Welp -- went climbing tonight with Michael and Jason. They had to leave -- they decided they wanted to go see Austin Powers tonight and I just didn't feel like spending yet another night away from home -- just needed to chill. So I did some top roped climbs (did a 5.9, a 5.10a/b and worked on a 5.10b where I got the entire climb except the last move).

Then Jason and Michael had to leave but I wasn't ready to yet. So I thought I'd see if I could do any more of this climb I had started the other night. It wasn't marked the other night so I wasn't intimidated by the rating. However tonight it was marked. V3. Now for someone who has topped out at V2's, thats an entirely new level of climbing -- or so I thought.

I worked the section where I had gotten stuck the other night and got past it and up to the top. So I sat on the ground for a couple of minutes and decided well -- might as well give it a go. And woosh -- right on up to the top I went. No probs at all! I personally wouldn't rate it as a V3. V2 maybe. The moves were hard but there wasn't much beyond that -- on the other hand I worked on a V2 tonight where strength is a key facter. I worked out all the moves but failed to piece it all together. Ahh well -- maybe tomorrow night.

I'm going to head off to bed now -- watch an x-files on dvd and then hit the hay -- I'm quite tired tonight.

L8tz allz
--B--

Another night, another show.
See .. if you can't read two messages down, I got on the guest list for another TMBG show. Only this one was in Santa Cruz.

The venue was great! Somewhere between the size of the Mystic (in Petaluma) and the Fillmore (San Francisco). So you weren't feeling crowded at all -- but still a little more personal.

The crowd was younger as well -- from what I saw Santa Cruz reminded me of a college town. Very Isla-Vista ish.
Tried to get a set list but they were out (they were handing out the ones they had on stage and I stepped up just a second too late). It was very simular to last night. Besides doing a completely different order things I deffinately noticed that were different were "Why Does the Sun Shine" instead of "Boss of Me". A couple other differences here and there.

I decided that since it was already late and I had a 2.5 hour drive home that I'd stick around and see if I could get anyone else to sign my shirt. I even 'membered to take a pen with me. And lets see... I've got 3 dan's and 2 John's on it!! w00p! I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who got a signature from John Linnell. He went into the tour bus after the show (as did the drummer, Dan). So nywase, Dan (the drummer) came out and signed my shirt and a couple other guys who were in the back waiting. Everyone else stuck around for another 5 minutes or so and then left. I started to walk away when I heard the bus driver mention to Dan that he was taking John Linnell back to the hotel cause he was tired and did Dan want a ride. So I walked back right as John got out of the bus and before he got in the van to go to the hotel. He looked at me kinda wierdlike when I asked for his autograph -- like he didn't want to do it (hey -- I'm right there with ya Mr. Linnell -- I never could stand the after performance "Hey -- that was great" crap -- I could tell you 50 places where I screwed up so don't tell me that you thought it was good goddammit!) but he good naturdly (sp?) signed it fer me.

The guitarist, Dan Miller, remembered me from last night -- I feel special now! He said "Oh crap -- I forgot to get a better pen!" -- Last ngiht he had a crappy ball point and signed my ticket stub but it didn't sign well. But I went prepared and offered the one I had brought to him.

But all good things must come to an end. TMBG is off to SoCal for a week and then back towards the midwest. As they said in one of their shows (don't remember which one right now) -- "We are putting on a free concert in central park, New York, so for those of you with no money, start hitch-hiking now!" (Or something close to that).

So nywase, I need to get *some* sleep tonight so I'm gonna go crash. You know, it was kinda fun going to see them two weeks in a row, two nights each week. Kinda made me spoiled. Now what am I going to do next Tuesday and Wednesday evenings???

On a somewhat unrelated (but related) note ... just something that struck me as funny. There was this quite overweight guy at the show last night. OH yah!! Let me go on another side note first...

On the way to the show last nigth Jason and I almost hit Dan Miller! He was j-walkin' cross the street in Petaluma an I stopped to let him cross. And I was like -- he looks familiar!! -- That was cause it was Dan Miller.

Nywase, back to my first side note: the overweight guy. He was sittin' there trying to bop along to the music. No offense to overweight people as I'm not a skinny stick, but a) He didn't have any sense of beat. And b) He did it through the ENTIRE show! I immediately thought "This guy goes to concerts so he can do jazzersize!" I know that was mean of me, but it was the first thought that popped into my tiny little head (Why is his head so big? Whyyyyyyyyyy is his head so big???). So what's my point? That guy was at this show as well. The show tonight (or yesterday night now I guess). And still no sense of beat. And still boppin' along. It was humorous to me. If you are the guy who was boppin' along and you read this, sorry -- I get my strange humour from my cats and my g/f. Don't blame me!

So really -- I'm off to bed now. Really!
--B--

PS - As Missy pointed out on the phone today, it was the *other* John that I talked to two days ago now -- John Flansburg. L8tz all!

Should I go?
Should I stay?
Should I go?
Should I stay?
Should I go?
Should I stay?
Should I go?
Should I stay?
Should I go?
Should I stay?
Should I go?
Should I stay?

I think I'll go!
--B--

Wow!! Another night, another awesome performance by TMBG!!

I was smarted! I wanted to get a set list so I took a piece of paper and pen to write the numbers down on. But then I was standing near the bar waiting on Jason to get a Guiness and what is right in front of the bar? The main board (mixing wise). And what do you think was sitting on the board? You guessed it -- the set list!!

So hear it is...
Victorious (dubbed)
Clap Your Hands (great crowd opener!)
Bed Bed Bed
Dr. Worm
Cyclops Rock
Dead (the shopping bag song)
In the Middle
She's Actual Size
Fingertips (I just love this one!!!)
John Lee
Kricket
Maybe I Know
Particle Man
Drink!
Istanbul (great guitar solo/intro!!)
Robot Parade (Punk Rock version -- not the kiddie version)
She's An Angel
Meet James Ensor
4 of 2 (great song)
Boss Of Me (Malcum in the Middle theme song)
Minimum Wage
No!
How Can I Sing Like a Girl

First Encore:
Violin
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Guitar

Second Encore:
Sping the Dial (hardly any stations so this wasn't as good as the other two times)
Older
NY City

So the show just kicked ass. Sorry -- no pictures this time. It would've been easy to get the camera in -- they weren't even checking (I saw several people there with digital cameras). Oh well! I got signatures from two of the Dan's (guitar and bass) and from John Linnell(?) (vocal/guitar).

And now for the interesting news. There is a chance (if I feel like the drive) that I can go to the Santa Cruz show as well! It's a 2hour 15minute drive tho. And after a build...I dunno. But the offer was there as the John who signed my shirt said "Hey -- you were at the other two shows cause your gf asked to get you on the guest list for this one -- wanna go to the show tomorrow?" I was shocked as he reembered the fact that Missy had asked (he asked who to make the autograph out to). So .. I'm thinking here .. if I leave at 7:00pm that puts me down there at around 9:15-9:30ish. Poifect for getting to see them again!!

It's just the drive back up that would suck. But I could always sleep in on Thursday! Sheesh -- all these diificult decisions. Anywase, I'll keep ya'll posted!

Thanks to Jason and Josh for going to the concert tonight -- hope they had as much fun as I did!!

L8tz
--B--

Work was blah today. Probably from two late nights -- and I'm on an ucky project.

See I've gotta come up with a way to speed up our db upgrades. So I came up with a way and it's working -- but the number of little things that I've gotta go through to get it working is just incredible -- does the table have a primary key? Are there indexes on it? How about constraints? etc etc etc.

And then seems like everything we put on QA broked. Oh well.
Early to bed fer me tonight! I just realized today (thanks to Chris) that I didn't update the template pages for the archive pages on this blog. Something to work on over the weekend I suppose!

Oh yah -- and I put in a new dvd drive in Missy's puter. The old one was really crappy at switching layers and such. Hopefully the new drive (with front-loading capabilities and all that kewl stuph).

Well -- I'm outsa here -- enuf puters fer me!
--B--
Climbing tomorrow! w00p!

Another night ... another show.

Managed to sneak in a camera so I will be posting pictures shortly. They aren't that great of quality -- I didn't want to use the flash since someone else we were with got his camera taken away. Just wanted to play it safe!

We went with some "baygnomies" -- thats Lockergnome subscribers from the bay area. And went with Chris Pirillo (guy who runs Lockergnome) and Gretchen his wife. Also met Matt and his s/o(?). And Melanie and her husband -- all in all a fun group! Chris (even without coffee) is on crack to begin with -- and he had a cup of coffee before we left!! He also works for TechTV and TMBG stopped by the studio today and he got to meet 'em in person.

So on to the show!
The show was opened by Noe Venable who also opened last night. She seemed much more relaxed tonight -- it's got to be hard to open for a band -- you know everyone isn't there to see you -- they're there to see the headlining band. Anywase, she performed basically the same set as last night with a few additions (she got on stage closer to 9:00 instead of closer to 9:15).

Then TMBG came on (w00p!)
Started with "Raise your hands" -- a classic crowd pleaser. It was nice to see that they changed the song set around quite a bit. They added songs (Why does the Sun Shine, She's an Angel, and a couple others). Played songs in a different order, etc. It was very nice for those of us who showed up two days in a row.

And during one of the encore's they broke out the conga line!!! w00000p!!! Nothing like getting 1500 to 2000 people all going in a MASSIVE conga line!

And to top off a great evening I'm now on the "Guest List" for the Petaluma show -- not sure exactly what that means but I'm fairly sure it's at least a free ticket. yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So ... long story short, it kicked ass two nights in a row! Now I can't wait until next Tuesday!!!

Pictures are here.
--B--

PS -- Sorry for the image quality -- I'll try to sneek the camera in to the show next week and hopefully get better pictures!

We went and saw TMBG tonight. The first of three shows this month for me. And all TMBG!! (thats They Might Be Giants for those of you not so geekily inclined).

I tried to remember a set list but they played for just over two hours and when their average song is around 3minutes long thats a lot of songs!

A quick overview of ones that stand out:
Istanbul
Cyclops Rocks
No No No
Bed Bed Bed Bed Bed
Fingertips
4 of 2
James K Polk (opened with it)
Sing like a Girl
Dr. Worm
Dead Dead Dead
Violin
I Palondrome I
Everything right is wrong again

And then for one of the encores they came out and had a radio hooked up to the pa and they would find a station, listen to the music, and then improvise sounding just like the music you had heard on the radio -- it was AMAZING!!

And of course there were the awesome solos by the three Dan's and two Johns. Their drummer, Dan Hickey, always does an amazing job on his 5-10 minute drum solo. They do it like dial-a-song where they say "Say or press 1 if you would like to hear Dan play like the drummer for such and such a band" -- and everyone shouts it, and then he plays in that style -- just amazing! Their guitarist and bassist were also quite adept in their solos.

Just an incredibly fun show overall!! Can't wait to see what they do tomorrow!
Thats all from me for tonight -- off to bed so I'll be awake for the one tomrrow. Look for another writeup of that one.

--B--

Uploaded some new pictures from your trip on the fourth. They can be found at this location.

Not much happened today -- pretty uneventfull. Put some new wierd sites up on the wierd web wonders. Thats about it.

--B--

Another quick two...
Staplers, especially red ones, are in high demand. So for those of you who need the fix, the fix of hearing a stapler staple...
http://www.virtualstapler.com/

And on a lighter pressing site, lips pressed together, it's:
http://www.virtualkiss.com/
Yup -- you guessed it -- done by the same people!

Some people just have soooooo much time on their hands, they take the time to come up with some of the most unique sites out on the web. I mean take for example all the kewl flash sites that exist -- nothing but pretty, well designed flash sites. And then there are people who come up with ideas like this:
Put packages onf condiments on the scanner and let's create a museum!
Yup -- it's the condiment museum.

http://www.clearfour.com/condiment/

Props to Jason for finding this one!
w00p!

Ho hum.

Thats about how I feel today. It's been a depressing sort of day. Kept running into problems at work -- one after another. You know, the way that the company is run, it's a wonder it's still in business today.

One of these days I'll really rant about work but that takes effort and I don't feel like putting forth any effort.

So I weant climbing tonight. Was supposed to go with our Chiropracter dooder but his wife wouldn't let him. So whatever. I went climbing. I was having a terrible time sticking any climbs -- from V0's and up. I did manage to do a very hard V2 that I've only done once before but that was it. From then on I couldn't (well I did) but it was so very hard to stick 'em. I started a V0 circuit and only made it around one room before just not being able to keep my feet on anything.

So I finished early. pulled off my shoes and saw a hole in the rubber of one of the shoes. Well d'0h! That was why I couldn't stick anything. So... my climbing slippers are going off to the shoe-shop to get resolled and fixed up. Thank god I had another pair of shoes to wair or I'd be having to go track down another set to purchase.

Oh well -- crappy ending to a crappy day.
--B--

Welp -- back from my mini-vacation.
Got in major trouble for assuming that an "Okay" meant just that. Oh well. Not my problem the way I see it.

Went climbing tonight at the gym. Got Jason to belay me as I onsited a 5.10a and then struggled but eventually made it up a 5.10b. Was fun. A good break from the boldering room.

Emailed Jim Munger -- the Headmaster at Dunn School. He replied!! Just was offering my services if he ever needed it in regards to tech stuff. Anywase, I was surprised that he replied so quickly tho.

Anywase, just a quick update tonight. -- Visit the Weird Web Wonders page -- it got updated yesterday!

--B--

Okay I lied -- this is the last one!
http://www.nobscan.com/

And what is a nob? All I have to say is that while not pornographic in nature ... well .. it's a very well done site!! Hey the javascript even works in Mozilla!

Okay -- another two and thats it for today...
http://www.swearbear.com
For those of you who need a kids bear that swears -- teach those kids early!!!

And when having Missy try and visit that website she found:
http://www.squarebear.com/
In case you are Gay or Lesbian and like to square dance...

Hey it takes all sorts of people!!

Then there was the chipmunk/squirrel dance.
But have you heard about the nutsac dance?

http://www.karnevil9.com/nutsac/

w00p!

http://www.moonmac.com/Mormon_masturbation.html

Now I have nothing against religions. In fact since 90% of the world believes in one form of a "God" or another I'm one of those funky-assed 10% who doesn't. Why ask you? Because of stuff like this. While incredibly funny it's still eye opening... A guide to "Mormon Masturbation Prevention"

Yay!!!!!

Why?
Why would a male wear skirts and then publish pictures of it on the web? I ask you!

http://www.skirtman.org/gallery.html?bwo=ari

Well...
Missy and I are heading off to my uncle's house. He lives up near Chico -- in a little town called Forrest Ranch. I plan on a couple days of relaxation after these tense past couple days doing a migration from hell (which looks to be running smoothly today!!).

I'm gonna climb on some real rock (yeah -- they have those there!) and swim in the stream and relax in general.

I guess thats about it for now -- and if anyone is pissed off at me at work for taking Friday off fuck off and die -- I've already put in 38 hours this week.

--B--

Exchange has been migrated.
It was both worse and better then I expected. Got it all running and then two of the services just kept failing to start during a boot. I could start 'em by hand but not automatically. So I spend two hours on it and then all of a sudden it starts working -- what did I do? I don't know. It just suddenly started working!

The actual migration worked well -- slow -- but well.
And so I left at 7 -- 11 hour day (ugh) but I was satisifed. Went shoping (got Star Trek Next Generation Season 3!) and then went climbing. Got home and found that Michael (my manager) had called and said that emails weren't getting through from the Internet.

After delving into it for a bit I found that the dns entry for defiant.lti.goalview-world.com (our new DC and exchange 2000 server). So after some haxoring of the dns, I got defaint set up with a static ip (it had one before but the dns entry wasn't there!) and I delegated control of the subdomain - lti.goalview-world.com to defiant. That seems to have fixed it. We'll see tomorrow I suppose.

In other news, I'm looking forward to some time away from high-technology. We are heading up to my uncle steve's for the fourth. Gonna take some climbing gear and go swimming, climbing, and fishing. w00p!

And kitty? I update it when I damn well please!! So there :)
*sigh*
Going in early again tomorrow to make sure that things are still working okies. Hope that they are.

So I guess thats it!
Oh yah -- thanks to Jason for getting his belay test done and belaying me tonight -- that was a blast!

L8tz!
--B--

Tomorrow I begin an ucky process. It's called migration.
All in one day I've got to finish loading a machine, get Exchange 2000 installed and working, move all the data thats important and not private, adn then migrate all the user data for exchange.

I tested the process out today. Installing the software takes around 4-6 hours (i've got about 2.5 of it done now). Then the migration of data takes around 4 hours. All in all I'm looking at 8 hours or so of time.

And being a sysadmin, I need to minimize the downtime during the whole process. Since we *are* an Internet company, email is a very big part of that. If email starts bouncing it not only makes the company look bad but makes me look bad as well. So I plan on doing the actual migration step at around 3 tomorrow afternoon. That should minimize the downtime for everyone involved.

When thats done, or while it's going, I gotta go around to each machine and have it join the new domain. A process that will take another bit of time.

So...
Tomorrow is going to suck!!

On top of that, the vice-president of the company started coping an attitude with me about taking Friday off. She started pulling the "we can't afford to be a company and stay open if everyone leaves" to which I say -- close the company then! Not that it should be any of my fucking worry. Oh well -- it pisses me off thinking about it so I'll just concentrate on getting the migration done. I can add that to my resume at least.

Gotta start getting that out to companies. I don't think I can stick it out here much longer -- and I don't honestly know how much longer the company is going to be around -- they are having major problems with money right now.
*sigh*

So much to worry about.
Well now I'm depressed
Me signing out
--B--