One More Day
It’s been quite a week. I have had a trainee, my replacement, in tow all week showing him the ropes. He happens to be one I count among friends so the transition has been pretty easy, particularly for him. Tomorrow is my last day on the IT staff and then I shift over to my new position on Monday morning. My current IT boss has been gone the last two weeks so I haven’t had to deal with him. All in all, it has been busy but fairly smooth.
I’m still doing the “IT thing” on the side, and in fact have a nice little deal lined up for later this month. It will be a lucrative 1 year contract that will require me to work Saturdays, but will double my yearly income. I think I’ll give up my Saturdays for a year and see what it’s like to make some decent money for once. I’m a little concerned about the time it will take away from the family, but it is only for one year. Who knows where it could lead after that… it’s a huge company and there is a lot of work to do.
When I started this entry I was fired up and going to bitch about something… then I finished my glass of mead and forgot what I was mad about. Hehee… couldn’t have been that bad, I guess. I can tell you I’ve had enough of this friggin’ heat! It looks like there is relief in site though. Hm. Well, if I remember what it was that I was miffed about I’ll come back on and try again. G’night all.
Let the Games Begin!
I just finished a great audio book that is considered in some circles to be a science fiction classic. The title is
Ender’s Game by
Orson Scott Card. I loved this book! It was smart but not nerdy, and the story telling was top notch. It had me hooked from the first chapter through to the end, and I dare say there wasn’t a lull in the whole book. I did a quick search on the internet and it would seem that they are
working on a movie based on this book and Orson Scott Card is involved in writing the screenplay. I can only hope the movie does it justice.
The book is about a gifted strategerist who is just a boy of 6 when he is recognized and taken away for military training. He eventually rises to the top of his class and accomplishes some amazing feats, thus earning him promotions that take him to places he never knew existed. I know this description sounds pretty dull, but I’m trying not to give anything away. If nothing else, you really wind up feeling like you are growing with this kid and can relate to him at such an emotional level, while most of the characters in the storyline see him as a stone cold tactician. The writer was masterful in bringing about a change in the characters that was subtle over time but was widely contrasting to their beginnings.
Check this one out if you can! Excellent!
Bonzai Book Score: 5 of 5
Long Week
It’s been an ugly week and I’m glad it’s almost over. From dealing with less than intelligent people at work, to family members sticking their noses where they don’t belong – I just want it to be over. Unfortunately, it is looking like a long weekend too. Whatever. I’m beginning to just not care anymore.
Next week I have a trainee in tow from Monday to Friday. He is going to be taking my place and I have been asked to show him around and squeeze in as much training as I can. Just another indication that my boss really doesn’t have a clue what I do. In a week’s time, I’ll will just barely be able to get my trainee to all of the locations I visit to meet the principal players and locate the network closets. Training? Hehee… good luck. I was going to take the time to create a little ‘how to’ manual so he isn’t caught off-guard when the boss sets him adrift in the sea of ignorance that has enveloped the department. Instead, I’ll just jot down a few key things and let him fend for himself. Who knows? By doing it that way, he may wind up implementing some good ideas and making some improvements. What can I say? Go for it.
There were a couple of things I did grapple with while considering what items to cover in ‘training’. Specifically, there are two areas in which I brought expertise to the job when I started and never received any further training while working in the position. I have been asked to “bring [my replacement] up to speed” in these areas. No, I don’t think I’m going to do that. Why should I? My replacement has no experience in the area whatsoever so I would have to train him from scratch. I was never trained by this company… why should I train my replacement? I don’t think I should, and I’m not going to. I took the time to learn and train on my own. I’m not going to give them the gift of training the next guy for free. Sorry, dude.
I sort of feel sorry for the guy that is replacing me. I count him among friends and recommended him to the position. I also warned him of the real reasons I was leaving and informed him that there is a total of three people that currently work for the Dark Prince of my department and of those people, there are three people that are looking for work elsewhere. His enthusiasm is admirable though and he is coming on board with eyes wide open, hoping for a nice enhancement for his resume. I wish him the best of luck and will do my best to bring him up to speed the best I can with the items I was taught on the job. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Minor Struggles
Duncan and I are set to test at the end of the month. Duncan will be testing for his blue stripes (
green belt, 5th gup) and I will be testing for my green belt (
6th gup). Yes, he is still one level ahead of me and I have pretty much given up on trying to catch him. He’s just going to get his black belt before me.
I have been having some difficulty keeping my Kenpo and Taekwondo separate lately and it has been coming out in class. The angles and maneuvers in Kenpo are much more effective in immobilizing an aggressor and ultimately halting an attack with finality, regardless of the attacker. In this case, the training that is taking root from Kenpo is coming out in Taekwondo and the urge to put down my attacker instead of scoring points is very near the surface. It usually takes a few minutes for me to acclimate but once I’m in the right zone, I’m ok. Learning these two particular styles at the same time is proving to be rather interesting.
It has been hard training at home too, as Duncan is often training right beside me. I have modified some of my Taekwondo stances to the stronger stances of Kenpo, and I can see Duncan start to mimic these moves. Ultimately, I think this is a good thing but in the short term I hope it isn’t detrimental to his training in Taekwondo. He seems to be committed to earning his black belt in TKD and the reason he wants to do it is because he wants to teach other people how to do it – rather admirable for 6 years old. I don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize his current plans or get in the way of his success in TKD. At some point in the future, after he has earned his black belt and decides he still wants to do this, I’ll teach him Kenpo and he can make the decision of which one to follow for himself.
Pick your Brain
A friend related a story of some trouble she had on a recent road trip with her two boys and I had to share this. She’s cruising down the road with her boys in the back seat, ages 6 & 8, pretty much tuning them out and listening to the radio.
In the back seat of the SUV they were riding in, the older boy is trying to convince the younger boy that if he sticks his finger far enough up his nose he can touch his brain. The younger boy, unconvinced, attempts to do just this and can’t seem to touch his own brain. So the older boy reaches up his own nose and states that he can touch his. The younger boy then takes his finger and begins to reach up into the older boy’s nose, totally interested in seeing what a brain feels like. The SUV shudders as it glides over a pot hole and the younger boy’s finger pokes further into the older boy’s nose, causing it to begin bleeding.
At this point, both of the boys are completely freaked out as they are now convinced that the younger boy has jammed his finger into the older boy’s brain and now has brain damage! They begin screaming and carrying on with blood flowing freely and the younger boy proclaiming that he has his brother’s brains on his finger. The mother, in utter bewilderment and becoming panicked from the sudden sight of blood, pulls off and examines the boys, bringing the situation under control.
Ahh… you just can’t make stuff like this up. I’m happy to report that both boys are doing fine and suffered no long standing trauma from the event. The elder son just enjoyed his 9th birthday and is looking forward to many more. Neither of them pick their noses anymore.
He's Six Today
My “Little Buddy” turned 6 years old today. As cliché as it sounds, I just can’t believe it was six years ago today that he was born. It’s funny, really. I recall putting off having kids for various reasons and enjoyed life without kids. Now it’s hard to imagine what it would be like without the little guy in our lives. When he is gone for any length of time visiting family or whatever, it seems like there is just a little void that cries out for the energy he exudes when he is around. Amazing.
My wife took him to Toys-R-Us and told him he could pick one thing out (within reason) that he wanted from the whole store. What he brought home floored me a little bit. Of all the toys there, he selected a rock tumbler, for polishing rocks. No pressure from anyone and he wasn’t lead to that decision. He spotted it, asked what it was and decided that it was the gift he wanted. He is full of surprises and zings me every time I turn around.
He got me again this afternoon when I asked him where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. I fully expected one of the ‘kid magnets’ that are advertised on TV, targeting kids with games, tokens and tickets. Instead, he answered immediately with “
Neo China”. This is a somewhat ‘upscale’ Chinese restaurant that doesn’t even have a kids menu. He likes it because he can get almost anything off the menu with tofu instead of meat. We usually go there when we are celebrating his advancement in Taekwondo but he really likes the place. So, Chinese for dinner it is.
I love my boy so much and can hardly remember what it was like before him. All I hope for is that the “parental curse” doesn’t come true… you know, “
may your children grow up to be just like you”. Hehee.. I’m not sure I’m ready for that. My parents are still trying to figure out how I got away with some of the stuff that I did growing up. If the curse does come true, I think I would just rather not know about those little details. :-)
Down with Spyware!
Spyware sucks. I hate this stuff. I have been doing everything I can on the network where I am employed to thwart spyware, malware, and any other group that remotely resembles their ilk. The latest little bug that is being disseminated through the world is getting in under the radar on most, if not all, of the spyware detection and cleaning programs on the market. This piece of hack software has an issue when you uninstall it with the Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta tool; namely it kills off one or more of the Microsoft network services, rendering your machine cut off from the network. Nice.
The problems I’m seeing with every single one of these so called “anti-spyware” programs is that they all seem to use some sort of definition file. Simplistically described, this ‘definition file’ is simply a list of known bad files that infect PCs with malware. The problem with this is that new software is put out by these jerks on a regular basis and is often ahead of the definitions when they hit the net. Once infected, some of this crap is incredibly hard to get rid of and then leaves damage behind when you do! Why can’t some of the brilliant software coders that haven’t been drawn to the dark side create a piece of software that acts more like a virus detection application? That way if one of these rogue pieces of techno trash manages to get to your PC and begin an unwanted installation, it would be detected, quarantined, and destroyed like its viral counterparts. Yes, there are still definitions required for this type of software but they would be designed to detect behavior instead of solely looking for known bad files in an intensive scan of your hard drive.
Not that I think the number of viruses that get through are acceptable, but there are fewer virus strains that get through than spyware. Imagine if we would only have to deal with spyware at the same rate that we deal with viruses. Come on you trippy high-power coders out there! Let’s get with the program (pardon the pun) and kill this stupid spyware crap!!!
Vapor Millionaire
There has been raging debate for the past several years about bringing a lottery to North Carolina. It has been defeated each time it has been introduced as a bill but by slimmer margins each time. I personally don’t care if the state has one or not but I find it amusing how they are trying to sell it to the public as an “education lottery”. Just the phrase itself is goofy to me but, personally, I think they would get further along if they would just tell the truth and say that they want a lottery because there are more people that want to gamble than there are those that don’t. Whatever.
I was day dreaming a little bit about what it would be like to be the sole winner of, say, a $100 million jackpot. What would I do? Hm… who knows for sure? Immediately I started doing the math… the cash layout (after taxes) of a single payout would probably be roughly $50 million. Ok. After some serious consideration, I figure the first person, aside from my wife, that I would talk to would be a lawyer so I could create an insulated shield between me and everyone that is going to come out of the woodwork. After securing the money to its most useful location, I think the next thing I would do is disappear.
I have discussed this with my wife a little bit… “How long should we disappear for?” “Would a year be enough for everyone to stop looking for handouts? Two years? Five?” We sort of decided that we would disappear for a year and then test the waters at that point. My wife promptly asked: “Where are we going to disappear to?” Good question. Not sure. She likes sandy sunny beaches. I was born with a tattoo near my neck that says “Keep out of direct sunlight”. Hm. “How about Scotland?” I asked hopefully. She shot it down pretty quickly because it’s basically raining all the time and the winters can be pretty miserable. Even the cool castles and the whisky trail didn’t do much to persuade her.
Her idea of paradise closely mimics the climate in Hawaii. She was there once before, snorkeling and swimming with dolphins and whatever. Yep sounds cool, but then what? Your stuck on an island. In the middle of an ocean. With a volcano. Nice vacation, but for a year or more? Not for me. I’m more of a history nut. As much as I really don’t like the French, I think I would like to tour Europe and see some of the thousand year old sites that are there. My roots trace back to a French knight of the Crusades and it would be cool to walk on some of the same land as my ancestors. She wants hot? How about Spain? Italy? Greece? Mmmm… some uzo sounds good right now…
Hey! Wake up!! Get back to work!! Spend your vapor millions on your own time!!!
Confederate Cemetery
I was coming back from a trip to Virginia today and saw one of those state historical markers that read “Confederate Cemetery” and my curiosity was piqued. I turned around and went back to check it out, camera ready and interested in seeing something dating back to the confederacy. I wasn’t sure what to expect but was a little surprised none the less. From the main highway, the streets jogged this way and that until I came back to a little hollow under some trees framed in by a wrought iron fence in dire need of some attention. There were 52 soldiers of the confederacy interred here that all died in the Kittrell Springs Hotel between late 1864 to early 1865. Most stones were named but there were about 4 of them that were unknown, as pictured below.
The grounds are in generally good shape and it was obvious that someone is taking care of the grounds as the grass is well tended and the general area isn’t overgrown in the least. One headstone was accompanied by a small Rebel flag that had been placed recently and there were 3 other markers that had flowers near them. It was a little hard to believe that I was standing there were these men were buried after fighting for a cause they believed in some 140 years ago. I’m glad someone is tending to this tiny plot of land as it would be easily forgotten or lost to modern growth and progress. I think I’ll take more time in the future to stop and learn about some of the history this area has to offer.
Liquid Gold
We all had a wonderful holiday this 4th of July weekend and I hope everyone reading this blog was as fortunate. Aside from the usual fireworks and cookout, I took advantage of the day off to bottle the latest batch of mead.
This batch was a drier recipe but with a higher percentage of alcohol. I haven’t figured it out yet but I think the alcohol level should be around 14-15% and it isn’t as sweet as most of my previous batches. The down side of this particular set of variables is that it can take longer to age out. This is proving to be the case as my testing samples (bottle?…hic!) are pretty evident that this needs some more time in the bottle. It is going to be good though, and it won’t take that long, relatively speaking. It has been ‘bulk aging’ in the carboy for more than a year now, but it needs a bit more.
Above is a picture of the finished product prior to labels. I haven’t figured out what my label is going to be this time. I was thinking of something like “Yankee Wino Mead” but that may not go over so well here with my neighbors. We’ll see what comes to me when I sit down to do the label. I must say that looking at those bottles just made my mouth water for some of it. The total yield was 22 bottles – just 2 bottles short of 2 full cases. Come on down and help me drink this up!
New Arrival: Canon EOS 20D
The camera is in. I ordered my new camera online last week and it showed up on Wednesday of this week. Although I had originally looked at the Canon Rebel XT, I made decision to go ahead and save for a more robust model. My father-in-law had recently purchased a Canon EOS 20D and I was very impressed with its capabilities. It does everything and more that the Rebel XT does but isn’t quite as small. After shooting a few shots with the D20, I’m glad I made the choice.
I purchased the camera from a company online, a discount warehouse type outfit and was a little nervous at first. After checking them out as good as I could, I had enough confidence to go ahead and order the unit. It was part of a package that had several items outside of the camera body, including: Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens, Sigma 18-50mm lens, Sigma 70-300mm lens, 0.5x wide angle lens, lens filter sets, 4 GB Microdrive, aluminum hard case, nylon soft case, tripod, digital flash kit, lens cleaning kit, and a card reader. Total cost: about $2000 (shipping included). I couldn’t find another store that would come anywhere close to this price. In fact, most places I contacted sold the camera body and the EF-S 18-55mm lens for about the same price as these guys had the whole kit for. Cool.
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So, how does it work? Awesome! One of my favorite features is the continuous shooting feature. It can shoot up to 5 frames per second in bursts of 23 shots in the highest resolution (it’s an 8 mega-pixel camera). At lower resolutions, you can actually continuously shoot for much longer. Below is an example of this type of shooting from Duncan’s last Taekwondo testing where he was breaking a board:
The photos were taken by my father-in-law with the same type of camera shooting continuously. One of the cool sub-features is that the focus points actually follow the subject and readjust while you are shooting. For instance, as Duncan came forward with his strike, the camera focus automatically compensated for his movement and refocused. Way cool. There are actually 9 focus points that the camera tracks with. I’m loving this thing.
There are a bunch of other features too, but there is one other thing I highly recommend now that I have some experience with it: the Hitachi Microdrive. The one that came with this kit is a 4GB capacity, and the highest I have seen on the market so far is 6GB. With the 4GB, I can shoot up to 990+ high resolution pics on the camera before it’s full. For this model, “high resolution” is 8 megapixels (3504 x 2336) for each picture. I can’t tell you how liberating this is when you are shooting several pictures! It’s also the difference of carrying additional CF cards with you and trying to keep track of them. Imagine shooting almost 1000 shots on a roll of film… that’s sort of what it’s like. I love it.
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I’m sure you will see some more pics coming soon as I learn the intricacies of this camera. Stay tuned. In the mean time, I highly recommend the camera and send kudos to the company that sold it for such a great price –
Sunshine Electronics out of Brooklyn, NY.
