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Today's follies

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:49:06 GMT

I slept until 10:25 in the morning (mostly). It was glorious.
We took items to Goodwill.
We dropped off items at Half Price Books, and I got a Neil Young and a Johnny Cash album (vinyl, you savages) out of the deal.
Consumed tasty dinner at Family Square. Mmm, steak and eggs.
The kitchen is mostly cleaned. I have to finish scrubbing two iron sittings and a plate, but you wouldn't believe how nice things look in the kitchen now.
I inventoried over 105 videos (including multi-disc boxed sets) in my collection, putting them in MediaMan. This represents just under 1/5 of the total collection. I can't complain.
Deboxed and sleeved lady_curmudgeon DVD collection after she entered them in MediaMan.
Tomorrow, twanfox and I get to see the Chicago Bulls play. From a skybox. Win!

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If you feel compelled to get me Christmas gifts....

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:56:27 GMT

.... please don't?

But if you won't listen to my entreaties, you can always point yourself towards my Things I Want list. It's current, it has things ranging from ridiculously expensive (I do not expect anybody to buy me a Monfrotto tripod) to the very cheap (mmm, $7.99 blu-ray disc).

If people have tips for me, please share them.

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Holy cow, I think I did it

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:35:57 GMT

I opened the floodgates to UAT and the Internet at 2209, with just 8 hours left on the clock.

Thank the big router gods in the sky....!

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Countdown

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:02:55 GMT

I have 13 hours to make the $EMPLOYER student management system go -- something we haven't been able to accomplish in the last 96 hours.

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Oh noes! When you go to a large gathering of people you might get sick!

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:06:45 GMT

Already rumors are flying that somebody came to MFF 2009 with mumps. Of course there's a few objective thoughts to this...
1) It's an FA post. Hardly reputable reporting.
2) If it's true, it's only an issue to people that never got the MMR vaccine (let's not even go down the "vaccines are bad" path).
3) Why is this a surprise if it's true? Large gatherings of people from all over the continent or other continents offers the opportunity for cross-infection of things you wouldn't be exposed to if you were to stay home. Likewise with flying on a plane, or riding on a train, or on a cross-country bus trip.

Am I the only one who sees these things and goes "And the news here is... what, exactly?" Has everyone become a twenty-first century spaz?

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They make a three-thirty in the MORNING!?

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:41:43 GMT

It's O-dark-thirty. Hi ho hi ho, its off to migrate a datacenter I go. Or at least four of the most important subnets. On 3 hours sleep!

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My name is Feren. Welcome to my hell.

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:48:59 GMT

Here's the schedule for my Thanksgiving, as sent out today:

---------
Schedule begins Wednesday at noon. Whomever is the “Point” contact is expected to be awake, available, connected to the VPN during the time specified. It may be necessary to come in to the office during these times to do a “war room” type scenario.

Wed 11/25
* noon-8PM: NF w/RQ as backup
* 8PM Wed - 4AM Thurs: RQ w/ Feren as backup

Thurs 11/26
* 4AM-noon: Feren w/ NF as backup
* Noon-8PM: NF w/ RQ as backup
* 8PM Thurs - 4AM Friday: RQ w/ Feren as backup

Friday 11/27
* 4AM-1PM: Feren w/ NF as backup
* 1PM-10PM: NF w/ Feren as backup
* 10PM Friday - 7AM Saturday: Feren w/ RQ as backup

Saturday 11/28
* 7AM-1PM: RQ w/ NF as backup
* 1PM - 7PM: NF w/ Feren as backup
* 7PM Saturday - 2AM Sunday: Feren w/ RQ as backup

Sunday 11/29
* 2AM-8AM RQ w/ NF as backup
* 8AM-3PM: NF w/ Feren as backup
* 3PM Sunday - midnight Monday: Feren w/ RQ as backup

Monday 11/30

* Midnight - 7AM: RQ w/ NF as backup
* 7AM - 1PM: NF w/ Feren as backup
* 1PM-8PM: Feren w/ RQ as backup
* 8PM Monday-3AM Tuesday: RQ w/ Feren as backup

Tuesday 12/1

* 3am - 8am: Feren w/ NF as backup
* 8am - 3pm: NF w/ RQ as backup
* 3pm - 9pm: RQ w/ Feren as backup
* 9pm Tuesday - 3am Wednesday: Feren w/ NF as backup

Wednesday 12/2
* We don't talk about Wednesday

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MFF non-attendance

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:47:56 GMT

Well, that's that. I will not be attending MFF this year.

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Veteran's Day: Honoring those who have served and those serving now.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:27:11 GMT

Of immediate thought is dad, who was a member of the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam. I'm only now starting to unravel all the information, the stories, the history behind what he did there. It's astounding.

My uncles Ronny and Jimmy. My friend Garry's sons, G. and A.J. The countless others I do not know about in this neighborhood, in this state, in my homestate, beyond.

Every morning when I leave the house to head to work I look up at what you see in the picture above. I look upon the Star Spangled Banner, representing the United States of America, and I'm glad she flies above the roof line of the place I call home. She flies on a new flag pole, one that I installed with my father's help at the end of September this year. Beneath that, the stark black and white of the POW-MIA flag flies to honor those we have lost but never recovered, and those who are lost but wake up every morning hoping we will find them.

The men and women who serve in our armed forces every day, are what makes our country great. They deserve our thanks on this day, and many more.

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I have Google Wave

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:04:03 GMT

So I now have Google Wave. Looking for people to Wave with. srass, I already have you in my contacts list.

Anybody else got it?

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My baby has come home.

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:46:24 GMT

After more than a year and a half of delays and more than a bit of frustration and worry, my baby has finally come home.

SIG Sauer P220, customized to honor the 5th Special Forces Group (which my father was part of in Vietnam). Highlights include:

Custom serial number
SF crest engraved on top of slide, along with the motto
Tritium sites
Rail system

Rather than spam people with photographs, I'm putting up a few thumbnails that link to the larger photographs.

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Work week sorta done

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:20:23 GMT

Ending 12th consecutive day at work and going home. Generally exhausted. Paperwork and helpdesk tickets await me for the weekend workload.

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Birthday wishes, gun ranges, and the like

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:14:21 GMT

I need to post a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one tarinfirepelt. I've known Koz for ... something like ten years now, and can't think of life without his ability to deliver devastating puns and embarrassing sketches of Feren's ass. Happy birthday, m'friend.

Friday night was dinner with ottr, roho, genet, wyldekyttin, lady_curmudgeon, datahawk, foxish, Devin and Vlad. We went to BD's and had beer and vast amounts of Mongolian stirfry. Afterward, Data, 'mudgeon, Devin, Ottr and myself went to Safari Land for bowling. It's an indoor kid's amusement/theme park (I dare you to guess what the theme is) but when you get there at 10PM there's not a lot of kids, and we adults enjoyed the bowling alley. We chose that alley because of the theme park, and because it has the lanes rigged with radar guns that tell you how fast the ball is rolling (in miles-per-hour) when it strikes the pins. I average somewhere around 17 m.p.h., which is a damn shame compared to the peak speed of 22 m.p.h. that Ottr was able to achieve. We had a lot of fun. The only real disappointment that evening was the alley closed earlier than the rest of the place! We closed down Safari Land, chatted outside in the rain for a bit and then went to our respective homes for well-deserved rest.

Saturday we all slept in, finally getting up around late morning. Data and Ottr joined 'mudge and I for a meal at a local family restaurant. The plan was for Ottr and I to head down to Mega Sports to get some time on their gun range. It wasn't until we were about to leave for Plainfield that it was discovered that we could also bring 'mudgeon and Data along with us! Everyone piled into my truck, I tossed the Bag o' Fun in the back and we hit the road. The afternoon was full of uncertainties! Data had never handled a firearm before, nor had Curmudgeon. I had never been to this particular range before, so I didn't know what to expect either. All of us were pleasantly surprised by what we found. While almost double the cost of the Outdoorsman Sports Shop that roho and I have gone to in the past, the experience was well worth the money. Datahawk and Curmudgeon were instructed/"mentored" by Ottr and myself as we were responsible for their time on the range. As mentioned, neither had shot before but both were willing to give it a try, which I think made Ottr and I both quite happy. Curmudgeon spent most of her time with my S&W Sigma SW9VE 9mm, and decided she liked that one best. Data liked both my Taurus PT-1911 and the S&W 9mm, which Ottr and I both own and are generally disillusioned with. Ottr fell in love with both the Taurus and what Roho has dubbed the "Hand Cannon," my Ruger Blackhawk .357 magnum. All told I think we were there for almost two hours. Everyone had fun, and we topped the evening off by travelling back to Ohana for a really nice steak and potato dinner.

Today was another day for sleeping in late. I mowed the front lawn, trimmed the boulevard tree and cut down some saplings that were growing in the flower bed. I'm planning to take the rest of the day on a minute by minute basis, relaxing as much as I can. Tomorrow I'm back at the office and I already have a day full of work waiting for me.

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Dear Lazyweb: Help me be a smartass

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:03:37 GMT

Dear Lazyweb,

It is under great duress that I am editing my profile in the "$EMPLOYER Commons," which is essentially an internal Facebook site full of rah-rah-rah propaganda. One of the things I'm being told I need to do is supply a "tagline" that suits me.

I need something that will pass the HR/Corporate/Management "sniff test" but still convey a level of snarkiness to those who know me. I'm sure linnaeus would have a good suggestion, but I want all of you to feel free to chip in too.

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I am a smartass [work]

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:31:10 GMT

I love the emails that I get at work, sometimes. I love the opportunity to be a smartass in response even more. For example, I just received this...

From: [DBA]
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 3:23 PM
To: [Project Manager 1]; Feren; [Feren's Boss]
Subject: Pipe sizing for transfers to new delta production

We were under the impression that the pipe going to production will be getting larger soon.

The last time we needed to transfer a large file to production from delta or delta2 we got kicked out repeatedly.

After a very productive day we are on track to start out database builds tonight and tomorrow.

For one of these databases this will require a 50gb file transfer. With the problems occurring last time we want to confirm when the pipe gets bigger so that we can reduce the chances of restart.

So when will the pipe get bigger??

Thanks,
[DBA]

I carefully considered this for a minute, then sent a response:

From: Feren
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 3:23 PM
To: [DBA]; [Project Manager 1]; Feren; [Feren's Boss]; [Project Manager 2]
Subject: Re: Pipe sizing for transfers to new delta production

When it works out more regularly and drinks protein shakes.

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Yuuuuuuup.

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:23:36 GMT

I'm another day older.

But not deeper in debt.

I owe many thanks to my wonderful friends who've sent birthday wishes today. arphalia, rev_ringtail, genet, chebutykin, asetwoman, lady_curmudgeon, takaza, linnaeus, rjbartrop, anybody else I might have missed -- you are all fantastic folks, and I'm blessed to have you in my life.

chebutykin: I'll get you not only for that birthday post (Dear lord, where did you find the "Press A!" video?) but also for starting the FunFerenFact trend on Twitter. I don't know how, but I will!

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Silly dream

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:09:41 GMT

Most everyone who has met me in person or has seen a photograph of me knows that I sport a bald head. To paraphrase Rusty Venture, "God shaves my head, and I take care of the sides he leaves behind."

Last night I dreamed I had a full head of hair. Like... 80s hair. Like... Cyndi Lauper hair. And I was not happy about it, because I had to cut it all off and stuff it in a garbage can in order to get back to being bald.

Funny how when I "get my hair back" I'm not thankful, I'm annoyed.

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Birthday in style!

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:13:09 GMT

As part of lady_curmudgeon's 40th birthday last month I gifter her two tickets to see Blue Man Group. Well, the day has arrived and we're off to the show! What I didn't tell Mudgeon was that I had us set to ride down to Briar Street Theater in style. As I write this from my CrackBerry we are heading north on I-55 in a white stretch limo. It seats something like 8 people but we're the only ones in here. Our driver is cool, and mildly aggressive in his driving style. This pleases me!

We had a nice dinner at BD's Mongolian before departure and are now just chilling out while the driver does all the work. I could get used to this!

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Go little Saturn, go!

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:23:10 GMT

We stopped for fuel at the trip's halfway point of Lyndon Station, WI. We filled up and found we had travelled 337.5 miles on 8.498 gallons of regular 87 octane gasoline. That comes out to 39.75 MPG, and that was with the air conditioner on for most of the way! Win! Not bad for a car that's almost 10 years old, eh?

Yes, I really like lady_curmudgeon's little Saturn four-door.

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Range time is relaxing time

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:50:13 GMT

After lady_curmudgeon's doctor appointments in Kenosha this morning, she and I made our way to Antioch to hang out with roho and genet. We met up for lunch at The Lodge, had a beer or two and then went back to the house of CheeKitty. That's where Curmudgeon and Kes hung out while Roho and I went off to the gun range. I was smart and, before 'mudge and I left home this morning, I loaded up my range bag with the Blackhawk, the Sigma SW40F, the Sigma SW9VE and the PT-1911, as well as 100 rounds of each of their respective ammunitions (.357 Magnum, .40 S&W, 9mm and .45 ACP) and tossed the bag in the car. I had every one of my pistols with me to play with at the range, and I meant to give them all a little exercise (as well as give Roho a chance to try them out).

While Roho set up his Sig I unpacked my bag and opted for the SW9VE first. 8 rounds later I was reminded why I'm not overwhelmingly pleased with the Sigma series -- my grouping was for utter shit. All over the target, hardly any in the key spots. I put the 9mm aside and loaded up the PT-1911 next. What a great, fun gun that is. This was my first time firing it since I brought it home months ago. Solid feel in the hand and a fine grouping. What a light trigger break that gun has! Roho was likewise surprised at just how little pull it took for the hammer to fall.

Third up was the Blackhawk, probably my favorite revolver of all time. I grew up with this gun around me and have always been fond of it. I'm not sure, but I think I caught Roho drooling once or twice when I looked back over my shoulder. Everything I remembered about that gun was true! Pity that my brains and instincts have been ruined by years of semi-auto, after I fired the first round I squeezed the trigger again and had a "derp" moment where I couldn't understand why the gun didn't fire. Yeaaaaaah, it's a single-action revolver, firing require a bit more involvement on the operator's part than "aim, squeeze trigger, repeat." Roho had a good laugh at me over that but overall was impressed by how nicely the revolver handled.

Last up was the SW40F, the .40 S&W twin/precursor of my SW9VE. It suffers the same curse as the 9MM, just with bigger rounds and a little less flash since it's all-black. Shit for grouping, even when using the built-in laser. Roho similarly had problems with it and commented on the way back to his place that it's doing him the disservice of biasing him against the Glocks that the S&W folks stole design ideas from when making the Sigma series. Roho and I both suspect that the heavy trigger break of the dual-action only (DAO) is what's screwing us up. Interestingly, the range master suggested that my tendency towards lower-left groupings on the Sigmas was due to flinching, but I call flinching bullshit since my targets with the .357 and the .45 evidenced none of this down-and-to-the-left behavior.

Regardless, Roho got to try all of the pistols I brought with (minus the 9mm, which he's fired before) and echoed my frustration with the Sigmas -- as well as my praise for the Blackhawk and the 1911. All told we were at the range for nearly 2 hours and put somewhere on the order of 300 or so rounds down the lane. It's nothing amazing in terms of rounds fired or time spent on the range, but it was a great stress relief and a lot of fun. I enjoy going out shooting with Roho and miss the days on the farm when I could just wander into the back fields and plink away.

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Kodak retiring Kodachrome

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:08:03 GMT

It's official, Kodak is retiring Kodachrome film at the end of 2009.

I love my digital camera, but film is what I grew up with and learned on. I still appreciate the many benefits film has over digital (not the least of which is simple "archivability"), so this stings on a personal level even though I never did any darkroom work myself.

Why do the good always die young?

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Birthday wishes

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:30:56 GMT

Happy birthday to lady_curmudgeon.

I love you very much, hon.

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I love these tickets, really

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:53:14 GMT

Got a ticket in my helpdesk queue from 6/11 that I just got around to looking at today. The summary was chosen from a pull-down menu of available options, and is fairly succinct: Network - VPN Connectivity Problem. I think to myself, Okay, so it's some sort of problem. Let's see what their issue is! I open the detail description pane in Remedy and what do I see? Having a problem connecting through the VPN.

Really? That's all? That's it? No information about what you're doing, what the error code is, how I can recreate this problem?

Dear $EMPLOYER helpdesk: I hate how you allow users to "self service" and submit a ticket on their own, because there's no way this should have made it to the Engineering support tier with a description that uselessly vague and open.

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Weekend report

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:10:25 GMT

Friday night: lady_curmudgeon and I drove up to the Naperville hotel where DucKon was being held, so that we could hang out at wyldekyttin's birthday and room party. We lounged around until around 2300 hours or so and then drove home for the night. Saturday it was up to Kenosha for doctoring, then back home in the early afternoon. I took a nap for a few hours and got up in time for dinner. Once we'd eaten and medicated Jazz for the evening it was back to the DucKon hotel to hang in Kyttin's room party again, arriving right around 2000 hours when the room was open to the private invitees. We stayed until around 0330 on Sunday morning, chatting and snacking and drinking with the various folks that came through. I particularly enjoyed talking to "Gus," a fellow who looked like Silent Bob.

We got home around 4 in the morning on Sunday, slept until around noon and then texted the crew back at the hotel to see if they could use a hand packing up and loading out. Our offer was rather enthusiastically accepted. We arrived around 1340 in the afternoon and by 1530 we had both rooms fully loaded out. Of the three cars I was first to arrive back at Ohana so I had the stage, drink coolers and sundry unloaded with ample time to help unload the other vehicles when they arrived. Curmudgeon and I stayed around for a while, just hanging out with folks and having idle conversation. At about 1815 we bid everyone a good evening, drove home, enjoyed some Subway foot long sandwiches and generally relaxed for the evening. Unfortunately for me, because of the late nights we'd had Friday and Saturday I didn't actually feel tired until around midnight, which was when I climbed into bed.

Today it's back to the grind at work.

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Calling radio geeks

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:06:40 GMT

Dear Lazyweb,

I've got the itch to put my Cobra CB radio into the Expedition, but I'm missing an antenna. Things have probably changed in the last ten years, though I expect certain things haven't changed at all (physics of RF don't generally change much in my experience).

I'd prefer to stay away from magnetic mounts, but I do have some clearance problems to address (parking garages are a common foe here) so something that's semi-permanent would be preferred.

So, to all my friends in the ham and CB fields, recommend me some antenna makes and models. Recommendations on where to mount on an Expedition body, if anybody has them, would also be welcome.

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