I am an avid (although not fanatical) Geocacher. Not only do I hunt for caches but I return to the geocaching community by placing about 5% of the total of my finds. Today I have 23 active caches and two that have been archived. The other day (Memorial Day) I placed three and the Saturday before that I placed one. I have not placed all that many lately, but I am getting back into the groove.
All of the ones I placed were approved and published without incident except one. This particular cache I called "Strong Tower" after a pretty cool Christian Rock band that I am a fan of. After all the other caches had been approved and published I wondered why this one had not. Then last night about 8:00 PM or so I get an e-mail from the approver who told me that he could not allow this one to be published because putting the lyrics to a Christian song on the cache page was promoting an agenda.
I was pretty ticked but I remembered that I am a Christian and I will turn the other cheek. While I did not compromise my faith, I edited the cache listing and removed the lyrics. I did not however, change the name of the cache. It was published a couple of hours later.
This may seem trivial to those of you who are unchurched, but for a Christian, it is like taking away the right to free speach. No where on the cache page was I telling anyone to convert, I was just stating my faith. It would be no different than someone making a cache dedicated to a sports team...which I am sure has been done.
My wife told me I should contest it but I believe in picking my battles wisely. I can still remain true to my faith and geocache...I will just have to be a bit more careful.
It is a sad day when a person cannot celebrate his faith while participating in a fun hobby like geocaching.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Vista In The Workplace
I received a Vista laptop last week to use when I am at the customer site working on their systems. While we can connect via Citrix, management wants us to have a client PC as well. Nonetheless, I have access via both and to be honest, I prefer Citrix. I have not used it much because I can use Citrix for most everything I need on the client side.
Now a couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail telling me it was time to refresh my normal work laptop to a more modern and supportable model. I logged on to see what my options were and after some haggling (with the AI of the web site for heaven's sake), I ordered an HP nc6510b. Well, it came Friday evening after I left. Monday was a holiday and Tuesday I found it under my desk. It came with Vista and a 19 step instruction book on how to migrate from my old Win XP laptop to my new Vista laptop. Steps 1-18 went pretty smoothly (although Explorer crashed twice). Step 19 "Migrate files and settings to your new Vista PC was not a major problem but the way MS has gone from "My Documents" to simply "Documents" has some shortcuts that are set to a different permission level than I am. I mean, they were on my PC, transferred BY ME and yet I do not have permission to view them? Sheesh.
The last step was installing apps that the migration did not handle. For me that was our ticketing system (which in Vista requires a surgeon's had to install), Jabber (for talking to techs world wide), PuTTY (SSH client), and Citrix which has a problem with IE7, but not Firefox...guess which I prefer?
In Win XP we had a reg file that we would install to get all the funky configs set for PuTTY which allows us to securely and remotely log into our clients network, but that reg file did not work so I had to do all the settings by hand. It took a while, but I am finally online with all my needed apps. I still need to see if Palm Desktop works (I bet it doesn't) and all my plugins for Firefox.
The single hardest thing to get used to is MS Office 2007 Pro. It sucks. Not intuitive at all. It imports all your docs and makes them "compatible" with Office 2007. I have a lot of docs and editing them in the future is going to be hard.
After playing with Vista I can say it is pretty, but not nice. WinXP will suffice and if I could painlessly switch back, I would. But doing so means I have to "migrate" later and I do not want to do this again.
I am officially using Vista at work, but home is going to be Ubuntu Linux as a primary OS and Win XP when needed.
Now a couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail telling me it was time to refresh my normal work laptop to a more modern and supportable model. I logged on to see what my options were and after some haggling (with the AI of the web site for heaven's sake), I ordered an HP nc6510b. Well, it came Friday evening after I left. Monday was a holiday and Tuesday I found it under my desk. It came with Vista and a 19 step instruction book on how to migrate from my old Win XP laptop to my new Vista laptop. Steps 1-18 went pretty smoothly (although Explorer crashed twice). Step 19 "Migrate files and settings to your new Vista PC was not a major problem but the way MS has gone from "My Documents" to simply "Documents" has some shortcuts that are set to a different permission level than I am. I mean, they were on my PC, transferred BY ME and yet I do not have permission to view them? Sheesh.
The last step was installing apps that the migration did not handle. For me that was our ticketing system (which in Vista requires a surgeon's had to install), Jabber (for talking to techs world wide), PuTTY (SSH client), and Citrix which has a problem with IE7, but not Firefox...guess which I prefer?
In Win XP we had a reg file that we would install to get all the funky configs set for PuTTY which allows us to securely and remotely log into our clients network, but that reg file did not work so I had to do all the settings by hand. It took a while, but I am finally online with all my needed apps. I still need to see if Palm Desktop works (I bet it doesn't) and all my plugins for Firefox.
The single hardest thing to get used to is MS Office 2007 Pro. It sucks. Not intuitive at all. It imports all your docs and makes them "compatible" with Office 2007. I have a lot of docs and editing them in the future is going to be hard.
After playing with Vista I can say it is pretty, but not nice. WinXP will suffice and if I could painlessly switch back, I would. But doing so means I have to "migrate" later and I do not want to do this again.
I am officially using Vista at work, but home is going to be Ubuntu Linux as a primary OS and Win XP when needed.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Worth Mentioning
I just finished my stint on house arrest Monday morning at 7:00 AM when I handed over to our colleague in Mexico who was covering for us on Memorial Day. Something strange and wonderful happened my week on call...I WAS NOT CALLED...NOT ONCE! That has never happened before and by Sunday afternoon I was getting a little nervous...Most of world had calls they were working on but North America (and for the most part Latin America) didn't. Everything that we normally would handle occurred during our normal working hours. Nothing after hours was required of me. Praise God! Now of course that will mean that my next stint of on call will be murder...and my colleague is out of town on vacation so I will be flying solo for that week. Pray for me!
On Saturday I was able to attend the Geocacher meet and greet in Richardson at the Golden Corral. It was nice to be able to meet some of local cachers and put a name to a face. The two I wanted to meet the most (Tizom and 9key) were unable to attend. Funny, they both live in the same small town I do and we only live about a mile apart from each other. Small world.
After the meet and greet I had to sop by and get a haircut. Having thinning hair as well as mle pattern baldness is interesting because what little hair I have on top grows the fastest and the thicker part (on the sides, grows slower. Makes for an interesting look if I wait too long between clips.
Oh, I placed a cache on the way home that I had been wanting to put out for quite some time. It themed it around my online nick, "mcwtlg". It was a unique way to place a cache and the people who have found it have left favorable comments.
After the meet and greet my wife and I attended the memorial service for a member of our church. The service was not what you would expect and oddly enough there was a lot more laughing than there was crying. "Shirley", the lady who passed away, would have wanted it that way. She was a real joker.
My wife helped set things up and serve and the guys helped clean up some...but the women did most of the work. We ended up staying until 4 PM to make sure all was done and by the time my wife and I got home we were not in the mood to do much of anything.
Sunday was Sunday school and church with a lunch of bagels and Einstein Brother's. While they are not the best I have ever had (I really mis Bruger's in NC), they will suffice. The spreads are usually pretty good and I like the smoked salmon flavored one, even if it is a tad salty.
After lunch I was getting bored so I did some geocache maintenence on a few caches I have not kept up with lately. I swapped out containers on two and replaced a missing one on a third. It is a lot of work to maintain caches if you decided to place them for others to find.
Monday was cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain, but the forecast stated that it would clear up by the afternoon. I did not do much in the morning except take a walk with my wife in the park across the street and vacuum. While I had an agenda (9key had placed a new cache there and I wanted to check it out) my wife did not mind. She actually likes when we can kill two birds with one stone. The walk was a good one and par for the course, my wife hindered my getting the cache, although she was helpful in keeping watch while I fetched it and signed the log. How did she hinder me finding it? She struck up a conversation with a dog owner and they started talking right where the cache was. This has happened before but I am not sore about it. Actually it is rather funny.
After our walk I decided to go place a few caches in some spots I had been eyeing for a while. I was able to get to all of them via bicycle and was done in good time. They have not posted yet but they will soon enough and the local cachers will have three more to jump on,
Once those caches had been placed and reported to the web site, I went out to start cutting grass. I finished just about 5:30 PM...it had taken me about three and a half hours to cut two yards in the 90+ degree heat. No worries, I was fully hydrated. I dranke about a gallon of water during that time.
I hosed myself off outside before coming in to the house (I had just vacuumed that morning) and ate a sketchy dinner before I walked Little Man. I feel sorry for him. He just cannot handle much of a walk anymore. it is a chore to get him to go half a block. I guess for 14 he is doing pretty well.
After I got back and got a shower, I went to Kroger's to grab some ice cream (The Travel Channel had been running ice cream and I was now in the mood) and a few things my wife said we needed. I got back and inhaled my pint of Dove Toffee Caramel Indulgence (or whatever it was called) and finished watching another episode of Anthony Bourdain's, "No Reservations". He may be brash, but he is entertaining.
When I got to work today, I found that my new laptop was in. It is an HP6510b which is a newer laptop and I need to set it up and configure it...not an easy task considering what I have to deal with at work each day, but I figure with my lunch hour and a little time after workI should be able to get it done. The bad thing is that I am at home the next two days and configuring this from a VPN connection is supposed to be possible, but tricky.
I am in no hurry. I plan on using the old laptop as a Windows Laptop and re-rolling my home machine since it has been acting up lately. Of course it will be dual boot Windows and Linux. What else would I do with it?
On Saturday I was able to attend the Geocacher meet and greet in Richardson at the Golden Corral. It was nice to be able to meet some of local cachers and put a name to a face. The two I wanted to meet the most (Tizom and 9key) were unable to attend. Funny, they both live in the same small town I do and we only live about a mile apart from each other. Small world.
After the meet and greet I had to sop by and get a haircut. Having thinning hair as well as mle pattern baldness is interesting because what little hair I have on top grows the fastest and the thicker part (on the sides, grows slower. Makes for an interesting look if I wait too long between clips.
Oh, I placed a cache on the way home that I had been wanting to put out for quite some time. It themed it around my online nick, "mcwtlg". It was a unique way to place a cache and the people who have found it have left favorable comments.
After the meet and greet my wife and I attended the memorial service for a member of our church. The service was not what you would expect and oddly enough there was a lot more laughing than there was crying. "Shirley", the lady who passed away, would have wanted it that way. She was a real joker.
My wife helped set things up and serve and the guys helped clean up some...but the women did most of the work. We ended up staying until 4 PM to make sure all was done and by the time my wife and I got home we were not in the mood to do much of anything.
Sunday was Sunday school and church with a lunch of bagels and Einstein Brother's. While they are not the best I have ever had (I really mis Bruger's in NC), they will suffice. The spreads are usually pretty good and I like the smoked salmon flavored one, even if it is a tad salty.
After lunch I was getting bored so I did some geocache maintenence on a few caches I have not kept up with lately. I swapped out containers on two and replaced a missing one on a third. It is a lot of work to maintain caches if you decided to place them for others to find.
Monday was cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain, but the forecast stated that it would clear up by the afternoon. I did not do much in the morning except take a walk with my wife in the park across the street and vacuum. While I had an agenda (9key had placed a new cache there and I wanted to check it out) my wife did not mind. She actually likes when we can kill two birds with one stone. The walk was a good one and par for the course, my wife hindered my getting the cache, although she was helpful in keeping watch while I fetched it and signed the log. How did she hinder me finding it? She struck up a conversation with a dog owner and they started talking right where the cache was. This has happened before but I am not sore about it. Actually it is rather funny.
After our walk I decided to go place a few caches in some spots I had been eyeing for a while. I was able to get to all of them via bicycle and was done in good time. They have not posted yet but they will soon enough and the local cachers will have three more to jump on,
Once those caches had been placed and reported to the web site, I went out to start cutting grass. I finished just about 5:30 PM...it had taken me about three and a half hours to cut two yards in the 90+ degree heat. No worries, I was fully hydrated. I dranke about a gallon of water during that time.
I hosed myself off outside before coming in to the house (I had just vacuumed that morning) and ate a sketchy dinner before I walked Little Man. I feel sorry for him. He just cannot handle much of a walk anymore. it is a chore to get him to go half a block. I guess for 14 he is doing pretty well.
After I got back and got a shower, I went to Kroger's to grab some ice cream (The Travel Channel had been running ice cream and I was now in the mood) and a few things my wife said we needed. I got back and inhaled my pint of Dove Toffee Caramel Indulgence (or whatever it was called) and finished watching another episode of Anthony Bourdain's, "No Reservations". He may be brash, but he is entertaining.
When I got to work today, I found that my new laptop was in. It is an HP6510b which is a newer laptop and I need to set it up and configure it...not an easy task considering what I have to deal with at work each day, but I figure with my lunch hour and a little time after workI should be able to get it done. The bad thing is that I am at home the next two days and configuring this from a VPN connection is supposed to be possible, but tricky.
I am in no hurry. I plan on using the old laptop as a Windows Laptop and re-rolling my home machine since it has been acting up lately. Of course it will be dual boot Windows and Linux. What else would I do with it?
Friday, May 23, 2008
Not A Whole Lot To Report
The past few days have been mostly quiet at work. I am on house arrest (on call) and it has been surprisingly quiet. While Monday and Tuesday had a few things to sort out, it has not been bad. As a matter of fact it has been pretty nice the past few weeks.
On Wednesday and Thursday I worked from home, which really was not like working except that I had a phone strapped to my side and I checked e-mail every hour or so. If the toys I received had not been in the picture, then I would have to call the week "boring".
On Saturday I am going to try to attend a Geocaching meet and greet at the Golden Corral near my work. I know I am on call but at least if I get called I can go to the office 5 minutes away and do my work. I have a haircut at 10:00 so I am going to have to cut the meet and greet short, but I should still be able to meet a few of the local cachers.
We have Monday off (Memorial Day) and thankfully Mexico is covering for us. We have been able to take most of our holidays...the only ones we have trouble taking are the global holidays of Christmas and New Years.
On the health side, it appears that my wife is going to have to have her entire Thyroid gland removed. The nodules that are growing on it are not responding to the medication and the endocrinologist says that her body is fighting itself in this process. The surgery is rather minor, but she will have to stay in the hospital for one day and off her feet for a week. Looks like I work from home that week. To add insult to injury, the doc told her today she has arthritis in her knees. My poor wife is falling apart!
On Wednesday and Thursday I worked from home, which really was not like working except that I had a phone strapped to my side and I checked e-mail every hour or so. If the toys I received had not been in the picture, then I would have to call the week "boring".
On Saturday I am going to try to attend a Geocaching meet and greet at the Golden Corral near my work. I know I am on call but at least if I get called I can go to the office 5 minutes away and do my work. I have a haircut at 10:00 so I am going to have to cut the meet and greet short, but I should still be able to meet a few of the local cachers.
We have Monday off (Memorial Day) and thankfully Mexico is covering for us. We have been able to take most of our holidays...the only ones we have trouble taking are the global holidays of Christmas and New Years.
On the health side, it appears that my wife is going to have to have her entire Thyroid gland removed. The nodules that are growing on it are not responding to the medication and the endocrinologist says that her body is fighting itself in this process. The surgery is rather minor, but she will have to stay in the hospital for one day and off her feet for a week. Looks like I work from home that week. To add insult to injury, the doc told her today she has arthritis in her knees. My poor wife is falling apart!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Christmas in May?
Well, I feel like a kid. Santa Clause dropped off two presents today and promises to bring another in a few weeks.
First present was a new laptop (HP Compaq nc6400) to replace the ANCIENT (733 mhz, 256 megs RAM) desktop that I use on the customer network. It came loaded with Vista and after much wailing and gnashing of teeth (okay, I am exaggerating) I have it on the network and loaded with Firefox. To be honest I don't use their network machines all that much but if they want to give me a new toy, go ahead. I would have preferred to have a desktop since I have to lug a laptop home every night but I was told that locking my office is sufficient when I am gone. We do have security officers working 24x7.
The next toy is a Garmin eTrex GPSr. It is an 2000 model and does not have a data cable, but I figured I could play around with it some. It will not be a great geocaching unit but it will be good to test with.
The third toy (that will be delivered in a few weeks) is a HP Compaq nc6510b laptop to replace the HP Compaq nc6000 I was issued 4 years ago. Our company has a program to only support PC's that are 3 years old or less. The new laptop that I get in a few weeks will be the work horse.
I asked what I was to do with the old "unsupported" laptop when my new one comes in and I was told, "Well, you are supposed to have them recycled but if you want to use it as a test machine, have fun!" It looks like I will be trying out Linux on it in about a month. Sweet.
Well, work has not been too bad today. We have had a couple of issues each day that we have worked on and I have cleaned up three of them. Rumors are floating around (duh!) and the natives are getting restless.
The management has told us they expect this building to close down and for us to be moved to the "main" building in 6 months or so. It is a bit further to drive, but I think it will be okay as long as we can work from home two days a week like we do now.
First present was a new laptop (HP Compaq nc6400) to replace the ANCIENT (733 mhz, 256 megs RAM) desktop that I use on the customer network. It came loaded with Vista and after much wailing and gnashing of teeth (okay, I am exaggerating) I have it on the network and loaded with Firefox. To be honest I don't use their network machines all that much but if they want to give me a new toy, go ahead. I would have preferred to have a desktop since I have to lug a laptop home every night but I was told that locking my office is sufficient when I am gone. We do have security officers working 24x7.
The next toy is a Garmin eTrex GPSr. It is an 2000 model and does not have a data cable, but I figured I could play around with it some. It will not be a great geocaching unit but it will be good to test with.
The third toy (that will be delivered in a few weeks) is a HP Compaq nc6510b laptop to replace the HP Compaq nc6000 I was issued 4 years ago. Our company has a program to only support PC's that are 3 years old or less. The new laptop that I get in a few weeks will be the work horse.
I asked what I was to do with the old "unsupported" laptop when my new one comes in and I was told, "Well, you are supposed to have them recycled but if you want to use it as a test machine, have fun!" It looks like I will be trying out Linux on it in about a month. Sweet.
Well, work has not been too bad today. We have had a couple of issues each day that we have worked on and I have cleaned up three of them. Rumors are floating around (duh!) and the natives are getting restless.
The management has told us they expect this building to close down and for us to be moved to the "main" building in 6 months or so. It is a bit further to drive, but I think it will be okay as long as we can work from home two days a week like we do now.
Monday, May 19, 2008
So It Has Been Five Days...So What?
Yeah, yeah, I know...it has been a while since my last update. Well, I have not really been motivated so the words are not flowing. However, this weekend was pretty event-filled so I thought I would blog a bit.
The work week ended rather slow after working my customary two days from home (Wed and Thu). Friday was quiet and I went home early. I snagged a geocache on the way home Friday and hoped to do some serious caching on Saturday. However, I failed to remember that my weekend was full and I had things to do...
Saturday morning I got up and went to the Men's breakfast and ate a pretty good meal as well as good conversation with my BiC's. After we ate and cleaned up, I walked out to see how the church yard sale was doing. Things were going well and a lot of the bigger items had been sold. I then was told that a couple of draw items (a cell phone and a digital camera) had been stolen right off the table. Now maybe I am just a cynic, but how low does a person have to be to steal from a CHURCH? And a church yard sale at that? After voicing my ire, I went home.
When I got home my lovely wife was not there so I let the dogs out to "do their thing" while I contemplated going geocaching at Breckenridge Park in Richardson. It is a big park and there were 15 caches there I have not found yet. It sounded perfect. I collected my gear and headed out. Yes I had a house to vacuum and two yards to mow, but I was feeling selfish so I went anyways. That boys and girls is where I made my big mistake.
I finally made it to the park (a wrong turn and several bicyclists hindered me from making the correct turn) and started my trek. I headed off but in the end I had the single most disappointing day ever. I only found one in the park and two outside the park that I had missed a few weeks ago. I guess that when you are being led to do the right thing and you get selfish and do the wrong thing, you pay. So El Gee was not "the great white geocache hunter" he wanted to be on Saturday...and I deserved what I got.
Deflated, I came home and mowed the grass and then walked Little Man (who by the way is looking really old and most of the time acts very old) a bit. He did not seem to want to walk, but he did and then we went back home. With all the hard sweaty work done, I got a shower.
Sunday I skipped Sunday School but made it to church. Sometimes it is more important to take care of personal things at home while you have the time then waiting and letting them simmer and possibly boil over.
After church my wife and I went to "Joe's Italian Bistro", a mom and pop type place, for lunch. The chicken marsala was great, but I ended up spilling some of the sauce on my jeans. It most likely will come out thanks to a blast of "Spray and Wash" I put on them when I got home. After lunch my wife laid down and I went out to place a new cache close by and replace one that had been muggled. Both were put in action and ready to be found.
After that I did not have much time before my wife and I needed to go to the parsonage and participate in some "Alter Worker" training. My wife and I (as well as 6 other couples) were chosen to be available to pray for people when they request it. While our new pastor is not the most accomplished teacher in the world, he is a strong man of God and is growing into his new role very well. We are quite proud of him.
We finally left at 9 PM and headed home to walk the dogs. It was not much later that I fell asleep while my wife was surfing the web.
The work week ended rather slow after working my customary two days from home (Wed and Thu). Friday was quiet and I went home early. I snagged a geocache on the way home Friday and hoped to do some serious caching on Saturday. However, I failed to remember that my weekend was full and I had things to do...
Saturday morning I got up and went to the Men's breakfast and ate a pretty good meal as well as good conversation with my BiC's. After we ate and cleaned up, I walked out to see how the church yard sale was doing. Things were going well and a lot of the bigger items had been sold. I then was told that a couple of draw items (a cell phone and a digital camera) had been stolen right off the table. Now maybe I am just a cynic, but how low does a person have to be to steal from a CHURCH? And a church yard sale at that? After voicing my ire, I went home.
When I got home my lovely wife was not there so I let the dogs out to "do their thing" while I contemplated going geocaching at Breckenridge Park in Richardson. It is a big park and there were 15 caches there I have not found yet. It sounded perfect. I collected my gear and headed out. Yes I had a house to vacuum and two yards to mow, but I was feeling selfish so I went anyways. That boys and girls is where I made my big mistake.
I finally made it to the park (a wrong turn and several bicyclists hindered me from making the correct turn) and started my trek. I headed off but in the end I had the single most disappointing day ever. I only found one in the park and two outside the park that I had missed a few weeks ago. I guess that when you are being led to do the right thing and you get selfish and do the wrong thing, you pay. So El Gee was not "the great white geocache hunter" he wanted to be on Saturday...and I deserved what I got.
Deflated, I came home and mowed the grass and then walked Little Man (who by the way is looking really old and most of the time acts very old) a bit. He did not seem to want to walk, but he did and then we went back home. With all the hard sweaty work done, I got a shower.
Sunday I skipped Sunday School but made it to church. Sometimes it is more important to take care of personal things at home while you have the time then waiting and letting them simmer and possibly boil over.
After church my wife and I went to "Joe's Italian Bistro", a mom and pop type place, for lunch. The chicken marsala was great, but I ended up spilling some of the sauce on my jeans. It most likely will come out thanks to a blast of "Spray and Wash" I put on them when I got home. After lunch my wife laid down and I went out to place a new cache close by and replace one that had been muggled. Both were put in action and ready to be found.
After that I did not have much time before my wife and I needed to go to the parsonage and participate in some "Alter Worker" training. My wife and I (as well as 6 other couples) were chosen to be available to pray for people when they request it. While our new pastor is not the most accomplished teacher in the world, he is a strong man of God and is growing into his new role very well. We are quite proud of him.
We finally left at 9 PM and headed home to walk the dogs. It was not much later that I fell asleep while my wife was surfing the web.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Huh?
Now I am not a fan of anyone mentioned in this clip, but for all that is Holy, WHY spout off about things like this?
This guy is just one of the many reasons people have so little interest in the Christian faith. This man preaches hate, pure and simple. Christ is love.
This guy is just one of the many reasons people have so little interest in the Christian faith. This man preaches hate, pure and simple. Christ is love.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Every Log Tells A Story
I periodically scan the visitor tracking logs of this blog, just to get an idea of who visits this site and what brings them here. My hits are relatively low, 10 or so a day. On Monday, I was blown away...the logs showed 42 hits, the majority coming from European Credit Management in the UK. It seems the search started with info regarding the mattress that my wife and I bought from I Ikea last year, the Sultan Evje. While the number of hits is surprising, the context of the search is not (a large number of people hit my blog looking for info on that mattress). What is surprising is that after searching my blog for mattress info, they took the time to read several months of archieved articles. Interesting.
Scanning the logs I also notice a few hits on the con man and convicted fraudster, Ronald Patrick Arlt, whom I met a few years ago. It seems that I get hits on his name every week. Some are from former victims who have contacted me to share information, others are not. I have even had law firms seach for his name and be brought to my site.
And there are a large number of searches for the avatar that I use on this blog, Tux (the Linux penguin) swatting the Microsoft butterfy. That item seems to be pretty popular. Actually that search is as popular as the one on how to get soap suds out of your dishwasher (a cute story that I blogged about last year or so).
And lastly (but nost important in my opinion) are the regular readers (mostly friends) who stop by (sometimes every day) to see what good ol' El Gee is up to.
Yep, every log tells a story.
Scanning the logs I also notice a few hits on the con man and convicted fraudster, Ronald Patrick Arlt, whom I met a few years ago. It seems that I get hits on his name every week. Some are from former victims who have contacted me to share information, others are not. I have even had law firms seach for his name and be brought to my site.
And there are a large number of searches for the avatar that I use on this blog, Tux (the Linux penguin) swatting the Microsoft butterfy. That item seems to be pretty popular. Actually that search is as popular as the one on how to get soap suds out of your dishwasher (a cute story that I blogged about last year or so).
And lastly (but nost important in my opinion) are the regular readers (mostly friends) who stop by (sometimes every day) to see what good ol' El Gee is up to.
Yep, every log tells a story.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Cache and DREAM
Whoo hoo I had a grand time on Saturday afternoon. My morning was not bad but the afternoon was better.
I had gotten a call Friday evening from the men's ministry leader asking if I would help serve during the womens "mother/daughter" breakfast. I was glad to help and it gave me a chance to chat with a couple of the guys I normally do not talk to much. After the serving was over, I volunteered to wash dishes and clean up before going home. The ladies had a good time and they were pleased with our work. That was a good feeling.
After my wife and I got home, I decided to grab a few caches with the new GPSr. I initially had trouble getting used to it but after a while it became easier. While I missed a few, I still came home with 20 smilies (smilies are the graphical symbol on the geocaching web page that you get when you find a cache) in about a 5 hour period. I did a lot of walking and got most of the 20 cache "Star Wars" series, plus a few that I had missed in the past.
Once I got home I cleaned up the old GPSr I was borrowing from a guy at church and then started collecting things for the chuch yard sale. I was able to get rid of a few things I will most likely never use. It helps cure me of my pack rat syndrome!
I got up this morning and was pleasantly surprised when my wife was ready for Sunday school when I was, so this time she was actully going to go to SS as well as church service. That was pretty good as well. After church we dropped off the items for the yard sale and then my wife and I went to the Rockfish Grill for lunch. I had the etoufee (whch was okay, but not spectacular) and my wife had the macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi with wild rice and creamed corn (she picked the sides...it normally comes with skillet potatoes). She gave me a taste and I had to admit it was pretty good.
We got home and she said she was going to walk The Golden at the nature preserve in Plano so I decided to grab a few caches in the area. I only got four today, but two of them were pretty hard and another was in very secluded area that the police watch. It is the site of an old strip mall that has basically overgrown with weeds and it has been stripped of much of the recyclable material. The brush is so thick it hides the mall from the road and the access to it is not direct so getting in and out is a big weird.
After I got back and called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day, I walked the dogss then started watching some of the matches at the DREAM MMA event last night in Japan. I only watched three of the fights because I recognized the fighters. I could have watched another that I recognized but I am not a big fan of Caol Uno so I skipped it. Instead I watched Eddie Alvarez, Nick Diaz, and Jason "Mayhem" Miller take on opponents. My thoughts:
Eddie Alvarez def. Joachim Hansen - I watched Eddie when he used to fight on Bodog. He is a great striker and while he peppered Hansen with punches and kicks, the fight went to decision because he never could take control once he had Hansen on the ground. It was a good fight nonetheless.
Nick Diaz def. Katsuya Inou - I have only seen a few fights where someone actually threw in the towel...this was one of them. Diaz is a tough guy from Compton. He is a Cesar Gracie BJJ practitioner and is a purple belt if memory serves me correctly (a Gracie purple is equal to almost anyone elses black belt). To top that off, he is a skilled (if not unorthodox) boxer. While he can finish you on the ground, he would rather stand and bang all the while taunting you. That is exactly what he did with Katsuya. Katsuya decided to stand and trade punches with Nick instead of getting him down and trying some ground work. BIG MISTAKE. Nick does not back down. Katsuya was basically a target for Nick to pound on for 10 minutes.
Jason Miller def. Katsuyori Shibata - This was my favorite fight of the night. If you have never seen Jason "Mayhem" Miller in action, go to mmalinker dot com and watch a few. Darn he is entertaining, win or lose. His antics in the ring had me laughing the entire fight. Shibata was completely out of his league with Miller. Miller picked him apart and made the audience laugh as he punched, kicked, and kneed his victim into a bloody pulp. After the video was over I looked up "Katsuyori Shibata" on the web. While I am not sure, I think it means "punching bag" in Japanese. Just kidding, folks.
If this card does not change, then July looks like it will be a hot month. Affliction has managed to sign Fedor and Tim Slyvia for a heavyweight bout. I think this may be Fedor's toughest contest in years. He has had it easy for a while. Of course TUF 7 is looking pretty good with Evan Tanner, Diego Sanchez, and Jeremy Stephens on the card. However I am very excited about UFC 85, with a PACKED card including Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves, Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick (I am really looking forward to that one...I like both fighters a lot), Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera, Jorge Rivera vs. Martin Kampmann, Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain, Paul Taylor vs. Jess Liaudin...actually the whole card is good, those are just my favorites.
Well, I need my beauty sleep...if you know what I look like you would agree!
I had gotten a call Friday evening from the men's ministry leader asking if I would help serve during the womens "mother/daughter" breakfast. I was glad to help and it gave me a chance to chat with a couple of the guys I normally do not talk to much. After the serving was over, I volunteered to wash dishes and clean up before going home. The ladies had a good time and they were pleased with our work. That was a good feeling.
After my wife and I got home, I decided to grab a few caches with the new GPSr. I initially had trouble getting used to it but after a while it became easier. While I missed a few, I still came home with 20 smilies (smilies are the graphical symbol on the geocaching web page that you get when you find a cache) in about a 5 hour period. I did a lot of walking and got most of the 20 cache "Star Wars" series, plus a few that I had missed in the past.
Once I got home I cleaned up the old GPSr I was borrowing from a guy at church and then started collecting things for the chuch yard sale. I was able to get rid of a few things I will most likely never use. It helps cure me of my pack rat syndrome!
I got up this morning and was pleasantly surprised when my wife was ready for Sunday school when I was, so this time she was actully going to go to SS as well as church service. That was pretty good as well. After church we dropped off the items for the yard sale and then my wife and I went to the Rockfish Grill for lunch. I had the etoufee (whch was okay, but not spectacular) and my wife had the macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi with wild rice and creamed corn (she picked the sides...it normally comes with skillet potatoes). She gave me a taste and I had to admit it was pretty good.
We got home and she said she was going to walk The Golden at the nature preserve in Plano so I decided to grab a few caches in the area. I only got four today, but two of them were pretty hard and another was in very secluded area that the police watch. It is the site of an old strip mall that has basically overgrown with weeds and it has been stripped of much of the recyclable material. The brush is so thick it hides the mall from the road and the access to it is not direct so getting in and out is a big weird.
After I got back and called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day, I walked the dogss then started watching some of the matches at the DREAM MMA event last night in Japan. I only watched three of the fights because I recognized the fighters. I could have watched another that I recognized but I am not a big fan of Caol Uno so I skipped it. Instead I watched Eddie Alvarez, Nick Diaz, and Jason "Mayhem" Miller take on opponents. My thoughts:
Eddie Alvarez def. Joachim Hansen - I watched Eddie when he used to fight on Bodog. He is a great striker and while he peppered Hansen with punches and kicks, the fight went to decision because he never could take control once he had Hansen on the ground. It was a good fight nonetheless.
Nick Diaz def. Katsuya Inou - I have only seen a few fights where someone actually threw in the towel...this was one of them. Diaz is a tough guy from Compton. He is a Cesar Gracie BJJ practitioner and is a purple belt if memory serves me correctly (a Gracie purple is equal to almost anyone elses black belt). To top that off, he is a skilled (if not unorthodox) boxer. While he can finish you on the ground, he would rather stand and bang all the while taunting you. That is exactly what he did with Katsuya. Katsuya decided to stand and trade punches with Nick instead of getting him down and trying some ground work. BIG MISTAKE. Nick does not back down. Katsuya was basically a target for Nick to pound on for 10 minutes.
Jason Miller def. Katsuyori Shibata - This was my favorite fight of the night. If you have never seen Jason "Mayhem" Miller in action, go to mmalinker dot com and watch a few. Darn he is entertaining, win or lose. His antics in the ring had me laughing the entire fight. Shibata was completely out of his league with Miller. Miller picked him apart and made the audience laugh as he punched, kicked, and kneed his victim into a bloody pulp. After the video was over I looked up "Katsuyori Shibata" on the web. While I am not sure, I think it means "punching bag" in Japanese. Just kidding, folks.
If this card does not change, then July looks like it will be a hot month. Affliction has managed to sign Fedor and Tim Slyvia for a heavyweight bout. I think this may be Fedor's toughest contest in years. He has had it easy for a while. Of course TUF 7 is looking pretty good with Evan Tanner, Diego Sanchez, and Jeremy Stephens on the card. However I am very excited about UFC 85, with a PACKED card including Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves, Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick (I am really looking forward to that one...I like both fighters a lot), Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera, Jorge Rivera vs. Martin Kampmann, Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain, Paul Taylor vs. Jess Liaudin...actually the whole card is good, those are just my favorites.
Well, I need my beauty sleep...if you know what I look like you would agree!
Friday, May 09, 2008
Toy Update
I checked USPS online to see what the status of my delivery was on the GPSr that I ordered and it showed that it made it to the main DC in Coppell, TX this morning. This encouraged me, but since the USPS is notoriously slow, I figured I would not get it until Monday.
SURPRISE!
My wife just called to tell me that it had just been delivered. I guess overall that is not bad. I ordered it Monday night, it was shipped from Georgia on Tuesday evening and arrived at my home on Friday morning. Not bad for the USPS. Maybe all those gifts that we have given our mail carrier over the years has actually paid off :-) .
I now can go home and hopefully start playing with my new toy this evening. There is a night cache nearby I have not gotten yet...
SURPRISE!
My wife just called to tell me that it had just been delivered. I guess overall that is not bad. I ordered it Monday night, it was shipped from Georgia on Tuesday evening and arrived at my home on Friday morning. Not bad for the USPS. Maybe all those gifts that we have given our mail carrier over the years has actually paid off :-) .
I now can go home and hopefully start playing with my new toy this evening. There is a night cache nearby I have not gotten yet...
Friday Is Here
Wow, it is Friday already! The week has gone by quickly, even Wednesday and Thursday which are my work at home days.
I cut our yard and our neighbors last night and was able to get done with both AND walk Little Man before it got dark. God is good!
After a relaxing hot shower, I had the hankering for some ice cream so I drove over to Kroger and got a pint of Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate. My wife was clear...do not by her any. With a short grocery list in my hand and my wallet in my pocket, I headed off.
I came back and watched Law and Order that had been taped the night before and hoped to watch Lost but I screwed up and missed it, so it looks like I will have to find a copy online to watch. I hate when they change the times that shows come on. It screws up my recording!
Earlier in the day I collected a few goodies to drop off at the church yard/garage sale and noticed I had an old laptop that belonged to work in my junk pile (when I say old, I mean OLD. 600 mhz, 256 meg RAM old) so I wiped the HD and set it aside to take back to work. Now that my wife has a laptop, we do not need to borrow one from work any more. Work, at one time had a rather large collection of old laptops and my boss did not mind if I borrowed on to travel with. The selection is rather slim now but that is okay as most people have laptops.
Work, so far, has been light. Monday was a bit busy but the past three days have been very quiet. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. I would rather have work to do in the day and have the nights be quiet than lots of quiet all the time then things hitting all at once. Feast or famine is the law of the land.
Well, I learned yet another lesson. When given the option to pay a little more for priority shipping, do it. I ordered my GPSr on the evening of the 5th and I still have not gotten confirmation from the USPS that it has been picked up from the warehouse. Oh well, lesson learned. I wonder how long it will take to get here? Will I have it by next weekend (17th) or will I wait even longer? I guess we will find out!
I cut our yard and our neighbors last night and was able to get done with both AND walk Little Man before it got dark. God is good!
After a relaxing hot shower, I had the hankering for some ice cream so I drove over to Kroger and got a pint of Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate. My wife was clear...do not by her any. With a short grocery list in my hand and my wallet in my pocket, I headed off.
I came back and watched Law and Order that had been taped the night before and hoped to watch Lost but I screwed up and missed it, so it looks like I will have to find a copy online to watch. I hate when they change the times that shows come on. It screws up my recording!
Earlier in the day I collected a few goodies to drop off at the church yard/garage sale and noticed I had an old laptop that belonged to work in my junk pile (when I say old, I mean OLD. 600 mhz, 256 meg RAM old) so I wiped the HD and set it aside to take back to work. Now that my wife has a laptop, we do not need to borrow one from work any more. Work, at one time had a rather large collection of old laptops and my boss did not mind if I borrowed on to travel with. The selection is rather slim now but that is okay as most people have laptops.
Work, so far, has been light. Monday was a bit busy but the past three days have been very quiet. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. I would rather have work to do in the day and have the nights be quiet than lots of quiet all the time then things hitting all at once. Feast or famine is the law of the land.
Well, I learned yet another lesson. When given the option to pay a little more for priority shipping, do it. I ordered my GPSr on the evening of the 5th and I still have not gotten confirmation from the USPS that it has been picked up from the warehouse. Oh well, lesson learned. I wonder how long it will take to get here? Will I have it by next weekend (17th) or will I wait even longer? I guess we will find out!
Will It Get Better?
Michelle Malkin is reporting that the Myanmar disaster is getting worse. No, not by the body count (which is rising daily) but by the fact that the Burmese government has confiscated food sent by the World Food Program.
Reuters reports:
Reuters reports:
Sigh.The two shipments, 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, were enough to feed 95,000 people — a tiny fraction of the estimated 1.5 million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which ripped into the southeast Asian nation six days ago.
“It should be on trucks headed to the victims. You’ve seen the conditions they are in. That food is now sitting on a tarmac doing no good,” Banbury said.
Despite the desperate needs of the survivors, the generals are adamant that only they will distribute the emergency aid that is going in after the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in Bangladesh.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Myanmar Tragedy
The death toll is officially 22,000 but people are expecting it to climb to 100,000.
The US military is still not allowed in to help. Quoting Financial Times dot com,
“Only three people in the whole country can make decisions, one of whom is the senior general’s astrologer,” one foreign aid worker said."
That is sad. How much you want to bet that America's enemies will spin this in their favor.
Why is the military not allowed to help?
“The Burmese military is concerned about white faces...seeing what they’re doing,” said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst exiled to Thailand."
and
"The (Burmese) regime had given clearance for a small four-member team of UN workers from Asian countries to enter Burma to assess the situation. But a fifth UN worker from a western country was denied permission to enter the country."
Well, darn, I have have to give them credit for sticking by their guns. usually when someone does not trust the US, they will let us in the minute things get ugly. Burma is keeping us out throughout the worst disaster in recent memory.
I do pray for all those who are suffering in Myanmar. May God give you peace.
The US military is still not allowed in to help. Quoting Financial Times dot com,
“Only three people in the whole country can make decisions, one of whom is the senior general’s astrologer,” one foreign aid worker said."
That is sad. How much you want to bet that America's enemies will spin this in their favor.
Why is the military not allowed to help?
“The Burmese military is concerned about white faces...seeing what they’re doing,” said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst exiled to Thailand."
and
"The (Burmese) regime had given clearance for a small four-member team of UN workers from Asian countries to enter Burma to assess the situation. But a fifth UN worker from a western country was denied permission to enter the country."
Well, darn, I have have to give them credit for sticking by their guns. usually when someone does not trust the US, they will let us in the minute things get ugly. Burma is keeping us out throughout the worst disaster in recent memory.
I do pray for all those who are suffering in Myanmar. May God give you peace.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Economic Stimulus
Whether you think it is a good idea or not, the federal government is giving a rebate to most US taxpayers this year. The rebate is $600 per taxpaying adult, $1200 for couples, and $300 per dependent. For us, it equates to $1200 since Soldier Boy is dependent no longer on us.
Everyone has a idea on whether this will help spur the economy. Regardless of you opinion, you have at least $600 to do with as you wish. The feds are hoping you will spend it and some of us will. I personally am using in four specific areas:
* Pay off one of the two credit cards we owe money on.
* Pay of my wife's new (used) Gateway laptop that was sold to us by a member of our church (at a very good price).
* Get me a GPSr unit so I can return the one I am borrowing from yet another member of our church (who has let me borrow this one indefinitely since he has two).
* Plop the remainder into the bank.
Since we owe more than the total of the two credit cards, we will continue to drop $500 a month on the other one until it is paid off. We normally are not debt people but a few things came up over the past four years that caused us to borrow the money. The first was some home repairs, then we had not one, but two knee replacement surgeries for The Golden. Let me tell you something, if you go to a good vet hospital, it ain't cheap.
The stimulus packaged comes at a good time. I have been holding off on buying the GPSr for 4-5 months because I wanted to get a good one and did not have the cash to get it. Paying off credit cards is always a good feeling and once we get the other one paid off, we will only owe on our house...both cars are paid for. This truly is a blessing from God.
Now I have had a few people tell me, "well, your wife doesn't NEED a laptop...you have a computer at home and you don't need the GPSr since it is a hobby. You are trying to get out of debt so you should cut back more." Well, two things I have to say about that: 1) It is none of your business. 2) My wife and I have cut back more than most people (we haven't charged anything since the last dog surgery 1.5 years ago, our cable is at the bare minimum I can have to still get broadband, we do not have a home phone, neither of us has any nicer new clothes, I work from home two days a week, our eating out is very low cost once or twice a week, I mow my own grass, and I even cut the grass of one of my neighbors) and we still have been tithing, even though my wife quit her part time job and I lost 2.5% of my pay thanx to cutbacks at work.
We just got back from vacation and for the 5th year in a row (maybe longer, I am not sure) we did not use our credit card for any of it. 100% Florida vacation at a very nice secluded beach house in cash. Not many people do that. Oh, I forgot to mention that we have not charged anything on our credit cards during Christmas for at least five years. We are learning to live on one paycheck (mine), tithe, get out of debt and still do a few fun things.
To be honest we have gotten quite good at living on a budget. While it would be nice to treat my wife to some nice, new clothes and fancy evening out, she is realistic at this point. We have even had people ask us to help them get back on track with their home finances.
Once we get the credit card paid off, we will only owe on the house and then we need to do some more improvements, namely flooring (we are still on the original carpet of our 10 year old home) and living room furniture (cheap 10 year old stuff from Rooms To Go). Once that is done I am sure an appliance, hot water heater, furnance or A/C unit will need replacing.
So say what you will...I am stimulating the economy by buying a few things, paying off some debt, and saving a little. I am going to use this gift from God to give us a moral boost that we need.
Everyone has a idea on whether this will help spur the economy. Regardless of you opinion, you have at least $600 to do with as you wish. The feds are hoping you will spend it and some of us will. I personally am using in four specific areas:
* Pay off one of the two credit cards we owe money on.
* Pay of my wife's new (used) Gateway laptop that was sold to us by a member of our church (at a very good price).
* Get me a GPSr unit so I can return the one I am borrowing from yet another member of our church (who has let me borrow this one indefinitely since he has two).
* Plop the remainder into the bank.
Since we owe more than the total of the two credit cards, we will continue to drop $500 a month on the other one until it is paid off. We normally are not debt people but a few things came up over the past four years that caused us to borrow the money. The first was some home repairs, then we had not one, but two knee replacement surgeries for The Golden. Let me tell you something, if you go to a good vet hospital, it ain't cheap.
The stimulus packaged comes at a good time. I have been holding off on buying the GPSr for 4-5 months because I wanted to get a good one and did not have the cash to get it. Paying off credit cards is always a good feeling and once we get the other one paid off, we will only owe on our house...both cars are paid for. This truly is a blessing from God.
Now I have had a few people tell me, "well, your wife doesn't NEED a laptop...you have a computer at home and you don't need the GPSr since it is a hobby. You are trying to get out of debt so you should cut back more." Well, two things I have to say about that: 1) It is none of your business. 2) My wife and I have cut back more than most people (we haven't charged anything since the last dog surgery 1.5 years ago, our cable is at the bare minimum I can have to still get broadband, we do not have a home phone, neither of us has any nicer new clothes, I work from home two days a week, our eating out is very low cost once or twice a week, I mow my own grass, and I even cut the grass of one of my neighbors) and we still have been tithing, even though my wife quit her part time job and I lost 2.5% of my pay thanx to cutbacks at work.
We just got back from vacation and for the 5th year in a row (maybe longer, I am not sure) we did not use our credit card for any of it. 100% Florida vacation at a very nice secluded beach house in cash. Not many people do that. Oh, I forgot to mention that we have not charged anything on our credit cards during Christmas for at least five years. We are learning to live on one paycheck (mine), tithe, get out of debt and still do a few fun things.
To be honest we have gotten quite good at living on a budget. While it would be nice to treat my wife to some nice, new clothes and fancy evening out, she is realistic at this point. We have even had people ask us to help them get back on track with their home finances.
Once we get the credit card paid off, we will only owe on the house and then we need to do some more improvements, namely flooring (we are still on the original carpet of our 10 year old home) and living room furniture (cheap 10 year old stuff from Rooms To Go). Once that is done I am sure an appliance, hot water heater, furnance or A/C unit will need replacing.
So say what you will...I am stimulating the economy by buying a few things, paying off some debt, and saving a little. I am going to use this gift from God to give us a moral boost that we need.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Prayer Request
This is not well known (outside of church) but my wife has a growth (non-cancerous) on one side of her thyroid. It is inhibiting the thyroid enough that she has to take meds to keep things in check. She went back for a follow-up a few days ago and the doctors have discovered that the lump is growing and now there is another growth on the other side of her thyroid (if you have never seen what the thyroid looks like, click here). She is scheduled to go back and have the newest growth tested and hopefully it will be benign. Her mother died of cancer (cervical/uterine) so my wife is pretty nervous, although she will not admit it.
Nonetheless she will most likely need surgery (but that is a given yet...we will know in a few weeks). While this is not an overly dangerous procedure, it is still surgery. Please be in prayer for the peace that only Jesus Christ can provide for both of us.
God is the ultimate healer. His love is perfect. I take solace in the fact our souls are safe with him, no mater what this world throws at us.
Nonetheless she will most likely need surgery (but that is a given yet...we will know in a few weeks). While this is not an overly dangerous procedure, it is still surgery. Please be in prayer for the peace that only Jesus Christ can provide for both of us.
God is the ultimate healer. His love is perfect. I take solace in the fact our souls are safe with him, no mater what this world throws at us.
But, I Am The PRESIDENT!
Friday and Saturday were very quiet work-wise. I vacuumed the house on Saturday, played with the dog we were pet sitting, took a nap, and watched "Red Dawn" for the millionth time...those were the high points. On Sunday I went to Sunday School and Church and then to a little Mexican place for lunch. My wife and I shared the combination fajitas (and still had some to take home) and headed back to the house.
It had been quiet all weekend long from an on-call perspective. Enough so that I decided to grab as many of the five new 9key hides in our town while nothing was going on.
I drove by the first one, "The Devil Needs Dental Work", but was unable to find it. To be honest, a lone adult male wandering a neighborhood park has a hard task in front of him if he is trying to find a well hidden geocache without looking like a pedophile. Needless to say I did not stay lone. There is only so much time you can spend in a cedar tree and look "inconspicuous".
The next one I went to (La Cucaracha) was a little more involved than I was dressed for. it was hidden under a low bridge that crosses a drainage ditch. I needed to be wearing boots and all I had on was my well ventilated sneakers so I passed this one up as well.
The next one on my list was "Private Eyes". The log entries intrigued me enough that I was optimistic about getting this one. After a false start, I found the little (pea sized) cache and signed the log. I laughed the entire time.
With one cache out of three, I headed off to "Got Cache?", a five gallon bucket with several small cache containers hidden inside. When I found it, I was very pleased to see four travel bugs inside. So with much eagerness, I logged the TB serial numbers and closed the cache back up. I almost got back to the truck before I realized I had failed to sign the log, so I trotted back to sign it. As I was heading back to the truck (for the second time) I ran into another cacher, "Drooling_Mongoloid", who was placing four more TB's in the cache. We introduced ourselves, swapped a few stories, and he even let me write down the serial numbers from the TB's he had. After that was done, I bid him farewell and I headed off to my last stop, "Montgomery Farm".
Montgomery Farm is a high end subdivision with a wildlife area and a paved nature trail winding through it. I found the cache in short measure and was able to inventory it (I discovered another TB), sign the log, and replace it just as three dog walkers were rounding the bend. I hopped in my truck after the short walk back and started back home.
On the way home my mobile rings. It is the local help desk who has a customer requesting priority on a ticket he has submitted. The ticket is a single user issue regarding his Blackberry. I explained that single user issues are never high severity unless the user is a VIP, which this guy was not. The help desk thanked me for the info and I hung up.
Two hours later my boss calls me and asks me about the case. When I tell him, he agrees with my decision and we end the call. End of story. Not.
The next morning my colleague gets a phone call from one of the Accoutn Mgrs. One of the higher up directors asked that the case I had refused the previous day be escalated. Against better judgement we did and when the tech was informed, he just sighed and shook his head. It seems the person who is having this issue USED to be the President of a company that the company we support bought out. Now instead of being "President", he is given the title of "Director" or something, however he is still not considered VIP and that burns him. Well, all I can say is, "Welcome to the real world, sir." It is something we have had to deal with for a long time here in the trenches.
When a person is used to being a big fish in a small pond, that person is used to getting things done their way. The company that bought them out has done a lot in regards to keeping then happy, but they are having problems adjust from a 1000 person company to a 60,000 person company. Try as they might, they are just not the big fishes any more.
We have fielded a lot of complaint calls from the company that was bought out. Most of the complaints have been WAN related, something that w are not contracted to work on. So when a problem arises for them they call us, we see that it is a WAN issue (or something else we are not responsible for, like their PDA's) we hand the issue to the mother company, since that is what they do. The the company that was bought out calls us complaining about the service they are getting...which is, in effect, THEM!
You gotta love corporate America.
It had been quiet all weekend long from an on-call perspective. Enough so that I decided to grab as many of the five new 9key hides in our town while nothing was going on.
I drove by the first one, "The Devil Needs Dental Work", but was unable to find it. To be honest, a lone adult male wandering a neighborhood park has a hard task in front of him if he is trying to find a well hidden geocache without looking like a pedophile. Needless to say I did not stay lone. There is only so much time you can spend in a cedar tree and look "inconspicuous".
The next one I went to (La Cucaracha) was a little more involved than I was dressed for. it was hidden under a low bridge that crosses a drainage ditch. I needed to be wearing boots and all I had on was my well ventilated sneakers so I passed this one up as well.
The next one on my list was "Private Eyes". The log entries intrigued me enough that I was optimistic about getting this one. After a false start, I found the little (pea sized) cache and signed the log. I laughed the entire time.
With one cache out of three, I headed off to "Got Cache?", a five gallon bucket with several small cache containers hidden inside. When I found it, I was very pleased to see four travel bugs inside. So with much eagerness, I logged the TB serial numbers and closed the cache back up. I almost got back to the truck before I realized I had failed to sign the log, so I trotted back to sign it. As I was heading back to the truck (for the second time) I ran into another cacher, "Drooling_Mongoloid", who was placing four more TB's in the cache. We introduced ourselves, swapped a few stories, and he even let me write down the serial numbers from the TB's he had. After that was done, I bid him farewell and I headed off to my last stop, "Montgomery Farm".
Montgomery Farm is a high end subdivision with a wildlife area and a paved nature trail winding through it. I found the cache in short measure and was able to inventory it (I discovered another TB), sign the log, and replace it just as three dog walkers were rounding the bend. I hopped in my truck after the short walk back and started back home.
On the way home my mobile rings. It is the local help desk who has a customer requesting priority on a ticket he has submitted. The ticket is a single user issue regarding his Blackberry. I explained that single user issues are never high severity unless the user is a VIP, which this guy was not. The help desk thanked me for the info and I hung up.
Two hours later my boss calls me and asks me about the case. When I tell him, he agrees with my decision and we end the call. End of story. Not.
The next morning my colleague gets a phone call from one of the Accoutn Mgrs. One of the higher up directors asked that the case I had refused the previous day be escalated. Against better judgement we did and when the tech was informed, he just sighed and shook his head. It seems the person who is having this issue USED to be the President of a company that the company we support bought out. Now instead of being "President", he is given the title of "Director" or something, however he is still not considered VIP and that burns him. Well, all I can say is, "Welcome to the real world, sir." It is something we have had to deal with for a long time here in the trenches.
When a person is used to being a big fish in a small pond, that person is used to getting things done their way. The company that bought them out has done a lot in regards to keeping then happy, but they are having problems adjust from a 1000 person company to a 60,000 person company. Try as they might, they are just not the big fishes any more.
We have fielded a lot of complaint calls from the company that was bought out. Most of the complaints have been WAN related, something that w are not contracted to work on. So when a problem arises for them they call us, we see that it is a WAN issue (or something else we are not responsible for, like their PDA's) we hand the issue to the mother company, since that is what they do. The the company that was bought out calls us complaining about the service they are getting...which is, in effect, THEM!
You gotta love corporate America.
Friday, May 02, 2008
It Finally Hit
All was quiet until noon or so on Thursday. That is when the work actually started.
Monday through Wednesday, work was quiet. Very few phone calls made it to us and none of them were of any importance. Thursday morning was more of the same, but sometime around lunch that all changed. Three high severity issues hit basically at the same time. Thankfully, two of the three were solved by the time I went on call at 5:00 PM. I was blessed with no additional calls that night. The last issue is still being worked on, although the last note states that they think it is resolved and are waiting for the customer to test the solution. Either the customer has forgotten to contact the tech, she is slow, or she has not tried it yet. I am betting on the former. Customers are quick to scream when something doesn't work, but ask them to contact you when they are done testing and they completely forget.
Typical.
Today has been quiet so far. It would be nice if it stayed that way all weekend. I have to go on call in three weeks since my TL switched with me last week. If I have to go on call again so soon, I want the chore to be as painless as possible.
Monday through Wednesday, work was quiet. Very few phone calls made it to us and none of them were of any importance. Thursday morning was more of the same, but sometime around lunch that all changed. Three high severity issues hit basically at the same time. Thankfully, two of the three were solved by the time I went on call at 5:00 PM. I was blessed with no additional calls that night. The last issue is still being worked on, although the last note states that they think it is resolved and are waiting for the customer to test the solution. Either the customer has forgotten to contact the tech, she is slow, or she has not tried it yet. I am betting on the former. Customers are quick to scream when something doesn't work, but ask them to contact you when they are done testing and they completely forget.
Typical.
Today has been quiet so far. It would be nice if it stayed that way all weekend. I have to go on call in three weeks since my TL switched with me last week. If I have to go on call again so soon, I want the chore to be as painless as possible.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr...
Now this really burns my toast. How can anyone (especially a celebrity) make a stupid comment like, "“It didn’t make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else.” (Hat tip to Michelle Malkin)? Grrrrrrrrrr. Isn't that what a mortgage is? He is just upset because the property has lost value and he could not see paying a large mortgage on something worth less than he paid for it. Where is his integrity?
This whole mortgage mess is really beginning to bother me. We have several homes in our modest middle income neighbor hood that people have abandoned overnight. The yard becomes overgrown and choked with weeds and the newspapers and mail begins to pile up. It is no secret what happened, even before the "FORECLOSURE" signs go up. My neighborhood was a nice newer middle class neighborhood with few teen kids running the streets. That is until banks started giving loans to people who could not afford them (via an ARM). Then, when the rate changed on the loan, the families panicked and jumped ship. Now if you lose your job and CANNOT make the payment, that is one thing. But when you are gainfully employeed and CHOOSE to let your property go, "Shame on you".
This whole mortgage mess is really beginning to bother me. We have several homes in our modest middle income neighbor hood that people have abandoned overnight. The yard becomes overgrown and choked with weeds and the newspapers and mail begins to pile up. It is no secret what happened, even before the "FORECLOSURE" signs go up. My neighborhood was a nice newer middle class neighborhood with few teen kids running the streets. That is until banks started giving loans to people who could not afford them (via an ARM). Then, when the rate changed on the loan, the families panicked and jumped ship. Now if you lose your job and CANNOT make the payment, that is one thing. But when you are gainfully employeed and CHOOSE to let your property go, "Shame on you".
Thursday, May 01, 2008
National Day Of Prayer
This morning at 6:00 AM I went to participate in the NDoP at our church. I did not expect many people to be there at 6:00 AM and I was correct. The attendants were the senior pastor, the associate pastor, the senior elder, and myself. Our church is open from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM (we have a Christian school on our premises and we cannot interfere with their schedule) so I expect most people to show up between 8:00 and 9:00 AM.
We had seven prayer stations set up (plus communion, for those so inclined) to allow the participant to pray for specific groups/subjects (military, church, family, government, education, business, and media) as they desired. I stopped at each station for a couple of minutes then headed to the back of the sanctuary to pray for specific needs (I have a lot of friends who ask me to pray for them and I have taken the liberty of praying for others as well). The senior elder asked me to join him and the others to pray for our senior pastor who has been having dizzy spells lately. We prayed and then chatted about things in general. The senior pastor has asked my wife and I to become prayer partners during service. We (along with a few others) would be available during the service to pray with people if they request it. Considering I feel that my verbal prayers are rather mundane, I was surprised that we were asked. However I was reminded that it is the inward prayers of our heart that God is really listening to and since my heart has softened considerably over the past 15 years, I guess it makes sense after all.
Anyhoo...I had to get home to start work so I bid the men farewell and headed back to the house for coffee and cinnamon rolls (the rolls were left over from last nights care group gathering...we had breakfast for dinner and dear Lord that was GOOD) before I started my shift.
If you are a Christian, be reminded that today is the day all Christians unite in prayer for our nation. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then all I will say is that he died for the sins of all mankind...yours and mine. All he asks in return is to trust him to guide your life.
Peace.
We had seven prayer stations set up (plus communion, for those so inclined) to allow the participant to pray for specific groups/subjects (military, church, family, government, education, business, and media) as they desired. I stopped at each station for a couple of minutes then headed to the back of the sanctuary to pray for specific needs (I have a lot of friends who ask me to pray for them and I have taken the liberty of praying for others as well). The senior elder asked me to join him and the others to pray for our senior pastor who has been having dizzy spells lately. We prayed and then chatted about things in general. The senior pastor has asked my wife and I to become prayer partners during service. We (along with a few others) would be available during the service to pray with people if they request it. Considering I feel that my verbal prayers are rather mundane, I was surprised that we were asked. However I was reminded that it is the inward prayers of our heart that God is really listening to and since my heart has softened considerably over the past 15 years, I guess it makes sense after all.
Anyhoo...I had to get home to start work so I bid the men farewell and headed back to the house for coffee and cinnamon rolls (the rolls were left over from last nights care group gathering...we had breakfast for dinner and dear Lord that was GOOD) before I started my shift.
If you are a Christian, be reminded that today is the day all Christians unite in prayer for our nation. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then all I will say is that he died for the sins of all mankind...yours and mine. All he asks in return is to trust him to guide your life.
Peace.
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