Diary of a Network Geek

At least, I think we do.
So, tonight, after going to the grocery store during peak hours, which I hate, and resisting the urge to ram the woman who somehow managed to block both the door and sidewalk with her cart, I think I finally managed to get the leak under control. Apparently, the non-English instructions for the toilet repair kit included helpful tips not meant for gringos like me. Luckily, I finally managed to decipher the pictures and got the funky, rubber gasket in place on the stub of exposed pipe on the tankbefore seating it on the rest of the toilet. Then, after cranking everything back down, it seems to have worked. Now, I just have to obsessively check to make sure I have no hidden leaks until the wee hours of the morning, just in case. (And, I actually had to reduce the water level in the tank because it was leaking around the handle!)
Sadly, this has left no energy to clean more than the minimal amount. Thankfully, having external genitalia lets me claim a certain amount of cleaning impairment, since my parents are very old school. With any luck, my mother will cluck about that instead of my goatee, since she prefers full beards. Or, the fact that I’m not dating yet. Don’t I get some kind of hands-off recovery period to get over the tragedy that was my marriage or something? Maybe I can use that last ten pounds I want to lose as an excuse for not being out there yet. I don’t know. Something to buy me a little time.
Anyway, the horror of bachelorhood aside, I’ll be busy for a couple of days, so I may not be posting much until Sunday night or Monday. I do have a Friday Fun Link set up to auto-post on Friday morning, though. Can’t let my adoring fans down, now can I?
So, now it’s off for a Scotch and bed. Hmmm, Scotch. “I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly…“

I hate plumbing.
No, really, as much of it as I’ve done in this house and as good as I think I’m getting at it, I still hate it. So, last night, I “fixed” my leaking toilet, right? Wrong. About 9:30PM, or so, as I’m getting ready to fold laundry, I notice a big, dark spot on the ceiling right under the upstairs bathroom. OH CRAP! I go running upstairs, tripping over the dog who thought I was getting ready to play with her, to find that, yeah, the “little drip” had become a “steady flow” and my bathroom floor was completely soaked. Nothing to do about it last night, but turn off the water to the tank and flush out the water already there. Then I threw down more towels to soak up what hadn’t soaked through to the ceiling downstairs.
Tonight, after some last minute grocery shopping, I’ll have the joy of taking that tank all apart, again, and tightening one, tiny nut that is most likely the problem. Or adjusting the one rubber gasket. There’s really only two or three things it can be, so I’ll check them all. And pray. The worst part is, I know Dad will be checking my work on this and offering “suggestions” for what I should have done, or could have done, or should do next time, to prevent all this.
After, hopefully, dealing with this for good tonight, I will have that Scotch I didn’t have the other night! Macallan, take me away!

Oh, and your Advice from your Uncle Jim today? “Double check your work, even when you’re sure that you did everything right the first time.” Damn plumbing.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it just means you haven't succeeded yet."
   --Robert Schuller

I should be cleaning my kitchen.
But, instead, I’m doing laundry. Oh, and I fixed a leaky toilet. The usual things one does before the parental units arrive from the wilds of Suburban Chicago. Yes, that’s right, my folks are coming down Thursday night and staying through Sunday. I haven’t seen them in almost two years, though I talk to them on the phone every week.
So, anyway, in preparation for their visit, I went to clean up the upstairs bathroom a bit. Just to make sure it was all fresh-like, I flushed the toilet and suddenly there’s water streaming out from under the tank. Well, a few small purchases and a good fourty-five minutes of cursing like a sailor and the devil was done. Now, all I have to do is get everything tight enough in one night… Hey, at least it’s done… And most of the laundry, too.
Sadly, I have a couple of things to do at the courthouse Friday when they’re here. Not speeding tickets, but it does involve my car. I finally got the title and have to get it transferred to my name. So, my parents, who share my love of people watching, volunteered to come with me. Then, I’ll put the old man to work with me in the backyard, finishing off that water feature I mentioned so many weeks ago. I just have a few lengths of PVC to cut and paint and glue and test. I figure not more than an hour. Two if Dad actually helps. But, that will let me drag them to the pond store on Saturday to get a couple of plants and possibly a catfish or two for the ponds. When I get it all done, I’ll post pictures. Honest. Maybe even picture of me in my sporty new goatee. I think it makes me look more aerodynamic! (Aw, who am I kidding? I’m built for comfort and distance, not speed. The joys of encroaching middle age!)
Tonight, on the way home from work, I’ll stop and get all the things they need for breakfast. Like OJ, which I haven’t had in the morning for years. And decaf coffee. Ick! Why bother?
It’s going to be an interesting weekend!

This is National Novel Writing Month.
Or, if you’re one of the cool kids, NaNoWriMo. The idea, in a nutshell, is to write a book in thirty days or less. Or finish that monster that you’ve always meant to get around to again. Either way, the goal is a completed novel by the end of the month. Frankly, it seems impossible to me, but the guy who puts this on every year is also the author of No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days, so, maybe, just maybe it’s possible to accomlish.
Well, I won’t find out this year because I’m just in the wrong place to do that, but I may just get the book and read it so I’m ready for next year.
In any case, if you’re feeling up to it, it’s still a possibility for you. Hit the website and start writing!

This sort of seems like an oxymoron to me.
But, I suppose in this modern world of ubiquitous, wireless connectivity, we must hold tight to our illusions of security. Toward that end, TechRepublic has an article titled Ten Things You Should Know About Securing Your Wireless Connection. I still can’t, in all good conscience, reccomend that you run anything you want to keep secure over a wireless connection, but, if you must, at least read this very short article about keeping your connection as secure as possible. Certainly, if you’re doing this at home, it’s worth the look. If you’re attempting to keep a secure wireless connection at the office, and haven’t started hitting the “happy sauce” yet, this is a good place to start, though I sure wouldn’t run any important financial data over wireless, either at home or work.
Well, it’s a good article, even if I have my personal, Luddite misgivings about wireless.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."
   --Booker T. Washington

“That which is dead cannot die..”
Ah, yes, my old favorite H.P. Lovecraft and his infamous The Call of Cthulhu where the infamous Necronomicon was first “discovered”. Alas, there are some things that man was not meant to know, but, still, should that keep one from having a fun, little prop just in time for Halloween? I don’t think so! And neither do the fine folks over at Ravensblight.com who bring you Necronomicon Notebooks.
Now you, too, can have that unspeakable tome at your side to greet trick-or-treat-ers.

Hey, it’s the Friday before Halloween, what did you expect from me?

Oh My God!
Finally, after literally years of waiting Space Above and Beyond – The Complete Series is available on DVD. This was the finest science-fiction show EVER! Yes, I mean ever. Including Star Trek, in all its various incarnations, and both versions of Battlestar Galactica and anything else you can think of to date. It was real, hard-nosed, gritty science-fiction with compelling stories filled with drama and real meaning. Not psuedo, let’s-all-get-high-and-get-Roddenberry-laid messages, but the real deal. Every episode dealt with something that made you stop and think about what it meant to be something, to stand for something, or even to be human. There were funny parts, but not like in Star Trek that played for campy laughs. No, if there was something funny, it was funny the way things are in life, not some wooden slapstick played for laughs with goofy music.
And, of course, it’s the only science-fiction show to ever feature R. Lee Ermey. What can top that!? Yeah, he’s only in the two-hour premiere, but, still, Gunny makes his appearance. And, yes, I love this show so much I mentioned it on my other blog, the Fantasist’s Scroll.

Excuse me while I go spend a little money on whole lot of joy.

I don’t normally post twice in one day, but…
But, well, this has been an odd week and I had to cancell my therapist appointment last night, so you’ll have to do, eh? As you regular readers know, I was so sick Monday that I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Alas, I lived through my brush with whatever that particular plague was and had to finally go into work Wednesday. Wednesday, I also found out that I had a quickly approaching deadline to get my house refinanced before we had to start the entire process again. Thursday seemed fine. Until lunch.
Normally, I take my lunch in the backyard and eat while the dog runs and plays. After lunch, I read under my covered porch and let Hilda get some squirrel/bird chase time in. (Relax, tree-huggers! She’s only come close once that I’ve seen and, besides, she’s just doing what dogs do. It’s her nature and a force of evolution. What’s unnatural is the way she loves to eat off my plate!) So, Thursday, I’m sitting there finishing I Heard You Paint Houses and the dog starts to get all strange. I look up from my book just in time to see this giant, bird-shaped shadow sliding over the lawn as the biggest damn bird I’ve ever seen in person starts to make a landing by my ponds! Without any exageration at all this bird must have had a wingspan as large as my outstreched arms! (That’s over five feet, for those of you who haven’t met my manly physique in person.) Of course, I exclaim loudly, which startles this monstrosity into landing on my garage instead. I could hardly believe I was seeing this thing. I mean, I’ve seen big birds before, but, as a rule, even in Texas one does not expect to see a giant, black turkey vulture swooping into one’s backyard.
Now, what got really unnerving about this is that the thing just sat there looking at me. Not scared, really. At least, not of me. Frankly, the dog looked at me as if to ask, “Uh, Dad, care to fill me in on just what the hell is going on here?”, so I doubt the feathery beast was all that intimidated by the dog, either. Anyway, I decided I didn’t like the way this thing was eyeing the pond, or either of us, and I sort of shouted at it to try and scare it away.
It blinked at me.
So, I waved my arms and shouted.
The damn thing just glided up to perch on my chimney and blink at me. It just sat there, this huge ebony carrion-eater with wings, and blinked at me as if to say,”Yeah, and, your point would be, what, exactly?” Then, being bored with me, it looked down the chimney. So, I start looking for small rocks to throw at this thing to scare it off. The first two shots encouraged it to move to the far side of the chimney and, yes, blink at me. Then, I noticed the second one. Oh, great, a mated damn pair of enormous black harbringers of death in my backyard. Looking for a new home, no doubt. I bend down to find more stones to throw and I hear a loud thump. I check and, sure enough, that one on the chimney is looking down inside. At this point, I’m sure I let loose with a string of expletives that would have made a sailor blush because I’m convinced that the damn thing as dropped a dead animal down the chimney. I start looking for more suitable rocks to throw, but when I find them and go to assault the dirty birds, they’ve gone. Just as quietly as they arrived.
Well, at this point Hilda and I look at each other to confirm that the other has seen what we thought we did. (Yes, I know she’s a dog and has limited communication skills, but it’s the best either of us could do on short notice.) Then I start laughing, put her inside, and head back to the office. Once back to the office, I call a friend of mine who happens to work in the Houston Zoo in the bird department to check on what I’ve just seen. He confirms the guess of turkey vultures, expresses a little surprise at the proximity to “civilization” for that kind of encounter, and then he says “Impressive birds, aren’t they?” Um, yeah, sure, “impressive”. Just the word I would have used. Not freaky. Not menacing. Not down right frightening. Nope, impressive fits the bill just right. And then, the day turned ugly.
That’s about when I got the call from our Bellechasse office that they were having problems with the network. After a minute or two of troubleshooting, I can’t see an issue, so, since I’m dealing with a Windows 2000 server, I figure a reboot is in order. Now, see, this is where that black omen comes in. The reboot ends in a Blue Screen Of Death. Hmm, well, that would be a problem, wouldn’t it? So, we kill the power and try again. No joy. I try Last Known Good Configuration with the same results. I try doing the automated recovery, but again, end up with a BSOD. Mind, at this point it’s 4:55pm so I end up calling to cancel my therapy appointment, much to my chagrin, since I had some things to talk about this week. Finally, after all that, I get into the Recovery Console, run chkdsk and repair the error and get back to the original problem. Yeah, I spent 3 hours dealing with a secondary issue only to come back to the original problem. Again, after waiting for someone to come back to that office after making his appointment, which was for a HAIRCUT, and some more troubleshooting, I finally determine that the hub has gone out. The damn hub had died. No moving parts to fail and no power-spike, but the damn hub had failed. And, finally, I drag my sorry butt home at 8:00pm.
This morning, they get some new switches in place, which is no small feat in Katrina-damaged New Orleans area, and, like Network Geek Magic™, they’re up and running.

Why all the effort not to travel? Because, Monday I have to get a certified file copy of the warranty deed from the Harris County Clerk’s office so I can refinance my house on Wednesday. All so I can save $150 per month. If I stay in Houston past next year. Can anyone, given that turkey vultures landed on my house, the likliness of another hurricane striking Houston, and the not always so great economic outlook for IT guys here in Houston, give all that, can anyone give me three good reasons to stay?
Damn bad-luck black birds.

No, not here.
But, here is a link to XYZ Computing’s Mini-ITX tutorial. Why is this cool? Well, because this is about as small as you can get and still have a computer with “standard” parts. And, that’s cool because it allows you to do more and cooler casemods.
The folks in the article use Linux, which is what I’d do, but you could go other ways. The most important thing, to me, is that they list where they bought everything with links. Sometimes, it’s hard to get all the right pieces, especially when you’re looking to get the smallest, coolest one’s possible. Anway, I thought this was cool…

Hey, it’s been a rough week, and now it’s Friday, so work with me here!

Yesterday’s posting was automated.
I make this startling admission because I have felt like death warmed over since Monday morning. I rolled out of bed at my usual time and was covered in a cold sweat before I’d made it to my bedroom door. It was literally like someone had poured a bucket of water over me. I was drenched from head to foot. Then, things got worse…
Since I didn’t eat anything strange or even possibly bad Sunday, I can only assume I had a stomache flu of some kind. It was, to put it mildly, unpleasant. I managed to eat all of a half-cup of Ramen noodles Monday night. I did manage better on liquids, but not much. Monday evening, at around 9:30PM or so, I had a tempurature just under 101 degrees. So, I took a fist-full of aspirin and went to bed.
Tuesday was much better, but still not good enough for work. I did manage to eat a bit more and the dog stopped giving me looks like “If you die, I will have to eat you to survive. I won’t like it, but, hey, it’s survival, buddy.” Of course, the fact that I filled her food dish again might have helped that. I did manage to get her into the car for a ride to the post office to drop off bills, though, and that made her think it was “play time” when we got home. Sadly, that little trip sapped all my energy and it was off to beddy-bye early.
I did stagger into the office close to on time today, but only barely. Every time the AC went on I got the chills and shakes. And all day I had that feeling like if I tried to burp I was going to spew. Oh, and I’ve felt all bloated like a sick cow that you’d have to cut the side open on or they’ll die. Other than that, though, all back to normal.