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12/25/01
Merry Christmas!
Everything is well in the Sanders' household. We are truly blessed with good jobs, a beautiful home, good health, presents under the tree, and good friends.
Jeanie and I just finished opening our gifts from each other. Jeanie got
a copy of "Larissa's Bread Book" which is a combination novel/cookbook,
CD's "Driving Rain" by Paul McCartney and The Beatles "One",
two boxes of Cella chocolate covered cherries, and four rice bowls, two
mugs, and a teacup and saucer in her new favorite pattern "Butterfly
Meadow" by Lenox. I got an electric carving knife, "Shrek"
on DVD, two boxes of Ghiradelli non-pariels, an electric toothbrush, lots
of new M&M's collectables, a digital tire gauge, and of course, my
new La-Z-Boy.
We spent Christmas Eve with Burnie and Dave at their annual Christmas Eve
extravaganza. I bobo'd and thought that the party started at 5:00 rather
than at 4:00, so Burnie had to send her daughter to fetch the ham that
we had committed to bring. We ended up arriving an hour late, which was
actually really good considering that we had been cleaning house all day
and still had to bathe, dress, and drive over there at five-after-four
when Burnie called to access the whereabouts of the ham.
Even though it's not that evident from the user's perspective, I have made
a bunch of changes "behind the scenes" on the site. I have implemented
cookies, so now visitors can identify themselves the first time they access
the site. This allows me to track the number of return visits by user.
I also enhanced the logging to capture more detailed browser information
so I can get a better idea of which browers and their associated settings
are being used by my visitors. The other value that the cookies are providing,
is that they allow me to pass information from javascript to php. Javascript
has a lot more built-in browser information functions than php does, but
I use php to write the log data to mysql. You can not pass data directly
from javascript to php, so I use the cookie as an intermediary. I like
that method alot better than passing the information in the url.
If you haven't loaded AudioGalaxy, you should. If you have never listened
to Beth Amsel, you should.
Well, we're off to do the grandparent Santa thing, then off to the Murphy's
for their Christmas party.
We wish all of you Joy, Peace, and Love.
12/15/01
The saleslady told me that she thought the chair I had picked was too large
for me... but noooo, to a man, the phrase "that is too large"
does not compute. Well, as Jeanie often says "bigger is not always
better" (thank goodness that she truly believes that :-)
So, after a week of trying to convince myself that the chair really is
comfortable, I finally admit that the chair *is* too big. So, we pack it
back in the truck, and take it back to north Raleigh to exchange it. The
style I liked had a smaller version that was identical except for size,
but unfortunately, in the intervening week, they have sold out of the smaller
version in any of the colors that we were interested in, and they don't
expect to get new stock until late in January. Fortunately, there was another
chair that I also liked, that they do have in stock. It is $200 less than
the first one! Even though she had bought the first chair for me, and even
though it was my Christmas present, I don't get that $200... wonderful
as she is, she still is a woman. <big grin>
We just happened to drive past Bahama Breeze on the way home, and in rare
fit of spontaneity for me, I decide we should go on a date. So, we had
a nice early dinner, and I finally got that Bahamarita I've been dying
for. I hate to say it, but the Bahamaritas in Austin are much better. Oh
well. After dinner, we decided to go to a movie. We saw "Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone" which we both thouroughy enjoyed. The effects
were amazing, the characters looked just like I had imagined, and they
were incredibly faithful to the book.
12/8/01
Jeanie and I went to the IBM employee computer sale this morning. The sale
was slated to start at 9:00am, so we figured we'd get there early to get
a good place in line... we were in line by 7:00am...and there were already
300 people in front of us! Most of the *really* good stuff was gone by
the time we got inside, but we still got some killer deals. We didn't end
up leaving the sale until noon, then headed up to north Raleigh to go to
the La-Z-Boy store. We spent another two hours while I tried every chair
in the store, before finally deciding on one.
I have to take a moment to point out just how wonderful my wife is... most
guys, when they were to tell their wife that they were planning to go to
a computer sale at 7:00am , would be told in no uncertain terms "you
already have enough computer stuff" or "you spend too much time/money
on those darn things as it is!" or at best "you'd better not
wake me up that early on a Saturday!" My wife says "Oh cool,
would you like some company while you stand in line?" Then, to top
it off, after we've been at it for five hours, asks "are you too tired
to go shopping for your chair?" This, by the way, from a women who
has begged me for years to *let her* buy me a recliner. And, that's only
a small part of the reason that I love her so much.
Well, the truck was packed to the gills with computer boxes, so we didn't have room for the chair. So, Jeanie says, "that's okay, I'll go back tomorrow to pick it up."
So, Sunday, Jeanie says, "well, I'm off to pick up the chair. I know
you're tired, so I'll see you in a little while..."
I am a lucky man.
12/02/01
We're still both sick. This afternoon we
watched "Angel Eyes" with Jennifer Lopez. Jeanie and I
both enjoyed it. Yes, it was the kind of
movie we like. I was pleasantly surprised
at J-Lo's acting ability.
12/02/01
Jeanie and I are both sick. At first we though
it might be a reaction to the flu shots we
both got this week, but after talking with
Kim (who was also sick), we now think that
we all caught a bug from Tyler. Oh well,
we still love him. I slept most of the day
(Saturday) which is why I'm sitting here
updating the site at 12:30AM.
We watched two movies this evening. "Cats and Dogs"and "Swordfish." Definitely opposite ends of the spectrum,
but we enjoyed both. Both of the DVD's had
lots of extras, both on the DVD player, and
for the computer, and both web sites are very cool.
I took yesterday (well, Friday technically)
off. I did some re-reseeding of the lawn
where the seed had not germinated, but most
of the day was spent doing work stuff. I
did manage to make enough time to cook dinner
for both of us, and I truly believe that
crock-pots are wonderful things.
Open enrollment is over, so Jeanie is back
to working normal hours which is really nice
for both of us.
Last Friday, Jeanie and I drove to Savanah
to visit Jimmy and Kim and our grand-nephew
Tyler. As usual, we had a wonderful time.
An extra treat was getting to see Jeanie's
parents who had driven over for the day.
Tyler is a great baby and is absolutely adorable.
We took lots of video and still pictures.
We listened to "Harry Potter and the
Socerer's Stone" on the drive down and
back. It really was quite charming, and I
now understand why it is so popular.
The one sad note during our trip was learning
of the passing of Jeanie's father's brother
Buddy as a result of lung cancer. We were
unable to attend the memorial or funeral
services, but our thoughts and prayers go
out to all of our family.
Thanksgiving was lovely. Jeanie and I picked
up Mom and drove up to southern Virginia
to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the Murphys.
Shawn and Tammy (and their significant others)
were there, and we had a wonderful time.
Site: changed main page, added humor page,
added wisdom.
11/22/01
Happy Thanksgiving!
I have added a new TV show to my list of
favorites: 24, on Fox. It has a very different look and
feel, and it plays out more like a book than
a standard one hour weekly TV show. And to
boot, the web site is really cool.
11/19/01
Jeanie got sick Saturday night. She spent
most of Sunday sleeping, so Sunday was a
quiet day.
On Saturday, I tilled up about 1/2 of the
front yard. The 1/2 closest to the driveway.
Then, I scattered grass seed, and placed
watering heads along the driveway. I used
fifteen foot sections of garden hose to connect
the heads to each other which seems to be
just about the right distance apart. I also
got a new watering timer/control that is
much more sophisticated than the one I use
for the other side of the driveway. This
one allows up to six watering programs, each
of which can be programmed with start and
stop times as well as which days to water
on. Jeanie did some Christmas shopping, and
wrapped presents in the evening.
I finally got to donate blood again on Friday.
It has been a real struggle. I went on Monday
night with David Neter, but my blood pressure
and pulse rate were too high for me to donate.
I called the doctor on Tuesday, and he had
me come in so they could do some tests. He
decided to switch me from Aceon (an ACE inhibitor)
to Tenormin (a beta blocker) and the Tenormin
seems to be working better, at least well
enough for me to be able to donate. So, I
was finally able to get my "Three Gallon"
pin. Yea! After donating, I met a bunch of
folks from work at the Fox & Hound for
a going away party for David Cox, then we
wandered over to Hot Shots for a few games
of pool. It was a pleasant afternoon.
I spent the week before last (starting on
Tuesday) in Austin. The first two days were
spent in meetings, and the last two were
spent in a Managing@IBM class with my peer
managers and my Manager. The class was quite
good. The trick is going to be maintaining
a focus on the things we discussed in class
amid everything else that needs to be done
at work. I was pleasantly surprised that
it really isn't that much more of a hassle
to fly. Even though I had to show my id a
few more times, and decided to check my suitcase
so I could have my nail clipper while in
Austin, overall, I'd say at most it took
an extra half-hour each way. For some reason,
I did find the National Guardsmen wearing
camo's and carrying loaded M-16's somewhat
unsettling.
I broke down and bought a new PDA. Office
Depot lowered the price on the HP Jornada
525 to $199, and I had a $30 off coupon,
so it seemed like too good a deal to pass
up. Good thing I did... my Compaq Aero 1520
died sometime during my trip. I knew it was
nearing the end of its life, which I guess
was part of the motivation for buying the
HP. Overall, I'm quite happy with the HP.
It is a little thicker than the Aero, and
the screen size is a little smaller, but
it is a color screen, and since it is a PocketPC
as opposed to a WindowsCE machine, it has
a lot of additional software available for
it. All of my data transferred seamlessly,
so the transition process has been relatively
painless. Of course, Microsoft has now released
PocketPC 2002, which I can not upgrade the
525 to, so I am still one OS behind, but,
from what I've read so far, I don't think
it will be a big loss. So far, my two biggest
complaints are that HP didn't design a stylus
holder into the PDA, so it must be stored
in the case which is a little bit of a hassle,
and Microsoft modified the Jot handwriting
engine a little bit, and removed the editing
(cut/copy/paste/...) gestures. The editing
features are still available via a menu,
so it's only a little hassle. Microsoft also
changed the user interface, and the default
makes opening and closing programs ungainly,
but fortunately, a free download, GigaBar,
solved the UI deficiencies.
11/04/01
Robby and I finished the fence earlier this
week. It came out very nicely, if I do say
so myself. Diego seems quite happy with it,
and it is much nicer for Jeanie and me to
be able to let Diego out the service door
of the garage and not worry about Diego running
off or getting attacked by a large dog.
Dave Simpson is doing pretty well. He has
lost a fair amount of weight since his ordeal
started, but his weight is stabilized, his
feeding tube was removed last week, and he
is making slow, but steady progress towards
a full recovery.
Diego celebrated his first birthday last
month.
We spent the weekend before last with Jimmy
and Kim at their lakeside estate in SC. We
drove down Friday night after work, and then
went to Myrtle Beach for the day on Saturday.
As always, we had a great time.
I had a "thing" removed from my
face last week. Most likely it was a small
basal cell carcinoma. The doctor said he
got all of it, and that it was nothing to
worry about. We also decided it was time
to do something about my blood pressure which
had risen to 146/104, so, I am now taking
Aceon, which seems to have gotten my BP back
under control, and has had no unpleasant
side effects. Better living through chemistry...
The visit to the doctor was triggered by
continued problems with my jaw. The doctor
prescribed a muscle relaxant which has had
the double benefit of relaxing the spasms
in my jaw muscles, and helping me sleep better.
More better living through chemistry...
My work continues to be horribly stressful.
I feel more stressed by my job than at any
other time that I can remember in my career.
One little ray of sunshine has been that
my manager has done almost a 180 degree turn-around.
Lately, he has actually been polite, supportive,
and complimentary. I'm not sure if this is
because he is finally realizing that I am
not the "slacker" that some of
my peers in Austin would have him believe
me to be, or if he realized that I had accumulated
a significant amount of documentation that
would demonstrate that I was not the one
who had not been doing his job... (infer
what you'd like...). But, regardless of why,
at least that one aspect of my job is much
better. Unfortunately, the aftermath of the
audit is still creating a lot of extra work
and stress on the team, and, to add insult
to injury, we have been informed that we
will now be undergoing a security review
in RTP in December. Arggg!
Jeanie is doing well. She is working quite
a few evenings. Since the Help Desk is "open"
8-8, and many of the staffers have young
children, Jeanie volunteered to work many
of the 11-8 shifts so that the working mothers
could work the earlier shifts and get home
at a reasonable hour.
I had a lovely dinner with David Neter last
week. David looks better than I can ever
remember seeing him look. He is still on
sabbatical, but tells me that he is revving
up to find his next job. We went to the Five
Star restaurant in downtown Raleigh. Their
menu of "unique" Chinese dishes
was a nice change of pace, and both the appetizers
and entrees that we ordered (scallion pancakes,
eggplant, beef and cabbage, and five star
chicken) were delicious. Highly recommended.
Mom is doing fine. The kids are doing fine.
Bottom line: we both still have jobs, our
closest love ones are reasonably happy and
healthy. Everyone we love has enough food
to eat, clothes on their back, and a roof
over their head. When I take even a little
step back, it is clear that Jeanie and I
are truly blessed. Happy Friendship Week.
10/02/01
Dave Simpson's surgery went well. The tumor
was smaller than expected, and was fully
contained within his esophogus. He's been
in a lot of pain, and has been running a
fairly high temperature, but, given the circumstances,
things are much better than they could have
been. Burnie is hanging in there, which is
about all one could hope for at the moment...
I was sick all weekend. I think the stress
has finally gotten to me. I've had a range
of symptoms, headaches, ear aches, digestive
opportunities, not being able to chew because
my jaw won't fully shut due to an extreme
flair-up of my TMJ. I was out of work yesterday,
and I'm not sure if I'm going to feel well
enough to go in today. The most challenging
thing is that I have no energy. Just sitting
and working for an hour or two exhausts me.
Jeanie is doing fine. She's being a real
trooper, and just rolling with the punches.
Robby has started building a fence on the
side of our house so that Diego will have
a fenced in yard to play in. Dave and Peggy
next door were nice enough to let us tie
into their fence, so all Robby will have
to build is the front and back portions of
fence. Dave and Peggy had enough pickets
left over from their fence that we will be
able to use their left-overs, so the fences
will blend nicely. Robby has the posts all
dug and set. Next weekend he'll start putting
in the pickets.
Robby also cleaned our gutters and installed
gutter guard, so hopefully we wont have the
gutter spill-over issues that we've had in
the past.
It is so nice that Robby is doing all of
this for us.
We added another member to our fish family.
We now have a plecostomus keeping Mrs. Bubbles
company, and keeping the "glass"
algae-free. I've named him Moe.
09/16/01
We're back from our trip to Hickory, NC.
It was good getting to see Jeanie's relatives,
although we would have preferred that it
were under happier circumstances.
This week's events remind me of one of my
personal philosophies...
evil is inherently stronger than good...
much stronger...
one on one, evil will always triumph
the only thing that keeps evil in check is
that there are *so* many more *good* people
than there are *evil* people, that ultimately,good
triumphs through sheer numbers
This week, we lost a lot of *good* people,
but, thank goodness, the majority of the
people on this planet are good. We just need
to stay together, and to resist the temptations
and misdirections of evil.
Lately, I have heard a number of comments
that are along the lines of "we just
need to wipe (pick your country) off of the
map. Yes, some people in some of these countries
do condone/harbor/support/sponsor terrorism.
But, the majority of the people in these
countries are good people, innocent people,
just like the people who died this week.
In fact, many of them are *victims* of evil
themselves. One of evil's tools has always
been to misdirect our focus, and to hide
behind the innocent. I pray that we are strong
enough to see through this,and to truly target
the evil.
09/14/01
Gee, where do you even start after the last
week?
We're both still numb and extremely sad.
Just getting up in the morning and going
to work is a challenge.
As far as we can tell, none of our immediate
family was directly impacted by the events
on Tuesday.
On Wednesday we learned that Jamie's high
school boyfriend and her first "true
love," Karleton Fyfe, was among the
passengers on American Flight 11. Karleton
was a really sweet, really smart boy. Jeanie
had become very close to Karleton's mom Barbara
while Jamie and he were dating. Jeanie has
been so sad thinking about Karleton, the
wife and baby that are left behind, and Karleton's
parents.
Many of you have heard me tell the story
of the boy who came to pick Jamie up on her
first non-group date, on the day that the
boy got his full driver's license, only to
have it start snowing just as he pulled into
our driveway. We were concerned about them
going off, in the snow, with a brand new
driver's license. Then the boy's mom called
expressing her concern as well. So, we decided
to have the boy spend the night at our house.
As we all headed off to bed, Jamie in her
bedroom, us in ours, and the boy on the living
room sofa bed, I told the boy - only half
in jest - "you'd better stay in your
bed, I sleep with a gun under my pillow."
Knowing how hormones can override even a
smart boy's good sense, I couldn't sleep,
and got up every hour to make sure that he
was still where he was supposed to be. He
slept like a rock the entire night, never
even stirring.
That boy, was Karleton.
On Thursday, Jeanie learned that her Aunt
Sue had died. This was sudden, and totally
unexpected. We still don't know what the
cause of death was, but Jeanie at least had
some small comfort in knowing that Aunt Sue
had passed peacefully in her sleep. Poor
Uncle Howard; he lost his only son less than
a year ago in an accident, and now he's lost
his wife.
Click here to send an e-mail to Jeanie, or here to send an e-sympathy card to jeanie@witsdom.com.
09/08/01 at a more reasonable hour
Jeanie and I watched Duets this morning and really enjoyed it. The
review I linked comes closest to "getting
it" as far as I'm concerned. I saw a
number of other reviews that were less flattering,
but we really enjoyed it. Guess it just goes
to show...
09/08/01
It's 3:30am, and I can't sleep.
Wow it's been a tough six weeks. For all
practical purposes, I spent the entire month
of August in Austin. I did get to come home
on the weekends, although I was so tired
and stressed that pretty much all I did on
the weekends was sleep.
I didn't even get to spend Jeanie's birthday
with her. First time in twenty years.
The reason I had to spend so much time in
Austin was that we received an IT security
audit, and there were hoursof meetings, and
tons of documentation that had to be generated
for the auditors. It was not a fun experience,
and I hope I don't have to go through another
one any time soon. Because there was so much
time that had to be devoted to the audit,
even though I was in Austin for so long,
I really didn't get to spend any quality
time with the team.
I've been having a tremendous amount of trouble
with my new manager. Unfortunately, I just
don't like his style, nor do I respect the
way he chooses to conduct himself. I also
do not feel that he treats me with respect
or professionalism. This makes if very difficult
for me to get along with him, much less work
for him. I totally "lost it" with
him on the phone of Thursday. Probably not
the brightest career move, but I can only
take so much, and I promised myself that
I would never again comprimise my principles
or ethics for a job.
Oh well, at the moment, I'm just greatful
that Jeanie and I still have jobs. Just last
week, two more friends got laid off from
one of my former employers.
Diego is doing well. He is really smart,
and has learned a number of tricks. He's
also pretty well trained/behaved, but there
are a couple of rough edges that still need
some work. When Jamie was in town, Jeanie
and Jamie went to the Orange County Animal
Protection Society annual auction. Jeanie
bid on, and won, three sessions with a professional
dog trainer. Today was our first session.
Barbara seems very nice, and very knowledgeable.
The most challenging part is probably going
to be for Jeanie and I do be disciplined
and consistent enough to help Diego polish
up a few things here and there.
Jeanie is doing well. She is enjoying the
training she is receiving in preparation
for her temporary assignment, and in some
ways is looking forward to the work she will
be doing over the next few months.
The kids are doing fine, the pets are doing
fine, the parents are doing okay, although
I am worried about Mom's memory and Mama's
back.
07/20/01
Work has been an absolute bear. I have been
in Austin for the last two weeks. I've been
working really long hours, and work has been
extremely stressful.
Jamie came to visit for a few weeks which
was really great. I didn't get to spend much
time with her since I was away so much, but
Jeanie got to spend plenty of time with her
which was really nice.
Jeanie starts a new assignment at work tomorrow.
She will be on temporary assignment in the
IBM benefits center. She will be taking phone
calls during open enrollment through the
end of the year. Not necessarily her first
choice, but much better than getting laid
off. She will be working out of a different
location, in a cube farm, but at least it
is a little closer to home...
We got some really upsetting news from our
friends Burnie and Dave. In Burnie's words:
Dave has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
However, the CT scan revealed that the cancer
does not appear to have spread anywhere else
in his body. The tumor in the
esophagus is moderate in size, but doctors
are very optimistic that he can beat this
thing.
Today was spent preparing and planning
for an aggressive treatment over the next
four months. Dave will start radiation
and chemotherapy next Monday. Normally,
patients are admitted to the hospital for
a four day stay for chemo, however the doctors
feel that Dave is an excellent candidate
for outpatient chemo, so he will have a PIC
line (a fancy form of IV) and a portable
dosing pump to administer his 96 hour continuous
dosage. Radiation treatment will continue
daily for 5 weeks, which is a 10-30 minute
ordeal every morning at the hospital. He
will end the 5 weeks of treatment with another
96 hours of outpatient chemotherapy. He
should be able to work and keep up his normal
activities(including his 3 times a week swimming
ritual) over the entire 5 week course of
treatment, limited only by his personal intolerance
to possible side effects such as nausea or
fatigue from the medications.
He may suffer some hair loss, however we
have been told that this particular strain
of medication does not always result in hair
loss, it depends on the individual. We
figure since Dave has already lost most of
his hair anyway, this will not have a significant
emotional impact, but we plan on buying him
some fun hats just in case.
After the five weeks of radiation and chemo,
he will have 3 weeks of rest and relaxation,
then will be admitted for surgery around
the 1st of October to remove the lower portion
of the esophagus along with the tumor. He
will stay in the hospital 8-12 days, then
come home for an extended recovery period
(Dave insists he will be back at work the
day he is released......yeah, right!).
Statistically, he has about an 80 - 90% chance
of full recovery and a cancer free life.
Your continued prayers and thoughts
are welcomed and needed.
Dave's attitude is completely positive and
upbeat. He plans to win! He
is able to talk about it, so phone calls
are definitely OK!
I'm usually not the gushy type, but this
was hanging in the oncology clinic today
and it seemed to offer some relief:
WHAT CANCER CANNOT DO
Cancer is so limited.
It cannot criple love,
It cannot shatter hope,
It cannot corrode faith,
It cannot destroy peace,
It cannot kill friendship,
It cannot suppress memories,
It cannot silence courage,
It cannot invade the soul,
It cannot steal eternal life,
It cannot conquer the spirit.
Thanks to all who said a prayer for him.
So far, so good. One day at a
time.
Mom is doing okay, but her memory is really
starting to fail her. She is also having
more trouble getting around. It saddens me
to see her decline. But, she seems to be
happy, which is a blessing.
Really puts things into perspective, doesn't
it? All of a sudden, no matter how stressful
or frustrating work or life's little annoyances
are, they are just a drop in the bucket.
We are so fortunate to both have a job, our
health, and friends and family who love us.
07-01-01
From the "Ain't computers fun"
department... I had some files that I wanted
to give to my friend (let's call him Chuck).
Chuck had some files that he wanted to give
me. A mutual friend (let's call him Al) was
going to visit Chuck. The total size of the
files was quite large, so we decided that
the easiest thing to do was do copy the files
to a spare hard drive, and just let Al take
the hard drive to Chuck. Chuck could throw
the drive in his system, then Chuck could
copy the files onto his system, and copy
the files from his system onto the hard drive
and send it back with Al. Good plan, eh?
Well, Al takes the drive to Chuck. By the
way, it's a large IDE drive formatted as
NTFS. Well, seems Chuck has chucked all of
his PC's - Chuck is a Mac freak, but otherwise
is mostly okay - and since the drive was
IDE NTFS, Chuck couldn't read it. Chuck and
Al banged their heads against the wall, borrowed
a pc from another friend, never could get
the files. So, Chuck says, how 'bout I format
the drive as a Mac drive, and put my files
on it? Well, I have another friend (let's
call him Dan) that is a closet Mac dude,
so I say "sure." Al brings the
drive to me, I give it to Dan, Dan looks
at it and says "oh, it's IDE - I've
only got SCSI." "Great" I
say. Dan is a Linux freak, so I ask Dan if
there are any Linux utilities that can read
a Mac formatted hard drive. "Sure,"
Dan says. So, Dan builds a Linux box for
us to play with, throws the drive in, and
tries to read it. Note, I said "tries..."
Turns out, the Mac drive is formatted HFS+
(or some say HFS Extended). All of the Linux
Mac reading utilities only play with HFS
drives. Seems like we're at a dead end; we
decided to sleep on the challenge. Next day,
as we're discussing our options, Dan wonders
aloud, "gee, I wonder if there are any
windoz (remember, he is a Linux freak) utilities
that would fit the bill. I jump on Google,
and sure enough, find MacDrive 2000 which looks like a contended, and, there
is a fully functional, five day eval available
for download. So, download I do. Now, we
need a Windows 2000 "play" box.
Neither Dan nor I have one, so we ask (let's
call him Will) if he has a box we can use.
Sure enough, Will does, so we load the drive
in the box, install MacDrive, and yes!, it
works. So, we throw yet another drive into
Will's box, format this new drive as FAT32,
and happily copy the files from the Mac drive
to the PC drive. Of course, Chuck never did
get his files. Maybe I'll send them to him
via the Internet. ;-)
And, what was the point of this protracted
story you might ask? Well, it should be obvious.
Computers have simplified our lives - right?
Jeanie and I indulged in one of our movie
marathon weekends. We took Mom to see "Evolution"
in the theater on Friday night. It was quite
amusing. On Saturday, we rented and watched
"Proof of Life" and "Save
The Last Dance,"both of which were also
enjoyable.
page: created pre-2001 what's new archive.
Added links.
06-23-01
Let your computer join in the fight against
cancer by downloading and running the free
United Devices program which can be found
at http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/curecancer.html.
06/10/01
Phew! I finally got mysql and php working
with Apache! What a challenge! I feel like
I've done more compiling in the last week
or two than I did in my entire programming
career.
Yesterday, Jeanie and I took Mom to see Moulin
Rouge. Jeanie enjoyed it, I thought it was
okay.
Jeanie is fine. Mom is fine, although her
memory get a little worse every day - at
least she's happy, healthy, and well cared
for. Diego is doing fine. He's been mostly
good about not tearing stuff up, and he really
does bring Jeanie and I great joy. Now if
only we could teach him to be more social
with other dogs!
site: revamped links page.
06/06/01
Oh, I love computers, I love Linux. Maybe
if I keep telling myself this, I'll believe
it!
I decided to apply all of the updates to
6.2 to "lock down" my system. Decided
to use rpms. Didn't know kernel rpms make
bad things happen. Killed my system. Had
to reload from scratch. Yuck! Oh well, "a
learning experience..."
Yipee! My domain is active. You can now visit
me at www.witsdom.com!
06/05/01
I'm making progress. I got my new domain
registered in DNS for free at ZoneEdit and in a few days, I should have my "hosted
at home" website open for visitors.
Today at lunch, I was saying that I wished
there was a way to use one keyboard and mouse
to contol two computers simultaneously. That
way when I was working at home, I could have
my monitor displaying stuff from my home
computer and the laptop screen displaying
the work stuff simultaneously, and slide
back and forth like if I was using a dual-headed
card with two monitors. Well, low and behold,
Martel says "I have a friend who does
just that using VNC. Sure enough, after lunch, Martel demonstrates
on two of his systems in his office. He used
the standard VNC server on the Windows workstation,
and x2vnc on the Linux box. Just too cool; I had to
have it, so, I downloaded the source, and
then compiled it from the author's web site.
Copied it to /usr/bin so I wouldn't have
to hunt for it, and presto-chango, it works
for me at home! Yipee!
06/02/01
I'm getting adventureous. I built a new pc
at home from "parts." It has an
ATX motherboard with an AMD K6-2 475 and
256MB of RAM. A 12GB hard drive, CD, and
floppy. I got a really nice, very affordable
case from Intrex that is nice and quiet.
I decided I wanted to run Linux on it, so
that's what I'm running.
I racked my brain trying to come up with
a good domain name, as I plan to move my
web site to this new machine. After lots
of trial and error (it's amazing how many
domains are registered!) I finally came up
with one that wasn't taken: witsdom.com.
So, my new web site will be at www.witsdom.com.
I'm still thinking about whether or not I'll
move my mail. For the time being, I'm leaving
my mail where it is.
05/28/01
We just got back from visiting Jeanie's folks
in Milan. We had a wonderful visit. We left
around noon on Friday, and arrived around
10:00pm. On Saturday, we had a relaxing morning,
a delicious lunch made by Momma (bar-b-que
country style ribs, baked vidalia onions,
home made potato salad, and apricot-lemon
supreme cake), then we drove in to Macon,
did a little shopping, and then had a nice
fish dinner.
On Sunday, Daddy's birthday, Jeanie and I
went to worship service, and had another
delicious lunch, then Daddy, Jeanie and I
went to the Museum Of Aviation, Flight And Technology
Center, at Robbins AFB. We had a great visit, made
all the more interesting by Daddy's stories
about the aircraft that he flew that were
on display. These included the Sikorsky H-19D "Chickasaw", the Sikorsky HH-34J "Choctaw", and the Bell UH-1 (Huey) "Iroquis" A,B,C,
and H models. The only aircraft that Daddy flew that
wasn't on display was the Hiller H-23 "Raven." Among the other highlights of the day was
seeing their SR-71 "Blackbird", my all-time favorite aircraft.
Today, we left around 10:00am, and had a
nice uneventful drive home.
Last weekend, we drove to Hickory, to attend
Jeanie's Aunt Margie and Uncle Bill's fiftieth
wedding anniversary, and to visit some of
Jeanie's other relatives.
Once upon a time, I bought something from
Cyberrebate.com. Their business model seemed
a little funky, and "too good to be
true." Well, aparently it was. Even
though I got my rebate check eventually,
lot's of folks aparently didn't, and now
they've closed their doors.
site: added good stuff, widsom.
05/11/01
Yikes! It's been a while. Well, I sure haven't
been overwhelmed with e-mail complaining
about the lack of updates...sometimes I think
I'm the only person who ever visits this
site.
Speaking of sites, check out the Southern
Poverty Law Center's new Tolerance web site, it's very interesting.
I got tired of Mr. Bubbles living all by
himself in his little vase, so... I bought
him the junior version of the tank I have
at work (2 gallons) and a wife. We call her...
Mrs. Bubbles. They've been flirting quite
a bit, and maybe we'll have lots of little
Bubbles in a while.
All three of the otocincluses I have bought
died. I went to the fish store to buy more,
and ended up talking with a very knowledgeable
sales person who told me that without driftwood
in the tank, they will die - period. I knew
that their teeth grew constantly, and that
without intervention, they would grow so
long that the fish could no longer eat. I
had assumed that as long as they had a rock
to gnaw on, that would address the need.
The sales person informed me that it's not
that they wear down the teeth, they need
to "lose" them so new ones can
take their place. The way this happens is
that when they bite the drift wood, the old
teeth embed in the wood, and then when the
fish pulls its mouth away, the old teeth
get left in the wood. Well it's been over
a week, and all three new fish seem to be
doing fine.
The big news since last time, and the reason
it's been so long, is that my job underwent
a major transformation on April 6. No, I
haven't left IBM. On April 6, a reorganization
of the IT department supporting Tivoli was
announced. Rather than having the organization
aligned along regional boundaries, the organization
is now aligned along functional lines. All
of lab and host support report to one second
line manager, and all of production operations
report to another second line. Each functional
area within operations (NT, Backup, Unix,
etc.) report to a specific first line manager.
Thus my job went from managing Notes, NT,
Unix, backup, printing, and the data center
in the Eastern Region; to managing all Unix
operations in North America. The biggest
impact on me personally is that the majority
of the people I manage, and my manager, work
in Austin, Texas. I now manage a total of
twelve Unix administrators; three in RTP,
one in Santa Cruz California, and eight in
Austin Texas. Because of this change, and
I travelling for a few days every other week
to Austin. For the record, I now am part
of the IBM Software Group Global eBusiness
Transformation group, supporting Unix operations
for Tivoli Systems. My title is Manager,
Unix Services Team, IBM SWG GeT.
There are a lot of challenges, lots of work
to be done, and I'm working a lot of hours,
but I am really enjoying this new role.
Andrew's mom, Terry, invited Jeanie and I
to a Passover seder at her house with Andrew,
Laura, and a couple of Terry's friends. It
was Jeanie and Laura's first seder, and the
second seder I had every been to - the first
one having been over thirty years ago. The
food was absolutely delicious, and the company
was delightful. The ceremonial part of the
dinner was interesting. Terry had gotten
a modified Haggadah, which was long enough
to cover the high points, but short enough
to keep things from dragging on forever.
Jeanie and I spent Easter weekend with Jimmy
and Kim at their lakeside retreat. As usual,
they were the consummate hosts, and we had
a grand time.
We inherited another male betta. One of the
guys at work needed to find a good home for
their betta, and I volunteered. Jeanie wasn't
thrilled with the new addition, so we haven't
named him yet - in case she decides that
two male bettas is one too many. He was kind
of in rough shape when we got him, but he's
slowly getting better. We'll just have to
wait to see what his ultimate fate is...
In other news, Jeanie and Diego spent ten
days in San Francisco visiting Jamie and
Buddy. They all really enjoyed spending time
together. Jeanie said she was sad to have
to leave Jamie, but was glad to get home
to me (yeah, right). I went to Austin for
three days while Jeanie was away, so it wasn't
as lonely for me as it would have been had
I not travelled.
04/01/01
I found out on Monday that CTNC had a significant
layoff. Seventeen people were affected, including
a number of people I had worked with for
many years, and for whom I care about. It
has been so sad for me to see how BCBSSC
has just mis-managed this company I put so
much of myself into right into the ground.
If there is any silver lining in all of this,
maybe it will be that a number of people
I consider friends, both displaced, and still
at CTNC, will finally get the push they need
to find a better place to work, and a better
company to work for...
Fortunately, Aristotle's ick appears to be
clearing up. Oto, Nic, and Gus seem to have
adjusted to thier new homes. Diego's incision
is just about healed, and he seems to be
doing fine.
One of the highlights of my week was volunteering
Friday night at WUNC-FM radio. Jeanie and
I spent Friday evening answering phones for
WUNC's spring fund raiser. It was very different
than our experience at WUNC-TV. The area
we sat in was much smaller, with many fewer
volunteers. But, it was much more intimate.
Instead of just answering the phones during
the breaks, we stayed in the "phone
room" for our entire shift. The staff,
and the volunteers, were really cool, and
we had a blast.
We spent Saturday afternoon with the Murphys.
We met Bob and Wendy at the State Fairgrounds
to go to the gem and mineral show in the
Kerr-Scott building. Bob found a really nice
ring for his birthday, and Jeanie and I found
another Bob Timberlake print for the house.
We went to see Miss Congeniality at the buck-fifty
theater on Blue Ridge - Bob and Wendy hadn't
seen it and really wanted to go to a movie,
and Jeanie and I didn't mind seeing it again.
03/25/01
I spent the better part of today working
on the trellis for the grape vines under
the deck. It seems like it should have only
taken an hour, but it took lots more. Part
of what took so long was getting the vines
disentangled from the supports they had been
growing on, and then getting them disentangled
from themselves and each other. I also had
to run to the store to get more hardware
(washers, links, etc.), and there were breaks
for lunch and whatever. So, maybe actual
work time wasn't that much over an hour after
all. Oh well, I think it looks nice, and
is sturdy, so I'm happy with it.
Yesterday was a nice day. The weather was
perfect. John and Steve, our neighbors on
the other side of the cul-de-sac had a garage
sale, so Jeanie and I walked over more to
say "Hi" - and "bye"
as they're moving next week. Most of the
other neighbors in the cul-de-sac were in
their yards, so we spent an hour or so chit-chatting.
I've mentioned A.G. Russell before, but for a couple of reasons, I'll
mention them again. In their last catalog,
there were a couple of knives that looking
interesting, that seemed reasonably priced.
So, I hopped on the net and went to their
web site to place the order. Upon bringing
up the first item, I was initially angered
to see that there was a correction in big
red letters, saying the price that had been
printed in the catalog was wrong, and that
it was really $35 higher. I said initially
angered, because, upon reading down a little
further, I saw that they would be honoring
the printed price until their next catalog
was mailed. That's integrity! Well, I actually
placed the order a few days ago, but I received
my order today, so this seemed like a good
place to talk about this. If you're interested,
I absolutely love (in particular) one of
the knives I ordered, the Timberline Open Assisted Knife. As far as I'm concerned, it may be the
perfect pocket knife for me to carry when
I'm wearing jeans or casual slacks... not
too big, not too small (4" closed),
razor sharp combination blade, great handle
feel and proportions with no pointy parts
to dig in my thigh, and a most amazing opening
action.
Last night, we had my Mom and Robby and his
family over the celebrate Robby's birthday.
Jeanie made stuffed pork loin which was wonderful.
It was a lovely evening.
03/24/01
One of my fish at work (Aristotle - the "gold"
one) got (s)ick. I bought some medicine,
so hopefully he'll start feeling better soon.
We also added to our pet family: three Otocinclus. Living with Mr. Bubbles here at home is
Otto, and at work, joining Socrates and Aristotle
are Nic and Gus. In the past, I've tried
to minimize the growth of algae in our tanks,
but as these little guys are algae eating
machines, I may have to encourage some algae
growth just to keep the little suckers (sorry,
couldn't resist) fed.
You may have noticed that unless I actually
know the sex of a pet, we assume it to be
male, or at least give it a male name. Speaking
of males, Diego was de-he'd this week. I
know that it was the responsible thing to
do, and that, much as we love him, Diego
is not a prize example of the breed: severe
under-bite, too big - six pounds is the maximum
for the standard and Diego will end up about
6.5 pounds. We've had a number of female
pets that we've had spayed, and I didn't
have a major problem. But, this has really
bothered me. Gee, think it has something
to do with the fact that Diego is a boy?
We've decided that he is still more of a
"he" than a "she," so
we'll still be referring to him in the male
context. Anyway, he came through the procedure
just fine, and is already back to 100%.
I found some really cool new web sites, searchenginewatch which is a good reference to most of the
web search engines currently in use, and
MilePoint which provides an alternative way to use
your frequent flier miles. In addition, just
for signing up, they'll give you a free one
year magazine subscription. I also signed
up as a MagazineOutlet.com affiliate (see
the link on the main page). Another good
source for magazines is Best Deal Magazines. They have a list of 400 magazines you can
get for $2.95 each (annual subscription)
- click on the banner add ($1500 gift, ...)
on the page to get the full list. If you're
into online shopping, check out Got Apex and DealWalk. Both sites have good listings of current
deals, as well as coupon codes you can use
online for discounts. I've heard that at
some stores, you can actually use the online
coupon code at the brick and mortar store
- but you might have to be assertive...
03/18/00
Jeanie and I have had a fun week. On Monday,
we participated in the WUNC Festival 2001
IBM Night, answering phones and taking pledges
for our local public TV station. We arrived
around 6:00pm, received about forty-five
minutes of training, and then headed off
for the studio. The station and staff were
really nice to us. When a show is airing,
the volunteers don't take calls, so other
than being a long night for us - we didn't
leave the station until 11:30pm, we didn't
work too hard. It was a fairly slow night
as far as calls were concerned, so we were
a little disappointed that we didn't raise
more money. When we weren't taking calls,
there was a nice break room with plenty of
food and drink for us. We also got a really
good demonstration of digital broadcast television,
as well as a detailed explanation of the
advantages it provides. The highlight of
the evening came as we walked out of the
station. The entire staff lined the hall
that we walked down and applauded as we left
- very cool.
Yesterday was Bob's fiftieth birthday, so
we drove to Clarksville to spend the afternoon
and evening with Bob and Wendy. I spent most
of the afternoon working on Shawn and Tara's
PC. The dial-up networking was hosed, and
they couldn't access the web. Getting things
straightened out was quite a challenge. I
had to dig through .htm files on their ISP's
installation CD to figure out the correct
network settings, as the install program
kept failing. I also had to download a fresh
version of I.E. 5.5, which took a while at
26K, because the IE installation had some
corruption which prevented a clean uninstall
/ reinstall.
We then went to Chase City to watch the annual
talent show that their line dance group sponsors,
and in which they perform. Wendy had been
sick all week, so was not up to performing,
but Bob, Lise, and Dick stomped, scooted,
and shuffled. Bob definitely got the prize
for coolest boots - thanks to his timely
birthday present. So of the people who performed
were incredibly talented, including a thirteen
year old dancer who has appeared on "Showtime
At The Apollo," a country singing trio,
and a hillbilly comedian who had us in stitches.
We spent the night with Bob and Wendy. We
went to Winston's Grille for brunch with
the Best of Broadway (now Broadway in the
South) gang, prior to attending a performance
of The Scarlet Pimpernel , which I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt it was
by far the best play we have seen so far,
in both years of the series.
03/11/01
Okay. X-10 just earned my undying loyalty. Below, you'll
see that I finally got around to installing
the wireless audio sender. When I ordered
it, I received a $30 voucher via e-mail.
I never got around to clicking on the link
to look at the terms and conditions of the
voucher. If I had, I would have seen that
the voucher was only good for thirty days.
But, since I didn't look, I didn't realize
it until I decided to order some stuff tonight.
Then, read, fine print, arrrggg! Just for
grins, I decided to call X-10 and see if
I could give them a sad song and convince
them to let me use the voucher. I had my
best sad song ready, but never had to use
it. The sales rep on the telephone was friendly
and knowledgeable, and never even twitched
when I mentioned the voucher. Wow!
I downloaded a new little utility this weekend,
MBM - Motherboard Monitor. Cool little program.
The feature I was most interested in was
the temperature monitoring. You can set it
so that if the motherboard temperature exceeds
a certain value, the program will do anything
from sound an alarm, to shut the system down.
Very nice when your CPU sits inside a compartment
in the desk!
Why you might ask, does the CPU sit inside
a compartment in the desk. Well, in addition
to "because there is a place in the
desk for a CPU," it is because the computer
is very noisy. It makes this horrid whining
sound. Well, I got motivated this weekend
and decided to fix the problem. At first
I thought that the fan was just a noisy fan,
so I went out and bought a nice quiet ball
bearing fan. The fan sits inside a plastic
shroud, that ducts air from outside the case,
directly onto the CPU heat sink. After a
little discovery, I was able to figure out
how to remove the shroud from the case, and
how to remove the fan from the shroud. Installed
the new fan and... just as noisy, and I get
a warning on boot that the fan has failed!
Well, it hasn't really failed, it's fanning
away, but for some reason the motherboard/bios
doesn't realize this. Little does it matter
since it's still whining. Well, to make a
long story not quite as long as it could
be, it seems that the design of the shroud
allows it to double as a trumpet. Not only
does it do a nice job of directing the flow
of air from outside the case to the CPU,
but it does a great job of amplifying the
fan noise and directing it out of the case...arrrrggg!
Jeanie and I watched "Dr. T and the
Women" this afternoon. What a great
female cast. What a bad movie!
Jeanie and I watched "Meet The Parents"
last night on video. There was one scene
that was hilarious, but other than that,
it was dumb.
Jeanie has started sleeping better at night.
Why you ask? Because the volume of my snoring
has decreased from a roar, to a gentle purr.
Why you ask? Snoreless! Pasha you say? Well, in an unintentional
test, one night I fell asleep without my
three squirts. Next day, a sleepy Jeanie
asks "Did you forget your Snoreless?
"Why yes, my dear," I respond,
"did you notice a difference?"
I ask. "YES!!!!" was my sweetie's
response.
Last weekend, we had Martha Stewart night
at our house with Burnie, Dave, Roxanne,
and Mike. It was a lovely evening, and hopefully
everyone enjoyed it as much as Jeanie and
I did.
The one disappointment on our Martha Stewart
night is that I found out that my new DVD-CD
player can not play CD-R's - after burning
8 CD's with various combinations of software,
settings, etc. I didn't realize that you
had to have a dual-laser model to be able
to read CD-R's. Oh well, it did motivate
me to finally hook up the X-10 audio/video
sender / receiver to the computer and stereo,
so I can now play MP3's on the stereo from
the computer.
I finally got my check from CybeRebate. It's
an okay deal I guess, but I don't think it's
worth the hassle and time value of the money.
One "miss" because of error or
forgetfulness, and even many "free"
purchases would turn into a losing proposition.
Bill Messenger and I got together to swap
a pint at the Cary Red Cross Blood Center.
Bill got his three gallon pin. I'll get mine
next donation. It really is nice to get to
see him every now and then, and giving blood
does make me feel like I do at least one
good basically selfless thing every now and
then. We had hoped that David and Andrew
were going to join us, but David had an emergency,
and Andy was sick. Oh well, maybe next time...
02/20/01
Happy New Year!
Wow, it's been a while...
Well, let's see...
We had a very nice Christmas. Robby and family
came over Christmas eve, and along with my
Mom, we had a nice dinner. Robby and family
spent the night. It was fun to have Christmas
day with small children around.
Jeanie's parents came to visit the day after
Christmas. It was really nice to have them
around for a few days.
I spent a week in Armonk, NY early in January
at the IBM Basic Blue for Managers Learning
Lab. This was the in-class portion of the
class that I have been working on via "e-Learning"
for the previous six months. The class was
really good. I met a lot of interesting people,and
learned a bunch. I thought the facility was
wonderful. Lodging was in a college dorm
setting, although each room did have its
own bathroom. Rooms were nice, and there
were common areas with pool and ping pong
tables. Each room had a token ring port,
and there were network printers in the common
areas. Food was buffet style, three meals
a day, and delicious. There was about two
feet of snow on the ground, so it was really
pretty. The mid-Hudson valley in New York
really is a beautiful part of the world.
Jim and Kim came up for my birthday. We had
a blast. They brought a new card game, Phase
10. Jeanie kicked butt both nights.
I got lots of cool presents for my birthday,
including a new surround sound receiver and
speakers, and a DVD player. I'm glad Bob
and I pre-wired for the speakers. The system
sounds really good.
We've seen a couple of movies. Our favorites
have been "What Women Think" with
Mel Gibson which was hilarious, and "Miss
Congeniality" with Sandra Bullock which
was very cute.
We saw our first play of the new season -
"Les Miserables." It was a wonderful
production, although I prefer lighter content...
I had "the crud" week before last.
Yuck! I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting
there.
Burnie, Dave, Mike, Roxanne, Jeanie and I
went to Ruth's Chris to celebrate Burnie
coming to IBM. It was a lovely dinner. Food
was great, company was even better.
Jeanie is fine, kids are fine, Diego is fine,
Peanut is fine, Mr. Bubbles is fine, Aristotle
and Socrates are fine. Life is good.