Monday, Monday, Monday!

This is a repost from my daily work journal. I thought I'd share it here. I'm all kindergarten like that:

After spending the weekend feeling as if I had been run over by a monster truck or two (read, sick!), I got to work this morning, checked in for the layout of the day, then headed to Texarkana for a supply run.

I never really thought buying some "knick-knack" shelves (for video cameras) and a few cables would be such an adventure. I started the trip at Home Depot. Did you know Home Depot does not carry anything shorter than 23.5" in the way of shelves? I didn't. In fact, I think they used to. Oh, well. I figured I would try another store.

I went to Best Buy to look for an S-Video extension cable, a couple of VGA extensions, and to see if *they* happened to have shelving for speakers (that I could use for video cameras). They did not have an S-Video extension. In fact, they only had a 6-foot standard one. So, I bought two VGA extensions I needed and a small switch for the Sympodium cabinet (way too many network connections wrapped up in one unit for me!).

After Best Buy, I drove over to Lowe's to look for shelving. I actually found a two-pack for $20 that had two black shelves with hardware for mounting it "bracketlessly" to the wall. Very slick! I picked up two of those and headed for Radio Shack.

I arrived before Radio Shack opened, so I checked my phone messages and had one from an area tech. I returned the call and he was having trouble getting some users to log in to his Novell network. He said users could log in to "Workstation Only (WSO)" mode. I suggested that he have one of the WSO users login in using the Novell system tray icon once they were logged in to WSO mode. It worked - the users could read mapped drives and get to Groupwise. Now that we had a way for users to function, the next step was to isolate the problem. I said that I thought the problem was either in a login script or was happening as part of the login process. He told me that some users had received an anti-virus message that a couple files on the server were infected. It's important to note that not all users were having trouble logging in. Because the users could login through WSO (which runs scripts as part of logging in), I had eliminated the login scripts as the culprit. The tech said he would call me back later.

Though Radio Shack did not have an S-Video extension cable, they did have an S-Video coupler, which would serve the same purpose.

I got back to the co-op and worked with Josh to install the shelves in the Conference room, do some cable management and get wires ready for the Panduit I have coming. After that, we worked on the Distance Learning room. From there, I began moving telephone lines around in the telco closet. We've been having trouble with the fire alarm/security system and the elevator not playing nicely with each other. So, like a teacher in a classroom, I separated everyone. The elevator is now on its own line and the security system is on two completely different lines than it used to be. I had never used a 66-block punchdown tool before. It's not quite the same as a 110-punch. I kept getting the wire turned sideways, so it wouldn't cut. I finally showed it who was in charge. It wasn't me. Just kidding.

I spent the rest of the day checking email and answering phone calls (which amounted to about 30 minutes total. It was a full day!)

I hate being sick

It started Wednesday night. I don't really remember now.  I ended up going to bed with a slight tickle in my throat.  It was nothing major, just a bit of an annoyance.  I took some night-time medicine just in case.

Thursday came and I woke with something a little stronger than a tickle, but still nothing that a few lozenges couldn't handle.  By Thursday evening, things were on a downhill slide.  The tickle was more like swallowing bits of sandpaper and my body decided to pretend it was in one of those "night-time, sniffling, sneezing..." commercials.

Friday came, it was bad.  Sore throat, headache, stuffy nose that was also running.  Ah, yes, the makings of a full-on cold (or worse, flu).  I wasn't the only one, though.  A couple folks at the office were having similar symptoms.  Trying to install cabling, run wires, climb ladders, etc is not fun on a good day.  Try it when your head is spinning *before* you get on the ladder.  At the top of the 8-foot ladder, I looked down at one point.  The pattern in the carpet swirled, swayed, and swooped.  I was pretty sure the ladder's legs went loose and limber as I stood there trying to find something, anything, to hang on to.  Lucky for me, the ceiling grid is firmly attached to the roof.  Friday night, we went to the Curley Wolf game and watched our boys in maroon and white put some serious hurting on the other team.  I will say, though, that when the other team managed to score a late-game touchdown, EVERYONE cheered - our fans, their fans, everyone.  It was a reassuring moment that affirmed all that is actually "right" with small town Friday night football.  After that, we headed to the church for "5th Quarter" in which local youth are invited from post-game to midnight for games, food, and fun.  We worked the concessions.  Honestly, I don't remember much about the event.  I was kinda out of it.

Saturday rolled in like heavy equipment at a road construction site.  In fact, I believe my first thought Saturday morning was, "Did anyone get the number of that truck?"  I lazed around for a while, then we got up, cleaned the house, and headed to Hope for lunch and weekly grocery shopping.  I truly do not remember much about Saturday, except we listened to the Hogs on the radio until we got home and caught the house of cards collapsing on television (translation: Mallett's fall into the well that became the loss to Alabama).  I'm sure we did some other things on Saturday. I wouldn't bet on that though.  Going to bed was rough - lots of meds and I'm sure I fell asleep before even deciding if I like the new pillows we got.

Sunday rolled in more like a VW Bug than construction equipment.  I hung out, got dressed for church and went to service.  It's my month for taking up the offering as one of the ushers, and I vaguely remember telling one of the guys at the door that I was not feeling well.  I took up the offering.  I have been blessed in ways that surpass any sickness I might be having, and the LEAST that I could do is take up the tithes and offerings.  After service, we came home for some of Shan's 2x4 soup!  I don't know what's all in it, but it is GOOD!  After lunch, I alternated between snoozing and watching football.  Except for the sick part, it was a nice way to spend a Sunday.

Now, I told you all of that to tell you this: I hate being sick.  Being sick puts me in a position where I can't do anything, or at least very little.  I am sure I've talked about this before, but I am not one of those whiny, lay around guys.  There are things to be done.  While there was no whining (at least that I can recall), I was certainly not much help today. I tried to help Shan with lunch, but she had everything under control and I was basically wandering around the kitchen aimlessly.  Now, I will tell you, aimless walking is something I tend to do when I am not feeling well.  I don't like to be babied, so rather than moan and groan on the couch, I like to walk around and give the appearance that I am among the living.  In actuality, everyone would probably rather I just sit down and rest (red, stay out of the way).  For what it's worth, that's what I tried to do Sunday after I left the kitchen.  Of course, this time in sickness, I could do little else. 

Now, if only there are no feelings of being run over by anything on Monday, I'll be good to go - lots of work to do!

Woo Pig Sooie!

I did not always cheer on the Razorbacks.  When I lived in Pittsburgh, naturally I cheered on Pitt and Penn State.  Unless they played each other, in which case, I cheered Pitt. While attending CU-Boulder, I cheered for the Buffs, of course.  Then, when I moved to Arkansas, I hated the Razorbacks. Really. 

But, over the years that I have lived here, I learned to build respect for the various athletic teams and have since become a casual fan of the Hogs.  I am not a die-hard fan - I don't know all the stats of all the players, and couldn't even tell you who the players are outside of Mallett (and yes, I may have spelled his name wrong for all I know).  But, I have become a fan, nonetheless. 

And so, today when we (yes, I said WE) face the Rolling Tide, I say:

WWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
PIG SOOIE!
RAZORBACKS!

Fall "Gathering of Authors" Event Dates and Schedule

The fine print?

I realize the wording on the image above is a little hard to read, so here is what it says:

"Transient Suppression Voltage 100V - The effect of this product on connected equipment and the adequacy of the voltage suppression level to protect connected equipment from voltage surges has not been evaluated by underwriters laboratories."

Now, I normally would not care about something like that on a surge suppressor like the one above, but do you notice the "UL" logo on the device!?  How can they use the UL logo if the device was never evaluated by UL for surge suppression!?  What *was* it evaluated for, then?

Hmmm...