Sunday Afternoon - The Kinks

The tax mans taken all my dough,
And left me in my stately home,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
And I cant sail my yacht,
Hes taken everything Ive got,
All Ive gots this sunny afternoon.

Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze.
I got a big fat mama trying to break me.
And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

My girlfriends run off with my car,
And gone back to her ma and pa,
Telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty.
Now Im sitting here,
Sipping at my ice cold beer,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.

Help me, help me, help me sail away,
Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay.
cause I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

Ah, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze.
I got a big fat mama trying to break me.
And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

Things to do

1) get dynamips configured and working properly on my MBP. I need to get studying and completing labs for the CCIE next year.

2) investigate if I really want that 24" LED monitor made specifically for the Mac laptops. I'm operating my 15" MBP in lid-closed mode using a 19" Dell plasma. It works well enough but for labs where I have to have half a dozen Cisco images booted and running the extra real estate would be a welcomed advantage. I'm also considering the 30" Apple monitor but I don't think the MBP can push the 30" to high resolutions.

3) Figure out what in the world is wrong with my 2 meter radio. I can't send or recieve a signal for poo in this place. I refuse to believe I've moved to a giant faraday cage in Durham. There's got to be something wrong with the power supply, radio or antenna.

4) Fix my Apple TV, perhaps upgrade the HD for a solid state drive. I'm bummed I can't stream my music and watch all my movies as I am accostomed.

5) Send Time Warner a thank you letter (see following graphic). As always the upload speed could be better but I can't agrue with the download speed. No sir, I sure can't do that (and the time is way off on the graphic - I was not surfing at 3:22 AM though it could have been that time somewhere around the globe).

Haven't been writing

First and foremost I'm interested to learn Apple may (*MAY*) be brining a data center to the area, or somewhere in North Carolina. Personally I hope they host their IPv6 apps from here but that's just me, and probably only me. Regardless I'm sure the data center will be managed by Apple employees and day-to-day operations and what-not outsourced to ACS or someone else. Johnson Controls will probably manage the building and grounds. Still it is interesting and it would be nice to see Apple's footprint increase beyond the local Apple Stores, remote sales staff, etc.

I haven't been writing much, mostly because I haven't felt like it. This whole thing has been a larger kick in the gut than I anticipated. In short, it sucks. From what I understand it gets better with time and that's welcome news, let me tell you! I don't want to be so down, after all, it could be sooooooo much worse.

My main focus now is to make sure my employer knows my value. If I were to lose my job right now? Oh dear, that would not be good at all. So I'm working a lot and that helps to keep my mind occupied plus I'm volunteering for extra projects outside of my normal area of expertise. This forces me to learn something new and meet new people in the process, both pluses.

I'm finding Durham to be a fine little town through this adventure in fact a great little place to live and work. Years ago I was afraid of Durham and that is just so unnecessary. Sure, the city has some problems but not many. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. My area of town is spot-on wonderful. I have not yet made as much use of the new Durham Bulls stadium as I would have thought but these lonely, boring weekends will be much less so I hope, partly due to the fact that I intend to attend and *follow* the Bulls. Heck, they are right next door, I feel getting to know them should be as natural as getting to know any new neighbor.

With that I think I'll try to set up my HAM radio once again. So far I've not received *ONE SIGNAL TRANSMISSION* in my apartment building. Could I be living in a giant faraday cage? Time will tell (and I hope not). I'm going to see if I can get on ARES/RACES net tonight at night. But first, to reorganize the desk!

Please, a moment of silence

It appears my Apple TV passed away sometime last night or today. The Apple TV worked tirelessly traveling thousands of miles between Youngsville and Rodanthe for several years. Perhaps a future stuck in Durham for the next year or more was too much for the old man to take and he simply gave up the digital ghost.

I can't say this was good timing, though, as I'll probably not be able to get another Apple TV for some time to come. I have many, many DVDs encoded for Apple TV that formerly resided on said appliance and I don't think they will play full-screen on a television attached mini hence I'm kind of at a crossroads.. do I go with the TV attached mini or an Apple TV. The Apple TV had a couple of cool features such as being able to use the unit as a remote speaker set for iTunes computers on the same LAN. It doesn't sound like much and you can do the same with a set of speakers and an Apple Airport Express but that's just one more thing on top of all the other things to find a home for.

Not that it matters, it will be a couple months before I get adjusted well enough to my new financial situtation to feel comfortable dropping hundredes of dollars on any new gizmo. Still, I've had the feeling for a long time that Apple was going to let this one die on the vine much like the Apple Hi-Fi that I loved so much.

If I could fix the Apple TV I probably would. I had been thinking the disk was going to die as the movies played "stuttered" quite a bit but now it won't even power up. That's obviously bad, especially with a unit that has an internal power brick. If put plug the unit in it won't boot and the power light on the front will not illuminate. So I think it's good and dead. Surgery coming soon (this weekend?) will confirm the status.

Goodnight, Apple TV. We had some great times together.

Got to get back on the airwaves

It's been far too long since I've been on the HAM radio airwaves. In fact I think I'll remedy that tonight. I need to drop by the office and pick up a metal file cabinet so I can properly use my 1/4 wave mag mount antenna - no more pizza pan for me! If anyone seems me I'm taking the cart back I borrowed for the move. Yeah, that's the ticket.

And, NO, I'm not STEALING the file cabinet. I need to purchase two of my own and just haven't gotten around to it. I have two in my modest sized cube, totally empty at that. I can simple use these two until I purchase my inexpensive metal file cabinet replacements (very soon). I'd have to be a total idiot to risk my job over a file cabinet!!

But I am borrowing them. That much I am doing. I'm just sayin' is all.

A lot of stuff needed

Mark Turner was timely to write about ZipCar this week as I have been thinking about signing up for this very service. Today I woke up early and drove the Suburban back to Kelly's house where it will reside henceforth. So, as of today I don't own a car. My home and work are separated by, perhaps, 100 yards at best. Do I really *need* a car? Not really, I mean probably 50 yards at a 90 degree angle from my beeline to the office from home sits the new Durham transit terminal. But.... the bus? Me?

What if I need to, say, go see my physician in Cary? It's hard to get a bus ride there. Still even a cab there and back would be less expensive than making payments on a car I don't use. There is a larger problem at work I'm afraid and that is the just about perfect for me ZipCar service does not extend into Durham. Chapel Hill, yes. Durham, no. The service may be coming to Duke University but we just don't know yet.

So for the next few months I'm paying for and insuraing a friend's 2004 Jeep TJ. She's not using is so why not? In fact she says it would help not having the payment for a while. That's good enough logic for me.

But what about after that? What then? The reason I'm waffling on purchasing a new ride is my boss made the statement flat-out that I can work from any facility where our company has a footprint - including any global office. That's when the light went off in my head.

I could, if I could figure out how to pull it off.. go totally without a permaent address starting the spring of next year when my one year commitment/lease is up. The less payments I have the more I could afford to live (cheaply) on the road. Could it be possible? If I were going to do the global explorer role I'd want to do it right - leave the country and stay out for as long as possible. There are seveal "main" offices that I could visit and stay for a long time, perhaps even a month. The first places I'd want to visit would be the corporate UK HQ in London followed by Poznan, Poland and Malaysia where our "tech centers" are located.

After that anything is possible - Russia, Italy, Czech Republic, Japan and of couse South Korea. Hell we have offices where the Peace Corps dare not tread. I woudn't put myself in harms way intentionally but, yeah, why not Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Isreal, South Africa and other assorted locations?

Travelling about Europe would be easy enough but these other places, I'm not sure about them. But I'm getting well ahead of myself. First and foremost I have to get through this year and save money so I could, if I were able, undertake this oddyssey. I'd be sure to take LOTS of pictures.

I may be staring at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think it would be doing myself a disservice were I to not at least consider something as insane as this.

got me a brand new key

Two actually, one for my apartment mailbox (looks much like a P.O. Box) and one for my dead bolt of my front door. I'd be moving some stuff into the new place but my carpets are being cleaned at the moment. Tomorrow is the day of the "big move" anyway at a time to be name later, between noon and six. Saturday night and Sunday I'll spend putting beds and tables together and what-not.

Monday it's back to work for the shortest commute I've ever had in my life (100 yards? tops, if that) and back to the apartment to meet the Time Warner guy for television and Internet install. After that it's off to the Apple Store for a new Time Capsule (I'd use my Mac mini with a USB drive except my mini is old and has USB 1.0 only, even if I had a large enough firewire 400 drive can you imagine a restore? Oh, you say, firewire is 400 meg, but the Ethernet connection through which I'll be backing up and restoring is a 100 meg bottleneck. Restores take long enough as they are, no need to increase the time. I'll just "blow" the extra $500 on a 1 TB Time Capsule and be done with it.)

Anyway, I digress. Today I briefly entertained the idea of going back to Kelly's house and taking the futon with me so I could have a place to sleep and therefore spend the night in my new place but I decided against it. I have to go back there tomorrow and I hate saying goodbye to my dogs. For those that don't understand what it's like to really share you life with a dog laugh all you want and call me stupid or insane. But for those that know there are times in life the when only thing you can depend on is your dog, well, imagine having to leave them behind at the same time knowing you're doing the right thing. It is not easy, nor is it any fun.

World's Greatest Dog Ricki-Beep



World's Greatest Dog Mister Boo



Yes, they are co-holders of the title.

Got it

All the possible answers are multiples of 9 and on the square on the second phase all the multiples of nine have the same answer.

10	1	0	9
11	1	1	9
12	1	2	9
13	1	3	9
14	1	4	9
15	1	5	9
16	1	6	9
17	1	7	9
18	1	8	9
19	1	9	9
20	2	0	18
21	2	1	18
22	2	2	18
23	2	3	18
24	2	4	18
25	2	5	18
26	2	6	18
27	2	7	18
28	2	8	18
29	2	9	18
30	3	0	27
31	3	1	27
32	3	2	27
33	3	3	27
34	3	4	27
35	3	5	27
36	3	6	27
37	3	7	27
38	3	8	27
39	3	9	27
40	4	0	36
41	4	1	36
42	4	2	36
43	4	3	36
44	4	4	36
45	4	5	36
46	4	6	36
47	4	7	36
48	4	8	36
49	4	9	36
50	5	0	45
51	5	1	45
52	5	2	45
53	5	3	45
54	5	4	45
55	5	5	45
56	5	6	45
57	5	7	45
58	5	8	45
59	5	9	45
60	6	0	54
61	6	1	54
62	6	2	54
63	6	3	54
64	6	4	54
65	6	5	54
66	6	6	54
67	6	7	54
68	6	8	54
69	6	9	54
70	7	0	63
71	7	1	63
72	7	2	63
73	7	3	63
74	7	4	63
75	7	5	63
76	7	6	63
77	7	7	63
78	7	8	63
79	7	9	63
80	8	0	72
81	8	1	72
82	8	2	72
83	8	3	72
84	8	4	72
85	8	5	72
86	8	6	72
87	8	7	72
88	8	8	72
89	8	9	72
90	9	0	81
91	9	1	81
92	9	2	81
93	9	3	81
94	9	4	81
95	9	5	81
96	9	6	81
97	9	7	81
98	9	8	81
99	9	9	81

Math parlor tricks

Ok, I realize there is a simple algorithm going on behind this but I can't figure it out. My brain is mush right now and I'm sure that's at least 1/2 the problem. But still, this is annoying. Give it a try.

Hi! I'm your power company, would you like Internet?

No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Why when I call the power company for new service do they feel compelled to send me to a "trusted 3rd party" for (in a super-chipper voice) "Internet, phone and television service at your fingertips".

No, thank you. I can call the Internet service provider of my choice for Internet service and I'll take care of something to display pictures of my TV when I purchase one.

I call the power company to provide electricity to my apartment, not telephone and everything else. Now if you provided some kind of on-call sushi delivery that would be one thing, if I were not already in walking distance of some of the best sushi in Durham (and I even have a pool of restaurants from which to select).

Now I can't wait to call the cable company so I can be offered a jar of fresh lamb's blood, Matzo and a bottle of Manischewitz for my next Passover dinner. News to cable company: nice thought, but I'm not Jewish. Not that there's anything wrong with that.. ;)

New home, take two

Before my new apartment building was a home it was a tobacco factory dating back to the mid 1800s. As you may imagine it hasn't always looked the same over that period of time but this abomination must be considered the absolute low point. Nasty! It should be noted that "my" section of the building can be seen peeking up behind the metal nastiness (behind the billboard). That's my section but I'm on the 2nd floor so you can't see any of windows or anything.

Endangered Durham has a great, well researched article on The Bull Building as well as the American Tobacco complex. Give it a read, if you're into that sort of thing.

Saladelia Cafe

* feel free to stop reading this post right now

Since I've been staying with Richard and Caroline I've been eating out a lot, eating a little bit of food, mind you, large meals and I still are not appetizing in the least (and I've lost a belt size, in fact I've been told the 'divorce diet' is an effective one). That aside the lobby of my building has a small version of Saladelia Cafe and I have to say, I'm glad it's there.

The food is quite tasty, made from fresh ingredients, quite a few grown locally. In addition to many salads, sandwiches and other offerings covering the vegetarian, vegan and meat crowds, they also have small sides. Earlier in the week they sold a fantastic small-dose spicy bowtie pasta. Wow, that was good stuff. Really excellent. Assuming they sensed my growing addiction they pulled that from sale. Why? Beats me. Maybe it's a Monday and Tuesday thing only. Today I tried something new - tabbouleh.

I've seen tabbouleh for sale before, Neomande comes to mind in fact, but I've never tried it (though I think that has more to do with the fact that Neomande's hummus is so freaking good I can't bring myself to try another side item).

Anyway, Saladelia's version of tabbouleh turns out to be vegan made from fresh tomato, cucumber, red onions, parsley, bulgar (?), olive oil and lemon juice. I added a dash of salt and pepper before tasting because, well, I was kind of afraid of it.

WRONG! THIS STUFF IS FREAKING AWESOME!

Had I known vegetarian and vegan stuff actually tasted good I might have explored my options a bit more. Will I now? You bet. Don't get me wrong, while I lived in Korea my meat-to-vegetable ratio was reversed from what it is here in the states (Korean food is very good, by the way).

Anyway, I'm rambling on at this point.

This weekend is going to be odd. Normally on Friday I'm either getting white line fever to hit the highway with the wife and dogs in a mad dash to the NC coast where we'd have a happy weekend in our cozy condo. Well the condo and the dogs are all Kelly's now as is the car we drove there. So.. that's out. Yardwork? I no longer have a yard. Tonight the void will be filled by Richard and Caroline both getting new iPhones. I'll give them a full home training session. That will be cool. Saturday we have a massive data center power-down for electrical maintenance. That will keep me busy for sure. Sunday I have to go to Kelly's house to identify what out of the garage we will sell and further identify who gets what.

* I'll keep you all posted if only for the fact that writing about this helps keep me sane.

My New Home.

If you know where to look (I think) you can see my new apartment in this vintage picture.

Actually I'm fairly positive. I'll have to download the photo, edit with a red box and re-post tomorrow.

As early as next week this could be home-sweet-new-home for a year. After the divorce is granted (exact date to be known later) I'll consider moving to a new place, and after a year these guys will let me go month-to-month. So around the four month prior mark I'll really start to give some consideration to where I'd like to purchase a house.

I'm going to keep myself busy through a number of legal and technical means. I'm going to go after a couple big-time certifications and see how far I can push that envelope. I've got to shore up the resume and certainly one way of doing that getting a couple recognized and respected certifications.

Just like Burgess Meredith in that famous Twilight Zone episode there is Time Enough At Last. And I don't wear glasses.

I also look forward to meeting many of you again in person. It's been far too long since I've seen more than a few of you. And being as I'll be in stumbling steps to Tyler's Taproom in Durham, the Durham Performing Arts Center and The Durham Bulls Stadium (not to mention 1000 things in the revitalized Durham downtown) perhaps I can persude a few of you into check some of the sights out.

If not I'll drive to Raleigh or Chapel Hill or whatever. Oh, and with luck you'll be seeing me at many more future TriLUG meetings. It's been FAR too long since I've attended one of those.

I don't know if it was agreeing to the wording of the separation agreement or knowing, with a fair degree of certainty what my future address will be, but a weight feels like it's been lifted today.

Yes, plenty of sadness and regret remain but it's time to push on through. Realizing and accepting this train is fully derailed and will remain so will was a big turning corner too.

Thank you all for you kind words, e-mails and support. This is a great little community we have.

Greg



(for no reason other than it epitomizes my last couple of weeks.. and I mentioned 'train derailment' once)

Thanks for all the well-wishes from the community

I put a deposit on an apartment today. The friend's I've been staying with have been the best, I really can't repay these people for opening their home to me.

Thank you all so much for the well-wishes. For those that have been through this thanks for telling me it gets better. Each day does improve. Still, 13 years was a long time, and mostly a good time.

Thanks again, everybody!!

Goodbye home.

Tonight I say goodbye to my home. My wife and I are divorcing. I'll miss my dogs. There are so many things that I wanted to do in my home tonight but there is just not time for them all. I suppose there is a lesson in there somewhere.

Hurt.

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way