Archives October 2009

Last night I received the materials from HouseParty.com for my Windows 7 launch event October 23rd.  I was surprised by all the stuff I got for absolutely FREE.  The box included:

Streamers
Balloons
Windows 7 jigsaw puzzle
Windows 7 shopping bags
Windows 7 napkins
Windows 7 playing cards
Windows 7 poster
Various hand outs with discounts for various software
and most importantly a FREE copy of a SIGNATURE edition of Windows 7 Ultimate in both 32 and 64 bit flavors.

I was thrilled with my collection of loot.  It almost made me feel guilty that nobody has agreed to come to my party.  I think there were some technical difficulties when my invites went out though. Certain people I invited said they never saw the invite.  So if you are bored on Friday the 23rd come on over!

I guess the least I can do is install Win 7.  I think my game plan will be to buy a new hard drive to load the OS on from scratch, that way all of data will be intact on the old drives until I get a chance to migrate it over.

After work today I get to time my first evening race.  There is a pretty good turn out for the event.  We will probably have 400+ participants. The majority of them will be novice runners so it should be an interesting scene.

Mom called and told me she is all set to start collecting social security in January once her 62nd birthday clicks by in a month or so.  If mom can score a part time job that should be enough to pay the bills when combined with her SS benefits.

I was reading a little about the latest version of the health care bill that is getting drug through the mud in the senate.  The proposal is having various shit tacked on left and right while lacking the public option that would offer coverage to those who have none otherwise.  To me, if a bill that comes through that does not offer health coverage for those that are currently uninsured is a monumental waste of effort/money/power. 

Obviously traditional lobbyist backed politics is winning this battle.  The insurance companies  have politicians on both sides of the fence bought and paid for.  As a result no meaningful change will take place because insurers will pay a fortune to prevent it.  It’s disappointing and sad. 

Obama at this point seems willing to accept a package that is a far cry from what he hoped for originally, just so he can say that SOME sort of health care reform has been enacted.  When I read a line that says the “bill would reduce the number of uninsured people in the United States by about 29 million by 2019” I know the bullshit meter is off the charts.  Posting guessed numbers a decade in advance as a basis for justification is a joke.  We can’t wait 10 years.   

Despite the best intentions, even Obama seems unable to win against the countries biggest nemesis,  no not Republicans, lobbyists.  We are so f’d…..

So I managed to squeeze another 300 workout in at Planet Fitness.  I knew it was going to be a challenge because there were a lot of bodies in there.  All around the workout went better this time in comparison to my initial attempt. 

There are three different areas where you can do pull ups, I found the one that is best suited to the rapid fire style that I need to do the 300 pull ups.  Unfortunately it is located in the middle of a cable machine that is nearly always in use.  I had to try to wedge myself in between others rest periods between sets. 

Another exercise that was severely gimped were the box jumps two weeks ago.  PF only has  half the number of Reebok steps as Pure Fitness had, meaning my box jump sets were more like bunny hops.  Well this time around I spotted a hip machine that had a large steel platform that moved up and down.  In it’s highest position it was damn close to what I was jumping on before.  However there was a problem.  When you first stepped on the platform it dropped like a 1/4 inch before it hit the pin that held it in place.  When I first tried to jump on it, each rep made a rather loud bang as my body weight would slam the platform down onto the pin.  Well this would certainly flag me for lunk behavior in no time flat so I had to improvise.

I looked around and grabbed two 25 pound weights.  I placed them on the platform and thankfully they were just heavy enough to sink the platform to the point where it rested on the stops.  I was now able to jump onto it without making much noise at all.  In some ways this was even better than the Reebok steps because it didn’t creep across the floor as it was jumped on. 

The rest of the workout went smoothly until it came time to do my last set of pull ups.  I had to try to wedge my set between some Haitians that were doing incredibly poor form tricep exercises.  I have seen these guys doing the same lame shit before.  Every exercise they do is with bad form, typically very fast and relying on way too much momentum.  I knocked out 12 reps on the machine before some old fart came in and ignored me standing there to do curls.  I didn’t feel like waiting so I went over to the pull up thing where I bang my head and haphazardly finished my last 13 pull ups.

Besides the end, the routine went pretty well.  You can tell that the majority of the people there are not used to seeing someone doing these sort of exercises in the sterile gym environment which is Planet Fitness.  I got all sorts of “what the f is he doing” looks.

Scott turned me on to a very cool app called DropBox.  The app creates a storage area on however many pc’s you desire and then sync’s the information between them automatically.  So for example if I had a document that I wanted to be accessible from ANY pc I normally use I just throw that file in my drop box and it automatically gets replicated to the other systems as well as being available via the DropBox website if I want to get to it from a PC that does not have the DropBox client installed.

It even has an Iphone app that allows you to view any of your drop box content on your phone.  The service also makes sharing files EXTREMELY easy.  You simply mark a file as being shared and you get a link to copy elsewhere or send to a friend via email.  It’s a GREAT service.  Being cheap, I only am using the free service which allows you to store 2 gig of data (can be bumped to 3 if you jump through some hoops)  If you are a hard core user they have monthly plans that allow up to 100 gig of storage.

So if you ever find yourself wishing you had access to a document, pdf, spreadsheet, picture or pretty much any type of file from ANYWHERE, get DropBox.

Continuing along the geek path, I recently flipped our main file and print server over to a beefy 1U server running 64 bit Windows Server 2008.  Doing so wasn’t too much of a hassle but had a few challenges along the way.  One of the challenges was of course moving the data.  I found a couple GUI apps that basically use Robocopy to transfer files between servers.  Unfortunately, no matter what I did, the GUI Robocopy nor an even more powerful utility called Richcopy refused to copy the NTFS security info across.  I was forced to use the plain old command line version of robocopy to get the job done using the /MIR and /SEC switches.

This method did NOT recreate the shares on the new server, which I had to do manually.  During the process I redid the method I was sharing home directories.  Forever I had been sharing each users home directory individually using a hidden $ share.  I read that was not the preferred method any longer so instead I made the user directory above the home directories shared with a $ share and changed the home dir mappings to something like this \\server\users$\username  .  It works fine and saved me from creating several dozen more shares on the new server.

The other challenge has been print drivers.  It can be problematic hosting a print server on a 64 bit machine.  Some manufacturer print drivers seamlessly will support both x64 and x32 clients, some do not.  I learned that the hard way this morning.  It was addressed by simply loading the 32 bit driver from the client when you try to connect to the server print queue.

I still have a few little quirks to work out but for the most part users were able to log in this morning and not even realize that all of their files were now on new hardware which is the way it should be.

So yesterday I finally decided to give my old school buddy Hoyt a call.  He had sent me his cell number via Facebook a few weeks back but I hadn’t gotten around to calling him.  As I mentioned before I had some hesitation in making the call just because to me, it’s a weird thing picking up a line of verbal communication after a nearly 25 year hiatus.  It turns out it wasn’t such a big deal at all.

When Hoyt picked up he still sounded like the Hoyt I remembered from 1985.  He was on the road, making a delivery to somewhere in Carolina.  He was surprised but very happy to see that I called.  We spent around an hour on the phone where Hoyt filled in the blanks of what he had been up to over the years.  He has had a very interesting  journey so far that had a number of obstacles along the way.   We didn’t even really get into my shenanigans during the call as I had to get off the phone to get to a meeting.  Hoyt and I both agreed we would keep in touch and he said he would love for me to come to the east coast and visit sometime. 

After I hung up I was glad I made the effort to make the call, a call that was encouraged by several of my high school FB buddies as well.  I think I have come to dread most phone conversations because of my inclination to get tongue tied at times as well as hit conversational potholes on a regular basis.   I’m glad I set my reservations aside to make the call.

Ironically, even though I am sure it was a national story, I have not commented on the local gruesome killing where some crazy Haitian killed his wife and four young children.  It of course has dominated the local headlines ever since it went down.  The story is disgusting, how a man can bring himself to kill his children and their mother with his own hands is about as dark of a place as a human being can go.

Over the weekend Ali and I approached a huge gathering of vehicles by the side of the road next to a local cemetery.  We correctly assumed it was the funeral of the family.  Evidently there were THOUSANDS of people that attended the funeral.  This struck me as odd.  I tried to understand why total strangers would feel the need to attend this family’s funeral.  Their only connection to the event was what was read or seen on the news. To me, I would feel like an intruder on what should be a private family service.  The cynic in me  thinks that a lot of it is people just wanting to me part of the “event”. “Hey look at me, I was at the Damas funeral”  Who knows, that’s just my spin on it.

Another crazy thing about the case was the father saying he was going to kill himself after performing the atrocity but he didn’t because committing suicide would prevent him from getting into heaven. Cut me a f’ing break. You slaughter your family but think the door to heaven is still open as long as you don’t off yourself?  Wow religion really is f’d up isn’t it?

Saturday morning we once again found ourselves crawling out of bed at 4am to time another race.  The turnout for the race was light so Ali had the idea on Friday that maybe she could run the race with our friend Michelle.  So Ali put entries into the system until about 15 minutes before race time and then I took over.   I had to scramble a bit to get from the registration area to the starting line which was pretty far away.

The timing of the race was a piece of cake.  At this point I have most bugs worked out of the new system, it just works and I love it.  Ali finished the race at just around a 10 minute mile pace which was way better than she expected.  This was her first outdoor 5k since she did the Irongirl 2 years ago.  I was proud of her as she came across the line all full of smiles.

We were cleaned up and out of there by 9am and home about a half hour later. Ali laid down and took a nap while I worked on getting the race results out on the website.

Saturday afternoon we knocked out our outside chores and then headed out to Lowe’s.  We are heading into our prime planting season so we wanted to get the garden ready.  We needed a bunch of soil to bring certain areas up in elevation.  We also bought some plants for the garden as well as wood for the dog deck project which I will cover later.

Before we brought the dirt back I wanted to till the existing soil to turn it over and aerate things as well.  The tiller we have was given to us by our former neighbors, it is called the “Mantis”.  Well the Mantis is rather old, it’s old enough that the gas primer bulb was dry rotted.  I had just ordered a new bulb for our one weed whacker.  I decided to pull it out of the whacker and use it in the tiller instead, luckily they both used the same size bulb.

The Mantis does a real nice job once you get it running.  The problem is getting it running.  I have blisters on 4 different spots on my right hand as testament to this difficulty.  I pulled on that thing no less than 50 times trying to get it started using various choke and gas positions along the way.  It’s ALWAYS been a pain in the ass to get started.  I probably spent 45 minutes dicking with it until it finally roared to life.  I tilled the dirt as deep as I could, we are hoping to avoid mutant carrots this year due to compacted soil.

When I was loading up the truck with the dirt and wood I used the bungee cords I carry in the bed to secure the lumber.  I wound up pulling on one cord in a manner that I shouldn’t have.  As I did I was instantly blasted square in the forehead with one of the hooks.  It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to flinch.  Instantly the pain floods my body followed by INTENSE anger.  Ali quickly asked if I wanted her to look at it, not knowing if the injury was bad or not.   I just blurted out something angrily that meant NO.

In those moments right after the impact I feel incredible rage.  I’m not sure whom the anger is directed at but for a few seconds I felt compelled to just smash something. In the past I’ve acted on this rage doing silly things like putting my fist through a door, punching light poles and various other inanimate objects.  I managed to not hit anything this time and instead just pressed on the area on my head that got hit.  As I pulled my hand away Ali said I was bleeding.  It wasn’t a gusher but enough to draw attention.  I also had a nice knot on my head.  I thought to myself that if the hook hit a few inches down it could have easily taken out an eye, sheesh.

So we got back and I dumped the dirt around the garden and then pulled on the tiller another 25 times or so to get it started again.  I mixed the new dirt with the old dirt. We planted the eggplant, tomatoes, and lettuce we bought.  Ali also started carrot, beets and corn seeds.  We are crossing our fingers that we have similar success as we did last year.   

On Sunday morning after Ali went to spinning we headed over to mom’s place.  Mom’s friend that lives in the same development was giving mom her old couch.  Ali and I were there to help move it.  Mom was surprised we brought the van, she thought we would bring the truck to throw the sofa in the back.  Instead we brought the van and my hand dolly.  We brought the dogs with which is why the van was preferred.

The sofa was big but not brutally heavy, Ali and I were able to carry it out the front door without much issue. Once we were out the door I balanced it on the dolly while mom and Ali balanced the ends.  We wheeled it up to mom’s place and took in through the back sliding door.  It’s pink, a big change from the nondescript sofa it replaced.  Mom was happy to have it in there.  Now she is looking for a recliner to round out her seating arrangements.

On the way home we had to stop at Home Depot for me to get a couple more boards.  I made some miscalculations when I started on the dog deck Sunday morning and cut some boards too short.  The dog deck is something I had laid out in my head for awhile.  The dogs, especially Nicki really likes to lay on tile, I think she likes the way it feels cool to the touch.  I had a bunch of left over tile from the bathroom, I thought it would be cool if I built a small dog size deck that used tile for a top.  Making it small meant I could move it around as needed.  I came up with six 16 x 16 tiles laid out in a 2 x 3 shape as a good size.  It was big enough that Nicki could stretch out on it but small enough that Ali and I could move it easily.

I handled this project the same way I do most projects, in my head only.  I figured how big the platform had to be to accommodate the tiles.  I then used a piece of decking to give me  consistent spacing between the legs and the support frame to create the lip the tile would rest on.  

It might have taken me an hour or two of futzing around until I had the frame built.  The tiles fit in well but not too snug to allow easy removal.  I called Ali out to see my latest masterpiece.  She thought it was great and helped me carry it out to the back yard.  We set it up and put the tiles in place.  We called the dogs over to check out their new deck.  As expected they didn’t quite know what to make of it.  they sniffed around a bit but didn’t go up on it. 

Later as I sat on the edge of the deck I coaxed Sadie up onto it, she stood there for a bit and then got off.  I’m hoping the dogs warm up to the canine platform.  It would suck to go through the effort and not have them use it.

  Location is key as the deck needs to be in an area that is shaded for a good portion of the day.  Depending on the time of year those areas change so we will be moving the deck around from time to time. You can see the small collage of pictures here. If the dogs don’t use it I suppose it would make a nice plant stand.

I forgot to mention a funny WoW incident.  I have not been playing much WoW over the past week or two for various reasons ranging from being busy, tired or just not feeling like playing.  Well last night I logged on around 8:15 and was asked if I wanted to do a new instance that should take “30 minutes” if it went well.  It was a something I was interested in seeing and the short time commitment made it more appealing so I joined up.

This was a 25 man instance.  Trying to coordinate 25 people is in a word, sucks.  We didn’t have enough people from our guild on to fill all 25 slots so we had to PUG the rest.  PUG stands for Pick Up Group.  You basically broadcast that you are looking for people to fill out the group and whomever responds joins in. PUGGING is generally not a good thing because more often than not you wind up with morons .  Well last night was a classic example.

We wiped twice on the boss conventionally after failing to execute our fight strategy as planned.  Well after that some people got frustrated and left so we had to get more PUGGERS in there.  Well then as we are sitting around waiting to start one of the players was bored so he got out his little WoW remote control car and was f’ing around with it.  Well he inadvertently got too close to the dragon and pulled her to us.  Since nobody was ready it was pure chaos,  and we all died once again.

The deaths resulted in even more people dropping and us once again having to wait around for PUGGERS to fill the spots.  This half hour instance had turned into a two hours plus cluster f.  Well things went from bad to worse when a PUGGER that got sick of waiting thought he would be a dick just to be a dick.  He jumps down into an area that is filled with dragon eggs.  As a result the eggs all hatch and a swarm of baby dragons come flying towards the group and kills us all once again.  Everyone was beyond pissed.  Well whatever the word that is above pissed in the anger level was reached when two different PUGGERS pulled the same stunt AGAIN once everyone had grouped up again.  I had enough at that point as did everyone else, we killed the group. 

What a colossal waste of time, (virtual)money and resources that was.  I pretty have much have sworn off doing 25 man instances as a result unless our guild is able to fill all of the slots.  I HATE this aspect of WoW, having my virtual experience trashed by some lowlife dipshits.  I wish I had a button that would eject barrels of excrement on these idiots.

I have been watching Ultimate Fighter again this season.  this time around it is all heavy weights and most noticeably the fabled street fighter Kimbo Slice is on the show.  Kimbo got famous via some YouTube videos of him doing street brawling.  Well Kimbo is built like a super hero and hits like a sledgehammer but he seems to be more or less clueless on what to do if he is taken to the ground.

This week on the show Kimbo fought some guy with a huge beer belly.  Kimbo was very cautious, as he was worried about being taken down.  Despite his caution he eventually got  taken down and once he was on the mat he was helpless.  The fat dude put Kimbo in the crucifix position and was hitting him in the head.  The bell saved Kimbo in round one before the ref stopped it. 

Round two Kimbo landed a few hard shots on fatty but once again got taken down and once again allowed himself to be put in the crucifix position.  This time the clock couldn’t save him.  It was a very lame fight.  The fat dude was prancing around like he put on some sort of MMA clinic.  He basically just laid his huge gut on Kimbo’s face, pinned his arm down with his leg and was hitting him on the head with as much power as a lunch lady.

I came into the season thinking I would dislike Kimbo however the opposite has happened.  He is actually a thoughtful, down to earth guy.  I felt bad that he didn’t get a chance to show his stand up game much.  I was certainly was pulling for Kimbo to find a way out from under the fat ass so he could smash his face in.   

It seems as though Rampage Jackson is a pretty bad coach.  His fighters have lost every fight.  He coached a prior season and had poor results as well.  He makes up for his bad coaching with a hilarious personality.  He is just so entertaining to watch as he talks trash with other people, especially the other coach Rashard Evans who is an accomplished trash talker himself.  I can’t tell you how many times during a show I find myself laughing at something Rampage says or does.

Jeremy is emo, just putting that out there.

I think we may have turned the corner with Spook.  Her ear has looked less disgusting after a week of treatment.  She ate some food last night and again this morning when I put down plain old wet cat food.  Since the ear problem kicked into high gear Spook has not been on her favorite place in the house, her window shelf.  It is a small padded pet shelf we have in the office.  I figured because of her shaky balance she has not ventured up there.  Well this morning she was actually back on the shelf.  All I know is Ali and I will welcome the day we don’t need to give the cat medicine.  We both have had our fill of getting coated in ear and mouth excrement during the process.

We have yet another race to time Saturday morning.  Thankfully it is a small one and should not be a real big deal.  We then have an unconventional race to time Thursday evening, a “corporate run”.  In this event businesses create teams of runners.  Instead of individual scoring, the teams compete against each other.  I take the the three fastest runner times from each time and add them together, the lowest total time wins.  It is a format I never did before so I am a bit nervous about it but the race software supports the format so hopefully it will all go smoothly.

So yesterday I finally decided to get around to selling Ali’s old Treo 750.  I took a picture and updated my version of Turbo Lister to put the phone on Ebay, I had not listed something for sale on Ebay in quite awhile.  So I make my auction and attempt to upload it to their site.  I receive an error saying something about  having money orders selected as a payment option and evidently it is no longer viable when using turbo lister.  Ebay in general is trying to avoid doing money order transactions because it means they don’t get their Paypal cut of the pie.

So anyway I went back into my auction and verified it did not have money orders selected and saved it.  I resubmit the ad and get the same error.  I make a brand new ad and make SURE that money order is not selected, still get the error.  I spent at least a half hour trying to send this ad to ebay with no success. 

Finally my patience ran out and I said f it, I will just throw it on Craigslist for now and see if I get any bites.  I listed the phone on CL around 1pm, by 3pm the phone was sold and I had cash in hand. Wow.  I saved myself the three rounds of fees that Ebay would have charged me for that transaction.  I didn’t have to ship anything and was paid in cash.  It was in a word, sweet.

I think I have mentally committed to get my MCITP for Windows Server 2008.  MCITP is the new acronym and replaces the MCSE designation that was so coveted for a long time.  I have my MCSE for NT4, Windows 2000 and 2003. Realistically, additional certification in my job is really unnecessary, however I think I would like to pursue the new certification anyway.

  In the IT field if you are content with letting your skills and knowledge base stagnate you are setting yourself up for failure.  Even though my job security is almost iron clad solid, if for some unknown reason I found myself out on the job market the updated certification would look good under the nose of someone that is not familiar with my 17 years in the field.  Yea it’s a pain in the ass studying for the exams but most worthwhile things are a pain in the ass so I will “just do it” as Nike endorses.

One of the many friends I reconnected with on Facebook was my school buddy Hoyt.  I recall admiring various aspects of Hoyt’s life when I was in school.  Hoyt was very much into cars and very mechanically inclined.  I always envied the cars he drove, especially the Gran Torino with the Cobra Jet engine.  I remember taking a ride in that thing one time, it was downright scary when he mashed the gas. 

Hoyt helped me one time get my four door, 69 Buick Special Deluxe back on the road.  The car only had an inline 6 cylinder motor so it lacked the torque to do a conventional burnout.  However at some point I discovered that if I was drifting forward and then quickly slammed the car into reverse, the shift in weight off of the rear tires allowed me to light the tires pretty well.  I recall doing reverse burnout donuts around parking lots on more than one occasion.  

Well of course this behavior was not good for the drive line.  Apparently my antics eventually loosened the bolts connecting the torque converter so that I was no longer able to move the vehicle.  I had figured that I wrecked the tranny, it was Hoyt that discovered the problem which was as easy to fix as putting the bolts back in.

Hoyt is third from the right.

Hoyt was a hard worker and had been earning money for quite awhile which allowed him to do cool things like buy the Gran Torino.  I think everything Hoyt had he paid for himself.  My mom was kind enough to buy me the Buick for $800.  It wasn’t until after she got me the car that I started working at K-mart as a stock man to help pay the associated bills.

Finally Hoyt was strong and fast.  He was sort of built like Popeye.  He was thin but had huge biceps from endless work with his home weight set.  Since I had little to no muscle mass at scrawny 150 pounds and 6′ 3″, Hoyt was an example of what I would have wanted to be more like physically.  Hoyt was fast in both short and long distance runs.  The presidential physical fitness challenge was a piece of cake for him, something I never could complete.

On top of his skills Hoyt was just a cool dude, very laid back, very willing to lend a hand in pretty much any situation.

Anyway in several ways Hoyt was a role model for me although I’m sure he never realized it. I remember starting my first personal work out routine that basically consisted of using my 16 pound bowling ball as resistance.  My love of cars grew from there as well and although I never achieved the level of mechanic ability as Hoyt has (he was lead mechanic at a Ford dealership for years) I always aspired to do more.  I think the most complex car work I may have done was replacing an intake manifold and carburetor. 

Once we graduated I never saw or talked to Hoyt, I heard updates about him from the few people I kept in contact with from school. It’s been a real pleasure finding him again on Facebook.  Hell he has a kid now that is going into college for god’s sake…  He actually lives on the east coast of Florida and seems to be at a good place in his life.  I have his number to give him a call, I need to do it.  It’s just a weird thing trying to pick up a conversation after a 24 year time vacuum. 🙂