Diary of a Network Geek

So, last night I baked her cookies.

What? It’s not like I’m dating anyone, so I don’t have anyone to cook for right now. Okay, so I ran out to the store to get a couple of ingredients that I was missing, but, I’d have done that for a girl, too. I mean, running out at midnight for feminine hygiene products is way more effort than just going to the grocery store for some honey and unsalted peanuts to make cookies for my dog and I did that. Heck, I even had to guess and pick out a yeast infection medication for a woman I hardly knew! And, that was before I married her. So, for my loyal dog? You bet I’ll run and get honey. Besides, the cookies are pretty good. And, yes, they’re another Three Dog Bakery recipe. This time, though, they’re from the Three Dog Bakery Cookbook.

Oh, and I got my iPod back just in time to travel later this week. I’ve already synced my music to it and updated it successfully, so I’m feeling pretty good about killing time in the airport with my Nano and a couple of books. I did notice that the software update has the stuff for the Nike iPod attachment. If you haven’t checked that out, it’s worth looking at. They’ve got the ultimate running accessory there!

Not sure when I’ll get more posting done this week, with all the travel and baking and all. Though, I have a Friday Fun Post all queued up and ready for you while I’m away.
Have a great week and I’ll “see” you when I get back on Monday!

Please note: I am not now, nor have I ever been, a trained killer.

I mention this right up front because;

• I have been accused of being such a person
• I’m about to write about killing

Now, as you may recall, I have purchased a 4 Gig iPod Nano. I love my little music-maker, even if it’s in the shop at the moment. I have been quietly ripping many, many CDs and syncing them to my beloved, precious iPod. But, I had no idea that my little, friendly iPod Nano could turn deadly. Apparently, I don’t get out enough because this article over at Gizmodo really woke me up to the deadliness of my adorable, little Nano: 8 Ways to Kill Someone with the Nano. I am not making this up. Hell, I could not make this up.

It’s Friday, so don’t give me any backtalk. Go, click the link and learn how to be deadly with your iPod Nano in time for the weekend.

Well, at least they’re geek gadgets for girls.

So, in an attempt to win back my female readers after last week’s rather bland, but still slightly sexist, offering, I bring you Wild for Women’s Gadgets from Tech Republic. These are a collection of pictures of gadgets, those little do-dads that make our technological life a little sweeter. In this case, though, they’re gadgets designed by women for women. Apparently, just painting it pink isn’t enough of a market differentiation for the ladies these days. They have different needs than male geeks, which even I could have told those stupid marketers. So, there’s a largely untapped market.
Until now.

Also, while tooling around, I found a number of other, more stylish gadgets and accessories that surely must be aimed at the female of the geek species, as most male geeks have little to no style at all. (I like to think of myself as an exception, but, well, opinions vary.) A lot of these come from links at a place called StyleHive, so it’s probably worth checking them out. First, there’s the Sumo Laptop Purse that includes a portal for headphones. If I were dating a digital gal, this would be the top of my gift list for her. Seriously.
But, for the arty geek, there’s the Sail Back Pack, which isn’t exclusively for laptops, but works well. They’re made from recycled sails off yachts. Hey, it’s a kind of recycling!
Then there are these Laptop Skinz by SKYN. Seriously girly. At least, I can’t imagine a guy putting a paisley skin on his laptop.
So you can see, it’s a woman’s world in the geek-o-sphere after all!
Anyway, ladies, and gents, I hope this makes up for last week’s lame link. Either way, it’s Friday, so why not click the link and look at the pretty pictures?
Update: Wow, how could I have forgotten that it’s Hemingway’s Birthday today?

Music to read by…

So, as I’ve been cleaning up the massive pile of magazines that I accumulated over the past five or six years, I’ve been cutting out interesting articles. One of the more interesting articles, to me at least, was one in Wired magazine about soundtracks to accompany books. The article itself was called Books with a Backbeat and you can read it online if you follow the link. But, this got me thinking about music and books.

There’s an old “trick” that’s been given a modern twist, thanks to the iPod. In the old days, it was making a “mix tape” that your proto-character might listen to or give to someone. Now, of course, it’s all about play-lists on the character’s MP3 player of choice, which, usually, is an iPod. I’ve been thinking about this lately as I’ve been laying the ground work for my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. One of the ways people manage to get their word quota for that is by shutting out the rest of the world with music. Naturally, I’ve been ripping CDs and loading them onto my massive, 4 Gig Nano in preparation for drowning out the world. (Yes, for the inquiring minds that made the leap, Snow Patrol is on there.) But, I’ve been considering what the music I have selected will do to my writing. So, I’ve been looking at that article online again.

I’ve been trying to imagine what the sound track to my ur-novel will be like. Lots of Top 40 Pop? Rob Zombie for the fight scenes? Will that Paul Van Dyk that just came up in my random shuffle show up in a dance club? Will it drive my characters to a rave? (Do raves even still exist?) Will Bowling for Soup or Spoon be the love theme? Or will that be Sting or the Doors or, even, Warren Zevon? How is that all going to come together?
So, as I contemplate this conundrum, I’ve been looking at Albums to Books and seeing what some of my favorite books have been associated with by other fans. At least, I might find some new music out of the deal.

Oh, one other thing… One reason I haven’t used my iPod more is that I hate the earbuds that come with it. Sure, the sound is good, but I always feel like they’re about to fall out of my ears. Yesterday, I found these great Altec Lansing Clip-On Headphones at a local computer store. If you, like me, hate the default earbuds, try these babies. They stay put and the sound is as good or better than the iPod standard earbuds. I highly recommend them!
And, for all you fellow aspiring writers out there, or any artist really, what do you listen to when you create?

Probably not what it sounds like…

I’m too sensitive. I know this, not because I’ve been told by my mother and LK both, but because I can see how I react to things. I have a “rich interior life” that no one sees, thankfully, and I think way too much. Way, way, too much. As a result, I’m overly sensitive to a lot of really stupid things.

Case in point,Final Straw by Snow Patrol. Now, that might seem fairly safe. Some rather bland pop band not unlike many, many others. So why would I react so strongly to it? This led to a rather unpleasant “discussion” with LK and I. We’d been out and, as we pulled up, some song by Snow Patrol came on the radio. LK coos that it’s her favorite new song and turns the volume up. I asked who it was and she told me. Suddenly, I was nauseous. I sat for a moment and listened, but it got to me too much. Sadly, I apparently whispered my explanation to LK, who couldn’t hear me over the song. I sat for a few more seconds then I had to get out of the car. I felt the adrenaline sprint through me making me shake, but with rage or fear or just simple pain, I don’t know. She chased me, demanding to know what’s wrong and, finally, I choke out “That’s how I knew”.
“Knew what?” she asked me, bewildered.
“Knew that my ex-wife was cheating on me.”

You see, one night after being at one of the men’s support group meetings that I’d been attending, she and her daughter were playing that CD. It was obviously not new and I hadn’t seen it before. I asked her where it came from and she told me that a “friend” gave it to her. Now, in most situations, I suppose, a man might accept that answer, but, and I say this without any animosity or exaggeration, my wife didn’t really have any friends, by her own choice. Really. I am not lying or exaggerating or anything for effect or the sake of a good narrative. It was that precise moment that I knew, for sure, that she’d been cheating on me. There wasn’t any other explanation in my mind that could put that CD in her hand. Certainly not the lie that she told me.

But, all that aside, my point is that it shouldn’t bother me anymore. I should be past the fact that she did what she did. God knows, I was no angel either, though, I never cheated on her. Small comfort, considering. So, a couple of days ago, I made up my mind that I was going to get that CD and listen to it until those feelings burned their way clean.

I’ve been listening to that CD for two days now, letting it loop over and over and over. Funny thing is, though they’re not my favorite band, and I think their music is somewhat bland, overly “emo” and not all that original, they’ve started to grow on me.

Looks like I’m hitting the road again. Damn.
You know, mostly, if everything is arranged all nice and all, I like traveling. I especially like traveling on someone else’s dime. But, I hate having to hit the road for business at the last minute. This time, I’ll be swapping out a Windows 2000 server, including a data copy, at a remote location in far less time and with far less notice than I’d like. The sad thing is, I’m getting used to that with this job. How does that phrase go? “I’ve done so much with so little for so long that I’m now qualified to do anything with nothing.” Hmm, maybe I should add that to my resume under “qualifications” or “Skill set”. And, I was just telling Ms. NewGal tonight on the phone that I’ve been making the impossible probable and the improbable common place for more years than I can remember. It’s not too hard with Windows, since any moron can handle a point-and-click interface then call himself a Director of IT, claiming that he can manage servers. But, I’ve done it with Windows, Netware and Linux, with a little Solaris and even VMS thrown in for flavor. And mostly at remote sites where things often go wrong. Very, very wrong.

As further evidence that I’ve been doing this too long, when I pulled my toiletry kit out from under the sink, it was already stocked with almost empty containers of every thing I use on a regular basis. Enough after shave for a week, a couple of good gargles of mouthwash, a toothbrush and some toothpaste, the last bit of deodorant. I even had shampoo and conditioner in there from the last place I stayed at, just in case! And packing my clothes took all of fifteen minutes, too. I normally plan for one extra day, plus any special circumstances, so, I have three days worth in there, just in case. It’s going to take me longer to pack my toolkit and carry on bag than anything else. And that’s only because I have to slim down in case I have to fly back on a commercial flight. My boss is flying me over, which is actually sort of nice, but there are thunderstorms expected for Friday afternoon, so I may be flying back on a commercial flight. That means time wasted in an airport. In fact, an airport I spent the night in once. The part about all this that sucks, though, is having to go back to the little podunk airport to get my car when I do finally get back into town. So, I’ll be dragging my sorry, tired butt from either Hobby or Bush Intercontinental over to, basically, Clay Road and Highway 6. Yeah, the opposite side of town. Just so I can drive back to my house, which I will essentially pass on the way to get my car. The only upside there is that Ms.NewGal volunteered to pick me up and drive me to my car. What a sweetie! Of course, it does get her closer to me faster, but she claims she didn’t even think of that.
Thankfully, Hilda has a keeper for the next couple of days. And, in case Doc has to work late, I’ve asked one of the guys from work I trust to come let her out at lunch on Thursday and Friday. Hopefully, she’ll go out and not make a mess at all. Not that she ever has since she was a pup. At least, not unless you count the times she was being ignored while I was at the office during the prelude to my divorce. Oddly, she’s not had a problem since she’s been back. Imagine that! Must have been the company.

So, now, it’s off to queue up the coffee and the Friday Fun post. If I get the chance, I’ll moderate comments, but, I might not until Saturday morning, so, please, be patient.
It’s going to be a Hell of a trip, so pray for me!

Speaking of music…
Some time ago, I mentioned buying a bunch of CDs at my favorite bookstore. Several of them were “local” talent, though, I think that covers a pretty broad geographic area. Anyway, I’ve finally listened to them enough to get a good feel for their sound and I’m totally ready to give you all a review. Or, at least, as ready as I’ll ever be.
The four CDs are To the Afterglow by SiennaBlu , Dance Cry Swing by Eileen Faxas, and The Storms Inside and A Little Gun Shy, both by Brian Douglas.

SiennaBlu reminds me of an unholy cross between Bon Jovi, REM and a high-school garage band. Though, they’re not bad at all, they do sound very raw and unpolished. There’s a lot of heart in their music, but, well, not much else. Don’t pay full price.

Dance Cry Swing by Eileen Faxas, though, is pretty good. This looks to be her first CD, but, if she keeps at it, she could be the Texas version of Gloria Estefan. No, really, her work has the same kind of sound and rythym. It’s not all that remarkable at this stage, but, you can see the potential here.

Of all these four, though, the two by Brian Douglas are my favorites. I have to admit, when I first got them, I didn’t realize they were the same guy. I purchased the second one, A Little Gun Shy, days after the first and just didn’t make the connection, until I heard the music. Douglas has a really personal sound, reminds me of Aqualung, a little bit, but with a lot heavier American influence. Mainly a balladeer, at least on these two CDs, his voice grabs hold of you and drags you down the paths of his memories, painful and joyful alike.

Whoops!
Okay folks, the little problem has been corrected. It seems that someone or something managed to inject a little extra PHP code into my WordPress plugins. I think they were trying to add links to websites to improve their Googlerank, but it just caused an error on the blog. Anyway, I think I got all the offending code.

My iPod arrived tonight. I’ll be loading it with music over the next several days.

As a total red herring, though, I have a date Saturday night with an actual woman. Not a girl, but a real, full-grown, self-supporting woman. She has her own business and her own very busy life. She used to live in Chicago, but she’s from here and moved back just two years ago. The pictures I’ve seen of her are, well, let’s just say she took my breath away. I’d imagine that she could pretty well have her pick of guys. In fact, she doesn’t need me at all.
But, tonight on the phone, she wouldn’t hang up until I promised to call her in the morning.