Category Archives: Friends & Family

• I wrote my first real PowerShell script in a while yesterday. It was a good feeling. Now I just need to polish it a bit and post it.
• “Top Kill” would be an awesome name for a punk band. Just sayin’.
• The spring weather here in the Bay Area has been cooler than I would have expected. Hopefully we’ll have some warm, sunny weather for the Memorial Day weekend.
• I’m delighted to report that, after being plateaued for a while, I’ve lost 10.5 lbs in the last two months. My target weight actually seems achievable (with the resulting lowered health risk a nice bonus).
• This weekend I’m doing something I’ve never done before: running a 5K race, the Mushroom Mardi Gras Fun Run. I’m actually looking forward to it. How odd is that? Afterwards, paintball with David and Tom… should be a busy day.
• I’m beginning to think I like the Drive-By Truckers, but I’m not really sure yet. Love the music itself, but some of the lyrics (and some of the vocalists) are grating.
• I have not bought any gas, no, not even a tankful, from Exxon since the Exxon Valdez spill. I guess that means I have to add BP to my banned list too. If this keeps up soon I won’t be able to buy gas for my car at all and I’ll have to get a LEAF, even though I think I’d rather have a Volt.

• The $36 I spent for Pandora One was incredibly well-spent. I’ve discovered a ton of new music I like (for example, Superchic[k]), and it’s great to be able to listen to music from all of my desktops and my iPhone. Who says nothing good ever comes out of Oakland?
• Is it college football season yet?
• Normally I don’t enjoy or want “joke” e-mails. Most of them aren’t funny. However, this one cracked me up– thanks to my uncle Dan for sending it. If I don’t answer your e-mail, you’ll know why.
• Someone in my office voluntarily ate a KFC Double Down. I’m not sure why. Neither is she, actually.
• Would you trust Google to run your TV?
• I’m really impressed by what I’ve seen from Windows Phone 7. Can’t wait to get my hands on one to play with.

Wooo! Double digits at last!

• This week’s edition of “jobs I’m glad I don’t have”: this.
• Sunday is the laser’s 50th birthday. I was thinking about throwing a party, but it turns out that there’s alredy a year-long LaserFest. There are even some laser-themed parties conferences like this.
• A couple of weeks ago I made fun of the snow in Vermont. This week I’m making fun of the snow in Colorado, through which my magazine editors are currently suffering. I will be laughing out loud when I’m at the beach on Saturday.
• I am really impressed with OOO Gameprom‘s Pinball HD for the iPad. It’s the most fun I’ve had for $3 in a long while.
• Miller-McCune has a terrific web site. “Who?” you ask. My reaction exactly. I’d never heard of them until I stumbled across a mention on the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, which I read faithfully. If you like The Atlantic you’ll like Miller-McCune. For a sample, check out this article on invasive weeds and the iPhone.

• From one of my favorite blogs, the interesting story of Victor Jouanneault, a one-time Catholic priest who served in Houma for a while and supposedly ended up as the tutor of Brigham Young’s children.
• At one time, Sweden was developing its own nuclear-capable bomber. Really. And here you thought that their most destructive export was lingonberries. (Bonus: now they’re working on a stealth fighter, too.)
• For Exchange peeps, there’s a new version of PFDAVAdmin. However, you can’t use it with Exchange 2010; for that you need ExFolders.
• If you’re not reading Barack Obama’s Facebook feed, you really should be.
• I could spend all day here.

• I’m glad to see that Microsoft is working on making Eclipse more usable and better-behaved under Windows 7.
• My boy Pat Richard wrote a nice script for sending an automated "welcome" message to new Exchange users. Check it out.
• There’s quite a concentration of Exchange and OCS talent in the Bay Area, but the only person I can think of that I’ve met is Ed Crowley. I’ve got some catching up to do.
• "A DIY Guide to Going Nuclear."
• It’s harder than you might think to teach a bunch of 13-16-year-old boys to safely change a tire, what with all the jokes about lug nuts and so forth.
• Next week I’ll be in Pensacola. Waffle House, Chick-Fil-A, and Cracker Barrel, watch out! Better still, I get to drop by Alexandria and see Mom, Grandma, and the rest of the family first.
• Health insurance reform: it’s not the work of the devil, it’s just a law. Laws can be changed. If you don’t like it, relax and remember that simple fact.

From my friend Shelley:

A Cajun who died went to hell. The devil assigned him the usual punishment…put him in the mass pit where the heat was melting others. The devil came back sometime later surprised to find the Cajun just sitting around not even misting much less sweating. “How come you’re not so much as sweating here where everyone else is screaming for relief from the heat?”

The Cajun laughed and said “Man I was raised in the bayous of Sout Looziana.. Dis ain’t nothin’ but May in Morgan City to me!”

The devil decided to really put the Cajun through it. He put him in a sealed off cave in the pit with open blazes and four extra furnaces blasting. When he came back days later the Cajun was sitting pretty had barely begun to bead up with sweat. The devil was outraged.”How is this possible!? You should be melted to a shrieking puddle in these conditions!”

The Cajun laughed even harder than before. “Hey man! I done tole you I was raised in Sout Looziana. You tink dis is heat?! Dis ain’t nothin’ but August in Cow Island !”

So the devil thought “All right, a little reverse ought to do the trick.” He put the Cajun into a corner of hell where no heat ever reached. It was freezing and to add to the Cajun’s misery he added massive icebergs and blasting frozen air. When he returned the Cajun was shivering ice hung from every part of him but he was grinning like it was Christmas. Exasperated, the devil asked “HOW!? How is it possible?! You’re impervious to heat and here you sit in conditions you can’t be used to…freezing cold and yet you’re happier than if you were in heaven. WHY?!”

The Cajun kept grinning and replied “Don’t dis mean de Saints won da Super Bowl?”