Category: Rantings from the Pulpit

At the end of another week…

D'Arque Bishop

Bleh. I probably would have posted earlier this week, but I’ve been run ragged at the office and I don’t think I’ve actually been home before 7 PM any day this week. Usually when I get home I’m too tired to do more than read the screen for a while and then go to bed. Oh, well… at least the three day weekend is coming up.

As is probably already known, one thing I do with my server is host domains and mail accounts for friends. Most times I do it for free, just because they’re my friends. (I’m also picky about who I give accounts to, so don’t ask and get offended if I decline.) However, that doesn’t mean I won’t accept donations if they’re offered. On Monday evening, I met Sean and Jinny for coffee at what I’ve begun to think of as “Garrett’s Denny’s” (so named due to a rather memorable waiter who works the graveyard shift there). When they arrived, Sean handed me a paper FedEx envelope he was using as a bag… and inside the bag was a whole shitload of blank DDS3 tapes. :-) For the record, that’s the kind of tape I use to back up my main server; I had been running short on tapes, but Sean had access to a surplus and got me set up. :-) Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to arrange the backup schedule now…

At this point, I’m just glad that this weekend is a three day weekend. I need to catch up on my sleep. :-) Otherwise, I really don’t have that much planned for this weekend, other than maybe doing some game playing. I’ve got a couple of games in my “Pile of Shame” that really should be played, like Final Fantasy VII and Transformers. Otherwise, I don’t have anything more stressful planned than catching up on my rest.

Speaking of rest, it’s time I caught up on my night’s sleep…. heh.

A new name for my servers…?

D'Arque Bishop

Okay, so, last night I took a picture of my servers for a few friends to look at. This is what you would call the heart of the darquecathedral.org domain.

The black machine on the bottom with the blue lights is Tyrande, my main server. Although, after watching the Doctor Who episode “The Age of Steel” last night, it does make me wonder… take a look at a picture of one of the characters from the episode below:

Maybe I should consider renaming Tyrande into “Cyber Controller”. :-)

Laptop-less… and stuffed.

D'Arque Bishop

Well, I ended up taking my Powerbook to the Apple Store up in the Woodlands Mall. (I swear, that Apple Store is bigger than the one in the Galleria.) Sure enough, the preliminary analysis was that it was a fault in the logic board (read: motherboard), so they’re likely going to have to send it off to the repair depot. That’s fine… I was expecting something like that. I’ll just have to make sure to prep a spare laptop at the office for my use on Monday.

Afterwards, I went over to the Cheesecake Factory with Mom and Dad for a late Mother’s Day dinner. I overate, as usual. *sigh* One of these days I’m going to learn to temper my eating habits there. Mom enjoyed it, though, which is really what counts in the end. After that we just came home after a brief browse around Barnes & Noble.

As for right now, though, I’m just going to sit back and relax… possibly after grabbing a Shiner from the fridge downstairs. It’s been a semi-long and boring day, so I’ll probably finish it off with some pinball or maybe loading up DOOM 3 on this machine and giving it a whirl. Oh, well…

Recovering from the week… and technical issues abound.

D'Arque Bishop

Bleh. Let me start off by saying that I’m not looking forward to going into the Apple Store later today. I’m not going because I WANT to, mind you. For a few weeks now my Microsoft USB notebook mouse had been giving me issues, and I had resolved to pick up a Logitech cordless laser notebook mouse to replace it. Well, yesterday I found out the mouse wasn’t the problem. I had intended on installing some software onto a coworker’s laptop so he could use his Bluetooth mouse, and the quickest way for me to do it would have been to copy the software onto the USB Flash drive I keep on my keychain and use that to install. Unfortunately, when I inserted the USB drive, the Powerbook wouldn’t indicate it had mounted it. A quick check of the system logs revealed the truth: a hardware failure was being reported on the USB controller. So, I’ll need to take the Powerbook in to have them service it. I’ll be without the Powerbook for a couple of weeks while they fix it; in the meantime, I’ll have to use one of the spare laptops at the office as my work machine. On the other hand, I’m glad this problem didn’t pop up during E3, as my Powerbook was one of the prime media import/render machines.

I was home late almost every day this week. I was supposed to have dinner with my boss and another IT coworker (who was in town from Houma for training classes) on Tuesday evening; unbeknownst to me and Brent, Adam (the boss) had taken some Tylenol PM in response to some headaches and it ended up knocking him out until 10:30 PM. So, Brent and I, along with Anderson (who had been invited to join us), waited in a sportsbar in the Galleria for him, until such time as we gave up and ended up hitting a club. On Wednesday evening, Adam, Brent, and I ended up eating at the Cheesecake Factory in the Galleria for dinner. Thursday night, the three of us hit Houston’s at US 59 and Kirby for dinner. Houston’s is like the anti-Cheesecake Factory in that while Cheesecake Factory’s menu is like a novel, Houston’s fits on one side of a single page menu that’s about the size of a legal sheet of paper. Still, the food is quite good; their rack of pork ribs is among the best I’ve ever had. Then, last night, I met Louie for drinks after work. I had hoped to get some sleep last night to make up for it, but wouldn’t you know it, I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep…

As for today, I’m working on getting my music library and a few data files on the Powerbook synched back to the main PC (just in case Apple decides they want to wipe the hard drive on the machine while they work), and then sometime this afternoon I’ll go up to the Woodlands Mall to take it in to the Apple Store for service. After that, I’ll need to hit J.C. Penney to get some new jeans (I ripped mine yesterday, and then I’m taking Mom to Cheesecake Factory for her late Mother’s Day dinner. I also had to re-rip a couple of CDs to my iTunes this morning (specifically, Relics of the Chozo and Led Zeppelin’s Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin Vol. 1) because something about the encoding didn’t allow the whole files to be copied over to the iPod. Supposedly (from Adam’s experience) ripping them using iTunes 6 fixes the issue. We’ll see, though.

As for now, though, I’m going to go refill my coffee mug and continue working on these data transfers. Fun fun…

E3 is over, and I am back home.

D'Arque Bishop

Well, another E3 is over and done with. As always, E3 tends to be an extremely hectic time for me and I always come back from the show feeling that I need a vacation to recuperate from my vacation. In any event, before I get started, here are a couple of links for you so you can get an idea firsthand of what I was up to this past week.

Anyway, I got into town on Tuesday morning, to find the hotel wasn’t quite ready yet. I had lunch at a nearby Denny’s, and came back in time to claim my hotel room (AND arrange for a connected one for the other MK Online guys). Joe got in at around 6:30 PM, and Justin came in a couple of hours after that. After we made our plans for the following day and got ourselves prepared, we ended up calling it a night. I do admit that I tried to introduce Justin to Doctor Who, but he fell asleep partway through the second episode of “Tomb of the Cybermen”…

The next morning, we got up, and got ready for the show. Aaron showed up on time, and we all piled in to make our way to E3. Once we got there, obviously our first stop was the Midway booth, where we got to work playing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and taking pictures and recording video. I don’t think I need to say that I really enjoyed playing the game and look forward to seeing how the final game turns out. We also got to meet up with the usual crowd from Midway (Ed Boon, Steve Beran, Brian Lebaron, John Podlasek, and others) and play a bit of catchup. Late that afternoon, though, I got a bit of a rare opportunity to geek out, as it were. There are two MK development team members I had wanted to meet for the longest time, and one of them decided to make an appearance at E3 this year. This particular person is Dan Forden, who had done the music for MK1 through MK4 and now supervises the music/sound effects department at Midway. So, needless to say, I was quite happy. :-) I also got the chance to meet two other MK fansite webmasters: Dave Rosteck of Dave’s Mortal Kombat and Luke Cunningham of Total Mortal Kombat. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Dave, but he was a very nice guy, if a bit quiet. :-) On the other hand, it’s no secret that Luke and I have had our (sometimes serious) disagreements in the past. Fortunately we got along well at the show, and some of the rifts got healed. While at the show, SPOOn showed up and hung around with us. After the show, we all headed back to the hotel and got to work on the evening’s updates, ordered room service, and generally got work done.

The next morning, we made our way over to the show, just in time for our scheduled appointment to get direct feed footage from MK Armageddon… only to find that we couldn’t get the console to cooperate with my camcorder. Gah. We played more of the game (after rescheduling a time to come back and get footage plus interview Ed), then we went our separate ways to browse through the separate halls. I didn’t bother with trying to see the Nintendo Wii (waiting in line for three hours isn’t my thing), and the Playstation 3 had no appeal to me. I wandered through both South and West Halls, with a quick look in Kentia. At the end of the day, we headed back to the hotel to do some more work, breaking off only so that we could get a bite to eat at this Italian restaurant down the street from our hotel. After that, we returned to the hotel and worked late.

The next morning we got to the show again just in time for our appointment with Ed. While Justin interviewed him and I filmed it, Aaron and Joe worked in vain to try and get direct feed. We’ll have to try and figure out a way to get it in the future, as this is apparently a new incompatibility that just popped up within the past several months. After that, we got some time in talking to Ed et al, and then we headed down to lunch in Kentia Hall with Luke in tow. Afterwards, I browsed Kentia a little, to see what arcade machines they had in the Videogame Museum this year. Then I wandered back through South and West Halls, to take stock of what I missed before. Then I met the others back at the Midway booth, and we headed back to the hotel. We got back in plenty of time for me to get the Fan Interview converted into Quicktime files and uploaded, and then we went out to dinner and went to see Poseidon in IMAX. After that, SPOOn returned home, and the rest of us returned to the hotel. The following morning, Aaron and Joe left early; Justin and I tried to hit Denny’s only to find it was a 25 minute wait. After eating at the hotel, we went to the airport and made our way home.

So, in the end, what did I like most? Hellgate: London and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars certainly drew the most interest from me. I also found Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar to be an interesting MMORPG. Namco Mobile Arcade was interesting as well, though it did disappoint me that there was no word of PocketPC ports. All in all, though, it was an interesting show and I’m looking forward to next year’s.

On the other hand, I’m definitely not looking forward to the pile of work that’ll be waiting for me at the office tomorrow morning. Ah, well… I knew that was going to happen beforehand. Still, it was a productive trip, and was worth all the headache et al.

One show down, one to go…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, the Offshore Technology Conference for this year is over with. It was quite interesting, though I am glad that next year we have much better plans in store regarding how we’re setting up the displays and all. I did do a bit more browsing around than I did last year; however, part of the problem there is the fact that seeing as most of the show deals with the oil and gas industry, especially as it relates to offshore drilling, there isn’t that much there for me to be interested in. I did get to see some stuff I found somewhat interesting and/or amusing. What pictures I did take (with my Cingular 8125’s built-in camera) are now posted in my Gallery; you can browse the pictures to your heart’s content here.

Next week will be the fun show, as that’s when I’ll be attending E3. We’ve got at least two games we’ll be covering for the show: Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mortal Kombat: Unchained. I still need to get a few extra MiniDV tapes and a MiniSD card for my digital camera so I can hold a good number of pictures. A USB keychain drive probably wouldn’t hurt, either…

In any event, it’s late, and I need sleep for tomorrow, as I catch up with work that had been put off while I’d been at OTC (and that I couldn’t take care of afterhours like I did twice this week). Fun fun…

It’s Sunday, and it’s my day off…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, I must say, today’s been a relatively relaxing day off. This is the first day off I’ve had in a couple of weeks or so; I worked both days last weekend helping to get my employer’s corporate office moved to its new location (in the building my office is located in), and I had to work yesterday testing out the three plasma screens at my employer’s booth at OTC in the Reliant Center. I’ll be working at my employer’s booth all four days of OTC, maintaining the laptops showing the presentations and also helping out when I can. It should be a bit easier on me this time around than it was last year, as I believe OTC will have free wifi access this time around. I don’t know if the wifi signal will reach to our booth though; it did on Saturday, but then the show itself hadn’t started and people were still setting up. The main downside will be that I have to be up at 5:15 AM to be at the office by 7 AM so I can meet with a few coworkers before the show.

My parents and I got a bit annoyed with Star yesterday. Well, annoyed isn’t exactly the right word… furious would be more accurate. She had been stalking these squirrels in the backyard, and up until now they’d been able to evade her. Yesterday, she caught one, and started swinging it around while she held it in her mouth. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know how to kill; so, instead of a swift merciful kill by breaking its neck, she was tossing it around while it screamed in terror. Mom and Dad came running out and did what they could to get the squirrel out of her grasp. Dad managed to get it away from her and dropped it over the fence so she wouldn’t catch it. Star was shocked… she was so proud of herself for finally catching it, and Mom and Dad were angry as hell at her. Meanwhile the squirrel hid under my car, and soon died of its injuries. Dad ended up taking the squirrel and burying it in the garden, after saying a few words of farewell. This incident has only served to heighten my anxiety of what might happen should one of the cats get careless and Star get lucky about catching him…

Well, I should be considering bed at this point… heh. The next week should be interesting; I might provide some pics from the OTC show floor. I’ll keep you updated, hopefully.

Gah… finally a bit of downtime…

D'Arque Bishop

Okay, I know I haven’t posted in a while. So sue me.

The truth of the matter is that I’ve been too worn out to even bother. I’ve been running around like a human pinball the past week or so, as my employer’s corporate office moved locations over the weekend and I’ve been working like crazy helping them get moved and set up, and then fighting proverbial fires since Monday. I’m away from my desk most of the day, and then when I get home, I don’t feel like doing anything more involved than listen to some music or play a retro game or two. It’s not eased off quite as much as I like, and things are going to get even more hectic in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be spending much of next week working at my employer’s booth at OTC, and then the week after I’ll be covering E3 for MK Online.

In a way, I envy Dave. He’s decided to take a long vacation, and is going to London next week. I’m not sure what all he’s decided to do, but anything will probably be better for his peace of mind than being cooped up in town for an extended vacation. Heck, one of the main reasons I’m looking forward to OTC is just because it’ll get me out of the chaos at the office for a few days. Then again, once E3 comes around, I’ll be out of the office chaos and into the site coverage chaos…

Anyway, enough out of me for now. Time for me to head out of the office and head home. Fun fun…

Easter postings…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, I wish I could say today was a remarkably eventful day full of interesting things that I did. Unfortunately, I’d be lying if I did.

I got up at around 9:30 AM, and found an Easter basket in the kitchen full of Cadbury Crunchie bars. :-) The sad thing is that I’ve not taken them upstairs yet; I really haven’t had a sweet tooth for them yet. Well, that, and the fact that I’m saving them are keeping them away. Cadbury Crunchies are by far my favorite chocolate bars, so I want to save and savor them. :-) Then, this afternoon, I went and bought myself a couple of albums off of the iTunes Music Store. They were both compilations of music from the various Final Fantasy video games; I had been wanting some FF music in my collection for a while, and today seemed like just as good a day to get them as any. The first album I got was the Black Mages’ self-titled debut album, which is a bunch of FF battle music themes done by a rock-type band (of which FF composer Nobuo Uematsu is a member). The other was called 20020220, and is a bunch of Final Fantasy themes performed by an orchestra. I’ll likely sit down for a bit later and listen to both albums in full. For now, though, I’ll wait for them to come up in my iPod’s random play.

Otherwise, I really haven’t done much of anything today. I’ve tried watching the “The Daleks” disc from my Doctor Who – The Beginning DVD boxset, but I’m agreeing with Jenn at this point: it’s so long and tedious that the best way to watch it will likely be one episode a day. I got through episode four in one sitting this afternoon before getting tired of it, and saw episode five this evening. I’ll wait until tomorrow before watching episode six. Otherwise, for the rest of the night I’m just planning on sitting back, relaxing, and preparing myself to get back into the grind tomorrow at work. I just hope I can get done with everything I need to… plus have enough downtime after work to relax and watch Doctor Who. :-)

Anyway, for now, I’m going to get a drink of water and then check on some stuff here. Fun fun…

Plans and whatnot…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, yesterday I booked my flight to Los Angeles for next month. I was rather shocked when I saw how much it cost; I wouldn’t have expected the Houston-Los Angeles round trip flight would cost just under $200. Still, I’m not complaining at all, as it’s one more thing for the trip taken care of. I also should consider getting a 1 GB USB flash drive, a bigger SD memory card for my Cingular 8125 phone, and a few more MiniDV tapes for the camcorder as well. Those of you who know me can pretty much guess what this trip is for; otherwise… I’ll make the official announcement on the 1st sometime.

It’s still looking to be a quiet weekend. Dad hasn’t yet asked for my help moving anything, but I can’t guarantee he’s not going to ask. As it stands, I’ve been spending the day working on the MK Online server, making some tweaks and fixing a couple of issues I came across on the site’s Games section. I’ll probably end up playing more Cyberball 2072 as well, plus trying to avoid spoilers from Doctor Who (as the second season premiere is today). Oh, well… it’s not as if I have anything more pressing to work on at this point.

Oh, and one other thing DID happen today that I’m rather annoyed about. At some point this morning, the doorbell rang. Dad went down and answered it, and Mom mentioned to me that it was our neighbor across the street. She surmised that he was going to ask us to move my car; it was on the street and the guy has difficulty backing his truck out of his driveway when it’s there. Turned out that he wasn’t asking us to move it… he actually HAD hit it. I’ll have to go check the damage, but apparently all it is is paint damage. I’ll probably end up taking it in to be looked at later this next week, if I have time. Still… what the hell is it with me having bad luck with cars nowadays?

Oh, well… might as well go do something semi-productive…