Back from the grave.

Keeping this short and sweet:

- a coworker needed my help to access Google Analytics. That reminded me of this blog's existence, and I realized I've neglected the page for almost a year. So I'm back.

- recently decided to learn guitar. Bought a used Yamaha. Have spent some time over the last two nights beginning to teach myself how to play. After about an hour last night, I noticed the tips of some of the fingers on my left hand were sore and beginning to be calloused. I felt pride in that! :-)

- I saw an old post on this blog about an Asus laptop I bought from Woot, that was being sent back for repair. I never updated that post. End result - Asus hardware is awesome. Asus service and support is every bit as BAD as their products are good. We ended up returning the laptop to Woot for a full refund, less my shipping costs to Asus for unsuccessful repairs.

I still love Woot, but have less respect for Asus than I had previously.

- There was also an old post about Bioshock on the PS3. I still haven't made time to continue playing much, but before I stopped playing I found an effective solution for the motion-sickness problem: Sea-Bands. I can't explain why they work, and if the relief is psycho-somatic I don't care. They DO relieve the problem, at least for me. While I don't understand accupressure I'm happy to benefit from it.

-- Lastly - today is Maren's Birthday! Happy Birthday Maren!!!!!

Loads to catch up on.

A lot has happened during July.

I spent a week in New Orleans, visiting my Dad and helping my Mom with stereo and computer issues.

Once I returned to NJ, my friend Jed flew up here and visited for a week.

During that week we took Nate & Maren to the annual West Orange family fun night at the town pool, we took the whole family to the beach at Point Pleasant, and the two of us spent a day in NYC.

Additionally Jed & I got to spend some time playing Magic:The Gathering, videogames, talking sci-fi, TV, and politics, and Jed taught Nate how to play Magic as well.

We baked an apple pie and chocolate chip cookies, and I sent Jed home with about 30Gb worth of music.

I took Jed & the kids to the monthly NAVA meet, and we just about identified every dinner establishment in the tri-state area that closes on Mondays.
All in all, a fun, exhausting week. Photos at Flickr.

Tomorrow, back to work.

Learn something new dept., July 2011

Began building an Exchange 2010 server several months ago. Was sidetracked and never finished up.

When I returned to the project on Friday I found that the Information Store service refused to start. The Event Viewer showed:

Event ID: 301

Failed to mount database 'Mailbox Database 0696636359' on Exch2010.jacobshome.local (Duration=00:00:00.3719227, ErrorMessage=An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: A transient error occurred during discovery of the database availability group topology. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: MapiExceptionNetworkError: Unable to make admin interface connection to server. (hr=0x80040115, ec=-2147221227)

During the original work on the machine, I'd installed an eval of Forefront Server Protection. That eval is long-since expired.

I uninstalled the Forefront Protection (no reboot was necessary), and the IS service started right up, no muss, no fuss.

Hope this helps somebody.

The Joy of nice machinery, the Agony of defective nice machinery

A bit bummed. Saturday afternoon a really nice Asus laptop was put up for sale, for a very low price, over at Woot. It was priced about half of the normal price, but was a refurb, with only a 90-day warranty. Jess' laptop was near-death, so we ordered the Asus. Surprisingly and impressively, it arrived today. Unfortunately, the wireless card on the machine doesn't work at all. The hardware and software behave as though the card isn't even physically present.
I've just submitted the necessary docs to Asus Customer Care, and assuming the docs pass muster Asus will let me ship the laptop to them for warranty repair. The machine is gorgeous though, and assuming it's repaired I'll still be thrilled with it; just disappointed I need to wait a few more weeks before we can enjoy it.

Getting Better

Once upon a time, our den looked like this:

A couple of months ago our trusty old TV decided it was time to shuffle off into the light. Soon after, our den evolved, to look like this:

Even before purchasing the new TV the plan was to route the wires behind the wall. So, as soon as scheduling permitted, my father-in-law and I cut holes in the wall, installed junction boxes and wall plates for the various AV jacks, and the den looked like this:

Still, something was wrong with the picture. Obviously some improvement was still necessary, but what ever could it be ? Hmmmm….

How about….
Some new furniture, more suited to the situation? Maybe.
Cleaning the room, and discarding a lot of junk? That's a promising thought too.

How about BOTH? Eureka!!!!
I present, the den, take 2:

Still not perfect, but much improved.

Karmic payback can be a bitch.

Over the last couple of months I've spent a lot more than usual. There were some unplanned home repairs, but some of the expenses were nothing but indulgence, and could easily be considered unwise.

I think God, Karma, or whatever is making sure I know that nothing comes without a catch.

Our old TV was showing definite signs that it was about to die. The cumulative wisdom I found online seemed to suggest the best deals on TVs occurred just before Black Friday, so I went ahead and got myself a new 50" TV just before Thanksgiving.

High on electronics shopping, judgement obviously taking a vacation, I then ordered a new Playstation 3 on Black Friday. While waiting for the system to arrive I went to a friend's videogame store and bought a copy of Bioshock.

Why is any of this bad? Why am I complaining about getting all of these neat toys?

The PS3 arrived 2 days ago. I began playing Bioshock last night, and played some more tonight. Bioshock looks like a neat game, and so far I'm liking it a lot, and would like to keep playing it.

BUT IT'S MAKING ME SICK. After about 30 minutes of gameplay, I am suffering major motion sickness, and have to stop, or I'm afraid I'll vomit. When this occurred last night I figured I'm overdue for a bout with the flu, and I was very tired, so maybe I was getting sick. But I woke up this morning feeling fine. Then after playing for another 35 or 40 minutes tonight I again felt very queasy. It's now been about an hour since I stopped playing and I'm still feeling sick.

I've never had any problem with motion sickness, so this is a new and seriously unpleasant and disheartening thing for me.

I read a post online about this, and a suggestion was to play for short lengths of time, and gradually build up a tolerance, essentially teaching my brain to handle this better.

All I can say is ARGHHH!!!

Funny PS: I'm not making this up, but about 30 seconds after I posted this, Reese Witherspoon used the phrase "karmic payback" on David Letterman.

Things I'm grateful for.

Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated this for three months.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Listed here, in no particular order, are things I'm thankful for:

Cliched as it is, I'm thankful for my family.

I'm thankful thagt after the last two years of struggling to make ends meet, I'm now earning a living and capable of paying my bills.

I'm thankful for Abbey Road.

I'm thankful for Alice's Restaurant Masacree. I discovered this song about 20 years ago at Michael Cohen's house on Thanksgiving Day, and have ritually listened to it every single Thanksgiving day since then. It doesn't grow old.

I'm thankful that tending to the leaves in my yard during the fall, and tending to the snow in my yard during the winter doesn't debilitate me as much as it did when I first started tackling those things 12 years ago. Practice and almost-regular visits to the gym have noticeably increased my stamina.

I'm thankful for generous relatives.

I'm thankful for The Princess Bride.

I'm thankful for the luxury of getting to drive anywhere I want, whenever I want. On the horizon, our krewe will be heading to Metairie,LA, for example.

That's all. And remember, you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant (excepting Alice).