09/30/2011

I’m upgrading a server for a client. You can’t help but love an upgrade message like this:

This script will upgrade ALL software on this server with the packages in this directory. MASSIVE SYSTEM FAILURE COULD OCCUR!

Are you sure you want to proceed?

Here goes…

09/25/2011

Well, Thom and I made it back from Canada. We took our annual backpacking trip in British Columbia and Alberta this year on a grand tour of Bugaboos Provincial Park, Banff National Park, Kootenay National Park, the Icefield Parkway through Jasper National Park, and a little foray into Yoho National Park.

As always it was a good time, and I learned some very important things:

  • Pack light
  • Check the weather
  • Orange juice is very expensive at convenience stores
  • Thom needs a coffee fix just like I need an OJ fix
  • Canada apparently doesn’t have chocolate ice cream– only vanilla
  • PACK LIGHT!

I’ve got a few hundred photos to comb through, and will hopefully post them soon.

09/19/2011

I’m working with a vendor on behalf of a client, and there are some problems integrating my web code with theirs. They can’t figure out what’s wrong, and the only message their system returns is– and I quote:

Yes, that’s a screenshot of the web page that’s really displayed. There’s no indication of what might be wrong– missing data, invalid authentication, whatever. So they’re all scratching their collective heads about this one. Nice.

09/18/2011

As everyone knows, tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day. As Dave Barry wrote in the humor column that launched the previously unheard-of event:

Talking like a pirate will infuse your everyday conversations with romance and danger. So join the movement! On September 19, do not answer the phone with ”hello.” Answer the phone with ”Ahoy me hearty!”

Every year on the 19th of September (no, it doesn’t “adjust” like national holidays to make a convenient three-day weekend) I enjoy a little pirate banter with me hearties. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

Arrr!

09/07/2011

Hey, another recruiter is hitting me up for a contract. Whee! This guy has some really great tidbits in his email, including this gem:

If you’d like to put my killer talent-sourcing skills to the test, shoot me your job description + the hourly and/or salary range offered and I’ll get to work. I can usually find a couple of hard core, rock star, black-belt ninjas in a few hours.

In other words, he hasn’t even looked at my job description; he’s just using the shotgun approach with a bunch of email addresses he’s skimming from Craigslist or whatever. Nice.

Also, can a ninja really be a rock star? I thought the whole point of being a ninja is you’re invisible and deadly. A rock star would be someone who wants attention and the limelight. Hmm.

09/06/2011

My server uptime record continues to stretch…

22:55:52 up 2021 days, 56 min, 0 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

That’s over five and a half years without a reboot. Go Linux!

09/05/2011

There was a time, back in the 80’s, when the word “awesome” was commonplace. It was used to describe things that were, well, awesome. We also had words like “dude” and “man”, but that’s not the point of this particular post.

Then, sometime in the 90’s, the word “awesome” faded from the common vernacular. People stopped using it, and the world seemed a little more dreary. But I continued to use it. Awesome is a useful word, and one that makes whatever you’re talking about just a little more exciting and interesting. It’s just such a positive word.

In the early 2000’s, a friend of mine commented that she never heard the word “awesome” any more, except from me. She thought it was quaint, I suppose.

Then, suddenly, in the last few years the word has popped up again and suddenly everyone is using it. I just downloaded the Chrome browser from Google’s web site, and the thank-you message was You’re awesome. Thanks for downloading Google Chrome. Seriously.

Now everyone says “awesome” and I sound like just a guy who’s riding with the crowd. But I want it to be known that I never gave up on that word. I stuck with it through lean times. I described awesome things as awesome, the way they should be.

So all you guys who think it’s hip to say “awesome” again, good for you. I’m glad that word is back in daily use, and I think every time we hear it, the world is just a little bit brighter because “awesome” is nothing but positive.

09/05/2011

Yesterday Zack was talking to himself in the car and singing some nonsense song. I turned to him and said, “You’re strange.”

His matter-of-fact response was “Of course.”

Then, after a beat, he added, “There’s something awesome about being strange.”