Day: 18 April 2004

Morgan’s Still So Cute

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Got to see Morgan and Carrie for a whole 2 minutes last night. She is so cute. Morgan that is. I need to see her more often. That is what I want, and what I am being told by every women in my family except for Morgan. Of course in Morgan’s defense she cannot talk just yet. If she could I bet she would say the same thing.

Carrie got back from Germany Friday. She looked pretty good for someone who just traveled almost 10,000 miles in 5 days. I never wrote about it but she was off to Frankfort Germany last week for work. She didn’t want to go because of the baby but she said she had a good time. She will probably have to go every so often since a new project she is on is out there. I am jealous. I wanted international travel, and never got to do it. 99% of my travel was in north america. I don’t consider going to Canada international travel! Of course I do NOT regret leaving Datastream. At the time I was done with traveling. I am 100% + happier now that I am not on the road.

Jayson At Work

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Jayson will be in New York Monday night. He is going to do some contract work for my company for a few weeks while we search for a helpdesk person. I have a bunch of projects he is going to help me on. If all goes well we will improve our data center allot!!!

I am a bit nervous about him coming up. Not sure why. He is very professional and works fast. I am a bit rattled by Keith leaving, and Jay is another person I know coming to work. I vouched for him, so I am a bit nervous. I don’t think he will let me down, but I worry anyway. It will be interesting to work with him again. The last time we did was back in 1999 when we were in Baton Rouge.

It will be weird having one of my oldest friends working for me, even temporarily. On the plus side is we get along so well, and he is no nonsense like me. We should get allot done.

On the flip side I have a guy starting monday that will be our Release Manager. He will also work with our production systems providing support. He seems pretty sharp, so I am hoping for the best. Lots of change recently. Change is good, but it can be scary.

This blog entry was written while listening to Wherever You Will Go by The Calling

Vacation?

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I need one. I want one. I have a willing travel companion. Why can’t I think of where to go?

I am not going anywhere so soon. Work is a bit crazy right now. I need to fill a position in our NYC office. I also have a new guy that is starting that needs to get broken in. Also Gus will be away for several weeks in May. Hopefully I can think of something to do in May and go in July or something. Of course the tropical islands is not the place to go during the summer. I have to think about this a bit.

I will ponder now and hopefully come up with something soon. I better do it soon. I have maxed out my time off. I need to use it or I cannot generate any more.

This blog entry was written while listening to Crash and Burn from the album “Affirmation” by Savage Garden

Printing

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I am (sort of) on the market for a new printer. My old (new) printer is an HP laser jet 1000 printer. it is great except it won’t work on my mac. It just wont work. I checked everywhere. I want a laser printer that will work with my mac. I bought the HP before I got into Mac’s and thought that printer would last me years. My first (and only other printer I have bought) was a HP desk-jet 300 portable printer. it lasted me like 7 years before I got a free upgrade from my dad.

I may sell the printer on ebay and buy a new one that will do what I want. Now I am thinking that I should look for a bluetooth enabled printer to work with my Mac? that way I can keep it away from my desk. Maybe hide it in my wall unit. That would be cool. I am still researching the options. I am also looking for the extra cash to pay for this:)

This blog entry was written while listening to Superman from the album “America Town” by Five for Fighting

Saturday With Friends

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I tried to catch up on some work this morning. I had the time. I got up at 10AM. Still cannot sleep, but I refuse to take something unless I am sick. So no drugs for that for me right now.

I meet up with Alison and friends in the afternoon. She had friends from college come up from New Jersey and wanted me to meet them. By the afternoon I was feeling a bit out of it from a potential headache but I knew it meant allot to her for me to go. I met them at the Cheese Cake Factory. I had a light lunch/dinner. Her friends were cool. I had a good time, and I think they did also.

We walked around the mall for a while (see the MOB for some pictures) and then went to this new ice cream place. It was really good. They mash the toppings right into the ice cream as you stand there. It was the first time I went to the cheese cake factory and didn’t get cheese cake. The desert was good anyway. I wasn’t that hungry from the the headache. I barely ate my meal and had half the ice cream. it was still good.

We all went to Jillian’s to try and play some bowling. Don’t ask, it wasn’t my idea. They were having a party so we couldn’t play there. We then went to another bowling place by Alison’s apartment. That place also was busy for hours. Turns out people play leagues of bowling during the early evening on Saturday. Information that you don’t need to know.

We ended up at a bar and just hung out for a while. It was fun. we called it a night early because 4 of them had to drive back to jersey. Alison and her friend Alison went to the movies. I didn’t want to push the headache thing with going to a loud movie so I passed. Sean called from work when we were at the bar so I had something I had to do for work anyway.

End of day. FYI it is warm in my apartment right now. I hope for AC soon!!!

This blog entry was written while listening to Bent from the album “Beneath These Fireworks” by Matt Nathanson

Migraine Update

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When I started this blog I told myself it would server a small personal function to document when I had migraines and when I took medication. Not anything anyone needs to know about, but it saves me from having to keep it in a spread sheet. I write about my day in this blog anyway, so it just made sense. And yes I said I would otherwise have to keep this record in a spread sheet. The doctors tell you to do that so you know when you had one.

Well this week I have taken medication for my Migraines 3 days. Thursday I had to leave early because the drugs weren’t working and I didn’t think I was going to make it through the rest of the day. I left a little after 2PM. I went home and slept all afternoon and night.

Today I felt like I was getting one and then it never really took hold. That is good, but I felt down most of the day.

Why am I getting them? I think I know myself to know this by now. 3 reasons. 1, stress. If you know me you know what is going on at work right now. Short term bad stress, longer term things will be good. Second lack of sleep due to the stress. And lastly the one thing I cannot control; the weather. I actually get migraines from the weather change from cold to hot or vice versa. Lack of AC at work and at home is not helping. Work AC is an unknown right now. I don’t know how I can goto the office if we don’t have AC in May. As for my apartment it will get turned on when the wether gets and stays warm, or May 15. Which ever comes first. The good news is that my building has turned it on as early as April 4, 2 years ago.

This blog entry was written while listening to Hidden Track from the album “Retro Active” by Def Leppard

Blackberry Pagers

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My company uses several blackberry 950 pagers for our on call staff. People carry them and get automated emails when a server is having an issue. We get allot of them sometimes. Originally when we got pagers we used Skytel. They were good. Then we switched to Motient. They are good also. The coverage is great, but they just changed their pricing.

It used to be that you got unlimited email’s for $49.99 a month. Now that gives you 1 meg of downloads. You pay for everything over that. We have been going way over our quota. Our bills are upwards of $250 per pager. I have been looking for a solution for a few weeks, but my CEO asked about the bill yesterday. he was like how many pagers do I have? I explained the situation, and he agreed that a new solution should be out there.

So far all I can think of is buying Cingular or T-Mobile Blackberry phones and using their unlimited data plans for our paging. I am going to replace 1 pager with a bigger blackberry and see how it works out. It is just going to take a little time to get that setup.

This blog entry was written while listening to Mandolin Rain from the album “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby