The unique thing about today. . .

43 cars, 400 miles, 1068 left turns.

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:06:58 GMT

I attended the Camping World RV 400 NASCAR event today. I have a minor sunburn on my right arm and my right ear, and tinitis in both ears. But I saw some decent racing. I thought Carl Edwards was going to win near the end of the race, but he got into the wall on the last turn and didn't quite make it past number 48, Jimmie Johnson. I also learned that listening to Dale Jr. chew out his spotters on the radio adds some entertainment value. Three chicken tenders for eight bucks can be a bargain, if it's the only low carb, low sodium, protein option available. Smoking, drinking, extended standing, and exuberant pumping of one's fist in the air when one's favorite driver is doing well is allowed in the stands. Free parking is not free. . . if it takes a quarter tank of gas and an hour of stop and go bumper to bumper nonsense to get out of there. On the other hand, I had a pretty good time.

Mister Professor

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:43:50 GMT

I spent the day giving an exam and grading it. I've been teaching a Cisco networking class at DeVry University for the past four weeks. It's kind of rewarding to know that the lectures I've been giving have actually contributed to some people's knowledge. On the other hand, not everyone did well.

Olive Cafe

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:15:08 GMT

I called the only number I could find for a Mediterranean restaurant in Lees Summit. There was an answer, but she said she's been out of business for years. I asked where I should go instead, and she told me Olive Cafe. It's inside a Palestinian grocery store at 95th and James A. Reed. A bunch of us network folks went out there. I wrote a review on Google. It was good. I'm glad there's a Mediterranean lunch option here. I can get my Falafel fix without driving all the way to Westport.

Blog neglect

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:55:34 GMT

I've really been ignoring my blog. Here's something unique, though. In honor of the first tests from the large Hadron supercollider, here is a rap video on the topic. I suppose the test was a success in that it didn't create a black hole and suck up the earth, moon, and the rest of the solar system. Maybe if they get the lead to collide just right, it will destroy France, America's best critic.

AIM Dashboard Horror

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:34:11 GMT

I love to hate the page that loads up in the browser when you log into AIM. I know how to turn it off, but I don't watch E! or read People, so it's really my only exposure to the celebrity fake news that Time Warner is cranking out. The headline? Michael Jackson faces his 50th birthday. The article on the topic said he's working on a batch of songs. I don't think he'll be able to stage a comeback unless he opens a show in Vegas. It made Barry Manilow and Prince a ton of cash. <shrug> I am not a big MJ fan, but I did listen to his music in the 80's. So, I clicked on the associated picture gallery on AOL which illustrates how he, sadly, has clearly ruined his face. I have no words. Click here for the horror.

Bigfoot hoax, and vending machine food.

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:53:43 GMT

Well, the bigfoot dudes turned out to be scam artists. I suppose they made a buck or two from selling caps and t-shirts. One of them lost his law enforcement job, and now they're facing a lawsuit. I blame the press for covering this prank in the first place.

---

Usually, I just hit delete really fast when I get an email like this [emphasis mine]:

From: XXXXXXXX@carrowrealestateservices.com]
Cc: XXXXX
Subject: American Food & Vending - Cafeteria Service

Dear Tenants,

Please read the attached letter. Feel free to distribute it to all of your associates and post it within your space. The continued lack of participation in vending, lack of sales, and rocketing food prices is calling for a more cost effective approach to keeping the cafeterias in business at Summit Tech. We want to continue to provide the amenity but will only be able to do so with everyone at the campus supporting and giving their constructive feedback. If you have comments, positive or negative, for American Food & Vending feel free to send them to me and I will make sure they are passed along.

Thanks,

XXXXX XXXX

Assistant Property Manager

Carrow Real Estate Services, KC LLC

777 NW Blue Parkway

Lee's Summit, MO 64086

P: 816-251-XXXX

F: 816-251-XXXX

XXXXXXXX@carrowrealestateservices.com

=====

It was a boring moment, so I replied. I wonder if they'll get a clue. Most of the food they serve in the cafeteria and put in the vending machines is terribly unhealthy.

=====

I don’t use the vending machines very often, because I usually drink coffee and tea and I’m not big on candy. The machines don’t have mixed nuts, so I bring my own. I usually bring a lunch. But, I once worked in an office with a food cart that came around in the mid-morning with snacks and lunches, and it worked out great. I made an effort to keep cash in my wallet so I could grab something from the food cart and could eat at my desk. It was especially great if I had rushed and missed breakfast or I was waiting for a phone call or stuck on a long conference. If you came around between 10:30 and 11:30 with a food cart full of goodies, packaged sandwiches, muffins, fruit, etc. I would be more likely to buy. That lunch cart guy must have made a fortune, and I know he hit about 10 office buildings every day.

Charles Hill / ♠ Capgemini USA / Kansas City

Network Engineer / Outsourcing Services – IM – NIS

What's black and green at the same time?

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:55:50 GMT

I've heard of some really silly ideas for saving energy, but this one really hit home. It's a version of Google with a black background instead of white. It's called Blackle. Supposedly, the monitor uses less power to display black than white. While Blackle is powered by Google, it lacks a few Google features, so I'm not ready to make it my default search engine. I just took iGoogle and made the background black and used the sleek black theme. That's way better than Blackle already, plus it has my widgets, so I have traffic, weather, engadget news, and a wikipedia search box all right there. I already use the Zune theme for XP, so that's already really dark. The first thing I do in whatever editor or terminal program I'm using is make the background really dark blue and the text light gray. I'm not nostalgic for WordPerfect, it's just easier on your eyes, if you stare at a screen all day.

Body of Bigfoot

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:09:46 GMT

So, these dudes have a Bigfoot in their freezer.

That looks pretty real to me.

Good week.

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:09:24 GMT

Another whirlwind week went by. I bumped into some problems with my complicated router deployment, particularly with the connectivity to the wireless AP. It's difficult when the standards involve connecting an AP to a switch, and the device I'm connecting it to is a switch card inside a router, which is a completely different animal. They've been using the network for a week now, so I think all the kinks are worked out. The rest of the stuff that needs work is just preferences in the voice mail system, and adding a few routes to the VPN, so they can reach all the resources they need and so voice people can get in there and set up the auto-attendant, etc.

I've been watching the Olympics a lot, so there went most of my spare time. About the time I get tired of gymnastics, track and field starts up. I think I'll be glad when it's over. I would never otherwise watch volleyball.

I've been doing a lot of reading, too. Following that entrepreneurship workshop in Chicago, I've been reading books on entrepreneurship, wealth building, and so forth. When pressed with the question of what kind of business would I start if I had to start one, my mind goes in a million directions. I have a lot of talents and quite an accumulation of knowledge, mostly technical. Doing that kind of self-assessment is eye opening. I could definitely do technical services and IT equipment sales and leasing.

Being a landlord for the past 7 years has also been eye opening. I've taken risks and had some victories and some losses, and it's sort of balanced out. On the upside, I learned a ton. Now that I've worked for the smallest of companies, two employees, and the largest, nearly 100,000 employees, I know what works in all of those environments and what doesn't. I've also seen the growing pains of small companies going to medium sized. I've seen mergers and spin-offs. I realize that I've helped make a lot of other people very rich. It makes me wonder when it's going to be my turn. The answer is simply, when I follow in their footsteps and lead an actual business. So, that's what sparked my interest. Anyway, you miss all of the shots you don't take. As a real estate investor, I'm carefully watching the OFHEO data for my area every time it updates. I'm starting to see house prices solidify and even appreciate again. I would be sort of foolish to cash out at the bottom, but on the other hand, I could leverage some cash now by picking up some foreclosed properties at the bottom. It's still a gamble. A service business is not a gamble. The only cost is time and effort. The upside is huge. Anyway, I'm looking for ways to capitalize a startup technical services business, an industry I know inside and out now. I can lay the groundwork now, so when the time comes to branch out on my own, I'll be ready.

Sirius orbit

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:42:01 GMT

The manual for my Sirius docking station at home said to aim my antenna toward the sky over Minnesota. At certain times of the evening, it would start cutting out, so I tried to figure out why. There was some confusing information in online forums speculating why, then I found this image which illustrated my problem.

http://www.mts.net/~jwt/sirius-xmorbitanim.gif

It's not one bird, it's three, and they're in a nifty elliptical orbit with a nice pivot over Canada. I aimed the antenna a little more directly north, and that fixed the problem.