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.

Friday Night

Well, April Fools day is nearly over. I have, thus far, escaped unscathed. There were loads of antics in the lab today, it was a good time. I have not heard that many people laughing in one place. Rather refreshing. I work with a great grooup of people. Very relaxed, fun atmosphere. It makes for a great working environment.

It's been a fairly un eventful Friday evening/night. My wife and I tried to make it somewhere on the bus by 5pm, and the bus we needed was about 13 minutes late, and that would have put us at our destination after closing. Gotta love public transit. That's really been the excitement of the post work day. Other than that, just hanging out, watching TV, tinkering on the computer(s) and what not.

Not a lot of excitement around here on a Friday night. But then, with no car, it is rough to get out and about. Public transportation does not make for the most exciting evening out. A car is very definately something we are going to pursue in several months. So for now, it's the bus. It's not so bad really, work pays for my annual bus pass. That is a huge savings for me. So I ride for free anywhere anytime.

Well, that's it for tonight. We'll shall see what tomorrow holds when it gets here.

New Musings

Today begins my blog. It's Friday, April 1st. April Fools Day. What fun it has been at work with all the jokes going around. So far my favorite is Google Gulp. You can find it on the google main page. It's rather amusing really.

I am looking forward to the weekend. It's going to be crappy weather, so it will be a good weekend in. Watch some movies, perhaps come games on the computer, and maybe I will even work on my coding projects. Who knows. We shall see what the weekend brings.