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GRAFFITI -- February 23, 2009 thru March 01, 2009 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

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February 23, 2009

No Post.

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February 24, 2009

1923 - I'm catching up, I think. Mondays stay full, but I got everything done, and schoolwork to boot. While the "work" this semester is going to be fairly rote (since it seems to duplicate what I've done daily for years), that can be more challenging, for the following reason: When I believe I understand the problem from the first sentence, I have this tendency to leap to the answer. I've worked fairly hard at moderating that response over the years, but ... let me give you an example. Last night, for my first assignment, I had to grab a ten-line HTML file and an image file. I had to edit the HTML file to personalize it, then upload both of them to my student/class account on a UMUC server. Then I had to get the permissions right (on a Solaris box) so that I could access the page with a browser. It took me much longer to get the download of the original to work right (some funky browser vs. WebTycho interaction) than it did to get all the other planets aligned. So I did all that, then I spent a fair amount of time carefully reading ALL of the requirements, in case I'd managed to leap past one of them in my exuberance. I've got to write a "longer" web page, and put examples of several different tags into my work. I'll probably use the page to point to some of the css and javascript stuff that I did for fun a few years ago, too. I think (I hope) that the best part of the class for me will be when I can actually provide some help and/or guidance to others. Ah, well...

In the meantime, work has been very busy. Very busy. I drag my laptop with me each day, and usually I don't remember to touch it for more than a minute or two. For the sake of propriety and paranoia, I rarely discuss here or anywhere the details of what I'm working on other than when it's really easy to redact. But I haven't been doing anything super-new and exciting that transfers easily out of the work environment. The good news is that I am busy. There are a lot of folks hurting out there in the job market right now, and I count myself lucky.

Back on topic, yeah, I've been quiet-ish, both here and on Twitter. I'm continuing to find Twitter educational and entertaining. I've started following @feliciaday (she can be found at http://feliciaday.com/, too) recently. She came back onto my radar when I caught her work with Joss and Nathan in Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. I'm looking forward to seeing the web-based thing she's doing called The Guild, too. I wonder if that's on iTunes... yes, yes it is! I like her work a lot, and I get from her assorted online presences that she's really bright, too. She puts together a good blend of personal and promotion that makes the latter utterly palatable - hard to do well.

Um, back on topic ... Sometimes, there just isn't that much to write about - I haven't the time to pay attention to the world and comment on it - that's not my gig. I'm busy, but I hate to be a bore. Well, not hate as such ... but dislike rather a lot. So no worries, folks. But when I go dark here for two or three days running, I get email asking if all's well. That's thoughtful and touching, actually. I don't mind in the least, it's much nicer than spam, too! Anyway, I'm clearly rambling without a topic, so it's time to bail out. Geronimo!

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February 25, 2009

2123 - Up before dawn, moving fast, and since there was no traffic and not a single school bus on my route, I was 10 minutes early to plant my ass in the dentist's chair. He just wanted to have a look at the area around my upper right implant: it's been troubling him (tho' not me) for the last couple of visits. So he's had me on a low-dose, long application period antibiotic for a while, and this was the midpoint evaluation. Unhappy with progress to date, he's moved me up to the good stuff, some amoxicillin derivative. So I've got a 10 day course of that, and I'll be back in his chair in another month. If he's still unhappy, he's likely to send me to the oral surgeon who did the original work, and he'll flay my gum open to see what the problem is. Yikes!

After a start like that, the day could only get better. Wonder of wonders, it did. I got a couple of big rocks moved into the right place for this weekend's episode of Network Reorganizers. I made progress configuring a new ticketing system. So, not a bad day after all ... except for the fence.

Ah, the fence. We've got an appraiser coming in tomorrow in support of the refi, so I wanted to do a couple of small cleanup items of stuff that the weather had inflicted on the fence line. With hammer and nails, I headed out. I tacked down the broken cap strip on the one fence section, then went to the back fence to get the other one. As I finished and turned away, something didn't look right. Sigh. Another fence segment was almost completely detached from the post at one end. It wasn't hanging by a thread, but by part of just one nail, down at the bottom. So I got driver and screws and went to work repairing that, from the outside of the fence. Then, back inside, I finished up that section, and turned away ... but something didn't look right. Three sections over, on the other side, another fence section had pulled loose at the top. So I fixed that as well. Whew! I'm going to have to dismantle the entire thing at the base of the yard, set new posts and crossmembers, then reattach all of the "slats". Sounds like a lovely spring project, don't you think?

Nothing more to report. Time to relax for a while, methinks. Ciao!

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February 26, 2009

No Post....

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February 27, 2009

0908 - Good morning. I dunno what happened last night. I stayed busy ... Oh, right, Marcia worked a 13 hour day. So I was busy with dogs and cooking and etc. So, there you go. Today, a DIMM fault on a server, and DNS mods, so far. Lucky me. Gotta run, ciao!

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February 28, 2009

1820 - About seven hours working today, four at the office, and three or so here. Russ and I did some network remodelling, and system reconfig-reboot-testing cycles to match. Much help from our DBA and devs in getting things checked out after the big part of the gig was done. With all of that laid to rest, I started roasting coffee. Enough laid on for next week, now, and I finally had lunch around five PM. Now it's time for some more school work. Don't I just lead the most exciting life? Ciao!

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March 1, 2009

2115 - Hey, where did the day go? I mean, I know where it's going now: Under the ice. Yep, winter storm right now. 7-9" of snow predicted by morning, about an inch down right now. If that estimate holds, then it'll be our largest snowfall of this winter season (so far). Very weird. Anyway, back to the day... Shopping, cleaning, haircut, shower, taxes, stir fry for supper. Pretty full day. I had a bit of confusion over the taxes because of Marcia's 401K rollover, but got it all straightened out. Now, here we are.

Row 1 - Normal rainfall Glenn Dale Bell Station, 1921-1987
* Only nine months measured in 2008

February was cold, but it wasn't a very wet month. We actually had fire danger alerts going a couple of times, because everything was so dry. I look at this type of weather as another week with no yardwork, yay!

Iraq and Afghanistan are still bad places to be. I have to imagine Putin thinking to himself, "Didn't they see what happened to us, there?" Still, progress is made, and deadlines are being set. Our men and women in uniform perform their duty and sacrifice their lives on behalf of the mission, on our behalf. That can never be forgotten! Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen:

• Staff Sgt. Jeremy E. Bessa, 26, of Woodridge Illinois, died Feb. 20, in Khordi, Afghanistan, when his military vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device followed by small arms fire attack by enemy forces.
• Master Sgt. David L. Hurt, 36, of Tucson, Arizona, died Feb. 20, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from wounds received when his military vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device followed by small arms fire attack by enemy forces.
• Staff Sgt. Mark C. Baum, 32, of Telford, Pennsylvania, died Feb. 21 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered earlier that day when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire in Mushada, Iraq.
• Cpl. Michael L. Mayne, 21, of Burlington Flats, New York, died Feb. 23 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.
• Cpl. Micheal B. Alleman, 31, of Logan, Utah, died Feb. 23 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.
• Cpl. Zachary R. Nordmeyer, 21, of Indianapolis, Indiana, died Feb. 23 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.
• 1st Lt. William E. Emmert, 36, of Lincoln, Tennessee, died Feb. 24 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered when he was shot while participating in a local Iraqi Police function.
• Capt. Brian M. Bunting, 29, of Potomac, Maryland, died Feb. 24 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Schuyler B. Patch, 25, of Owasso, Oklahoma, died Feb. 24 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Scott B. Stream, 39, of Mattoon, Illinois, died Feb. 24 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Daniel J. Thompson, 24, of Madison, Wisconsin, died Feb. 24 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Spc. Brian M. Connelly, 26, of Union Beach, New Jersey, died Feb. 26 in Adhamiya, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck by an explosive device.

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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