Diary of a Network Geek

I have something fun coming here.
Well, at least, it’s fun to me. Apparently, some folks aren’t looking forward to New Year’s Eve. Now, I can imagine a number of reasons this might be true. Thankfully, I have The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Holidays which has helpful advice for such unhappy events. If nothing else, it gave me a chuckle. Well, as we get closer to ringing in the new year, I will reveal a little new year’s web app that I stayed up late coding last night and was inspired by this book, and the dear, sweet thing who’s so grumpy about the oh, so happy holidays. Besides, having something to look forward to may just improve their mood.
Or, not, either way, I take no responsibility!

That’s my new goal for the new year.
I’m no good at letting things go, to be honest. I want to hold on tight until my fingers bleed and then I just want to switch hands. Of course, I know that’s not healthy for me, in any sense of the word, so I’m trying to take the advice of friends and just “let it go”. It’s hard, though, when I feel wronged or cheated or, even, like I just wasn’t given a “fair shake”, to shrug and walk away. But, it’s what I should do. I know that, but…
But, I miss my dog today. The dog I begged to get. The dog I named. The dog for whom I baked home-made biscuits. The dog who often would not eat or relieve herself until I got home from work. The dog I had to carry to her crate every night. Maybe I should have fought harder for my dog. My poor Hilda. Trapped so far away. I wonder if she even understands what’s going on. Probably not. I hope not. I hated letting her go. But, I was in full-on pain avoidance mode and that seemed like the best way to avoid the most pain. Now, I wonder if it was. I know I can get another dog, but I miss my Hildegard. And she’s gone, but I’m having trouble letting her go.
So. So, it’s a goal, this letting go. It’s what I aspire to accomplish for the coming year. To take care of myself and do the things I need to do and then, in the most zen sense of it, to let it go.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."
   --Issac Asimov

for the New Year.

Okay, so I’ve made a few changes to the blog here. First off, you should notice a few changes to the categories. I’ll let you, Faithful Readers, figure out which was what all on your own. Hey, that’s half the fun, right?
So, why the changes? Well, I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately and, based on that, decided that I needed jazzier, more “fun” category titles. So, in the blink of an electron gun, I have new category titles. I’ll leave it to you to decide if they’re more fun.
Also, I’ve added one: Advice from your Uncle Jim. (That’s me, BTW. My name is Jim, in case you hadn’t caught that already.) Every once in a while, I have some generic advice that I think you might be able to use, like, “When in doubt, talk to your lawyer” and “Don’t cheat on your taxes. The IRS likes to fine idiots who do that and get caught”, and I like to share that with you. So, new categories for the new year.

It’s gonna’ be a bigun’!

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."
   --Frederick Keonig

Just in time for Christmas!

Er, well, maybe I missed it already, but candy and Christmas go together, so, whatever… Anyhow, the folks who make M&Ms have a webpage where you can order custom M&Ms. By that I mean, you can order M&Ms printed with your own custom message. Now, there’s a limit to how many characters you can put on and, of course, there are content restrictions:
“While we encourage your creativity, Masterfoods USA will not honor a request to print any “objectionable” language, acronyms, symbols, pictures, or any other graphic representation. “Objectionable” means, among other things, anything that (i) is libelous, defamatory, pornographic, sexually explicit, unlawful, racially or ethnically offensive, (ii) infringes on someone else’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret or other property right, (iii) is something people would consider harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, profane, obscene, or violent, (iv) would breach a person’s privacy or publicity rights, (v) is a misrepresentation of facts, (vi) hate speech, (vii) encourages others to break the law in any way, or (viii) is otherwise inappropriate.

Masterfoods USA must and does reserve the absolute right to decline orders that in its sole judgment and discretion contain subject matter that may be considered inappropriate or offensive, including, without limitation, inappropriate, offensive words, acronyms, symbols or other content. ”

Hmm, so much for say it with candy. (Or, was that flowers?)

In any case, it can be legitimate fun, if you keep it clean. How about, “Have fun”? Or, “Happy New Year”? Maybe, even, “Be Well”… Well, it could be fun and romantic when I’m ready to date again. In the mean time, though, it’s Friday, even if it’s New Year’s Eve, so check out the link! Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve celebration everyone!!

A quest to improve my spirituality.

I’m not sure how many entries I’ll make about this, but I hope to make more than this one. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to improve my spiritual life. Right now, I pray almost every morning and read from a daily devotional every morning. When I do pray in the morning, I use Judeo-Christian prayer with a Buddhist mala, which is a set of prayer beads. I don’t attend church, nor do I plan to in the near future. I just don’t have much use for organized religion on that scale these days. Of course, that may change. That’s all well and good, but I still feel like my personal spirituality is lacking.

So, a friend of mine suggested that I keep a prayer journal, or spirituality journal. He suggested that I write just things of a spiritual nature in that journal. Nothing about work, or family, or any other concern other than my spirituality. I mulled that over for a couple of weeks this year and somewhere in there remembered a book I’d read by Israel Regardie called The One Year Manual. Unfortunately, according to Amazon.com, it’s now out of print. (Though, RedWheel/Weiser, the publisher, says that it’s still available. ISBN: 0-87728-489-X) It’s a book of twelve exercises that are meant to improve one’s spiritual health. A book for starting to “walk the Path” as Regardie puts it. Obviously, each exercise is meant to be practiced about a month before moving on to the next exercise and each exercise builds on the last one. Also, Regardie suggests that praying four times a day, at the start of the student’s day, noon, the end of the student’s day and before retiring, is essential to the overall program. He lists four prayers, but I don’t particularly like them, so I’m finding my own. I have some I’m working with now, but I may change them further down the line. Regardie also suggests that the student keep a journal tracking their progress through the exercises. So, I’m going to do that.

The first exercise is about “body awareness”. The student is to sit or lay in a comfortable position and simply get in touch with what their body and surroundings are doing. The student should be as perfectly still as possible during this time, not responding to any thing, not even to scratch an itch. Simply to be aware of and acknowlege their body and surroundings. At first, these sessions should only last about 10 mintues, but they will eventually be up to thirty minutes. This should be done at least twice a day, no matter how long it’s being done. The purpose of this exercise is to develop both awareness and concentration. The goal is to be able be totaly aware of one’s surroundings and internal processes. Regardie says that it’s the first step toward “mindful living”, which sounds very comfortably Buddhist to me.

So, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll try to be brave enough to keep the Diary of a Network Geek updated with my progress.

Hey, let’s start the New Year off right!

With fear over our jobs in the current market! WooHOO!
Here are two stories about the trend in out sourcing geek jobs. Neither paint a pretty picture. They’re both on Business Week Online.
First, we have a fun little article about how India is corporate IT’s “silent partner”. Hmm, not sure how “silent” they are, and they’re no partner of mine, frankly. I detest this trend in outsourcing, especially over-seas. Why do we let other countries profit from what we invented? Especially at the sacrifice of our own jobs?
Well, this second article, on the rise of India might explain part of it. So, India send their best and brightest over to the States to get PhD.’s, then welcome them home and court US business. Hmm… So, why aren’t we focusing more on science and technology in education in our schools? Why aren’t we encouraging our own kids to do what these foregin kids are doing? Any professional “educators” out there want to take a stab at that? Oh, wait, that’s not their job is it…..

Okay, boyz and grrls, it’s time to take charge of your profession. We need to do more with less and be more aggressive and creative than our foregin competitors or we’re all going to be out on the street. Look at your resumes right now. No, really, go ahead. I’ll wait…
Now, are those the skills that are going to keep you competitive for the next three years? No? Then you better bust open a book and start working on the Next Big Thing. (Hey, when you figure that out, let me know, will ‘ya?)

is new again!

Well, I successfully moved HavePalmWillTravel to my new web host. And, cancelled the old account. And, got my 10% discount from my new web host, The Host Group. So, I start the year off by saving money. Cool.
Of course, now, I really should update it. A Network Geek’s work is never done.

Well, it sure has been an interesting year. A little rocky at the start, but things seem to be working out okay. Of course, I’m being a little careful these days when I talk about my job. See, I’m still a contractor and I really need to go full-time for the health benefits. Sure, the folks there complain about them, but it’s better than COBRA. And, of course, there are all the issues regarding income and creditors. The less said about that, the better. But, hey, last year at this time, not only was I not working, but I didn’t know how long it would be until I was working again! So, I’m not complaining.

And, my other website, Fantasist.net is doing fairly well. At least, I like the work I’ve managed to do on it this year. Sure, I need to do more. There are some sections that really need to be beefed up, but it’s better than the lame, little page I had there before. And, just today I figured out how to make this lovely blog system cough up foregin language dates to my specifications, so I can finally implement my web-fiction idea. Stay tuned for more on that!

In the meantime, have a Happy New Year!