Hello readers,

It’s been a while since I last wrote. This is due to teh explosive combination of work and laziness. The new year has seen quite a few new projects at work, some planned, some not. To give you an idea, just in January, I’ve becoming the administrator of a new Incident Management web app, installed a new firewall (with the help of consultants) and am in the process of rebuilding a Windows NT Server with SQL 6.5.

This has meant a few 10 hour days and long weekends, but it’s starting to slow down a little. The next project could be a video-conferencing system or something else, but nothing as tough as recreating this NT box that needs to run a mission-critical SQL db. It all started when I tried to restore a SQL backup and it failed. Apparently a failed restore in SQL 6.5 kills your ability to use the current db, so we tried again and again and ended up going to a 2nd box for a temporary fix. Now we’ve discovered that the 2nd box isn’t going to be good enough either, having to do with limited licenses for NT (10 user limit for an MSDN install). Now it’s on to the 3rd box and hopefully there will be success.

The Australian Open has helped keep my mind off work. I don’t know what was a bigger upset, Tsonga crushing Nadal or Djokovic pwning Federer. I would have liked to watch all of the final live, but with the damn timezone difference I fell asleep half-way through the first set. No matter, Djokovic won even though losing the first set. He looked to have the game and experience to beat Tsonga anyways. Tsonga plays with very flat shots and doesn’t have a slice, but wins with his powerful groundstrokes and serve. Djokovic could handle the pace, so it was just a matter of time.

Podcasts I’ve been listening to:

The Bugle (John Oliver ,a la the/a Daily Show,+ Adam Zaltzman)
Around the Horn
PTI
WNYC’s RadioLab (recommended by This American Life)
The Kong Show
B.S. Report with Bill Simmons
Windows Weekly (I do administrate a Windows network, so I feel somewhat obligated)

It’s one week into the new year and things are already exciting. Technically the most exciting event so far was over the New Year’s holiday. I flew to LA last Friday to visit high school friends and take in the warm weather. The sunny weather was a nice respite considering the cloudly and rainy cold of the northwest. Right after touching down at LAX, we drove to Newport Beach and the Fashion Island Mall for shopping and lunch. We ate at the Cheescake Factory, molto bene!, and returned to the rental car to find that right-rear wing window was broken and my friend’s company laptop was stolen. The thief(s) passed up my iPod on the seat for the bag underneath the seat that might or might not have anything of value. Suffice it to say, we spent the next few hours talking to rent-a-cops and real cops.

The truly exciting part came when the ‘CSI Unit’ was called to lift fingerprints. I was sitting in the seat where the window was broken, so there was a chance that the fingerprints were mine. So, I had to give finger and palm prints to rule out my prints. I just heard yesterday that the prints found were NOT mine! Hopefully they catch the scum who stole my friend’s belongings, and his company’s, and discard my prints. I’m not sure how helpfully my prints would be for the official record considering they took my name and birthday only.

Other than that, work is going well as temporary DSL has been setup until the #$(*@# at Qwest get us the T1 line they were supposed to have provided, THREE WEEKS AGO! People are getting settled in after the office move and there is definitely less stress. Although all of the moving has helped me my find my new calling, running Cat5e ethernet cable above the ceilings.

Happy Friday all!

It’s been an exciting two weeks for school and work and play.  First, school has been going spicily.  Not too much individual homework, but the group work is just beginning.  I have semester long projects for two major courses and we’ve got milestones due for both this coming Monday.  My roman literature paper is also due on Monday and will require me to read another play by Plautus and write a summary and analyze the themes and characters compared to other Plautus stories, as well as contemporaries’ stories.

Work has been going swimmingly as well.  Me and my coworkers are about ready to roll-out a few re-designed websites.  Namely the University of Iowa’s Department of Anthropology and the German Department are extremely close to delivery.  As for the Scruple business, we may be adding a realtor as a client by designing a realtor profile and property listing page.  Also, another potential customer has visions of a CMS-based website for visitors to be a part of a social network that disseminates topic-specific information.  I will explain more as the site gets closer to implementation.  Until then it is classified *stamp*.

Fun things have been happening as well.  This Thursday marked two friends’ birthdays and a little celebration at the Iowa City piano lounge.  The pianist was Sean and he was quite good.  We enjoyed wine and martinis and good music and you could sing or clap along too.  Sean felt that our clapping for the Violent Femmes’s “Blister on the Sun” was the best he’d ever heard.  He and his band will be playing at Third Base tonight and the WTS folk will be stopping by to hear the ensemble performance and get some cheap ‘n’ tasty burgers.  When I’m not listening to good music, there’s always the US Open and college and pro football on TV.  Since Roger Federer took down James Blake last night, I’m down to rooting for R-Fed (not to be confused with K-Fed).  Saturday will feature your IA Hawks taking on Syracuse in the Big Apple. GO HAWKS!  The football fun continues into Sunday with the true start of NFL ball and super competitive fantasy sports in multiple leagues.  The fall should be pretty packed, but two tons of fun as well.

Jim Gaffigan ~ “Hottttttt Pocketttttt!  Diahhreaaaaaa Pockettttttt!  Now they’ve got the Breakfast Hot Pocket, so you can have a Hot Pocket for breakfast and lunch and be dead by dinner.”

D-rock

Wimbledon:

I woke up at 6:30 AM (PST) to watch the gentleman’s single championship live. Since Wimbledon is played in England, the finals’ match starts at 6 AM my time. So, it was much to my amazement that I awoke to a Federer 5-0 first set lead. In just forty minutes, Federer was up a set without allowing Nadal a game.

Second set:

7:00 am - Things have definitely turned around as Nadal broke Federer’s serve in the first game. Since then, Nadal has been dictating play and Federer will be lucky to get a break chance on Nadal’s serve. Unless Rog gears it up, I won’t be posting again til the third set.

7:22 am - The second set just got interesting. In the tenth game, Nadal double faults to give Federer two break points. Then, he loops a backhand long to even the set at five all. Federer holds the next game easily.

7:36 am - The second set tie-breaker has come and gone. Nadal had the early break and a 3-2 lead. Federer broke back immediately and ran off to a 6-3 lead. Nadal held his service to make it 6-5, but Federer sealed the set by forcing Nadal to pass him on a decent approach shot. That’s 2-0 sets for Federer and it feels like only a matter of time before Rog has his fourth straight Wimbledon title.

Third set:

8 am - It’s 2-3 and they’re on serve. The fourth game looked promising for Federer to break Nadal’s serve, but Federer blew quite a few opportunities on after having 0-30 lead. Now it’s back to Federer’s serve, and Rog holds easily even after allowing a break point, Nadal’s second of the match.

8:30 am - It just went to a tie-break and Nadal controlled it all the way. With three break points, Nadal wins the set 7-6 (7-3)

Fourth set:

8:48 am - The match seems to be all but over now. Nadal was broken at 1-2 and now its 4-1 Federer. Federer has yet to be broken on his serve, as Nadal only won a set through the third set tie-breaker. And now, Federer is threatening to break again at 4-1.

8:55 am - Federer just broke Nadal’s serve, only to give up his own serve in the very next game. It’s 5-2 Federer and Nadal is serving to stay alive in the match. Sidenote: my dad thinks that Federer is being paid by the advertisers to keep the match going a little longer.

9:02 am - And it’s over. Federer wins Wimbledon for the fourth time in as many years. 6-0 7-6 6-7 6-3 Congrats Rog! All that’s left is to hand out the trophies. Next up, Futbol!!!!!!!!!!!! Zizou! Vive le France! Vive le Quebecois!