Category: Life News

Close Call

I flew back from the Seattle area yesterday and arrived home late last night. After working 14 hours a day in the same room with the same 14 guys for 14 days [there’s got to be some numerological significance there], I’m VERY glad to be home. I’m especially glad that I don’t have to stay in Woodinville anymore. It was quite a long drive to the office and the corporate apartment was not pleasant.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I flip on the news this afternoon and find out that Woodinville was victim to eco-terrorists! I just have to say that I’m glad I’m not there anymore! Of course, by no stretch of the imagination would the apartments I’d been staying in be considered “luxury” homes…

New Blog Editing Tool

I’ve just discovered the Windows Live Writer tool for editing and posting blog entries. I’ve tried tools like Zempt in the past with limited success, but I have to say that this one is awesome. I can post to both this blog and my new one [see below] with relative ease. Spell check even works!

This post was created with it. Now my next test will be to see how it deals with embedded pictures from my photo gallery. If I had a picture to post, I’d do it now, but… I been busy. No pics. Sorry!

No Time To Blog

2012-01-08 23:30:23

I’m just dropping in a note to say “I’m alive”.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write because we’ve been going 13-15 hours a day in the Directory Ranger class. This schedule is tough. Not only that, but I’ve been sick and am only just now feeling better.

I got sick sometime last week at TechReady, whether it was on the plane I caught it or at the event, I’ll never know. But by Thursday, I was fully sick with a sinus infection. This made my flight home very painful for my sinuses and ears. Then, Sunday I flew again with the same dificulty. I’ve been very lethargic all week until maybe Wed. when the sinus stuff started to go away. Of course, at the same time, Wed. night, I woke up and the left half of my face was swollen and puffy. I figure it is some sort of lymph node that is swollen. The swelling was very bad on Thursday and I felt feverish.

The good news is the swelling has gone down and the feverish feelings have gone away and I’m feeling much much better. All I have left now is a minor sniffle.

The bad news is that I had to suffer through all of this while sitting in training and forcing myself to pay attention when all I wanted to do was sleep. And worse: Laura isn’t here to take care of me 😦

And The Miles Go On…

TechReady 6 [our internal training seminar for Microsoft employees] is now over, with some really cool presentations by BillG and a wonderful guest speaker: Michio Kaku. I read his book “Hyperspace” and highly recommend it for those of you who are interested in theoretical physics.

Now, I’m on the road again – flying back home for an ever-so-brief reunion with Laura only to hop on another plane again on Sunday. It’s not too bad, but it’s my hope that the Ranger training will be somewhat slower paced, what with the parties and dinners that we had to attend here.

Of course, while I was here, I got sick somewhere. Some kind of sinus thing. Could have been the airplane and travel that I’m no longer used to, or just some freak accident. But, I had to power through it anyway. I even passed an exam on my worst-feeling day. But now I go home to Laura and some rest. Then, I get to come back to Redmond and do some more work. Should be more interesting but less exciting – which is better for me in my current state.

And I didn’t get very many pictures.

Wireless Workplace

Don’t you love technology? I mean, until recently, we were all relegated to working at our work locations – offices, customers sites, etc. in order to do our jobs. Now, I can either work from home or work from a place like Panera with free WiFi. I mean, when you can get great coffee and bagels and just sit and work on whatever you want, things are just good.

[GEEK SPEEK BEGINS]
Recently, I have obtained better access to a server we bought to assist in development for a project. I took it and have rebuilt it as a new Windows Server 2008 box, complete with the new Hyper-V beta software [don’t worry if you don’t know what that is… it’s the newest version of Virtual Server] to run some test boxes. My final aim will be to make the server a TS Gateway box so that all machines can be accessed via the same internet connection across port 443. But, I think I need a new IP address for that.

How does this tie in with the subject? Well, TS Gateway will allow for access to the server lab from anywhere regardless of network firewall restrictions as long as the Internet is available. So, it’s very handy for working at places like Panera, or even customer sites.

So, back to the old “grind” [heh – nice pun, eh? Grind? Coffee… get it… ? … nevermind…]

On The Road Again

Soon, in a couple of weeks, I’ll be on the road again for training – work training. The first week will be TechReady in Seattle where thousands of Microsoft field employees gather for a massive training event. Then, after a very brief sojourn at home, I go back to the area, Redmond this time, for the first half of an intesive training program – the Directory Ranger program.

It’s the “alpha” version of a new certification program that will augment the existing Microsoft Certified Architect – Messaging [aka: Exchange Ranger] with an equivalent certification for directory skills. I’ve been fortunate enough to be selected for the first round of training and, while it will be difficult and intense, it proves to be satisfyingly challenging as well. I perhaps will acheive some level of recognition for my skills that was previously lacking – as well as getting noticed for some “leadership” skills. This class is not yet open to the public, but will soon be and I will be on the cutting edge of the program.

It Works For Me [or Toasty Fingers, Part 2]

After buying a voltmeter and new wire clips, I located a good live wire and relocted the power feed for the handgrip warmers there. Turns out that it’s my running light wire, which dims a bit on “high”, but seems to have enough power to run it. The grips certainly got nice and warm.

The disappointing thing, though, is that it doesn’t warm the outside of the hands. The inside which clutches the grip is very toasty… almost too toasty, in fact, but the outside is still chilled. However, even though it gets a little uncomfortable, it’s MUCH better than before. In fact, I can lower my minimum riding temperature down into the teens from the mid 20s at least. I know it was 20 when I just rode and quite bearable with the new grips.

Next, I need to somehow keep my chin warm…

Toasty Fingers

Now, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve put handgrip warmers on the bike. The trick now is to get the wires connected to the right places. I think I did it right, but I’m testing them right now to see if all is okay. They got warm briefly, but with the high-beams on. I wired them to the high-beam circuit, but I was hoping to get the hot wire and not the switched wire.

I may have to move the wire to the low beams. In fact, I’m certain that I will have to. I just need a new wire fastener to do so, and then I can put the bike back together and ride in the cold!

Only… not tomorrow. It’s 9 degrees by some measures here right now. I don’t think that’s warm enough even for handgrip heaters.

One More Again

Blizzards came again. Well, what looked like blizzards to a displced Texan. It came down in buckets today and looks much like the banner at the top of the page. I’m pretty glad I didn’t ride my bike to the office. It would have been a miserable ride home.

Of course, I bit the bullet and ordered some handgrip heaters. They were only $27 or so, but I have to install them under the existing grips. I’m kinda surprised I didn’t do this before. Next, I’m going to try to mod my exhaust system to make it a little louder. It’s not good for a bike to be able to sneak up on people… I need to be heard – it helps with being noticed on the road.

I might even be able to get a louder noise for cheap, too. I’ll let you know what I find out.