This VPN I am working on for my employer is a nightmare! We have 4-5 vendors involved and it's a pain to figure out who you need to talk to about what and then when you find the right vendor, you have to wait for them to get you the info you need, and that can sometimes take a week!
I finally had enough with one of them that supplied a VPN/Router for our office location, and I hooked up the router and fixed the configuration myself and got it running. Then I discover that the VPN is not even setup in the router, so now I have to wait for another response as to why the VPN was not setup and how do I go about setting it up. I should charge the idiots for my time.
And we haven't even gotten any of our remote locations online yet!
I knew I should have designed this thing myself and done it totally on my own.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
Start of a new week
It's monday yet again! It sure seems like the weeks go by fast now that I have a full time job. We had a very nice time this last weekend. Friday night we all went to hear Zachary's chior sing at McHi, then after 30 minutes of fighting incoming football traffic and outgoing concert traffic we made it to the bowling alley (just 1 mile away) for a regular Friday practice.
Saturday we picked up the boys and had lunch at Pizza Hut and then Laura, LJ and Zach spent the afternoon putting up the Christmas decorations, and then Laura and I spent the night working on a little anniversary slideshow presentation for the Church.
Sunday was spent relaxing the majority of the time. Our Slideshow presentation at the church went really well, although we didn't expect to make people cry. We had an 8 minute presentation with 122 photos taken over the last 4 years, we think it was a good balance of emotions, some sad, some happy and some funny. After our normal Sunday nap, I goofed on the computers while watching Dallas squeeze out a win! After that we caught some of the Denver game before falling asleep around 9:30.
This weekend was also a myspace mania weekend here. I created a myspace account on Friday and preceeded to find a few friends on there that also had accounts, then Laura created an account and profile, and even Laura's mom created one as well. It's not the most intuitive site I have seen, but it seems to work well for the younger generation.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Saturday we picked up the boys and had lunch at Pizza Hut and then Laura, LJ and Zach spent the afternoon putting up the Christmas decorations, and then Laura and I spent the night working on a little anniversary slideshow presentation for the Church.
Sunday was spent relaxing the majority of the time. Our Slideshow presentation at the church went really well, although we didn't expect to make people cry. We had an 8 minute presentation with 122 photos taken over the last 4 years, we think it was a good balance of emotions, some sad, some happy and some funny. After our normal Sunday nap, I goofed on the computers while watching Dallas squeeze out a win! After that we caught some of the Denver game before falling asleep around 9:30.
This weekend was also a myspace mania weekend here. I created a myspace account on Friday and preceeded to find a few friends on there that also had accounts, then Laura created an account and profile, and even Laura's mom created one as well. It's not the most intuitive site I have seen, but it seems to work well for the younger generation.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Laura and I are starting our 4 day weekend! And I am starting my Project for this time off. Since I bought my main PC several years ago, I have never reinstalled the system. So it is currently pretty cluttered with installs/uninstalls, etc, etc. I just completed a backup of important data on the C: drive partition and I am about to double check things and then reinstall XP on a formated C:. I have most of my stuff backed up to drive D & G as well as static files and such that are stored there. So it should be a fairly fast and simple project. I should be done later today and after a bit of reinstalling software and tweaking the setup, I should be back to normal with a much more responsive machine.
As for Thanksgiving Dinner, Laura, LJ and I will be going to Laura's aunts for lunch/dinner. Other than that we just have plans to do some work this weekend, both around the house and for the church.
Laura and I are starting our 4 day weekend! And I am starting my Project for this time off. Since I bought my main PC several years ago, I have never reinstalled the system. So it is currently pretty cluttered with installs/uninstalls, etc, etc. I just completed a backup of important data on the C: drive partition and I am about to double check things and then reinstall XP on a formated C:. I have most of my stuff backed up to drive D & G as well as static files and such that are stored there. So it should be a fairly fast and simple project. I should be done later today and after a bit of reinstalling software and tweaking the setup, I should be back to normal with a much more responsive machine.
As for Thanksgiving Dinner, Laura, LJ and I will be going to Laura's aunts for lunch/dinner. Other than that we just have plans to do some work this weekend, both around the house and for the church.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Our Only Fun is Bowling
Well, my blog is due for an update, and really not much as been going on. We are mainly busy with work doing things around the house. We are really glad Thanksgiving is coming up. We'll both be off Thursday and Friday and we'll be having Thanksgiving Dinner at Laura's aunts house on Thursday. I'll be doing client work over the holiday weekend and hopefully can get it all done and installed before the weekend so that we can enjoy the weekend.
Bowling has been going well, 3 weeks ago we were in 7th place, before we bowled last night we had moved up to 5th place, but still 12 points behind 1st place. With our two new bowlers (Brianna and Michael) we've been really doing well. We have been able to set the 3rd highest team scratch game and series and came close to getting a bit higher last night, but came up short. Laura is bowling really consistent, hovering right around her 114/115 average. My average has been climbing rather fast, which is expected since three weeks ago I had a 161 average, and since then I've shot a 592, 584, and a 599 (last night) series, which should put me over a 170 average for next week. I keep shooting for a 600 series, but keep coming up a bit short. I almost had it last night, but guttered on the 1st ball of the 10th frame in the 3rd game, but atleast I came back to spare and get 9.
We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We also plan to do some work at the Church during the holidays, Laura is working on the Church library and I need to install some shelves in the soundroom, but I also see a few relaxing naps over that period of time as well :)
Bowling has been going well, 3 weeks ago we were in 7th place, before we bowled last night we had moved up to 5th place, but still 12 points behind 1st place. With our two new bowlers (Brianna and Michael) we've been really doing well. We have been able to set the 3rd highest team scratch game and series and came close to getting a bit higher last night, but came up short. Laura is bowling really consistent, hovering right around her 114/115 average. My average has been climbing rather fast, which is expected since three weeks ago I had a 161 average, and since then I've shot a 592, 584, and a 599 (last night) series, which should put me over a 170 average for next week. I keep shooting for a 600 series, but keep coming up a bit short. I almost had it last night, but guttered on the 1st ball of the 10th frame in the 3rd game, but atleast I came back to spare and get 9.
We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We also plan to do some work at the Church during the holidays, Laura is working on the Church library and I need to install some shelves in the soundroom, but I also see a few relaxing naps over that period of time as well :)
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
VOTE!!
Just a small reminder! GO VOTE! I am really glad we are able to early vote here in Texas. Laura and I went to the early voting station on Halloween around 5:30pm, no lines and we were the only voters there (which is not "good", but it was good for a fast in and out). We were done in about 5-10 minutes and on our way. I am just glad I don't have to fight the crowds today to do my duty as a citizen and vote.
I am realizing more and more that neither the republicans nor the democrats are really worth voting for anymore, both parties seem to be corrupt and it comes down to the lesser of the two evils. I really like the ideas of the Constitution Party, but I wonder if a 3rd party will ever pull enough people off the big two to make a difference. In the current state of things, 3rd parties only seem to draw just enough votes to hurt the republicans.
We had a pretty good night of bowling last night. Laura's friend Brianna and her boyfriend Michael came to bowl with us and we ended up splitting the points last night. Laura had a consistent 370 series for the night and I pulled out a 592 series with a 234 last game. That probably leaves us still in 7th place, but we have about 20 more weeks to go in the league and things can change alot in 20 weeks.
I am realizing more and more that neither the republicans nor the democrats are really worth voting for anymore, both parties seem to be corrupt and it comes down to the lesser of the two evils. I really like the ideas of the Constitution Party, but I wonder if a 3rd party will ever pull enough people off the big two to make a difference. In the current state of things, 3rd parties only seem to draw just enough votes to hurt the republicans.
We had a pretty good night of bowling last night. Laura's friend Brianna and her boyfriend Michael came to bowl with us and we ended up splitting the points last night. Laura had a consistent 370 series for the night and I pulled out a 592 series with a 234 last game. That probably leaves us still in 7th place, but we have about 20 more weeks to go in the league and things can change alot in 20 weeks.
Friday, November 03, 2006
It's all a blurr
Another Friday has come upon me, yet it still doesn't feel like the weekend yet. Just too many things going on currently. Bowling has been going good, I've been shooting better and we'll be going to practice again tonight. Most of this week and part of last week I was battling "the crud", Laura had it before me, then I got it and I am close to getting over it now. Our Halloween was spent at the Texas Roadhouse, having a nice little steak and avoiding the constant doorbell ringing. And we were glad we did. On the way home we saw several neighborhoods flooded with truckloads of kids and adults! wondering around knocking on doors. Once we got home we retired to our room to enjoy some DVR viewing and then bed.
Not much really planned for this weekend except the usual: lawn needs mowing, work for some clients, Church and some house cleaning. I hope to actually BBQ this weekend as well, it's been a month or so since I have done that. Maybe some fajitas are in order for a mild weathered weekend.
Not much really planned for this weekend except the usual: lawn needs mowing, work for some clients, Church and some house cleaning. I hope to actually BBQ this weekend as well, it's been a month or so since I have done that. Maybe some fajitas are in order for a mild weathered weekend.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Monday Monday.......
Whew! made it through my monday morning duties, not without problems, but it is finished. It'll be a grand day when we switch over from dialup to internet.
Ah well, Laura and I are both looking forward to bowling tonight. We practiced Friday night and Laura did about average, I had a shot that would not quit and shot a 214 the first game (not bad for a warmup game), then shot a 257, then started with 4 in a row I think on the 3rd game. But I accidently bowled for Alma (Nick and Alma were bowling with us), so when it was actually my turn to bowl, I started goofing off and threw Laura's bowling ball with no thumb, and the rest of the game I just pretty much goofed off, easily shooting a 600+ series, but not sure what my last game was. I am hoping that the lanes are similar tonight, and maybe I can finally put up some good numbers.
Ah well, Laura and I are both looking forward to bowling tonight. We practiced Friday night and Laura did about average, I had a shot that would not quit and shot a 214 the first game (not bad for a warmup game), then shot a 257, then started with 4 in a row I think on the 3rd game. But I accidently bowled for Alma (Nick and Alma were bowling with us), so when it was actually my turn to bowl, I started goofing off and threw Laura's bowling ball with no thumb, and the rest of the game I just pretty much goofed off, easily shooting a 600+ series, but not sure what my last game was. I am hoping that the lanes are similar tonight, and maybe I can finally put up some good numbers.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Bye Bye Time Warner
We are finally proud to annouce that a dependency on Time Warner/Road Runner has come to an end. As some of you might know, we've had problems with them since moving into the house. The line that services our area comes down our alley and we are at the very end of the line. We've had problems receiving the higher end cable stations and PPV channels. Many times we called and they said they did something but it was always the same. At one point I talked to a tech that was planning on leaving the company and he told me that the line was damaged in several places and the only way to fix our problem was to re-run new lines down the alley. Of which he doubted they would do. We did finally switch to DirecTV for our TV use, and as of today we are running on SBC/AT&T DSL. Our line was activated this morning and I switched the network over to it this afternoon and all is running well. It is a tad slower than our RR connection, but it will work for now and later once we get some debt paid off I can up the account to a faster speed. And considering we are saving about $30 versus road runner, I don't mind the small speed reduction.
LJ - Student of the Week
LJ was selected for Student of the week at STC, click on the photo for a larger/readable version
Friday, October 20, 2006
Ready for the weekend
After a fairly busy week, I am looking forward to the weekend. Tonight we will be heading to the bowling alley for practice and Saturday and Sunday will be filled with:
- Church
- mowing the lawn
- cleaning the house
- working on our budget
- editing 30+ editions of our Church radio show
- sleep!
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Busy Busy Busy
It's been a pretty busy week. Bowling on Monday, misc work on Tuesday, Church & hackers on Wednesday. I was planning on mowing the lawn this evening, but not sure if that will happen to do our first "cold front" coming in today. Oh, it'll be nice to have temps drop to the 60-70's, but how long will it last. Hopefully long enough for me to get the lawn mowed :)
Bowling was good Monday night, our new bowler could not show up, but Francis (Billy's niece) and Rene (Francis' boyfriend) where there to bowl. I shot fairly consistent during the evening, throwing a 166, 178, 160 for a 504 series, Laura had a 301 series and we ended up taking 3 points. The most points we have won, except for the first week (which we bowled the blind team :O) We are doing to well in the points, but we are having a good time. Before Monday we were in 8th place (out of 10!), but it's a long league so who knows where we might end up.
On Tuesday morning I saw alot of activity on my internet server, so investigated a bit, but found no info on what might be the problem. I did find some unknown software on the machine, so I took it off, shutdown the processes that were running that usually are running and ran a complete check on the machine. Wednesday morning I get an abuse report from my network provider, my server was sending out spam while those processes where running. So yesterday inbetween work and church I did a complete check over of the machine, installed some tripwire devices and such. I still have a bit of tweaking to do on it, but I'll get to that over the next few days. Hopefully the hole is fixed and I won't have to worry about it for awhile.
Wednesday night was a nice fun time at Church, I went in about 5:30 to move some monitors around. We have two sets of monitors, one set is made by Yamaha and sound great, the other set is a JBL set and sound like crap. In our previous setup, Britt and the drummer had the good Yamaha's and the backup singers used the JBLs. Well since Britt moved away, I had never gotten around to swapping them out, so I did that yesterday. Around 6:00, Dina (our backup/sometimes lead) singer and Laura showed up. Since our new Music Leader is off to Singapore to adopt a child, Mitch (another elder) will be leading the service, with Dina and Laura singing backup. So they ran through the song list (Hot DJ action provided by me of course), then we had our normal Wednesday service, and then home for some R and R.
Bowling was good Monday night, our new bowler could not show up, but Francis (Billy's niece) and Rene (Francis' boyfriend) where there to bowl. I shot fairly consistent during the evening, throwing a 166, 178, 160 for a 504 series, Laura had a 301 series and we ended up taking 3 points. The most points we have won, except for the first week (which we bowled the blind team :O) We are doing to well in the points, but we are having a good time. Before Monday we were in 8th place (out of 10!), but it's a long league so who knows where we might end up.
On Tuesday morning I saw alot of activity on my internet server, so investigated a bit, but found no info on what might be the problem. I did find some unknown software on the machine, so I took it off, shutdown the processes that were running that usually are running and ran a complete check on the machine. Wednesday morning I get an abuse report from my network provider, my server was sending out spam while those processes where running. So yesterday inbetween work and church I did a complete check over of the machine, installed some tripwire devices and such. I still have a bit of tweaking to do on it, but I'll get to that over the next few days. Hopefully the hole is fixed and I won't have to worry about it for awhile.
Wednesday night was a nice fun time at Church, I went in about 5:30 to move some monitors around. We have two sets of monitors, one set is made by Yamaha and sound great, the other set is a JBL set and sound like crap. In our previous setup, Britt and the drummer had the good Yamaha's and the backup singers used the JBLs. Well since Britt moved away, I had never gotten around to swapping them out, so I did that yesterday. Around 6:00, Dina (our backup/sometimes lead) singer and Laura showed up. Since our new Music Leader is off to Singapore to adopt a child, Mitch (another elder) will be leading the service, with Dina and Laura singing backup. So they ran through the song list (Hot DJ action provided by me of course), then we had our normal Wednesday service, and then home for some R and R.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Weekend Update
Darn, where's that cold front we were promised!? Well it has cooled off, but not much, so we are still waiting on cooler weather. Bowling is going well, we are not doing that great as far as points, but we are really enjoying ourselves. Last night (friday is our practice night) we met a friend of Laura's (work-study at STC) that will be joining our team starting on monday. She is a nice girl and is a pretty darn good bowler. Of the 3 games we bowled last night, she shot around a 150 average. We've informed her that we have first dibs on her when tournaments come up :).
I was also pleasantly surprised today when I visited the AT&T website to discover that DSL is now available in our area, so considering the amount we are playing for road runner (without cable), I have signed up for the service. We should get the equipment this coming week and it is scheduled to be activated on the 21st. Hopefully there are no problems and we can enjoy saving a bit of money.
Now that I have this blog up, I'll be posting info on me, family, bowling, etc, etc. so stay tuned!
I was also pleasantly surprised today when I visited the AT&T website to discover that DSL is now available in our area, so considering the amount we are playing for road runner (without cable), I have signed up for the service. We should get the equipment this coming week and it is scheduled to be activated on the 21st. Hopefully there are no problems and we can enjoy saving a bit of money.
Now that I have this blog up, I'll be posting info on me, family, bowling, etc, etc. so stay tuned!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Finally Here!
Well, I finally made it to blogger with my own blog now! Having a blog on my own server was really nice, but keeping up with the news posting was enough of a pain, but keeping the software current and fixing holes and such was even more of a pain, so I'll let someone else handle the technical end of matters while I concentrate on actually providing some meaningfull content! And at this point I have no meaningfull content, so I guess I am not doing my job. Oh well, I'll have some interesting stuff posted up here soon enough, so keep your eyes open!
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