It's 12:44AM and I'm still up installing Michele's new hard drive. Getting her email backed up took forever. formatting a 60 GB hard drive took forever.
On the way home from work I stopped at the 99¢ Only Store. Damn, what an amazing store. I stopped to pick up the pool toys they had advertised. Goggles & masks for the girls to play with in the water. When I got inside, I was blown away. It is full of great things. They had audio cabling! They had tools! They had soda! They had everything. And all for 99¢!
I fully intend to spend one of my lunch hours there inspecting ever last nook and cranny.
A few things today.
1) The bad part about being the boss is that sometimes you have to be the boss.
2) I lost an auction on eBay today. I was bidding on this postcard:
I wasn't willing to pay more that $24.50 for this postcard. There were two other postcard buyers bidding against me in the last 30 seconds. Fuckers.
3) My co-workers at work recognized my birthday today. It was great! You can read all about it.
I am currently sitting outside, wirelessly connected to the internet. The girls are playing in the spa and I am sitting in front of them playing lifeguard.
One of my birthday presents was router/print server/wireless access point. Thanks Mom & Dad! I had been eyeing it for a while since it would solve a few problems I was facing like running out of IP addresses and needing a networked printer. The wireless is just a bonus. Michele's cousin James has moved to LA and he is laptop kinda guy. After my playing with wardriving, I'll be interested to see if anyone wardrives me.
Right now I'm on a work laptop with a 802.11 card. It's good to be a CIO... It is tasty to have a laptop, so I may have to invest in a cheap laptop. Since we'd probably only use it for net access, I'm sure a couple year old model would do. Perhaps a combination of ebay sales and a RL garage sale could raise the cash for Michele and I to snag a bargain.
For those that have issues with their mother-in-law, let me show off. My mother-in-law Marcella is so web saavy that she not only tracked down my Amazon.com wishlist, but see bought me Unreal Tournament 2002. Rock on! It's not even available yet, but she pre-ordered it anyways. Sweet!
I hope my loyal readers have a good day, I intend to!
It's now 12:30AM on my birthday. I just spent the last two hours watching nine miners pulled up from 240 feet underground. All nine have been rescued and are now safe. I'm glad that on my birthday there is some good news in the world.
Thanks the wonders of the internet, you can read the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1 online.
For the last two weeks, I've been using SpamAssassin from Deersoft with Outlook to filter my email for spam.
2 weeks and it correctly filtered 378 spam messages. 54% of my email is spam. What a fucking nightmare. Damn Cantor & Siegel to hell!
You bet your ass it's worth the $20 they are asking for this software.
So if you use Outlook, get your ass over to Deersoft and get yourself some help for the spam epidemic.
What a week. Sorry for the lack of of light hearted sillyness.
Any time that the things that burn up my energy are things I can't talk about, it's a problem. I've burned myself out in the last few weeks. Everything is accelerating and I don't see it slowing down.
You know I love lunch. I truly enjoy getting away from the office for a bit during the day. The last two days have consisted of a bag of corn nuts on Wednesday and a leftover sandwich at my desk today.
I need a break. Where's my vacation form?
Susan from 2020Hindsight wrote up a better description of the Weblog Meetup I went to last week.
I should have told her about the geocaching story link page I made.
From the pictures I'm shocked, shocked to realize that I have grey hair at my temples. WTF?
OK, I've given wardriving a chance, and it just doesn't cut it.
For those that don't know, wardriving is when you drive aroudn with a laptop with a 802.11 card and look for wireless access points. If you find one, you can probably connect to it and be ont he internet via someone else's broadband connection.
Wardriving is an allusion to the older hacker sport of wardialing. Wardialing was/is the term used when you use a modem to scan telephone numbers for other modems or use a modem to hack out telephone calling card numbers. Not that I even did such a thing. There is no way that I did this in high school.
In any case, I had been driving around town with a laptop and a wireless card for a week or so and was impressed to see how many WAPs (wireless access points) were around. I even connected to one at a local coffee shop and posted to here.
Last night, I went out with the specific goal of connecting to a WAP in a secret way. I had to try it. The geek allure was too high. After trying several times, I found that you basically needed to park directly in front of someone's house to even get a minimal signal. 20 feet in either direction, and you would be unable to get a good signal. I found it quite unnerving to be parked in front of someone's house trying to access their computer system. It had quite a different feel than sitting comfortably at home with a soda pop while port scanning a box on the other side of the world.
As a hobby, I decided it just wasn't for me. I guess if you live in a denser area with more WAPs around, it might work better, but in the suburbs of LA, it isn't much fun.
My weblog spawn are continuing to type away...
The Rants of Mister P
Pat in His Right Mind
Flying W Things
I also took time to make Scary Mommy. I wonder if we'll see more posts...
Whew, another weekend draws to a close. The kids are sleeping, Michele's up front ready for the season premiere of Sex in the City, and I'm in the study (surprise!) on the computer.
I think my adventures on Saturday took a bit out of me. While I enjoy time in the heat and sun, it does a number on my energy level. I woke up late this morning and could never really get going. I was just out of juice. I played with the girls in the spa, but it didn't help.
Air Mira
Michele took the kids out to the park to go bike riding, but I still couldn't get going. I even had a little spat with Michele over something stupid. Finally I fell asleep up front while the kids were watching Shrek. After a short nap, I woke and felt OK.
I cooked dinner for the kids and gave them a bath. They are tired too.
Well, here are the stories of geocaching on Satuday. There's no picture of the slight sunburn on neck and arms...
Geocache 13 and Geocache 14
One more thing. On Saturday I made shish-kabobs for dinner. I learned the valuable lesson that you cannot cook raw potatos as part of the kabob. You need to cook the potatoes first, then skewer them. Live and learn.
Tomorrow is approaching fast. I'm not looking forward to what it holds. I can't really talk about it, but it's not going to be a good day where I get a lot done. It will involve much sitting in conference rooms being serious.
After work I went to the weblog meetup in Glendale. It was at a billiards place. I grabbed a beer and soon met Susan, the only other person there for the meetup. It turns out that Susan has written several books and is quite web saavy. We chatted for a while about all kind of things. She's a bit more into the weblog community than I am. I tend to skim weblogs rather than visit them on a daily basis.
Martin stopped by, bringing our total to THREE!. Susan took a few pictures, so I think they will appear on her site soon. We chatted a bit more and I order a club sandwich (no tomato, no mayo). Mmmm, tasty.
We discussed that the next meetup should be in Pasadena proper and not in Glendale. Hopefully the group of attendees will grow over time.
OK, gotta go to work.
I just had to explain what a weblog was to my Mom.
I resisted the urge to say 'Your soaking in it.'
I am currently sitting in my car across the street from a place called Cafe Pop near home.
While driving home from Martin's house, I turned on the netstumbling setup and listened to it sound off as I passed access points. As I got near home, it went off again and I pulled over.
After a bit of fiddling, I connected to the WAP and I am ONLINE in the car.
This rocks.
On my way from home to work today, I was wardriving. On my normal way to work, I picked up the following SSIDs:
BobEWAP
2WIRE027
Apple Network 3a6704
Mobile iBooks
default
-1402
Big One Network
hasnainkhimji
gotowave
linksys
jparlie
CS-WB340:ch-glen
default
Music2000
default
linksys
Betanet
Looks like a ripe area for WiFi access. Look at all those 'default' and 'linksys' SSIDs. Me thinks some people have less than secre networks.
I was sitting quietly at my desk when the phone rang. It was my wife. She asked about something to do with a belt she was returning for me at Macy's. I thought, "That's nice. Michele & Zoe are at the Paseo Colorado. I'm sure they'll have a nice time."
Michele casually mentioned she had some other news. I asked what it was. She said, "Zoe got her ears pierced. Want to talk to her?"
Zoe got on the phone and explained that she now had pierced ears and they it only hurt a 'little bit'.
Wow. My daughter with pierced ears at 6 1/2 years old. I can only imagine that Mira, the 4 year old, will want her ears pierced too.
I'm doomed.
We had Mira's birthday party and everyone had a great time.
Michele and I cleaned up, I watched the last episode of The Wire, surfed the web a bit, and now it's time for bed.
I have no energy for a witty entry.
I'm sitting here with Michele listening to Mixmaster Mike's Spincycle on KROQ. It's the shit!
OK, to other matters...
Earlier I went with a bunch of guys (including Brad) to Galco's, the soda pop store with over 300 available sodas. I had seen it on Unwrapped on FoodTV. It's 15 minutes from work, so we went at lunch.
I ended up buying 4 six-packs of assorted sodas.
Here's the cherry and black cherry soda pop I got for Michele.
A few old favorites in bottles.
Note the full 12 oz. bottle of Coke, not a pansy 8 oz. bottle like you normally see...
And even more to try.
There's nothing like soda pop from a bottle. Cans simply can't compare to the feeling of the bottle. When I was in college we drank out of bottles in the fraternity house. It's a feeling I won't forget.
Yes, my meeting went fine. I am a Corporate Samurai and was able to run the meeting without injury. Stop worryign about me, I'm a big boy, I can handle myself.
Props to my Dad for his fishing expertise!
Behold, my father with a six pound bass.
For those people that just can't get enough weblog reading, here are a few new ones. At the office, my weblogging is common knowledge and more than once I have exhorted my co-workers to make a weblog to voice they rants in a place other than my office. I appear to have spawned three. Enjoy.
The Rants of Mister P
Pat in His Right Mind
Flying W Things
Of course all productivity at the office is grinding to a halt with all this weblogging going on...
I am currently under attack for not updating my weblog.
Someone (who shall remain nameless) is in my office yelling at me now!
I will update with real content before the sun sets...
There's a big meeting at work today.
I've got to be on top of things for a couple hours while I run the meeting.
Too bad I stayed up until 1AM...
My cup of coffee sprung a leak!
Drip, drip, drip out the bottom it was leaking.
Luckily, I didn't panic and remedied the situation with a new paper cup. Yes, that's the benefits of 4 years of engineering school.
On Sunday, we went on two geocaching trips. As usual, I wrote up the stories.
School Days - Cache 11
Go Fly Another Kite - Cache 12
The list of all stories is here.
Go read the weblogs of my new MeFi CD Swap partners sadpanda.org and tangmonkey.com instead of hanging around here. Go now. I'm not kidding. I'm shutting off the computer 'cause it's fucking almost midnight.
OK, I gotta do the latest geocaching write up... But I'm tired.
I crave a Starbucks Doubleshot...
I got a call this morning from the eye doctor's office. My new contacts were in! Woo hoo! After three months of waiting, I woudl finally be able to see out of my left eye.
After lunch I went to pick them up. I tried the new lens in my left and... it hurt. I thought maybe since I hadn't worn a lens in the eye for three months it woudl feel better in a few minutes. Nope. Still hurt after 30 minutes.
My regular doctor wasn't there, so I'll have to go back on WEdnesday to see what the problem is now.
I don't want to wait another 3 months while they try to make me a new lens.
This actually occurred last week, but since I am a lazy slacker, I am only getting to post it now.
I present How to Cook on a Chimney Barbeque.
It's been a busy couple days.
On the Fourth, I had to pick up the girls from the airport. Rather than bother with driving in, I thought it would be nice to have have a town car drive us home. The problem was getting myself to the airport. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money getting myself to the airport. I decided to take the bus there. For a $1.60 fare, I was down with the price.
So around 11AM is hopped on the bus, rode it to downtown where I switched to another bus headed toward the airport. I brought a couple books along to read. I am now firmly convinced that everyone has a mobile phone. There were more people talking on phones on the bus than weren't. A guy mentioned that on holidays & weekends calls are free. People are smart and took advantage of this.
The bus arrived at the transit center near LAX around 1:15. The transit center is really just the place at the Lot C parking lot where lots of buses drop off and pick up. I walked onto the shuttle bus and took a seat. One of the guys ont he shuttle works security and had a radio in his ear. Out of the blue he says, "They are gunna shutdown the airport, someone got shot." People a bit concerned. He then tells us that the shooter is dead and they don't know what they are going to do at the airport.
At this point, everyone that wasn't on a mobile phone now whips one out and begins dialing. Everyone's calling someone. I don't really have anyone to call. The radio energy inside the bus cooked have cooked a potato.
The bus driving announces that she, "ain't going in there till it's safe!" General freakout ensues. "I'm going to miss my plane!" I calmly walk off the bus and start walking. In about five minutes I'm inside the airport. I ask a police officer if they are going to shut down the airport. His radio is squawking constantly. He says, "They don't know what the fuck they are going to do..."
I keep walking in toward the Delta terminal. Just as I'm about to get there, the police start pushing everyone back. Soon, the Bomb Squad rolls up with the Fire Department soon afterwards. Lots of police everywhere. All traffic in the airport stops. It gets very quiet, except for people talking on mobile phones, of course.
That was the scene from my vantage point.
At this point it's about 45 minutes until Michele & the Girls are supposed to land. A few minutes earlier, my parents called. They had heard about the shooting on the news and were concerned. I told them everything was fine.
I decided to grab a snack before all the food ran out. I got a cup of coffee and a croissant. Bastards were out of the ham and cheese ones and I had to settle for a plain one. I sat down on the curb and ate while the rumors flew around me.
After that I called Delta to find out what gate Michele would arrive at considering that the Delta terminal was closed. It took them about 5 minutes to tell me they weren't sure. Weren't sure? WTF?
Finally, Michele called me. They had landed and were still on the plane. She wasn't sure where they would exit. I made my best guess as to which exit Delta would use. About 10 minutes later they were heading out, I saw them, and there was much hugging.
Cars were beginning to circulate the airport. They must have opened up the traffic. I called for the Town Car and they said they were on the way, but the traffic was bad. It took about 45 minutes for the guy to make it to us. A long 45 minutes with children ready to go home...
Thankfully, we arrived home safe and sound. The house is now full of girls and their debris.
I've only slept 4 hours in the last 42 hours. I can't keep my eyes open. I must resist the evil Starbucks Doubleshot in the fridge.
Time for sleep.
Why the hell did I stay up until 2AM.
Where's my damn coffee?
It's 12:30AM and I've got Warcraft 3.
I got to Fry's about 11:30 and was amazed to see a parking lot full of cars. Wow, I guess there will be a few people here.
I went inside and there were Fry's drones greeting people and handing them flyers about special midnight deals on crap. I ignored the tempting model rocket kits and George Foreman grills and walked over to the software section.
Sitting there was a displa with only a few copies of Warcraft left. Not many people around. I grabbed a copy and thought, "Boy, that was easy and it's not even Midnight yet."
The fry's drones began to restock the displays with more copies and then I moved up to the front of the stores and saw what was going on. I could hold the game before Midnight, but I was not allowed to buy it yet.
Alot of people were buying the big Collector's Edition verison with a bunch of dumb ass stuff inside. Fuck that shit. I only pay extra for the id Software tins...
I waited for a half hour for the clock to hit Midnight. In line was the a expected clumps of 20-something guys with the occasional girlfriend tagging along. People were loudly discussing their experience in the Beta. What suprised me was the number of mothers there. There was at least a half dozen moms there with their young teen sons buying them Warcraft. Now that's love.
Just before H-hour, all 30+ front cashregisters were manned by Fry's staff. Since I had time to kill, I made the rough estimate that there was 200+ people in line to buy the game.
The watch on the lead Fry's drone hit 12:00Am and the selling began. I was in the first wave of 30 to hit the registers. Three minutes later I was walking by the Fry's Door Nazis with a smirk on my face as they asked me to show my receipt. Continued walking right out the door much to there chagrin.
Time to load the game...
It's 10:52PM. Warcraft 3 is released in 68 minutes at Fry's in Burbank.
I'm thinking about going, but if I go it will be a moment of uber-geekdom.
I wonder if they'll have beers? Will I be the only one?
ONE
If my wife had a weblog, it would be something like lifewithageek.com, except there'd be more about quilting...
TWO
I have been a bit jealous of my younger brother and the Washington, DC area weblogger get-togethers he attends. He tells me they are great fun and involve much beer drinking.
In my search for a similar meeting place in Southern California, I stumbled upon meetup.com. A site devoted to enabling just this kind of gatherings.
If you check out this particular Meetup you will find it only has 3 people involved. This is where YOU come in. YOU sign up and attend and then it will be a big rollicking par-tay!
So far, it's 2 votes for washing my caps in the clothes washer and one vote for washing them in the dishwasher.
I'm kinda leaning toward the dishwasher since it involves doing something out of the ordinary.
My mother-in-law tells the story of steaming a fish in the dishwasher. I need to try that...