In the Lee of the Scale...

December 2009 - Rounding out the year...

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:09:38 -0400

After returning from our Hatteras trip, we discovered that our “home server”, a 1998 AGP Graphics Mac tower, was having issues while we were gone. I restarted it, but it froze up again overnight. It was becoming very obvious that it was trying very hard to release the magic smoke that makes it run.

So, I started off December by ordering a Mac Mini Server to replace it. After 11 years of use, my top of the line Pro Mac was replaced by the Server version of the bottom of the line Consumer Mac. And at that it was a huge step up in storage capacity, memory, and processor power. Now that is progress!

When the Mac Mini showed up and I pulled the old server out, I found that it was just filled with felted dust. So I set it aside to open up and clean out. It was possible that the box was still good, but had been overheating. And... I still haven’t gotten back to it. I really should look at that sometime soon.

The other aspect is having access to Snow Leopard Server for the first time. Having a proper server OS opens a number of new doors. Now it is possible for me to run my own e-mail server for my domain, or host my domain on my own server. So many possibilities... and so much homework to do to figure out how to do any of them! Maybe later...

I set the new server up, and got things working again with the file server, print server, and the iTunes library. Just enough to get us back into business. Along the way I discovered that Apple had replaced Firewire 400 with Firewire 800, and I needed to order an adapter to connect my Firewire 400 drives at all. An Amazon order and a few days later, everything is up and running.

And at the same time I’m finally getting to drive my new car and get used to all the little quirks of european design. For instance, the driver’s seat is manually adjusted back and forth, but the back of the seat is a power adjust. There is a light sensor on the dashboard that turns on the headlights when it gets dark... but you have to turn on the interior lights manually. The car has built-in bluetooth connectivity for the phone and allows audio to be streamed through the radio from a bluetooth source, but there are only two power ports in the car: one in the dash, and one in the trunk. And both ports go off when you turn off the ignition. Some odd design decisions.

But the Jetta is very fun to drive, and the seat heaters are WONDERFUL in cold weather. And it rides the road like it was on rails. Even in bad weather.

One other consequence of the Hatteras trip was Kee getting sick for several days. With everything else happening at the same time, I was pretty much treading water just keeping things going and taking care of Kee. No chance to pick up the house after Faire and the Hatteras trip. Or do any Christmas shopping except for online. Or decorate.

So... no tree for Christmas this year, and a lot of work to get things cleared up for the celebration... and cook a big meal? There just didn’t seem any way to do it. And just as we were looking at scaling down Christmas, some friends down in Virginia invited us to come to their place and share Christmas dinner with them. So, all we need to do is finish our shopping!

Also during December, I went to see the doctor about losing weight. She told me to follow the Weight Watchers food plan, and work my way up to exercising for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week. She also gave me a prescription for an appetite suppressant to help me deal with the lower calorie intake. I filled my prescription on Friday...

And then the Snowpocalypse came.

Over two feet of snow overnight. Boom. So, I signed up for Weight Watcher’s online program, and for the first week I shoveled snow every day for exercise. The first week went pretty easily. Even Christmas dinner didn’t turn out to be a problem. Part of learning the program is learning what the point values and portion sizes for various foods are, and part is learning what foods I need to trade out for in order to eat better. More cucumbers and mushrooms, less cheese. Cutting down on the cheese is the hard part. And cutting down on refined carbs. Whole grains are pretty decent, but potatoes and white flour? Not so much...

And in the midst of the aftermath of Snowpocalypse, we managed to sneak out and see Straight No Chaser at the Birchmere! Straight No Chaser is an a cappella group from the University of Indiana. They formed as undergrads, and toured for a while bringing their unique interpretation of traditional tunes. Then they graduated and passed on their musical responsibilities to a new generation of undergrads. Ten years later, the original members of Straight No Chaser were brought back for a reunion concert... where they were seen by a highly placed record executive, who signed them for a recording contract and started them touring again. It was an amazing show, even from the cheap seats.

The snow receded enough for us to do Christmas dinner, but it clogged the roads in the area. We tried to go to see a movie at Tyson’s Corner on three different days before we could actually get close enough to get to the theatre. One time we got into the mall property, only to have cops detour us away from the parking. Madness.

New Year’s Eve had us heading down to Richmond to a New Year’s party thrown by some friends who lived down there. The drive was a bit monotonous, but we met a lot of new friends and had a good time while waiting up for the ball to drop.

And thus was 2009. A year of much change, achievement, and new beginnings. We shall see what 2010 brings.

November 2009 - Revisited

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:41:55 -0500

Another Wayback edition of Lee of the Scale... looking at November of 2009. What a month it was...

I started the month spending some time out of town with Kee and some friends. Came back from a very nice weekend and took Monday, the 2nd off to catch up on things at home. Tuesday, the 3rd, I got up and went into work. I never made it.

On the way in to work, I got rear-ended. I hadn't quite made it to where I370 splits off, when traffic in front of me stopped dead, with solid walls of vehicles on both sides. I came to a stop behind the last car, and glanced at my rear-view mirror to see a mini-van coming at me at speed. To give the driver credit, she tried to swerve into the next lane, she just didn’t make it fast enough. I had a split-second to hope that she would actually make it.

BLAM!

She hit my car in the passenger side tail-lights. The impact made my chair back release and lay back all the way, and my car was driven forward into the Prius in front of me. I was sent forward into the dash, bruising my knee and bouncing into the steering wheel. If the seat back hadn’t given way, I probably would have been hurt much worse. We managed to pull over to the side of the interstate, despite the scraping and grinding coming from my car. I didn’t seem to be hurt, so I got out and took stock of my car.

A police cruiser was just behind us. He stopped traffic and cleared some debris out of the road, then he pulled over to talk to us.

A young woman ran up to me and asked me if I was hurt. I told her that I didn't think so, just banged up a little. She told me that she saw the whole thing and that she pulled over as a witness. I thanked her. She went off to talk to one of the other drivers. I don’t think I ever got her info.

The police officer had been on his way to court, and he couldn't stay, but he had called another officer to take over. He took our licenses and insurance information and went back to his car.

I talked to the other two drivers. The woman in front of me had just bought her Prius two weeks ago. The other woman was handicapped. Apparently I was the only one who was hurt in the accident. Although the driver who hit me had her airbag deploy.

The original officer came back with a uniformed officer. He told us that he had to go to court, but the other officer would keep watch on us until a State Trooper arrived. Technically, the interstate was the State's jurisdiction.

As we waited, my knee started to swell and stiffen up. I called Kee and let her know what happened, and called work and let them know I wasn’t coming in. It didn’t seem serious enough for an ambulance, so we didn’t call one. But I added a visit to the hospital to my mental list of things to do once we got off the side of the road.

I ended up gathering my stuff from the car, then calling Kee back to come and get me. The car was going to have to be towed, and I was going to need her to take me to the hospital.

A few minutes after that, the uniformed officer gathered us up down near the mini-van. Apparently the state troopers were too busy and that he was going write up the police report. He gave each of us our credentials back and pulled out a copy of the accident report. The Prius was still drivable, so she left. The rest of us sat down and waited for our tow trucks.

Kee showed up and pulled over onto the shoulder. She walked up to me, laughing. She said that she thought the cop who was there was her prom date from high school. Sure enough, a couple minutes later he came up, called her by name and gave her a big hug. He said that when he saw my name he thought that I might be her husband. He had heard her married name from some mutual friends.

The tow trucks arrived and took our vehicles off to impound until the insurance companies could get them looked at. For us it was off to the emergency center and the beginning of a new chapter of medical neglect.

They took x-rays of my legs, looked me over, and kept me waiting in some form or another for over three hours. Then they gave us the bums rush to collect my billing information and kick us out on the street. I left with a prescription for pain killers and a doctor’s note to keep me out of work for the week.

So then home. Food finally. And another hour and a half on the phone with my insurance company giving them all the info. And then having to deal with the insane impound lot. To get my car released to the insurance appraiser, I had to FAX a signed piece of paper to the impound lot. Just fax. I could fax it, or I could come down in person. No other options. And when I told the guy that I didn’t have a fax machine, he hung up on me. Took me another two hours to print up a sheet, sign it, scan it, put it online, and then e-mail the insurance company with the URL of the scan so THEY could fax it for me. They only use their own internal e-mail and I couldn’t send an attachment via that.

The next day, I got a rental car from Enterprise, and went on home. Then had the other driver’s insurance call me up and grill me. And try to trick me into letting them off the hook for a measly $500. Um, no. Not when I haven’t even healed yet.

My car didn’t get released from impound until the following day. No idea why. Impound guy just kept saying I needed to fax him a release. Asshole.

My injuries seemed to be confined to having a massive bruise on my knee. It was swollen and stiff for several days. I ended up getting some compression socks to reduce the swelling. And then I started shopping for cars. It took forever for a final word on my car, but everything made it look likely that it was going to be totaled, so I started looking for a new vehicle. Unfortunately, most vehicles don’t really make any accommodations for large persons in the driver’s seat.

About this time, I finally got my BiPAP machine. This is a device to control my Sleep Apnea. It keeps me breathing by forcing air into my nose. It varies the pressure on inhale and exhale to maintain the rhythm of my breathing. It took several days to get used to, and the mask I originally started with tended to leak, but I did get used to it. After dealing with some issues due to setting the humidifier too high and having a face full of water.

Finally my car was officially declared totaled. And I was informed that because it was totaled, I would only have another week of rental coverage. So I had to do everything to arrange for a new car in a week. And I still had no idea what car I wanted (and could fit in). And since I was back at work, I had very little time to shop. Lovely.

After lots of late night scrambling about and visits to dealerships right before they closed, I finally ended up deciding a VW Jetta. And the whole thing almost fell through because of the time to arrange financing for the car. But King VW did some things that really surprised me. First, while I was still trying to figure out where I was going to be able to find financing, King VW offered to let me take the car as a loaner so I could return my rental car before my insurance benefits expired. They had an Enterprise office onsite and I could return the rental there and drive the Jetta home right away. Until I could figure out the finances and come to buy the car. I’ve never heard of a car dealership doing anything like this. They put a dealer plate on the car and sent me home.

The next day, I got a call from King VW and was told that they found a bank that would match my credit union’s advertised rate, and if I wanted to do that, we could finish up the paperwork that night. I was working on filling out the loan application for the credit union at the time. And it would have taken at least two days to get the loan approved. So I went back to King VW and finished the paperwork to buy the car.

I drove my new car home, parked it in front of the house. And then Kee and I loaded up her truck with our luggage. The next morning, we got on the road and drove down to Cape Hatteras for a week’s vacation over Thanksgiving. Hatteras wasn’t perfect, but it was a blast. There are a ton of pictures to be published and I’m still working on them. I will report on that later in the Vacations area of the site once I’ve got the pictures organized.

The auction to raise funds for Tee Morris’ daughter’s Trust Fund is coming together. There are over 60 wonderful items coming up for auction. Please support Sonic Boom if you can. The online auction for her Trust Fund will be on February 27th. See http://www.theBoomEffect.com for more details!

And please check out The Nifty Tech Blog! I’ve put a lot of work into the site and We’ve got a couple of good reviews up. I’ll be posting new reviews of tech every two weeks at first, but I hope to pick up some momentum and update the schedule. And keep watching, as new features are in the works, and we’ve got a couple of guest reviews coming up in the next couple of months.

Lastly, tune in next time, when I’ll round off 2009. Until then, I’ll be in the Lee of the Scale.

October 2009 - Revisited

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:00:38 -0500

This is another catch-up edition of Lee of the Scale. This time we’re looking at October 2009.

Maryland Renaissance Festival still going on. Computer problems still plaguing me. (Wah!) But I managed to get out a few times for some recreational Geocaching. And found myself regularly assaulted by cats wanting height and affection.

I ran into a new problem with iTunes. When I tried to sync an iPod or iPhone to my library, it would delete all the music from the iPod. The only way I could get anything onto the iPod was to manually manage the iPod, or to use the auto-fill options. And neither would get me podcasts or playlists. Very Frustrating. But in the end I tried re-starting iTunes and it started to behave properly again. And I begin to think that you can’t find these simple solutions until you complain about the problem. Then they appear.

I also discovered one of the most inspirational quotes ever, which I shall now duplicate in its entirety:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3])

There is no point in not being your best. All it does is encourage others to be less than they are. I just loved this. I still find it very inspiring.

At work I was able to get the Seasonal Flu shot. This was in the midst of all the initial panic about the H1N1 virus, and that Flu shot wasn’t available for love nor money. Still, other than being short on sleep, I remained pretty healthy.

We took a day trip down to the Albemarle Cider Works. This ended up being a long, wandering drive through the Virginia countryside. We stopped a few times to look at antique shops, and barely made it to the Cider Works before they closed. The Cider there was good, but a bit too dry for our tastes. Although they had a very good cheese and fruit plate. We ended up driving around and wandering into Charlottesville. We had some excellent soup, and stumbled upon a Webcam Geocache. It was a long day, but a good one.

This was also the time when a friend of mine referred a piece of software to me, and it turned out to be something that we were already using. This proved to be the genesis for a new Blog that I’ll be starting on February 1st: The Nifty Tech Blog. I have a tendency to find cool hardware and software a while before my friends realize it is cool. By blogging about it, I can record my thoughts, and they can find the stuff when they are ready.

Back about mid-October I also realized that my efforts to increase my exercise and get into better shape were starting to pay off. The Daily migration from parking lot to office and back, which for me requires crossing the entire campus, was no longer as taxing as it had originally been. A very positive sign.

Went to the doctor for some shoulder pain. Got a prescription for Flexerin. And vertigo. During the course of taking the meds, it had some serious dizzy spells. At one point I thought I was coming down with the flu, but then I noted that there was a warning that the med could cause dizziness. Lovely. But once I finished the last of them, the dizziness went away. As did the shoulder pain!

Kee and I went out of town for our wedding anniversary. It was a good weekend. We probably spent way too much shopping, but we had fun doing it. We had a nice formal tea on Saturday, and met a lot of new people. It was a good weekend to close up October.

Efforts are still going on to raise funds for Tee Morris’ daughter’s Trust Fund. Please support Sonic Boom if you can. The Auction for her Trust Fund will be on February 27th. See http://www.theBoomEffect.com for more details!

And please check out The Nifty Tech Blog on February 1st. I’ll be posting new reviews of tech every two weeks at first, but I hope to pick up some momentum and update the schedule.

Until next time, when we’ll look at November, I’ll be in the Lee of the Scale.

September 2009

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:19:31 -0500

Sherman, set the Way-Back machine for September of 2009. That was the last time I made a regular post to this blog, and I’ve got some catching up to do.

So, September... The Maryland Renaissance Festival was in session, a new web project at work was making things interesting, and there was the Virginia Wine Festival.

I had never been to a wine festival before. Kee had been to one with friends before, but I’d not been able to go, so this was a new experience for me. Kee and I have never been big wine drinkers. We tend to prefer beer, cider, and mead when it comes to alcohol. But we have had some tasty wines in the past, and this was a good opportunity to find a few new vintages that we can add to our cellar.

It was a beautiful day, although I could have done with a few more clouds and a bit less humidity. While the crowds around the tasting tents were thick, the crowd in general wasn't too terribly bad. Lines for food were long, but that was about it. Still, it was a good day to be out, as long as you take it slow.

Kee and I aren't big drinkers, so our tastes tend to run towards some of the sweeter varieties. We have noticed that it seems that the more often someone drinks, the more their tastes tend to trend toward the dry end. Every now and then we run into a drier wine that appeals, but we tend to avoid the really dry wines that the real wine aficionados all seem to love.

One of our early discoveries of the day was from Cooper Vineyards in Louisa, VA. They have a wonderful Chocolate dessert wine called Noche. Hands down this was the best chocolate wine of the day. They also make a good sangria, and have a nice table white called Vita.

We also found a nice assortment of fruit wines from Horton Vineyards in Gordonsville, VA. They had a Peach wine which even I liked (and I'm not fond of peaches), also some really good blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry wines. They had a surprisingly good cranberry wine. The first sip is sweet, the second is tart. It made me think of Thanksgiving. They also had a nice Apple wine, and a Late Harvest Viognier. And a truely wonderful Pear Port. Let’s say that again. A TRUELY WONDERFUL Pear Port.

Our last find of the day was from Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery in Nellysford, VA. They had a number of "True to the fruit" wines (no grapes) and Mead variants that we tried. They had a nice Pyment that reminded me of Welch's Grape Juice with a kick, an excellent perry, a decent cyser, and a nice blueberry melomel. They also had a very tasty sangria mix.

All and all it was a very good outing. Just about everyone we met was pleasant. Even those who got drunk were more amusing than problematic.

At home I was dealing with a rash of computer problems. iTunes on my main computer was bombing off on me whenever it tried to analyze the volume level on new songs or podcasts. I could get around it, but with the numbers of podcasts that I listen to, it became a big pain. It seemed that I had a few corrupted downloads in my podcast feeds. I was able to get around it by processing the files on other computers and then adding the processed files to my main iTunes library. Still, a big pain, and a lot of time troubleshooting and working around it.

At the same time I was dealing with helping Kee with her new iPod nano, which wasn’t working the way she was thinking it should work. We finally got that sorted, but not without a lot of frustration.

We continued to struggle with our Time Machine backups for our laptops. We back them up to a network attached hard drive attached to our Airport Extreme Base Station. They’d back up fine for a week or so, then we’d get an Error 109 message and the backups would be unreadable and useless. We’d have to start over again.

And on top of all that, my old G4 laptop decided that while it could see the internet and connect to web resources, it couldn’t see anything on the local network. Not even the wireless base station it was attached to. Like to drive me mad. Nothing I tried made a difference.

Tryll, out new Maine Coon kitten was integrating well. But she was being a bit of a problem, too. She’s a greedy gut. When we put wet food down for her and Thunder, she invariable goes and shoves Thunder away from his food and gobbles it down herself. He’s such a big softie he just lets her. At least they’re not fighting. Playing, yes. Fighting, no.

As for Thunder... he came down with a case of Laryngitis. Very strange to look down at the cat and she him open his mouth and not have any sound come out!

And right at the end of the month I was getting ready to begin a new D&D game with friends in Annapolis. A bit of a drive, but a good way to see them more often.

Before I go, I’d like to ask folks again to consider donating to help out Tee Morris and Sonic Boom. The response has been great so far, but more is still needed to ensure that Sonic Boom’s trust fund will be able to stand up to future economic shifts. If you don’t feel right donating funds, then check out the online auction that is being set up to benefit Sonic Boom’s trust fund. Go to http://www.theboomeffect.org/ to see the many items that have been donated, including four paintings by Lani Tupu of Farscape. The auction will be held online on February 27th, but you can post a proxy bid if you can’t be online for the event. More donation items are coming in all the time, so check back often.

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be back in a week or so, and we can set the Way-Back machine for October. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting in the Lee of the Scale.

For Natalie, Tee, and Sonic Boom

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:11:00 -0500

Yes, I have neglected this blog for four months. Yes, a lot has happened. No, you’re not going to hear about the last four months now. Right now, you’re going to hear about 10 years ago. And then you’re going to hear about this past week. And then hopefully, you’ll be moved to do something.

Our story starts back in the 90’s, when a young man carrying an awkward bundle of equipment and a small quilted blanket walked up to me and asked me if I could help him test his flying machine. That was when I first met Tee Morris, who was at that time playing the character of Quentin, the village inventor of Revel Grove at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I was working at the town scales at the time. For most of that season, we would see each other as he passed by the scales, exchange a bit of business and ideas, and move on. I learned more about Tee through other friends who knew him than I did directly. But Tee became one of the people who made the Festival feel like home to me, even though I rarely saw him out of character. And I counted him as a friend.

Over the years, Tee and I have bumped into each other a few times online. Like me, Tee is a Mac Enthusiast, an appreciator of good beer, and a tech geek. He started his own freelance web design business. He taught the use of a number of online tools and technologies. And somewhere in there, when I wasn’t looking, he started writing, and podcasting.

The combination of writing and podcasting is important. To date, Tee has seven books in print. Four of those are fantasy novels in two different series, two are books about Twitter, and the last is the Podcasting for Dummies book. Yes, Tee literally wrote the book on podcasting. But more remarkably, Tee combined both writing and podcasting and invented the first podcast novel when he serialized his first novel, Morevi, as a podcast and gave it away for free. You can find out more about Tee’s books and podcasts at teemorris.com.

Tee has become a well known figure as a podcaster, fantasy writer, and podcast novelist. Remember this. It figures in later.

On Wednesday, January 6th, 2010, Tee’s wife Natalie died suddenly from complications from the flu. This left Tee alone to raise their seven year old daughter, who has been known on the web by the nickname Sonic Boom. Tee quietly withdrew from the web to deal with his grief, and to figure out how to raise his daughter and pay the bills.

But Tee’s friend, coauthor, and fellow podcaster, Philippa Ballantine, wanted to do something to help him. Since she lives in New Zealand, and Tee lives in Virginia, Pip couldn’t exactly provide him direct comfort. But she hit upon the idea of rallying the podcasting and writing community, the people who knew Tee, and asking them to donate whatever they could to help out with the costs for Natalie’s funeral. Philippa created a Chip In account and started promoting it, asking people to help out Tee and Sonic Boom. Over 9 thousand dollars was raised in the first day. When the donations exceeded the funeral costs, the remainder was earmarked to go to a trust fund for Sonic Boom, to help ensure that she would be cared for and have the chance to go to college when the time came. You can see more about that at http://teeandserena.chipin.com/tee-and-sonic-boom.

Philipa has also been contacting Tee’s friends for donations of items for an auction to benefit Sonic Boom’s trust fund. The auction will be held online at the end of February. Already there have been donations from all over the community, including a painting from Lani Tupu of Farscape fame. Details on the auction can be found at http://www.theboomeffect.org/.

Now me, I’ve never met Natalie or Sonic Boom. I’ve been wanting to get together with Tee and “catch up” for about six months now. The last time we met face to face was before either of us were ever married. I wanted to meet his wife and little girl and have him meet my wife. Have a round of beers and talk over ideas. But we were always both too busy. And while it is possible that Tee may just think of me as “that guy I used to know at the renfest”, I still think of him as a friend. And now he is a friend in need. I’ve chipped in myself, and I’m boosting the signal, trying to reach Tee’s old friends in the Renfest community, and maybe find new friends who will be moved to help out him and his daughter.

And now you. If you’ve read down this far, I’m asking you to help out. Follow the links and read the pages. Donate what you can, however little. Bid on things when the auction comes up. Tee has given a lot to inform and entertain the world. Surely we can give something back. And right now, the best thing we can give him is some assurance that he’ll be able to take care of his daughter’s future. So give. Donate to the auction. Bid. Link to this page. Link to the other pages above. Help get the word out. Please.

We’ve raised a good amount of money in a few days, but it isn’t nearly enough. I’m not good with words, but I hope that something I’ve said has moved you enough to do something to help. For Tee, and Sonic Boom, and for Natalie.