heh

three rights make a left. hadn't thought about that one in a long time, but had to laugh. thanks ant.

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...

i'm so glad i'm no longer smoking. you always see that rubber lung thing when you are a kid in school, but this is just nasty. this is what i was putting into my system back when?

eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww.....


Still Smoking? Watch This !! - The most amazing videos are a click away

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random bits

well, the move is complete. that's not to say that everything is as it should be in the new office, but for the moment at least things are quiet. i considered going to the new office today, but opted out which was a mixed blessing. i hate being dragged into other projects that have the cart being drawn before the horse. what a fucking mess that is turning into.

finally got around to seeing Saw IV in the theater last night. i thought it was ok, nothing great or special, just ok. i didn't think that it was bad, but i liked how the first 3 played out and this one had the feeling of trying to fit into them, but didn't quite make it. it certainly had a few moments, but all in all it was just ok. i've always been a fan of the series, but now i'm wondering if there wasn't a bit of shark jumping with this one.

M stopped by last night and startled me a little - i was debating what i wanted to watch on dvd tonight and she opened my door. it didn't help that i was listening to music and completely missed her call so it wasn't until i saw my door opening out of the corner of my eye that i realized what was going on. i rather enjoy being lost in my world of music, and i suppose that's my achilles heel - once i tune in, i tune out the world around me.

while she was here it dawned on my that as of 11/8/07, i am by definition debt free. there will always be bills, but i no longer have any loans hanging over my head as my final student loan payment has come and gone. it was so very nice to see this when i logged in to check on it:

Loan Balances
You do not currently have any active or fully disbursed loans on our system.

it took a few moments for that to sink in, but it's really nice to think that the chunk of change i've been sinking into paying that off now sinks into my bank account. i'll try and enjoy this while i can, but at the same time i also know that i have a new car coming in the coming months (i'm finally fed up with my explorer - i don't want it anymore but will suffer thru the winter to save down payment money to help minimize that loan) and of course once the house hunting starts up again, that's going to put me in debt for pretty much the rest of my life. so i'll have to enjoy it while i can.

weather has turned brisk around here which i suppose is expected for this time of the year. and it looks like the trees around the house which had their leaves up until very recently have finally dropped most of them. it's been odd to see just how many leaves haven't fallen yet, of course they are shades of brown, so it's not as nice as leaf peepers would like. tho i do have to chuckle at a sermon the assistant priest in high school gave about how he enjoyed fall and the fall colors, but how one year in school it was explained why the leaves change color - the are dying and when dying they go from green to the bright vivid colors, etc. anyways, he had a hard time dealing with that as he couldn't figure out why if they were dying were they so vividly colored. eventually it clicked that it wasn't a bad thing as in the spring there was a rebirth and life would return, etc.

i always found it amusing as i guess i never looked at leaves that way. sure i knew why they changed colors, but i never gave it much thought other than to wonder why they'd change to the color they did (yellow, orange, red, etc). he certainly got over it, but it was some time before he shook that memory, eventually relating it to whatever bible story was the subject of that sunday sermon (most likely rebirth or something along those lines). but i guess it's since stuck with me - i still smile a bit when i think about it. anyways, moving on.

Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet is a current front runner for the Molius Album of the Year award (sounds fancy). if you haven't heard it, it's well worth plunking your hard earned money down for.

and on that note, i'll wrap this up.

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huh

go figure. who knew that oprah and i actually have something in common - we both like Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. (that and goldens i suppose)

the rens bought me the book years ago for xmas, and it's one of the few books that i can recall pretty vividly (meaning i really liked it). that question of what books would i bring with me if i was stranded on an island is always answered by my wanting The Dark Tower series, the entire Dune series (old & new) and Lord of the Rings. Pillars would be one of the few non-series books i'd want with me.

it's a long book and well worth reading (and it's not scifi - go figure). must be those cathedrals i seem to have a passing interest in.

Ken Follett is latest Oprah Winfrey pick

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer

NEW YORK - Oprah Winfrey went for the big time Wednesday with her latest book club pick, choosing Ken Follett's 973-page "The Pillars of the Earth," an announcement that will likely mean hundreds of thousands more sales for an author with a huge, international following.

Winfrey, whose TV talk show airs from Chicago, called Follett "a best-selling author that everybody has heard of, but this novel is unlike any of his books he's known for around the world."

Follett, a 58-year-old native of Cardiff, Wales, is famous for spectacular thrillers such as "Lie Down With Lions," "Eye of the Needle" and "World Without End," published last month, and a sequel to "The Pillars of the Earth," which came out in 1989.

Follett has called "The Pillars of the Earth," a love story set in England in the 12th century, his favorite novel. According to his Web site, the book still sells around 100,000 copies a year in the United States alone.

"My publishers were a little nervous about such a very unlikely subject but paradoxically, it is my most popular book," Follett writes on his Web site.

"It's also the book I'm most proud of. It recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village and the people who live there. You feel you know the place and the people as intimately as if you yourself were living there in the middle ages."

A year after "Pillars" came out, Follett was so popular he agreed to a two-book, $12.3 million deal with the Dell Publishing Company. He reportedly has 90 million readers worldwide and recently signed with Penguin Group (USA), which released "World Without End," for a planned multigenerational trilogy set in the 20th century.

___

Associated Press writer Tara Burghart in Chicago contributed to this report.

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unfucking believable.

i got paged at 7am this morning to find out that NStar is planning on shutting the power off to the building where our main office is.

and we have no fucking clue what is going on because we can't seem to get a straight answer of WHY this is, or HOW LONG this will take.

ok, i now have an answer so i'll leave what i wrote alone.

some fucking asshole smashed into a electrical pole around 545am. we lost power while nstar cut us (the building) over to a secondary power feed. they are in the process of fixing the pole and at some point today, when they don't know, they are going to shut the power down and put us back onto the primary power feed.

i'm now waiting for a quick email to alert the agency from my boss and then i'm heading home to hurry up and wait to find out when things are going down and when they do, i'll head back in to get stuff restarted.

just fucking lovely.

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long day

i left home around 930am today and returned at 1030pm tonight.

what a fucking mess.

the good:

• stuff is moved
  
• i have the switches patched (thanks RB)
  
• we have data connections to all offices on both voice and data sides
  
• i'm finally home

the bad:

• the network upgrade didn't go quite as expected. (it's fine now for the most part, but i guess the phones were totally fucked in MN and the guy they had working on the routers was a fucking dolt
  
• i had to replace the batteries in one of the UPS which sucked ass and wasted 2 hours of my life
  
• the 208v outlet has the wrong plug for my UPS (electrical guy will be there in the morning)
  
• the server room is a fucking mess
  
• not everything is wired up
  
• i have to be there for 8am tomorrow
  
• there was no alcohol provided
  
• i still have to reprogram the phones and extensions (ugh...)

i realize that it sounds like there was more bad than good, but all in all, the important stuff from my view is in place and it's now down to the busy work. i should be able to get the simple stuff done pretty quickly and find a quiet corner to reprogram the phone system so with a bit of luck, i'll be out by mid-afternoon. changing the phone numbers is going to take a while - it took me 2 hours to do it last year for some 50 or so users. i have nearly 150 i need to do here, so i'm hoping i can crank it out as long as i'm left alone. if i could, i'd just lock myself in my office in MN and do it there, but i need to be able to test it a bit while i'm there, so i'll see where i can hide.

not much else. LB picked up dinner from cheesecake factory, but they didn't bother to include forks, ketchup or straws. so thanks LB for dinner.

well, i'm tired and need a little mindless entertainment before i collapse in a heap. only to be rudely disturbed by my alarm in a few hours.

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this weekend is going to be long

most likely. we're moving one of our offices this weekend and it all starts tomorrow at noon. at least my piece of the massive puzzle that is this move. in typical fashion, my sleep has suffered as the anxiety of the move gets to me. at least i know that's what it is, and that things should return to normal when this mess is all done.

but at noon i shut down all the servers in the office and start the process of pulling it all apart. and then i need to remove a few of the servers, pack them up and move them to the new office, get them reconstructed and with a bit of luck, all will be as it should be.

yeah, right.

we'll see. but it should at least prove to be entertaining. i have a 4 walkie talkies so the banter should be what gets us thru the mess. we need to think of handles to use while we work. clerks 2 seems to be inspiring my train of thought right now, but i'm having a hard time figuring out who picklefucker would be....

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D'OH!

Led Zeppelin reunion show postponed

LONDON - Led Zeppelin fans awaiting the rockers' reunion will have to wait a little longer.

The band's first concert in two decades, scheduled for Nov. 26, has been postponed until Dec. 10 after guitarist Jimmy Page fractured a finger, organizers said Friday.

"I am disappointed that we are forced to postpone the concert by two weeks," Page said in a statement.

"However, Led Zeppelin have always set very high standards for ourselves, and we feel that this postponement will enable my injury to properly heal, and permit us to perform at the level that both the band and our fans have always been accustomed to."

Led Zeppelin, who split up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham, announced in September they were reuniting for a one-off show. The lineup includes Page, singer Robert Plant and bass player John Paul Jones, along with Bonham's son Jason.

More than 1 million fans entered a draw for a chance to buy one of the 10,000 tickets to the concert at London's O2 Arena, a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died last year. The lineup also includes former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Foreigner and young Scottish singer Paolo Nutini.

Organizers said tickets for the Nov. 26 gig will be honored at the rescheduled show.

at least it won't be like the start of the tour in 1975 when he broke his finger then and they continued on. but then it did bring How Many More Times back into the setlist...

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stupid fedex

i need to ship a faulty tape drive back to our vendor and they enclosed a fedex PRP (Package Returns Program) label. so i call to schedule a pickup, but none of the prompts ask for a suite number. it gets our building address right, but as this is an office building, there is more than one company here, so i didn't schedule the pickup figuring i'd use the online system.

and what a mess that is. you have to register to schedule a pickup (ok, that's fine) but during the registration process, it asks for a 9-digit fedex number. what? i don't have that. i just want to register to schedule a pickup, but it won't let me w/o this stupid number. so i cancel the registration and to my amusement, it asks if i'd like to take a survey. normally, i HATE these surveys. but this time i wanted to leave feedback. i doubt that my words will influence anyone, but at least one person will have to read the following:

What suggestions do you have to improve the overall registration process for FedEx Pickup?

it is awful. i have a PRP label and i'm trying to schedule a pickup, but you won't let me because i have to have an account. i attempted to sign up to schedule the pickup, but it prompts me for a 9-digit fedex number that i don't have, nor will ever likely need. if it wasn't for the fact that this is already prepaid, i would use either UPS or DHL as neither one of those have given me a problem in the past when i have needed to schedule a pickup.

at the very least you should have an option to fill in the shipping label and where the pickup is for any prepaid shipping labels because not everyone scheduling a pickup will want or need to jump through your awful hoops just to ship something back to a vendor.

What suggestions do you have to improve the overall registration process of obtaining either a 1) FedEx.com user id and password or 2) a FedEx account number?

do not require a fedex account number when signing up. require it for when someone wants to ship something that isn't a PRP shipment (prompt for shipper number to verify). if they want to ship something w/o a PRP number, and then direct them to whatever they need to do to sign up for your fedex account number.

and for any of those questions you say what your satisfaction level is, i left it as 'Extremely Dissatisfied'

so now i'm disgruntled.

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random picture of the moment: failed backup

the note reads:

DH,

We had a slight issue with FP's backup tape.

I think we have a good restore from last November

JB :)

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20 cents is all it took

twenty pennies. four nickles. two dimes. and it cost friday's (if you let this load, be sure to kill the annoying music) $25.16 on the bill JJ & i had. the short of it is this: be sure to check your bill when they give it to you.

so rewinding a little, JJ & i decided to have dinner at friday's. she had a hankering, and i hadn't been to one in i don't even remember how long. (as far as i can tell these days, friday's = applebee's = 99 restaurant = chili's - it's all the same thing) so things started off fine. hostess seated us fairly promptly (~715pm) and told us our server's name (something with an 'R'). we started looking thru the menu and a few (long) minutes later, he shows up and takes our drink orders (Dr. Pepper & 16oz Sammy Octoberfest). he returns with JJ's soda and informs me that "the machine broke" so i switch to a regular Sammy.

the machine broke????

anyways, he returns with my beer and we place our order (1/2 rack ribs & smoked brisket dip sandwich). ~730pm

silly me figures that it won't be that long for us to eat. it's nearly 8pm when my meal is delivered by a lackey. JJ & i look at each other and wonder where her dinner is. we also begin to wonder where the au jus that we thought we saw on the menu was, as my brisket was looking a little under-au jus'd. and around this time i'm nearly finished with my beer and i notice a seed (we think) stuck to the bottom of the glass.

when 'R' shows back up (nearly 810pm now) to ask if we need anything (he appears to be oblivious to the fact that i have food and JJ doesn't) so i bring the seed to his attention. he tips the glass and as he starts to walk away, JJ asks about my missing au jus (my food is rapidly cooling at this point). he brings my beer glass to someone with a headset, they tilt the glass and they disappear somewhere. while this is transpiring, another lackey stops by and he asks if we need anything, JJ asks for a refill and her meal (mine continues to cool). we continue to muse, both of us have taken to nibbling my rapidly cooling fries.

i receive a 'fresh' beer (the glass was clean, but the taps need to be cleaned) and we ask again about JJ's meal. a few minutes later and by 815pm her meal arrives. (i forgot to ask what the temp was)

we're both starting to be irritated at this point and not sure if i'm getting a comp beer or not. so we try and enjoy the meal. mine was south of luke warm at this point, but i decide it's not worth getting too upset over. by this point, i've pretty much written off eating at friday's again. 'R' walks by us several times while we are eating, but never once stops by to check on us. by 830pm, i've finished my meal and JJ isn't far behind. ~835pm 'R' stops by and asks if we need anything, and i reply 'napkins'. he clears my plate and returns a few minutes later with a bone plate, a small stack of napkins and 2 handy wipes. (to their credit - their handy wipes are big, plush, and heavy duty)

by the time he returns however JJ is finished, so he fails to notice that she is done, so he doesn't clear her plate.

845pm - 'R' shows up and asks if we want anything else (desert, etc), we decline and ask for the bill. he returns a few minutes later with the bill.

problem. i see i ordered 2 sandwiches. (the good news is i was only charged for 1 beer)

so, 'R' is at the booth across from where we were sitting and as he turns to walk away, i tap him and ask why there were 2 sandwiches. he stammers something about something (it made no sense to us) and wanders off to correct it.

a few minutes later, he returns with the original bill and a handwritten $25.36 written on it.

i look at it and pull my phone out and start to calculate things out. i can't get it to add up. each time i calculate it, i get $25.16. JJ starts to calculate it and gets the same total. we both wonder how he landed at that total. 'R' has vanished, so we decide that we would like to speak with the manager. shortly before this, we had decided that we were only going to leave $1 as tip (in quarters, i add a penny, so $1.01 total) which is more insulting than leaving nothing. (you leave nothing, they know they fucked up, you leave them $1, they learn that they fucked up. JJ tels me about this bitchy waitress that dared to be surly with her sister - it ended up really messy.)

after we had figured out that the numbers didn't add up, JJ asked for her quarters back - we were leaving nothing.

so i get up to try and find a manager and bump into 'R' and ask to speak to a manager. he heads off to find a manager.

a few minutes later, the manager shows up and JJ and i explain (very calmly and patiently) that we can't figure out how 'R' arrived at that total, showing him the napkin with my calculations. he takes the check and my napkin and tells us that 'R' was having a problem ringing it up and that he should have found him (the manager) to ask for help. he returns a few minutes later with a bill for $25.16. exactly what JJ & i both calculated. he laments that 'R' isn't the sharpest person and how people these days can't even handle remedial math. he then relates how his daughter came home and told him that she needed a $150 calculator.

uhhh...if you are referring to the TI-83 or TI-85, neither of those is over $100, but nevermind.

as the total is correct, i give him my card and he walks off. a few minutes later, i see him walk towards the entrance and a few seconds later 'R' returns with the receipt and my card saying something that i guess was an apology and that we were all set and then promptly walks off. JJ & i look at each other slightly bewildered and i say that i think he said we were all set and let's go. we grab our jackets and bolt. on our way out, the manager says something about 'R' needing some remedial math skills, we nod and head out. it's now ~910pm.

we laugh about it as we walk to my car and we both agree that had 'R' just given us a PRINTED check with the correct total (like the manager did), i would have paid it without batting an eye. but because we were given a handwritten total on our original check, we looked a lot more carefully and then questioned the difference. both of us know that 20 cents isn't much, but it was the principle. 'R' fucked up and we caught him.

so that ended our dining experience at friday's. but not my evening.

after dropping JJ at home, i decided that i should put gas into my car even tho i was at a 1/2 tank - my commute usually works out in a way that if i put gas in on saturday or sunday, i won't need to until the following weekend when i have more time to remember that i need gas. since going on vaca, my fill up schedule has been a little screwed up and i was late(r) to work one morning because i forgot to get gas on the way home the night before.

so i stopped by the irving on the way home (home of the cheap gas in the area, altho the sunocco was cheaper tonight) to top off my tank, which should put me back into my regular feed my car routine.

so, as i pulled in, some asshole was in my way, so i slowed and he moved to avoid me, but i could see he wasn't pleased that i had turned into his way. what didn't help this asshole was he didn't have his lights on, so i didn't really see him until i had turned. i gave him a 'what the fuck' look and pulled into a pump. as i got out of my car, i could hear him yell something at me as he drove past and i just shook my head and marveled at how in the last 30 seconds, i watched someone fuck up 3 times.

the first being driving w/o his headlights on.
the second being taking an illegal left out of the exit he used.
the third being blowing thru a red light, with the car that had the green starting to move into the intersection that he was blowing thru.

what a fucking idiot. learn to drive you fucking idiot. i think he had to act tougher than he was because he had a friend in the car with him who was egging him on. so to him, i also say fuck you.

the rest of my drive home was uneventful. and here i am now sitting watching the 8th inning of the red sox game. it's looking like they may win, but the game isn't over. i'll finish the game in bed.

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it's nearly party time

oh fuck yeah!

i have scheduled my FINAL student loan payment.

it's nearly over. and in a few weeks, it will be.

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how annoying

i'm not sure what was causing it, but i woke around 640a (now 720a) this morning to a constant rapping sound (quoth the raven) which prompted me to see what time it was.

i quickly realized that the power was out as my alarm clock was dead. walk around to assess the situation, and sure enough, there is no power in my apartment. grab a flashlight and confirm that i'm not alone as stinky's always on TV is quiet (only off if she isn't here). so i grab what cash i had ($7) and my license and head out to see just how widespread it is.

well, not very far. i get a block away and they have power. sure enough, there's power elsewhere (including starbucks which provided me with a coffee and muffin, reduced fat whole wheat tri-berry) so now i'm sitting here glad that my laptop has dual batteries which allows me to at least entertain myself for a little while as i hope things will brighten up. it's not light enuff to read in here yet as it's rather overcast.

i've finished my muffin. i can confirm that it has at least 2 different berries, raspberries (i have a seed stuck in my molars) and another darker, most likely blue and black berries. it was 'eh'. i liked that it was soft, and that it wasn't covered in sugar (something M doesn't care for and i've become less fond of in the last few years). it did have that slightly soggy/slimy feel muffins get when they have been packaged for a little while. they didn't put too many berries in, and you could taste the wheat. it didn't have that gritty feel that some whole wheat products have (usually to prove that it really is whole wheat i've found). size was smaller than a dunkin' muffin, more like the size of a regular cupcake size, but with a big top, the kind you see on TV, that perfect mushroom shape.

i have a slight update to the lack-of-power situation i'm currently annoyed by: the timer that turns on the lamp in my living room appears to have stopped a little before 6am, so i'm now closing in on hour 2 (currently 748a).

lesse...yesterday M&i were going to goto some thing her college was doing in boston, but shortly before 5pm, she called and asked if we should blow it off. so we went to dinner in watertown instead. we ordered a few appetizers, drinks and dessert. it was a fine dinner, altho our sweet potato gnocci wasn't as hot as we were expecting, but outside of that it wasn't bad.

weather yesterday was screwy. when i left it was misting on and off, and on my way it started to rain and then it stopped and then it rained, misted, rained and let up. during dinner the heavens opened up, and on the way home it continued that screwy trend until i hit 93 when it just started pouring and was like that for pretty much the entire way home. it let up a little bit when i got home, but i could hear it pouring on and off during the evening.

and it is certainly a lot warmer than one would expect for the 20th of october. i don't mind, and with the power still out (now starting hour 3) i'm glad as it means i'm not worrying about it getting too cold. if anything, i have my windows open as i'm warm.

one of these days i'll get the european pictures up. maybe i'll do some work on that now.

signing off for now i guess. 803am

well, at 807am, power was restored.

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random picture of the moment: heading to the other office

saw this while heading to the other office to look at the server room i get to tear down in less than a month. i saw it and can't seem to put my finger on why it caught my eye. of course when i wanted to be stopped at the traffic light on the way back here, i couldn't catch the red light to contemplate why it was ringing a bell.

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random picture of the moment: heading to work

this was my view this morning - i felt like i was in The Mist

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