WangNet

I busted my ass to get home for the 2am conference call... and sat on hold because the 'leader' (at the office) didn't log in... then was booted. A quick email to BossDad and it seems the hardware switch went fine.. except.. EXCEPT.. our 01 application server died. As in no boot, nary a pulse, and will be buried with honors. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. My main charge is on that son of a bitch. *sigh*. Thirty minutes later I have the two main branch processes up and running again except one bastard task is timing out. For some fucking reason string comparison with an '=' runs thirty seconds slower than the same comparison with a 'LIKE'.. probably something to do with the shit table being unindexed or something.. what evs.. same results and a change later and now it's 4.15 on a sunday morning. This boy is going to read a few chapters and go to bed.

Either way it is highly suspicious 01 died tonight.. at this very moment when everything is changing. I smell foul play on the network and hardware guys... sort of like 'oh.. shoot.. Crotchety Old Man Withers took an accidental spill down the stairs" sort of thing. Bwahaha.. that or being tired has heightened my paranoia.

What evs.

I am puttering around near the reference book section of the B&N when I hear this exchange.

Daughter: You need a book of words that are the same as other words. A book of cinnamon.
Mom: Ah.. okay... this?
Daughter: No that's a dictionary you need a book of cinnamon.. hmm.. they should have it!
I decided to step in here.
Me: Excuse me I think you need a thesaurus. Here, it's on the top shelf. I'll get you one.
Daughter: Ah, no that is not what we need. That is not a book of cinnamons.
Me: No, I am certain this is what you need. By the way the word you are looking for is synonym.
Daughter: Ugh! No! You don't even know cinnamon is a word that means other words!? I don't think you are helping us.
I sighed and walked off.
I hear a quiet voice on the other side of a book isle saying "That just happened".

Maybe it was a lack of focus tonight at the gym, but when I am on the treadmill getting my cardio in before I head home with a power walk/yog and there are zero other people on the nineteen other treadmills don't be that guy who sidles up to the tread mill next to me. Damn it - urinal rules here people.. apply the urinal rules!

I am totally back on the believe I can make vinyl toys at home. I just need a better handle on the rotocasting bit and how toxic these chems might be.. and off I go!

http://www.vinylabuse.com/
http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=117339

If I only had a house with powertools..
http://www.solsylva.com/cnc/rotomolder.shtml

flickr of anticlimaddox's rotocasting rino

Sunday night grocery store run I see in the "super duper sugar and crazy colored energy drinks" area near the bagels and cheese (odd, right?) a new edition: NeuroPassion. I picked it up, read the ingredients, the text, and figured it might be interesting to try. I just checked out their reviews on amazon and noticed there were other variants - NeuroBliss, NeuroSun, etc. I started putting one and one together and realize the "passion" they were talking about wasn't in the abstract way of 'achievement' or 'zest and zeal'.. no.. no.. this was the _OTHER_ passion. Damn innuendo on the bottle really threw me off the loop.

Ha. What a mar'oon.

That and I am drinking it at work.

Review so far.. meh. Carbinated water with a metric ton of vitiamins.. b6's, b12s... the taste is odd, but not offensive. It would probably not do well in vodka.

The funeral was okay.. I saw a few more of the missing family folk on fifteen year hiatus. Now I am back at work and feeling a bit nauseated, and would just rather be home curled up in a ball sleeping. Some odd future roads to think about, but over all to quote Marty: "This is heavy".

Goal for the afternoon - let's not stress/anxiety-hurl.

I have to say - my sisters are great folk. Even when venturing into, what it seems like, dangerous territory for this viewing they sucked it up and stood their ground... the shock and awe at the branches of family that cooed "I haven't seen you guys in years! (well duh we've been ostracized)" was taken on the chin and the girls kept going. The tears and beers fest afterwards was.. a little uncomfortable but at least there was some sort of lancing of the boils that have been there for sometime.

*sigh*

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

The Honor System
Published in the October 2012 issue

Sunday was a day of limbo. Went to bed at 2am.. woke up at 5.30am.. Drop Pops and Connie to the airport in a gray, clammy, and slightly foggy morning. It turns out Dodge Street is damn near empty at that early in the morning (except for the stupid Corp Cup runners who were recklessly darting out between cars and construction equipment like deer that need "special" helmets.

*sigh*

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Damnit all.. why haven't I been to either? New goal... The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!


http://www.gencon.com

http://www.comic-con.org/

I had a decent workout last night.. I had to work around a group of six or seven tan/toned/shredded guys and gals at the squat racks... that was annoying, but nothing a bit of music volume increase can't take care of.

I think next gym time I'll bump from forties on the parallel grip shoulder presses to forty-fives... and hopefully get to about sixty and just stretch out the sets. Upright row I jumped to a one-ten and it wasn't a big deal. I am unsure how much weight I care to go with that before I have to either flip off the cable machine and do it freestanding or just increase the rep count.

On a positive note my 290s on the cable row seem to have gotten easier... probably the new shoulder routines. Ha!

So far the day has nearly gone by without some helpless person mewling around about choices... though I riled up enough from yesterday (real world folk and them forum'ners) to rapid fire off what my buddy's younger brother should be doing before college as well as what she needs to be doing as a hobby/craft/sell-shit-on-etsy sort of thing.

I went to be quite satisfied that annoyance boil was deflated. Wheew.

Maybe it's just my area of interest or the forum I am on, but holy shit.. people's fear of failing or "going down a wrong path" is rocketing off the scale.

Not a day goes by someone is asking for "the best X" where X could be a language, dev platform, book on a language, or flavor of kolache. Follow up questions to bring context always end up with people in a huff that "if they knew they wouldn't ask"... and that "they just don't want to go down a bad path".. or "I am in a rush".

I just read a guy's post who was asking how good a youtube programming series might be (for him) and ended with "But I'm been thinking about this for day's without really getting an conclusion.".

Seriously -
what
the
fuck..

You sat around a whole day waiting for someone to respond and just thinking about this when you could have spent an eighth of the time just checking out the god damn video yourself? Are you kidding me?

Then there are the people who "Want to go into programming - which class path should I go?" and one path is CLEARLY development orientated while the other is almost pure NETWORKING! This is just the tip of the iceberg on dumbasses who want random strangers to pick their curriculum because, god forbid, they pick a class that might not be useful to what ever job situation they are being dumped into five years down the line... and that, bit surprise here, when directed to talk to their school councilors they freak out. It's the guidance councilors's JAY-OH-BEE FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

Here's a better idea - don't ask the councilors.. don't ask the internet... do some f'n quantitative research yourself! Shit.. that class on COBOL not work out like you wanted? well you should be programming some c# in your off time. Not every class will be some resume fluff..

What? You have two choices for a book to buy and cannot decide? GO TO THE DAMN AMAZON ITEM PAGE AND READ THOSE REVIEWS! Make a discrete choice once in your life. Compare the age of the book.. the reviews... and the indexes. It's not that damn hard.

I get crowd-sourcing some information, but shit by that time you should have had a pretty solid understanding of which way you will lean. If you don't then it becomes a point where YOUR time is more valuable than mine and that *I* should know what is important to you and your world.

I am thinking I might start spiking my 'advice' for those people down the wrong path just so they can learn what it might smell like going down the less optimal trail and what learning can happen when they do so.

Christ.. be less of a pussy and strike out. What? GPS doesn't have batteries? Well tough shit. Aww.. you are concerned you might not learn some "best way" of going? Has it ever occurred to you that 'best way' doesn't apply to everyone?

I just want to start kicking people in the boinloins (or suitable female analog) then kicking them out a door into that cruel world of.. *gasp* decision making.

... just one aspect of the world that is grinding my gears today...

I was waiting around for some log files to generate and skimming the post mortum on Olly Low Poly And The Zombie Tower when I was struck with the sudden urge to find this short story I read about a guy on a journey taking him down a bottomless staircase. After three minutes of various mistaken authors I was able to zero in and find the post from io9.com that linked to a post on Apex about "L'esprit de L'escalier" by Peter M. Ball.

Of course then was a mini dance ensued and I was "just going to skim it"... ah.. no.. it got read.. notes jotted down.. and now.. now I think I can turn it into a proof of concept HTML5 game. Ha!

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After thirteen months the i/J/E/T/ Initiative goes underway.. well for one client.. the rest are either Wednesday or Thursday.

I believe everything is covered and my release checklist is made... initially it was a concern of turning the email server into a puddle of molten slag, but now.. er.. now.. I don't know. Second or third mission critical.. thing.. going out. First uber-complex-high-profile-many-moving-parts mission critical.. er.. initiative.. is going out.

*sigh* This will be fine!

I have the strong, and I guess you could say irrational, urge to splurge $1,749.00 Makerbot Replicator.

Ugh.. gotta fight the urge to buy a machine that takes CNC files and extrudes them into plastic reality!

I do enjoy the free lunch, but the look on the poor supplier reps' faces makes it a wee bit hard to get down the soda. People shuffling past half listening to each supplier's spiel, examining the snatched up trinket, and basically looking at the next person's goods. An assault on patience, manners, and line etiquette.

I haven't had a chance to grill the new guy - Jacob - so I decided to toss my lunch and demand we go to Mai Thai. Snagged Dan and TimM and off we went. Good food.. though basil chicken won't be picked again... and a bit more spice than a 2 (out of 5) is needed.

Just 45 minutes of time. Though I am not sure if I know anything more about the new twenty-four year old than I did before. Quiet... almost too quiet.

It looks like the blocked site temp directory on the router was cleaned out.

Engaging full blog speed - during daytime hours!

Thus begins a new chapter... in family drama hell... this time between my cousin, his wife, and the kids... only one seems to have their interests at the for-front while the other is willing to use'em like chess pieces.

*sigh*

Thankfully gym day tomorrow.

Sadly Michelle leaves tomorrow. A good eight week respite I have to say.

I wonder if it is socially acceptable to lean over and just punch someone at dinner, or just a few cutting words will do. I mean how else does someone deal with watching someone jerk off a cob of corn and then deep throat it to start the process of eating it vertically. *sigh*.

Manners people, manners.

Changing gears I think I am now back to hitting that endorphin rush of going to the gym. Go Team Me!