random ramblings of a crazed nerd

So today I figured I’d be pulled into the morning meeting to discuss things, which I figured could possibly lead to a few things like me leaving this job, while not the “greatest” thing that could happen in the world, at some level it’d be easier on my brain lol - but nothing happened, not fired, no updated draft of my job description, as always less and less respect for someone who’s supposed to be in charge of a company’s IT infrastructure (I think).

But the day goes on, I have held off on my media rig until things settle down here, which they may well do - but time will indeed tell, but I figure if I haven’t heard anything about the job by tomorrow, I’ll go ahead and get the parts coming, and look more serisouly towards getting an appartment - I have scaled the rig down some to save money, and simply recycle some parts, namely Memory, TV Tuner, and Vista, so under $1000 for a system, but still should be a nice setup for the time being, and as things continue to settle down, might get something more to add-in down the line, but for now it’ll do.

Big thanks for all the prayers - I am hoping things continue to pan out here, it’s not that it’s a bad job - its just they keep trying to expand it where if I am not careful, I’ll be moping and vaccuming floors soon, and while I know how to do that, it’s not my job, nor am I being paid for it, so we’ll see how it all goes from here - today I get lunch for sure! Missed it yesterday no car, my ride ditched me, could of had Scott bring me some tasty bits, but I failed lol. So today, it will be tasty indeed! I just need to get cash from a ATM somewhere.

Anywhoo - that’s my update, so far so good, really am tired, but it happens for now I am off to once again look at these old database formats and see if I can’t get things happy somewhere within the flow.

Well another weekend has arrived, a long week has gone, and a new week of challeneges lies ahead.

Friday really did lay out some interesting happenings, one of which was the 2hr conversation with my direct boss, he is back east, and thus I mainly discuss things via Email, but he and I get along pretty well, so we discussed my job description as it has become grey’d and as much as he and I would both somehow agree to say “It’s a small company” it still does not change the fact that if I am picking up the job of a Graphic Designer, IT Manager, and Off-Site consultant - I should be making a heckuva lot more money than I am now

The talk went well though, he heard many of my concerns, and went over them step by step, bottom line I came out of it all with, is this company is not looking to really upgrade or step it up, something is holding them back in the concept of computing and IT in general, this isn’t a “show stopper” for me per-say, but it does make my job harder, and extremely more boring, as I don’t get to experiment, expand, grow, enhance things, but at least my job description concerns were heard, and an adjusted one will be sent to me on Monday, and from there I can give it a final review before it goes to their big staff meeting.

In other non-work related news, my storage system failed last night, I woke up and was starting to clean around the room, so I was going to watch a show I had snagged, well the entire system was rebooting in a loop, cleared bios and drives disconnected, it was still in error. So I took the big media storage drive out and after some toying I got a EXT3 drive mounted under Windows Vista (thanks fs-driver.org) - it works good, speed is nice, and it was good to see all my lovely files safe and sound.

So I have sped-up the search for my Media Center replacement, and I may have found it, custom building a AMD Quad Core box, and once it’s up I use the media rig hardware currently to become the storage box - once the budget is happy again then I’ll pickup the Drobo.

The stats, for you nerdy types out there is as follows:

• AMD Phenom 9550 Agena 2.2GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core
• 4GB PC PC2 8500 (2 x 2GB Sticks)
• 4x Blu-Ray / DVDR Drive
• 2 x Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 (not 1 tuner, but 2! So 4 shows can record at once)
• 500GB SATAII Drive
• Antec Aluminum Veris Fusion Black - Micro Case for Media Center Rigs

All in all it come out cheaper than the original Dell rig I built, but room to expand/upgrade as needed, and more power to boot, the motherboard has a intergrated HDMI port so I can still do 720p to the TV, so pretty snazzy indeed, I threw in a copy of Vista Home Premium 64bit as well, so I’ll have a hotspare of Vista lying around (32-bit Build).

Not sure about build/buy time, maybe tonight, maybe in a few weeks, but I am thinking sooner than later, just getting the budget all in place to cover it, and still afford monthly costs, which shouldn’t  be a HUGE deal as I got 3 new deals that came thru on my own business, so who knows maybe in due-time I can ditch the day job but for now it all works, and an apartment might be in the cards again as the house deal is a 50/50 shot again.

Anywhoo - I do appreciate the prayers from those of you who still check in from time to time - things are getting there slowly but surely I think, for now off to check for more deals, clean some more, and find dinner. Have a great weekend folks!

So this was a big weekend, for sleeping I think I may be fighting a cold, and hoping to be feeling at least 80% by Monday morning, but as it stands I am happy with my weekend, and excited about a trip soon!

Things kicked off Friday when I got word my Sister in Law had gone into labor, while they are only 2hrs away, I was tired, and a trip didn’t really sound like a good idea, but I recall last birth of my niece and while that was in town - it was busy busy, lots of people, so I didn’t want to crowd as my sister and her husband had gone up, mom and dad were already there, and not to mention they have family living/stayin in the area - so I stayed home to relax and celebrate my cousin’s birthday by going to see WALL*E (Cute Movie).

During the movie I got an update, and since we were the only two people in the theatre, I took it and chatted, was about 930 or so - still no baby, one nurse had said it’d be morning before my nephew would come forth, but he proved them wrong and around 11:30 or so he was born.

Just today I got some pics from my fam on Flickr - some of my brother, some of their family, some of the kiddo, some of the new baby boy, all looks well. So I am hoping in a week or two to head out that way, say hello, get some shots for the kiddo myself!

This weekend though has been productive and relaxing, granted I missed The Hub tonight and didn’t get to take pictures, but life will go on (I think!) but I am going to crash out here soon and really get some good sleep as I know this week has the option to be insanely busy, or simple and calm. So we’ll see what happens! Prayers are appreciated, as I am truly wondering my future at this job, as much as I enjoy it - I am also not liking the fact that I am being dumped on and disrespected - but who knows maybe new doors are being prepared to open, time will tell.

Anywhoo - sleep well people, hope your Monday is mellow!

Well things are moving forward slowly, been working on some mainly code in the short-term, so far so good, I am developing a “Missing People” page where it has our senior pictures (sorry everyone) anyone who isn’t found yet is grey’d out and folks can put forth contact information, or fill us in on them, as we know some from our class have passed away, we have a list of at least 4 people I believe at this point - with some folks doing tours over in Iraq, we may have a few more names, but I pray to God we don’t.

I have been up for a reunion off and on, but with the group getting it going, actually a little pumped, mainly because it’s 2 gals I knew in highschool and actually liked So it’s not like I have jumped into a group with that “one girl” or that punk jock, Wendy and Misty were both folks I knew, so it’s mellow, no stress, and we have literally a year to plan (so technically it’s our 11yr reunion)

It’s fun stuff thus far, going to try and call in a few favors to maybe help out some of our class who is now right coasters see if I can’t pull a favor or two with some contacts to lend me a seat or 3 on a jet (yes I know people) lol - but if nothing else see if I can’t get some really really affordable rates and see if we can’t get some folks out here.

Anywhoo - nearly 11, still unwinding but going to hit publish and go relax and watch a movie as I slowly pass out. Night folks, and have a good week!

Well for me anymore a Wild Saturday includes a few things, 1) Progress on organizing my junk, 2) Sleep, 3) Food - or any combo of those options.

Today included the unlock of my 1st Gen iPhone to utilize the Firmware 2.0 but on T-Mobile’s network - being out of contract on T-Mobile, I am actually happy to stay knowing I can now use the line “Well if you won’t fix it, I’ll just leave! boo-hoo!” - and can actually do it AT&T has tried several times now to lure me back to their evil death star alliance, but I have remained strong - the iPhone was really the only option I liked, but I doubt I’d buy a 3G model any time soon, revision 2 in which they get GPS quirks out of the way, battery life sorted, and a 12MP camera, then, maybe then

Currently my first gen is on it’s battery drain, listening to Pandora over WiFi, part of me wanted to leave it on EDGE and see what’d happen, but signal isn’t quality EDGE, so probalby Monday I’ll have that fun at work! But all in all the apps are speedy, the unlock works perfectly, iTunes 7.7 backed up all my goodies, and now I have the big thing to decide MobileMe or Stick with IMAP & SpanningSync for Mac, don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of MobileMe, just $99 a year, not sure it’s going to sit well in my budget for IT, I’d just as soon get Google Apps, or utilize my own IMAP servers.

I am sure there are other things which I could go on and on about, but really it has been a mellow weekend, Church tomorrow should be fun (I hope) followed up with Dinner, but I really want to get a lot more sleep in, I think I am trying to get sick, and the lack of sleep usually leaves me wide open for illness, so sleep is coming up soon here - I am going to fight the urge to skip playing with Apps on the iPhone.

Anywhoo - lots to do in coming weeks, Reunion Website, Photographer’s blog, Wordpress 2.6 upgrades for folks (big kudo’s to WP devs, Gears makes it rockin all the more!) but busy busy - just need to be sure I am rested for it! So I will say goodnight, and wish you all a wonderful Sunday!

Only a day left in this week - it seems to of flown by looking back at it now, but honestly it felt long - but I wanted to take some time tonight to unwind a bit, work on some projects - one of which was that of my blog, I wanted to get some time under the hood to update some plugins, scripts, etc. I have a Netflix tool I wrote, but it’s not ready for prime time.

All in all things have been busy in general, closed some deals today - did quite well thankfully, and finally got some payments handled, but all in all definately a few things moving forward that I had hoped would - even though I know that “studies” show things like people who say “I’ll read up on it” never sign-up, but also sometimes folks just need to review the facts, and make an informed choice.

Anywhoo, going to unwind, play with a few new features in Wordpress 2.6, seems pretty smooth and functional, I am enjoy Google Gears, much much quicker interface that’s not streaming AJAX goodies, and it tells me how many words I have typed Off to fun!