Friday Coffee Musing - v1.3

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Good morning folks. Another Friday has come and therefore I am here writing to you all my Friday Coffee Musing.

{slurp}

It's been a very trying week for my family this week. We've all been sick, Christmas is quickly approaching, weather is gloomy and then there's work and day-to-day chores. I'm on the mend! I've been feeling under the weather since Saturday last week and just yesterday I started feeling like a human again. My son and daughter are both ill as well. A quick trip to the doctor told us it's a common infection that typically starts off with a few days of flu-like symptoms then moves into a week of cold symptoms. Yay for us!

{slurp}

My wife somehow avoided the blunt of this. She was ill for maybe a day or two but it didn't let her get her down. I often marvel at the will of a Mother. It's in these times I realize how weak I truly am. I only hope some day I can become at least half the parent she is. She's quite amazing.

Other than being ill, a lot has happened since I last sat here and wrote. I'm playing DAoC on a very part-time basis. I had the pleasure of joining my fabulous guild mates on a romp in Mordred where we threw caution into the wind and did things no other level 20 would dare :). I've been blown up by a co-worker playing Battlefield 1942 (shakes fist at Vip) while playing on our work co-op server, and my son had his first Christmas pageant at his school which was quite fun to watch. Overall, minus the sickness, it was quite the productive week and a lot has gone on.

{slurp}

Have you heard about this new 'flu' that's been going around? I heard on the radio this morning about two kids in Vancouver who died from this 'flu'. Despite what the doctor said, I still worry about my kids. These things can come from almost anywhere and if it's taking lives (especially young ones), as a parent, I can't help but be worried. Then again, how much of it is media hype? Since most of us are led to believe what the media has to say, it makes you wonder what kind of stories they're feeding us. Just the same way a parent can tell their children a story about three little bears who live in a house and eat pourage; how easily are we led to believe things that may (or may not) be true?

It's kind of interesting to sit back while you're at work and think of all the ways we gather information. Today, most of us use the internet and browse different news sites to find out what's going on. Others get their fix while driving to work in the morning. Then there are some who watch the evening and nightly news on television. Myself, I tend to get my fix during the morning while driving to work. Since it takes me almost 30 minutes to get here in the morning, I have a bit of time to kill. I'll sometimes browse CNN while at work and on the very odd occasion, I'll watch the local news at night (if there is something interesting in the headlines).

{slurp}

Speaking of driving to work, I had a nice relaxing drive in this morning. It would seem that most of the city decided to take today off in preparation for the holiday season. I typically leave my house around 6:15 ' 6:30am and stop off at a nearby coffee shop and drive downtown. I drive a 2001 Toyota Camry. It only has four cylinders, but she has some nice pep to her :) I get great gas mileage, so I can't complain there. Typically $30(can) will fill the beast and I can go to work and back for two weeks (approx 80km/49Mi round trip).

This morning the freeway was very quiet. I was able to quickly get from the north part of the city to the downtown in about 15min. Parking was a non-issue, and I was at work a whole 10min early. I have lots of coffee left, so my day is starting off just great.

{slurp}

Return of the King came out this week. I haven't had an opportunity to go see it but I will before too long. My sister had purchased advanced tickets to go see it on Wednesday and had the nerve to ask to borrow my car so she could go. That was all fine except she had purchased TWO tickets and was taking my other sister. I don't even think the two of them together give a rat's ass about Tolkien and his story; they just wanted to go see Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen (ooooo). My wife had to break my older sister's heart and tell her that her 'Aragorn' heart throb was hung like a squirrel. She was devastated lol.

{slurp}

Ahhh

Coffee is almost done; therefore I must begin to close. As I mentioned in a post the other day, I'm thinking of setting up a site dedicated to the coffee musings I write. I don't plan on being famous or anything, I just want to bore you all with my senseless ramblings and life stories :). I had planned on posting the responses from last week's question about 'uses for Velcro', but I didn't get any via e-mail. So, being the nice guy I am, I'll extend the deadline another week. So if you forgot shame on you! Remember, I'm looking for just a quick little blurb on a new and exciting way you could use Velcro around the house. Draft it up in an email and forward it to me at fiendz@telus.net with subject line: Velcro for Ralic cuz he's hot! I will include any and all responses (completely anonymous of course) in the next Friday Coffee Musing.

Take care you wonderful people. Have a safe and happy holiday season. If you've ever wondered what Christmas would be like in Poland, you can find out here http://www.polishworld.com/christmas/ :)

Take care

Friday Coffee Musing - v1.2

I know, I know! I'm late today :) I have the day off so I decided to sleep in a little bit (if you call sleeping until 8am sleeping in).

{slurp}

OMG! What did I put in this???

brb

{....}

Ok

{slurp}

Much better :)

This morning I decided to test out my coffee making skills in my little home coffee maker. I must admit, it's quite awful. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. I even read the instructions for the right coffee/water proportions. Alas, I guess coffee is meant to be made by someone else :)

{slurp}

This week has been most uneventful. On the weekend my bro-in-law, my niece, my son and I went out and fired off a couple rockets. It was blistering cold and the snow was up over my knees in places. We made sure to head FAR away from the airport this time :) So here we were standing in the middle of this field; the kids were so bundled up they could have stayed out there and played for hours. Rick and I, of course, were barely wearing winter coats :) No snow pants or proper boots.
It was 'silly'.

{slurp}

ugh

Well, the wife just woke up. Now I'm distracted and can't think of anything to write :) I hate it when she does this.

{slurp}

This past week of work was interesting. I had last Monday off and then today. I also have this upcoming Monday off. I think there is approx 8 more working days from now till January 5th left for me. I'm getting kind of excited. This Linux project I've been working on is coming to a close, Christmas is coming, etc etc etc.

{slurp}

Speaking of Christmas; if you don't have small children (or have had small children), you can't even begin to understand how fun it is for me. My son is always asking me if tomorrow is Christmas :) The tv shows on remind me so much of my childhood. I remember how much I used to look forward to Christmas. My parents did a great job at making is as special as they could for their kids. I plan on doing just the same.

{slurp}

My son has his pre-school Christmas Concert today. We get to go to his school and watch all the little boys and girls forget their places, forget their lines, and just plain laugh and have fun. Should be a good time.

{slurp}

Out of coffee (small cup).

Brb

{....}

You know what's cool? Velcro! What a great invention. It has so many uses around the house or office. The actual idea of Velcro came from a plant called Xanthium strumarium or Cocklebur plants :) I'm sure you've seen them before. Those little spiky balls of fun that attach themselves to your clothes and don't come off very easily? :) There is also another species of the same plant which is less common called Xanthium spinosum. This plant has the same spiky properties, but they spikes are on the leaves.

{slurp}

Now, these 'burs' develop a couple seeds each which remain viable for many years. Since they pretty much stick to anything, these burs would stick to animal fur and get transported all over the place.

{slurp}

Anyway, back to the Velcro. It was invented in 1948 by a Swiss mountaineer named George de Mestral. It was the burs he encountered during his travels that prompted him to investigate to see what gave these burs the unique sticky ability. He decided to invent a fastener that would rival the zipper and he called it Velcro; which is short for Velor and Crochet.

{slurp}

I write about all this to do a small fun activity with you all :) I would like you to think of some applications where Velcro could be used around the home or office. Be creative, capture it in an email, and send it my way (fiendz@telus.net). I'll read through them and post them in the next Friday Coffee musing.

{slurp}

If you want to read any of the previous musings, I've redone my website to be more of a weblog site. You can get to it at http://www.fiendz.net, or http://www.albion-mlf.com/fiendz. The background on my site is actually the background of my desktop which you can view at http://www.fiendz.net/desktop.png or http://www.albion-mlf.com/fiendz/desktop.png.

{slurp}

Anyway folks, have a great and safe weekend. Take care and we'll see you again next week. Don't forget to send me your thoughts on how Velcro could be applied at home and at the office :)

Cheers

Friday Coffee Musing - v1.1

Good morning folks!

Well, another week is almost finished and as a result, I'm here typing up my Friday Musing. My main theme this week was Family, Friends and 'Linux is Good'.

{slurp}

Let me start off by saying there is nothing more important than having a family. When I was a young teen, I remember how anxious I was to get out and do my own thing. Now that I'm older (and wiser?) and have my own children, I realize what my parents were doing and am grateful for all the ever did. Family is important and I'll leave it at that for now.

{slurp}

Here in Canada, we have a chain of coffee shops called Tim Horton's. I'm not sure if there are any in the States, but if not, you guys are missin' out

Today on my way into work I decided to pick up my regular extra large coffee Double Double (or 2 cream & 2 sugar). I was lucky enough to have a smooth ride into work and didn't spill any of the precious liquid caffeine. So here I sit, drinking my Tim's and enjoying the smooth coffee taste first thing in the morning. It's a great feeling!

{slurp}

Mmm.. that's good

{slurp}

Ok. Last Saturday I received a phone call from my friend Rick (aka Nodrol) who wanted me to round up my son and head over to his place. Since he only lives about half a block away, I decided to bundle up my son and we walked over. To my surprise, Rick had purchased a small model rocket and was planning to launch it. We live fairly close to the International Airport here in Calgary, so I was curious to see WHERE we were going to fire this bad boy off.

{slurp}

We all piled into his car and started our adventure. We found a really nice flat plateau (finding a flat place in the Prairie Provinces isn't hard) and proceeded to set up the miniature launch pad. We were fairly close to the Airport, but we felt we were far enough away that we would pose no threat. Had he waited the proper amount of time for the glue to dry, we probably wouldn't have.

{slurp}

We get everything all setup. The wind was blowing East (toward the airport) but it was only a slight cool breeze. The ignition light came on and WOOSH! I must say, I was quite impressed at how high this sucker went. The outside of the box said 1,100ft and I would guess it did at least that. Everything was going fine until we noticed the parachute had deployed, but the shock cord had come loose from the main body of the rocket. To make a long story short, we found the body of the rocket about 15ft from the perimeter fence of the Airport. Since the cone of the rocket had been attached to the parachute, we figure it landed somewhere around the airport terminals (oops). We climbed into his car and took off.

{slurp}

Other than the rocket, my weekend was fairly uneventful and boring.

{slurp}

This week at work has been quite hectic. This Linux project I'm working on originally had an end date for some time (around the end of Q1 2004). We just got the final word this week that we needed to have it done by the end of December. For those who know and understand Linux, you know full well that you can't rush it

I've been working my tail off all week to try and get ahead. I've booked my remaining holidays for the year, so after today I only have 11 working days left until January 5, 2004.

Anyway, we had a very interesting problem with one of the workstations here. I've created an automated way of building workstations with Linux. If you're familiar with Jumpstart in the Solaris realm, you'll know what I'm talking about. In Red Hat, they call it Kick Start. The machine is an HP xw8000. This bad boy has dual 3GHz Xeon processors in it, and 4Gig of Ram. It has dual 73Gig disks with a hardware RAID controller. Sweet box, kind of.

They have an onboard nic which is labeled EtherExpress Pro. Normally, the EtherExpress Pro is a 10/100 card but unfortunately, this one is 10/100/1000. I didn't realize this until yesterday afternoon. The driver I have been using for this nic was for the 10/100 version of the EtherExpress. SO, for those of you who have had experience building boot disks with drivers for Linux, you kind of know where this is going. The kernel version we are using on our workstations here is 2.4.18-27. The boot diskette we are using to Kick Start the boxes is 2.4.18-3BOOT. In order to compile this driver for Linux, we need a machine with the 2.4.18-3BOOT kernel The only way to do this was to download the 2.4.18-3 kernel and install it on a temp workstation. Then we had to make a few kernel.h tweaks to append the BOOT after the kernel version. Once this was done, we were able to boot the machine and compile the driver so it would have the 2.4.18-3BOOT kernel headers attached.

{slurp}

Then we had to modify the boot disk image and put this new driver into it so Red Hat would see it when we started the Kick Start. Overall it was a great experience. I haven't 'hacked' away at Linux like that in a long time.

{slurp}

Anyway, coffee is gone so I'm going to cut this off here. Remember, Family, Friends, and Linux! Don't mix them together or you're asking for problems.  Also, don't try to put them into your coffee, they just don't work

Take care everyone, see you next week!