Swimming In Thought

OK.. Here’s a story that will bring some levity to the whole situation. I really needed this to brighten my day. Let’s just say this happened some time in the past…

So I’m talking to my friend Denise and she decides she’s going to come visit me. There’s nothing wrong with me seeing an old friend right? Well, let’s see. She’s beautiful, smart, funny, kind, and single and she likes me (for some weird reason I still have yet to understand).

Here’s the funny thing. She decided to take a plane from where she lives (France) to come visit. There’s nothing wrong with that considering most people would take a plane from France to the US. It’s a 5-10 hour flight (depending on where you go in the US). Yes.. Middle America.. but that’s besides the point.

She arrives this morning and I didn’t get a chance to see her until after work (late). We get into my room and her phone rings. It’s her father and man.. is he pissed. Apparently, she decided to take the jet without telling him. Not realizing that it costs 8K per hour to run one of these beauties (It’s a Gulfstream) and it’s a 10 hour flight, that’s 80K each way + landing fees + parking fees + crew lodging and food. You get the idea.

Now, as if that’s not funny enough, she just put the plane over on the hours before the next required service (A full engine tear-down). The jet’s nowhere near her home airport, it’s not under contracted maintenance in the US with any of the major companies, she’s gonna have to pay full rack-rates (well her dad will) to get it serviced before she’s allowed to take it back to France. We’re talking a minimum of 300K for this little excursion. It’s funny, because he’s screaming at her and she just keeps telling him in french, “But dad. It’s not like you didn’t need to do the service. When was the last time I took it out!?!! It’s been years!”

Needless to say, I’m laughing my ass off, she seems to think it’s funny as well. It looks like she’s going to be flying back to France without the jet while it gets serviced here in the US. It’s going back with just the crew in a month.

Her response when I asked her what she thought of the whole thing? “Serves him right for not taking care of the maintenance…” ROFL.

Just thought I’d share… It’s just one of those Homer Simpson moments.

Tags: Personal by admin
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OK. If you’re anything like me, you get a lot of email and you also keep everything! Call it CYA (Cover Your Ass), but in this day and age, you need to right? Well.. Here’s the solution.

The key to this whole thing is to get it in a format that will very unlikely suffer from obsolescence and keep it easy to index (find what you need when you need it). So here’s my solution and it works quite well.

Thunderbird: Use the smartsave add-on and export your emails to a folder. Do this regularly (once a week or so).

Microsoft Outlook: I installed “MessageSave”, it has lots of nifty features, but my personal favorite is to set up an incoming and outgoing filter to automatically save copies into that folder as well.

Now to keep the mail easy to find / index. Just install Google Desktop. That’s it!

All your mail is on the file system and if you back up regularly (I use carbonite). I’ll never lose anything! Attachments and All…

Well.. Just a few words of wisdom from someone who knows what it’s like to have to look for that one email out of thousands. (I get over 300 emails a day).

Cheers.

Tags: Technology and IT by admin
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I need some help here.. Which one is more “Me”?

The R8 is just an all-around fun car and I could take it more places, while the Aston is just so classically beautiful.  I’m torn.

Tags: Personal by admin
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Moving this week.  Fun.  I just love moving.

Tags: Personal by admin
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While CentOS and Redhat have a wonderful update facility called Yum, there are some pitfalls to just randomly issuing a ‘yum update’ especially if you have very little experience with the intricacies of your configuration.  Like any “techy” geek, I was bored and randomly decided to update my mailserver cluster last night. (yes, I have a cluster.. don’t ask. It’s a redundancy thing even though it’s only for just my personal use).

Normally, I would think ahead, but at 2:32 AM, you don’t think straight and you just issue commands.  So.. I did.  I issued a yum update and went to sleep.  I woke up this morning to find that I hadn’t received any emails and this was a bit troubling.  I usually get 200-300 emails a day + spam.  (I’m so loved).  I hadn’t even received one single spam.  Something was up in the state of Denmark.

I definitely figured it was something to do with the update and I decided it would be prudent to check the configs and see what’s up.  So here’s where it gets interesting.

Yum decided Postfix needed to be updated, but the rpm wasn’t compiled with MySQL, SASL, and TLS  support.  So the transport mappings didn’t exist and needless to say, that causes Postfix to die.  So back to a manual recompile of Postfix.  Anyone that has installed a mailserver knows it’s not a fun task, but I’ve done it enough times in my life that it’s *almost* second nature for me.  Just a quick recompile and all is well.

For those of you using CentOS 5.x, the command line is:

make -f Makefile.init makefiles ‘CCARGS=-DHAS_MYSQL -I/usr/include/mysql -DUSE_TLS -I/usr/include -DUSE_SASL_AUTH -DUSE_CYRUS_SASL -I/usr/include/sasl’ ‘AUXLIBS=-L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient -lz -lm -lssl -lcrypto -L/usr/lib -R/usr/lib -lsasl2′

Then do a Make, then Make Install.  Make sure you have the Cyrus-SASL stuff installed, otherwise it won’t work.

So ultimately, take the advice how you want to take it, but think about the effects of issuing a yum update before you do it.  If you don’t know what you’re doing or don’t have access to the resources, I don’t suggest you do it unless you can easily get the help you need when things go awry.

Tags: Technology and IT by admin
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It just makes you feel better. A mental and emotional recharge. I’m feeling much better. Melissa and I got to see the city in all it’s glory. Something about it always draws me back. I don’t wanna leave!!!

Tags: Personal by admin
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So.. I decided to remove the last post from my blog, because it was just so damn negative.  I realize I have to “move on” so that I can start to live again.  There’s a part of me that died recently, but, I realize that the healing process starts with the first step.

While I don’t think I can feel that way again, I feel like we all make choices in our lives.  Mel has been a blessing to me.  She’s a smart, intelligent, incredible friend.  She’s been there with me this whole week and I decided to ask her to accompany me on my trip this weekend.  It’s always good to have a second opinion.

I don’t know why I’m looking, but I’ve always had a place to escape to and not having a place to escape to is like losing a limb.  I’ve lost my heart, I don’t wanna lose my mind too! hahaha.

I would like to thank everyone for their words of support (you know who you are) and I know this pain too, will pass.  Well.. the pain never leaves you, but you grow numb to it and eventually find the strength to bury it.

I truly thank my friends for the wonderful gift of “the opportunity for love”, but at this point, I’m just not ready.  I don’t know if I ever will.  When I lost my first true love, I never thought I could love again.  It’s been 16 years, and the pain is still there. I’ve learned to move on and recently discovered she is still very much in my heart and with me.  Love is a funny thing.. It truly is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.  I feel comfortable with that statement no matter how cliche it is.

Mel has been instrumental in helping me start the healing process and I’m going to take her to a place very dear to me this weekend.  I’ve never shared it with anyone (being there alone), but I think I will share it for the first time.. with a friend.

Mel, I know you’re going to read this, but I want you to know that you hold a special place in my heart for all your support through this incredibly rough time for me.  As you know, I’m very outspoken about my feelings and I’m going to emblazen these feelings on the blog here for you.  “I love you for being you.”  I could never have ever started to heal without your support and friendship.  When you found out, you just immediately dropped everything you were doing and came to my aid.  That takes a special person and for that I will remember this forever.

My other friend, Lisa, you’ve been there for me although things didn’t work out between us.  I want you to know that you too hold a special place in my heart.  You’ve shown me how to be a “better” person and taught me a very valuble lesson.  For this, I will never forget you either.  Thank You for being my friend.

My two other friends who prefer not to be named have also been there for me throughout this whole experience.  You’ve supported me, consoled me in a time when I needed it most.  I hope that one day I can repay you.

OK.  Enough of the sappy stuff, I’m happy to report that I have started the process to getting the permits for the expedition.  I need to be certified by the expedition, but this shouldn’t be a problem with all the training and experience I’ve had.  I’ve decided that I’m going to do the climb Alpine Style and Solo.  So I’ll be alone on the trek.  I’m planning on being at the sanctuary two days before my birthday and starting the climb that morning.

I need to work on low oxygen training, so I’ll be doing aerobic exercise using low-oxy gear and extra weights on my arms and legs.  I’m going to do a few free climbs over the next few weeks on the west coast.  It’s been years since I’ve done it, but I’m pretty sure I’ll just fall right back into it.  Like riding a bike.. You never forget.

I need to clear my head and the best way to accomplish this is through physical activity that requires what I call, “Pure Focus”.

More to come, but It should be an interesting few months.

Tags: Personal by admin
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