Right out of Dilbert...

So here we are, the four of us, sitting in my boss' office. The meeting was called to fine tune details of a multi-phase project that we are trying to get approved. It will give us full redundant power, new environmental controls and some other items desperately needed in the Data Center.

I guess the first thing you need to understand is that, as Project Manager, I was just brought into this project recently. The second thing is that, no matter how hard he tries, my boss does not understand electrical loading and proves it frequently. During a meeting a couple weeks ago, we were discussing what all was entailed in putting this new electrical system in. The electrician laid out all the equipment he was going to need to put in. Having experience in power distribution for amp racks, cameras, lighting and other goodies, I quickly recognized a problem. We were about to embark on putting two very large transformers into the same room as our sensitive equipment, servers, switches and such. These items like clean stable power and are do not like to be exposed to stray electromagnetic interference and heat. These two transformers are basically huge wire wound magnetic fields generators that produce enough heat to fry your breakfast. We won't even get into the noise switching gear that goes in with them to kick everything over to the generators in the event of power failure. Let's just call putting all this stuff in the Data Center space "a bad idea at best".

At this point, I'll let you in another little fact. There is an office in the Network Services space just outside the Data Center. There has been noone put into this office since it was vacated by its previous tenant. This has been because of not wanting to have any one Network Services employee be given prefernce over the other (also known as preventing bad feelings). As the equipment was spelled out on the white board before us, I immediately sensed impending doom from two fronts. The first being: "Where the heck is all this stuff going to fit in an already crowded Data Center?" Secondly, and no less important: "What kind of heat and interference are we going to inject into the room with this equipment?" We are already doubling the size of the air handler to a 20 ton unit.

My brain immediately clicks on a solution that will fix our power equipment concerns AND solve the problem with who gets that spare office. "Put all this gear in the spare office." I state, almost like I knew what I was doing. "Its wall is the outside block wall of the Data Center, making it the perfect place for an Electrical Room." Bells and whistles go off. Lights begin to flash and the room is abuzz with chatter as everyone agrees that would solve all our issues. Heat, Electromagnetic Noise, Radio Frequency Interference and Vibration all become non-issues as the room is on building ventilation and its outside the concrete walls of the Data Center, yet close enough to meet codes and wiring requirments.

Back to today's meeting. We are going over the details again. The project now has gone from replacing the HVAC Unit and some wiring to a full five, yes count 'em five, phases. My boss proclaims in a very loud voice "I'm glad I thought of using that office as an electrical room!" I didn't say a word. I didn't have to. The electrician and the guy that deals with our facilities both turned and looked right at me like "He stole your idea as his own!?" I guess these guys don't read Dilbert. I knew the boss would do that. It made him look like a genius to the directors because he was solving a bunch of issues with a room we already had built. HAHA! That's the way it goes. We all got a good chuckle out of it after he left the room.

Lunar Eclipse

Last night we had a lovely lunar eclipse. I thought at first we wouldn't be able to see it due to cloud cover. The clouds broke and the moon stayed clearly visible for about 2 hours. I took a lot of photos with my Canon Powershot 560 camera varying ISO and other settings just to see what kind of night pictures it took.

I had almost forgotten about the eclipse when the phone rang. It was Mom calling to ask if I'd seen the moon yet. I jumped outside real quick and found it to be way too cold to stand out without protection for my hands and feet. I went back in and put on some warmer clothes then grabbed the camera and tripod. I'm tinkering with Photoshop to throw a few of the images together to see the progression. I didn't get quite as many good pictures as i would have liked.

Dad found my telescope while they were cleaning out closets at their place. I should have brought it down to my place and taken the pictures through it. They would have come out much better. Oh well, live and learn. I really hadn't thought that we'd even be able to see the sky due to the expected cloud cover.

Some days ya just feel old

Did you ever have one of those days where you just feel old? Today is one of those days for me.

I was sitting at home messing around on the computer last night, when Mom informed me that an old family friend had passed away about 10:30pm. “Lilly” was 97. She had been one of my grandmother’s closest friends in later years. As we discussed Lilly’s last few years, it brought back memories of my grandmother just before she passed away. Just like Grandma, Lilly too had dementia which greatly affected her daily life. As the mind went away, the past became the present. Memories long laid dormant by age, suddenly sprang to life. With Grandma, it was the coal furnace. Any time she got cold, the coal must be running low in the furnace. Lilly had similar things that came to the forefront. Lilly had broken her hip recently and had been taken to a personal care home. Her health was never really the same after that. It seems that trauma to the body weakened the frail hold that the mind had on its current reality.

As we talked, I thought about things of the past. Have you ever been part of a church or local organization for a long period of time? You get to know the families of those involved. As the years pass, new people come and go, but there are always those certain individuals that remain part of the scene. It was this way at our church. Lilly was the last of my grandmother’s generation. In our discussion, we found that Clint is the only person remaining between Lilly and Mom/Dad’s generation. This realization was a bit rough for Mom, even more so, with her recent bouts with Cancer. As it is with everything, the old generation passes the torch to the next. I myself found myself feeling old.

I don’t think much about Grandma and Grandpa anymore. It’s been a long time since they passed away. Lilly’s passing has brought back memories, both happy and sad. I’ll go to the funeral home for calling hours and such. Our families have been friends for almost all of my 40 years. I know her family will miss her, but just like with my grandma, Lilly’s mind is now free from the confusion of the dementia. Her body is free from pain. She is now in a far better place.

Another weekend passes

This weekend was a long weekend due to President's Day. I work for a government contractor and they declared today a paid holiday. Almost any day to take off and still get paid, is as good a reason as any to avoid the office.

It turned out to be a nice weekend to get things done. I started out Saturday morning with getting the oil changed in the truck, washing the truck and getting my hair cut. I came home. Took a break, then headed off to clean the bathroom. I cleaned up the kitchen a little, emptying the dishwasher and loading up my soup bowls.

Sunday, I continued picking things up around the house. I took the afternoon off to go up to Mom and Dad's to watch the Daytona 500 in High Def on their new flat screen tv. I am still amazed at the brilliance of color and the amount of detail you can see. Fox did their typical funky job of broadcasting a race. They haven't quite got the hang of it yet. Camera mounts were shoddy, allowing the cameras to wiggle and bobble when the cars roared past. Shot direction was pourly chosen with a couple of occassions during the pre-show catching their own cameramen out of position or shooting other camerman who were goofing off. Hopefully, they will get it together in time.

I came home after the race. I spent an hour or so surfing the net while waiting for the new Knight Rider TV Movie to come on. I enjoyed the old Knight Rider and was interested to see how the new show went over. There have been multiple attempts, failures is more like it, to create new Knight Rider shows. This one seemed the best I've seen so far. The Mustang seemed to pull of KITT successfully. I'm not sure about Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT though. At times, his voice lost the steady, emotionless strength of a computer and became kind of wishy washy. Some of the new technologies onboard were pretty cool. The ananamorphic armor skin that was self-healing and could change color and features of the exterior of the car was interesting. We didn't get to see many more of KITT's weapons other than its anamorphic armor and its high speed mode. If the show becomes a series, it will be interesting to see how they shake KITT down.

The show ended and I came back to the computer to kill some time. I wasn't very tired and didn't feel like reading. I looked at my MySpace page and thought "Ya know, I don't even know if anyone looks at this thing anymore, but I'm getting tired of the eagle background." I proceded to come up with a Knight Rider themed page using the Mustang as the center piece. I ended up monkeying with photoshop until almost 2 in the morning. I finally came up with something I liked, although I still may redo KITT again. I blurred him to make him fit into the page better, but when I saved it to the profile, he came out too blurred. At 2 am, I was too tired to post the changes to my account, so I left the eagle fly one more night.

Today, Monday, I got up to freezing rain and snow, again. I poked around and posted the redone MySpace Profile. I spent the morning talking to a couple of friends. During one conversation, I got a good laugh. It turns out there appears to be a rumor out there of the demise of my single status. I assure you that this is NOT the case. I don't know where these rumors start. This one is a stretch at best. It gets even better since I'm not talking to the individual that I'm supposed to be getting hitched with. Oh well, just more fuel on the never ending fires of life.

I'll close here for tonight and see what tomorrow brings. I wouldn't be surprised to find more snow and ice.

Do Weather Guys Get Paid Well?

I'm sitting here this afternoon wondering something. Do weather people get paid well?

Yesterday, we had the freezing rain/sleet/snow deal. Last night before I went to bed, I intentionally took the time to watch the weather on the news. Two different stations both exclaimed that today would be sunny with no snow or rain and we should hit somewhere around 40 degrees.

I went over to the Post Office this morning. I found that it was snowing with a mixed in freezing mist. I did my running around and came home and it was still doing the same thing. Its now 3:35 in the afternoon. Its still gloomy out. I wish I could get paid good money to look at some computer screens and throw out a proverbial guess as to what the weather will do in the coming days.

I guess its a good day to curl up and read. I think that's what I'll do... Maybe later I'll go get drunk. That would be something new for a change.