Yes, We're Having Fun Now

I should probably already be on my way to – or in – Winter Park, CO by now.  It’s our week for the timeshare and the schedule has changed several times.

I invited dad several months ago.  He originally turned me down so the wife said we’d go together.  Then, dad decided to go with us and it was going to be three.  The only problem there was that the wife had a spa appointment on Saturday night.  As such, we were going to have to drive up to KC Sunday, then head for WP Monday morning.

The wife went to Detroit with he mother over last weekend and managed to injure her arm.  Nothing broken but she tends to take a while in healing so it’s still bothering her.  She decided to back out because a) she didn’t want to risk injuring her arm any further and b) she didn’t want to be “in the way.”  I didn’t think she’d be in the way but I’ll agree with the arm thing.

Once she backed out, the plan was to drive to KC on Saturday (yesterday) and head for WP today.  I had a couple of chores to take care of Sat. morning but they shouldn’t get in the way.  What did get in the way was karaoke.

Late in the day on Friday, I learned the office was going to celebrate an employee’s 40th birthday at a local restaurant after work.  I grabbed the wife and we went.  We spent a couple of hours eating, drinking and talking and apparently the girls had plans on doing something after.  They were going to go to a local bar to sing karaoke.  I decided to join them to take pictures and give it a try.  The wife’s arm was bothering her so I dropped her off at home and headed for the bar to spend the evening with six good looking ladies.

I was hesitant at first to get up and sing.  I spent some time looking at the song list and finally settled on a song.  The ladies turned it in for me and I was listening, with some trepidation, to the other singers.  My fears washed away as one guy got up and absolutely butchered Timbuk3’s “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.”  Nobody laughed at him and I knew I could do better.

I was still hesitant to go up alone so a couple of the ladies sang backup to my rendition of George Strait’s “Ocean Front Property.”  It’s a song I know the words to and I know is within my range.  It turned out really well but the experience was a little surreal.  I heard this voice coming from the speaker and it took me a few seconds to realize it was my voice.

I spent some more time with the ladies then went to fulfill an unconfirmed obligation at another karaoke bar.  I met Kevin there and spent a couple of hours in an extremely smoky room (their ventilation SUCKS!) and sang a solo of Jimmy Buffet’s “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” and a duet of Weird Al’s “Achy Breaky Song” with Kevin.  Except for the itchy eyes and smelling like an ash tray from across the room, the evening turned out to be an entirely enjoyable experience.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much any packing done Friday night.

Getting to bed late/early combined with letting the dogs out three times through the relatively short night made for a bit of a hungover feeling on Saturday (I didn’t have a single alcoholic drink Friday night – I was driving).  I had to take care of some honey-do’s in the morning, which I did, but even though I got my clothes gathered for the trip, I didn’t get anything in the suitcase.  By the time I was ready to actually pack, the day had caught up with me and I would be late getting to KC anyway.  In the long run, I decided to accompany my wife to Oklahoma City and spent some quality time at the toy stores Best Buy and CompUSA while she did the spa thing.

It all turned out for the best because I managed to get some sleep last night and felt much better about the trip this morning.  I got my clothes packed, gathered my “gear,” loaded the car and was on the road by 11:00am.

I started this post almost three hours ago. I spent some time getting the boot time on dad’s PC straightened out and I’m just finishing up now.  We’re going to get a early start tomorrow morning for our 10 hour drive so I’m going to sign off and head for bed.  I’ll have limited connectivity at best, if any, so you may not see any entries while I’m gone.  I do have audio blogging set up again so there will probably be some reports from the road.

Have a good week everyone.

Has CBS Become a Subliminal Advertising Whore?

A few weeks ago, I was enjoying Yes, Dear on CBS and, during a scene involving a conversation between Greg and Jimmy, I noticed the symbol for the Chevy Impala hanging on the wall behind one of them.  It was just there as set dressing like a piece of artwork hanging on the wall in the kitchen.  I also noticed that there were several commercials for the Impala during the show.  I figured Chevy must be sponsoring the show.

The very next day, I was watching CSI and the Impala symbol showed up again.  As the team arrived at a crime scene, it was on the side of a pay phone, almost center shot.  It was like graffiti. There were, again, several commercials for the Impala during the show.

I wish I had recorded them, I would include screen shots.

Tonight’s episode of CSI was worse.  During several scenes that included the local police, I kept hearing the Sprint/Nextel chirp.  You know, the noise their phones make when you’re using the walkie talkie feature.  Problem was, nobody was using the phones, it was background noise.  I can’t say if there were Sprint/Nextel commercials since I was watching it delayed on my Replay TV and skipped the commercials.

So, do you see this as a good thing or a bad thing?  I don’t particularly like it.

 

update: Apparently, the Impala logos were part of a contest.

Everybody's Wrokin' For The Weekend

I’m sitting here at my new desk.  The phone guy is running around like I was Wednesday and Thursday.  There are a couple of other employees here finishing the setup on their offices.  There are a few more that need to come in so they’re ready for Monday.  It’s already afternoon and I’m not going to wait for them all day.

I’m here for three reasons.  Number one, I had a couple of desks that I needed to finish setting up and connecting to the network plus anyone who had not started setting up a the end of the day Friday (some of the desks weren’t moved until after five).  Number two, I needed to set up the videoconferencing unit.  Number three, I had to finish setting up my office space.  I didn’t have much time for that on Thursday and Friday.  I was helping everyone else.

My space is quite nice.  It’s about 8’ x 10’ (an improvement from th 6’ x 8’ I had), has a built-in desk and something like a 24’ceiling (at least!).  Yep, I’m in a cubicle.  We’re not supposed to call them cubicles, though, and I agree with that.  The partitions are semi-permanent and taller than usual (5’6”?), most have their own lighting and they’re rather spacious.  We’re supposed to call them “Vaulted Offices,” which I don’t agree with because I don’t find it descriptive, but cubicle is the closest descriptive term I have at the moment. (if you have any other – positive sounding – names for my space, please let me know).

The new office is in what was originally the Stillwater Public Library, built in 1938 according to the cornerstone.  My office is on the main floor in what used to be one of the main reading rooms – which explains the high ceiling.  Just so you’re sure, we didn’t design the setup.  There was another company that payed for the major renovation that we are now utilizing and we bought it from them since they moved their offices to Florida.

The biggest only annoyance I’ve found is that semi trucks traveling along State Highway 51/6th Street – which runs along the front of our building – that stop at the light on the corner cause the floor to shake when they start moving again… and I’m in the back of the building.  Kinda creepy.

The phone guy is having to do much more work than I did.  First, he removed a huge rats nest of phone wire from the basement and completely rewired that side of it.  Then, he found out that every single phone jack was wired contrary to common standard… meaning he has to rewire each one as he visits the desk.  I know what I had to go through to get this building networked and it really wasn’t much but it was time-consuming for various reasons.  I don’t envy him what he has been doing for the past three days (which was only supposed to take two).

One of the stragglers just showed up.  I’m going to go see if I can help her set up her computer.

Busy Day, Busy Week

First, I have an assistant.  A friend of mine, Carl, was hired on, starting yesterday, as our new Network Technician.  Officially, I’m his supervisor but as far as I’m concerned, we’re a team on equal footing.

Carl and I went to the Lawton office today.  Lawton is about a 2.5 hour drive each way. We went to install a video conferencing unit and some backup software.  Everything went very smoothly, especially with Carl there. 

Carl earned his keep twice today.  First, I was looking at installing a new network jack and as I was considering which end to start from and contemplating the mid-wall turn I was going to have to make when Carl said, “Why don’t you just split the cable?”  See, up to 100 megabits (it’s a measurement of signal speed/bandwidth), only four of the eight small wires gets used for signal.  So, I cut off the existing jack (they’re not really re-wireable) that was wired with all 8 wires, split the twisted pairs and wired in two jacks.

The second time, I was installing the $50/license backup software and it popped up and said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Sorry, you need the server version.”  The server version is $400/license and does much more than we actually need.  I thought we were buying a version that was just not quite as feature-rich… not one that wouldn’t work if we were using a particular operating system.  So, as I sat looking at the web site trying to figure out if I missed something (I did), Carl suggested that we simply share the right folders – something we were already doing – and use a different computer (with a different operating system) to actually perform the backup – which we did.

He also proved his worth.  He put together the small table we had as a TV stand while I wired the jacks.

Tomorrow, we’re going to spend quality time at the new office locating jacks.  They are all labeled but there are multiple jacks in each plate and I just want to be sure.  Last night we had a meeting and found out where we would all be in the new building so now I know which rooms I must have active by Monday.

The rest of this week will be filled with relocating and setting up at the new digs and helping others do the same.

The Right to Bare Arms

I went coat shopping this weekend.  My heavy winter coat is 6–8 years old, threadbare, faded, and the pockets are just about ripped off.  It needed to be replaced last season but by the time I figured it out, the season was in full swing and selection was low and prices were high.

J.C. Penney was having a coat sale this weekend so we went to the local store on Saturday to see what they had.  The selection was limited (small town, small store) and included mostly fall jackets.  The 3 or 4 winter coat styles they had were all very trendy and just didn’t suit me.  I did walk out with a nice fall jacket in basic black.  It has a microfiber outer shell (nice and soft) with polyester filling and a fleece lining.  It was 50% off and cost ~$40.  Not bad considering my fleece-lined Eddie Bauer jacket (which is a little lighter weight) I bought almost 10 years ago was in the $60–$70 range.  Why did I need a new fall jacket?  I’m too fat.  None of my fall jackets fit.  Bleah!

Anyway, my wife noted that Burlington Coat Factory was also having a sale this weekend so we trucked down to Oklahoma City this afternoon to check them out.  I was searching for something in down filling and found several choices.  I really liked one by Champion that was fleece lined and reversible but it didn’t have enough pockets.  The wife also said she’d prefer it was black instead of blue.  There was another that we both liked but both agreed was too light.  A couple were too long and a couple others were too trendy (sorry, I just don’t feel comfortable in FUBU wear).  I finally found one that was heavy enough and had enough pockets.  It was very comfortable and had fleece lining and a microfiber shell. (honestly, I have no infatuation with microfiber, it just worked out that way) The only concern was that it is a light color.  Somewhere between white and khaki.  I don’t want it to be easily soiled but it was the only color choice.  It was ~$60 and we went ahead and bought it… now I’m all set for the annual trip to Winter Park coming up in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, I'm an 80's Music Junkie

My score would have been slightly higher except I misspelled a couple. 

I Vote No

I don’t pay a lot of attention to politics.  In fact, I haven’t heard or sought much information about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. The one thing I have heard is that she has never been a judge.

No. Don’t appoint her to the Supreme Court. You don’t make someone a CEO who has never been a manager.

She might be a fine judge. She might be an excellent SC Justice. But I wouldn’t risk it. She has no history of judgements on which to judge her potential performance in the Supreme Court.

Just say no.

The eBay Saga Continues

I received a box last night.  I haven’t opened it yet because I’m not sure if I want to refuse receipt.  He sent me an email through eBay saying he had sent it and asking that I recind my negative feedback.  I can sympathize that he had a death in the family and was without internet but come on, it was 35 days after payment before I received the package.  PayPal even tried to give me a refund but there wasn’t enough money in his account.

I’m willing to work with him. I understand that his ebay business was the least of his worries.  I asked him to refund the shipping costs, I’d call it good and I’d do whatever I could to remove my negative feedback.

We’ll see.

My First Script

I’m looking at buying some backup software for the office.  It’s inexpensive and has some nice features (such as emailing results) but it comes up a little short in the logging department.  The program keeps a running log of backup jobs inside the program but creates a text log that only includes the results of the last backup.

For those of you who don’t understand scripting, don’t worry about it.  For those of you that do, I realize it’s simple (and if you have any suggestions for improvement, I’m all ears). I’m placing it here to share and to keep a record of it in case I ever have to rebuild it.

Here is my first VBScript that appends the contents of file A into file B -

'Define constants for opening text files
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForAppending = 8

'Create an instance of of the FileSystemObject (the scripting technology used to manipulate text files)
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Define folder and file names as variables
strDirectory = "c:\logs"
strInFile = "\EXAMPLE.log"
strOutFile = "\OUTPUT.log"

'If output file doesn't exist, create it
If objFSO.FileExists(strDirectory & strOutFile) Then
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory)
Else
Set objOutputFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strDirectory & strOutFile)
Wscript.Echo strDirectory & strFile & " created"
End If

'Open files and define aliases
Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strDirectory & strInFile, ForReading)
Set objOutputFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strDirectory & strOutFile, ForAppending, True)

'Read contents of InFile and append to contents of OutFile
strSeparator = "------------------------------------------------"
strText = objTextFile.ReadAll
objTextFile.Close
objOutputFile.WriteLine
objOutputFile.WriteLine strSeparator
objOutputFile.WriteLine
objOutputFile.WriteLine strText

objOutputFile.Close

If you would like to test it, copy all of the blue and green text into notepad and save it somewhere as “appendlog.vbs”.  Create a “logs” folder on your C: drive and put a text file called “example.log” in there.  Make sure you have some text in the example.log file.  When that’s done, double-click the appendlog.vbs file. It will create the output.log file then copy the contents of the example.log file into it. Run it several times then check out your output.log file.

A Good Weekend

I’m back at work after a very good weekend.  My wife, as a birthday present to herself, purchased tickets to see Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out, a Broadway musical choreographed by Twyla Tharp.  The show was great, although it took me a while to figure out what was going on.  Let me explain.

Before the show, I had heard it described as, “Set to the music of Billy Joel, the show follows the lives of a group of friends over the course of two decades.”  That was it.

When we arrived, we were running a bit late and didn’t have time to look at the program.  The lights went out as we were half way down the steps to our seats.  The curtain goes up, the music starts and people start dancing.  I’m following along okay but it’s just going from one song to the next to the next to the next.  I was expecting dialogue.  There was none.  It caused me some confusion for a good portion of the first act.  That and being nervous at how high we were and being upset that I didn’t bring the binoculars that I always carry in the car (I often see deer around the house and around town).

Anyway, once intermission hit and we had a chance to look at the synopses of the two acts (and having calmed down about the height – I HATE theater balconies, too high and too steep), I was able to thoroughly enjoy the second act.  The music was more intense anyway.  Plus, seeing the interpretation of Goodnight Saigon was indescribable.  I have always had strong imagery with that song but it was really moving to see it acted out.  And man, can those people dance!

After the show, we grabbed a bite to eat (at Sonic) and went back to the hotel.  Yes, we booked a hotel for the evening to make it complete.  We reserved a room at the Oklahoma City Marriott on an Escape! Romance Package.  We were met by a bottle of chilled champagne and six chocolate-covered strawberries.  Plus, breakfast was included the next morning.

Yep, it was a good weekend.