Diary of a Network Geek

I got a kind of Christmas bonus Friday.

So, Friday, after long resisting it, I finally cleaned up my office.
I had all kinds of junk there, most of which I threw out. But, there was this older iMac. It was in decent shape, outside of a temperamental wireless card. So, rather than get rid of it, I asked the boss if I could have it. Mac lover that he is, he was thrilled to give it to someone who'd appreciate it. And, I think maybe he thought he'd converted me to the Apple camp. He hadn't, but now I have two versions of desktop Windows, Linux and OS X in my house. Not to mention Novell and Linux server systems. So, now, when someone asks me to convert files for them, format shouldn't be an issue.

Now, that is what I call a Christmas bonus!

A funny thing occurred to me the other day.

So, I've been doing a lot of work for my artist friend. Mainly Photoshop stuff and design work, but, still... Anyway, hanging out with him is changing me. In a good way. I find myself more and more concerned with aesthetics. I see art everywhere. My camera is starting to feel like a third eye with which I may yet see miraculous things.
In short, I'm finding myself very connected to the art world in a good way.

Now, I suppose, given time and my sensibilities, I may well end up producing art of my own. Hey! Stop laughing! It could happen! And, if it does, I'm sure Mark, my artist friend, will be more than happy to connect me to the "right" people and proclaim me his latest discovery. Considering his connections, honestly, I should be so lucky.

But, what occurred to me was that my former step-daughter used to really like art. I never got to see that blossom in her. I hope it has. I hope it has and, someday, she's an artist full-time, like Mark. I hope that one day, she'll find me again, because I'm known in some small way in the art community and I can help her. I hope that she'll let me.

It's just a dream. A sad and lonely one at that, but, I hope one day... Well, it will probably never come to pass, so it's just a dream. And a dream isn't real, just a bit of pretty, colored fluff as transient and insubstantial as a late Summer breeze, so what harm is done by dreaming this one?

Oh, how I miss the hotel industry!

Back in the day, I used to sell my soul to the hospitality industry, one minimum-wage paycheck at a time, and, as a result, tune into all kinds of crazy travel and hotel trends. Apparently, one of the latest trends is something stolen from the Japanese, capsule hotels. Now, these used to be the province of drunken salarymen who missed the last train home, but they're being exported everywhere.

The latest trend in these capsule hotels are to "Gibsonise" them, and throw in all kinds of high-tech goodies to appeal to the modern consumer. Phillips is the latest company to do this, according to this Gizmodo article, and using their own line of electronics.
Crazy stuff.

Um, pretty self-explanatory, actually.

Yeah, so um, I think the post title says it all. I took some old documentation and removed the incriminating information (ie. the original company name) and saved it as a template, of sorts. Naturally, this is a starting point and will need to be customized for your company. In particular, look at the e-mail policy closely. This company specifically did not back up e-mail files so that later someone couldn't subpoena those old files in a legal action. And, yes, that policy was made because it happened once, but, no, I don't know if that stood up to any legal testing.

Anyway, here are the files, zipped for your convenience: IT Policy Templates

Enjoy!

...And the first of this year, in review.

First, there was the Simpson's Movie. That was part of the Saddest Bachelor Party ever. Half of us didn't drink, half of us were gay, and I wasn't quite done with chemotherapy treatments. No alcohol, no strippers, and I looked like a walking corpse. Hell, I felt like a walking corpse.
I've never been a huge Simpsons fan, to be honest, though I love Futurama. We went at the request of the groom, J. I bought dinner at my new, favorite Thai restaurant and I bought J.'s ticket. The movie was hilarious. Everything that was ever good about the Simpsons crammed into one movie. At one point, Homer is trying to catch up to his family and save Springfield. He's using a dog-sled to do so and driving the dogs hard. They run away in the night and Homer whines "Why does everything I whip run away?" I verbally sympathized. We missed the next five minutes of the film while we laughed. But, really, if you missed this one, rent it. It was good, even if you're not a fan.

Next was Dragon Wars. This was a Korean import staring mainly unknown American actors, or B-movie actors that should have retired years ago. The best thing I can say about it is...
"Dragons! With rocket launchers on their shoulders!" It was our catch phrase for the evening. Don't bother even renting this one unless you want to reenact Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Then, I went to see American Gangster with J. and L. just after Thanksgiving.
This was very, very good. It was so hyper-real that it was almost unbelievable. But, it's pretty well all true. This is the story of the Black Mafia in Harlem in the Sixties and Seventies. It's all about gangs, criminals, heroin, and the mob. Again, very real, very violent and very good. Another one to rent if you missed it in the theater.

After that, though, we started picking up speed.
Midway through December, I saw the disappointment of the year, the Golden Compass. After the massive build-up and comparisons to C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia, I had high expectations for this film. I was betrayed.
The entire movie was rushed and it felt like huge sections of plot had been left out leaving indecipherable gaps. The only thing that saved me, frankly, was having talked to a friend who read the books about the premise of the first book, on which this movie was based. The CG was very good, but not good enough to distract me from the butchered plot and lack of real sparkle in the film despite some brilliant actors. To say that it was a huge disappointment is, at best, an understatement. If you haven't seen it, but feel compelled, I'd wait to rent it.

On Christmas Day, I went with my mysterious artist friend, for whom I'm doing some creative work, to see No Country for Old Men. If you haven't seen this yet, skip work this afternoon and go see it. Yes, it is that good. I hope to see it again while it's still in the theaters and I almost never see a movie more than once in the theater. That is how good I think this movie is.
First of all, it stars two of my favorite actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin. Yes, Josh Brolin, son of James Brolin and husband of Diane Lane. Very, very under-rated actor, in my opinion. Also, I didn't realize that this was a Coen Brothers' movie until I was there with Mark. So, by the time I sat down in the theater, I had pretty high expectations. They were exceeded.
Now, true to their form, this is a violent film. And, a very realistically violent film. I've seen a lot of wounds, on myself and others, fresh and not quite so, and the effects in this film are very, very good and the most realistic I've seen outside of... Well, actually, they're the best I've seen anywhere. Period. So, if you have a weak stomach, don't plan on eating Italian after seeing this one. However, if you're up for a bit of the old ultraviolence, then this movie is for you.
The story follows Brolin's character, who finds a drug deal gone very wrong in the Texas scrub while hunting. He hunts around until he finds the money from the deal and takes it. The rest of the movie is about the consequences of that decision and that act. Brilliant work.
If you see no other movie in the next twelve months, see No Country for Old Men.

Now, to wrap things up, I started my year with I Am Legend.
The weakest thing about this movie was the CG. Based on a book, which I'm currently reading, by Richard Matheson, this is the story of biology gone wrong. Will Smith plays an Army doctor who is the only survivor in New York City after a plague sweeps the world. The plague, which is the side-effect of a reengineered virus meant to cure cancer, kills most people and transforms the rest into Dark Seekers, zombie-vampire-like creatures that feast on living flesh and hide from the day-light. A classic monster movie. From what I've read so far, the movie is only vaguely similar to the book. In fact, it's more like the Charlton Heston version of this movie, The Omega Man. (Apparently, this was also a remake of an even earlier version of the story staring Vincent Price called The Last Man On Earth, but I haven't seen this version. Yet.)
As far as the movie goes, it's worth seeing. I won't spoil anything, but it does end on an up-beat. I do recommend that you see this with a friend, though, not alone like I did. At least, not if you're feeling depressed or lonely. This is a very, very lonely film and Smith gets that feeling of hopelessness and futility across to the audience very well. If they'd spent just a little more on the CG, this would have been a truly great film. As it is, if not for Will Smith's fame, I doubt it would have done well.
Of course, I might have enjoyed the film more if not for two of my fellow audience members that intruded on the experience. The first was an older gentleman that kept asking his much younger companion, daughter I assume, what was happening. When he asked where all the people were in the opening scene, I almost asked him if he knew what movie he'd come to see. The next time he asked a similar question, I had to bite my tongue to keep from snapping back at him that if he'd just shut up and watch the movie, the plot might answer his damn question! The other audience disturbance was the non-English-speaking family that brought a toddler into the movie 3/4 of the way through. You know, right before the horde of monsters stormed the hero's stronghold. Perfect timing to scar the kid for life.
Other than that, though, it was an enjoyable experience.

So, here's to the new year and many great movies to be seen!

I'm not sure how well I communicate with God.

The other day at one of the men's group meetings I go to, we were talking about maintaining a conscious contact with God, about our personal relationships with Him. Naturally, that led most of us to talk about prayer. Me? Not so much.
I feel like I've stopped talking to God this year. There was a point at which I stopped having anything nice to say, so I stopped talking. In fact, I was a little bit pissed off at God. I mean, I know I haven't live the best life always, but I just couldn't imagine what I might have done that deserved the divine retribution of lymphoma. And, really, as a fellow cancer survivor sitting next to me pointed out later, it's not the disease that's hard to survive, but the treatment. Take it from me. That is the truth.

Now, it's important that you understand something. I don't think that God turned away from me. Though I may not understand His plan or how He works, I knew that God was with me the entire time through treatment. But, I got so angry at Him that I couldn't pray the way I used to pray. And, I've always struggled with the idea that God cares, really, truly cares about someone as small and insignificant as me. Or you, really, so don't start feeling all sorry for me. I mean, I get that there is a God and that he's all powerful and created the whole universe and the laws that govern it. That's not a hard concept for me. Hell, Darwin believed that evolution was evidence that God existed. So, I'm good there.
But, I've always struggled with the idea that something so huge could possibly care about me, us, at all. Doesn't He have larger concerns than that? How could He have the time and patience for our little, flyspeck lives?

So, before my chemotherapy was done, I'd all but stopped praying.
Oh, I still read my morning and evening devotional. And, I still worked through my prayer beads, when I had time and energy. After I started to get back into my normal pattern of life, albeit somewhat altered by my medical "stuff", I got back into working through rote prayer with my prayer beads almost every morning. But, it was hollow. An empty gesture. A habitual, almost superstitious, pattern of behavior. There just wasn't anything behind it. No emotion, no connection.

So, with all that in mind, we started talking about prayer and being in touch with God at the meeting.  I listened, and spoke.  Mostly, I talked about how I was afraid to listen to God for fear of what He might say to me.  I was, and am, still afraid that God will challenge me to be more than I am, do more than I'm capable or willing to do.
But, I'm also afraid of what will become of me if I don't pursue that personal relationship with God.  I know that I won't last long on my own.  As in "nothing good can come of it", right?

A couple days later, I was thinking about a conversation I was going to have with a friend.
I wanted to allay his fears that anything might be wrong and I wanted to say it the "right" way.  So, as is my habit, I rehearsed the conversation, trying to work out how to say what I needed to say and what his responses might be.  And, yes, I spoke out loud.  At least, I spoke my half of the imagined conversation out loud.  That's one of the advantages of living alone.  The dog thinks I'm talking to her and just wags her tail.
In any case, I've had this habit of rehearsing important conversations to try out assorted responses and plan out my contingencies.  It's actually served me well over the years.  I usually have a good grasp of what folks are going to say and how they're going to react to what I say.  But, somehow, running through all this makes it easier for me.

And that was when something that someone said at the meeting clicked for me.  I don't think he meant it this way, but it sort of fit me.  It occurred to me that perhaps in doing this conversation rehearsal, what I was doing was talking to God.  Maybe, I was just hanging my friends' faces on God, to make Him easier to see and hear and talk to, so I could find Him and tell Him, in a way, what was on my mind.  Not as a lowly follower to an all-powerful God, but as a younger, smaller friend seeking help and advice from an older, more worldly, more experienced and capable friend.

So, maybe I've been talking to God all along.  Maybe my prayers don't start with supplication and end in "amen", but they're still there.  It's possible that in my efforts to hide from his message, I've found it after all.

Just a few random thoughts to wrap up the year.

I like toast.
I like all kinds of toast. I like diner toast soaked in thinned, anemic butter. I like dry toast. I like toast with honey. And, I like toast with jam. I like toast with peanut butter. I like toast with runny eggs, over easy. I like to soak up the runny yolks after scarfing the eggs.
Today, almost the only thing I ate was toast.
It's yummy.

I love books.
My obsession for books will most likely bankrupt me.  I love the feel of books in my hand.  The sound of fanning pages on a new book sends a shiver up my spine as I consider with delight what that book holds for me.  The smell of a new book is more evocative for me than almost any other smell in the world.  I think if I suddenly were out of newish books to smell in my house, I would take books that I haven't read yet to the used book store to sell for cash so I could re-buy those books new again, just for the smell.  I love the feel of new, unread paperback pages as they flip past my fingers, like silky thoughts against my skin.
I would spend my last dime on books rather than food.
Better to die hungry with a new book in my hand than empty-handed and with a full belly.

Tomorrow, I'll give you something spiritual to start the year.
Y'all have a safe and happy new year.

What else can I add to that?

I mean, really, pancake batter in a pressurized can that you can squirt out into the skillet. What else is there to say?

Oh, and there's still time to autogenerate your New Year's Resolutions!

So, I'm still thinking about ways to market my blogs.

Well, not just my blogs, but my entire suite of websites, blogs and digital identities. I have ideas, naturally, and I've already shared some of the ideas that I've tried. I'll keep working on those and on ways to measure the effectiveness of those methods. But, I also need to think of different ways to market my digital self, or selves.

Toward that end, I've done a little cheap, on-line research.
For starters, there was a Wired article on all this. Quite possibly, that article is how this all got wedged in my consciousness. I mean, I read Wired obsessively and always try to check out any on-line article from Wired online.
In any case, the main gist of the article is to think outside the box. Especially, when it comes to different ways to get your message, or in this case, website, in front of an audience that might not otherwise see it.
Then, following a link from there, I found an article at Forbes that goes into more details on those other ideas. It's really a compliment to the Wired article, but, still, it has value.

So, my thought, in general, is this: Get the word out about your blog in places that aren't obvious. "Not obvious" may be different for different blogs, or websites, but I suggest going beyond the digital world and exploring other possibilities. In a digital sense, though, try to get the site listed in places that are related to your topic, but in a peripheral way. If you write about mostly technical things, like I do, then also get your blog listed in places that talk about all the things you write about besides technical subjects.
But, in essence, when looking for places to advertise your blog, think beyond the usual and way, way outside the box.

I'm hoping someone will know this.

I vaguely recall a quote by someone, possibly famous, about the relationship of the number of keys on your keyring to the amount of attachment to the world. I can't remember the quote, or the person who made it, but I recall that the point was to have fewer keys, and not the giant wad of them that I have. Oh, it was related to Buddhism in some way. Either the speaker was Buddhist or was paraphrasing one, I think.
So, tell me, esteemed readers, does anyone else remember the quote?