Month: June 2005

I was actually expecting the Ninth…

D'Arque Bishop

7doc
You are the seventh Doctor! Warm and friendly to
those around you, your manner can take a dark
turn at times. Those who cross your path have
significant reason to fear, as your morality is
a bit more liquid then might make some
comfortable. However, you are not human, and
behind those clever eyes a new scheme is
brewing. The responsibility of protecting the
universe lies on your shoulders. How can you
help it if no one understands?

Which Doctor (from Doctor Who) Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

On the forefront of modern technology?

D'Arque Bishop

I seem to have become the technology testbed for the CIO where I work.

Some months back, he bought a Microsoft Optical Notebook Mouse a day or so after seeing me work with mine. A month or two ago, he came into my office to show me his MP3 player, and I showed him my iPod. Sure enough, a couple of days later he had bought himself an iPod Photo and was asking me questions on how to set it up.

Anyway, yesterday I showed him my AirPort Express, which is a portable wireless access point and router that’s about the size of a deck of cards. When I went to E3, four of us with laptops shared one room’s network connection using the AirPort Express. I’ve also started taking it with me on business trips to act as a hardware firewall. Well, last night, Adam went to the Galleria to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, and while there stopped in the Apple Store. As an impulse buy, he went ahead and bought an AirPort Express. The end result is that he’s so impressed with it that not only is he going to arrange for all the IT guys to have one, he’s going to allow me to expense mine even though I bought it a month and a half ago.

I’m not going to gripe. :-) What can I say… it’s nice sometimes to be thought of as being at the cutting edge of today’s technologies. :-)

The War of the War of the Worlds – The Aftermath

D'Arque Bishop

Last September, I wrote in my LiveJournal about the fact that there were two adaptations of The War of the Worlds in development. One is the one done by Steven Spielberg that everyone knows about. The other was done by a British company that aimed at making the movie accurate to the book. For reference, you can read my original posting here.

In any event, I wasn’t aware the British version had already been released by this time, until I was reading Harry’s DVD Picks for June on Ain’t It Cool News. Turns out it’ll be out on Region 1 DVD later this month… and it doesn’t look good.

You can go here to see Amazon’s page on it, but the fact that it only has one and a half stars out of five doesn’t bode well. Apparently both the acting and the FX are horrid beyond belief.

I’ll pass this one by. Now I just need to see how the Spielberg/Cruise version turns out…

… and again, I can’t make stuff like this up.

D'Arque Bishop

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/4077698.stm

Dalek ‘kidnappers’ demand Doctor

“Kidnappers” who stole a Dalek from a Somerset tourist attraction have sent its owners a ransom note – and the alien’s amputated plunger.

The 5ft model, believed to be an original from the cult BBC Dr Who series, was taken from Wookey Hole Caves near Wells on Monday.

On Thursday, staff found the plunger arm and a ransom note on a doorstep.

The note read: “We are holding the Dalek captive. We demand further instructions from the Doctor.”

The group, signing themselves Guardians of the Planet Earth, added: “For the safety of the human race we have disarmed and removed its destructive mechanism.”

Blind to the truth, maybe?

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3217908

I’m going to do something different, and post the last paragraph of the article first.

The U.S. government has issued a warning to tourists traveling to the border, at the request of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza. Garza has come under fire from Mexican officials who say the warning is unnecessary.

However, this is what the actual story was about:

MONTERREY, Mexico — For weeks, no one came forward to apply for the Nuevo Laredo police chief job because many saw it as a death sentence.

But Alejandro Dominguez proudly took office Wednesday, saying he was not afraid of anything. Nine hours later, he was ambushed and killed by gunmen who fired three dozen times. Officials were conducting an autopsy today.

Kinda makes one think the warning might have some merit to it, no?

The post-Jennings/Houma trip report…

D'Arque Bishop

Okay, I took an Advil last night and got a very good night’s rest; as a result, I’m feeling MUCH better this morning. I still have a slight sore throat, but that’s about it. Otherwise, life is good at the present time.

So… the first thing I did Monday morning was head over to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car right outside my neighborhood to pick up the rental car for the trip. I ended up getting a Pontiac Grand Prix, which all told was a VERY nice car. I might have to consider Pontiac when I buy a car next. While there, though, I got a call from my boss telling me to go to Corporate because their phones were down. Unfortunately, Corporate is in the opposite direction from Louisiana… I got about two or so miles towards Corporate when he called back telling me the phone issue was fixed. So, I turned right back around and headed to Jennings.

Once I got to Jennings at just before noon, I got right to work getting their server upgraded. That took about an hour and a half, and then I installed some software for the QA manager there. By about 2:30 PM or so I was done (and they were nice enough to let me raid their fridge for lunch), and so I hit the road, in order to reach Lafayette. An hour or so after leaving Jennings, I reached our offices in Lafayette and spent the rest of the work day there doing some miscellaneous work and meeting with my immediate boss. Once done there, I went to the Hampton Inn where I had booked a room, got settled in (king-size bed + kitchenette + sofa = win), and only ventured out to have dinner at Chili’s.

I woke up bright and early Tuesday morning, and left Lafayette at about 7:45 AM. I reached Houma by 9:30 AM, and from there began the process of backing up their data and doing the install on the server. Problem was, someone had replaced the routers at the Houma locations with intermittent connectivity emulators. I kid, of course, but the end result was the same: with our uplink to the corporate network down, I couldn’t complete the upgrade task. So, I went to lunch with my fellow IT employee Brent. Though we went to a daiquiri bar, all we had was po’boys and tea or soda. I finished the install when I got back (and when the net connection was back online), went to another location to install an EdgeCAM upgrade, went back to the first location to do the same upgrade there, and then went back to Lafayette. Once there, I met with my boss for about an hour discussing an issue that had come up that we needed to deal with, and then went back to the hotel. I ended up venturing back out to Chili’s for dinner again, and then back to the hotel for another relatively quiet night.

Wednesday morning I packed up, and was headed back to Houston as of 7:30 AM. By around 11:30 AM, I was back at Enterprise dropping off the car, and then I got a ride back to my house so that I could pick up my own car and make my way to the office…

All in all it was a pretty productive trip, and I got done everything I needed to get done. The only big clinchers were the fact that I got sick, and also being told I’d have to make a run down to Corpus for Friday. Fortunately, that got bumped back to Wednesday, so I have time to get ready for it. I also wish the two Who DVDs I got yesterday had arrived in time for me to bring them along with me. Oh, well… I’ll just watch them tonight.

Anyway, I gotta get back to work moving these backup tapes to our safe… fun fun.

A glimmer of sunshine on a cloudy day…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

I’ll post about the Houma/Jennings trip in detail tomorrow or Friday. As it stands now, I feel sick; I’m lethargic and my throat is sore, plus I have a fever. I’ll probably go to bed in about fifteen minutes, and try and sleep the sickness away. I’ve been feeling bad since I left Houston, though it really came to a head last night.

On the bright side, though, when I got home I found that two Doctor Who DVDs I had ordered arrived from Amazon: The Leisure Hive with the Fourth Doctor, and Ghost Light with the Seventh Doctor. “Ghost Light” is the real treat, as it’s the only Fourth Doctor and later story I’ve never seen all the way through. When it aired on PBS, I missed enough of it to be completely confused by what was going on, so I turned it off. Now I can finally watch it all the way through…

Anyway, like I said, I’ll hopefully post a full trip story tomorrow. For now, I’m just going to enjoy some cold water and then head to bed…

Appearance does matter, but so does attitude…

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_2785449

IT TURNS OUT what your mother always tells you is true: People judge you by your looks.

Just ask Shannon Nichols, a senior at Livermore’s Granada High School. Nichols, 18, recently tested that theory when she was applying for jobs.

…

Since Abercrombie would probably jump at the chance to hire the preppy-looking Nichols, she decided to test their tolerance for someone dressed as a goth. She sprayed her sandy brown hair black, layered on the heavy black eyeliner, added a fake lip ring and bared her jeweled navel.

Nichols’ Anglo poster girl pal Adams, 18, is a blue-eyed blond who looks like she just stepped out of an Abercrombie ad.

The two went to Pleasanton’s Stoneridge mall, Nichols in goth garb, Adams dressed in a jean skirt and red Abercrombie top. Adams entered the store first, followed a short time later by Nichols.

…

“The most dramatic was how the Abercrombie employees treated Sarah in comparison to how they treated me,” Nichols says. “As soon as she walked in, the cashier started talking to her and told her she could meet with the manager.”

Adams explained that she had no retail experience, and really no job experience. That didn’t matter, she was assured by a young man identifying himself as the store manager. In fact, she didn’t even have to fill out a job application, she just needed to come to a group interview being held in the next two weeks.

…

Nichols experienced a far different response from store employees, who basically made it clear: Don’t let the door hit you on your gothic backside on your way out.

There’s a big discussion going on about this on FARK, but I’m of two minds on this subject. On one hand, there’s no way in hell Nichols should have expected them to be willing to hire her. Presentation is part of a first impression, and such impressions do count.

On the other hand, if I had been a customer in the store when Nichols was in there, I would have walked out. I didn’t paste that part, but the clerk treated her extremely rudely despite Nichols being very polite. I don’t care if it’s a customer or an applicant: if you can’t treat someone with basic courtesy when they’re being courteous to you, then I have no desire to do business with you.

It’s kinda like that scene in Pretty Woman, where Julia Roberts’s character (in full prostitute gear) goes into this store and is trying to be very nice, but is told very rudely she isn’t welcome. She comes back in hours later much more well-dressed, and the clerks (not recognizing her) fall over themselves to try and help her. That’s when Julia’s character bluntly tells them that she was in earlier, and because of their attitude they lost a sale worth several thousand dollars.

The lesson to be learned here, kids? Attitude is a big part of one’s presentation, and it doesn’t help to mean to those who are trying to be courteous to you.

Sitting at the end of the weekend…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, it’s the end of the weekend, and I really don’t know if I can say I’ve accomplished too much.

Right now, I’m tired as hell, sitting at the keyboard, and listening to Club 977 on my home theater while I ponder what to pack for my trip tomorrow. My plans have had to change somewhat, as I wasn’t able to get lodging in Houma; so, what I plan to do is get my rental car first thing in the morning, and then make my way to Jennings. Once I complete my task in Jennings, I’ll go to Lafayette where the main IT offices for the company are located. After dropping off equipment there, I’ll stay overnight there. Then, I’ll head for Houma bright and early Tuesday morning. Once done there, I’ll come back to Lafayette and spend Tuesday night there. From there, I’ll go back to Houston Wednesday and meet with the CIO (who will also be coming in from Lafayette that day). I think that’ll all work out for the best; if not, I’ll have a bit of leeway in which to work with.

I really need to do something about straightening this bedroom, as it’s a disaster area. Unfortunately, as much as I might want my living and work areas to be clean, they quickly devolve into a right mess. It’s a fact of life: I have a rather chaotic nature. It irks my parents and bosses to no end, but there’s nothing I can really do about it. It’s actually funny… I’ve had more than one boss give me warnings about it before finally giving up, realizing I still do the work and know where everything is. There’s a reason Mom put a little knit patch on my bedroom door with Mr. Messy on it…

You know, it’s funny some of the things you think of. I was reading something on FARK this morning involving schools, teachers, education, and the like… and it reminded me of something that happened when I was in college. My final semester of Music Theory was taught by a professor who followed the humiliation method of teaching. If she was to ask one of us a question and the person got the answer wrong, she would make some remark or comment that would just make the student look absolutely stupid and (to me) horribly embarrassed him/her. It got to the point where I dreaded going to that class and being asked to answer a question. Well, one day near the end of the semester, I was in the Band Annex talking to a couple of fellow band members, and I mentioned how much I hated how this professor used the humiliation method. One of them, who happened to be a music education major, looked at me and said, “I agree with the humiliation method.”

I wonder if I was able to keep a horrified expression off my face.

I’m sorry, but I take the attitude that if you have to humiliate a student to get him to learn, then you’ve failed as a teacher. The best teachers, in my experience, were ones who cared and nurtured about the students, made the subject matter interesting, and went the extra mile to not talk down to the students. They made me want to learn more. They made me want to come to class. All teachers like my music theory professor did was make me hate coming to class and only learn enough to keep from looking stupid. I wasn’t inspired to learn or take an interest in the subject matter.

… I wonder how that former classmate’s career is going. *shrug*

Anyway, time for me to get a bottle of water and start packing, and then maybe I can start thinking of bed. I might post some from the road. If not… I’ll post again late Wednesday or so.