WangNet

Beef jerky - gone..
Trail mix - gone..
Gatoraide - gone.
Granola bar - being consumed.


I think little Ashley is coming down with a case of dysentery.

Anarchy may rule by the next break.

Now to setup my Azure account!

Hell if I know, but I seem to prepare for them the same way. Half an hour before my "Getting Started with Microsoft Big Data, Hive & HDInsight Jump Start" I jetted to the gas station for:
- beef jerky
- gatoraid
- trail mix
- mountain dew.


Wow..

Fun story - for the last two nights I haven't been home any time earlier than 11.30pm...

Tuesday night was an awesome impromptu baseball game with Pops and Connie. I am not going to lie - I was certain the tight turn around was going to be the failure of that event. The game at 7.. I am getting out of work by 5.15 - head home, turn around, and go back the opposite direction to hit downtown to find parking, Dad, and get into the game... but the stars were aligned and we made it in. Granted there was a guy between the seats it and the game was boring as all get out (I mean serially - all you could muster was a 2-1 game?!), but the night was just right and the for Pete's sake I am at the game with Dad!

Heh.. just the low roar of the crowd, the constant hum of activity, and the folks around us was great. The three hour game just blew by. Though being I was sans dinner I wandered off to go get a foot long braut with kraut. Not bad, but it was better when I was eating my red snow cone.

I did have to take pause and do a double take before getting lost in the crowds - damn ingrained behavior of not wandering a park unsupervised sort of lost the statute of limitations after I became wookie sized.

As it was that made yesterday go by in a super duper chipper mood. What Exchange Server-Man? You "didn't" drop the box and the hard drive isn't booting up? Fair enough I can furnish lists of data as I have it. What? Irrational problems and hectic emails? No problem.. totes fix all of that.

Then the local chapter of 'Beer and Code' were at my bar last night - so I figure it would be neighborly to pop in after work and see how those guys are doing .. well that hour trip turned in to about four or five. Ugh that was a moderately bad idea because this morning came quickly, but it was over all a super big thumbs up. Fun guys (even without a laptop), and it was non stop shop talk and problem solving.

I ducked dinner with pops tonight so I can get to recabling my system after installing the Hyper 212 EVO.... mmmmmmm... low low thermals!

Then it's definitely gym class. I am starting to look more disgusting than usual.

Five hundred bones in new computer gear to bring me out of the dark ages and "just getting by"? Sure.. why the hell not.

Hello Haswell, new motherboard, new ram, new power supply, and a new hard drive.

Seriously.. one of most emotionally brutal things I have witnessed in a wedding, among family members, and amongst people who are generally decent folk... it seems any rules, customs, social mores, social convention, and respect are chucked to the way side in the name of 'having a good time'...

Survived the morning. Now a bit of reading and nap time. This SD trip sounded like it was imploding on its own... Which means I would just buy new computer parts... But nooooo... It may be back on. Interest is waning fast, but I would hate to disappoint Bruce. *sigh*

I spent an evening with Peake, Allie, and Rebecca. The main group went to an expensive Brazillian meat joint, odd cocktail joint at the Graves, and the hotel bar. Watching Peake's game was amazing. Diner was sixty bones, two forty bone tabs, and I wonder if I should let .

As it was, there was super spooky deja vu at the Graves' bar
Bad omens? Either way time to read and be tanked

Trip: great; expensive. More resolve to apply for tech evangelical job with Microsoft.

Okay.. so it's t-minus thirty minutes before this ramshackle plan of Bruce getting me, we get the van, I get Bruce's Dad, we convene back at Bruce's to load up that fam, and we are on the road to Minneapolis for his sister's wedding.

In a scant seventy-two hours I'll be back in O-town... ugh. Pretrip jitters - especially since this will be the precursor for this alleged South Dakota trip next weekend. That said trip may or may not occur depending on how the car ride for this one goes... or if any catastrophic luck occurs with Bruce and I being in extended close proximity. ... though I'll be driving that one in new car so who knows if I even want to do that.

Requisite blue traveling duffel is packed.. backpack has reading materials, minor first aid kit (I need to beef that up next week before South Dakota) gathered, and I think I am ready.

A little apprehensive but all should be well. I backed all my data up on my external if anything catastrophic occurs. Well the backup's like a few weeks old but nothing substantial has changed.

Now time to play some Minecraft and stop pacing.

Oh and no word from MS Careers if I won that damn Surface Pro! Infuriatingly long process. I think I will also apply for that Tech Evangelist job and see what may come of that.

First - I think this trip to the northern regions for a wedding is going to go fine. The immense desire to throttle the majority of folks going up there is subsiding.

Second - if I were to have an alternative name - or a stage name - I think I will use Penn Tickles. Sort of like Rusty Shackleford, but more lounge singer.