Drunk again...

Last night, i somehow managed to get pissed out of my mind, without spending a dime. It helps to have friends :-)

Had a good time at my buddies house, general bullshitting ensued with a good mix of poker.

Anyways, i've got to nurse this hangover, as it's been a while since i got that drunk.

PS: Beef Pot Pie's are the best hangover food.

Rising from the ashes....

Well,

I am still alive...although i doubt anybody that ever read this even cared that i didn't update this thing for a long long time. Ether way i am alive and well. Things have changed, but at least i have access to the internet (and the time to use that access as i please) to hopefully update this thing more.

Had a job interview today, i think i did pretty good in the interview and from the sounds of it i wasn't compeating against too many people. I hope i get the job!

Man, thing are becoming sickening. I am talking about how the Bush Government is talking about spidering across the Internet, slurping up copies of every news site, blog and email on the Internet. Then they'd pass it through some magical software that they claim works, called ADVISE. Now this software is suppose to help them find and catch terrorists. What they don't realize is that there are many ways to out fink the software. Like, lets say, i use strong encryption on an email, good luck getting into it within a month, probably two. Or i could use an ftp (or sftp) site with text files to communicate. Or how about a forum that has authentication enabled. A spider program will have a hard time getting content from a place it can't reach. See more info about this topic at: slashdot [ http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/09/1357229 ]

The stupidity of the Bush Government (notice that i refer to the US Government as the Bush Government, since i don't believe that the actions of the US Government reflect what the American people are really like) is amazing.

A few weeks ago you might have heard that the Bush Government asked google to provide it with a list of all the search terms (and probably the ip addresses to go with them) for a week (See: [ http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060128/ts_afp/uscompanyjusticeit_060128010230 ] for more info). I am glad google has the moral authority to stand up to Bush and his group of retards.

Bush is no longer partaking in a "War on terrorism", instead he's made it into a "War on privacy". Hmmm, didn't we already suffer through this? Seems to me that this is a whole lot like the "War on drugs" that was the 80's / early 90's. It seems to me that the Bush Government likes using the word "War".

It's time to stand up and take back our freedom. I mean i don't even live in the USA, but the ADVICE project that i was talking about earlier will affect me, and ever Internet connected person out there. I still don't understand why the Bush Government seems to think that the people of the world want to be oppressed. Fighting for freedom my ass.

BTW, if anybody is reading this that works for the ADIVCE project, or close to Bush, you can fuck right off. I've got to get back to work.

Today has been a mopey day. Shit just isn't going my way. I am super bitter for some reason...no one reason ether, it's just been piling up all day. I just feel like there are very few people here where i work that respect me for the right reasons. Sure, they all like me etc, but most of em only respect me because of who my Dad is...not for who i am or what i do for the company. It's kind of saddening really, since i was the one that brought so much change to the way that people use computers here. Ether way, shit better change soon, or i am going to have to find something different to do or I'll go nuts.

In other news, last week some fuck took down my email server, so i was here at work till about 4:00am. That's about 20 hours of staring into a computer screen. My eye have been blood shot for the last week and are just getting better now. Worst thing about it is that i am on salary, so i don't get paid for the overtime that i worked...instead they say i get to "bank" the hours, but i highly doubt that I'll ever get those 12 extra hours back.

Other than that crap, things are going good. I have been trying to find some kind of CRM(Customer Relationship Management)/Help Desk software for us to use here in the IT department. I wanted to go with an open source solution and i found one that looked (belief me, there's ones out there that look like somebody took a shit on a plate and told you that it was software) ~really~ good (http://www.humano2.com/network); got it installed and configured...But i ran into problems. First off, when i login to the "portal" or "client side", it shows none of the menus. All it shows me is a message talking about how it's beta software and how to expect it to break now and then in one frame and in another it shows me the company's website (which is to be expected). Now i know beta software has bugs etc in it, but come on! I feel that i am a pretty computer savvy guy (well i should, since i do nothing but work with computers all day) but it should be at least able to show some god dam menus. The second thing that really pissed me off is the fact that they "claim" to have documentation in english, but as it turns out, that's only the install instructions....and nothing else. All their support pages on their website are in spanish....as well as most of the docs. I eventually read somewhere on their site that they had a mailing list, so i thought "Hey! The guys on the mailing list might be able to help me.". Turns out that the links they have on their site are broken beyond belief. I don't know, all i am trying to say here is put some effort into making your site and manuals readable by the people that you are trying to get to use your software. If you have a english page explaining how great your product is, then you god dam better have a support site ~with~ english versions of your docs.....not everybody in the world can read spanish you know. I even tried using google's translation service (http://www.google.com/translate_t) to translate the site, so i could read it...so you can't really say that i didn't even put an effort in. Most of the other open source solutions ether looked and functions like crap, or didn't have all the features that i wanted in a CRM/Help Desk solution.....i guess i am just picky.

So, i started looking at ~pay for play~ CRM/Help Desk solutions. Like the open source world, there were good and bad, ugly and pretty. Some are insanely priced, i'll tell you that now. I found two that peeked my interest, perldesk (http://www.perldesk.com) and Kayako: SupportSuite (http:://www.kayako.com/supportsuite.php). Perldesk at one time was open source, but i guess they thought that they needed to make more money, which i can understand. It's pretty neat looking and they have an on-line demo that i tried out that functioned quite well. However, it's more of a pure help desk solution than a CRM/help desk solution. Perldesk starts at $99.95 or something, which is a good price. The SupportSuite from Kayako (which i was given the link to by a guy in the programmingforums.org irc channel) is more what i am looking for, however it's got a bigger price tag; $500 if you want to own your copy, but if you want to just use the software, you can lease it from them starting at $39.95 per month, or $299.95 a year. Personally i would want to own it.

So i guess it looks like i am going to have to pay for the solution this time around (which isn't all that bad, everybody has to make a buck). Anyways, i better get back to work.

Well today is a good day. Why you might ask? There is one simple reason....one of my best friends gets off of house arrest today.. As it happens, the local collage is having a social ( if you don't know what that is go to http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=502&deid=1390745716&gwp=8&curtab=502_1&linktext=Meaning%20%231 )....which is really just an excuse to get re-tarded drunk. Not to talk about how much collage ass there is going to be there.

Nagios is working out great, i have two of our offices being monitored by it now. It's really improved my perl scripting skills. Why? Cause you can write perl plug-ins for nagios to do pretty much what ever you want. I am currently writing one to check the health of some RAID arrays. Pretty neat stuff.

My condo is coming along. I can't wait to start building it.

So, since some people were wondering if i was going to post on this site again, today's the day. Holiday's went ok, got some good stuff for Christmas (even though i didn't really need anything). The first week back from holiday's was pretty good, only one service (web based e-mail) died over the holiday. Yes that's right i didn't check on my servers for the whole time that i had holidays. I know it's a bad idea, but these days i am a little fed up with my wage; i figure if they think i am worth less than i am, they'll get the level of service they are paying me for. I like my job, but i really should be getting paid more.

Last week i setup Nagios (a network monitoring software) for something to do, it's pretty neat software. You can check it out at: http://www.nagios.org if you want. It took about two days (off and on) of writing config files to get things running for a fairly basic setup (i don't even have half of the computers on our network being monitored). Despite the amount of time that it takes to config everything (i did it by hand, but apparently you can get GUI's for the config process, if your into that sort of thing), the software is pretty useful. You can notify yourself (or another admin) through sms, email etc...probably even smoke signals if you really wanted.

Anyways, back to work.

Well today i got to finally try out OpenOffice 2.0. It's got a lot of new and great features, however i was disappointed to learn that the MS access support was really only for windows and not for linux. From what i have read, you can get read access to a MDB, but not write support for linux, so it's about the same as not having support. Ether way i enjoyed the newest version.

The weekend was quiet, didn't really get up to much except for visiting some of my family for dinner on Saturday night. But i guess sometimes you just need a quiet weekend. Anyways, back to work for me.

Today, i have discovered how insanely stupid our inventory process is where i work. The program that i build for the yard works great, but the other two systems are backwards as hell. That's right, there are three different processes for inventory where i work. The first system, isn't real time data, generates useless paper and has redundancy where it doesn't need it. The second system, is completely manual, with no computer interaction, so it generates a bunch of paper....oh did i tell you that for the second system, the material counts that get entered are pretty much a guess. Then you have the inventory system that i build, which works very well (sorry it sounds like i am braggin here). However, these systems should be one instead of three, also it should be real time and be computer driven for ease of use and quick data entry.

Ether way, this project is going to take a lot of fighting with managers and employees on how the new system should work. The crappy part is, the employees have no idea what i can design or how the system should be designed.

OK, Perl is officially my new fav scripting language. It's so dam powerful. I made a backup script that can backup (duh?!), restore, check any directory or file. It works great!

Anyways, looks like things are calming down on the PFO forums again. We had to hand out a few bans, but things should be good again soon. I can't stand people that won't follow the simple rules that big_k made for the forums, they are so easy!

At work here the projects are starting to get piled up on my desk again, we just can't seem to keep up. Kelly and I are swamped with reports, scripts to write, programs to make etc. It's nuts, but at least we won't be board.

Anyways, talk to you later.

So today as i come into work i find out that our coffee maker is busted to shit. Not a good sign. Me and one of the girls that work here when and got a bunch of coffees for everyone in the office. today i will have the first draft of my condo plans! I am so excited about getting into my condo, although it won't be until spring.

In other news, the forums i go to alot (also i am a mod on them :-) ) have become more and more filled with trollers. I am handing out bans like it was candy today.

So i am quitting smoking eh! I got the patch and Zyban, all at the same time, works like nobodies business :-)

In other news, i am currently setting up a LDAP server for our company, should add some nice features to our networks :-)

So i have been thinking a lot about love and what i want out of it. Problem is, i can't seem to get any girls to be interest in me. I am sure it'll fix it's self :-) Probably help if i could control myself in social functions where there is alcohol involved. I get kinda crazy, and the girls seem to be frightened or at the very least put off.

Hey,

So i am trying out this new plug-in/whatever for gaim [http://gaim.sourceforge.net/] (the instant messenger i use). It seems pretty cool so far, since now i only have to open up a new instant message window to post a new entry into my blog.

In other news, i have been preparing our main file server for the switch over, where it will be the only file server for our entire network/company. It's been a few weeks of making bash scripts (click http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/bash.html if you don't know what bash scripting is), and testing the file permissions. This switch over will be another feather in my hat, something i'll be able to brag about around the office, since the whole thing is run on 64 bit gentoo [http://www.gentoo.org]. The reason for this is that there are still some doubters around the office on how well linux runs....which are completely unfounded.

Got drunk on Saturday night off of red bulls and vodka. Interesting combo that one. I think people thought that i was on something cause in total i had about 6 red bulls :-)

Anyways, back to work, talk to you later.

T-1 Day

Hey,

One day till I leave for my pheasant hunting trip to south Dakota! I am excited this year, since I have been out hunting/shooting lots this year, so I should be at the top of my game :-)

We had a hacker try and get into one of our servers here at work last night, but he/she failed as per usual. I traced his ip back to china, although it didn't have a DNS ptr record, so I have a feeling that the ip in my logs was spoofed. Ether way, I got a shit load of security notifications from the server last night, which was hella annoying.

Next Tuesday night I am going to the Judas priest concert in Winnipeg. It should be a good show, since I have floor tickets.

Anyways,

Talk at you later.

Sickly

Hey,

i have been sick for the last week and a bit, not fun by any means. Some kind of bad chest cold. Ether way i am starting to feel better though, i took this morning off. I went duck hunting yesterday! I got two nice big mallard ducks for myself. I am looking forward to cooking them up tonight! I also started using a new window manager for my destop it's called fvwm. You can learn more about it at: http://www.fvwm.org/

It's pretty cool and you can configure just about anything you want, tranparent windows, etc.... I am also going to configure it so that i can have two monitors hooked to my computer so i can monitor network logs/email logs etc... Should be really cool once i have it running the way i want :-)

Well i better get back to work, talk to you later.

Back.

Hey,

I am back from this year's boat trip. I had a hell of a time. Some how I also managed to smoke a entire carton of cigs in a the span of the weekend....I am still not sure how I still have a voice.

At one point this kid on our trip decided to throw my weed buster across the beach, which prompted me to choke slam him into the BBQ on our boat. He's lucky that there were people to calm me down....otherwise it could have been a lot worse.

Anyways talk to you later.

Web page

Hey,

i have been thinking of getting a personal website up and running. I have had one in the past, but nothing like what i can do now.

Studying for the Network+ is proceeding as planed. I am almost half way through my first 700+ page book :-P

Anyways, back to work.

Adjusting

Hey,

So it's alittle odd, not working on the webpages. I have begun work on the new mail server for the company, since our current provider sucks. During peak work hours there server get's DOS'ed from that amount of users that they have on the server. This means that we (we as in the IT Department) get a flood of calls most days asking about it....which is highly annoying. Ether way it'll be fixed soon.

I have started studying for my Network+ cert, it's going smoothly. All i can say is i have a feeling that i will do very well. All of the stuff that i have read in the books that i bought i already had a pretty good grasp on. The one book that i bought, not only goes into what's on the exam but also the history and the concepts behind it, which IMHO makes for some interesting reading. I like knowing how things work and how they came about.

So I have been listening to alot of Radio Head, which i love. I love the way that it's mellow, yet still has a great beat. Any other Radio Head fans out there?

Anyways, talk to you later.

Good Morning!

Hey,

Welp, I finished off the new Athabasca Northern Railway website this morning. This is good, because after a review, and a few changes later today it will be read to go live. The code isn't the most pretty stuff around, but it functions...plus later on I plan on making updates to the way that the webpage functions. I also finished CEMR's (that's Central Manitoba Railway) website yesterday and I am just waiting on the review from management.

I am starting to get a summer cold.....the most dreaded of all colds. My chest feels like there is a brick lodged in my left lung. You should see the crap that I cough up in the morning. But I guess the whole thing could have something to do with what I was talking about yesterday.

Anyways, I got to get back to work.

One Big Drunken Weekend.

Hey,

So I drank way to much this weekend, also I am pretty sure that I smoked to much as well. My lungs hurt and probably blacker than tar. Friday I went up to the lake, got drunk with a bunch of my friends, then sat we planted some flowers while getting drunk. I got home from the lake on sat night and passed out on the couch till Sunday morning. Sunday I sat around and watched movies till about five, then I went out to a birthday party....needless to say, there was more drinking.


In other news, I am still trying to get information from the local college on getting my certs, but it hasn't being going so well, since nobody there seems to know anything about it. Anyways, I am going to call again today, maybe finally they'll transfer me to the right person this time.

On The Rebound.

Hey,

So I had a beer (actually a few) with my Dad last night after work. It's funny on how much I learn from him when we do things like that. We talked about my plans for the future (see yesterday's post) and he seem really supportive of them. I also talked with him about some ideas I had for a project that we are just starting, he didn't like them (or he didn't understand them), but that's ok.

I think I am going up to the lake this weekend, not sure how much I am going to drink, since lately I have been getting kinda sick of drinking. Mainly because that's about all there is to do in this city. Also, I think it has something to do with the amount my friends drink as well, I seem to be in a sea of alcoholism.

Anyways, I am going to look into the certs that I was talking about yesterday and maybe order something today, as it is pay day :-)

Thinking

Hey,

So lately I have been thinking about getting some certifications. From what I have been reading A+ cert isn't worth getting simply because it's basically just tells people "I have a certification that says I know how to change out a pci card.". Since that's not the route that I wish to take, I have been thinking of getting my Network+, Server+, Linux+ and Security+......probably not in that order. Those will not only most likely get me a pay raise, but they could lead to more exciting career opportunities. After that I have been thinking about getting my bachelor of computer science, then my business administration. However that's still not for at least a year before I start working on the last two, maybe more.

So anyways, if anybody reads this and has some good advice, or comments on whether or not I should go the route that I have outlined above, please feel free to leave em.

Things have been a little depressing otherwise, yesterday I got soaked walking to work from the rain, then later on I spilled coffee all over my crotch and my keyboard. I must have poured out at least half a cup from the keyboard. Now to get my home, insert, delete keys to work right I have to smash them.

Back from Vegas

Hey,

I am back from Vegas. I spent too much money, drank and smoked to much. I had a great time, but I don't think I will go back for a long time......like until I can afford to spend $5000 a day :-)

We stayed at the MGM Grand, which is currently the biggest hotel in Vegas, but not for long.....so I was told by a cabby. Anyways, work was hell yesterday cause it was my first day back from the holiday. I went down to the 830 Douglas office (it was only supposed to be an hour) and ended up staying there most of the day cause I found a bunch of viruses and spyware on the file server there. It's funny cause the guys down at that office don't call us, and let everything go to shit. Then when we show up there they all swarm us....talk about a recipe for a shitty day.

Anyways, I better get a coffee and get back to work.

Complete and Utter Rage

Hey,

So, today brings new meaning to the word "rage". I walked into work today, checked the webpage, and found that there was a error with one of the many php scripts. So, I proceeded to open said file and check it out (I was going to fix it). I found out that the company that we hired to do the graphic design, was editing the files yesterday. Which was no problem (because we have been waiting on them for quite some time), save for the fact that what ever software they are using to edit the files has completely mangled the file so that all the code is on one line. Now, I'll probably end up having to fix it, thus wasting more of my time on this suck hole of a project. I had to calm down before I called the graphic design office otherwise I would have been yelling. Maybe I should look into anger management school :-P

Just joking, I like my rage. It gets things done......quickly.

See ya later.

Heart Broken

Hey,

last night was one of the shityest times of my life. It was going good till I went out for some drinks with my ex girl friend. After we came back to my office (I wanted to show her the new system that I build), one thing led to another, and we ended up making out for a while. Now usually I would be all for making out, but after we were done she told me that she had a boy friend and then me and her were finished. Which ofcourse, made me really angered. If your going to make out with me, fucking tell me that you have a boy friend, cause I still got feelings for her. After I got home, I smoked a rocket, and chilled out with the guy that lives down stairs.

On a brighter note:

I HAVE TICKETS TO MOTOR HEAD TONIGHT MUTHER FUCKERS!!!! HAHAHAHA

so, with that said, I will most likely to be drunk as hell tonight, and maybe I'll smoke some more ganja that I bought last night.

Oh, BTW:

I HAVE FLOOR TICKETS TO NINE INCH NAILS IN LAS VEGAS NEXT WEEK MUTHER FUCKERS!!!!! HAHAHAHAH

that's right, I am going to Las Vegas next week for about 5 days, so I should be relaxed and hopfully I'll get laid down there (and not from a hooker ether).

Update finally.

Hey,

decided to finally update and post today. Work is going good. We have two new servers, both need operating systems...which is my job to install. Looks like there's going to be two more linux boxes added to our network :-)
Anyways, I have a shit load of stuff to do today, but hopfully I'll start updating more......yeah, like that'll ever happen :-P

Sad State of Affairs

Hey,

Today, i was browsing the BBC News and came across this artical. It's sad how people are getting killed for no reason at all. She was in that country for a good reason, to help the people living in that country. Yet who ever is resopnisble for her death killed her, in a effort to scare the world into letting terrisom win. That's a piss poor way to opperate. If the people that did this want respect, this is not the way to do it. There are hundreds of better ways to get your point across, some involve vilonce and some don't. If i had one wish in the world, i think it would be for the fucking assholes that blow up buildings to be killed and completly erased from the history of man kind. It makes no sense for them to take people's lives that are trying to help them. But i guess that just goes to show you how differnt people can think.

In other news, the guy that started it all for slackware, has come down with a sickness......i wish him the best of luck in the future and i hope that he gets better soon.

Another Monday, but a good one.

Hey,

Well for some un-known reason, today (being Monday) went better than last Friday (the day of my last post). Which is odd, since it is Monday and my drinking and smoking have once again been put on a hold till next weekend, or until I decide to have a drink. Never mind, it'll most likely fire right back up tonight just fine. Anyways, I got lots of stuff done today at work. We are currently in the planning phase of a VPN or WAN for our entire company. Should be cool once we start putting it into place at the end of January. The web pages are slowly getting finished due to mainly the managers being too busy to give me content, however that will change soon since we are starting to slow down for the winter, although saying that Cando slowing down for the winter is kinda a joke. Ether way, life is looking not so bad these days, now I just need to find myself a girl and some how invent a hole that spits out five dollars every minute and I'd be set. I guess if I spent more time outside the walls of my office, or apartment I'd most likely have the first one covered. Women confuse the fuck out of me and I get nervous around them and say stupid shit. Also I am usually drunk when I try talking to them, so that doesn't help. Anyways, keep on trucking I guess.

Uggg.

I had yesterday off, and now I have to work today. I hate these kinds of weeks where you get a day off then have to come back to work the next day. It makes for a long Friday. I am currently trying to get the ftp server that I just finished setting up to work, and it's coming along quite nicely. In other news, my neck is extremely sore. I don't know what the hell I did to it, also I've got heart burn city. I think I might buy a new bed. Anyways, I've got to get back to work.

Jonny Cash is the shit!

Hey,

last night I watched a great program on Jonny Cashes life. Now I have always liked his music, but now I have a uncontrollable to go out and buy his 47 albums. That's right 47 albums. That's a lot of work, but then again it was done over what something like 50 years. The fact that he stood up for various social topics (Vietnam, etc) only makes me respect him more. Also, I think I like him so much because I can relate to some of the things that he's gone through in his life (like drug addiction, etc).

On to other stuff. People that don't stop at cross walks are complete assholes. Since I have DUI (Driving Under the Influence) I have to walk to work everyday, which is about 1 mile. Anyways, I had to wait at a cross walk for something like 2 mins. The only reason that I got to cross then is because there were no cars coming after that. I swear when I get my driving license back I will stop for every person that I see on the side of the road. Anyways, I've got work to do.