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[Jun. 13th, 2005|12:43 pm] |
Hey, folks, as many of you may have noticed, I'm in the process of changing my LJ account over to a new one. You can all find me at ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) geekdaddy from here on out. I've added all of my friends over there, so please add my new account back. Thanks! |
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| Weekend update |
[May. 31st, 2005|09:28 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
So, I hope everybody had a safe and slightly drunken holiday weekend. I wish I had.
S was sick for most of the weekend. She came down with some type of sinus infection/cold/African sleeping sickness on Friday. She spent a large portion of the weekend feeling wiped out and finally started coming out of it yesterday. Naturally, my head is now feeling rather full of helium, and my throat was sore last night. Yay.
To top that off, my back has been pretty tight since last Thursday. I just woke up that way. I've talked to the Workplace Resources folks here at work about finding a better chair to help my back (the one I have is atrocious), but that might have to wait until we get into our new building, which will be in two months' time. Picking Mason up over the weekend, and holding him to put him down, was pretty tough for any prolonged period. Bah.
However, the good side is that I had alot of fun with the little turkey over the weekend. We went to the pool on Saturday, and he dug that alot, it seemed. He wanted to be in the big pool more than the kiddie pool, it seemed, but that was okay, too. The water was pretty cold, though. It'll be better the next time, I'm sure.
I also got the last of my 6 inbound exchange student applications on Saturday, and was able to set it up to fast track the process for her guarantee form to be completed today. At least that's my hope. I also signed the forms today saying that my inbounds to Wake County schools have adequate English skills. I have no idea of they do or not, but by God, I don't care. I'll rant about that rule later. The good news is that I'm going to make the Wake County school board's life miserable until they overturn it. It pays to be in an organization like Rotary. This policy of theirs threatens to stall or even kill my youth exchange program in this district, and given that information, I have no doubt that I'll have plenty of Rotarians with some influence making phone calls and helping make the argument to kill this. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. |
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| I need an IMAP mail checker.... |
[May. 25th, 2005|11:01 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bored | ] |
One of the things about starting this new job is that it's started so slowly. It's been almost 8 weeks, and I just got my first cases to work on Monday. I'm hoping to get another two today. Given that one is in Australia, and one is in California, I can't do much for them until they email me back. Not that there's probably much left to do, but I would like to verify that they're okay before closing the cases.
Of course the cases aren't really the problem. You see, over 3 years at TWC/RR, I had developed and evolved a setup for myself that worked. Sometimes better than others, but it worked. I'm trying to do that here, but I'm still a little at a loss for how to do some things. One thing that I'd like to do is set up a secure, authenticated SMTP feature for my server at home, so that I can send my personal mail through Mozilla Thunderbird, my new(ish) personal mail client of choice. I'd also like to avoid having that mail client open at all times, to keep my mind on work rather than other things. That means either setting times for myself to check and respond to personal email, or getting an IMAP mail checker to notify me when I have enough messages to make it worth my while to look. We'll see.
I also can't find my Palm Tungsten E disk that came with my PDA, so I don't have the licenses for the conduit apps to sync my Palm with my new desktop at work yet, at least not with Outlook, which is critical. Bah.
It's going to take some time, but I figure that my day will figure itself out, if I pay attention closely enough. |
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| Let's hear it for Putin... |
[May. 9th, 2005|08:34 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Putin also cited the 2000 U.S. presidential election, ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.
"But we're not going to poke our noses into your democratic system because that's up to the American people," he said.
"Democracy cannot be exported to some other place," he continued. "Democracy must be a product of internal domestic development in a society."
I never thought I'd say it, but thank God for the good common sense of Russians. Or at least this one. |
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| Anatomy of a really good belch.... |
[May. 6th, 2005|04:20 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | good | ] |
So my wife pointed out to me last Saturday, as we sat together on the sofas and watched Spanglish, that I'd had a pretty good day. I had to agree.
I'd been allowed to sleep in until 8:30am. This was absolutely luxurious.
We bummed around the house in the AM until Mason went for his nap.
We had some "quality time" while Mason was sleeping.
We had a landscaper come and look at our yard to start working on a plan for our yard, which is sorely needed.
We went out to the Tiger Direct Outlet store and browsed computer parts.
We had a pretty decent supper, even if it was more expensive than we should have had.
Mason was a dream kid all day, hardly being fussy at all, and he'd gone to bed and was sleeping without a peep.
If I remember correctly, I think I even watched a Cubs baseball game in there somewhere.
We were watching a pretty decent movie, and drinking a beer, which was simply divine.
That's when it happened. I sat up, arched my neck a little, and released the best belch ever. It's a wonderful thing. Your throat opens up, and you release all of the gas stored in your stomach in one giant plug of dead air, one so dense that I could swear that I actually heard it thunk on the coffee table. It was perfect.
Yes, my wife was right. I had a pretty damned good day. |
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| Oh, thank God.... |
[Apr. 23rd, 2005|09:52 am] |
I got nervous when I picked Butch up from our friends' house yesterday, after the most sleepless night in the past year (and that may include my maintenance nights from my previous job...). Our friend Jackie said tha the hadn't napped for her all day. He was tuckered out big time. I brought him home, and had hopes of keeping him awake until at least 7. Nope. I changed his diaper at 6, and he was falling asleep on the changing table. So I put him in his jammies and plunked him down in his crib. He was out before I made it to the door.
But he hadn't had supper yet. That had been next on my 'to do' list when he went narcoleptic on me. So I woke him up around 8:15pm and fed him some supper. He ate like a horse, but then immediately was zonked again, so I brought him back up to bed at 9:10 and he went back out like a light. I dreaded that he would wake up at 4am rarin' to go for the day, but I need not have worried. The blessed little angel let me sleep until 6:30am, straight through. It may not be much, but it was enough for me, thank God.
Today, I'm taking him to the Playspace kids museum with the husbands and kids of three of the other women that are at the beach with my wife. It ought to be a blast for the kids, and maybe even a little relaxing for the dads, too. It's also nice to have some other fathers to bond with on things that don't involve geek stuff, work, or any of the other things that routinely cause me stress. I haven't had much of a social network in the past 4-5 years, which has sucked. This job looks like it might pick that back up. Every Friday I go out to eat with a couple of coworkers (well, every Friday so far, at least), and it's been nice talking with them. The crew at my last job was small, frustrated, overworked, tired, stressed, and generally too bitter to have much fun with when we went out to eat. This group at least, has some fun. It's not that I didn't like my coworkers at RR, but the environment of our job didn't make for a very good social situation, in or out of work. NetApp is much better in that regard, so far.
Of course, I have yet to get to the part that's going to stress me out. Heh. |
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| One of the longest nights of my life |
[Apr. 22nd, 2005|04:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  drained | ] |
So S left for the beach with her girlfriends yesterday. She has called me 4 times since she arrived. So much for homesickness, eh?
But the downside of her leaving when she did is that Butch got over the last hurdle in his recovery from the galloping crud that he suffered through last weekend: returning his bowel function to normal. Yes, that's right, until Wednesday at 3pm, he was still having loose stools. Naturally, when I say 'loose', I mean an organic form of battery acid that was apparently liquifying his innards like he had swallowed a Cuisinart. He had attrocious diaper rash, and frankly, who can blame the poor kid if he was grumpy to boot?
( But..... )
Right now, I'm more ready to sleep I have been in a long, long time. |
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| This weekend |
[Apr. 21st, 2005|12:40 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
S is headed out of town to the beach this weekend with the girls, leaving me at home with M. She's leaving tomorrow night (Thursday) and won't be back until Sunday, so that's three nights of bachelorhood for Butch and me.
I can't say I'm really "looking forward" to this, in some respects. I have no idea how he'll do with not seeing Mommy for 3 days, but I am fairly certain that Mommy will be in charge of him whether she likes it or not, come Sunday night.
In the meantime, I'm actually talking to a few of the other husbands of Thelma, Louise, and company about possibly taking the kids out to a kids museum called Playspace on Saturday. Even if it's only for an hour or two, it'll be cool to get them out, and have other dads to hang out with. I'm also talking to them about potentially going to a baseball game next week. Hey, if the girls get to go to the beach for the whole weekend, I think a frickin' $8 baseball game, 2 hot dogs, and a beer are the least they could give us in return, right? |
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| Mason the Endemic |
[Apr. 18th, 2005|09:19 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | exhausted | ] |
Well, folks, this weekend kind of sucked.
( Please read this public service announcment from the Health Department )
Frankly, I have no idea why the CDC doesn't insist that day care be part of the blood donation questionnaire. "Have you been to sub-Saharan Africa in the last 5 years? Are you an IV drug user? Do you have a child in day care?" Answer yes to any of them, and your blood goes into the US military's biological warfare arsenal.
Blech. I think I need another shower. |
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| The new job |
[Apr. 12th, 2005|09:27 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
Well, after just over 1 week in the new job, things are going well. I'm going through the computer based training (CBT) on the products right now, and I have some work to do to learn all of that, but so far it's been rather boring otherwise. I know that will change by watching my coworkers. This seems like a pretty intensive job. When I did support back in the day for MindSpring, the mottos were "first call fix" and "meet your call quota". Here, it seems more important to make sure that cases are resolved to the customer's satisfaction, irregardless of how long the final fix takes. Get them up and running ASAP, but take your time making sure that they're happy.
It looks like these guys might juggle around 10 cases at a time, maybe a few more, maybe less. Many of them are pretty involved, and it seems like alot of cases require work beyond the first call. I'm looking forward to learning about this setup, and making this stuff work.
Another cool thing is that this company has apparently never learned that Silicon Valley startups aren't allowed to be in business anymore. Of course, they have that startup attitude, but what seems to be a more sound business model, which is very encouraging. We'll see if that changes going forward, though, as the company grows even more.
In any event, the job is cool. |
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| Vacation Recap |
[Apr. 7th, 2005|02:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | mellow | ] |
Well, we had a one week vacation in PA with my family last week. That is all.
( Okay, maybe not..... ) |
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[Mar. 21st, 2005|11:07 pm] |
So, details on the new job.
I'll be working for Network Appliance, a maker of network storage equipment for businesses and research organizations. I'll be doing tech support for them, which in some respects seems like a step back, I suppose. A former manager of mine, though, from my tech support days of yore has always said that I'm a natural tech support guy. He always thought I was wasting myself as a sysadmin, isolating myself away from customers, etc. He may have been correct on that. In some regards, that's what I miss about my previous jobs, the lack of customer contact. There's almost instant feedback about what kind of job I'm doing, but naturally, that has to be filtered through the Customer Frustration Lens (tm). It's a difficult job, but one in which there are potentially great rewards personally.
The real advantagea to the move are that the money is a little bit better, the hours are steady, and the opportunities for growth and advancement are MUCH better. Oh, and they're still hiring. Any Unix geeks up for it? |
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| Sickness |
[Mar. 18th, 2005|01:29 am] |
Well, there is significant news.
I have a new job.
That's right, boys and girls, after 3 years at Time Warner Cable's Road Runner broadband network services group, I am leaving to take a new job with Network Appliance. NetApp makes network storage equipment for businesses and research outfits, and basically any business or organization that has big storage requirements. They have everything from NAS filers to extreme SAN solutions. I'll be doing tech support for them, but entry level there is still better than where I'm at now. Plus, it lets me get a foot in the door of SAN and NAS, technologies I've been dying to play with for some time.
My last working day at TWC will be the 25th, which is good. I then plan to take a week to go to PA to visit my family and just decompress. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm burnt out. Part of our discussions about this job highlighted that. I can't walk in the door of a new place this toasted. I need to recharge a bit first.
That, however, will be tough to do since I'm the only healthy one in this house. Shannon has had a chest cold for a few days, but this evening got the galloping crud that hit me on Sunday. Sitting on the can holding a bucket is no way to spend a Thursday night. I won't be going to work tomorrow, despite the fact that I have a big project that gets rolled out sometime tomorrow, so that I can spend the day with my wife and son and tend to their sick asses.
Mason is doing much better after Tuesday night's trip to the ER thanks to his 5 hour puking episode. The poor kid heaved 22 times by my count between 5pm and 10:30pm. The docs had to give him something for nausea that did help, but he has hardly eaten anything since Tuesday, poor kid.
I'm very tempted to just run away. |
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| The list of things going on in my life |
[Mar. 11th, 2005|11:05 pm] |
Let's see.....
One of my best friends since college, and the best man in my wedding is dealing with the death of his 22 (or so) year old brother this past Sunday from alcohol and/or drugs. I hung out with Adam a couple of times years ago, and he was a very cool kid. I feel so sorry for Jay and his family.
This past weekend, I went up to Staunton, VA for a big youth exchange brouhaha. 4 Rotary districts, 3 from Virginia, and ours from North Carolina, all participated in a joint outbound orientation program this past weekend. We had 15 students going outbound next year, and about 20 inbound students, plus 3 Rotex (former exchange students), and 11 staff members, all spending a weekend in a hotel and basically running the kids through YEP boot camp. We discussed topics like stereotypes, handling problems with friends, school, and host families, culture shock, how to travel, packing, and dozens of other topics. I, of course, intend to follow up with my outbounds to drill some of those points home between now and the time they leave for their destinations. The weekend was great, and despite being utterly exhausted, I felt rejuvenated at the end of it.
This of course, brings up another point. My wife has decided, and I agree, that I'm burnt out. At work, we have this Dilbert cartoon that depicts Wally, Dilbert and company going to a 'numbing'. For those of you who haven't seen the cartoon, it's described as the point at which an employee's brain numbs to the pain of working there. I had my numbing last Friday. It's really quite liberating, because now I can either start the downward spiral into bitterness and alcoholism, or ride the wave of utter stagnation that my career could become unless I find another job. In any event, I need a vacation. I haven't had one since going to upstate NY almost two years ago following July 4th. It was wonderful. I sat down and read the entire Harry Potter series in less than a week. Our hosts thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't want to go out and do lots of stuff. I did, but I also was just relishing the time to sit and do NOTHING. Now that I have Mason, that's something that may never happen again. Woe is me.
I really like Carolina Nut Brown Ale.
I would like to tell you all about my current project at work, but I don't want to get dooced.
Battlestar Galactica may well be one of the best television shows to come on in the last decade. I mean this. I'm a scifi buff, but this show has appeal way beyond its genre. Seriously. The characters are engaging and very real, and the storylines are believable (yeah, I know, except for the whole Killer Robots from Outer Space thing, but it's scifi, people. There has to be some suspension of disbelief. I mean, seriously, most of you liked Sex and the City, but do you honestly believe that ANY woman in New York walks around in Manolo Blahniks day in and day out without eventually requiring a double amputation?). In any event, I highly recommend this show to anyone who gets the SciFi Channel.
That's it for now. I'll be back later. |
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| More memes to fill in the massive blank spaces between meaningful posts... |
[Mar. 9th, 2005|09:36 am] |
At the tyrannical behest of 2nd Wickedest Witch of the Pacific Northwest, animimi (sorry, loree has Wickedest hands down *grin* ):
1 Total amount of music files on your computer?
Probably at least 15GB, across three computers, but it should be 20-25GB. I lost a hard drive recently.
2. The last cd you bought was...
Yeesh. It's been a while since I actually bought a CD. Not because I'm downloading everything, just because I haven't really known what I wanted. The last one was probably 'Toxicity' by System of a Down.
3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?
"The Lemon Song" by Led Zepplin
4. Write down five songs you often listen to or mean a lot to you.
Hrm. Lately, it's these:
"Hollow" by A Perfect Circle
"Come Fly with Me" by Frank Sinatra
"Everybody Wants Some" by Van Halen
"Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit
"Free" by Phish
5. What new music are you really excited for in the coming year so far?
Very, very little. I'm finding that in my "old age", I'm no longer looking forward to new music, but instead finding great comfort in the old stuff.
6. What 5 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?
alchemist, because I'm constantly interested in his opinions on music
chachachana, because every time I learn something new about her, I'm blown away
speed_fiend, because she and I have had similar tastes in the past
witchtara1975, because she's one of my newest friends that I'd like to know more about
thebroomecloset, because I think the music he likes might be interesting. |
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| Naturally.... |
[Mar. 4th, 2005|09:12 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blank | ] |
Pitilessly kifed from witchtara1975:
You are |
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| Movie Meme, Take 2 |
[Feb. 17th, 2005|08:24 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
Okay, so a while back I posted my take on the movie meme, and amazingly, only 5 of mine were guessed correctly. I'll give folks another chance for the other 5, so here they are. Remember, as they're guessed, I'll update with the correct guess and the guesser. No cheating, naturally.
1. "Are you classified as human?"
"Negative. I am a meat popsicle." - The Fifth Element - clubjuggler via IRC
3. "The thing's gotta have a tailpipe"
5. "The rifle is the first weapon you learn how to use, because it lets you keep your distance from the client. The closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client. The knife, for example, is the last thing you learn." - The Professional - Wade Minter via AIM
7. "Let me tell you what Melba Toast is packin' right here, alright. We got 411 Positrac outback, 750 double pumper Edelbrock intakes, bored over 30, 11 to 1 pop-up pistons, turbo-jet 390 horsepower. We're talkin' some fuckin' muscle." - Dazed and Confused - elmofromok
8. "The gentleman died because he drank some wine with poison in it. Now, I don't know why you're making such a big deal over this Mortimer. Don't you worry about a thing! "
EDIT: My journal is one of the many non-paid accounts that is affected by the rolling read-only status on the filetmignon cluster. Hopefully, you can post comments. |
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| I want a tattoo |
[Feb. 5th, 2005|08:56 pm] |
That's right. I want a tattoo. Now, some of you that have met me are probably sitting there wondering where I'm going to hide the little bugger. Well, foo on you. I'm actually thinking that I'd like to get a 1/4 sleeve tattoo on my left arm/shoulder. I've been hunting around to figure out what kind of design I want. I don't want the traditional, unbiquitous tribal tattoo. I'm not tribal. And I won't want an Asian design. I have no connection to it, and I want this to look good, but also be more about me. So while I like the tribal designs, I think I've settled on a fair compromise that will incorporate that sort of thing, without looking like every other tosser out there who got one to impress his frat brothers.
I have(tentatively) decided on something that looks like some of the tribal designs, but which will appear to be steel bands, riveted at the junctions. I want it in a dark green to greenish-gray range, and I want it to cover my left shoulder, roughly from the collar bone junction down to mid-bicep (thus making it a 1/4 sleeve tattoo).
So who here thinks I'm nuts? |
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