Ode to the Blog

Barely midnight on vacation

2008-09-04T23:07:00.002-05:00

I am on vacation in Philly now and it is barely midnight and our friends are ready for bed. Well maybe it has something to do with the time of traffic. Our vacation now involved vacation

IronPort Support Portal -- Entire day of email GONE

2008-08-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

So today, I started getting messages on my iPhone about 8:00 AM that my spamfilter gateway was having "issues" but it was just saying that it was taking a long time to scan a message and it came across as a Warning. These happen every so often if someone has a file zipped inside a zip, etc or just a very large attachment (that should have been bounced back anyway).

So when I get to the office, I start looking into it and it has gotten worse, now the messages are critical and they keep on coming!! So my first thought is to see if we are getting attacked by some sort of DDOS or some other method that is stopping all incoming and outgoing mail from passing through the IronPort. After realizing that nothing sinister is going on, I decide to go back a few days and see what we are dealing with. Well, Thursday of last week, IronPort (now a Cisco company) sent out a notice that there was an update to their proprietary OS from 6.1 to 6.3. This morning I decided, since I have to reboot the thing anyway, I may as well do the upgrade also. Well, that was my first mistake, and I know better...

Cutting it short, if you ever are experiencing a problem, a major change to the system is usually NOT the answer. Now you don't know if it is something with the upgrade or the previous problem still going on or now previous problem is complicated or what!! Well fortunately I have been working with a Good Ole' Boy named Bill (Bill seems to be a serious southerner with one heck of a twang). We are still going but things are slow moving today and as it is already 2:30 PM, the day is all but wasted!

IronPort™ Support Portal

iPhone update, so far it's not looking good

2008-08-04T22:57:00.008-05:00

So I just downloaded and started the update for the 2.0.1 update to my iPhone and from the looks of things, it seems to have frozen up my desktop -- my laptop is reporting time of 10:58 PM and desktop is stuck on 10:47 PM. Everything outside of iTunes is simply showing the hourglass and the progress bar on my iPhone "Updating iPhone software..." window is stuck on the same number of dots on the install line...

Hey, now is your chance, if you can't wait to get your own iPhone, check out the Apple availability page to see if your local Apple Store has the iPhone in the color and size of your choice.

UPDATE: So good news, iTunes caused a blue screen of death (BSOD) and my iPhone was not completed with the update yet. So after I turned the computer back off then on, it tells me that it is in recovery mode and must be restored. Wow, guess I should have waited to find out if this update has multiple problems. It is in the process of recovery right now, keep your fingers and toes crossed for me!

UPDATE: So it looks like it may not be as bad as it originally looked. I now have iTunes telling me that it is restoring my phone (about 1/2 done according to the bars) and my phone is telling me that a restore is in progress, but also giving me an activation alert (we will see where that goes from here...

UPDATE: ...And back to the concern... iTunes successfully restored my iPhone (or so it reported), then my phone restarted. As soon as it came back up, iTunes changed it from "restoring rwilson's iPhone" to now "restoring rwilson's iPhone - Aug. 4, 2008". I thought it just did that?

UPDATE: Well this will be my last update on this. The restore worked about as well as a 6/10. Why give it a six out of ten? Well, for one, after the restore, it came up with the same screen again, so I had to set it up as a new iPhone which means all my settings for my Exchange server, iTunes music, videos, podcasts, images, ringtones, everything had to be copied back over to the iPhone. This is not so bad because I knew to do a sync before the upgrade to 2.0.1, but not everyone knows this and there was never a warning that it should be done.

Maybe it should deserve a 7/10 instead since it did remember the music, videos, photos, etc that sync'ed previously (although it was set to sync ALL by default). As soon as I changed the selector from All to "Selected..." it remembered what was selected previously.

Till next time, happy iPhone'ing...

I finally got my iPhone

2008-07-31T00:27:00.000-05:00

Well today my iPhone finally came in. The Apple - iPhone was backordered as I am sure you can imagine, but nonetheless, mine came in today. So you might ask, what am I doing up after midnight on a work night, what else but ripping dvd's to put the video on my phone :)

So far the grumblings that I have heard regarding certificate issues with the Exchange server seem to be completely unfounded. Not only did it not give me any grief about our certificate, it only asked if we wanted to accept it or cancel -- choose accept and you are done, the certificate gets installed on the phone by itself!! Let me say that again, self-sign certificates are not a problem with the iPhone 3G, period!

Now I am just checking out all the software in the AppStore and working with many of the free applications -- I won't pay for one till I know someone else who has already dropped their $2.99 on the app! :)

Till next time, I will let you know more as I learn more about the iPhone!

So it's my birthday...

2008-07-24T07:56:00.003-05:00

So today is my 38th birthday. As anyone who knows me can attest, I always take my birthday off work and like to sleep in. You may be asking yourself, if he likes to sleep in, why is he typing his blog at 7:59 AM? Did the baby wake up? No, that was at 4:00 AM, then I went back to sleep.

So what is the reason for waking up so early on your day to sleep in? A guy from my office called me in a panic, you see he is going out of town and his iTunes erased his ipod... that's right, he f*&*ing called me to ask how to get his music back onto his ipod!!! Now that I can't get back to sleep, I may as well complain about him as much as I can.

Now this guy is a nice enough guy, but when the hell does someone decide not to show me any respect and call me at 7:15 AM because he can't get his music to sync to his iPod? I am off work today and tomorrow (as is he) but when I get back to the office on Monday, I think his computer may start to suffer from some boughts of spontaneous reboot.

As for now, I am going to take my dogs for a walk (after all it is also one of my dog's birthday -- he is 6) and then I am going to get ready to take my son to swim lessons and later today, we are off to the Cub's game!! Go Cubs Go!!!

What is BlogThis! ?

2008-07-23T07:29:00.000-05:00

Well for starters, I can now get to my blogging a little easier. Using BlogThis, I merely have to click this link and it will start a new window where I can start typing about whatever I want to blog about...

Obviously I use Blogger (been using it since long before it was a Google property) and now I have found a way to blog without having to go to the blogger site, log in and then start writing. I love all my readers (you know I do) but the extra steps are just to much sometimes.

So anyway, here is to my continued blogging and hopefully we can stay afloat and not have year long spans in the future!

What is BlogThis! ?

New Movies

2008-06-22T09:37:00.005-05:00

Well as anyone who knows me can attest to, I love collecting movies. I have recently started migrating my DVD collection into an HD-DVD and Blu-Ray collection. Yes I am one of the fortunate ones who can take advantage of both formats as my player. I own the Samsung BD-UP5000, which has turned out to be simply awesome!

As of right now, I have 1,271 movies in my collection and it keeps growing every week. The nice thing is since my player will play both blu-ray and hd-dvd, I can take advantage of the stores that are dumping their hd-dvd's for less than $10 each!!

You can always see a dynamic view of the latest movies that I have watched right here (0n the left). As I watch a new movie, this list will be updated ... ok, well as soon as I publish the title to the Internet.

One question that I seem to get is always, hey can I borrow this movie or that movie? I generally don't lend out my movies as I have tried this in the past and it has typically never been a good situation. No friendship is worth ending because of a dvd worth about $15-$30. Of course some of my movies are worth considerably more than this as they are entire series of tv shows (like Sienfeld, Friends or Alias) . If you want to read about my views on lending movies to friends/family, check this out.

Till next time, enjoy the blog and go watch a movie -- me, I am going outside to mow the lawn.

Firefox 3.0

2008-06-18T00:39:00.003-05:00

Well, after a long trial to get Firefox downloaded (it was available, then it wasn't then it was again). I am using it now and so far, the differences are very nice. One thing to consider before jumping in with both feet, if you have been using Firefox 2.xx for a while, you are no doubt in love with a few add-ons (or Extensions). If you are in fact in love with a few extensions, take the time to make sure that those extensions are available for Firefox 3.

One of my favorites is FasterFox - it is not available
Another favorite is Tab Mix Plus - you must go to the developer site, then the forum, then choose the developer's edition of the tool (or just get it here)
Several others that I had installed with 2.xx do not have compatible versions available (yet), but they are extensions that I can live without.

Till next time, here is to the World Record!

Back on Track ... I mean it this time

2008-06-09T14:01:00.002-05:00

OK, this time I really mean it. My last post was on December 17, 2007 which was 16 days after my son was born, it is not June 9, 2008 and he is now more than 6 months old.

God, so much has happened in my life! Of course I am talking about my personal life here, my professional life still remains the same, PDRMA.

I have been blessed with Michael and he is really allowing Leslie and I to live our lives like never before. Sure we have had the occasional sleepless night, but they have been very few and far between. Michael is a good sleeper for the most part. Of course now that he is starting to teethe, it is a bit harder to catch my good 3AM zzzz's.

Almost a year since....

2007-12-17T12:09:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been almost a full year since my last post on this blog and I guess one could say that a lot has happened in my life as well as the world. Of course, you already know what has happened in the world, so hows-about I tell you what has happened in my life.

Well for starters, back in February, Leslie and I went to Napa Valley to do a little wine tasting before a conference that I had. We had an absolute blast and swore we were coming back in the summer... that is when things changed permanently. Come March, we were both very frustrated with our lives and looking for a change. We decided that maybe we needed to move away to get what we felt we were lacking, after all, we both said we would like to move to Colorado some day, why not now. We started looking at properties out west and talked about putting our house on the market here.

Again, this is where the major change in our lives took place... On April 1 (April Fools Day) I was pricing out flights to go back to Napa when Leslie asked me to slow down with the plans for a bit. I did not understand what for but like any good husband, I listened. She hymn'ed and haw'ed a little bit and finally told me that she was "late" -- well for anyone who knows Leslie, this was nothing new, she is late for everything, but I knew she meant something different. We ran out to get a pregnancy test and sure enough, she was preggers!!!

Well plenty of time goes by and finally on December 1, 2007, our little bundle of joy (Michael Aidan) is born and now we have a whole new purpose in life. From this point forward, almost everything in our lives will focus around giving Michael every advantage that we can offer him.

Till next time (and hopefully it won't be another year)!!

World66 - Visited States

2006-12-28T22:09:00.002-06:00

I just came across this website that tracks places you have been for you to create a map of your travels. World66 - Visited States - United States reports the following information for me:

create your own personalized map of the USA

Since my last post

2006-12-19T17:02:00.000-06:00

Well since my last post a lot has happened. Let's see, for starters, on Body for Life, by day 84 I lost a grand total of 35 pounds and almost made it to my ideal weight for our cruise (I am still going to work even harder next cycle of 84 days to get down to my ultimate weight). Next I went on my cruise to the Western Caribbean -- you have got to see the pictures-- while there did one of the coolest things I think I have ever done in my life, swimming with the Stingrays.

It is almost Christmas 2006 and now I am getting ready for yet another dysfunctional Christmas with the families.

I have the rest of the year off from work (forced vacation, I like to call it, if I don't use it--I lose it). During this time, I think I may be reworking my website, converting it to web 2.0 from this basic PHP-database call stuff to make it more interactive with the end user in mind (that is you, goof-ball).

Anyway, till next time, have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year if I don't talk to you again before then.

Mac Guys in for a change

2006-11-11T23:33:00.000-06:00

Jason Long is reportedly no longer being "the Mac" in the I'm a Mac/I'm a PC commercials. That really is too bad, I liked him in many of his movies (stupid as they are) such as Waiting and Accepted. Oh you don't remember who they are? Here is an image to refresh your memory...

Cult of Mac

Official Google Blog: Keep track of your Maps searches, too

2006-11-11T12:38:00.000-06:00

Ahhh, yes, just one more way Google is making our lives easier... and keeping track of everything we do on the Internet. Is this covered by their privacy policy? Can a company get hold of this information on us at this point? I don't know, but it looks like one more thing to think about on the Internet.

Peace
Official Google Blog: Keep track of your Maps searches, too

Day 56 – Body for Life

2006-10-29T09:36:00.000-06:00

So today marks one of the first major failures I have had on Body for Life… sad as I am about it, it was a party that one of my best friends had last night and I drank, alcohol if you can believe it. Well, it was kind of hard not to as my costume was that of a KEG of beer. My hat for the keg was a tapper that held about 20 ounces worth of beverage, my beverage of choice of course being beer.

The good news is I only filled it up twice and did not finish the second refill, but still a failure is a failure. Remember back when you were in school and you got your first (and hopefully only) failing grade? If it were something like a 58/100 you didn’t feel any better because you “just barely failed” did you now? I didn’t think so, that is about how I feel now, I have worked very hard to change my lifestyle that sent me into this tailspin of weight gain and I had come to realize that alcohol is the single biggest factor in my weight gain. You ask yourself, “how can he pin his fat ass on alcohol?” well, read on and I will let you know.

When you go out drinking, how do you feel (apart from tired) once you have finished drinking for the night, probably hungry and guess where you can stop on your way home (or actually convince the designated driver or cabbie to stop). That’s right, Taco Bell or some other place with the worst crap you can ingest into your body, oh, and then you go right home and to sleep. **side note for my single friends out there, you should probably try to insert the part about trying to score with the chick you brought home, but us married folks, we just want to sleep – the sex will be there another day when we are not so tired and drunk.

So anyway, back on track now, last night was a slip up and I have acknowledged it as such. Now with day 56 upon me and daylight savings time turning my clocks back an hour, I am ready to get moving again. I will work for an extra hour today trying to kick myself in the ass and burn off those worthless calories I consumed last night. I will not cry about how life is not fair and it was only one time, it was a failure and now I am moving back on track. As I said in my last blog, I am down over 25 pounds and still have a ways to go. I have started looking past the cruise at this point and want to lose the weight for the long term and that means a total of 60 pounds from starting point.

Till next time, watch yourself cause that evil enemy is out there, just waiting for you to slip up.

Day (I don't know)

2006-10-27T00:06:00.000-05:00

Well I have been doing Body for Life now for quite a few weeks, don't know the number off the top of my head. I am now at the point where I have lost 25 pounds and need to lose another 15 before our cruise in 5 weeks.

One thing I am doing in addition to my regular workout is exercise boot camp. It is a 5:30 AM workout regimine that is quite tough although nothing like real boot camp. Our personal trainer for the boot camp is a guy who really knows his stuff and it really does make life easier (and harder at the same time).

I am pretty sure I will get down to my Cruise Goal weight in time, but I am happy with the progress so far anyway.

I also know that in previous blogs (they seem like so long ago), I mentioned that I would post video blogs... well, I have recorded them, but I have not encoded them for the web (and I kinda doubt I will) strictly from a time standpoint--I don't have any.

Till next time, keep on working out!

Day 19 -- Body for Life

2006-09-22T20:00:00.000-05:00

So today is day 19 of Body for Life and weight loss is going good although I seemed to have hit a plateau on the “big time” loss. I am working out like a mad man but the weight is just not melting off like it was. Tonight I am going to do a long treadmill workout and tomorrow will be an upper body day. The food is starting to get a little old --- I miss PIZZA J.

I think I will do a lot better when I join a gym next week. I am either joining Lifetime Fitness or the Wheaton Park District Fitness Center; either way, they are both within a close proximity to work and not bad for home. I cannot find any information about the prices on the Lifetime Fitness Center website but there are several layers of membership, but the Wheaton Park District for an annual membership is $393 for a year or $37 on a monthly basis.

By the way, I have started my video journal and am editing the tape now. I will post a link to the video in my next blog. If you are interested, keep checking in!!

F1 vs Ferrari vs Fiat

2006-09-15T18:09:00.000-05:00


Three cars race against each other but the Fiat and the Ferrari 360 Modena are both given headstarts against the Formula 1. As someone who has always wanted a Ferrari, this is a little embarrassing. Maybe it is time I change my dream car to a Formula 1 car, of course there is always that little problem about driving it down the street... yeah right, let the cops try to catch me!!

Day 11 -- "Body for Life"

2006-09-14T17:13:00.000-05:00

Well, here I sit at the end of another work day, Day 11 on “Body for Life” and last night I went a little crazy on the treadmill. Exercising for over 65 minutes and burning over 1,000 calories!! Anyway, technically yesterday was not an aerobic exercise day, but an upper body day – today is an aerobic day so tonight I will be doing aerobic and upper body (as soon as Survivor is over J).

Everything seems to be going very good, I am losing weight, my clothes are getting looser in all the right places and my body is starting to tighten up.

I just had an awesome idea, tonight, I am going to pick up a mini-dv tape and start a video diary. Hell, I may even put it online every couple of days. I will keep you all posted. I am looking forward to getting out of work right now, so this will have to do for today… till next time, keep working out and eating right!

Day 8 Body for Life -- And a little more

2006-09-11T11:41:00.000-05:00

So now it is day 8 on “Body for Life” and I can see a noticeable change in my energy level as well as the ‘snugness’ of my clothing. When I look in the mirror I do not see any changes yet, but that is probably because they are such little changes and I look at myself naked in the mirror every day (not for hours on end or anything, c’mon).

So last week, on day 5 I worked my lower body and let me tell you, my body was not used to it!! I have not done squats or lunges for about 3 years (I found the sheet that told me how much weight I was doing at the time and I decided to just pick right up where I left off – big f***ing mistake!). I could hardly walk on Friday and Saturday, not to mention I could not workout. Yesterday was day 7 and my first “free day” (you get a single free day where you don’t have to follow eating and workout schedule quite as rigorously) and I thought since I am obviously a couple days behind on workouts, I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a pretty brisk pace and ate pretty much right along with the plan. I did eat some cheesy-beer-bread with chili last night – after no soda pop and very little (refined) sugar all week, it was very good, but I felt bad afterwards.

This morning I was looking forward to starting the program with my best friends’ wife, it is an exercise boot camp but they actually started last week and the guy said wait till Wednesday to make sure there is room in the program. It really is ok though, this morning I had to take my eldest dog (Casey) to the vet because over the weekend we found another cancerous tumor on his leg (different leg than last time). He stayed at the vet to have surgery on his right front leg. I will be off to pick him up in a few hours but I am hoping that everything goes ok and that I can squeeze in a workout around lunch time (upper body today).

Till the next update, here is to healthy eating, working out and getting in shape!

Why do I even bother... Body for Life is why

2006-09-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I ask myself, "self, why do you even bother with this blog, you never keep it up to date?" To which my other side replies, "Why are you such a pessimist? Take off the skirt, put on the pants and start writing your thoughts down."

So here goes. This past Monday (September 4) marks the new place in my life, I have had enough of being “large and in charge”. I have contemplated it for many months now (pretty much since finishing graduate school – which incidentally I blame for much of my weight problem), now it is time to take action. I stepped on the scale Monday morning and weighed in at a grotesque 275.6 pounds, exactly 50 pounds more than when I said “I do” to my lovely wife – who has managed to gain 0 pounds in the same 9 ½ year timeframe.

So you ask, “what are you going to do about it fat boy?” Well I am going to tell you, I started a program called “Body for Life”. I have done this program before when I weighed 260 and got down to 240 before starting grad school. Once I was in full swing of grad school it simply became too hard to maintain the eating and workout schedule. Today is day 3 and I cannot express how good I feel about the program and my body is feeling just a little pain (the good kind) from the weight lifting and the time on the treadmill. I weighed myself this morning as soon as I woke up and to my satisfaction, was down to 268.6 (SEVEN POUNDS)! Now I am not foolish enough to think that is much more than an initial “blast” and some water weight, but I don’t think it could be related to water weight gain as I have drank about 20 glasses of water in the last 2 days and am taking a leak about 12 to 15 times a day.

So anyway, as part of my change, I am going to try to keep my blog updated with my progress and God willing, I will be on my cruise starting December 3, 2006 wearing a nice pair of swim trunks and not ashamed of my over-extended gut! If I am feeling a bit rambunctious, I may even post some pictures for you all to laugh at along the way.

Slate Magazine - 9/11 Report Graphical Adaptation

2006-09-01T02:56:00.000-05:00

9/11 Report Graphical Adaptation

The 9/11 graphical adaptation report... read it online.

Evolution of Dance

2006-07-13T17:34:00.000-05:00

Can you believe this... 2 days in a row and I post on my blog after nearly nothing for a few months. I laughed my ass off at this one. Check it out. It has been around the web for a little while now, (since about April) but enjoy it all the same!!

YouTube - Evolution of Dance

Channelchooser :: pick click play internet TV-channels

2006-07-12T18:20:00.000-05:00

Man, you talk about a serious ass break in blogging. If this blog was not on my own server, I would think it had been wiped out!! Anyway, came across this website today where you can watch cable TV on the Internet.Channelchooser :: pick click play internet TV-channels

Looks like a really cool way to watch your computer screen, but seriously, if you are away from your TV and have to see SportsCenter at 10:00 PM, just hook into a broadband connection and let it rip!!

Anti-Cruelty Society Upcoming Events

2006-05-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

So as you all know, my wife, my dogs and myself took part in the Bark in The Park (our 7th, overall the 12th for the organization). So anyway, they raised over $220,000 for the animals in donations during the event. Thank you to all who helped out with my boys working toward their very lofty goal.

So what is next on the Anti-Cruelty Society event calendar you ask? Well, I am going to let you know. You can check out all the latest things on their website's Upcoming Events page.

You will find us at a lot of these events this summer so have fun and see you at the park!!