Another three day weekend. This one will bring us into 2007.
2006 was pretty good for me.
I'm sure there is lots I'm forgetting too. I'm also leaving some of the not so great stuff off but none of the not so great stuff is really that bad and pretty much been canceled out by the good stuff.
I hope you all had a great 06 and hope you have a better 07.
Last night I called another Cingular store about the Jawbone hands free. They carry it, apparently, and say they were expecting it in late this week or early next. I'm gonna call them back tomorrow and see if they have any in stock and if they do I'm getting one tomorrow. If not tomorrow sometime later.
I may take the crappy bluetooth headset I have now and put it into a retro style handset or something from good will just to do it.
Sometimes I think things may not be so bad with out so much technology around me at all times. Not owning many computers, the super cell phone, the wireless network, xbox, servers, etc etc.
I sometimes think about giving most of it up for maybe just a single computer, with a single monitor. Preferably an elegant looking computer able to do all that I need it to do with little to no hassle.
I've sort of tried to fool my self into thinking things are simpler than they are. Moving the servers into the closet so they are more out of sight out of mind. But as things are I am aware of them as I use one for a mail server, the other is a proxy for all my web traffic as well as a file and dhcp server. Everytime I play a video on my modded xbox it comes from the fileserver. Everytime I play a MP3 on the xbox it comes from the same file server, all mine and my responsiblity. I know what can go wrong and I know I'm the one that has to fix it if it does go wrong, I am my own and pretty much only customer. I can only blame others for a few things going wrong.
On the flip side of this if I didn't have the technology around me I'd think I'd have much less to do. I enjoy configuring servers and sometimes doing a little bit of scripting or programming. Making things work. Also setting these things up and my passions for such things pays the bills for me as well. These things don't really distract from my life infact they sometimes and somewhat enchance it at times. Being able to check and send email anyplace I have cellphone service is quite handy from time to time.
I think part of my problem is I know what is going on around me as far as my technology goes. Less magic. I wrote the scripts, configured the settings, setup the rules, and control the traffic. I think up new ways to make something simpler or diffrent to my advantage with technology available to me but it always involves more work and configuration and more room for something to go wrong. At the same time such things are often cool or fun to accomplish in my own mind and often seen by others as cool or fancy or something else geeky but good...
While really enjoy some of the resouces I have created for my self, proxy servers, email servers, vmware, etc. Many people I know get along just fine with their 450mhz G3 imac. Why can't I?
So a couple weeks ago I saw a press release for a new hands free called jawbone. It's got some super noise cancelation stuff and doesn't look too bad either. Well their page says one can buy it in Cingular stores, not in Eugene you can't. I went to two stores at lunch and asked they all thought I was some tard asking about a crappy jabra headset (which suck). So I'm going to have to wait til I can get one from the company that makes them or someplace else.
I'm a bit extra tired today. Could have slept better. But my Christmas was good. I've got extra motivation to finaly get an Ipod, which I've wanted since gen 1 which didn't even work for windows. My motivation is I got the adapter for my car stereo to talk to an Ipod... So I think sometime in January I'll be picking up an Ipod, most likely with birthday moneys.
I'm about to pack up and to head up to Salem to see family and maybe friends for the day. Hopefully there isn't much or any traffic to speak of...
Merry Christmas.
Finaly finished a book today. It may have taken me nearly a year or at least the better part of a year to finish. I'm not much of a reader and while the information in the book was good I despised reading it. I promised Amanda I'd read it long ago I read it. It wasn't written for me really at all. But I won I beat the book and kept my promise...
It's Christmas eve. Tomorrow morning I will head to Salem see the family and do the family thing. Then depending on when the family stuff is over I may hang out with Chris, Cat and maybe Joe. Or I may just head back to Eugene as I'm pretty sure my Salem and family quotta will have been more than met. Chris will be in town on Tuesday so I can give him his gift then, if I can't or don't decide to hang out in Salem tomorrow. Cat already got hers.
I think I look more foward to maybe having my own family and doing Christmas someday...
I've got friends I've never met and never spoken to on the phone even though numbers have been exchanged, but sometimes we exchange text messages. Some are just a couple hours away, others are in other states. Even though I've never taken the time to go met or talk to these friends on the phone they still mean a great deal to me.
20 years ago such things wouldn't have really been possible. But I'm a child of the bit. Not a war baby or a flower child. A member of the digital persuasion. Making friends that I may never meet but would still go out on a limb for and help any way I could. I'm also a special case as I'm a geek and tend to understand how things work and how to use technologys makeing me even more of the digital persuasion.
Around 3 am I got a text message from a friend I've never met or spoken to on the phone. I responded. We would exchange a few text messages then I'd fall back to sleep then a while later I'd get another and I again would reply hoping to help with the problem or emotional state at hand. I did make an attempt to call but no answer so still never spoken to this person on the phone but they have at least heard my voice on voicemail now.
I find it interesting/facinating people can now build such bonds and relationships with out ever really meeting or speaking to eachother.
My car started to make a horrible sound on Tuesday morning. I was sorta like a nails on a chalkboard only way louder. Well maybe not quite nails on a chalkboard but it might as well have been as bad as it hurt to hear it. It almost sounded like singing/screaming at times but not in any sort of good way.
To me it sounded like metal or plastic spinning on metal. It took me a little while to develop my theory, well not very long. Yesterday I dropped my car off at the usual spot for such repairs to be made and told them my theory. Today when I called to check in on things my theory was confirmed, one of the pulleys for the main belt was making the noise. So to the tune of $111.34 it was fixed. I think this is actually the cheapest fix yet for the car.
Really tired today stayed up/out too late last night. I don't know if it actually be too late if it was fun/worthwhile. I mean it can be too late if you can't sleep because of neighbors playing music too loud or doing something else that keeps one awake. But if it's on ones own will and not out of NEED for something like work then I don't know it can actaully be too late.
Amanda called me tonight and told me that the northern lights could be seen here in oregon tonight. I live to near the city to see them so I set off to try to find a suitable place to see them. I failed. I did mange to get somewhat lost though. Never found a good place to see them always too many trees or clouds or fog where not to mention I was facing the wrong way part of the time because I didn't really have my bearings.
Car got new spark plugs, filters and other car stuff today. Got no bad news when I picked it up which was nice. But I did have to clean the door handle area on the drivers side as one of the mechanics didn't wash his hands properly before touching it. No biggie took a minute or less to clean up once I got it home and my leather cleaner out.
Tomorrow my car gets a tune up. I will either stick around the area and take pictures or find a way home if the weather is suck.
My horid sinus headache was back this morning and gone sometime after lunch. I really hope it's not a regular thing.
My frontal sinus hurt. They've done this off and on for a few days now but right now is the worst it has been. It sucks. So far some a decongestiant hasn't helped. I breifly thought about pop rocks and coke to maybe push back but I think that would be more helpful in a situation where I needed to equalize to a higher pressure atmosphere not sinus pain...
ow.
I put an fan in my vmware server today. This one is mostly to keep the drives cooler as they got pretty warm. It may cool things down in the case as well. It was a pretty easy deal so I may drop more in later just to be sure it doesn't over heat when summer comes around.
Once I brought the server back up I couldn't boot my virtual machine. So I started to install a new one and was going to tinkerwith or reinstall the broken one but when I booted it to reinstall the OS it came up just fine so the problem resolved it self. But now I've got two virtual machines and one waiting for me to bring it up and do something with it now.
Got to hang out with Cat and her friend Rae for a while last night. Rae had a show and Cat was in town and I was invited so I went...
Slept in this morning.
Got a thing to go to tonight.
I've been working on a new CD for my car for the better part of the week I'm wanting to get that finished today. My fear with the new CD is it will increase the weight of my foot, which already is a bit heavy.
One Month until I turn 25....
My insurance will drop...
But I will be 25.
Still have some blockage and sinus pressure and my voice is still kinda hoarse but I am able to communicate with it again which is good. I may return to work tomorrow, assuming I can get to sleep in a resonable ammount of time tonight.
Also I washed my car.
Ya. No work again today. Voice is back ever so slightly but it's really scrachty and shitty sounding, not that it's great sounding when I'm not sick but it's really bad.
Kala, who is aware of my condition called and heard me say a couple words and promptly got off the phone because I sounded so bad. It was horrible at the doctors yesterday when I had even less of a voice, attempting to list symptoms and answer questions.
My right ear seems to have gotten plugged up. My eyes are bloodshot, Bonnie thinks it could be from the coughing. I been coughing quite a bit in the evenings which prevents me from getting to sleep in a resonable amount of time or at a resonable time. Then coughing a lot in the mornings as well and coughing up huge gobs of crap from time to time...
I ate 11 serverings of Golden Grahams today. Which was just 3 bowls full which finished the box.
My Illness is most likely a viral Laryngitis. Meaning I can't do much other than wait it out. Hopefully I have enough voice to go back to work tomorrow... I'm also thinking about attempting to find a way to sleep sitting up comfortably so I don't end up so stuffed up and coughing so badly in the morning.
I've got no voice today. I logged on to my health insurance page and found a doctor thats less than a mile away. I'm gonna call him tomorrow morning if things haven't improved.
My stuffyness is usualy fine as long as I'm not laying down, drainage is better I suppose. Not running a fever. Been doing lots of water and chcolate milk and had some tomatoe soup too.
I've spent most of today playing GTA San Andreas on the Xbox.
Todays plan inculded hanging out with a couple friends from work. But I'm really not feeling 100% or even 75% maybe 65% but not well. I may go anyways because I'm gonna need to leave to eat something today anyways. I may just leave the event early depending on when it starts and where it ends up being.
So I've got a cold. It sucks. Felt pretty decent most of today but it got worse as the day progressed of course.
I'm gonna sleep now.