T-Mobile iPhone

So I may have a new phone, and by that I have 14 days to give the iPhone a drive, of course now that it’s out of the box, it’s $40 less back, but at the same time, $40 for a test drive of a internet device, not bad - I know previously I have bad-mouthed the iPhone, and I still have my reservations about it’s abilities and such, but all in all it’s not a bad device thus far, having some hands on time with it at the store, I then took a 3 1/2 hour side-trip to Dan’s for game night.

Can’t say I had a lot of “iPhone Fever” everyone else had rushing home to get it running, it’s a test, and to me that’s not something to be rushed, especially when $400+ is on the line, this device has to have it’s tires kicked, and I have to make sure 100% it fit’s my needs, but so far the “unlock” process went very smooth - had to get 3 files, patched, and good to go - currently it even reads “T-Mobile” at the top, but even on that end I am not 100% sure I’ll be loyal to T-Mobile.

AT&T has some decent offerings, even going to borrow an AT&T SIM and give it a whirl, I have one, but it isn’t activated, but honestly it’s looking good right now, at around $85 a month roughly (which is the price in my mind after taxes/fees) it’s a pretty sweet deal, and where I have 5 favs now, I’d get roll-over minutes in return, so I may switch to Death Star, not 100% sure yet.

I’ll post my unboxing as well as some more thoughts in the days to come, for now I just want to give this thing some test runs… so it’s of to sync some movies, and browse the features/functions. More later.

Back to Blogging?

So if the blogging increase is any measure of my stress level, it is true, things have calmed down, with taxes done and paid for, finances leveling out, a case of seasonal Gadget Fever, and of course finally getting my Christmas present from my bro ($50 @ thinkgeek) I did what any person trying to unwind would do… buy some nerdy stuff for no other reason than you can Actually the mini-maglight kit and the wallet were two of my main purchases, the candle I wanted to try, as for my apartment I want to limit power, see how they work.

All in all though things are getting better, not perfect, still a LOT to do. This next week I start open talks about email, I had previously hoped to have it online, but the company started to make me nervous, their solution was overly complex, and I want something 1) Clean 2) Easy to Use 3) Fair Resale Rates - so the ball is in motion on that, and this next week calls will be made, and ideas will be formed.

The speeding ticket is getting interesting, apparently my court date is moved, as my ticket was barely entered into the system on the 4th, so I am going to call again on Friday and then again on Monday if no valid answer arises, I am going to simply go in and get a printed/signed proof of the date change as I have no desire to get a bench warrant out for me over a silly ticket - so I am going to do it right and get it going and done with.

Had dinner with the boys tonight, went to Cindy’s and had some grub, good chats, good time, I was also invited to another gather next Friday with a fellow PK and his friends, few I know at least 1 other guy he hangs out with, but had a good chat today as his company does some IT services locally, and would do wonders for us, so probably going to work with him to get them helping us re-structure the entire IT setup at work, so time will tell how that all goes, but if nothing else, more friends to hang out with.

Anywhoo - approaching midnight, and I want to get some sleep, of course I may drop in a movie, but I think even if I do, I am going to just pass out, but thanks to everyone for their continued check-ups on me and their prayers, it’s all getting there slowly but surely, and to anyone who wants to if you want to hit me up on IM during the day, feel free, I am not always at my desk, but my system is locked so no random person will start chatting with you - but I’ll get back to you sooner or later, just means I am wandering between buildings so with that said I am off, happy Friday’s Eve!

Another Late Night?

Kinda, sorta, not really - okay maybe. I got home earlier, and just crashed out. Dead to the world I needed sleep, I woke up about 2 hours ago, but I am about to crash out again - just wanted to do something for lil ol me, aka upgrade the Blog.

I had read mixed thoughts/feelings about the latest upgrade to Wordpress, some liked it, some thought it was too sparse, some thought it mucked up things - honestly? I like it. Light, simple, some options aren’t exactly where I would think to find them, but such is change.

At some level I think the trade off of features/fixes should of given folks more to try, but as usual plugin conflicts for some were their un-doing - but a nice feature of the new system is live updating, which I know many groups will complain about the security of the concept, but it’s no different than that of Windows / Mac Update systems, you use / trust that product enough to do updates, why not your blog?

Anywhoo - all in all I think it’s pretty slick, it was a simple upgrade, sent my DB backup to Gmail, and uploaded the files, easy peasy - but for now, I am going to wrap up, and goto sleep, meeting @10am tomorrow, last day of “freedom” so to speak, as the boss-man comes back on Thursday, and I am sure he’s gonna have a pile for me. So I’ll say goodnight, and Happy Fake Friday!

Back to Work!

Soooooo quite a weekend. Got to relax some over the weekend, a very very relaxed Saturday, got to eat food with my friends, and was even joined by the one, the only Dan-o! it was a good day, got some things done, projects finally just out of my court off into others, and a few more I plan to do the same with this week, just one at a time, bam bam bam, get them out of my court into the clients.

Then we lead into Sunday. 7am wake up, 730am out the door, arrive at church a little before 8, wearing pants *Gasp!* got to warm up a bit, didn’t realize we were also singing the congregational hymns as well, but no worries I made it thru, we sang our one special song, it was fun, I did ok, but I got to sing. Something I haven’t done at Church (well in a group) for quite some time, so it was indeed a blessing for me to really just get to belt it out with the choir - it was a fun day, followed up with a night @ The Hub, which was a little bare, but there is a group down in Mexico right now doing a mission trip, so I imagine some parents and high-schoolers who’d normally fill a row or two, were off across the border doing their thang.

We lost one @ the table tonight for Carrows (the Sunday Night Place) - so me and Scott snagged dinner, it was tasty, then I headed over to Poon Manor, and got to see Dan’s parents, the niece and nephews, saw the new game were looking to give a whirl, and just got to chat with Dan a bit, which was indeed awesome as with my work and such and him and val having a baby and all, sometimes things with work-able time tables get a tad sideways, but were making the time, and it’s good to see his family.

Anywhoo - that’s the rundown, after Friday off to recover from chicken-strips, I head back into a work week ready to tackle problems, get things ready to roll, and looking forward to some fun with Dan and Fam, as well as assorted other random fun soon! Hopefully the ticket will come soon, and I can figure out my budget, but sadly it looks like once again, I am going to be waiting on the apartment, not totally bummed, it is in the road-map, but one step at a time, God has a plan, and I am attempting to be more patient to let his time table happen, vs. my own So have a wonderful Monday, even if you think your getting a case of the Monday’s ignore it and remember the simple truth: “This is the day that the Lord hath made, I will be glad and rejoice in it.”. Night folks.

Backup, Bowling, Stargate, Shirts, Anywhoo…

Soooooooo… how you all doing? This is the “its late, so brief blog” version of things, so here we go….

Backup at work is up and running, in the end with fakeraid I went with dmraid + RAID0 - so no real failure option, but at the same time, going to archive per-user to bzip and such sans media (personal mp3 files) and it’ll all be good, but it’s a rockin system, doing well.

Bowling - we have made it a weekly thing it looks like, as we are going Thursday night, but none the less bowling, so I’ll get to see if I can improve my game any from last week’s cosmic bowling. Crazy Girls in the lane next to us… long story.

Stargate - Ark of Truth is out, loved it. Bought it @ Target watched half of it at work while working on the backup server, but finished it @ home, rip’d it to Xvid for watching on-demand on the TV as well as a copy for the iPod… yes I love Stargate, I have all 10 seasons of SG1, and all of Atlantis. Good stuff indeed.

Shirts - got a few new ones, one came today, mainly artsy, also got one of a pigeon that says “I’m from the streets” looks cool, but I do need to do some laundry this weekend and get things ready, plus I need to find some clothes for Church and singing in the choir, may need to venture out to the GAP as their shorts/pants tend to fit me good.

Anywhoo… there it is, I am sure there is something I am leaving out, still waiting on my ticket, got to meet Solomon Poon, etc. etc. BUT it is time to goto bed soon, so I must wrap up, set out clothes for the AM, and get to it - bi-weekly meeting tomorrow, and more folks to get setup on the backup server. Fun Fun. Night all! Thanks for reading!

Baby!!

The whole thing with balance I am trying to find with the jump between the 8 to 5 grind and TN/FH is tough, not that it isn’t possible, it’s just a change in mindset, as well as making sure to take a break, relax, breathe, you know that sort of thing - and tonight a much needed break was had, a game of Catan, 2 Nephews, a Niece, 2 friends and 1 Solomon.

Such a beautiful baby, got to hold him for a little bit, he’s got some good muscles already pushing around as he laid across my chest more or less as I held him on the couch - just honored to get to meet him, hang out with the Poon’s - my buddy Lanie was there, as well as Blaine and Cameron, apparently Gavin had some sort of prior “thing” with a certain “lady” friend, geeze, what’s so special about a lady friend when you have cool people playing Catan? he was missed, but it was a fun evening, got to even give a piggy back ride, so I mean that alone sum’d up the evening.

It was a great break, and I have actually taken most of the night off, I do have some spot work here to do shortly with some domain renewals, cancelations, and I am also looking to move forward on some alternative email options for both FH/TN that are just standard POP3/IMAP (no fancy Exchange) but simple alternatives and see if I can’t package it with standard accounts over time and absorb the cost in and offer email managed off server, vs. on server, would let folks store more on box - but before I go into business mode, I want to find a snack, and relax a bit more, as tomorrow is Friday, which means every little project people forgot, will hit my desk!

Speaking of work though, the backup server is as such:

1. ABIT IP35 Pro (Fancy)
2. Intel Core 2 Duo (E6420) 2.13ghz (Conroe)
3. 4 GB GeIL Ram (2 x 2GB sticks)
4. 5 x Maxtor 500GB SATAII Drives (4 in RAID5 - other will be primary OS aka nothing critical for backups)
5. 4 HotSwap Enclosures for the Drives
6. Promise FastTrak PCI SATAII Controller (mixed feelings, but some positive reports)
7. 750W Power Supply
8. Other Assorted Goodies: ie. cdrom, floppy, Radeon X700

A nice little rig, but more I read about the promise card the more mixed I feel about it - but we’ll see how it goes probably Tuesday at this point since most stuff is shipping from CA, so it’ll be here probably Monday/Tuesday.

Anywhoo - sleep is nearing, so work must be done, I’ll write more tomorrow after bowling! Night folks!

Now that’s a Monday!

I have a amazing core group of friends, they are more like family to me, they are supportive, good company, and always a open ear, tonight we tried to get as many of us together, granted I know some folks Monday is not a good night, but the Foster’s were in town but leaving at 5, the Poon’s had a due date for baby, and yet somehow from a lunch with Matt we got ourselves together at Cindy’s for some grub, good company, and Uncle Chuck the Human Jungle Gym.

It was a good day overall, got some more stuff cleaned up in the office, organized a bit, got a laptop finalized and ready to go, all in all it was pretty nice - throw in the lunch and the dinner - a great time, and while I am exhausted and then some I would do it again in a heart beat - we sat, we ate, we talked, I played with Ethan, Evan and Carlie - even Jake had some fun with Evan, it was a good day that just had some really great high points to it, I hope the rest of the week has good stuff in it like this! If only everyone could of made it, Scott had plans already, and some folks have class on Monday’s so just not possible, but were going to setup something big and fun soon.

Anywhoo - busy week, got a copy of EE on the laptop, so I can work on it on the mac during the dead time, also have a few assorted things I am working on with FH/TN, and of course MLS has the Google Apps migration this week, I need to get the corp. card and get it paid for, as well as a few other purchases I need to make for building a small server to test a backup system, so lots to do! But for now I am going to zone a little to some TV, and then probably try to crash out early. Sleep will soon become my friend… I hope. Night folks! Thanks for the continued prayers!