shuts down.

Argh. I hate Microsoft.

Freaky Friday

Friday was a bit odd for me. As previously posted, my TL called off on Thursday, leaving me to man the guns solo. It was not not bad...only one issue to deal with and the paperwork was minimal as it was solved quickly. I left nothing to hand over to my Latin American helpers so I went home happy.

On Friday it was slow and my TL told me to leave early. So I left at noon (4 hours early...at least I can burn some vacation) and decided to hit a cache that is close by to the office that had just been unarchived. After that little gem (it was a micro) was found, I went to do some shopping.

I hate shopping and hate it even more during the holidays. Everyone is out and the pace is frantic. I was able to get most of what I wanted at World Market, then I came home. On the way home I looked for another cache but it is buried somewhere in a pile of pine needles, along with several small pine cones) and I just did not have the patience to sort through it all, so I just went home.

My wife did not get home until six or seven PM and while she was gone I just puttered around the house, doing little. I was not in the mood to do much so I didn't. The only thing I did was reload my Linux box, which I am going to log about later.

Saturday was cloudy and rather dreary. I spent the morning working on bills and finalizing my Linux install (mostly tweaking) and finally vacuuming the house. Once all that was done and my wife and I had eaten, she asked me if I was going out geocaching. I had not planned on it since the clouds were so heavy (cloud cover really affects GPSr reception). I had been looking at few caches in the area but was not sure when I would get them. I was telling my wife about one of them and how one of the cachers two year old child found one that had eluded many seasoned seekers for months. She grinned and told me that she sometimes thinks like a two year old so I asked her if she wanted to go. I was floored when she said "yes".

We got dressed in old clothes (the finds we were going after were in the woods), boots, and grabbed some bottled water. We were not going far (4 miles or so away) so the normal gear one would take would not be needed. We hopped in the GeoDak and headed to the site.

We found the area and started looking. I was pretty amazed that a .30 cal ammo can could be hidden in such a sparse area. There were so few places to look...now I see why it has plagued so many people. I checked the obvious areas first and my wife asked me exactly what we were looking for. I told her about some of the clues that that the cache owner left ("two cedars" and "replace the cloak") and told her my thought was that the cache was on the ground, covered with a home made cover of dirt, leaves, and cedar twigs. So we took sticks and started scratching the ground. We covered a pretty large area and I was getting just a tad flustered when my wife got up and moved to a new area. I got up and went to where she was and started moving leaves, branches and dirt and found a small wood frame. I moved a bit more dirt and saw it was the cache. I guess technically, it was buried (which is against the "rules") but to be honest, you did not have to "dig" for it, only move away a thin layer (1 inch or so) of dirt, wood particles, and leaves.

My wife and I rummaged through the can and I signed the log for both of us. She seemed disappointed that nothing of "value" was in it. I told her that the hunt is more of the spirit of treasure hunting, not actually getting something valuable. The object was to trade interesting items, not expensive ones, although I have been told of people who hide very difficult ones with real valuable prizes inside.

After we re-hid the ammo can (as good or better than we found it) we started off after one more of Jake in Texas's hides. While I had no idea where (or what) this one was, I figured my wife and I could at least try.

We started trekking west toward "Jakes Gecko" after leaving "Jakes Can". The path was slippery and choked with briars. I was afraid my wife would turn back, but she continued on. We got to a slippery slope near a creek bed and after I crossed (slipping but not falling) my wife fell and slid down the hill. I thought she might be hurt but the only thing bruised was her pride. She actually started laughing and I could only smile as I helped her up and across the creek as well as up the next hill.

We go to GZ (Ground Zero) but were unable to find the cache after 20 minutes or so of searching. Jake hides a mean cache and it is even harder when you do not have any clues. We turned around and found our way out (a tad easier than going in) and started back to the GeoDak. My wife asked me if there were any more close by, so I told her there were two that I had not been able to find withing a 1/2 mile. We walked to the first one and found it very quickly. I know I had looked in that area before and nothing was there. I later learned that the cache has been muggled 3 times in the past couple of years. We signed the log and walked back to the GeoDak and headed off to look for the last one of the day...another Jake in Texas classic, "Sleeping Candy Canes". Long story short: we could not find it. The weather started getting icky and we decided that two finds (with one of them being a Jake in Texas classic) was not a bad day. I personally like to find 10+ in an outing but when you get down to the hard ones, 2 or 3 is good.