Aack

8^(

I'm a little bummed...actually I'm really bummed. I found out that some friends are separating. It hurts to think about it which makes it easier to not think about. I'm not sure what to say or how to respond. It's not like I can say I'm sorry, that sounds lame and insincere. At this point all I can think to do is to pray for them.

There's a part of me that hopes that they can find a way to work things out - that is always a good thing, but I know that I don't know the whole story, nor do I think I need to know it. I guess all I can do is let them know I'm thinking about them.

Don't Drop The Soap!

I finally got a shower today. I was happy...very happy...extermely happy...ecstatic! That is until I discovered that the showers were gang showers in the school gym! I haven't taken a gang shower since college. I hated it then and to tell you the truth I'm not too happy with it now.

There's something about 6 guys gathered around a pole that is spitting out thin streams of water that could cut 1/4" plate steel. It just isn't a very pleasing experience. Especially when you are trying to clean all those nooks and crannies in front of someone else. A shower is something of a personal experience and I've never mastered the art of public bathing (a good Roman I would not make).

Fortunately I was the only one in there at the time, but still, why do schools think it is considered a character building experience to suffer through a communal shower. It's not like I'm gonna ask the guy next to me, "would you soap my back?"

Dang I'm Good!

Okay. So we've set up in a school and they have given us permission to use their internet access. No Problem, right? However, the principal doesn't know anything about it and the IT guy is on vacation.

I can connect to their network, but there is no internet access...until now. I was able to locate a machine that I could pull their proxy settings from. We now have internet access, everyone thinks I'm magnificent, and I can now go some other stunning piece of thaumaturgy.

Let The Fun Begin

I finally received notification that I have a fire assignment. When I went to pick up my Resource Order, I discovered I had not been authorized the use of a vehicle. What's up with that? How am I suppose to cart 300 pounds of computer equipment to a fire without a vehicle...am I suppose to hitchhike?

Anyway, the "system" is working it out. That's like saying "the check is in the mail". We have a new automated system - it sucks. It was written by geeks who didn't know how fire works. I have a co-worker who had the priveledge of speaking to one of the programmers at a conference. The programmer said, and I quote, "wow, you're the first person I've spoken to who goes out on fire." Now doesn't that fill you with a nice warm fuzzy!

So here I sit waiting for a RO trying to look busy without starting anything that I can't drop at a moments notice.

Solstice on the Seward

I share with you what I saw while in Seward, Alaska on this year's summer solstice.

Did You Know...

Have you ever tried finding information about obsolete equipment on a company's website? I have and it is sometimes difficult at best

Did you know that when you Google you can add the qualifier "site:www.domain.com" to the end of your search phrase and then you will just Google that site! Do you know how helpful this little tool is gonna be?

Google Rocks!

Links Of Interest

P2P Legal Live Music Sharing: http://www.furthurnet.org

The Experts Resource: http://www.protonic.com

Lightweight Image Viewer: http://www.irfanview.com

Startup Control Panel & StartupMonitor: http://www.mlin.net

L-User Report

Who in their right mind would try to e-mail a 58 MB attachment? 5.8 MB I can understand (and have done a time or two), but 58! Come on people, get a clue!

Road Weary

We are back.
We had a great time.
16 hours on the road in one day.
I am tired.
More later.
Good night.

Life Is Busy...

Life has been pretty hectic this last week. My in-laws arrived Wednesday night and we spent a lot of time before that getting ready (downstairs bathroom is finally finished- yay!)

I have been a mere shadowy presence at home since they arrived. We have had some fires going at work that require our presence. Today for instance...I have been going bonkers trying to respond to miscellaneous requests while at the same time prepare for 4 days off (the family and I are going to Seward for a mini-trip). Things have finally calmed down, I have a boat load of things to document, and I want to be out of here in 90 minutes. Wish me luck!

Bad Bruther

Well, I goofed...big time. I so forgot that today was my little sister's birthday. I didn't even remember a week ago and put it off. I just plain forgot. Now I feel like a real dorf. I'm so sorry, Sarg. I hope you can fogive me!

p.s. she's planning on coming up to Squarebanks to visit us...with her boyfriend wink wink. It'll be *real* fun (big evil grin).

Misc Links of Interest

What the Bleex is that?

My next convertible. (Okay, technically, it would be my first convertible.)

And last, but not least...just in case you were worried about passing the annual whiz quiz, I present "The Whizzinator"!

Beautiful Morning

It is a beautiful morning. The sky is clear, the birds are singing, the temperature is comfortable and I'm stuck in the office. This sucks. I wish we'd dry out and have a few fires so I can get out of the office and go on an assignment or three.

Links of Interest

The following are some links that I found interesting in a recent PCMag article:

• BlackViper - outlines how to tweak Win2K and WinXP services.
• BugMeNot - "Bypass Compulsory Web Registration"
  
• The Agony Booth - site devoted to dissecting bad movies
  
• FilmAffinity - rate some movies and get some "soulmate" recommendations

Anti-Spam Strategies

Brian Livingston, the editor of Brian's Buzz, has written an intersting article for PC Magazine that details some ways to obscure your e-mail address on your website to avoid having it harvested.

L-User Support

I just walked into a co-workers office who was puzzling over a user's problem. The font text of the user's spreadsheet was pixelated (not pixilated) on the screen and when it was printed there were all kinds of weird lines criss-crossing the colums at the top and the text was angled slightly.

I suggested looking at the cell formatting, and low and behold, the user had canted all the text at a 4° angle. Some people are just l-users. Know what I mean?

What a Headache

I woke up this morning with a headache. It's nothing new, it happens to me occasionally. That's one of the reasons why I gave up coffee. It helped a litle, but not totally. I wish they'd go away.

Status Quo

Today was a nice day to be home (it's my Saturday). I woke up this morning in a good mood, I was able to read for a bit, had breakfast with my wife and then dug into housechores. Housechores never really seem to ever end - we have been slowly remodeling the house ever since we moved in... in 1997! Today I was able to complete the gable project, I then got the weedeater and chainsaw running (while it rained - yeah), and nearly finished the bathroom.

The downstairs bathroom is the current "bane of my existence", soon to be replaced by the upstairs bathroom. I'd sooner sell the place than to work on another bathroom, but it would have to be fixed anyway, so I'm stuck. Next weekend I get to use my new gable door to crawl into the attic to replace the bathroom heater/vent/light assembly and associated piping. I'm so excited, can't you just sense the enthusiasm I'm exuding right now?

Who Knew?

I always was suspicious of men in tight tights!

So what do you think the "H" stands for?

Today in User Support

Joat says:

"If it were easy, then anyone could do it! That's bad for job security."

Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Friday June 4, 2004

vade mecum \vay-dee-MEE-kuhm; vah-dee-MAY-\, noun: 1. A book for ready reference; a manual; a handbook. 2. A useful thing that one regularly carries about.

The reader who wants honestly to understand it, and not merely read into it his own ideas, needs some kind of vade mecum to provide the necessary background and explain unfamiliar words and allusions and strange turns of thought.
--Robert C. Dentan, "Including Uz and Buz," New York Times, November 17, 1968

Roget's Thesaurus, which had come into being as a linguistic example of the Platonic ideal, became instead a vade mecum for the crossword cheat.
--Simon Winchester, "Word Imperfect," The Atlantic, May 2001
_________________________________________________________

Vade mecum is from Latin, literally meaning "go with me."

Password Safe

I have found a new tool for my aging memory. I have been keeping a little notebook near the computer (but somewhat inconspicuous) that tracks all the accounts I use on which websites I've used them with their corresponding password. I'm of the mindset that uniformity breeds trackability, so everything has to be different. I dunno if that is true or not, but I do try to maintain as much of a moving target on the net as possible. However, you would not believe how many accounts I've accumulated! Without breaking a sweat, I easily have 30 website/username/password triad sets.

So I began looking for an easy way to track that information in an encrypted database. Enter Moon Software's Password Agent. A nifty little application that provides 256-bit key encryption as well as the ability to launch it from a USB drive without having to install the applet. I started with the Lite version (which is the same app, but unregistered with a 25 password limit), and quickly decided that I needed the unlocked version (for a mere $19.95).

So, if you have accounts galore like I do, check out Password Agent Lite. It's cool, it's nifty, and best of all, it's free.

The Education Page

My friend nomad likes comics. You know, the Marvel comic book type comics. Me, I have always enjoyed reading the Sunday comics. I can even safely admit that if it weren't for the "Education Page", I probably wouldn't even buy a paper. I also enjoy reading the daily funnies, but definitely am not apt to pay for a daily paper when it takes me 3 days to work my way through the small Sunday paper we get here.

You may ask, "Why is he talking about this?" It is quite simple, I have discovered that the Houston Chronicle has over 100 comics available online. In fact, you can custom build your own comics page using their selection process. I have discovered that there is a bit of a limit to the total number of comics that I can add without using multiple bookmarks...unless I use something to shorten the URL address. So now I can read the 56 daily comics I want to read and never have to walk out to the paper box the get them.

Short Stuff

Found this tool last year and have used it for many things. It takes a looong URL and hashes into a 5 character unique code. It now becomes much easier to handle, type, send in e-mail etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

A Line Above The Rest

Just stumbled across this cool tip:

Productive Day

Well today was really, really productive. I didn't actually finish anything, but I made some headway. Let's review today's activities...

• Finished patching and then primed some holes in small bathroom prior to nailing up trim
• Was rustled by a Pink Cowgirl
• Opened up the attic in the house & garage for bigger vents (my neighbor thought I was opening up a new critter hotel)
• Mowed the lawn - okay, my wife actually did that ;-)
• Finally sold the van (who in their right mind needs 4 vehicles)
• Finished painting frames for the vent to go into the bigger attic opening
• Mounted vents onto frames that will go into the bigger attic opening
• Bathed the poodle who thought a roll in some premium dog sh*t was a good thing - again, my wife actually did that, but I cleaned the kitchen so she could
• Laughed at demon-possessed poodle who is drying off

I'm feeling pretty good about what I did do today. Oh, I was also able to post a blog about everything that I was able to accomplish. All in all, a good days set of accomplishments.