| One cystoscopy later... |
[26 Jan 2012|06:41pm] |
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I'm _definitely_ stone-free now.
Last night at about 11:30 pm the pain woke me out of a sound sleep. It was pain in exactly the same place as before. Tried the Vicodin they gave be but it didn't touch it. Waited until 2 am to see if it was temporary then called the Urologist when it didn't go away. He sent me to the ER for "pain management" and an appointment for a kidney stent.
Meanwhile I tossed up all my dinner and anything else in my stomach due to the pain, got rushed from triage into a room where they gave me 2mg of something strong and that's when the Urologist scheduled me for the stent installation.
They get me into surgery around 9:30 am and the doc uses a camera and a grabby so to speak to remove the remaining piece of stone as well as install the stent.
I wake up and have been in recovery all day today. They've temporarily changed my glucose meds due to the dye used in the cycstoscopy so my wife's picking that up here in a little bit.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/254245.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Sonically yours... |
[25 Jan 2012|06:34pm] |
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music |
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18:36 PM 01/25/2012
Just a quick note. Got the sonic hammering done today and it should have completely broken up the stone. I'll know more when I have the follow-up visit.
Meanwhile...the pain is gone. I don't know if it'll come back but the low, groaning, ever-present pain in my side that I've had for years is gone. Let's hope it stays that way.
Goofed up my sugar today though just from stress. 196 right before we left for the hospital, 269 waiting for the procedure, 286 after the procedure, 196 after I got home. WTF?
I took my meds during dinner tonight and I'll get back on track tomorrow. Tonight is for sleeping...
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/253958.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Today's exit strategy... |
[24 Jan 2012|08:34am] |
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mood |
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 chipper |
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Walking on the Sun - Smashmouth |
] |
So talked to the doc this morning and he's sending me home with an oral medication. Not sure what the plan is but sad as it is I will likely go home, take a shower, get dressed, and go to work. I can't afford not to.
So thus begins another round of constant glucose testing among other things. Not thrilled by that but don't have a choice in the matter. One thing I'm going to do this time is make sure people stay out of my face about it. Last time I had people constantly up in my grill about what my numbers were all the time. I know you care people but WTF? I'm 42 years old - deal with your own lives and I'll deal with mine.
Regardless I'll get it all back on track. The workshop, the job, the house, everything.
Oh great Celestia! I have to order seeds next month and get them started! Wonderful. That alone will be a project.
That said seven years between reminders about one's stupidity is not too bad in my book. I know I can do better but honestly it's annoying.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/253841.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Might as well get this over with... |
[23 Jan 2012|05:36pm] |
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music |
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17:37 PM 01/23/2012
Currently posting from a hospital bed. Nothing serious except I had some icky medical issues related to a kidney stone last night and some blood sugar.
Everything is currently fine. I'm scheduled to have the 1cm+ stone pulverized by sound waves on Wednesday.
And since my blood sugar was high at the time they're keeping me here until it goes down.
To all family members: It's OKAY. Don't panic and go nuts on me. I have some limited internets and Skype so I'm good for now. I'll post a full account of what happened later.
I just figured I'd get the info post out of the way. Likely I'm not getting out of here tonight but that's not a big deal and really depends on my A1C test results.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/253600.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Snowpockolyps II - Electric Broom Boogaloo! |
[20 Jan 2012|08:45pm] |
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mood |
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Better |
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music |
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The theme to Pink and The Brain |
] |
20:46 PM 01/20/2012
So home safe and sound right now. Had the quarterly meeting of the place I'm working at today at a restaurant and it took me about 30 minutes to go a distance that usually takes me about 5 - 10 maximum.
And...I locked my keys in my car...while it was running...at the restaurant...in front of my co-workers...and my wife had to come and unlock it for me.
Fortunately she works on the same road I do and she was able to stop by on her way out from the office. I owe her one for that...but not too big a one.
Don't let up...SOPA/PIPA will be back...
Watched a good chunk of the internet get blacked out in protest the other day and that was a really really good thing. Big companies and small artists alike put forth the effort to black out their websites and put up notices informing people about how bad this legislation is. I am ashamed to admit that I was remiss in this one as I did nothing. (I have no excuse. "I was working." doesn't cut it because a lot of artists that make a living with their websites did it and if it cost them something of their daily income then I could have spared some of my time.)
Unfortunately while this is a nice temporary setback for the individuals funding SOPA/PIPA there is no way this is the end. They'll do like they have done in the past and slip it into a bill for funding faith based schools run by orphan nuns or something and it'll pass at 2 am with very little dissenting vote from those not paid millions of dollars by vested interests. (Side note: If so much of this lobbying money is being thrown around why isn't the nation debt being paid down??)
And then we'll be stuck with another bad law.
Because here's the thing - the US legal system is currently constructed so that it's very easy to make laws but very hard to get them removed. The best reason I can fathom for this is that the legal system has obviously grown over time to fit the needs of those using it as a career platform. So the more laws they can make that benefit themselves and the harder they are to remove then the safer their lives as lawmakers are. (That leads, best as I can tell, to a society of elite lawmakers/kings with a silent class of servants that do not step out of line for fear of breaking an unknown law.)
So...obviously...the time to fight these things is when they first get created. We need a public service that...
1) Watches the government as they create proposals.
2) Translate those proposals into common language.
3) Does automatic alerts of these laws to a network APP for phones or tablets or TVs or indeed anything networked. Perhaps by category.
The problem with this system is that it's spammable. You could in theory create a billion tiny proposals that mean nothing and flood the system hiding the real proposals for laws that you want to create.
Then you'd have to make the public service bigger. Which would introduce more errors into the translation of those proposals to common language. Or put the entire service at risk of infiltration or even being bought off.
As usual there are no easy answers.
But...BUT...if you _could_ make that system fairly secure...AND...people didn't get lazier about their governemnt than they already are...it woud be a good way to keep some of the legal stuff in check.
Maybe.
But honestly I think the best thing that people can do is just pay attention. Don't let them pull things over on you. You're smarter than that.
"People are dumb, panicky, and you know it!" is only a phrase from a movie. I have faith in people. They can do a lot.
You. You can do a lot.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/253294.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Halfway to useless... |
[12 Jan 2012|08:07pm] |
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mood |
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tired |
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So it's snowing out and I'm very tired. I have remote work to do tonight and I'll start that in a minute since I fell asleep after shovelling the driveway and walkways and didn't get back up until recently.
In the meantime I've decided that my Amazon Wishlist was far too realistic so I've been perusing a site called thegreenhead.com which is full of all sorts of weird items and adding them to my Amazon Wishlist via their browser button. ( http://amzn.com/w/1QA1VNLYUXBQX )
Some I'm adding because I like them, some I'm adding because I could make them given the opportunity, and some I'm adding just for whimsy sake. Regardless I'm at around page 108 of 277. I think with what's going on outside unless I have to get wood for a fire I'm going to easily reach that page 277.
What the heck will I add after that? Maybe start in on Etsy...
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/253014.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| I've decided I shall diminish... |
[06 Jan 2012|06:40pm] |
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tired |
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...though my name isn't Galadriel.
Looking at the current political climate it's now unsafe to say anything over an open channel. (F-List protected, encrypted, or otherwise.) Therefore I will restrict my posts to fantasy, philosophy, and all things except politics and/or government.
We're entering some dark times. Have your papers ready, up to date, and upon you.
Me? I'm just going to work for a living for a while, fix things, and maybe try and make some art in my life.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/252725.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Fireclay question... |
[30 Dec 2011|06:26am] |
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mood |
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 thoughtful |
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music |
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All Star - Smash Mouth |
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So looking over my rather long E-Bay watch list and this is one of the things I have on it:
http://ds5.org/3667
It's a premixed fire clay good to 2500 degrees. What I was thinking about using it for was to create a proper height and sealed dome for my existing enameling "hot plate" style kiln that would allow me the height to do bangles and bracelets.
The idea is to use the existing metal dome, cover it in the fire clay, and continue down with the clay so it lifts the metal dome up about 2 - 4 more inches from the top of the heating element. I'd also embed a hook or bale or something into the top of the dome to allow me to remove it easily. Probably have to use either stainless wire or uncoated copper or something for that. (A bit concerned about heat transfer to the hook as I want to retain as much heat as possible inside.
This design would also allow me to add a pyrometer to the setup and not affect the work inside as much. Still need to get a pyrometer btw. A couple more weeks at least before I can think about spending for that.
Off to work...
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/252600.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| It's four o'clock in the morning dammit! Listen to me good! |
[27 Dec 2011|03:29am] |
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awake |
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Someone saved my life tonight - Elton John |
] |
03:32 AM 12/27/2011
So...awake again. This time I went to bed at around 11:00pm and woke up around 3:00am. And my mind is already full of things from work. Wonderful. (Oh and the title is just a title. No wife issues here.)
Not a bad thing really as it's been a long time since I had things from work to focus on. I've got a few tasks I'm behind on but I really need to run them by others to find out what the company procedure is about them. I'll hopefully do that today.
( Cut to spare people from my rambling... )
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/252309.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Post holiday funk... |
[26 Dec 2011|02:15pm] |
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Hush now quiet now... |
] |
14:17 PM 12/26/2011
Well the Yuletide season is sputtering to a close and all that's left is the cleanup and the return to work. (Not to say there aren't still bright times ahead - such as friends coming to visit.)
Before all my muttering and talk of the holidays some housekeeping...
I've been writing in this web journal for a long time now and I'm quite grateful that LiveJournal has been available to me this long.
But with the constant decrease in reliability of the LiveJournal servers I'm quite glad I bought a Dreamwidth account now. I cross-post to post but honestly the Dreamwidth site is becoming more and more my primary site. (I'd love to be able to go through my friend's list on LJ and find the same people on DW but there doesn't seem to be an "app" for that.)
So from this point on I will still respond to posts made here but I'm going to transfer my flag to Dreamwidth (http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org Yes...that's a pony as my avatar. Deal with it.) I will also be buying a slighty better paid account as soon as I can afford it. I figure I should support the things that help support me. (And if you think having an LJ account hasn't supported me by giving me an outlet you haven't been reading what I've written.)
( Now! On with the show! )
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/251991.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| The world needs more co-ops... |
[18 Dec 2011|07:07pm] |
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awake |
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Aarakawa - Under The Bridge - Season 1 Opening |
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19:10 PM 12/18/2011
So sifting through my friends page and I notice that ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) shinga of Head Trip had her Wacom tablet die on her. I'm currently seeing if I can dig one up for her but if you've got an old USB 3x5, 4x5, or 6x8 Wacom tablet you're willing to part with head on over there and talk to her. (The thread about the tablet is here: http://headtripcomics.livejournal.com/92708.html )
The world needs more people helping other people. Co-Ops seems to be a good solution to that in the short term. You pay in a little money each month ($5 - $10 - $20 and NO MORE WITHOUT APPROVAL OF ALL CONCERNED) and it builds up in a joint account. Each person submits a list of things they need and they all vote on the method in which those items are addressed. Then over time the money gets spent on the items to help each of the people paying into the account. I'm sure there are bugs in that plan but nothing that can't be worked out.
Other than that though there are _always_ things people can do to help out other people if only letting others know that someone needs a hand. Boosting The Signal as it were. ;-)
( In other ganooz... )
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/251745.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Welcome to The Next Iron Fence! |
[15 Dec 2011|11:22pm] |
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 infuriated |
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Today our contestants are...
The Corrupt Government of The United States of Amerika!
and...the people.
Unfortunately as of today the people can no longer speak freely lest they be swept up and sent to a far away place of darkness without consideration or even a mock trial. So...by default...for the moment...the people lose.
Those of you living outside the US - stay there. It's going to become very very ugly here very very soon.
(In case you don't know what this is all about go here and read while you still can: S.1867 / HR1540...)
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/251392.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Holy crapola... |
[14 Dec 2011|10:01pm] |
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tired |
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Breathe - Pink Floyd |
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22:02 PM 12/14/2011
Worked 13.75 hours today.
But frankly I'm happy. I'm working again and I'm doing a good job. A lot of the self-doubt has gone away.
Now I just have to keep shining bright in day or night...
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/251373.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Ambition or insanity you decide... |
[05 Dec 2011|10:19pm] |
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Ginga Tetsudou 999 |
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My "Hey you got a job!" gift to myself:
The DIY fermenter is an old pretzel container made of an acceptable kind of plastic, the spigot and the airlock cost me less than $5 when purchased locally, and the ingredients kit was $9 shipped from Target online. Supposedly this makes two gallons of beer. (As for the insanity I'm trying a lager as my first beer. Not the easiest thing in the world to get right.)
I should have enough saved Guinness bottles that I can remove the plastic "rockets" from and re-use. I still have to buy bottle caps and a capper but those can be bought while the brew is fermenting. I _should_ start on this tomorrow when I get home but likely it'll have to wait until the weekend. I may need a brand new pan as well because ours are scarred and might add salt and who-knows-what to the wort.
That said I'd love to get a couple of these to bottle in:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/2-liter-growler-romantic-handle.html
Unfortunately I'd need about 4 of them for a full batch and I can't afford that yet. In time...
(Oh and I finished watching the original Galaxy Express 999. If you're a fan of old 70's anime I suggest you head on over to Crunchyroll and give it a watch. At 113 episodes though it'll take a week or two. ^_^)
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/250918.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| First week down... |
[03 Dec 2011|04:23pm] |
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And very well I might add. I like the job, I like the people, and I like getting paid. (Did I mention the people I work with rock? ^_^)
It leaves me less time to get things done around the house but I wasn't really getting things done anyway.
I managed to order a Mr. Beer ingredients kit for cheap from Target so hopefully I'll be able to get a batch started next week when it arrives using my home-made fermenter made from a pretzel container. Still need a capper and caps. I should be able to make do for everything else but as finances become better I'll definitely be buying proper brewing equipment and cleaning/fixing the one turkey cooker to boil wort in.
And I finally got the One Wire Weather software to build on Luffy my WeatherQube:
http://luffy.nimitzbrood.com
It's accurate now and once that machine is on a battery backup it'll be quite reliable. I've got the oww software configured to log to Weather Underground but it hasn't shown as active there yet. Hopefully it'll be good for that by Monday.
Got to make sure I have some other way into my network before then as I had the main webserver die a couple of times on Thursday and Friday and couldn't get in to restart it. My whole shebang needs to be on battery backup units simple because the power here fluctuates on a semi-regular basis. It'll be even worse when I move them outside as the power dips whenever the space heater kicks in out there. I so need to be off the grid.
On the bench right now is an old Powerbook 100 that is having booting/P.O.S.T issues. It's for a good friend and it's a classic so it's a labor of love. Hope I can fix it.
Still not finished with the workshop out there. I suppose I should be doing that rather than posting here but I'm pretty tired. I'll try and get to it tomorrow as I don't really have any other plans than laundry and my wife and daughter will be out at a party for a our twin niece/nephews at my brother-in-law's house.
Also picked up the first repair part for the house so I'll be able to fix that leaky toilet and our water bill will be just that much lower. (It's minorly dripping but that can easily cause big problems.)
And I managed to get fuel system dryer into both vehicles so hopefully I won't have problems when the temp drops below a certain point. Protip: A bottle of isopropyl alcohol in the washer fluid before it freezes will help keep it from freezing up when it gets cold.
Off....my rocker... ;-)
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/250798.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Unrecovery! |
[23 Nov 2011|01:56pm] |
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music |
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13:57 PM 11/23/2011
On Monday morning I start with a local tech firm doing support work. It's three months to hire and while the money isn't stellar it's work I can do and will become permanent employment after those three months. It's 70% travel but I can handle that. (Hopefully they'll pay mileage properly.)
And until it becomes a salary position I get paid weekly again which will help us catch up on everything.
Woot!
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/250044.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| Rambling Insomnia Robots... |
[21 Nov 2011|01:44am] |
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tired |
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Back in the saddle again... |
] |
01:46 AM 11/21/2011
Once again awake early under the stars...so to speak anyway...and thinking about things as usual.
Managed to get a couple of large items moved around in the workshop yesterday so making progress there. Today I'm hoping to make even more progress but that depends on a lot of factors - cleaning the house among them. Moving the one desk scratched up the rubber tiles on the new floor out there. *grumble* Thankfully I can just tear up the tiles in question and replace them but probably not going to do that just yet. It's only two tiles but it's still annoying.
Dorothy ran a little rough yesterday when I started her up. Going to go out and get the spark plugs later todaya as those are cheap and a good first start. She probably, as do the rest of the vehicles, needs her fuel filter changed. Amy's minivan needs her oil sender replaced again. I think those things are the first to go if the engine gets overfilled accidentally. The last time we replaced it we used an aftermarket sender - this time I'm going to buy a Chrysler OEM one. It'll still have to come from E-Bay but it'll be OEM new-old-stock or NOS as they say.
(Y'know when I mentioned previously that the vehicles suddenly let me know what they names are after I own them for a while...the truck is named Sam. Not sure why it took so long but the name just appeared recently. So yeah Sam needs a lot of work but I'm planning for that monetarily as I can. Muffler, timing chain, water pump, and eventually transfer case. All things I have in stock. Also needs Stabil for the gas tank by now. Been keeping him on the maintenance charger though so the battery is good.)
( Speaking of which... )
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/249532.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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| My tail's a 'twitchin.... |
[17 Nov 2011|12:03pm] |
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music |
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Woodstock - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young |
] |
11:02 AM 11/17/2011
So we experienced some interruption to our network services at here at home. Turns out the network switch took the preverbial dump. Teach me to use a desktop model switch for server support.
I think part of it is that the temp in the basement is now lower than normal AND we've been being hit by spammers more than usual cause the thing to overload a bit. I've replaced it with the same brand switch but a bit beefier rack-mount model so hopefully that will last a bit longer until I can find the money for a good Cisco 3548.
On top of all this I feel like crap. My wife and I think we got it from a friend who does childcare but honestly it doesn't really matter where it came from. It's that kind of lingering and cold-like thing that makes you just want to curl up under the blankets. So far we've been fighting it back with medicine and chicken soup. Hopefully we'll be able to kill it before the end of the week.
In addition to this I had to manually repair that toilet fill valve because the pusher pin had poked it's way through the diaphragm and wasn't shutting off. Some superglue this morning and it seems to be fine this afternoon. (Had to use it several times thanks to the above microbial invasion.)
Still no word on if I got the job or not in Chicago. There's an email in my box from another semi-local place so I'll respond to that today now that I have the network up and running again.
No beer fermenting yet either. I've got most of what I need to do a small batch - everything but the ingredients, bottle caps, and a capper.
And this just in - BIND 9 has a 0-day exploit:
http://www.isc.org/software/bind/advisories/cve-2011-tbd
So if you're using BIND 9 for your nameservers please download the P1 versions suggested!
Here's the link for 9.8.1-P1:
ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.8.1-P1/bind-9.8.1-P1.tar.gz
So nameservers are crashing 'round the intarnets causing all sorts of issues. I'm currently compiling the new version as we speak and should have it installed by this afternoon.
( Somthing's making my tail twitchy... )
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/249297.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.
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nauseated
silly