Bright Lights

So today was our Departmental fun event. Every quarter we give our people 2 hours off the phone and feed them, and let them watch their bosses and co-workers do kareoke sans liquid encouragement, as well as other fun stuff. Yet, just as Neko sits down and starts drumming, the power in the whole block goes off. And still hasn’t come on.

So after running folks back to their desks (since it was a little dim, not too dark though) and moving all operations to our backup site in the North Valley, my entire body hurts like hell.

And it is all because the Arizona power grid sucks.

One thing I hate about living in the Phoenix area is the number of absolutly random Power Outages that occur. Seriously folks, I’ve lived in rural communities high in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and we never had so many random power outages. The power here just likes to go on and off all the time. At work, or at home, it doesn’t matter.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering in a city that sees frequent mircrobursts and hot summer temperatures the power lines are all still above ground (in Washington most areas now have burried cables, the Utility Districts got tired of replacing lines every time the wind blew), and, our Nuclear Generating Station has been refered to as ‘the next Chernobyl waiting to happen’. The electrical infrastructre here is really amazingly sad. You would think that a major metropolitan region such as Phoenix would have better infrastructure. Nope.

Want GREAT infrastructure? Move to Wenatchee, Washington. Yeah, I might exaggerate slightly, but I really do think those folks have their head on straight when it comes to electrical and data infrastructure. Hell, the PUD managed to get Fiber Optic lines through most of the county.

So, this all came to light after sitting in complete darkness, except my laptop monitor, for about a minute and a half after the power went out here at home, luckily minutes after posting my homework. So as I sat and waited for my WLAN to power back up and my desktop to power on to make sure she’s ok (poor baby has been caught up in too much of that shit). I think it is time I look in investing in an APS for my desktop. She shouldn’t have to suffer!

p.s Yes, I know I’m batshiat crazy.

For those who read my blog, I made a note a few weeks ago stating that the International Road Travel Enthusiasts Association would be taking a backseat, but I wanted to re-focus my attention on building a Collaborative Blog (Open Road International Magazine) and an online community. So, as part of the first step toward that end, I’ve started up a Wiki to replace the stagnant Route Repository. ORIM RouteWiki is online and live, but still being worked on so it has not been linked from the main page, but if you’re interested in seeing what we have so far, you can visit it online: http://openroadinternational.org/routewiki

Thank you everyone for your support.

So, the other day, sitting at my aging, pealing, shamefully small desk thinking. I was thinking it was about time to ditch the corner tower desk unit that had survived several floods (no fooling), and get something that I can actually use.

That crazy idea then turned into completly redesigning the cave… well, not completely, but in my eyes it is a complete change-a-roo of what it once was.  Since getting a new laptop, I’ve been forced to make a complicated decsion: continue to try to use it on the crammed desk that barely fits my CRT monitor, or, sit somewhere else with the computer on a box. Neither option was good. 

So, after bouncing around the IKEA website I found I could actually get two good sized desks for less than $100 (before tax). The smaller desk sits in my room and will only be there so I can use the laptop in a peaceful setting. Other than that, it is a writing desk… officially speaking. 

The larger one, which is 59″ across, is now replacing my tower desk in the living room, and boy is it spacious. I was sitting there earlier today thinking “Damn, now I have enough room for both the desktop and the laptop!”

So far though I’m very happy with them both. Yeah, it is IKEA. Yeah, it is aluminum and particle board, but you know what, they’re equal in quality to just about anything you can buy on a budget these days. This stuff isn’t meant to be heirlooms. It’s meant to fill this 23-year-old’s home with the proper items for the time being. Yeah, sure, one day I’ll hope to make enough money to buy a solid wood desk and put it into a library with floor-to-celing shelves, but until then, it’s better than walmart crap.

The other thing I did was put the old ‘laptop’ by the front door on my metal wire bookshelves. Its there to serve as a somewhat quick place to look up traffic on the way out if I need to, or, to have recepies close to the kitchen. Its not worth much, so I’m not worried about it. 

In other thoughts, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 a few days ago. The MS IE team though should all be jailed for reckless coding. Those guys are pushing browser updates to the masses in an irresponsible mannor. They set IE8 BETA to be downloaded as an automatic update, and even shiped some computers with IE8 BETA preloaded. For those who are unfamiliar, BETA is a test product that has been released to the general public for testing purposes. It is not meant to be a production model, and should never be forced upon novice users.

The production version, now out, is not anything I am scrambling to get. I finally have IE7 because my Vista machine came with it, and my XP machine finally updated to it. I only wish Microsoft’s browser dev department would cool their guns a bit. Those of us who don’t use IE probably never will. I find myself using Google Chrome more often than Firefox now because I just like the browser better. I’m still an avid Firefox fan, and I design my websites around Firefox, but I’m finding Chrome to be an environment I enjoy working in. Wish I could say the same thing about Opera!

So thats my world for now. So many things going on, so much on my mind I’m looking to get out of town in the middle of next month. I’m going to have to find out when my friend from Canada and my friend from Louisiana will be coming in to town this summer so I can schedule some days off.

• Damn… rough night. Maybe I’ll rethink a shot of Patron next time. #
• At work. No queue. Teh awesome #

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No. I’m not going into the Air Force. However my younger brother has finally taken the suggestions of his older brothers and now wants to Enlist. He just has to get some classes out of the way to get his GED and get the required college credits needed to Enlist. It will be good for him, because I think it will make him chill out a bit.

So I got the latest Blue October CD in the mail today, Approaching Normal, and I must say the entire CD is amazing. Definately by far a new favorite.

Some of the songs from the new album that I personally really like (Okay, this was starting out to be my favorite of the disk, but I really like them all, so I’m just going to number them in the order I like them the best. Hows that?)

1. Should be loved
2. Picking Up Pieces
3. Kangaroo Cry
4. Jump Rope
5. Blue Skies
6. My Never
7. Been Down
8. Dirt Room
9. Say It
10. Blue Does
11. The End
12. Weight of the World

Like I said, these are all absolutly amazing songs, but thats the order I would give it if I absolutly had to give them each a number. 

The music is a little bit more up beat on this album… well, let me clarify, there are a few more up beat ones on this album in my opinion. Although the others are pretty vividly graphic (if you are a Blue October fan you know what I’m talking about).

So, if you like good music, and can stand a little graphic violence, sex, and mental illness mixed in with what is clearly the sound of one very proud father, pick up Approaching Normal by Blue October.

Seriously, it is a great ablum.

So it was a blustery day in Phoenix. Everyones a little on edge at work. My friend Matt, the ‘Inspector Gadget’ of ITCS, the man has everything. I mean it, need a tool, a goofy thing, food, or, a kite, the man has it. If it is something that someone somewhere could find useful, he has it.

So, he decided to go out this blustery evening and fly a kite after someone made a comment about it being good kite flying weather. It worked rather well.

Matt Flying a Kite

More Matt, I know, Burry

A bit bigger, less blury one.

So, that was it for kite flying at ITCS.

In other news, rearranged the room. I need to go to IKEA and get a few tables that I’m going to use as desks. They’ll cost me about $35 to $45 a piece, and right now I need… three I think.

I need one for my bedroom to serve as a writing/laptop desk (yes, although it violates my ‘no tech in the bedroom’ rule, however the laptop cannot be left on all night).

I need one to replace my now crampt desk in the living room.

And, I need one for a real dining room table.

I rearranged the room to be a bit more useful too. The new layout is much better, less cluttered. 

So now I just need to buy the tables so I can have my desks. Wootness.

I also think I need a vacation, a break from everything. I need to get up to Flagstaff for a daytrip or something. I need to go and be amongst the pine trees again and relax.

• Just fixed the leaky sink. Yay DIY! #

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• Chilling at home. Scrub a dub dub goes the cave! #

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