Bleh. It’s been a hectic past couple of weeks.

I guess I should be happy that today wasn’t too bad of a day. I got quite a bit accomplished, including doing some testing on a new laptop we got in for possible deployment to the users (the Wyse X90, which I’ll probably go on about in another post). As it stands, though, my day’s been busier due to the fact that our level one tech support person was let go last week. We’ll get another one eventually, but for now I’ve got my hands full keeping up with my old workload and the added workload that would normally be handled by someone else. Ah, well.

At least this past Saturday was fun. I ended up making my way over to Dave’s house around lunchtime, and from there we made our way over to a Pei Wei less than a mile or two away for lunch. Once done there, we made our way to Katy Mills Mall; Dave wanted to buy a few records from Past & Presents. That was fine by me, as I had never been to Katy Mills. After he did his shopping (and I took a tech support call from Dad), we wandered around the mall for a bit. I admit I went into the Games Workshop store, to see if they had Talisman in stock. Turned out they didn’t… ah, well. After we left Katy Mills, we headed back to Dave’s apartment, where we watched Batman Begins (which Dave had never seen before). Louie arrived shortly after the movie ended, and he also got to meet Dave’s new cat, “Nature Boy”. (Louie had the same reaction to Nature Boy that I did: “WOOOOOO!” :-) ) We all ended up going to Outback for dinner, after which we got some coffee at Starbucks. Now, the plan was to go to a bowling alley and do the “Extreme Bowling” deal from 11-2 AM. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the waiting list was ridiculously long, so we headed back to Dave’s apartment and watched soccer. Before I left, though, Dave got me my belated second Christmas gift, which had been on backorder. He originally got me The Last House on the Left; this one was Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD. Thanks, Dave!

Sunday was uneventful for the most part, other than putting the servers here back on their battery backup after a glitch last week caused the UPS to go slightly off-kilter. I also got another CD off iTunes: Huey Lewis & the News’s greatest hits. :-) With this CD and the self-titled Information Society I got recently, I seem to be on an 80s kick. Otherwise, yesterday was a quiet day of relaxation.

So, what does this week bring for me? Well, later this week I’m going up to Oklahoma City overnight. I’ve already started making arrangements to meet my friends Jeff and Malinda (who I haven’t seen since shortly after their wedding) for dinner while up there, which should be fun. Also, on Saturday, Sean’s rescheduled birthday dinner is happening, which should be entertaining. Otherwise… well, we’ll just see what happens. :-)

I happened to wander across this on YouTube and Fark. I’m mostly reposting it for Louie’s and Dave’s benefit, as we’ve discussed a reference to it in Family Guy before. Truly, this is one of the great moments in television history. :-)

.. but ignore me or treat me with disrespect, and you can forget it.

Right now I’m sitting in a Friday’s off 290. I hadn’t planned on eating here; I had actually planned on eating at Chili’s. However, after I arrived, a host said he would get a table ready. Then a hostess walked up, and sat three groups that had arrived AFTER me. I think she gave one of them my table.

Then she got to me and said, “It’ll be just a few minutes.”

At that point I said, “Why don’t I go elsewhere, then, as I was here before those people you just sat down?”

She gave a bit of a half-hearted apology, saying she didn’t know. I just turned and left.

I don’t like to think of myself as harsh or impatient, but that irritated me beyond belief. At least right now I’m eating somewhere where I was seated immediately and treated well by the waitress. :-) So, for those keeping score, it’s Friday’s 1, Chili’s 0.

I was downstairs earlier tonight having dinner with Dad (Mom wasn’t feeling up to eating), and Dad had the TV on showing Wheel of Fortune. Now, granted, I realize that Wheel of Fortune contestants are frequently not braintrusts. (Those make their way onto Jeopardy!.) However, I happened to witness a display of utter stupidity the likes of which I had not seen in ages.

The category was “FOOD AND DRINK”. The answer was blindingly obvious very early on, especially before this woman wasted money buying all of the vowels. The end result was the following: “-ERMAN CHOCOLATE CA-E”.

She asked for an F.

While I winced at the gaffe, she used a free spin she had picked up, and spun again. This time, she did ask for a G, and got it. She then asked to solve the puzzle. I figured at that point that it was a slipup due to nerves or something.

She then said, “… German chocolate cape?”

I damn near choked on my drink. So much for it being a one-time slipup. Fortunately, the next contestant solved it immediately.

I don’t know. I realize it’s bad form to mock others for their stupidity, but Jesus… that took the bloody cake. And people wonder why I have little to no faith in humanity…

I woke up this morning at around 9 AM or so. I had a headache, my body ached, and overall I felt like death warmed over.

No, Merrie’s New Years party wasn’t that wild of a night. Well, it COULD have been, but I have no knowledge either way. I’ve got a pretty nasty flu bug right now.

I knew I was coming down with it on Sunday night; as much as I wanted to spend yesterday resting and recuperating, I knew it was not to be. We had just migrated our new acquisition’s main location onto our network, and I had to be there for any firefighting and get some additional printers set up where they could be printed to from our network. It didn’t help that Jesse was out due to his grandmother dying over the weekend. Fortunately, I had some Theraflu during the day, which made the afternoon somewhat bearable. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to the party, though, so I emailed her and explained the situation. She replied back saying she understood and thanking me on everyone’s behalf for not infecting them. :-) I ended up leaving right at 5 PM.

As soon as I got home, though, that was it. I got extremely cold and tired, so I took some NyQuil and went straight to bed at around 7-8 PM. I didn’t sleep too well, though. At midnight, I was semi-woken up by Misty calling my cell phone; she wanted to wish me a happy New Year and was concerned about how I was holding up. After talking to her for a few, I went downstairs, where Dad was sitting watching TV with Chase and Star. Both dogs were scared due to the fireworks, but had taken a sedative earlier in the evening to calm them down. The poor things were lethargic and Star couldn’t even stay on her feet. After about 40 minutes of that, I went back upstairs, called Misty, and went straight to bed.

As for what I have planned for today, I’m just planning on sitting, relaxing, beating this bug. I have to go back to work tomorrow morning, so I need to relax and beat this as best I can. I’ve already taken some Advil and Theraflu, so hopefully I should be okay. Still… I’m hoping this isn’t an indication of how 2008 is going to go.

Anyway, happy New Year everyone. I hope yours is going better than mine is at this point.

Well, the four day weekend is over. I probably could have done with a couple more days, though.

Right now I’m sitting at a Chili’s on Westheimer at Greenridge, waiting on some dinner. I’m making this post from my phone; I figured now was as good a time as any to test the new plugins on the site which made for writing posts and site administration via a mobile browser easier. Otherwise, not really too much going on here at this stage of the game… heh.

I can say that it was a very productive day at work today, though considering how much needs to be done before Friday, I’m kind of wondering if I’ll have time to finish it all. Ah, well…

I ended up buying Paul Anka’s Rock Swings yesterday using my iTunes Store credit. It’s a pretty good CD; it’s Anka singing rock songs in a swing/big band style. I’ll probably end up getting the latest Loreena McKennitt CD, a Tull CD, and Guns N Roses’s Appetite for Destruction tonight. After that, who knows…

Anyway, food’s here, so it’s time to eat. :-) Fun fun..

Well, tis Christmas morning. I hope everyone who might be reading is having a merry Christmas, or enjoying whatever particular holiday you might be enjoying. :-) It’s been a good Christmas here, for the most part; we’ve already opened presents, and I’m just relaxing and catching up on the day’s news (such as it might be) before we have Christmas dinner down in the kitchen. This year it’s not going to be anything special, as Mom couldn’t decide what to make. We’re just going to go ahead and have pasta, which is perfectly fine by me. I’ll put the Christmas (so far) in review behind a cut to spare the friends pages of my LiveJournal friends.
Read more “God bless us, every one! (Certain restrictions apply.)”

In about half an hour to an hour from now, I’m going to go pick up George and then head on over to the first of two Christmas parties I plan on attending this weekend. It’s been a long week, and I’m glad it’s over. The highlight of it, if it could be called that, was a trip to Amarillo/Perryton Thursday to get the company’s location in Perryton up and running on our network. This time, though, I decided to handle it a bit different than I normally do when travelling.

Normally, when travelling on business (or travelling in general), I carry two cases. I keep my clothing and toiletries in a carryon suitcase, and my laptop, paperwork, and other electronic equipment go into my laptop shoulder bag. This time, seeing as it was just an overnight trip and I didn’t have to carry a lot of stuff with me, I decided to minimize my luggage, so to speak. I took my laptop and the equipment I thought I might need (power adapter, notebook surge protector, notebook laser mouse, retractable network cable, AirPort Express, cell phone charger, and HP/Cisco serial console cables) and moved them to my backpack. I also found space in there to shove a change of clothes (except for jeans and shoes) and the needed toiletries. The end result was a single bag with the bare minimum I would need. It was effective enough and got the job done, though I admit that I was feeling a bit bare, so to speak. I wasn’t used to carrying one case with everything I needed in it when well away from home. I’ll just have to remember to keep that in mind for future trips. :-)

Then again, Perryton was a special case as it’s a very small facility with one workstation and printer. Most times when I travel to set up facilities I have to set up multiple workstations and printers, which invariably means it’s best if I spend a full day there (which leads to spending at least two nights there). Still, it was a good learning experience. In retrospect, I realized I could have gone with even less equipment. The AirPort Express and mouse could have been left behind, for example.

Ah, well. Considering my next business trip could very well end up being an international trip, I don’t think the minimal packing philosophy will work too terribly well. Still, for other trips and personal trips, it’s given me a good perspective and given me something to think about.

Some of the stuff that can be found on YouTube is amusing, to put it mildly.

I found this while looking for another video. Part of me is now wondering what Gilbert & Sullivan versions of other modern songs might end up sounding like… :-)

In some ways, the travel thing is getting really old. Last week, I had to go to Grand Junction CO, and either later this week or next week I need to go to Perryton TX. Grand Junction wasn’t too bad, but I already know Perryton will be a bear of a trip. There isn’t any sort of a direct flight there, and it’s located far enough away where I can’t just drive up. What I’ll likely have to do is fly up to Amarillo, and then drive from there to Perryton (which is at the top of the Panhandle, right about at the Oklahoma border). I’m really hoping that this is the only time I have to go up there.

As for how this past week went, I’ll go ahead and be kind and put it under a cut. :-)
Read more “The downtime between two trips.”