I am still here...!

I know it's been a long, long time. It's been a year, and 2 months. I have "moved on" with my employment recently. No more working at MS (at least for now, and I hope for a very long time. The last contract was working on the Expression WEb Team as a lab Engineer/Manager. It was a relatively small team, 4 FTE's and 4 contractors. The testers are all SDET's and v- (Vendor) contractors, they do not ahve to take the 100 day break being Vendors. I was, as usual, an a-. However, that is all over now, read on!). I am now working at Nokia (through Volt still). I am doing Lab Engineering for their test team. I basically keep machines ready and avaiable at all times for all test needs within the company. To see our work, go to http://www.ovi.com we are a media sharing site that Nokia picked up last year. The site was originally Twango.com and has recently been re-branded as "Share on Ovi" now that Nokia owns it.

The work is a lot of fun, and I have a lot of neat toys now. a couple of laptops, phone, etc... toys. And with these toys, I have found that a macbook pro titanium is the best hardware to run Vista on right now. I get an experience rating of 5.2 on my macbook pro. The last PC I tested was a 64bit box with 8GB RAM and a 3Ghz dual core proc and 256MB Video RAM and that got a 3.1 experience rating. The macbook has a dual core 2.66 Ghz Proc, 3GB RAM, and 256MB Video RAM, and it gets a 5.2 experience rating. And, it's running Leopard X on the primary partition and Vista on the secondary with Bootcamp. All in all, I like the setup a lot. My other machine is a ThnkPad. It's super light, 2GB RAM, Intel Centrino dual core 2Ghz procs and 512MB Video RAM in an nVidia Quadro NVS 140M display adapter. ANd it has to weigh less than 2 pounds easy. It is so light, it is now habbit for me to carry both machines with me. Oh, and the one item that makes my bench look great, I have a 24" flat panel monitor that I use for the ThinkPad. I am working on setting things up so I can use it for both laptops (I have the switch box, I just need to scrounge up the cables now). Then I'll be all set.

And of course, I have been provded with a phone and a bluetooth headset (one of the smallest in the world). The phone is a Nokia (of course) 6126 and the headset is a Nokia (again, of course) BH-800. I am not going to go into details about these. That is why I provided model numbers, if yo uare curious, you can go to the Nokia website and look them up.

So yes, I am still around. I did not have to take my 100 day break between contracts either. Actually, this one wroked out nicely. My MS contract ended Friday, February 1st, and I started here at Nokia in Bellevue on Monday, February 4th. All I had was a weekend off. Which is a good thing (and a bad thing). I am just very thankful it worked out the way it did and that I have work. A week off to relax would have been good, but, I wold prefer to have the work and no break given the choice. :)

So let's see, what else is new over the past year. Oh, about a month ago, I had to have Sinus surgery due to extreme Sinusitus in the left sinuses. They were so packed that I Was getting migraines every day, often several of them. And I am a person that does NOT get headaches. So, I saw the specialist here, and 2 weeks later I was iun surgery. It was a complete success, no more headaches, and I have clear sinuses. It's fantastic!. I have one more medicial issue to deal with now. I belive I have mentioned the peripherial neuropathy I have in my feet and legs. Well, it has been getting worse over time. I take pain medication, but most of the pain medications don't do much for neuropathy, they just help take the edge off. So, due to that fact, I am seeing a pain specialist (not a neurologist anymore, a pain specialist). This new Doctor has some options that the neurologist has not presented to me. I have already gone through his array of medications and none of them really helped. they didn't much (if anything) for the pain, but they did make me feel weird, and one drug, I got the highly unusual side effects and was directed to stop the medication immediately. And of course I did.

So now, I have one alternative left, and I like the option actually. It is a nerve stimulation device that is transplanted into the body near the waiste on one side, and it is connected to two wires (or probes if y ou will) that are surgically implanted in the body and run up the spine to the location where the nerve impulses from the legs enter the spinal column. One the wires are in, they are connected to the device that is not transplanted at this time (It is left outside the body for the first week to make sure things are working properly). If everything is a "go" there is one last surgery to have the device implanted. At that point, there is another device that stays plugged into the wall, and when the device batteries get low, you unplug this device, hold it up against the implanted device and it charges the batteries! Very cool. It also comes with a small rmote control so that I can "dial down" the pain level by controlling how many pain impulses get through to my brain. I absolutely love the concept of drug free pain control and treatment! I have an appointment in March to discuss this with the Dr. I do hope he thinks I am a good candidate. Then I just need to worry about my insurance and how much it will cover.

One more really neat thing happened to me (and my wife) this year. On October 5th, 2006 we celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary! 10 years! I would have to say that one of the key things that keeps us together is that we like to have fun with one another. The other, we love each other very, VERY much. That will never change, ever. My wife and I are in it for the duration, and loving every minute of it!

Let me see, ... is there anything else..? Well, I still have my kitties. Edgar, the big gray one gets into fights if he stays out after dark, so he can go outside, we just have to get him back in before dusk, or that's it... he will be out for the night. So he is our biggest challenge in the house. Our little girl kitty is the perfect one. She comes in when she is called. She never has the desire to stay out all night (unelss it's summer time). So that's the beef for now. Anyone who reads my blog knows I say more to follow, and then I forget to write. Well, I am going to try to change that. I am not making any promises, but do check in from time to time to see if I have added anything new.

Peace.

It's Been More Than a Year...

I apologize for waiting a full year to post to my blog. I have just been super busy with work and my lilfe. Anyway, I am still amongst the living, so I thought I would get something up to let you all know that I am.

I am currently interviewing for a new position, I had a succesfuly telephone interview today, and on Monday, I have 2 hours of onsite interviews to go through. The general feeling is positive. I feel pretty good about this and if things go as I hope they will, I should be working by the end of next week.

Since my last post the new apartments have been completed and filled with new tenants. It's sad really. Now we have to look at apartment buildings instead of trees. But we chose to stay anyway. We are tucked away in a quiet corner as far away from the apartment office as we can get.

I am going to stop for now. I need to gather my thoughts and get another entry in, in the next few days.

Life Continues

It appears that the foundations are complete on the new apartment buildings going in here. I am glad I am not moving into one. They are using the concrete slab method for the bottom floor units. I have lived in apartments like that, and it makes for a very cold, hard floor. But they have finished getting the foundation drains in, the electrical wiring, plumbing, and the slabs are poured. The next step, once the slabs have cured, will be framing. That will be when the constant noise of nail guns will begin.

So far, we have experienced a barrel chipper (one they can dump entire trees into and it turns them into 4 inch wood chips), it was a monster. there are only something like 10 of these things in the country. Then of course, all the tractor work to clear and grade the plots. And then the cement trucks and cement pumper truck to pour the foundations. Fortunately, I am at work during the day, and construction stops before I get home, however, my wife has to put up with it every day. She seams to be dealing with it well, from what she tells me anyway. I am looking for links to some of the equipment we have seen on site here. As soon as I find them, I will update this post.

The job is going well. My networking skills are increasing every day. And that is a big bonus for me. I will have some great, very marketable skills when this contract comes to an end. Perhaps that will be the ticket to a full time, permanent position somewhere. Of course, nothing is permanent in this life. There was a time when corporate loyalty existed, those days are long gone.

Not much else to comment on today. When I have more to discuss, I will enter a new post.

Back To Work

I started working again on Sep 29. I am heavy into networking on this contract. Specifically IPv6. So I am working on some pretty cutting edge technologies now. I am rather enjoying it. I stay very, very busy during the day now. Now, if I can just get myself hired on full time, life would be very good. I am tired of contracting, but it pays the bills.

On another note, we (my wife and I) have moved into a newly remodeled apt. It's very nice. We are in the same complex, just a different unit. This saved us from having to move out while our unit was being remodeled for 30 days, and then back in. This happened a year earlier than we expected, but it's done now, and we are settled. However now they are putting in 2 new buildings directly across from our unit. Not exactly the best time of year to be building new apartments, with the rainy season upon us and all. But, they say they will be done by Mar of '06. So we shall see.

More later

Ok Then

One week done, and another started. Having Monday off was nice. Now it's back to the grind. I am kind of flying blind this week (well, today anyway) as most of my team is out this week. However, I did manage to get a few critical tasks completed. That should keep the boss happy.

Now begins the wait for the new paychecks to start rolling into the bank. It will be a tremendous step up from UI. I am looking forward to it very much.

Not much else going on here at the moment. I will post more as I have more.

Finally!

I have finally landed a job (ok, a contract) for a year. I will be working on Transports and Connectivity using IPv6. This stands to be a very interesting assignment. I have not been making entries here for the past month as I have been focused on finding work. The market is such that employeers can be very selective right now. So that has made it very difficult to find work. This new assignment is a one year conract so I will continue to look for full time, permanent work during that time. I need the stability of a full tim perm job.

Needless to say, life has been interesting over the past month. I am currently building a new PC for use with FreeBSD. I should have that project complete in the next week or so. It will be a PII 333Mhz w/512MB RAM, 10GB HDD, 8MB Video, 100MB NIC. This will be the fastest UNIX box I have built to date. In the past they have been in the neighborhood of PII 250Mhz systems with far less RAM, smaller HDD's, etc. So this box will be a pleasant change of pace.

I have also been keeping my home network up to date. I recently setup a wireless link for my laptop. A very handy thing to have. Now I can move about my apartment with my laptop and the only thing I have to worry about is a power cord (if my battery is low). I have everything secured at the MAC level, and encryption is next. So if a machine is not in my MAC list, it cannot use my wireless link. Very effective really.

Not much else going on here really. So I will make an entry later.

Been Having A Rough Time Lately

I am currently in the midst of a job hunt. I am looking for Windows Systems Administration in the Kirkland/Bellevue/Redmond/Seattle WA area. If anyone out there knows of a business that is looking, by all means, let me know via a comment. All I need is a phone number or email contact, or even a web address. And a contact name would be awesome. I will check for comments regularly.

It's been tight these past few weeks. Everything is on track, just not much left to do anything else... Good thing we have cable (well, extended basic anyway)... It's better than just network TV... oh boy... hehehehe. And we do have a good movie collection.

I made a great score a couple of days ago. I am particularly proud of this. Metro Transit (the local bus system for the Pudget Sound area) sent out some neat flyers in the last week or so. Each one of these flyers came with 4 free bus passes for 2 zone peak fare (can be used anytime). And they don't expire until Dec 31 this year. Well, we live in an apartment complex. My train of thought was, most of these people here have cars. They are not going to keep these bus passes because they don't need them. So we went up to the mailboxes, and in the garbage can they have there for junk mail, we found 13 more flyers, with all 4 passes still atached. So now we have 52 free bus rides, anytime, anywhere metro goes, until the new year. A monthly pass is $72 for 2 zone, peak. To buy a pass for each of us until the new year would cost $864. That is a HUGE saving. So this was a Great Score.

Really not much more to talk about right now. Just looking for work. Not contract work either. I want something full time, permanent with a business. If contract is what I have to do to get there, so be it. Contract work is a stop-gap measure for me anymore. I do not like the un-predictability and un-certainty of contract work. And the benefits aren't really benefits. Thus, the reason for looking for a permament position. I need the stability in my life now.

Needless to say, UI is not paying very much. So a good job would be a very good thing right now.

I'll try to stay current here. It gives me a diversion from job hunting. :)

Ahhhhhh Friday

The week has come to an end. Well, once I am off work that is. Today is my last day on the job here as my contract runs out today. Now I need some rest. I don't get much sleep when I am working 11 and 12 hours a day. So this weekend is for sleeping, for sure.

My music collection has certainly grown. I just added 5 more CD's full of MP3 files. Now I have a total of 8.7GB of music. That is a lot of music... Now all I need is a DVD burner and I can reduce 13 CD's to 2, perhaps 3 DVD's at 4.6(ish)GB of storage.

That's pretty much it for now. When something interesting happens, or the mood strikes me, I will make another post. In the meantime, enjoy what is here.

Peace,

It's Been a Long While

I apologise for the long period between posts. I have been undergoing a transition, if you will. I am no longer working at the 'evil empire'. I am currently working in downtown Seattle. It's been kind of fun so far. I have been working 12 hour days, and I have to add 2.5 hrs of commute to that every day as I bus it into town from the eastside. It's not bad though. Although, I would prefer a longer contract and shorter hours. Again, that is ok, as this will make for 2 very fat paychecks. I have 60 hrs in last week, and well over 50 (closer to 58) by the end of this week. Makes for a couple grand in my pocket, and I like that. It beats un employment.

Needless to say, I have had a lot of time to listen to music this week. I have roughly 5GB of MP3 files, and I have gone through most of them already. the original 2.8GB I brought in last week, I went through before the weekend. Thanks to a good friend, I now have another 2.2GB to get me to Friday this week. Plus, I can grab more. Without music (much like my first day here) I would go absolutely nuts. The first day I worked in silence, no music, nothing.... Needless to say, I was ready for noise of some sort when I left that day. Wow.

I have also found that I get a lot of walking in now that I am downtown. I catch a bus into town in the morning, then walk 1.3 miles to work. Then, at the end of the day, I walk another 1.3 miles back to the heart of downtown to catch my bus home. From there I catch a connecting bus once I am back on the eastside, when I get off that bus it's a hop, skip, and a jump to my front door. On Monday this week, my bus going home did not connect with the second bus, so I ended up walking 2.3 miles home (over half of that was uphill I might add). And I actually beat the next bus after that by 20 minutes. I figure I walked at least 6 miles per hour. Not a bad clip for an old man.

Well, the NASCAR driver I support (Kasey Kahne) finally won his first Nextel Cup Race, May 14th in Richmond, VA. It was a race under the lights. Kasey has been trying to win for 2 years now. And with 5 second place finishes, he was very much ready for this win (I believe I mentioned this in an earlier post as well. Now you have all the details twice). So I broke down and bought his "First Win" T-shirt from the NASCAR.com store. It's pretty slick. It's Dodge red, and has all kinds of info on it. I like it. I might just have to order more shirts from them.

I think that has me caught up for now. If I can think of any other earth shaking news, I will be sure to get it posted. In the meantime, this is it.

More later as usual.

Rough Day So Far

Today is turning out to be a little more rough than I expected. I am still not back to 100% as far as how I feel is concerned. However, I think I am over the worst of the cold. I can just tell that I am dragging. 5 hours to go and I can go home and sleep some more. Aside from catching most of the race on Saturday, that is all did all weekend was sleep.

Not much going on at work today. Just hagnin' out, waiting for a build to test. Nothing yet. And I felt bad for missing yesterday. I guess I can let that go.....

Lunch time... more later...

It Finally Happened!

On Saturday night, May 14th in Richmond Virginia, Kasey Kahne won his first Nextel Cup Race. He has arrived! It was a great race. The usual front runners had nothing but trouble that night. Jimmie Johnson was out of the race mid way, Jeff Gordon was 50+ laps down, It was just not a good night for the usual winners. Kasey was asked in an interview prior to the race, who would he like to see in his rear view mirror when he wins a race, he answered "Tony Stewart". In fact, Tony Stewart took 2nd in the race, and was the first driver to congratulate Kasey on his win. Very sportsmanlike of Tony.

I have not been making entries here for a few days as I have been ill. I have been out of work since mid day Friday through today. I will be back at work tomorrow. It has been a misserable weekend. I do not wish whatever this is on anyone.

I'll be back.

Slacking

I know, I have been slacking lately with my posts... No real excuses. Which is funny really, because today I don't feel well, and I am posting. the past week or two I have felt fine and have not made a single post. Odd.....

Things have been going ok. I think I have the ins and outs of the environment at work figured out now. At least I think I do. things are getting easier for me each week... so I must be doing something right.

Right now, I just want the day to be over so I can go home and go to bed. I really do not feel well at all. But for now I am drugged up to the point that I don't care. I still feel crappy, I just don't give a s*%!... :)

So I will trudge through today, hoping it passes quickly. then I have 2 full days of rest to try and kick this cold. It's nasty. And it hits almost immediately. I felt it coming on at 8 last night, and this morning, sure enough, I have it full force. And it sucks. So I will be trying to heal myself this weekend.

It's Been Awhile

It's been a few days since I last posted here. I have been both busy, and not feeling well. First, to address the busy part. I get home in the evenings in time to eat dinner and go to bed. So not much time to post entries during the work week. And I have not been feeling well for the past few days, which also cuts into being able to post entries here. But I am here now.

The weekend begins in roughly 4 hours. I am ready now. It's been a long week.

I am not feeling particularly wordy today, so I am going to stop with this now and I will post more later perhaps.

End Of The Week

Friday is here. I really do appreciate my weekends. I enjoy the time away from work. I enjoy the time I spend with my wife. The fact that I get to sleep in on Saturdays is a bonus. The only thing on my agenda for this weekend is the race at Talladega Super Speedway, the fastest track on the NASCAR circuit. My fingers are crossed for Kasey Kahne. It would awesome if he won his first Nextel Cup Race at Talladega. Should be a fun race to watch.

If I am on the right track here, today is going to be somewhat mellow. I am hoping so. I could use a quiet day today. It would be a nice respite from the stress earlier this week. It's just nice that the weekend starts at the end of the day today. I am looking forward to it. :)

More Later.....

Better Day

Yesterday did not end well, nor did it go well. Today is a different story. So far, things are going well. I have had to change out some bad hardware, but other than that, things are moving forward.

Starting to think about weekend plans. Not sure what I want to do yet... It will most likely be another weekend at home. But that's ok, home is comfortable.

I must get back to work now. More later.

Frustrations Abound

Today is not turning out to be the best of days for me. The say started out ok, but now, nothing is working right. I am having all kinds of issues with a new automated setup tool. My machines just seem to fail just bacause they can. I have been trying to setup a test machine for the past 3 hours and I am still at square one with it. At this rate, I might have a machine setup by quitting time. And at that point, I know I will be asked to stay late, with no notice, as usual. So I am just going to assume that I will be staying late today. That way, if I get to go home at the normal time, I will be suprised.

Maybe more later (depending on my mood)...

An 8 Hour Work Day!

Wow, this will be ony the 2nd 8 hour work day I have had since I began this contract. It will be nice to get home before 7PM for once. I might even be able to burn some animal flesh for dinner on the grill outside. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. A big fat Ribeye steak, bone in for flavor... mmmmmmmm

So for the remaining 20 minutes I am preping machines for a test pass tomorrow. This will work out nicely.

More later.... (of course)

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow

Today, I am watching Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow at work. I know what your all thinking, what a great job. Not so fast. It took a lot of setup and testing to watch this movie. But it was worth the effort. It's definately on my 'to buy' list. It's a really fun flick.

Today I am hoping to go home at my regular time of 5PM. It would be nice to have some time before bed to get some things done around the house, etc...

Been A Day Or Two

This is the first chance I have had to make an entrey in a few days. The weekend was very very lazy. Lots of sleep. Much needed sleep. And of course, the race on Sunday. Monday was a different story. Lots of stress. I cannot go into details here, let's just say I didn't much sleep last night. I am hoping today will be a little smoother. I do not need two stressful days in a row. I do not yet know what is on the agenda for the day. Should find out soon.

Time to go...

Friday Friday

The is drawing to a close. And none too soon. I am ready for the weekend. It has been a very busy week. Sleeping in is going to be very nice, and much needed. I have been increasingly tired each day this week except for Thursday. Wednesday night I got good sleep. I just want to be done here so I can go home and relax, put my feet up, watch tv.... etc... Typical weekend stuff. In the meantime, I need to get rolling on our next test pass.

More when I get time...

Done And Done

The bench move is complete. The boss wanted it done today, prior to the test pass. This, however, puts me behind on testing. I am waiting for network taps to be activated on my bench before I can get started. Looks like my taps are coming active one at a time. So I am rolling now. So, I should be able to start testing shortly. Today will be a long one for sure. I may be here very late as a matter of fact. So I am getting myself into the proper mindset now so I don't get bent out of shape later when I am asked to stay. It's all good.

And as I always say... more later . . .

Just Found Out...

I was just told this morning that I get to move my bench setup to another location in the lab. This is fine with me, it gets me away from the door. I hate sitting next to the door. It is distracting at best. So next week I move over next to another tester that runs the same tests as I do. It will make it easier for both of is to be able to chat with one another without having to get up and walk over to the other bench. This way, we can compare things side by side. Better coverage that way. And did I mention that it gets me away from the door :)

Today, however, we are supposed to be starting a new test pass. Still in a holding pattern waiting for the word from above. I don't want to get into a machine build to find out I am doing the wrong setup.................................Ok, just got word. Time to get busy.

More Later...

Things Have Changed

The day has taken an interesting turn. I am now imaging several machines for an automated bench. Our test pass is, evidently, on hold for the momenht. Not sure why.... So Here is what I am doing basically; start a machine, wait for it to boot to a CD, enter a machine name, and sit back and let it install for an hour. Then I do another one. This is going to take some time considering that I have to build 10 of these machines....

The drudgery continues...

And now, the network congestion is so bad that I cannot get a machine to load an OS over the network. I have been working on one machine for quite some time now. I am not completely certain what is going on, but I will assume that it is building properly. We are using a new method, and it's very different. So I reallt have no way of knowing if it is doping what it is supposed to or not. Time will tell I guess....

I Need Title Ideas...

It's great to have a blog, however, coming up with a new title for each post has become a challenge. I am going to have to come up with a system to name my posts... This is something I am going to have to think about for awhile.

In the meantime, Today is going well. I've done some hardware troubleshooting, setup a surround sound system at my bench. Got some gadgets off my desk (thank goodness for Velcro)! My bench is staying fairly neat. No clutter, no junk. I like it this way. Easier to do my job. Now, if I can just apply this to my desk at home.... HAHAHAHAHA. I like to call me desk at home "Organized Chaos". There's an oxymoron for you :)

So right now, we are in a 'holding pattern' waiting for the next IDX test pass to come down the pipe. Once that happens, I am going to be very busy. So in the meantime, I am taking advantage of the 'downtime' to stay caught up on this and keeping my bench clean. Missions accomplished. So now, I guess i need to think of something else to keep me busy. Hmmmm.

Well, my best friend and his wife are on a flight to New York, NY. They are going to be there for about a week. The orignal purpose of the trip is to go see Widespread Panic. I hope they have a great time, and that the shows are fantastic.

I am trying to ignor fairly bad tooth pain today. It's starting to nag at me though. I can only shut out so much. It's getting to the point where eating is no longer something I enjoy. It has become something that I want to finish as quickly as possible so that the pain subsides. One of these days I need to get to a Dentist. Of course, that takes money... something I do not yet have a lot of. Certainly non to spare at the moment. Soon...

That's about it for now. More later...

It's All Good Today

The day has gone well so far. I have been working on a document today that will help all the testers in this group. Mainly new people that come onboard. It has also helped my drive in what I have learned as well. It's a great memory test to work on a project like this.

I am looking forward to going home this afternoon. Perhaps I can get out of here before 6PM today. Not that I mind having the extra hours, I just like to have a little extra time with my wife before I have to go to bed. The way things are looking right now, I should be able to leave at 4PM or so and have 10 hours for the day. Yesterday yielded 11.5 hours. Next weeks check is going to be another good one :) So I am sitting on 21 hours for the week already, and it's only Teusday. Sweet, I love overtime pay.

I am still waiting to get my phone installed. Facilities has done their part by getting the wire to the patch panel in the lab. Now I have a second request in to get a phone put on my desk. Not sure how long it will take, but I am hoping to have a phone today. But it will most likely happen in the next couple of days. I just got a ticket number from the team that takes care of lab requests, of which my phone is one. So it may happen today... We shall see.

Good Start

Today is off to a really good start. I don't feel crappy like I did yesterday. My head is clear, and I am making headway on my tests. All in all, a very good morning. Listening to music and watching tv for a living is rough... :) Right now, I am listening to Pearl Jam 10. Great album! Back to the testing...

It's Finally Over

Home at last. As I predicted, it's 7PM. I did not get the test finished today. However, I was given the go ahead to finish it up tomorrow morning. So I managed to get 2 tabs of the spreadsheet completed. I have 10 more to go. So today, I put in 11.5 hours. It was a good day though. I am still learning a lot. I got some great tips today (from the boss no less), that will really help out going forward. I also got some valuable information from a c0-worker. So my knowledge of the product and the testing of it have grown. It's almost time to start working on the New Tester document. I have just enough information to re write all but the first page. And I will be adding about 6 more pages. It's time to squash the "tribal knowledge" and get it all on paper (or on digital media anyway). We try to operate a paperless lab. I think I have 3 pieces of paper at my bench and they are in a drawer. All my notes are on my PC. So we are pretty much paperless. I prefer it that way. It keeps my bench a lot cleaner.

Dinner is in the oven. I am settled in now. Watching some TV. All in all, it was a good day. It was very cold though. This morning, I almost froze at the bus stop. Tomorrow, I will not be so foolish as not to have a hat, scarf, and gloves. The wind was super cold. burrrrr. Needless to say, I WILL be warm tomorrow morning.

Have a good night :)

Long Long Day

Well, I am still at work. Got hit with a test that needs to be done today. This was given to me about a half hour ago. It's not really a problem to stay late, i would just like to know sooner than a half hour before I would normally leave for the day. So I am getting setup for the test, and this is the part that always takes the most time. The test itself will only take about 20 minutes. I just keep telling myself, it's more money in the bank. A lot more money in the bank. I did, after all, agree to work any and all overtime as needed. It's not so bad really. It's just a metter of changing my mindset when I find out I have to stay late. I think I worked it out today.

The only real drawback to staying late is that I don't have much time with my wife before I have to get ready for bed. I will get home sometime around 7 - 7:30 tonight. Dinner around 8:30 bed around 9:30. So I will have about an hour and a half with my wife. Not much time.

Ick...

For some reason, I am not feeling the greatest today. I have not been improving at all as the day wears on... Not sure what is up. I am plugged up completely (sinuses), and I am having waves of nausea... On top of that, my teeth hurt, and I have a pulled muscle in my left calf. I am just a ball of unpleasant feelings today. I just wish it would all go away. Although, I am not far off from leaving for the day. Another 30 minutes and I have 9 hrs. Gonna try and hold out for 10 if I can. I think I am going to like 50+ hr paychecks.

Anyway, just trying to hang in there till the end of the day today. I would leave early, but with my luck, the second I leave, I will start feeling better, then I will feel guilty for leaving early for not feeling good... So I think I will try to just hang on....

Monday Monday

Thus begins a new week. I am really tired this morning. Although, I feel like I got a good night sleep. Must just be the fact that it is Monday... I have yet to see what today holds in store for me. The boss is not yet in, that I know of. The only thing on my plate is one bug that I have to do some repro work on. Other than that, just waiting for the next test pass. I have a hunch it's right around the corner.

The past 4 days I have been having some pretty bad tooth pain. I have at least 4 teeth that need work. at least 2 of which are very painful. To the point that the Oragel I am using has little effect at all. Tylenol seems to still be working though. And that is a good thing. I need to get some money in the bank so I can go see a dentist. I need to get this taken care of soon. If I don't, It starts to really effect my attitude (which is bad at work), and it could become infected. So I need to get them taken care of as soon as I can.

Jeff Gordon Wins Martinsville

Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw, WA takes second. Kahne in the number 9 Dodge moved from 32nd to 2nd during the course of the 500 lap race at Martinsville. Kasey Kahne is in the top 23 eligible for the Nextel Cup Race. It will be exciting to see where he ends up at the cut. I would love to see him in the top 10, even better, the top 5. I am confident he can do it. He is a fantastice driver, who has turned 25 just today. He was Rookie of the Year in 2004.

All in all, a fun race.

The configuration of the new server continues. I am downloading CD burning software at the moment. The burner in my workstation is on it's way out and is very intermittent in operation. Since the server physically sits next to my workstation which sits right next to me in the rack, I will have easy access to a burner without interrupting my wife at her computer. This project is moving forward without incedent, the way I had planned it would. It wass a smooth transition from the XP firewall box to the 2000 Server box. It was a matter of a primary drive change and the addition of 2 more drives for additional storage, and it's up. Spare hardware comes in very handy at times. It allows me to change the operation of a given machine by merely changing out a single drive. Simple.

Project Complete

The server project is complete, well, nearly complete. The only thing left is to connect and install the printers on it. One USB, the other parallel. That would get everything off our workstations. For now, I am placing the box in test mode, in that, I am not deleting any data from the workstations that has been copied to the server for at least a week. I want to make sure things are stable. I would hate to loose all that data, photos, apps, etc. I need to archive on CD as well. That is the next step. I picked up a 10 pack of CDR's last night for just that purpose. Then I can remove the data from the workstations. I should recover close to 20GB on my workstation. That space will come in handy. And the server currently has over 40GB of free space.

I am also entertaining making the network a domain. It would make our workstations much more secure as they would have domain accounts. Again, the server is being tested first. I am not commiting anything until I know it is very stable.

Anway, back to the race...

Race Day Again

No entry for yesterday. I managed to sleep most of the day away and when I was not sleeping, I was pretty useless. Thus, no entry here yesterday.

Today is race day again. This time the race is in Martinsville. There is a link in the post prior to this one. Another short track race. We shall see what kind of tempers flare there today. If payback from last week is still on the minds of the drivers. Or have they all forgiven and forgotten? Time will tell. This track, much like Bristol, is very small. As I have mentioned before, there is almost always a caution within the first 3 laps, usually lap one. And the tempers start getting fired up at that point. It will be an exciting race no doubt.

Today I think I am going to tackle the server project and get that machine configured and online. I have the OS pre-loaded on a drive. I just need to swap system drives, add a SCSI card and two more IDE drives and I'm good to go. I am a bit shy on RAM, only 256MB. But that should do the job for a file server and print server. I am still debating turning it into a domain controller. It would secure our network even more. I would like to have a more powerful box for a domain controller. Keep the one I have now as a stand alone server. That is how I am going to build it up today, I can always promote it to a DC at a later date. This project will provide better printer locations as well. It will get the color printer off my bookshelf and over by the rack. That will free up shelf space for more books. Books that are already there, just on top, or in front of other books. Space is a premium here.

Perhaps more later...

Great Afternoon

Today I do not have to ride the bus home. We have rented a car for the weekend. So my wife is going to come pick me up this afternoon. Since we will have a car, this is the time to take care of errands and heavy groceries.

We are also going to go visit with friends briefly tonight. They live on the other side of the lake (Lake Washington) and it would have taken us all night to get there and back on the bus. At least 2 hours in each direction. 30 minute waits between connecting buses... you get the idea. No fun, no fun at all.

Almost time to leave. Another 40 minutes.

Done And Done

Now that I have finished what I set out to do this morning, it's a countdown to the weekend. I am hanging out until 4PM for the hours. At that point, I will have 51 hrs for the week. That will make for one sweet paycheck next week.

So, in the meantime, it's the speed channel and NASCAR Nation, among other shows involving fast cars. Today are the qualifying runs for this weekends races in Martinsville. The track at Martinsville is only .526m miles around. This track, much like Bristol is a place where tempers flare. The track is so small there is almost always a caution before the first lap is even complete. Darlington is another small track, but is over a mile around. These are better known as the short track raceways. A far cry for the 2.6 mile superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega. At the Superspeedways they use restrictor plates that hinder how fast a car will accelerate. This keeps the number of restart accidents down.

I am really looking forward to being very lazy this weekend. Working 51 hours in 5 days tends to wear on a person. But again, it's awesome for the budget.

The Weekend Is Nearly Upon Us

Finally, Friday!

Last night when I got home, I discovered that we had a power outage earlier that day (around 9AM) out for an hour or so. Needless to say, we could not get online. After some investigation, I discovered that the firewall I was using (a Windows XP box) lost a NIC. So I bumped my weekend firewall project to last night. Everything works great! Thanks to IOActive, my firewall vendor. I recommend anyone with a broadband internet connection get a hardware firewall. DO NOT rely on windows XP to do it for you, it's not secure enough. My connection is not even visable on the internet. I cannot be pinged. And not outbound services are exposed, not even ssh. Therefore, I am invisable.

As for right now, I need to get my test cases finished up before noon.

More later.....

Finally Settled

I finally got my bench setup the way I want it. I am now using my flat panel for my main PC and the Sony monitor is now for the test machines. And with the way I have everything setup on my bench, I have TV on both sides of me. It's working out nicely. I also gain more desk top space this way. And it's just plain more comfortable now. And this flat panel display is much brighter than the glass monitor. I like it. Now I need one at home.

Can't Think Of A Title Right Now

I am so tired this morning. I can hardly kep my eyes open. For some reason I am not getting enough sleep the past few nights. I am not sure why either. All I can say is, I need to figure out why, and take care of it. I really need a good night sleep.

I just downloaded the latest version of MSN Messenger (7.0) And it keeps looging me off the service telling me the service is unavailable. I check the status page and everything is fine. I sure hope it's not a bug in the software. Uninstalling this and getting back to an older version is going to be near impossible. I think I'll hold off on downloading this at home.

This weekend I begin the fun of building up a file server. I am currently using the box as a firewall. But now that I have my hardware firwall back, I can take the one currently in use and make it a file server and print server. It will come in very handy. Drive space is a premium at home right now. So any extra space comes in very handy. This project will take a better part of the day Saturday, or I may tackle it Friday night. We shall see.....

Day's End

Finally, the day is over. Work was a test. A test of my patience, and ability to work through a problem. Things finally started to function properly about 2 hours before I left, and started working really well about 30 minutes before I left. So I managed to complete all but two of my test cases. The test cases that blew up my box in the first palce. Those will be tackled tomorrow prior to the new build.

After getting home this evening, I promptly fell asleep on the couch while watching TV. After waking up, I decided food was in order, so I put something together, ate it, and now, I am wide awake. Since waking up I have taken care of a few things with the computers. I have staged the setup and install of my newly updated hardware firewall. All I have to do is unplug the network cables from the one in position now and plug the power into the new one. Then, if everything has been configured correctly, it should be plug and play. Staying positive and keeping my fingers crossed. That will be a weekend project in case things go awry.

Now it's time to correct some errors in my past blog posts. After reading through some of them I have found a few spelling errors that need to be taken care of. So I am off to fix them...

Blah Blah Blah

Well, the day of testing has come to a grinding halt for everyone in the group. One of our tools has choked and is completely un responsive. Therefore, we cannot run tests because we cannot get to the steps to perform, and we cannot log the results for the same reason. So we sit.

Right now I am watching the speed channel, catching up on my NASCAR News. It's a good thing they like to pay us to do nothing... otherwise, I would be broke. So we sit until someone decides to fix the tool and then we can all get back to work again. I am not sure how long I am going to stay and wait for this tool to be fixed. It's mid afternoon already.... I already have 8 hrs for the day... I could leave if I really wanted to, but the OT is such good money...

So here I sit... waiting...

So Much For That Idea

Well, I was wrong, I am not going to get much testing done today as our tool is still broken. Installs continue to fail. This is becoming a stressful day, and that was not what I had in mind. I wanted to get some test cases done today.

So, I am in the midst of trying yet again... Not sure why, if things are broken. But I have to try....

Here We Go Again

Yesterday did not work out the way I had wanted. It was very stressful as I ran a test that toasted my machine. And since then, I have attempted to reinstall 4 times (on my 5th). And the reason for the failed attempts.... a step that I was uninformed about. But now that I know that step, it will not happen again. Hopefully I will be up and running in the next hour and a half. I really need to get some testing done today to justify my 10+ hour days.

At this point, I just want to get through the rest of the week whithout any major issues. I can handle the small stuff easily. But I really don't need another day like yesterday. However, if that does happen, I am ready or it. I took some time last night to relax and work on what triggered me. I just get frustrated when something (especially here) that does not work as advertised. Now that I know what stage of development the tools are in, I understand things MUCH better now.

Well, the Mariners were beat by the Twins last night 8-4. So much for the opening day momentum. Let's hope they do better in their next game, which is tonight at SafeCo field. So many players have left the team in the last 3 years, that they are not the same organization anymore. We lost the leagues best DH (Edgar Martinez). He decided to retire last year. He will be missed on the field for sure.

Things Do Not Always Work As They Should

So much for having a smooth day today. I am on my third rebuild of my test box right now. One little test blew up the whole setup... So here I sit for another hour while I wait for the machine to rebuild.

It would be really nice if there was one set of solid instructions for doing this stuff instead of having crap scattered all over the network ,and everyone you ask has a different way of doing things. It's no wonder this place is so inefficient.

Tuesday Morning - The Saga Continues

And another day begins. Getting setup at work for another test pass. Hoping, just hoping my build does not choke again as it did yesterday......... Setup did not choke! Things are rolling now. Should be able to start banging on some test cases here in about 45 minutes when setup is fully completed.

I have updated my website this morning. I got tired of the dark brown background and changed all pages to black backgrounds. You can check it out if you follow the links on the left side of this page. There are two links, one to the main page of my domain (Vivificus), and one to my specific page (Just Information). From there, you will find a wealth of information. Feel free to poke around. I don't mind the traffic at all. When you get to my page, to navigate within the site, there is a menu at the top left of each page. It's just a little silver/gray vertical bar with the word 'menu' on it, and when you click on it, it will slide out to the right with menu options on it. All links on that menu or a part of the site. Most other links on the page are external links. If anyone has any suggestions for changes or additions, by all means, let me know. There is an email link very near the top of the page. Feel free to use it. I value feedback.

Good Day...

Well, all in all, today was good. The work day went well. The bus ride home uneventful (which is always good). And this evening, grocery shopping. Food. And boy do our cupboards and fridge need it. So at the moment I am watching the news to see what is going on in the world. The usual I guess, the news remains the same, the day just changes. Shootings, rapes, hit and runs. It just keeps going on and on and on. When will people stop. It just seems so pointless, all this crime. It's all very sad really. I'm no saint. I have lived some questionable days in my past. And I have a lot of things. But I have never hit a point that made me want to commit a crime. It would be great if everyone could just live their lives in peace. That sure would be nice.

Mt. St. Hellens has awakened yet again. I can remember the big eruption on May 18, 1980. I was in High School at the time. May 18th was a Sunday. I was comfortable in bed at home in Portland, Oregon, when the house began to shake. I got up and saw on the TV that Mt. St. Helens was erupting, finally. We had watched it on the news for weeks prior to this date. It had been rumbling for quite some time now. So I got on my bicycle and rode up to one of the cemeteries in the west hills. At one spot in particular I had the perfect, unobstructed view of the mountain. I remember seeing what looked like a nuclear explosion where the mountain was. The mushroom cloud was huge, it rose some 30,000 feet or more into the sky. It was amazing. The eruption had blown 2000 feet completely off the summit of the mountain. I could not see the really bad damage. That was on the north side of the mountain. The north side was pretty much removed completely during the eruption. It lasted about 13 hours. In Portland, we had about 3 inches of ash on the ground. Yakima, WA got hit the worst, with feet of the stuff on the ground. It was an experience I will never forget. There is a photo archive on the web you can check out. The current archive runs back to the most recent awakening in September of last year (2004).

Baseball has come to town. The Mariners beat the Twins 5-1 on opening day at Safco Field. What a GREAT way to start the season! Go Mariners!!!!!!! Now let's just hope the M's can keep up the momentum. Seattle comes off Spring Training with a record of 12 - 16. I certainly hope the regular season does better than that!

Neat Stuff

Well, today has turned out to be a good day at work. Not only have we begun testing agin, but I got myself a brand new 17" Flat panel monitor for my test machines. It goes nicely with my 20" Wide Screen, LCD HiDEF TV that I also use for testing. I am staying with my Sony 19" CRT for my workstation as it gives me the resolution I like (1600 x 1200) The flat panel has a native resolution of 1024 x 768. That just does not give me enough realestate on the desktop for everything I need to have open.

So I got new toys last week and this week. It sure makes testing a lot easier and a little more fun as well. It's almost time to head out for the day. I am here until 4PM(PDT). So another half hour roughly. Then I head out to wait for the bus... fun fun.

The Day Moves On

Well, It's been a pretty un-eventful day so far. It's quiet in the lab. Everyone seems to be doing their own thing today. I have been looking at MS campus information and searching for tools. Not real exciting by any means. Just waiting for the next test pass to be announced. At that point, I will be busy most of the work day. Which is nice. Being buried in my work makes the day buzz right along. I prefer that over watching the clock, that;s for sure. Speaking of which, this is the first time I have looked at the clock since I got in this morning, and it's already 11:20. So time is moving right along.

I did manage to watch the NASCAR Busch Series Race this morning. One of the perks of testing with TV's. Kevin Harvick, the winner of yesterday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Race won today's race as well. This is becoming a trend. The same ting happened last week. I didn't feel well yesterday, so I only caught parts of the Nextel Cup Race. But I did manage to at least catch the beginning and the end. And a lot of crashes in between.

I started feeling a lot better yesterday after my wife got home from visiting the kids and grand kids. I know one night doesn't sound like much, but I still missed her, and I am glad she is home.

Hopfully tonight will be shopping night. We have run our food supply down very low, and it's time to restock. Coming off un-employment always seems to create a financial vacuum for the first few weeks. I am also hoping that my direct deposit takes effect this week as I am tired of taking an hour out of my Fridays to go get my check. I have to shuttle from the north end of the campus to the south end to get it. And it is much like public transportation in that, you have to wait for a shuttle to show up after you call for one. And if your not lucky like me, and your on t he ragualr shuttle route, you have to wait until that particular route shows up.

Another Week Begins

Hre it is Monday morning. No entries yesterday. Pretty much because I spent most of the day in bed, feeling crappy. But I do feel better today. Thank goodness. Not sure what today is going to bring. I guess I just have to wait and see.

Catching the news and weather at the moment. Looks like it's the typical gig for the Seattle area, rain, and wind, then clearing, then more rain and wind. Ultimately it is supposed to clear up this afternoon. We shall see. This is typically the wet season here. So far today, it's dry.

More later...

For those of you out there wondering...

I am sure that someone out there is curious about what I do for a living. Well, I'll fill you in. I am an agency temp. I work FOR Volt Technical Services AT Microsoft. I work at the Redmond Campus in Washington State. Thie is my third assignment at Microsoft. The first was in 1999. I worked on Service Pack 5 for Windows NT Server 4.0. Those where the days... The second contract was from late 2003 to Dec 2004 working on Systems Management Server, Application Compatability initially and then Operating System Deployment. OSD has made SMS a huge success with the second product version release 2 years ago. After that a required 100 day break in service. Now I am back, and I am currently working on Windows XP Media Center Edition specifically, Media Center Extender Devices. All three assignments have been as a software tester. I am currently a software test engineer II. Please refer to the links for full descriptions. It's just too much to put here. However, put very simply, and extender device allows you to route your tv signal from cable to PC, attached to a network, video goes over the network to an extender device t hat is also attached to the network. From the extender device, your tv signal goes to the television. This configuration allows you to use a very basic set top box, to an xBox for an extender.

You can see how this would increase the functionality of your home entertainment/gaming center. It's a very interesting, and fun job. It is also a challenge. The environment in the lab is very relaxed, yet faced paced. Calm and quiet most of the time, and a lot of laughter from time to time. It helps keep the mood lite. There is so much to learn, so many different pieces of hardware to work with. It keeps a pergson moving along all day.

So there you have it. I have been in the computer industry for 11 years now. And the electronics field for a few more years than that. I don't do much, if anything really, with electronics anymore. It's just not cost effective. However, I have been in the computer industry in many capacities. Ranging from Incomming (taking PC's out of the box, logging them into the database and putting them on a shelf, to help desk, desktop support, build team, rollouts, system administration, and software test engineer. I have seen a lot of different ways technology is being put to use. A lot of things have chaged over the 11 years I have been in the industry. A perfect example of that is me. First, I started out with an i286 machine, then an i386, then an i486 all in a year. In 1996 I purchased two Pentium 166Mhz systms (one for me, and one for my wife). They both had 64MB of ram, 2x CDROM drives, and 200MB hard drives. They were the hot ticket of the day. I kept those two mechines, in use until early 2003 when I purchased 2 systems, both identical, as follows:

CPU: Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
RAM: 1Gb
CDROM: 52x burners (read, write, and re-write)
Hard Drive: 60GB
Network: 100MB Ethernet
Modem: 56k fax modem
Video: nVidia GForce 4 Ti4200 w/128MB RAM (AGP 8x)
Monitor: NEC P95fx 19" (me) Sony Tinitron 18" (wife).
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional

I got a far bigger bang for my money this time around. These machines rock, plain and simple. We are very happy. I have upgraded mine with a 10,000rpm SCSI Ultra 3 Hard Drive. It's a screamer. I can finally play all the games that I could not play just 2 years ago due to slow, legacy computers. And now we are on the doorstep of 64bit computing. Systems are already available to the public. I test on an AMD Athlon 64bit system. I am only using 32bit software. The 64bit software has just been released. These machines should be very very fast. Soon, they will be all that is available.

The Pope Has Passed Away

Although I am not a catholic, it is truly a sad day for all catholics around the world as well as all christians around the world. Pope John Paul II was the Vatican's first non Italian Pope in over 400 years. He served as Pope from 1978 - 2005. For information from the source check out the Vatican website. Here is a specific page from the Vatican site (it is in english).

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) is said to be the most recognized person in the world. He is the most traveled Pope in the 2,000 year history of the Church and speaks eight languages. Born Karol Joseph Wojtyla (pronounced Voy-tee-wah) in Wadowice, Poland on May 18, 1920 to an administrative officer in the Polish army and a former schoolteacher. In 1978, at the age of 58 the College of Cardinals elected him to lead the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first non-italian chosen as Pope in 456 years and the youngest in this century. At age 61 he suffered serious wounds during an assassination attempt.

Racing Day

Well, the posting errors still abound. This will be my 5th attempt at posting...

My wife is now on the road to see the grandchildren. So now, it's race day here. She doesn't much like watching auto racing of any kind. So when she is out, I watch it while I can. She watches the NASCAR Nextel cup races on Sundays with me, but that is about it. Today I am watching Formula 1 series Grand Prix in Bahrain. I am not a total motorhead by anymeans. I just like to watch the occasional race. And with the Speed Channel, there is a lot of racing to watch. Anything from NACSAR and Formula 1 to Baha trucks and off road buggies, to Moto and Supercross.

Along the lines of sports, I am hoping (and praying) the the Seattle Mariners do far better this year, than in the past 2 years. In 2001 we had it made with 116 season wins. That is an all time MLB record. The previous record held by the Chicago Cubs in 1906, however, one of their regular season games was won due to a forfeit. So in my book, the Mariners hold the true record, having won all 116 games on the playing field, and each game ran 9 full innings or more. To me a forfeit just does not count. And it should change the Cubs 1906 record to 115 wins. But then, that is just my humble opinion.

Another sport I enjoy watching are the the Gravity Games. This is an event (tour) of winter sports that have changed quite a bit over the years. Now, it's more competing against the course instead of your opponent. Even though there are competitions that pit people against one another, but they are really trying to beat the course. If you beat the course you beat your opponent. Much like Golf.

More later

Another Day

Ok then. this is not the second, not the third, not the fourth, not the fifth, but now the sixth attempt at making an entry today. I had everything typed in and went to post, and it all just went away due to some server error. this is beginning to happen far too often to me. From now on, I copy and paste what I have entered before I post. Then I do not have to retype everything if my post fails. And it's beginning to look like failures happen quite often with this service. So better safe than sorry.And this time, it is copied text. I got smart. These errors are driving me nuts. I just want to post my text...

Anyway, today, my wife and a friend (who has come down to pick her up) are off to see the grand kids today. We have 6, with a 7th on the way. Needless to say, Christmas continues to get more and more expensive every year. :)

I will be taking care of some chores around the apartment today. Other than that, some TV, perhaps a movie. We shall see.