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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed  |
Friday, May 30, 2003
Bye Bye Live Webcam Dammit! Now that I'm behind the Decoma corporate firewall, my live streaming video webcam is an impossibility. Rats! Since I was in charge of the Development Center network, I had our corporate VPN guy port-forward camera traffic (port 8080) to my own computer. Asking them to do that over here in the Decoma Palace would be similar to me asking them for a key to their house. Such paranoia! Skinning Cats... My Specialty There's more than one way to skin a cat. By golly, if I want a live webcam on my desk, I'm gonna have it! Unfortunately, "live" won't be quite "live", since now I have to use another program that basically FTP's images at selected intervals. I think I might make that interval every 60 seconds. Who knows... I might decide to send the camera image every 10 seconds. I love my webcams. Another Day in Paradise And yes, it's another hellacious day for me. Multiple meetings, half-wit suppliers, lost emails, etc. Story of my life. posted by Dino at 11:42 AM (permanent link) Thursday, May 29, 2003
The Week from Hell... Actually it hasn't been too bad... just that I had to be in four places at the same time all week long!! Arrrrg! In the automotive industry, Murphy's Law usually has a sick sense of humor. For instance, let's take a look at engineering an exterior ground effects package. Common sense tells you to spend the most time and effort making sure that the most complex component/system will work. When Murphy's Law kicks in, Murphy will make sure that all the complex components fit ALL the time, EVERY time, on EVERY vehicle. Murphy will also make sure that the $1.23 plug that took 36 seconds to engineer NEVER fits. Murphy will also make sure that the material supplier runs out of plastic, or the plugs get lost in the mail, or the plugs are the wrong color... all the while kits are being sold at dealerships, with backorders stacking up to 1100. Multiply Murphy's Law by four, and that's my life. The Move Now take the stress level attained by multiplying Murphy's Law by four, and add the element of an office move. I'm not talking about moving from one cubicle to another... I'm talking about moving out of an office in one building, and moving a mile away to another... all while trying to synchronize the move so the two people swapping offices are moving at the same time. That's my life this week. All week I have been in emergency meetings, emergency conference calls, emergency video conferences, and emergency butt-pumping. Fortunately, I found 46 minutes between emergency butt-pumping #4 and emergency video conference #7 to pack up most of my belongings and bring them over to my new building. I still have a few more boxes of files and junk sitting in my old building, along with other engineering artifacts gathered over the last six years. And, thanks to Decoma's IT Manager, he hauled my computer and peripherals into my new office. Even though Decoma's policy is that the IT Dept is responsible for moving computers, they usually let me do my own thing since I was a manager in that department a few years ago. Nonetheless, the movement of my computer actually allowed me to be in two meetings at the same time, instead of just one, since I was able to save an hour. Between simultaneous meetings #23 and #24, I was able to make it over to my new office and actually semi-unpack. I also HAD to check my email today so I had to hook up the computer and connect to our network (another slated IT-only task). Tomorrow, I get the pleasure of getting connected to Decoma's domain-controller (network-based login... no login to local machine... yuck), so I can take advantage of the network drives. Personally, I could care less of connecting to the network drives, since I have semi-administrative privileges that allows me to see ALL the network drives... not just mine. Anyway, the IT Dept. will probably feel better (it's a status thing) that I'm back at Decoma ESE now as a USER instead of an ADMIN. Things Couldn't Be Better Outside of Work! Danielle and I are still riding the bliss wave of being engaged! Life couldn't be better right now for us! I think we're going through our guest list (thanks, Peter, for sending me yours) to try and reduce our list from 500 to around 200. My parents probably have a list of 200 Greeks that they'd like to invite: Greek School teachers, Sunday School teachers, third and fourth cousins, church patrons, neighbors from 1974... and generally anybody that speaks Greek that lives in Southeastern Michigan. I'm going to be the red-headed step-child and hack that list to about 100... there's no reason that "Uncle Mitch", a 75-year old neighbor that used to live on Richard O in 1982, should even know about our wedding. Our rule: if we haven't seen or talked to someone in five years, they go on a different list. Greece... I Almost Forgot! Oh my goodness! In all of the engagement frenzy, our excitement on going to Greece this summer has fizzled away! About a week before the engagement, Danielle and I decided to bite the bullet and spend two weeks in Greece! It was a big decision, since taking two weeks off right now for me is almost like turning my back on my responsibilities at work. But hey... last year Danielle and I only took a total of one week off (as opposed to three), with miscellaneous days spread out over the year. I think we both carried over a week, which gave us a total of four weeks off this year! Last year was a busy year for both of us. We'll be in Greece from July 12 - 27! It's actually coming up pretty fast! I have no idea what our itinerary is going to be. However, thinking out loud, I plan on renting a car when we get to Athens, and touring a little bit of the countryside, trying to hit as many ruins as possible. Of course we'll spend a full day at Acropolis... perhaps two. I'd like to get a hotel, but we might decide to stay at my aunt's apartment, since she will not be there (she'll be at my mom's summer home in the village). Isn't that weird? My mom has a summer home in Greece! It's not like you can pack up the car for the weekend and head out to Greece. I think it's weird... and neat. After we do some sight-seeing in Athens, I'd like to drive through the countryside (I'll probably end up in Beruit) to my parent's village. Their village, Agios Vasilios (St. Basil... translated) is a few miles away from Patras, which is a pretty huge metropolis on that side of the country. Agios Vasilios used to just be a little tiny village where my parents grew up. Biggest export from that village was fish, grapes, olives, wine, and olive oil. In the last two decades, that little village has now turned into a pretty bustling resort town. Adjacent to Agios Vasilios is another town called Rio, where the bars never close, everybody drives a vanity Harley, and beautiful people (both men and women) run amok. I'd compare Rio to South Beach, Miami... lights, glitz, glamor, etc. We'll probably spend a few days in Agios Vasilios, visiting all the relatives (ALL of them... my dad's sister was the only one, other than him, that left Greece). It's going to be hard to have dinner at single relative (they all insist on dinner), especially with only a few days in the village. The most important thing for me is that Danielle gets a chance to meet my grandma (my mom's mom), who's in her late 80's. Second most important thing for me is that Danielle gets a chance to see where my parents grew up. She'll get a chance to see the house that my dad lived in (when he lived there, they didn't even have running water), as well as my mom's house. We'll also get a chance to meet some of my cool cousins, that will, no-doubt, try to wine-n-dine us until the minute we're back on the plane to come home. I'm actually looking forward to spending some time with my cousin Eugenia (jennygreece on the BB), and my cousins Zoe and Petroula. Also, I can't wait to hang out with my cousin George (all Greeks are named George for some reason), who is currently a beekeeper, moving hives from mountain to mountain for different flavors of honey. I remember him as the total drifter, who probably spent more time in Amsterdam than anybody I know. After a few days in Agios Vasilios, our plan is to hit as many of the islands as possible. It's going to be hard to decide which islands to see, since we're on a limited time schedule. I definitely want to visit the island of Santorini! The legendary city of Atlantis was somewhere close to this island. There's also archealogical evidence that suggests a volcano erupted here during the "Moses Exodus" that caused the "Seven Plagues of Egypt", as well as the Tsunami that allegedly caused Moses to part the Reed Sea (yes, Reed Sea... not Red Sea... read up on this if you don't believe me). Santorini is awesome... white-washed houses all sitting atop of a mountain! I can't wait to take a hundred pictures! I also want to visit Mykonos, Corfu, Crete, Rhoades, and maybe even Lesbos (hee hee... yup, that's where it actually started). I'm not sure if we're going to jump on a canned cruise to some of these islands, or take advantage of my Uncle's status as Greece's Port Authority. Last time I was there, all we had to do is mention that we were his nephews, and we could jump on any boat, get a room, an be wine-n-dined for free. He's more powerful now, so we may even get our own yahct for the week. I wish. We'll see. I'm a little reluctant and nervous to tour Greece with Danielle, since I basically have to be the eyes, ears and throat of our whole expedition. Yes, Greek was my first language. Yes, I went to six years of Greek School. Yes, I can basically speak, read and write in Greek. Yes, we spoke Greek in the house growing up (later evolved into Gringlish). Yes, I speak Gringlish to my parents now. However, my Greek is not college-level. It's probably not even third grade level right now. My Greek vocabulary is probably 25% of what it was ten to fifteen years ago, so I am a little nervous of being able to communicate intelligently with the locals. I'm really nervous. I'm envisioning trying to rent a car or check out from a hotel... my Greek is going to be sooooo bad. Oh well. Hopefully there will be some third graders around that I can talk to. posted by Dino at 9:05 PM (permanent link) Friday, May 23, 2003
The Non-Disclosure Agreement and Confidentiality Agreement has been lifted! Danielle and I get engaged! It was KILLING me not to post this here! Check out the picture gallery! You can also read about this on my forums! Click here to access this topic! Can you believe that... a frumpy, star trek, computer geek like myself lands a Revlon Covergirl!? It's true! The ugly dudes DO get the hot chicks! In all seriousness, I asked Danielle to marry me last Sunday, May 18, 2003. It was quite a day! I decided that my number one objective was to catch Danielle off-guard. She's a pure detective, so I didn't want to do it on any "anticipated" activity/outing. The Sunday after Mother's Day is always Flower Day at Eastern Market, Detroit. This is a time that all the flower wholesalers get together and extend the savings to consumers. Eastern Market gets pretty packed... you can never find parking, and you're elbow-to-elbow with Detroiters looking for deals (you can get flats between $5 and $8). It's also the time that most people do all their spring planting of annuals and perennials. A few days prior, I bought a whole bunch of new garden tools, since mine were pretty beat up. I also bought Danielle some new "water resistent" gloves, since her gloves last year got muddy and wet. The eve of Flower Day, I place the ring into the ring finger of her new gloves, and left the gardening accessories in the garage overnight. Just imagine my anxiety: 1) an expensive piece of carbon and platinum was just sitting in my garage overnight, and 2) tomorrow was the big day. I could barely sleep. Unfortunately, fate had a pretty sick sense of humor that night. Danielle caught a cold/flu that had her tossing and turning all night. Head congestion, fever, coughing, sore throat... you name it. She was pretty sick, so I went out to 7-11 at 5AM to buy some medical supplies: children's cough syrup, cough drops, NyQuil, Comtrex (Sudafed), etc. I medicated her, and she was able to get a little bit of shut-eye. I was a little devastated, as the "big day" was going to turn out to be the "big flop". But, Danielle being the trooper, knew how important Flower Day was to me, so we did venture out to Detroit to get flowers. We didn't stay too long, just buying most of the staples: Begonias, Impatiens and Zinnia's (new this year for me). In the car on the way home, Danielle jokingly asked, "Baby, are you sad? Did I ruin your surprise of proposing to me at Eastern Market because I got sick?" What the heck? Is she psychic? Oh no! I casually replied, "No baby. I just had visions of us planting flowers all day today, and now you're sick. Pooooor me." "Don't worry. It's gonna be a fun day for us! I'll do as much planting as I can." Phew! A little distraction got her off the subject. She didn't even suspect. When we got home, I pulled out all the flats of flowers, and distributed them around the house. I also pulled out the gardening supplies and gloves. What are the chances that she puts on her OLD gloves? Well, that's what she did. Shit! Plan B. After planting for a while, we decided to take a break. Danielle was actually feeling pretty sick, so she went inside to get out of the sun. At that point, I swapped gloves and put the ring into her OLD gloves... When we got back outside, it just didn't feel right. Josh was outside in the driveway, and my neighbor, John was also visiting. At the LAST MINUTE, as Josh was pulling down the driveway, I nonchalantly suggested that she try on her NEW gloves (remember, the ring is now in the OLD gloves). Timing is everything. She heeded the advice and tried on the new gloves. Dammit! At this point, I just gave up. Fate wins... But wait... Perseverence overtakes fate... Danielle was actually feeling 500% better, and I started feeling like the timing was almost perfect: she was more into it, she felt healthier, Flower Day felt like Flower Day... it was time... now or never. While my neighbor, John, was talking to Danielle, I invoked Plan C: I took one of the flower identification tags out of one of the flats and cut a notch in it in the garage. I took the ring out of my pocket that I grabbed out of the OLD gloves and hung it on the tag. I then placed the tag back into the flowers. Danielle did not suspect a thing. Miraculously, John's timing was perfect. He left right when Danielle was getting ready to plant the Zinnias. There were a total of 36 Zinnias... two flats of 18 flowers each. Out of all the flowers to pick from, Danielle grabbed the one with the ring hanging from the tag, removed the plastic holder, and stuck into the ground: ring, tag and all. I almost swallowed my tongue, "Ummm... you better be a little careful with that one." Danielle thought I was referring to its fragility. She still didn't see the ring, and pulled out the tag like she normally does. Uknownst to her, there was an engagement ring hanging from the tag. Still, she did not know what was really there (she thought it was a charm that the little old lady that sold us the flowers put on the tag). Then she turned the tag around, and at the same time she noticed the diamond, she read, "Will you marry me? I love you!" I was already on both knees, as we were both planting. I turned to her, raised one knee, and asked her if she'd marry me. She said YES!!!! What a day! Plan A, Plan B, and finally Plan C paid off! The rest of the day was total delight and bliss, as we started letting our immediate family know. It was one of the happiest days I've ever experienced in my life. ...and we're still riding the wave... posted by Dino at 5:14 PM (permanent link) Thursday, May 22, 2003
The Non-Disclosure Agreement I know I haven't updated this in a few days. I'm eager with anticipation for the NDA to be lifted. Bear with me. It's been an incredible week filled with bliss, smiles and joy. The events of this week are the only thing on my mind right now, which is why my journal has been lame. I can't wait to reveal the news. posted by Dino at 1:18 AM (permanent link) Monday, May 19, 2003
Sunday, May 18, 2003 What a great day! Danielle actually got sick the night before (fever, sore throat, etc.), but she was a trooper and we went to Detroit and picked up some flats of flowers. We even planted the majority of the flowers, but there's still a few more areas that will need some more. Despite Danielle's ailment, it was a great day! More will follow! Beating a Dead Horse This will be the last time that I talk about my roommate's utter lack of respect for cleanliness. I think I've beat this dead horse enough... Danielle and I came home late last night. We were making some rounds to friends and family. In the kitchen, I noticed drops of what looked like mud. We were planting flowers all day, so I figured it was me that accidentally left mud drops on the floor. Closer inspection revealed that the properties of the drops were not of sand, silica and dirt, but actually of cocoa and cream. I opened the garbage can and noticed a large Baskin Robbins cup with melted chocolate ice cream coating its walls. Conclusion: as Josh was eating his chocolate sundae with his utter lack of respect for neatness and cleanliness, his sundae was dripping on the kitchen floor! Since dirt and scum are invisible to him, he failed to clean up his slop! Does it surprise you that carpenter ants come into my house hunting for food? Can you believe that Josh is the epitome of "agnostos", which is the Greek word for unaware? This is the typical lifestyle that I've had to endure for six plus years! So, like always, I cleaned up his mess. posted by Dino at 9:02 AM (permanent link) Saturday, May 17, 2003
Flower Day Is Almost Here! On a lighter note, tomorrow is Flower Day! It's the Sunday after Mother's Day where all the flower distributors and wholesalers rent out space at the Eastern Market, located almost in the heart of Detroit. Normally Eastern Market is dedicated to the traditional market shoppers that want the freshest produce and meats available. Most of the fruit and vegetable markets usually procure their week's supply down at the Eastern Market. However, tomorrow is dedicated to just flowers. Danielle and I are going to spend a few hours there, picking up flats of Impatiens, Begonias, Geraniums, and etc. at wholesale prices. Usually flats cost between $12 - $18 depending on where you get them. During Flower Day, you can get flats as low as $6 depending on how well your bartering skills are tuned. We'll spend the rest of the day planting flowers, preceded by a dallop of sheep manure and peat moss to give the flowers a boost. It's an annual tradition that I've done since I first owned my house. It's very relaxing and the rewards are bountiful. I'll take pictures. :) posted by Dino at 5:27 PM (permanent link) Disclaimer My animosity about Josh's problem being a tidy, clean person is directed toward Josh the Roommate, not Josh my Friend. Remember the Pile?! Remember that pile of mud and dirt I swept up and left in a pile in the middle of the kitchen? That pile remained there for days. Like I said before, dirt is invisible to this bottom feeder. Not only did I leave his pile of dirt in the middle of the kitchen, last night I leaned the broom next to the sink with it's butt into the dirt pile. Did he sweep up his mess? What do you think? He's an ass. He ignored it altogether. Redemption This morning when he was gone, I couldn't take it anymore. Looking at that pile of shit in the middle of the kitchen just reminded me what a dirty slob-of-a-man Josh is. He's the epitome of a Health Department Thesis on how NOT to live. So, I swept up his f'ing dirt and just deposited it in the middle of his room. Do you think he'll notice it now? Probably not. I'll keep everybody updated on his anti-tidiness and invisible-dirt disorder. posted by Dino at 5:18 PM (permanent link) Friday, May 16, 2003
Disclaimer My animosity about Josh's problem being a tidy, clean person is directed toward Josh the Roommate, not Josh my Friend. Roommate Contributions Total time I spent cleaning, organizing, tidying: 20 hrs Total time Josh spent cleaning, organizing, tidying: 0.5 hrs Total cost of cleaning supplies that I bought: $80.00 Total cost of cleaning supplies that Josh bought: $0.00 Total time I spent on my hands and knees cleaning: 2 hrs Total time Josh spent on his hands and knees cleaning: 0 hrs Total time Josh has ever been on his hands and knees cleaning: 0 hrs Total time Josh has spent cleaning in six years: 2 hrs House Cleanliness and Josh I toiled for 3.5 hours prior to the arrival of the potential home buyers making last-minute preparations for the home viewing. I spent half that time completely cleaning the kitchen floor first with ammonia, then with Mr. Clean, and finally with Mop & Glo. The Mop & Glo added a slight sheen that makes the floor look marvelous. When Vanessa got to my house and quickly walked through it she stated, "Wow, dude. Your house looks awesome! It smells so clean!" That was nice to hear from Vanessa because she is a clean freak and has often made comments on the piss-poor upkeep of my home. It's a no-win situation living with a roommate that feels the only thing he has to contribute is wiping his own ass. Try living with Josh. It's easy to clean up after yourself, but to clean up after a two-year old "pig-pen" is difficult. He's going to have a really rough time when he's out on his own. He's either going to have to pay a maid service to come in and clean up after him, or he's going to have to buy a Geisha girl from foreignwivesforsale.com. A Nun Could Eat Off the Floor... Until Josh Got Home The floors were so clean, a nun could eat off of them. That's the truth. The house really has never, ever been this clean. I was actually quite proud. I was also anticipating that Josh would appreciate my efforts and try to pick up after himself. Yeah, right! This morning when I was getting ready to leave for work, I was walking around bare-foot, which has been pretty rare living in the "house of skank". I couldn't believe it! I was stepping on globs of dried up mud and gravel! Can you believe it!?!?!? I spent so much time and energy cleaning the f'ing floor! Josh just waltzed into the house, tracking in mud, dirt and crud into the kitchen. He didn't even take the time to clean it up!! But then again, why would he? Dirt, mud, crap, and disorder are invisible to Josh. So this morning, before leaving for work, I swept up the mud and dirt and left it in a pile in the middle of the kitchen. I wonder if he's going to notice it? The sad thing is he probably won't, or he'll think that I tracked in the mud. What I should have done is swept it up and put it in his bed. If that happened, though, he'd try to be a hero and try something a little physical. He's 0-30 in our childhood brawls and wrestling matches. He'd be 0-31 after this. More Disorder You think it ends there? No way. The spare bedroom has been a holding pen for his shit. He has two bags of clothes that have been sitting in there for almost a year. How hard is it to call the Salvation Army or just drive there to drop the bags off? He also bought a down comforter a few years ago and feels he can just throw it into any room and just leave it there. The spare bedroom was 100% free of disorder for the home viewing. After I woke up this morning, I wanted to check out the spare bedroom as it should look all the time. Guess what? The unused down comforter was back again, sitting in a heap on top of the bed. I wonder how much longer it will take for the rest of his junk to end up there, as well as all over the house? I bet it will just be a few days, since disorder, cleanliness and dirt are invisible to him. I can't wait to sell the house and move. I'm a clean person. I despise disorder. Everything has a place. posted by Dino at 9:51 AM (permanent link) Thursday, May 15, 2003
Creatures of the Night... Coined from the movie, Lost Boys, "You're a creature of the night, Michael...", I can't help but to refer to these vile, flying tanks as "creatures of the night". Thay may not be blood-sucking vampires, but these disgusting insects sure earn that name with me. These creatures of the night start out as gross, squirmy, squishy, putid devourers of grass roots. Stick a shovel into any decent, fertile lawn and you'll probably dig up at least a few of these things that start out as grubs. In the insect world, many insects start out in a larval stage. The butterfly, for example, starts out as a squirmy caterpiller, but soon metamorphoses into a beautiful, flying masterpiece. There's even moths that go through a similar metamorphosis. Junebugs are different. These disgusting creatures are bottom-feeders. They are born in the dirt, eat dirt and probably their own feces, and eventually metamorphose into satanic flying tanks. Only second behind wasps, I despise Junebugs. These things move only at night and are drawn to light. Shine a light directly at them and their beady phosphorescent eyes reflect the light right back at you. They feature a hard carapase that's split down the middle to protect their fragile wings, and when in flight emit a low-frequency buzz that makes me howl just thinking about it. I can hear these things coming at least a mile away. Because they are so stupid, you'll often times find them upside-down, squirming on their backs trying to upright themselves because they crashed into a wall in mid-flight. If you're unfortunate to catch a few in their flight-path, you'll discover these satanic armored helicopters stick to hair and clothing. I'm getting squeemish just thinking about it. When these satanic whirlwinds cross MY flightpath, they get tortured. I'll either amputate a wing or two, cut off their legs, or simply toast them with a propane torch until they pop. If I had a choice to walk through a swarm of Junebugs or a field filled with Rattle Snakes, I'd choose the latter, hands down. Junebugs are out, and in full force. Do civilization a favor and toast one tonight. Sidenote: One of the best things I've ever seen in my life is a Junebug-Eating Cat. I met her while Mitch and I were scuba diving in Cozumel around April, 2000. This cat ruled! I'm surprised that I was even walking around at night with Junebugs on the prowl, but these things were Mexican, so they tended to be a little slower than the ones in Michigan. The ones I encountered that night were mostly on their backs, unable to get up. My Junebug-eating friend FEASTED on those creatures-of-the-night. Check her out in action here. See the entire pic/video gallery of our Cozumel trip here. posted by Dino at 1:15 AM (permanent link) Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Dino's Butler Service After spending the entire afternoon and evening last night cleaning and tidying the interior and exterior of the house, the least I'd expect from Josh is to take out some garbage. Plus, since he has only taken out the garbage twice this year, along with the fact that he had to walk over a full garbage bag, I figured he would have contributed something. To be frank, he contributes nothing to the regular day-to-day household chores. It's a severe character flaw and he once said, "Once in a while, I get into bouts of tidiness and cleanliness". I have yet to see it. Weekly Household Chores Breakdown Here's a breakdown of the household chores done by each of us over the past seven years: ...........................Yearly Average............................. ......Chore........................Dino...............Josh........... Vacuuming........................24.................Never......... Dishwasher-empty & fill......50....................2............. Clean Counter...................52.................Never.......... Clean Stovetop..................26.................Never.......... Clean Kitchen Floor...........26.................Never.......... Clean Kitchen Table..........26.................Never........... Dusting/Polishing..............13.................Never........... Take out trash...................50....................2.............. Clean Bathroom.................24...................2.............. Clean own room.................52...................2.............. Clean Josh's Fish Tank.......20...................2.............. Lawn cut/Snow shovel.........52................Never.......... General Tidiness.................52................Never.......... posted by Dino at 9:42 AM (permanent link) Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Prepping the House to Sell I'm beat! Prepping a house for viewing by a potential buyer is hard. Shit just piles up over the years. My new motto is that if something isn't used for a year, it must pass the "will I use it next year" rule. If it doesn't, it's trash. Case in point: five old rims and tires from my Jeep. I was saving these... for what, I don't know. Perhaps I had visions of buying a beater Jeep and fixing it up. Who am I kidding? I don't even have time to keep my own Jeep running, let alone starting another project Jeep. Ebay those suckers!? Shit. At most I'd get $20/wheel. Is it worth the $100 to go to a tire store, take the tires off, pay their recycling fee of $3/tire, take the wheels to a shipper, buy five wheel boxes and ship them out? Heavens no! Who am I kidding? The wheels/tires were trash-bound. Free Shit Case Study I could probably gather up a bushel of dried up dog turds, put them on my curb in a box, and throw up a label that says, "Free shit. Please Take Me!", and the box would be gone in a few hours. I put the wheels out on my curb, stapled a sign that said, "Free" on my tree, and waited. The wheels were gone in 12 minutes! The garbage picker that picked them up was a career-picker. He was driving around his '77 Nova toting a trailer. I wonder if he's going to put the Jeep wheels on his Nova? Pretty cool if he did. House Cleaning Fetish I pretty much concentrated on the outside of the house today, and I'll do the interior tomorrow. The patio took me over an hour to summerize. I swept up a gross of roofing nails and a few miscellaneous roofing tiles, and removed a winter's worth of fall leaves. The patio looks really inviting. I can't wait to hand up some baskets. I then wallowed to the front and finished off edging and pruning trees and bushes. I'm still not done. The front is beginning to look semi-presentable. It actually saddens me that I want to sell the house. I then hit the front and back lawns with liquid Ortho Weed Killer, to abort any dandelion fetuses that might be past conception. I followed up with a new thing for me: Liquid Iron! I read somewhere that iron makes your lawn a deeper green. I figure I'd give it a shot and see what happens. I then hit the dreaded "side of the garage", where I used to have a nice strawberry patch. Strawberries come out in June, but this year, my lazy neighbor's crabgrass got legs and found some fertile soil on the other side of his fence. I hate crabgrass! Have you ever seen crabgrass roots? They're a heinous organic white and they don't really shoot straight down-- they like to travel sideways. Whenever I pull crabgrass, I'm always thinking that I'm creating crabgrass abortions since I dig DEEP for those bastards. And why the hell don't Junebug larve eat crabgrass instead of Kentucky Bluegrass? There's a shitload of crabgrass on the side of my garage. The Junebugs could go to town with that salad bar. I'd almost be willing to engineer a Junebug that only eats crabgrass roots... almost... since I hate Junebugs. Finally, I hit the driveway with the hose, and cleared out all the cracks from decades worth of mud, dirt and cigarette butts. It's looking really nice now. Sidenote: Josh finally cleaned up his aquarium supplies (required prompting with a note) and made his junk look a little tidier. He even threw away some of his saltwater aquarium seaweed that was sitting in a bucket since 1997. I've grown calloused to living with a human that is the antithesis of "tidy". I better not get started, as I could write a thesis about the lifestyle my resident "feces manufacturing plant- nothing more, nothing less". He's a good guy, though: low emotional maintenance and low house traffic. Sidenote #2: Too bad Josh doesn't buy this house. It would save all of us a plethora of hassle and headache. It would make life easier on everybody! Coolest thing is that I could pay HIM rent, while Danielle and I looked for a house. He wouldn't have to find a new place and move his Tomorrow: The interior. posted by Dino at 10:41 PM (permanent link) Monday, May 12, 2003
The Decoma Move... All Good Things Always Come to an End I remember a few years ago when I had to move from Decoma Exterior Systems Engineering (ESE) to the Decoma Development Center (DDC). I was terrified. Decoma ESE is the headquarters of Decoma North America. It's considered one of the wonders of the engineering world. I was so worried... "What would happen to me...?", "Will I be forgotten...?", "I'm going from Engineering to Shop Management... what the heck am I doing...?". After a few months at DDC, my worries disappeared. It was an AWESOME place to work, mainly because of the people. The atmosphere at DDC (now SVE DC) is nothing less of a "family" atmosphere. It's houses a close-knit group of fabricators that function more like a finely-tuned ant colony, where everybody knows exactly what to do. There are no "politics" at the Development Center. There are no gripes. HR issues are non-existent. In the summer, it's not uncommon to have one or two BBQ's, sporting everything from steaks to chicken. Just recently, we started celebrating birthdays every month, with authentic home-cooked Mexican Cuisine by our resident mother, Maria. Let's not forget about full shop access. This, I'm going to miss. I had full access to lifts, tools, presses, machine shop, as well as a full-blown paint facility. On top of that, I also had the expertise of several fabricators that were all more than willing to extend a helping hand. I also set up the internal network (not the easiest thing to do with Qwest's rinky-dink Cisco Routers), as well as the Nokia VPN Switch, so I was considered the IT King of the facility. I ran the show over here. At ESE, I'll be just a measly user. Oh the fun of managing the entire SEMA Vehicle build... damn, I'm going to miss that! Imagine calling up Warn, ARB, Skyjacker, Sparco, AEM, NOS, Holley, BFGoodrich, or any other automotive aftermarket supplier and getting free shit! One call, and I could have a $1500 winch shipped priority overnight... or get a set of BFGoodrich Mud Terrains... all for free. Bummer. I'll be losing a NICE front office! Big BUMMER. I could look out my window and watch the grass grow, or watch the local city geese migrate from Taylor to Troy. I could also watch our local resident rabbit hop between our building and the building across the street. Bummer. It'll be a sad move for me, since I'll be losing touch with my close-knit family of the Development Center. But, on a positive side, I will be getting my own office. I'm really going to miss the Development Center. I'm bummed. posted by Dino at 12:27 PM (permanent link) Friday, May 09, 2003
Friday Things are a little slow around here. Most of the people at Mopar and DCX PVO seem to all be gone for some reason. My phone isn't ringing off the hook. The SRT-10 Spoiler is being run at Pinnacle in Bowling Green, OH, and the Mopar PT Cruiser Ground Effects tools are in Canada. Nothing really needs immediate action from me right now. Slow days like this help remind me of the long-ass hours I put in when things are amok. Last year, the whole summer seemed to disappear before my eyes because of SEMA. I was working some long hours last summer. Did anybody notice? Probably not. Will someone notice if I bug out of hear a few hours early? Probably. That's one of the things that really sucks about working for Decoma. There's no overtime. There's bonuses. Last year, and a few years prior, I worked for the Director of Operations. He knew I busted my ass, even though he wasn't around at 8PM or 10PM when I was still here at work. He was very fair over the years. Now I work for the Vice President of Decoma Specialty Vehicle Engineering (SVE). He doesn't know what I do day to day. I see him probably once a week, and that's generous. He's the antithesis of a micro-manager, which is pretty nice. I wonder what my bonus and raise will be this year? I bust my hump daily, and the only one that notices is yours truly. He seems like a fair guy, and actually gave me a slight rasie when I made my lateral move from Decoma ESE. He really didn't have to give me anything, but he did... and he had to bend over backwards to get Accounting to make the changes. Hopefully he'll be just as fair come bonus time in August. "An honest day's work for an honest day's pay..." If that's the credo for the day, then I probably deserve a total of $5.00-- before taxes. posted by Dino at 12:07 PM (permanent link) Thursday, May 08, 2003
Blog Templates If you're reading this, and it's not the first time, you'll notice that I finally figured out how to incorporate my own template with my Blog. It really wasn't a big deal. The main reason I was having problems earlier is because I was getting way too advanced and technical for my own good. I was trying to get the template to create a new table (with the green header) for each different day of Blogs. There's obviously some limitations with the Blog code. I just decided to keep it simple. I think it looks great. Not sure I like the orange on the left, but it is a very tasty contrast. Now I just need to deal with the style sheets and get the color of the dates and rollover effects to match a little better. Exterior Work I spent the entire late afternoon and evening working outside. I bought a battery powered mini hedger to trim up my Pon Pon bushes. Using my huge extension-corded hedger is just a pain in the butt, since the blade is too long and hard to deal with the "sculpting" process. The thing held up for a long time. I totally hedged both of my Pon Pon bushes, and each one has five "balls". They turned out pretty good... I might do a little more "sculpting" this weekend. While working out in the yard, I inspected the "high-risk" corner that the Orkin guy pointed out to me that was "leaking". The roof doesn't leak, but I did notice that the brick mortar was pretty much corroded with pits and opening. Further inspection revealed about three of the larger Carpenter Ants making an exodus away from my house. I actually saw them come right out of these holes in the mortar. Fuck! At least they were LEAVING and not ENTERING. I went back to my local Dammon and bought some of the powder Boric Acid ant killer. Each hole got a nice squirt of my abortion maker. I also purchased some cement patch and pretty much went to town on the whole house. Damn! I spent hours out there today filling tiny pits that somehow found their way into my mortar. There were so many, I'm surprised the house hasn't collapsed. At least now I have a good idea on how the ants were getting into the house. And I think that the queen might not even be residing in my house. Perhaps she just lives under the slab. I couldn't believe how many "doorways" of busted mortar I found around the house. The whole back side of my house took me at least an hour to patch up. Even my south wall needed some patch work. And I discovered that under the side entrance door, the some of the concrete had corroded away, revealing the footer. Shit! That wood was wasted! I now realized why I have hundreds of spiders and other insects hanging out in my house. I patched the fuck out of that footer, completely covering it with concrete. I don't think that there's any other openings into my house. I think I have my insect problem licked. The main question I have now is where do the insects go that were in between the outside of my house and the inside of the brick? I guess if they can't get out, they might look for an exit inside. We'll see how that goes. At least now I feel pretty confident that my insect problem will be resolved. posted by Dino at 10:35 PM (permanent link) Dammon Hardware I took a stroll to my local Dammon Hardware Store around the corner from my house to buy some garden chemicals- crabgrass killer, dandelion killer, vegetation killer, rose anti-fungal stuff, and a few other things. I was mostly looking for Diazanon- the garden insecticide that has been banned by the federal government. I was hoping to pick up the last scraps of this stuff since we can no longer buy it. If the government is banning it, I figure it's gotta be good! I wanted to stock up on it! I'm not sure why they've banned it, but after doing a little research, the next best chemical is only 10% as effective! Rats! At least I have two jugs of this stuff from last year. I'm gonna have to really ration this stuff. Even the Orkin guy suggested that I use that as a perimeter barrier around my house, since even their current barrier protector isn't as good as Diazanon. Oh well. Go figure. While there, I also noticed that they had 500% more Carpenter Ant insecticides than any other store I checked- Meijers, Target, Walmart, etc. I was actually impressed with their selection. I also noticed that they also had the same powder that Orkin was spraying into my walls and attic, as well as the goop that they spread in the cracks under my sink. I priced the stuff out, and it would have cost me about $25 to load myself with the same aersenal that Orkin brought over just the other day. I'm such a sap! I paid $275 for a sales guy to tell me that my roof was leaking (remember, I got a brand new, high-dollar roof back in 2001) and for a field technician to spend 30 minutes doing what I could have done. Do I feel better that I had a professional company come out to rid me of Carpenter Ants? No. At least I know now what to do- drill a few holes, inject some powder, squirt some goop between some cracks, and spray around the perimeter of the house. Anybody else have Carpenter Ant issues? I'll come out to your house and do what Orkin would do for only $125... that's more than half off! If anybody is interested, let me know. Shit, I'll do it for free, as long as you help me move in a few months. :) Live and learn. Carpenter Ant Insecticide Active Ingredients In case anybody has ever wondered what type of chemicals I have floating around in my house, here it is... The powder that was injected into my walls was nothing more than flour, powdered sugar and boric acid. The goop that went into the cracks was also nothing else than a clear sugar paste with boric acid. The spray around the perimeter was nothing more than citric acid. I'm such a sap. posted by Dino at 3:17 AM (permanent link) Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Orkin Comes Out Wow. What a waste of money! The field technician that came out today was sooooo down-to-earth... quite a difference between the hard-seller that came out yesterday. This guy knew his stuff. He actually scoffed the whole Orkin sales staff, and gave me some insider info. First off, the sales guy gets a cut from the yearly contract of $275 + $77 every other month ($737 for the year). The field tech also gets a cut, but only for the day's service. They each get $25 for today's $275 service. The sales guy gets his cut for the entire year. If (and when) I cancel, the sales guy gets a charge-back... the field tech told me that they get pissed when that happens. I'm glad. I didn't want a hard sell. I didn't want wasp protection or termite & flea protection. I didn't want June Bug and mosquito prevention (though the june bug thing sounded tempting). I just wanted some empathy for my Carpenter Ant dilema. The sales guy failed to impress me. The field tech did impress me with his candor, knowledge, and insider Orkin info. So, what did I get for $275? Not much! He dusted a little in the basement laundry room in between the flooring. He probably only drilled two or three holes into the drywall and dusted behind the stove and dishwasher. He dusted a little in the attic, but probably only to appease me, since he told me there was NO moisture in the attic whatsoever (no kidding... it's a brand new roof). He then squirted some goop under the bathroom sink and under the kitchen sink... no different than the goop I've been using for the last month. He then sprayed some Diazanon "wanna be' pesticide (Diazanon is now being discontinued in the US... it's replacement has 10% of the punch) around the perimeter of the house... he actually asked me if I had actual Diazanon, which would work better. He killed a few wasp nests, sprayed some of the gutters, and sprayed my mailbox. Was it worth $275? I can't believe that the Better Business Bureau hasn't busted up this sham of an organization called Orkin. People actually pay for pest prevention/elimination... I guess like me. We'll see if this dusting in the walls will do the trick. I doubt it. posted by Dino at 5:56 PM (permanent link) Orkin and my Ants Why does every service in life turn into a sales-pitch? I had Orkin come to my house yesterday afternoon to do a "home inspection". I think the guy doing the inspection new more about selling than he did about the house-destruction habits of the typical Carpenter Ant. I thought the inspection process would consist of fiber-optic cameras peeking into walls and floors looking for these Carpenter Ant apartments. All he did was look my house layout and point out where my roof may be leaking. I have a brand new roof... it doesn't leak and neither did my old roof. The long and short of it: $275 for the initial dusting and $77 every other month for maintenance... all signing a year contract. I'm not even going to be here for a year. I'm outta here in three months, hopefully less. I was told that I can transfer the plan to the new owner. Whoa! Who on earth would buy a house knowing that the Orkin Man was a monthly guest? I wouldn't! With Orkin Man reluctance, I insisted the modification of the contract to a "pay as you go" contract, meaning I can cancel any time. Even after I TOLD him I was moving in three months, the Orkin Man still tried to "hard sell" the year plan. Well, they're coming today at 4:30pm to do the first application. They actually drill into the dryway and dust pesticide into the walls, ceilings and floors. They also spray around the house, and clean up all other insects in the house (I have about 5,000 spider egg sacks all over my basement). For $275, I hope they're at my house for at least four hours. Wish me luck. BTW, I did notice a "large worker drone" in my basement today. These guys can travel up to 100 yards from the nest (I'm now an expert with the Genus Camponotus). Why this drone is in the basement perplexes me. Perhaps my whole house is infected. I hope Orkin comes through. posted by Dino at 8:31 AM (permanent link) Monday, May 05, 2003
Carpenter Ants This saga still continues. I finally bit the bullet and called Orkin. They're coming out today at 2:15pm. Hopefully they can end this cancerous thorn in my side once and for all. Here's some info on these grotesque creatures: Carpenter Ant: Genus Camponotus Appearance: Among the largest ants, from one-fourth to three-eighths inch long; most common species is black, but some have reddish or yellowish coloration; workers have large mandibles. Habits: Normally nest in dead portions of standing trees, stumps or logs, or burrow under fallen logs or stones; invade homes in search of food; nests inside homes can do great damage; hollow out "galleries" in wood that are so smooth they appear to be sandpapered. Diet: Do not eat wood; will feed on nearly anything people eat, particularly sweets and meats; also feed on other insects. Reproduction: Queen lays 15 to 20 eggs the first year, and up to 30 eggs the second year; eggs complete their life cycle in about 60 days; worker ants can live up to seven years, while a queen may live up to 25 years. Other Information: All kinds of houses, regardless of age or type of construction, are vulnerable to infestation and damage by carpenter ants; very difficult to control; colonies can contain up to 3,000 workers. posted by Dino at 1:16 PM (permanent link) Friday, May 02, 2003
Our Server Got Hacked Yup. That's right. Our server got hacked. I spent a few hours going through our server directories, and it looks like I've pin-pointed most of the rogue files. It appears as most of the breach happened to our main domain, filias.com. My domain, dinofilias.com resides as a subdirectory on that domain. A simple shell.php was not the only rogue file on our system. We did experience malicious damage, though minor, with our company site, www.filias.com. The malicious hacker replaced our index.html file with a new one. Our main index file was replaced with an html file that simply read, "Sluth@DAL.net". I'm pretty sure that our breach was caused by a vulnerability with the album.pl file. But I'm not 100% sure. I think it was a coincidence that the only thing that saved www.dinofilias.com from malicious destruction was Peter rebooted the server about the same time that a hacker was taking control of our server. All our sites were down around 11AM on 4/29/03, which was about the time that Peter did a hard reboot. Some of the files that were added to our server, on multiple directories were: uclist.txt, shell.php, sluth.html, and a new index.html. For some reason, the hackers weren't able to overwrite my index file on dinofilias.com. I'm hoping that all the breaches have been contained and that there's no more shell.php files floating around somewhere on our server. posted by Dino at 9:53 PM (permanent link) My Photo Albums On April 28, 2003, I got a distribution email from Mike Bobbit, the writer of the photo album software, that hackers have exploited a weakness within the album.pl file. I should heeded his warning. A few days later, I got a personal email from him stating the same. He was rightfully concerned, since my photo albums are listed as the second "benchmark" albums on his site. So last night, I FTP'ed into my site, to add the fix to the album.pl file. Once I got in, I noticed a few "rogue" files that I did not place on my server. There was a directory called "bnc" with a php shell command that allowed a hacker to basically do anything they wanted to my server, including deleting files. I also noticed a text file, that set up permissions to the server that bypassed any authentication to the server. I basically shit my drawers, since I have put several hundred hours into dinofilias.com... maybe more with all the photos and videos. Therefore, to be safe, I deleted all the rogue files (Peter helped with this via telnet, since some of the files I couldn't even delete), and I also disabled the entire album application. Thinking back to a few days ago, I do remember a user from the Netherlands attempting to get a login to the BB. The nice thing about album.pl is that it ties into the BB authentication. However, album.pl is a little weak, since it only looks to see if there's a member in the member database... it does not look to see if they have been granted access to post. So this A-hole actually uploaded an image, even without BB clearance. I just deleted the picture, and deleted his unapproved user account. I hope dinofilias.com is the only domain that was affected. However, I think with the files that the hacker uploaded, he could have had control over the whole server. Scary, since we have customers that reside on our server. I tried applying the fix to the album.pl file, but for some reason, the perl file wouldn't execute... the browser would think that the file is trying to be downloaded. I'm not sure if this is a server-wide problem, or a problem with the fix. Therefore, I'm going to install album.pl version 6.2, which is going to take me a looooooong time, since I have to mess with new templates and new css files. I'm pissed. If I didn't have a job, and I was rich, I would dedicate my life to finding this person. If I found this person's address, I would make a trip to the Netherlands and hunt him down like an animal. Unfortunately, I have a job, and a vigilant trip to the Netherlands isn't in my life plan. Hopefully I removed all the rogue files and the site is secure. I will need to apply the fix to www.techtau.com, since that album is currently unprotected. The only thing that is saving me right now is that site is pretty much private, but it probably won't be long before it get's hacked. I guess I have some work ahead of me. posted by Dino at 8:39 AM (permanent link) Thursday, May 01, 2003
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