Quiet Day

Posted on April 15, 2009 by kellyzdude

We’re kinda hanging in the family room, Crash, Kelly and I. We’re watching Family Feud on TV, the Porter family are playing the final game. Oop, they just lost, getting 159 points (needed 200 to get $20,000).

I’m also talking to a friend who has a DVD of photos of his son, from newborn through the first year that he is trying to recover. It isn’t going well.

Kelly just moved to the other chair beside Crash, and he started trying to chew the blanket she’s wearing to keep warm. She’s not doing too well, has a sore throat. She really enjoys the look on his face when she pats him on the nose with a rope toy and hums a tune. We’re working especially to train him out of mouthing/biting people, and we’ll also be working in the next few days training him to not jump up on people when he’s excited (or at all, really).

Just took him out to ‘potty’ and he peed, but hasn’t pooped for a while. Now he’s kinda ignoring lunch in favour of laying beside the chair and licking himself. So far he has acquired at least 6 names or variations on names, all of them in the first 3 days. Crash, Chase, Crush, Crash Taylor, Chuck, Trash.. as well as the obvious ones like Pup and Puppy.

I’ve given myself a coding project for the afternoon, after I retrieve the power pack for the macbook. It’ll be a whois and status facility for UCCN, which will begin our web-integration with IRC. The first will be a web form that queries whether a nickname is online, and if so returns normal public information about them (their hidden host name, public channels, etc). The second will be a status image that returns ‘online’ or ‘offline’ depending on whether the user is online or not (duh..). Both will be dependent on the SQL database from Denora, and will probably also utilize the SQL database from Anope for Nickserv aliases/groups. It will detect if someone is online but not using their primary nickname.

I also need to work on the web interface for Supportive, and will be developing an improved version of the java.php @ www.unitedchristianchat.net/java/java.php, both in look and in function.

So, I shall stop blogging nothingness and go get my power pack!

Day 4

Posted on April 13, 2009 by kellyzdude

We got him Friday, today is Monday, and what a weekend we have had! The first night he didn’t have a crate so was wandering free in our room, and we were awake every two hours whenever he whined or made noise. He also peed on newspaper, which was OK.

Saturday we got a crate, (thanks Dawndrea!) and he was in and out of it most of the day being locked in and such. He still whined all night and we got little sleep again.

Sunday went well, we got up early anyway as there was a sunrise service at church followed by breakfast (thanks Debi and John!), and so we fed him before church, and then came back and pooped him after feeding Azule and checking on Peanut Butter (a dog and a sheep we have been petsitting for this weekend, along with a cat whose name I do not know).

He got to run around with his cousin Bella, as well as eating a big bowl of sloppy joe that we hadn’t finished at lunch. Dawndrea also called to tell us that she’d looked at Crash’s paperwork and thinks he’s more than likely purebred retriever, as his mother is a retriever and she and her three puppies that went to the SPCA were all from a breeder.

Today he’s been out and about a bit more, I let him loose in the back yard for a bit and had him chasing a tennis ball around, and we also let him off leash while we did dishes in the kitchen (after closing doors and blocking the door-less doorway to the living room). Now he’s asleep in his crate again, and we’re planning to give him dinner and then put him in the car and drive to the park (he’d never walk that far, aside from getting tired we have to pick him up by the harness and ‘make him’ walk because he just flops down and won’t move inside or outside or anywhere he needs to be.

We did have a call from the SPCA today warning us about a potential illness he could have, called entropion. Quoting Wikipedia, “Entropion is a medical condition in which the eyelids fold inward. It is very uncomfortable, as the eyelashes rub against the cornea constantly.”

Basically it will be confirmed at his checkup (which will be free aside from shots) this week, and if he does have it it can be fixed when he’s neutered in June. Kelly suspects he may be OK, as she noticed the eyes of Crash’s brothers were watering and not as healthy looking as his were, I suppose we’ll find out for sure in a few days.

I Can Has Puppy?

Posted on April 6, 2009 by kellyzdude

I guess as selfish beings, whenever we see something we like we in turn want one of our own.

Meet Bella. Bella is a 4 month old purebred beagle, which my sister-in-law and her husband rescued from a trip to the pound on Saturday.

She’s pretty awesome, and is learning basic commands like ‘sit’, ‘come’, ‘lay down’, etc. We had her running around in the big yard yesterday on a 30 foot lead (and I took her on a run around the house with her leash). Fun to chase (and be chased by), as well as wrestling with her weird purple Giraffe/Lion soft toy thing.

All in all, Bella is pretty awesome. What I really want, though, is a Yellow Lab.

I don’t know this puppies name, I found the picture on a breeders site, but that is what I want ;-).

In other news, I feel a can of fly spray would be an excellent investment. There are 3 or 4 that won’t leave us alone (despite not working hard and regular showers :-P).

I also lost almost all my hair yesterday, in celebration of a year in the US (it wasn’t supposed to be for a couple of weeks, but for some reason we did it early…).

Photos, before:

And after:

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Posted on April 4, 2009 by kellyzdude

Dear WordPress,

There were another 7 or 8 paragraphs to this post which disappeared. I’ll fix it later. I’m not happy.

Zeke.

———–

Dear Diary,

I didn’t really do a whole lot today, but this has become the norm over the last few months. Last night I set my alarm for 9:30am, and snoozed it twice, awakening at around 9:45ish to turn it off through it’s second 9-minute round.

———–

Let’s try this again..

———–

Dear Diary,

I didn’t really do a whole lot today, but this has become the norm over recent months. Last night I set my alarm for 9:30am and snoozed it twice, waking at around 9:45am to turn if off half way through its 9-minute round.

Upon awakening, I was able to log in and check my emails, and began the conversion from DV tape to PC the footage from last nights Battle of the Bands concert, where my brother-in-law did play.

I apologize, dear Diary, as the internet connection is particularly slow, owing to the upload of aforementioned video footage to YouTube. I’m sure it will be available for viewing shortly. I must say, my dearest Diary, that I was not pleased when two of the band members berated me at midnight (with a headache, no less!) with regards to my recording of their performance and its availability for their viewing! I was very pleased when my brother-in-law ushered them out of my room and out of the house shortly afterward!

I was also able to accomplish some small programming work today, and Diary, you’ll be glad to know, it was entirely successful. Primarily bug fixes on my Support Ticket system, I also fixed the remote panel for UCCN’s dynamic remote include (which wasn’t giving link blocks to the client servers!).

I found great amusement, my dear Diary, from sitting in the IRC channel for Data center and server-host Sharktech. It seems they failed to adequately configure or test their new routing equipment before placing it in a live environment, much to the dismay of their clients and customers! Many a complaint has been laid as their customers servers have consistently dropped over the last 18 hours (and counting).

I am certain that you, dearest Diary, will also be as disgusted as I when you learn that at least two data centers were raided by the FBI with no warning, little evidence and less investigation. The tale of those are here and here. While I agree that raids should be conducted in conjunction with an investigation, my dear Diary, I must believe that investigations should have valid and usable evidence and be run by people with knowledge and qualification with regard to what they are investigating!

After lunch (a Strawberry and Banana flavored Low-fat yoghurt), I went with my wife and her brother and mother to the Salvation Army store, where we looked at clothes and such, as well as to a local hardware store to collect an additional two strawberry plants for their garden. I also learned that my sister-in-law is likely getting a beagle to live with them also, and it shall certainly be an interesting time at their house. I understand I shall be able to meet the puppy tomorrow when the family gathers for a cookout. I’m uncertain of the cause or occasion, although I will also be losing the majority of my hair also. I hear my wife has several ideas for photographs to be taken of my hair as it is removed, and I shall ensure they are available for you to view at a later date, my dear Diary.

I just remembered, I applied for another Information Technology job today, a local university is looking for a User Support Specialist, for which I placed a formal application upon returning from the stores. My father-in-law found it in the newspaper while we were venturing, and presented it upon our arrival home. I also await a return phone contact from the camp to which I applied to be a counselor during the summer. Another possibility to consider later in the year, is one Ethan suggested on Thursday evening, whereby he helps another camp by providing high-ropes assistance, and asked if I would be interested in joining him in the Fall. It is certainly an adventure I would enjoy, I shall have to reconsider it closer to the time with regards to my schedule.

I believe that is all, dearest Diary, although I have probably forgotten something during the second-round posting of this entry, the first forever lost in the emptiness that is the Internet. So my dear Diary, I shall close a second time today, and leave you to your quiet mulling of my pointless words. Until I write again, be safe, my dear Diary, and await my return with further uselessness.

Yours,

Zekey.

April Fools

Posted on April 2, 2009 by kellyzdude

Nearly 2 months ago I posted about what I had planned to do to my brother-in-law (see http://bananabiter.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/miley-miley-miley/). Now I’m going to run through briefly what happened.

At Kelly’s suggestion I changed his desktop background to one of the pictures used, this worked amazingly well to lure him in, as the first thing he did (after yelling my name in annoyance ;-)) was open firefox to google images to find something to replace it with.

This was met with “what the…”‘s from Matt, and laughter and high-fives all around from me, Kelly, and Matt’s friend Gary who was in the room also. Matt quickly saw the funny side and started laughing, pulling up Youtube and MySpace to see how they looked as well. I think the best quote from the evening was “That is probably the best April Fools prank I’ve ever seen. I’m calling Will!”

I was also credited as having “Probably the most creative” joke he’d ever observed. All around a good 15 minutes of fun, and I lived to go to choir practice (remind me not to agree to singing with them again..).

Web Design

Posted on March 29, 2009 by kellyzdude

I reminded myself yesterday and today how much I enjoy, and how much I hate webdesign.

I guess thats why all my site designs are simple as poop, make it work and then plug it with PHP, and then make it work with the PHP.

This weekend saw two new sites for the United Christian Chat network – one for unitedchristianchat.net, and one for christian-irc.com (a subsidiary).

I did one entirely on my own, and Ed helped us out by doing the C-IRC one, though it was graphiced for UCCN and I’ve updated/changed the wording on the images.

I played around with Gimp doing them, and was pleasantly surprised compared with my previous experiences with anything photoshop-like. In fact, most of my problems were CSS side rather than graphic design.

They aren’t live as yet, we still have a few minor changes to make, but here are some screenshots to wet your appetites:

UCCN on the top, obviously, and C-IRC on the bottom

Amusing Sermon Notes

Posted on March 23, 2009 by kellyzdude

I’m listening to sermons from my old church, I helped Dad put up a podcast for them and was testing it out.

Anyway, we had a guest speaker, Pastor Tuks, who I haven’t heard of for a long time! Anyway, he had an awesome quote in the first 10 minutes:

I’m a school teacher, I’ve dealt a lot with teenagers. I wanna tell teenagers this morning, you know some teenagers think that without a girlfriend they’ll perish. Get real guys, girlfriends will come and go. You won’t perish without one. I’ve known guys who lived their whole teenage life without one. They’re fine! They never died! They’re still alive today! You know we have girls walking around thinking “If I don’t get a boyfriend I’m gonna perish.” Absolute rubbish! I was standing in a schoolyard one day, these two girls came up to me, one was crying and the other was all sympathetic and stuff, and came up to me and said “Mister, my boyfriend is being mean to me.” So I said “Well, what did he do?” and she said “He ignored me when I wanted to talk with him, he was playing table tennis. Can you go and talk to him?” and I said “I’ve got better news for you. Drop him. If he thinks a game of table tennis is more important than you, kick him into touch, girl!” And she started crying even more! I thought that was wise counsel. And she sad “Mister, you’re mean!” and I said “No, I’m not mean girl, drop him!” and she says “No I can’t!” I said “Why?” she said “Because I love him!” I said “Bollocks, girl! You don’t know what love is!” That was the end of the counseling session..

A New Theme

Posted on March 23, 2009 by kellyzdude

Yesterday I applied for a summer job at a Christian camp a few miles away, I’m hoping to be a counselor (leader) for the summer, should be about 10-12 weeks of having fun with kids. I’ll be staying there overnight the whole time, though Kelly will be able to come and visit when she gets off babysitting and we can have Saturdays together too. Initially she didn’t like the idea, but just kinda realized that it’ll probably be good for us and we’ll appreciate the time we do get together rather than spending every other minute in the same house.

It’ll also be nice to actually do some real work and earn some real money. Against my will, though there was nothing I could do about it, I’ve spent nearly a year in the US and not been able to work, so while it has been nice to do nothing at all, I also feel as though I’m letting down the team and taking advantage of people and their generosity. While that is the case, and to a large degree I have been, it’s not by choice, and given the chance I would have been doing a lot more to earn my keep. Also, while it is hardly IT related, I’m glad to have another stateside work reference with a real organization with standards etc. While I try to work to high standards when working with friends and family doing computer repair etc, there is hardly a gauge to measure by how well I did something.

I was also getting bored with the old theme on my blog, and felt it was time for a change here too. The photo in the header may change some until I find something I like that fits and works, but for now it is a crop of this image:

I took this during the Assemblies of God New Zealand National Conference in October 2007, the week I had my interview with Gen-i. A couple of the guys in the music team are jamming, in the immediate foreground are the power, video signal and communication cables for the stage roaming camera, resting on the base for one of the front speaker towers. I think Mike was programming lights, or he may have just been playing. I know I was the photographer and only touched the lighting board if it was absolutely necessary (mostly “TURN OFF NUMBER 11, TURN ON NUMBER 12” while he was wandering the stage checking things).

In other news I have successfully installed Xen on Debian, so I have a Debian Dom0. I also have a Debian DomU that I’m playing with LDAP with, in an attempt to setup a prototype for web/shell hosting. I’m trying to figure out how to create DomU’s from ISO’s under the Debian Dom0, I have some FreeBSD CD’s that I’d like to build a VM from if possible. Otherwise I can install QEMU back on the Mac and create QEMU images for Xen that way.

Also trying to debug a regex in my logcheck system on Telly. Ever since I installed IPv6 I’m getting annoying messages in the logs every hour that I’m trying to make logcheck ignore (they’re not important, thus I don’t want to see them – unlike people trying to bruteforce my SSH or Mail servers). I have one more thing to try before I go looking for help, as soon as my apt-get dist-upgrade is done (because opening a new tab and SSH’ing a new session is *so* difficult!)

{Last Minute Update!} Just had a phone call from the camp director, he’s put out all my references and is waiting to hear back, then will set up an interview next week perhaps.

I Like Chicken, I Hate Chickens

Posted on March 22, 2009 by kellyzdude

I promised in my last post that I’d explain my strong dislike of chickens.

Our friends from church, John and Debi have gone to Florida for a week with their family, and have left Kelly and I looking after their mail, several plants, 3 tanks of fish, and 26 poultry dishes waiting to happen. 2 roosters and 24 chickens, she tells me. I keep forgetting whether it’s 26 total or 26 chickens + the two roosters.

They live two doors down, so we wander down to do our duties before wandering back up. The chickens aren’t so bad, so long as they do what they are supposed to do, and it may improve this week when we can revert back to their routine. We’ve been doing things a little earlier or later than usual because of other things happening in our lives that we needed to attend to, but there are no planned events around chicken-time this week as yet.

Basically we deal with them 3 times a day. At around 9am we let them out of the chickenhouse, we give them a ‘snack’ of hotdog buns, then check for eggs and refill their food/water. This is not so bad, in the morning they’re rearing to get out of the chickenhouse, so once they’re out we shut the door to stop them getting in and then go in and do the work, opening it for them again when we’re done.

Around 12-1pm we go in and do an egg run, this is usually as simple as making sure as many chickens are in the yard as possible and shutting the door to them, and collecting the eggs. Again, not so bad.

The b***h of a job is around 4:30-5pm when we round them in for the evening. We’ll lock of the door to them and go in to check eggs, fill food/water etc, and then open it again and try and coerce nearly 30 chickens/roosters all through a small hole into the chickenhouse (which is rather crowded near the end) while trying not to let others back out. We also struggle in this time while we have to be in the pen with them, as the roosters are very protective and have begun to attack at us. I don’t like things I don’t understand (IE, chickens/roosters) and Kelly is afraid of birds flapping at her, which is what they do. The other annoyance is one white chicken (with a brown feather) that has escaped 3 days in a row, having to try and get it back in with minimal fuss.

I’m incredibly glad I didn’t have to deal with them at all today – this morning I was at the churches chicken barbecue, a very pleasing event ;-), this afternoon and evening I was asleep through both events. Kelly’s brother, Matt, gained leadership over the one rooster that was defying him by ‘hitting’ it with the stick (swinging it and nearly touching but not quite), and I need to do that if necessary, I’m just afraid I’ll hit it and hit it too hard – I don’t like dead things either!

So we shall see how it goes until Thursday when the family returns!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: