« April 2004 | Main | June 2004 »

May 30, 2004

Time to play catch-up

Okay, so I've been slacking off in my posts lately. What can I say? I've been extremely busy and that's the only excuse that I have at the moment.

But, I'm back to update things and let everyone know what's been going on in the past couple of weeks.

1. I finally got all of the junk out of the basement. We found an abatement company to come and pick up what was left over after the employees got through with the PCs, monitors, printers, faxes, etc. Luckily, most of the stuff was taken by employees... one of them took over 15 PCs by himself. I was more than glad to give them to him, and even more glad to see them go. By the time it was all said and done, I had loaded up a total of 6 palettes full of equipment and hauled them to the back lobby for the abatement company to pick up. I was expecting them to bring a big truck that we could load all the palettes on, but instead they brought a van. All of the equipment had to be manually loaded into the van, and once it was all in, there wasn't any spare room to move.

The basement looks really good now. I really opened up the monitor wall, and have more space to put stuff out there. I also was able to get the closet cleaned up a bit and organized, but I'm afraid that it's started to pile back up again. I don't know why I'm so surprised by that. By now, you'd think that I would've come to accept these things.

2. Amanda had her last day of school last Tuesday. She's a college girl once again, and I couldn't be more proud of her. She starts classes in August, and is really excited to be going back. I'm hoping that we'll be able to make ends meet during the summer, up to a point where we can have her going to school without having to work as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed ... here's to good fortune.

3. The Crusade is next weekend, and I'm getting a bit excited about it already. Even though it's one of the longest weekends of the year, and I have to work my ass of getting ready for it, I just really love the experience. Thus far, I've been able to get several people involved, and I'm hoping for more this coming week. Steven and Raphiel will be down and joining in the fun, and what's really neat is that this'll be Raphiel's first trip down to our place since we met him a few years back. Amanda's mom and sister will be here as well, and they're staying the weekend with us like they did last year. I had a great time with them, and I'm hoping that it'll be more of the same this year. I tried to get Michael to participate this year, but it seems that he couldn't get the time off. I told him to at least consider coming up on Sunday and joining in, but I'm not convinced that he'd do that yet. I've also invited Mom and Mike to come as well, but again it doesn't seem like they were too interested in doing so.

But as far as the Crusade is concerned, we're doing quite well. This is the first time in a long time that we've had the set up and ready to go a week prior to the event. I have to hand it to Jerry and Mickey, they've really put this one together. Since all of their work has been completed, it gives Kyle and I the entire week next week to get everything setup for phones and computers. It won't be a rush job like years past, where everything litterally came down at the last second.

The one real downside to this years Crusade will be the lack of our good friend, Robert. He's done every Crusade with Kyle and myself, and was part of the team. He's down in South Carolina being a Marine at the moment, so he doesn't exactly have the time to make a trip to KY and work the weekend. That's okay though ... he'll be in our thoughts. :)

4. I finally got Fedora Core 2 DVD downloaded and installed. It amazes me how damn difficult it is to find a good mirror to download the DVD from. I would assume that it wouldn't be nearly as popular as the 4 disc set is, as DVD burners really haven't caught on as of yet with the mainstream market. But they're nearly impossible to find with a decent speed. The other side of the issue is that most download applications, either Web browser or programs like wget, have a 2GB limit. Apparently the people who maintain wget is working on their limitation issue, but for people like me who want to set the download in the background and forget it, the 2GB limitation is a huge hassle at the moment. The Fedora 2 DVD is 4.1GB, and there's no way around that.

The other day, while doing a search for a fix for wget, I came across a Web site that mentioned using a Linux application called ncftpget. It works like a mix between wget and an FTP client. Technically it *is* an ftp client, but with no 2GB limit and the ability to continue downloads if they get stopped. There's no GUI to speak of, only the command line. The Web site that mentioned ncftpget also mentioned a good download site with a fast transfer rate, claiming to have downloaded the DVD in 3 hours over DSL. Well, I didn't get that kind of speed, but I definately found it to be more of a reliable download source.

ftp://redhat.secsup.org/pub/linux/redhat/fedora/core/2/i386/iso/FC2-i386-DVD.iso

5. Amanda and I have started to clean up the apartment and re-arrange furniture. While I was at work the other day, she managed to completely re-arrange the living room. I wasn't too sure about it when I saw it at first, as she put the chair in an area that can't view the TV well, but the more I see it the more I like it.

She closed the door that leads into the office and put the chair in front of it. We had discussed doing this for a while now, and since it has been done, I'm happier with it. It's not nearly as noisy as it was before, and there is a bit more privacy throughout the apartment. Before, if I was sitting in the office in my underwear and someone knocked on the door, I would have to scramble to find some pants to put on. Now, that's not the case at all ... I just stay in here until I know that the coast is clear to make it into the bedroom. :)

......

Well, that's about it for playing catch-up. I have a three day weekend thanks to Memorial day, so I'm going to go and work on our apartment with Amanda some more. We're moving the office into the dining room and making the office into a spare bedroom.

Later!

Posted by ed at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2004

Election Primaries

I'm currently stuck at work doing election stuff. I'm having a great time.

Yay.

Posted by ed at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2004

Once A Snake...

I just learned today that someone has been taking advantage of myself and others that I consider good friends.

This person has had more than their fair share of good fortune over the years, and has chosen to use that to their benefit. This is where taking advantage of myself and my friends comes into play. This person e-mails us from time to time, asking questions that they don't know an answer to. Little do those people who respond realize, this person is using the information to hurt them.

Granted, most of the people probably wouldn't give a rats ass about what this person is doing, but those that make a living doing certain things, this will certainly burn them good. In addition, there is some real issues that others just don't realize. This person is going to use something that alot of people have spent many years working on as a resource to further their career. This does nothing but piss me off, big time.

I, personally, have put quite a bit of time and effort into building up this resource. There are others that have put in more time and effort than I have, and these are the people that will be burned the most. I feel very angry at the moment, but I also think that this is one of those things that I really should've seen coming. What is also irritating is that the way things have been presented in the past, this person looks like they know exactly what they're talking about. Those in the know, however, understand that this person is a complete moron, and shouldn't be allowed into the field that they're trying to get into.

I know this is a lot of ranting, and none of it really makes sense. Those who know will understand. I guess this post is just for me and them.

Posted by ed at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2004

Cleaning Up Around the Station

Well, we're about a week or so into what I call "Project Spring Cleaning", and thus far everything is going quite well. Kyle and I have managed to get quite a few things written off the books, although a vast majority of the items we inventoried had no asset tag, make/model, or serial number to speak of. The best that we could do is provide a basic description of the device and hope for the best.

I also have to hand it to Jerry and Mickey ... they've done a great job cleaning up the pile-o-shit that had become the basement. This morning, it was still a pile-o-shit, and by this afternoon it was all cleaned up and very organized. There were over 50 file cabinets and who knows how many desks that they had to sort through. They did a great job, however, and it looks like we should be ready to have employees come down and take a look through all of the equipment and furniture to see what they want to take with them.

I'm hoping to hear from one of the Crusade agencies here in the very near future (like, within 24 hours) so I can schedule one of their IT people to come in and look over the stuff that we have. There's quite a bit of stuff available to them if they want to take it ... and they're more than welcome to whatever they want. I just want the crap gone and out of my hair for good. And if we can help some kids by getting rid of our garbage, then that's even better ... cuz I'm all about helping out kids.

I'm debating on going through the stuff that's in the basement one last time to get it a bit more organized. After seeing how Jerry and Mickey got the basement cleaned up, I think that Kyle and I can get in there and get our stuff organized a little better. Granted, we've done quite a bit as it is, but I'm really thinking that the way things are currently setup isn't exactly efficient ... people would have to go through too much crap to find anything.

One of the other big things that need ot be taken care of is the old phone system. I left a voicemail for the BELO teleco manager today, and I'm hoping to hear back from her soon. I'm thinking that we can probably take the damn thing apart and ship the parts to one of the stations up in Washington State. From what I understood when Ruthiann was here last August, they're hurting for spare parts. Since they gave up the phone system, which then fell to us, I feel that it's only fair to offer them the parts. If they don't want it, maybe I can get an offer off of Ebay. :)

Speaking of Ebay, I've joked around with some of the guys and gals at work that there's literally a treasure trove of stuff down in our basement that is being thrown away. If I had the room, I'd take alot of stuff myself and put it up for auction on Ebay, and most likely make a small fortune doing so. It's been amazing what we've come across thus far. It seems like the more that we dig, the more we uncover. Hell, I found an old monitor waaaay back in a corner of the basement, and I had no clue how long the thing had been there. Granted it's been longer than 2 years, because I definately wasn't the one who put it there.

Anyhow... I'm going to run and try to install OSX. My Darwin installation CD ISO is about 60% done, and once it's completed I'm going to play around with PearPC a bit more. I figure if I keep going, I'll eventually have OSX up and running on my x86 system by the end of the week.

Later!

Posted by ed at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2004

Leaving me alone = Me getting work done

I've had one of the best Monday's in recent memory today. It's been about a year or so since I can remember having a Monday like today. I was able to get so much work done that I can hardly believe what I was able to accomplish. In addition, Kyle called in because he had to take his dad to the doctor, and I was left to do all of the work myself.

First, I should probably catch everyone up as to what's been going on as of late. We're done with two of the three big events projects of the year. The first being Thunder, followed two weeks later by the Kentucky Derby. We still have the final leg of the trifecta, which is just weeks away: the Crusade for Children. Since we don't have any major events coming up until the Crusade, this gives us time to several things:

1. Play catch-up with the things that have fallen behind as a result of Thunder and Derby.
2. Clean up the basement for Crusade.
3. Prep all IT stuff for the Crusade.

Now, we've done the catch-up part ... and we're doing good in regards to support requests. We still get a regular flow of the daily "I blew up my machine" calls, but at least we're not back-logged like we were. Now, we're on step two, cleaning up the basement. This year, we have a shitload of things in the basement as a result of our renovation from last year. Old furnature from the 2nd floor renovation and other things that have just piled up over a year or so since last years cleanup effort.

For the IT department, it has been our task to get rid of the mountain of PC junk that we have collected in the past year and a half. And believe me, there's a TON of shit ... and worst yet ... it all needed to be written off of the books, as most of it was WAY over 3 years old. So, beginning last week, Kyle and I got down and dirty and started going through all of the crap, sorting the good from the bad. We made two piles and an isle in between them allowing us to walk. We got asset info, make/model, and serial numbers from every piece of hardware and turned it in to accounting for write off.

Today, I continued the effort, making my way into the IT storage room and actually trying to organize the damn thing. You see, we've been so busy over the past 8 months that when we were done with something, we put it in the storage room. We didn't care where we put it or if it was in any kind of order ... we just put it in the closet and shut the door. Well, today I went through the heap that had build up in there... and damn was there a mess to sort through. Thankfully, I had no one calling me throughout the day, which allowed me to stay focused on the task at hand. Before I knew it, I had the room sorted out and PCs ready to be taken out and put into the pile. Best of all... there was more stuff to write off and get out of my way.

I took all of the monitors and PCs out of the storage room and put next to the pile. I counted them to see how many machines I had brought out ... 26 total from today. I didn't realize that we had that many old machines in the storage room, no wonder it was such a mess. I stood back and took a look at the pile that I had formed down in the basement, and was amazed by the amount of crap that I've let accumulate over the past year and a half. Then I got to thinking ... most of the equipment here should've been replaced years ago. There were things that were older than 10 years that had been left around for no good reason. I realized then that the problem wasn't as much my fault as it was the people that came before me. These machines should've been gone a long time ago. But since I've been the one to actually make some kind of effort to bring the station to the 21st century of computing, it all fell to me.

Go figure.

Now that I had room in the storage area, I collected all of our old weather equipment and organized them in an open corner. Now, some might ask why I would even bother keeping these machines since they've already been replaced. The simple truth is that I dare not get rid of these machines in case of a failure with our current equipment. We need some kind of backup that can get us up and going in a pinch, and regardless of how old these machines are ... they are that backup for the time being. Granted, when 3 years rolls around we'll be looking to upgrade our weather system again ... then I can get rid of these units and put the current Dells in their place.

So before this gets too long, I want to explain what will be happening with the old PCs that are now written off and hanging around in the basement. A couple of things will be happening in the very near future that will allow us to get rid of these machines:

1. The Crusade is bringing in a non-profit to look over the PCs and find what they would like to have. They find what they want and we format the system and give it to them.
2. When Jerry is ready, we will be sending out an e-mail to all employees, telling them that there is furnature and equipment down in the basement that they can have. People will come down, put their names on the things that they want and when it's all said and done, they'll take them home.
3. With everything that's left over, the Crusade will be contacting another non-profit group that will come and collect the machines for spare parts. Apparently, they strip down the systems and take all the parts to make a decent machine to give to a needy family. Whatever is left over, they dispose of it.

Okay, I'm done now.

Posted by ed at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2004

The One Thing That's Constant

Change is happening all the time. It's the one thing in life you can never truly escape from. It's right up there with taxes and death, truly unavoidable.

Keeping that in mind, Amanda and I are on the edge of quite a few changes coming up in the next few months. Her last day of school at Bondurant is in 14 more school days (doesn't include weekends). After that, she gets a short break before she's plunged head first into her return to college. She's going to have to work part time and go to school full time, which is going to be a dramatic change for our home lifestyle. We've been used to the same routine for quite some time now, and it's all going to be different in a matter of weeks.

I'm hoping that soon I will get a nice pay bump that will enable us to live just off of my paycheck. What I'd really like is the ability to send her to college full time and not have to worry about the extra stress of working a part time job. At this point, however, this is just a wish. But she knew that this would be challenge going into it, and I really think that she has what it takes to pull through and make something of herself. She has loads of talent, and she truely underestimates herself.

I'm hoping that with her being in college that she will technically become a dependent of mine, and I can claim her on my taxes for next year. It would be nice if I could adjust my W-4 so that I could get back some extra cash per paycheck and apply that towards things like rent and utilities. I just need to find the right person to ask about this, as it's a really grey area for me and I'm not too sure as to what I would need to do. I have friends who are good in this area, and I'm hoping that they'll be more than happy to help me out.

But regardless of what happens, I'm looking forward to everything come this fall. I know that Amanda going back to school is just an overall good thing, it's just going to take a bit of getting used to. Like I said before, it's a really big change. I think if we tighten our belts, we will be able to make it through this without any problems at all.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. :)

Posted by ed at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)