it was brought to my attention that the link below is down.
not suprisingly, it's generated a LOT of traffic.
Yes, it's been down for a couple hours now. Basically, all the traffic to katrinacheckin.org was melting the server it was on. Was heading for 84 million hits/day rate, which would mean a daily bandwidth bill of $18,000.
But it's not gone forever just yet. I'm working on some things and I hope to have some form of it back alive very shortly.
doh.
i found this on a website i used to frequent, but hadn't visited in a while, so i'll do my bit.
copied from [crabwalk.com]
31 August 2005
Here's iron-clad proof that people should never tell me "hey, there should really be a web site that does X" at about 9 p.m. Because then I stay up until 2:30 a.m. making said web site.
So here it is: KatrinaCheckIn.org, a place for people to (a) say they survived the hurricane, thus lifting a gynormous weight off their friends' shoulders, and (b) try to track down info on the missing.
For those of you with blogs, I would really appreciate a link to KatrinaCheckIn.org. The more people who are posting to it, the more useful and effective it will be.
random picture of the moment: Boston vs Tampa, Monday August 29, 2005. approximately 10 minutes into the 90 minute rain delay
random picture of the moment: Grandstand, Section 25, Row 14, Seat 12. Boston vs Tampa, Monday August 29, 2005
sitting where i do here in Exile (tm) (i've decided that while i am here fulltime, that will be its name. so long as i remember to call it that), i'm right under a skylight, which adds a nice natural light to things (there is a screen that blocks direct sunlight which passes overhead), but today is a grey and rainy day. so i get to hear the rain hitting the skylight. rather soothing. i'm sure i'd enjoy it more if my day was stressful, but as my being here in Exile (tm) hasn't been overly stressful (barring the commute) today, the relaxing sound of rain hitting the window is a little too relaxing....
so, for anyone looking for a good laugh or two, feast your eyes on these two links:
too funny to pass up. just be sure you want your cottage cheese served with a side order of nuts before you go clicking this one. very funny. blame CRandall for this one. (a few not-quite safe for work shots). (original list - good for a few laughs, but not quite as good as the updated)
Chad Meyers is a spaz on live TV (CNN weather guy) the link is to the blurb, and that has a link to a quicktime movie where he shows his spazzitude.
get your facts straight skeeter...i don't know who it was, but she asked skeeter about how to get the date/time information when listening to her voicemail. (it's called envelope information if you care.)
anyways, skeeter tells the user that she should have received a voicemail telling her how to turn it on. (if skeeter sent it, i certainly didn't get it.) so i interupt her and tell skeeter that her boss had sent the email (which i believe i still have) to which she tries to contradict me. i drop it and proceed to tell the user how to set it up (go into VM, press 7, then press 5 and it should tell you your envelope information is on)
user says thanks and skeeter turns to whatever it is she actaully doesn't do.
no love lost there. this is a good example of how skeeter is not listening to the user. she was ready to tell the user 'check your voice mail' rather than answer the question. skeeter doesn't listen to the question. she picks out the words she wants to hear and then finds the fastest way to answer the question. (which these days is 'call the help desk'). the only reason we have the answer is because I found out the answer. i'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but information like that should be shared freely and there is no reason that someone has to jump thru hoops to get the answer to a simple question.
more blogging later....
TK was tagged by a friend, who in turn has now tagged me, so i'll play along. So, 10 tunes i've been listening to alot lately. so, before i forget, i'll tag/meme LadyJJ and Jennkitty
hmmm...
anything i've been been able to get my hands on by The Residents. they are the latest addition to my musical encyclopedia, so i can't pick 1 song in particular. one song that i can say that i don't care for is Constantinople. that's just plain grating. (most likely the point of the song). definately the first band i've listened to in a while that has made me laugh.
mdfmk - missing time
a b-side (found on the Heavy Metal 2000 soundtrack) from the shortlived mdfmk (spell it backwards and you'll find the ashes from where it came from). i've always liked it and didn't understand why it wasn't included. but then i thought about it. mdfmk was sposed to live longer than it did. still, i like the CD.
Nine Inch Nails - Pinion -> Terrible Lie (Woodstock 8/13/94):
pinion is a great opener. the slow grinding that builds upon itself, building tension and then you go crashing into Terrible Lie. of course, the original Pinion -> Wish just plain rules.
Front 242 - 7rain:
off Still and Raw. i like it. not sure what to say beyond that, but it's a cool lower key track.
Echo and the Bunnymen - People Are Strange:
great cover of The Doors version. the first time i heard it, i thought it was The Doors but in the middle, there was a musical interlude that i didn't remember so then i looked to see what was it. normally, i don't care for straight forward cover versions of songs, but that middle section of the song made it theirs. found on The Lost Boys soundtrack.
Android Lust - Refuse (remix):
a semi-anonymous fan remix of the song that was sent to Shikhee. she really liked the remix, so she posted it to the AL website. i managed to grab it as it appears to be no longer available. always liked this song, and this remix is really good.
Blue Murder - Blue Murder:
(imagine this - off the album titled Blue Murder!) woke up listening to this the other night. good song. good band. gotta like 80's metal to enjoy it tho. (John Sykes did a stint in Whitesnake before forming Blue Murder, so you can use that as a point of reference soundwise)
Conjure One - Damascus:
just a beautiful start to a very cool CD. long delayed (you can see some of the history if you read thru Mindphaser, but was well worth the wait when it finally came out. i remember listening to this in the car on the way home thinking 'holy shit' she (Chemda) has a good voice.
David Bowie/Pet Shop Boys - Hallo Spaceboy (PSB Remix):
one the songs high on my list of favorites, but i have yet to get my hands on the actual CD the Pet Shop Boy remixes are on. they remixed it beautifully, almost making it a cover song that retains the oomph of the original yet making it theirs.
Nitzer Ebb - Control I'm Here (Hardcore mix):
the GENUINE hardcore mix (yes i'll be bitchy about this). i bought the 12" single for Control I'm Here a long time ago and this was on it. i've loved it as it speeds up the temp and added bite to the original. i found the CDS for it recently, and it has was it called the 'hardcore mix' but really is the 'softcore mix' (my title). the only digital version i have is a copy of this off a tape i made a while ago, so i've been listening to it again.
Ticks and Leeches
Suck and suck.
Suckin up all you can, suckin up all you can suck.
Workin up under my patience like a little tick.
Fat little parasite.
Suck me dry.
My blood is bruised and borrowed. You thieving bastards.
You have turned my blood cold and bitter,
beat my compassion black and blue.
Hope this is what you wanted.
Hope this is what you had in mind.
Cuz this is what you're getting.
I hope you're choking. I hope you choke on this.
Taken all I can, taken all I can, we can take.
Taken all you can, taken all you can fuckin' take
Got nothing left to give to you.
Blood suckin parasitic little tick/blood suckin parasitic little tick
Take what you want and then go.
Hope this is what you wanted.
Hope this is what you had in mind.
Cuz this is what you're getting.
Suck me dry.
Is this what you wanted?
Is this what you had in mind?
Cuz this this is what you're getting.
I hope you choke.
(words/music by tool)
this may not be a popular sentiment for most people out there, but for some reason that i have yet to understand, once 330pm rolls around, my friday's goto shit. it's not a gradual "let's fuck with molius to see how long it takes to make him go nuts".
it's a sudden impact, blink and you miss, instantaneous, immediate smack you upside the head, immediate everything that can fuck up fucks up and beats me over the head with a bloody lower leg style fuck with me thing.
i don't mind the gradual thing because i'm usually clever enuff to figure it out and realize where i'm heading. but fridays for some gods forsaken reason the last few weeks have been nothing short of brutal.
i don't know why, nor can i figure out the how, but today i was ready to kill. i was updating the training laptops. no problem. i had to integrate a few of the loaners i had pulled from training. ok, fine.
well, one of them has been signed out for nearly a month. these are you use them for a day, maybe (MAYBE) two days. but a month? that fucking bitch. i even asked trainwreck about it, and she didn't know why she had it for so long. we'll see if i can an answer by monday. so i had to find 2 replacements. ok, did that. 1 needed some minor additional updating. fine. the other i had forgotten was acting a little flakey. move the mouse over a button and it would skirt away. ok, plug my mouse into it and that works, so i decide to reimage it. no problem, 15 mins later and it's all set. start the rebuild process and then that starts to fuck up.
meanwhile, i'm trying to replace a phone for a user, see why all of a sudden a portion of the users phones showed 'no service' (which prompted a page to the IS pager, not the phone pager). all that i did was unplug HP's phone and program a new one. so of course everyone shits in their pants, which in turn makes me wonder what the fuck is going on.
fortunately, and i think it was the only thing going for me this afternoon, it seemed to resolve itself, but it still didn't help things much.
so at that moment in time, i'm trying to deal with updating laptops, imaging a laptop, replacing a phone, seeing if i can figure out why the phones dumped, try and talk to LP about the problem that she and KM seem to have discovered (dropping calls, system dumping calls, etc) so all of this is happening at the same time. between 4pm and 550pm, i couldn't even tell you what else i did. i'm actually suprised i remembered this much. around 545 i tried to take a few moments to forget things and browse the web for a few mins, but it wasn't long before i realized that i still had a few things left and it was around this time i wanted to really start throwing things. when i finally got out of the office at 630, the 10th laptop needed for monday was not usable, so i had to leave VM for KS to let her know that she was going to have to use 9 for the morning as i was at wits end. (the laptop nearly took a lesson in physics, that object in motion stays in motion unless some force acts upon it thing)
so, at 630 i left (stormed) out of the office and as i got in the car, my phone popped off my belt and i had to stop myself from throwing the phone across the parking lot. TK has seen a few people do that when the come out of the nextel service office in our building. fortunately, the drive home wasn't bad, but i had to slow myself down a few times.
right now, i can feel the frustration inside me. earlier, i nearly threw a box of popcicles around when i couldn't find the flavor i wanted. fortunately i paused and have now labeled them all so i know what flavor i'm grabbing. i'm sure i'll be fine in a little while, but for the moment, it's hard to focus on calming down.
i guess the only good thing is that i don't have to try and think about work for a while. i did forget to mount the tapes for the backup tonight, but after a few mins, i was able to get it done. i think i screwed up yesterday's backup by forgetting to do that. at least i remembered tonight. i meant to do it, but the tape drive takes its time doing the inventory, so it's easy to forget.
i want another popcicle.
How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
Customer:
Morning,
Waitress:
Morning.
Customer:
What have you got?
Waitress:
Well, there's egg and bacon,
egg sausage and bacon
Egg and spam
Egg, bacon and spam
Egg, bacon, sausage and spam
Spam, bacon, sausage and spam
Spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam
Spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam tomato and spam
Spam, spam, spam, egg and spam
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam.
(Choir: Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam! Lovely Spam! Lovely Spam!)
Or Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce
served in a provencale manner with shallots and aubergines
garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and spam.
Wife:
Have you got anything without spam?
Waitress:
Well, the spam, eggs, sausage and spam
That's not got much spam in it
Wife:
I don't want any spam!
Customer:
Why can't she have eggs, bacon, spam and sausage?
Wife:
That's got spam in it!
Customer:
Hasn't got much spam in it as spam, eggs, sausage and spam has it?
(Choir: Spam! Spam! Spam!...)
Wife:
Could you do me eggs, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam, then?
Waitress:
Iiiiiiiiiiiich!!
Wife:
What do you mean 'Iiiiiiiiiich'? I don't like spam!
(Choir: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!)
Waitress (to choir):
Shut up!
(Choir: Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!)
Waitress:
Shut Up! Bloody Vikings!
You can't have egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam.
Wife:
I don't like spam!
Customer:
Shush dear, don't have a fuss. I'll have your spam. I love it,
I'm having spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans,
spam, spam, spam, and spam!
(Choir: Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam! Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!)
Waitress:
Shut Up!! Baked beans are off.
Customer:
Well, could I have her spam instead of the baked beans then?
Waitress:
You mean spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam,
spam and spam?
Choir (intervening):
Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam.
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Spam spam spam spam!
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