Diary of a Network Geek

No, I’m not talking about “that time of the month”.

It’s hurricane season again. Yeah, already. I mention this because a fairly heavy tropical storm has already started up and is smacking Florida around. So, if you haven’t started thinking about how you’re going to survive this year’s hurricane season, you better start.

First of all, let’s talk business, okay? Do you have a plan yet? Better get one quick. Really quick, at this point. What are you going to do if your business gets hit? Where are you going to set up shop while you get your damaged location fixed? Who’s going to staff that temporary location? What about your data? Who’s in charge of protecting it and getting it to a secure location in the event of a disaster?
Don’t know the answer to these questions? Better figure them out in a hurry. Oh, don’t think it’ll happen to you? Check this story on Computer Business Review Online. A lot of those folks didn’t think it would happen to them, either.
Need help with the questions? Oh, yeah, those few, little questions I fired off are just the start. This article on Continuity Central has all those and a whole bunch more that will keep you awake at night until you answer them. It won’t write the plan for you, but it sure will let you know where the holes are in your disaster recovery plan.
Still need help? I recommend checking out SunGuard. I’ve used them, professionally, before and they’re very good at this sort of thing. Very good.
Now, what about you and your family? Considered that yet?
I remember last year when Katrina hit, followed by Rita. It was a disaster with a capital D. People were panicking and running. Gas stations ran out of gas. Grocery stores ran out of canned food and bottled water and batteries. You couldn’t buy a generator at any price. It was a real nightmare. And that was just a close call. Imagine what it would have been like if Rita had actually hit us here in Houston. Right.
So, now is the time to lay in that canned food and the water purification tablets and the batteries and candles and … Well, there’s a lot of stuff, isn’t there? Luckily, there are a lot of different lists and guides to preparing for a hurricane. All you have to do is start now, while it’s still easy. I’ve found links to do-it-yourself hurricane survival kits at Southcom, Hurricaneville, and the Tampa Bay Government website. Also, if you have pets, check out the Pet Survival Kit at the Tampa website. I like the Hurricaneville one because it’s a downloadable PDF file that includes pretty good advice about hurricanes in general and not just what stuff to get to make it through one. It offers practical advice and has good general information about tropical storms and hurricanes.

Personally, I prefer to use solar and dynamo power over batteries when I can and I have that stuff I got last year. I still need to get more canned food and, maybe, some MREs. Never did get that shotgun, either. Not to mention the gas cans or the first-aid kit. I did get a book on First Aid for Dogs though, just in case. And, maybe it’s time to get a couple decorative oil lamps, too…
Excuse me while I exorcise the latent survivalist in me. I know it seems crazy now, but when I’m sitting pretty after the next hurricane, all you Houston readers will be stopping by for coffee, since I’ll be the only one with any!
Seriously, though, folks, it’s never too early to start planning.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"If I'd known I was going to live so long, I would have taken better care of myself!"
   --George Burns

I did something very new and outside my tiny, little comfort zone last night. I went to see a movie alone. I have never, ever done this before and the mere thought of it terrified me so much I had to tell several people I was going to do it so that they’d ask later to make sure I had. I’m not sure why it was so very frightening to me, but, well, it was. But, I did it anyway.

See, it’s like this… Movies, for me, are social events. They are things I go to with people, to share in the social aspect of the whole movie theater experience. It’s an event, even if a small one. A social occasion. A safe way to interact with my not so safe fellow man, or, if I’m lucky, fellow woman. But, LK (aka Ms. NewGal) was busy burning the candle at both ends and I didn’t really want to see more of my friends than I did this weekend and, well, a guy I’ve always admired for his social poise used to go to movies by himself, so… So, I screwed up my courage and went and did it. And had a very enjoyable time.

The movie itself was quite good, even though this is the third or fourth time it’s been done. Very exciting and filled with the very best special effects. The CG work on the ship rolling over alone is worth the $8.50 admission. Then, the whole upside-down ship with explosions and fire and madness and mayhem… Well, it’s very tense and very suspenseful and I loved it. If LK had been with me, she would have squeezed my arm so hard I think she’d have broken it. (She doesn’t do quite so well with suspensefull movies, by her own admission.) I mean, it had me squirming in my seat more than once and I could more or less see how things were going to work out the whole way through.
The best thing, though, was that there was no Shelly Winters character. She was replaced with a single, South American hottie. Horay for Hollywood!

Hey, I’m working on it!
Yeah, according to this article on BeliefNet, Optimism is a skill-set that can be learned. Which is probably a good thing, considering the way I’ve been thinking lately. Honestly, I used to think of myself as a relatively optimistic person, but that’s not as true as I’d like to think. And, of course, I was judging that based on the incredibly pessimistic company I used to keep. (Yes, I’m talking about my ex-wife.) Compared to the doom and gloom I was surrounded by, I seemed optimistic, but compared to the incredible optimism I’ve been surrounding myself with the past year or two, I’m pretty not-so optimistic. Again, the good news is, I can learn to be different. The article breaks it down into seven steps.

I’ll let you read the article for yourself to see the details on what they mean by each step, but I think you’ll get the idea. For me, a lot of the pessimistic problem is that I get so convinced that I know the outcome, which is always terrible for me, that I lose hope. I mean, what point is there even trying when I know I’m not going to succeed? Right. And, of course, therein lies the rub. I don’t know how it’s all going to work out. Only God knows that and I’m certainly not God. So, my “job” is to do the next right thing and let go of the results. I cannot predict outcomes and doing the right thing, whatever that is at the moment, shouldn’t be contingent on outcomes anyway. All I can do is what is right in my personal moral code and hope that, if I do enough of the right things, the results will be positive. Yes, it requires a little faith, both in God and myself, but I can learn that, too.

So, when I hear that negative, internal voice, I need to “hear” that voice, but counter it with positive arguments. I need to remember that whatever I’m getting worked up about is probably either not as important or not as bad as I make it out to be. I need to trust that God will see me through, as He has on so many occasions. I need to connect with my more positive friends, who will reinforce my still growing optimistic voice. And, I need to find a little hope in little things until I get past the big stuff that keeps me down. Then, when I’ve done all I can, I just need to let it go and move on to the next thing, whatever that is. If I do all that, slowly, I’ll turn my cynical pessimism around and be the optimist that I used to think I was.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
   --Will Rogers

I thought this went well with the book review earlier this week.

Have you ever thought about your gave marker?  Have you considered making a “statement” on it with a clever saying or quote or what have you?  Then, have you ever considered having something other than marble or granite or any of the other more traditional materials?
Okay, so maybe you haven’t thought about this, but the folks at Lundgren Monuments have.  Really, when you consider it, a glass tombstone is a fairly innovative concept. I mean, in this age of trendy architecture and performance art, what could make more sense than a tombstone that stands out in a crowd?  Either that, or it’s my sick sense of humor that finds this amusing.  After all, when I’m dead, will I really care what my tombstone looks like anymore?

Well, before I get too morose for a Friday, click the link and admire the pretty headstones.  Really, they are cool and, after all, it is a Friday.  The way some of my readers drink, we may not make it all out alive!

Or, why I play the lottery.

I’m not a gambler. Not really, except in the smallest ways. In fact, most of my friends will tell you that I’m all about “The Sure Thing“. Whenever possible, I line things up so that I cannot miss. But, every once in a while, I play the lottery. Why?
Well, I stopped for quite some time, especially during my divorce, because I didn’t want to share with my now, thankfully, ex-wife. I suppose that sounds bitter, but, it’s really how I felt. Then, after that was all over, I started again, because to win and get that kind of money would be the most delicious irony. Still, that’s not the reason I play.
And, yes, I know the odds are against me. In fact, the odds of winning are 47,784,352 to 1. It’s not that I really think I have a chance, a real chance, at winning. In fact, I have heard the joke that the Lottery is tax on people who don’t understand mathmatics or statistics, which is partially me. I don’t do well with math, but stats was always good for me. Besides, the jackpot is  $16 Million tonight.  That buys a lot of books and ramen noodles!  I’ve also joked that what I was doing was giving the Almighty a chance to change my life.

Ever heard the old joke about the guy praying to God about winning the lottery? He says, “God, why is it, in all your wisdom and power that you never let me win the lottery?” The clouds part and a golden light shines down on the man and a deep, booming voice says, “You’ve got to meet me halfway. You need to buy a ticket!” So, in a way, buying that ticket gives God, or Fate, or whatever you want to call it, a chance to change my life. But, that’s not why I do it either.

I buy that ticket to dream. For a dollar, I get a set of random numbers that let me dream about all the ways I’d use that money. The things I’d get for people, the good I could do, the fun I could have. For a measly dollar, I get to cast wide my net of hope and gather in just a few good thoughts and feelings about the world and the possibilities it holds. For just a few minutes, I get think about all the things that might be, if only…
I play the lottery, because, for the price of a dollar, I get to buy hope.

I finished A Dirty Job : A Novel by Christopther Moore the other day.

Now, if you’ve never read anything by Christopher Moore, you simply must. I reccomend starting with Practical Demon Keeping. It was his earliest work, if I recall correctly, and what I started reading. I do not reccomend this lightly. There are tonnes of “in jokes” that refer back to his earlier writing that yo won’t get if you start with A Dirty Job. Other than that, though, I cannot say enough about how wonderful this book is. Truly, as he gets older, Moore’s writing gets better and better.

The book opens with the birth of Sophie Asher, an event that sends her father, Charlie, into quite a state. This emotional whirlwind is not improved by his wife’s death or the mysterious stranger in the lime-green suit that only Charlie can see hovering over his wife’s death bed. What’s more, having a somewhat self-involved, slightly closeted lesbian sister who meddles a bit too much probably didn’t improve things much for poor Charlie, either. Certainly, getting his copy of the Great Big Book of Death redirected out of his mail by an employee didn’t help one bit, either. Turns out, old Charlie is a Death Merchant and, according to Minty Fresh, the man in the lime-green suit, his “job” is to collect soul containers from the recently deceased and pass them on to their new homes, thus aiding the transmigration of souls and holding back the forces of darkness.
Believe it or not, this book is a relatively light-hearted comedic romp through a strange and dark San Francisco that touches on the topics of death, life and everything inbetween along the way. As in one of his earlier books, Lamb, Moore handles some delicate ideas surrounding spirituality with grace and skill and wit.  In spite of being about a rather heavy and potentially “dark” subject (eg. Death), Moore manages to spin a fun yarn filled with magic, mystery and delight.

In short, as with all of his work that I’ve read, I highly reccomend A Dirty Job : A Novel by Christopther Moore.  It’s brilliant work and a fun, breezy read that will have you looking for ways to make more time to read.  One warning, though, once you start reading Moore, you’ll want to read more.

Oh, I also read the inspirational book  A Better Way to Live : Og Mandino’s Own Personal Story of Success Featuring 17 Rules to Live By, which was a fairly good, if short read.  Given a choice, go with the Moore books.

Currently, I’m reading Angels & Demons because, well, because I have it, and it was reccomended to me by several people.  Besides, all this nice weather demands fiction that’s fun, not non-fiction that’s going to teach me something.

I keep meaning to mention this, but I’ve recently upgraded my blogs to the latest version of WordPress. Now, no one has probably noticed that, but I thought it was noteworthy. Well, if I did the upgrade right, no one noticed. Certainly, no one said anything if they did notice.

Mostly, it was a Very Good Thing to have upgraded, but there are some differences that still throw me off a bit. First, there’s the whole new interface deal. It used to be that I had to deal with a pretty simple, text-only interface. Now, though, the whole thing has gone all WYSIWYG and it’s totally throwing me off. Especially because it edits HTML natively. I’m getting used to it, but, still, I have to remember little details like not just hitting “enter” when I want a new line instead of a whole new section/paragraph. Secondly, the tools have really been improved. Linking and formating and everything else have been upgraded to match that slick new WYSIWYG interface, but they’ve added some HTML tools that they didn’t have before. Or, if they had them, didn’t showcase very well. Also improved is the preview section. Now, instead of just showing me a preview of the code in the post itself, WordPress previews the post as it would appear on the blog, with headers and footers and everything.
The one thing, so far, that I don’t like is the way the new version updates the timestamp on the post. For the most part, it doesn’t. Once you save a post as a draft, it takes a timestamp and seems to hold that until you manually change it. Other than that, though, I really adore the new version.

So, now you know. Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Anyway, one of the reasons for the upgrade was because I was developing plugins for WordPress. You can get to one of them right from this blog. Moonie, the name of the plugin, is a little dodad that let’s you add the neat moonphase stuff to your WordPress blog. Now, after admiring it on my blog, you can have it for yourself. Enjoy!

Well, more precisely, a Pringles can macro lens.
I’ve always loved fine art of almost any stripe. I remember impressing the heck out of a nice girl once by correctly identifying not only the Gustave Klimt print she had in her cube, but the Ansel Adams as well. I have to admit, though, the quirky photography has always been what caught my attention, not the classics. You know, things like microsopic beasties and close up shots of common objects. That kind of close-up photography is called “macro photography” and requires, you guessed it, a macro lens. Well, I’m a ways off from doing anything as fancy as that, but if you aren’t then I’ve got just the link for you. Today, I bring you a neat blog called Photocritic.org which has DIY instructions for making a macro lens from a Pringles can. Yep, a Pringles can. Cool art photgraphy and recycling all in one post. Can you get better than that?
Hey, what do you want from me? It’s been a long week, but it’s finally Friday, so just click the link.