Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

January

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Tuesday – 10 January 2023
Starting up again.

A new year has started. It has been good thus far. And really, that’s all one can ask for.

Stray Toasters

And, that’s a wrap.
(Which was almost “warp,” which would have been a totally different thing.)

Stray Toaster Central

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Friday – 04 September 2020
Just posting a few things that have caught my eye, from various corners of the Internet…

A Day in the Life

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Friday – 15 May 2020
For the past seven or eight weeks, my manager has held “check-in” meetings with my team. These meetings aren’t so much about day-to-day business; they are more light-hearted and casual – just making sure that we are all maintaining our sanity during quarantine and working remotely.

One of the things that my manager is big on is having our cameras on during meetings. He thinks, and I agree, that it fosters a level of openness, bolsters the sense of community, and helps focus on the people in the meeting rather than just having disembodied voices in your ear.

We – the various IT departments –  have been expanding our use of Microsoft Teams as a collaborative and communication tool over the past year. We are in the middle of actively migrating everyone else over from Skype to Teams. There have been a lot of training sessions that have gone along with this. A LOT.

Our Service Delivery team has also been providing less formal, more conversational sessions, highlighting some of the features of Teams and showing how different departments can make use of Teams to be more efficient and effective. One of the features that seems to be a hit with most users is the ability to either blur your background or to upload your own backgrounds to be used during video calls.

During our last check-in meeting, my manager casually threw out the idea of having us joining today’s meeting using a background that represented us or something we enjoyed. Everyone said, “Okay,” and went about the rest of our day.

Challenge: ACCEPTED

I spent some time over the past few days looking for a specific type of picture. I didn’t find anything that sang to me in the way that I hoped, but I kept looking. I wound up using a background I downloaded a few weeks ago, which still suited my purposes just fine.

And that is how I wound up dressed as Nick Fury – complete with scars, eyepatch, and overcoat – “sitting” in a S.H.I.E.L.D. conference room during today’s meeting.

I regret nothing.

#cosplayatwork #dressforthejobyouwant #LifeInIT #ajobaintnuthinbutwork

“All I know is that memory can be too much to carry…”

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Thursday – 17 January 2019
In my Instagram feed this morning, one company I follow posted a picture – over 100 years old! – of a rail line that passed through the town in which my father grew up and just shy of the town where my mother grew up. I decided to try and see if I could figure out where the picture was, by way of Google Maps. (Hint: I wasn’t quite, but I got close enough to sate my curiosity. 100 years is kind of a long time, after all.)

Something else happened however…

I wound up using Google Maps and Street View to “drive” down the road that I rode and drove on for decades to get to my grandparents’ house. It was interesting to see what was still the same and what had changed. In doing the math, I also realized that I hadn’t driven down that road since well before I moved out west. I followed the road all the way to the best view of the house that I could get. It was a nice nostalgic moment.

I “rode” further down the road, to find the house in which my mother grew up, but there was no Street View available for it.  I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised by that, though.

Still, I got to see a part of the country – and places that evoke a lot of good memories – that I haven’t been to in a very long time.

And that’s not a bad thing at all.

Midweek: Mother’s Day and Other Things

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Wednesday – 17 May 2017
Stuff and Things.

This past weekend was… busy. But also awesome. Saturday saw the usual ballet and swim morning routine. I missed the swim portion, as I was judging a game tournament. Then there was a little break – filled by running a couple of errands. Next, early dinner and dropping Team DiVa off at their grandparents’ house, so that Sara and I could see Utah Opera’s Don Giovanni. Again. (We saw the final dress rehearsal, with the little ladies, but went back Saturday for opening night.) I enjoyed the production. They updated the sets and costumes to place it in a noir setting. This changed a couple of scenes, but worked for me on the whole.

Sunday, was Mother’s Day.  Sara had been wanting to go to Spiral Jetty for a while and Golden Spike National Historic Site is just a (long) hop, skip, and a jump from there. Thus, we were up early to pick up DiVa and meet friends at Golden Spike and Spiral Jetty. The first time we went to Golden Spike, the locomotives were in the Engine House for the season; that was not the case this time. We arrived just before the Jupiter made its appearance.

About half an hour later, No. 119 rolled up.

The presentation that the rangers provided also informed us that the engines were fired differently: Jupiter is wood-fired, while No. 119 is coal-fired. You could also tell this from the way they smelled as they approached – Jupiter smelled like a camp fire, No. 119 smelled like a coal-burning oven.

 

After a while, we made the drive to Spiral Jetty. Fifteen miles. Forty minutes. Over bumpy dirt road. The water level was a little higher this time – still not up to the jetty, but only 20 or so yards away to splash pools and just past that to deeper water.

 

 

 

All in all, it was good weekend.

Stray Toasters

And that’s a wrap.

This is only a test

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Wednesday – 22 March 2017
Testing out connectivity between WordPress, JetPack, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

Nothing to see here, Citizen. Move along.

New Friday Thing

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Friday – 10 March 2017
Another work week comes to an end.

 

It was a pretty good week, in all. Things happened. Stuff, too.

I neglected to post – or, rather, elaborate on – something from last week: Sara! and I went to dinner at Table X, as a belated Valentine’s Day outing without Team DiVa.

Table X describes itself as:

We’re a restaurant run by three chefs. We’re going to prepare you thoughtful, honest food without the fussiness of fine dining. In fact, we’re going to give you a new casual dining experience, altogether. Again and again.

We had encountered these chefs’ cuisine last year, at a pop-up dinner done in conjunction with Utah Opera’s production of Tosca. That – along with the idea of there being a new casual dining restaurant both outside of downtown Salt Lake City and not too far from our home – informed Sara’s choice on places to try. The restaurant seats about 230 people, has an open design, and has an air that combines a modern look with a touch of industrial design.

For dinner, we selected the Chef’s Tasting Menu, comprised of five (5) courses:

  • Red Beet Curry
  • Cabbage Toast
  • Scallops,
  • Christiansen Farm Berkshire Pork, and
  • Pecan Tart with homemade Pecan Ice Cream

Let me start by saying that I was leery of a couple items on the menu: the Beet Curry and the “Cabbage Toast.” I am not a fan of beets, nor have I been since I was very young. And the idea of a “cabbage toast” was… intriguing, but set me a little on edge. However, as the Prince song said:

…but it was Saturday night,
I guess that makes it alright.
I said, ‘What have I got to lose?’

The curry was served with cauliflower florets. It was flavorful and not at all what I expected. Sara! commented that it as most likely because they were not pickled beets (like from a can), which I abhor. I happily ate the entire course.

Next up: Cabbage Toast. This was a house-made sourdough, topped with a kelp cream/butter and a red cabbage jam. My first thought, upon hearing “jam” was of a pulped, processed spread. I was wrong. This was… simply… cabbage. And it was excellently prepared; I ate almost all of it.

The next course was scallops. I was all-in for this one, as I love scallops, yet never seem to order them when we’re out. (That, and the fact that I have some issues with getting seafood in a landlocked state.) The scallop – singular – was topped with a small portion of ham. Added bonus: Sara! isn’t a huge fan of scallops, so she gave me at least half of hers. (WIN!)

Course Four was the pork loin. Again, I was happy to try this. And I wasn’t disappointed. It was served with celeriac and red cabbage. It was tender and juicy and just seasoned enough to extract and enhance the flavor of the meat. NOTE: At the beginning of dinner, Sara! asked if she could make a couple of substitutions, because she doesn’t eat pork. For this course, they brought her the Winter Vegetable Stew. It was presented with the vegetables in a bowl and the broth in a separate ramekin, poured at the table.

For the final course: Dessert! This was a slice of pecan tart, presented with house-made pecan ice cream. It was the perfect finish to the meal. Sweet. Sticky, yet somehow slightly crumbly. Just right.

In all, I was quite happy with the meal, the atmosphere, and the service. Our waitresses, Rikki and Haleigh (“HAY-lee”), were attentive and responsive to our requests. While not on the “let’s do this every week” I would gladly recommend dining there.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Catching up.

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Monday – 20 February 2017
Today is President’s Day in the U.S.

For my President’s Day #morningcoffee picture, I used Lex Luthor. Because I could.

Today was a slightly busier-than-planned day, but still very good. Team DiVa, after sleeping in until after 9:30 on Sunday morning, were up at 7:30 this morning – Diana decided to play with the Kindle, while Vanessa decided that crawling into our bed was her best option. (To be honest, I still appreciate getting kid cuddles when I can, as I know that they won’t last forever.)

After breakfast (cinnamon rolls!), it was a kind of lazy morning… until 10:30, when I got an email from work.

<sarcasm>
Yay.
</sarcasm>

So, I did what any diligent IT guy would do: I made like Kool Moe Dee and I went to work. I got there and looked at the system in question, only to find that there was nothing wrong. At. All.

*grblsnrkx*

Back home in time to surprise Team DiVa with a trip to the theatre to see The LEGO Batman Movie. It was a big hit. (Sara and I enjoyed it, too.) Back home again before heading up to Park City for…

…dinner with Liz, a high school classmate:

With Liz (photobomb by Maya)

We met at the Wasatch Brew Pub in Park City, where Liz and her family are staying this week. It’s the first time we’ve seen each other since high school graduation. We had a nice dinner and caught up a little bit on the last three decades. (Man, it really seems like a long time when you put it that way…)

Diana, Liz, and Vanessa

 

Liz, Maya, and Michael

 

Diana, Maya, and Vanessa

After dinner, said our goodbyes and headed back to Salt Lake City. We got little ladies ready for bed, took care of a couple of chores, I caught up on a couple episodes of The Flash, including one that I somehow missed about three weeks ago.

And that brings us to now.

Stray Toasters

Tomorrow comes soon, I should probably start considering hitting the rack.

Namaste.

Stuck On Stupid

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Thursday – 09 February 2017
I work in IT.

Granted it might not as grand an opening statement as ReBoot‘s “I come from the Net…,” but it  gets the point across.

I’ve been working on a server chassis and its resident blade servers for a while, getting it ready to move into production. I’ve been using wired keyboards and mice as the user interface. A week ago, I decided to bring one of my wireless keyboards from home – the keyboard has a built-in mouse and the space where I’m working on the chassis doesn’t have a lot of real estate that’s conducive to rolling a mouse around.

I brought the keyboard in last week and showed it to a coworker. It was at that point that I noticed the wireless dongle wasn’t in its storage slot in the battery compartment.

See that empty spot, just to the left of the left battery…?

I’ve spent the past week looking for it  – at the office, at our manufacturing facility, at home. No dice. This morning, I emptied out my work laptop case to make sure that it hadn’t somehow fallen into one of the pockets. I didn’t find the dongle, but I did find my library card, my membership card to Red Butte Garden, and a few other things. (Not really sure why I put them in my work bag…)

On a lark, I looked in the battery compartment again. You know, in case it had magically reappeared. Because that happens so often…

Still no dongle.

HOWEVER…

When I looked at the cover to the battery compartment

Oh, look.

Dongle. Clipped safely into the slot that holds it in place.

*braincramp*

That’s right, it’s been right there…for the past week. This includes the, at least, five times that I’ve had the keyboard in my hands and the at least three times that I’ve opened the battery compartment. Yet, I never thought to look at the cover. Despite the fact that at some level I knew that’s where it was supposed to be.

Super. Genius.

Charlie Brown, meet football…

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Friday – 14 October 2016
This morning, I came into work a couple hours early, so I could leave early and check out a ballet rehearsal. There were… issues… so, the ballet became a non-factor in my day.

::: fast forward a few hours :::

While on call with my manager and my east coast counterpart, a question about a maintenance repair on a server came up: We contacted our support company a couple of days ago to schedule service a server and drive array (Aw yeah, Titans! warranty repair!). The parts arrived today, but there was no word about the tech who was supposed to facilitate the repair.

For the rest of the story, please deposit 25¢ , I will copy the email I just sent to my coworker and boss:

1. Called [provider] to follow-up on tech dispatch – he was assigned the Incident, but waiting for the parts to be delivered. I asked to have the appointment sceheduled for Monday morning and hung up the phone.

2. Got a call from the receptionist’s desk… telling me that [tech] was here now.

3. [Tech] went in to start working on the server and arrays… only to find that they sent the wrong drives.
a. He changed the battery in the server
b. He’s shipping back the SSDs and requesting the proper SAS drives.

WHEEE!

And that’s how my day has gone, so far. Good thing it’s (almost) over.

Drat these computers...

#LifeInIT #ajobaintnuthinbutwork #TGIF

Namaste.

 

 

Memory Dump

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Wednesday – 12 October 2016
Stuff and things and whatnot.

Namaste.

 

 

 

Wait. That’s not a proper post. I really should do one of those someday…

I guess that since I’m logged in, I should make like Nike and “just do it.” Now.

*cracks knuckles*
::: deep breath :::

The past few weeks have been good. Work’s been interesting. The company I work for has been (officially) purchased by a larger entity. So far, things are remaining status quo. I also got to spend about 36 hours on the east coast, thanks to a business trip. I was pleasantly surprised at how “green” things still were – I expected to see far more fall colors. Oh, well. That was only a slight disappointment, to be honest.

Team DiVa continues to astound and entertain me.

There was even a seven-year-anniversary in there, too.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Baby Steps

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Thursday – 28 July 2016
No Bad News Thursday. ‘Nuff said.

Don't nobody bring me...

Don’t nobody bring me…

Last night, for the first time in [REDACTED], I went to the gym. I didn’t go so much to do a lot of work other than some cardio.  Which is my least favorite thing. Which I, also, need to do more often and in longer spans. I did a little bit of lifting, as well. Not a lot. But, I did lift. It’s a start. Baby steps, undoubtedly, but steps nevertheless.

Stray Toasters

  • This article came out last week: Here’s 48 hours. Now make a movie.
    I was part of a 48 Hour Film Project film last year; I wrote about it here. It was a lot of fun… and a lot of work. I would definitely do it again, if the opportunity arose and my schedule permitted.
  • Microsoft is giving away hundreds of eBooks. Check out what’s available here.
  • I have been playing with Raspberry Pis a bit over the past few months. Since the beginning of the year (I think), I’ve bought four of them – A Pi2, A Pi3, and two Pi Zeros. (It’s not a habit, it’s cool, I feel alive…) One of them is a retro arcade box, one is currently pulling duty as an Amazon Echo clone of sorts. The Zeroes have yet to be commissioned, but I have plans for them.
  • Since Disney announced that they were pulling the plug on Disney Infinity, stores have been putting the DI merchandise on sale for crazy – in a good way – prices. I may or may not have picked up about fifteen figures in the past month.
  • We now have our first picture of Supergirl‘s Superman.
  • Reading this article made me nostalgic for Electronic Arts’ PHM Pegasus.

Namaste.

Lady Day

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Friday – 17 June 2016
We’ve made it to the end of another week. Selah.

My friend, Dave, posted a link to the following article in a chat a little while ago:

The tongue-in-cheek way the women of Google are responding to a shareholder’s sexist comment

Synopsis:

The women of Google have come up with a clever, tongue-in-cheek way to raise awareness about gender equality after an investor made a sexist remark at the company’s annual shareholders meeting last week.

Now other Googlers are standing up in solidarity by designating this Thursday and Friday as “Lady Day.”

The idea sprouted in an email group for alums of a Google leadership-development program for women. One employee suggested that they should all change their titles to “Lady ___” in acknowledgment and lighthearted protest of the incident. As in “Lady Systems Engineer,” or “Lady People Analytics Manager.”

As of now, more than 800 Googlers — women and men — have changed their job titles in the company-wide directory or in their email signatures.

I recommend reading the entire article.

Google also came up with a new graphic to help illustrate the point:

So, for the day, you can refer to me as “Lady Systems Support Engineer.”

Solidarity – along with equality – is a pretty awesome thing.

Namaste.

“Don’t Panic.”

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Wednesday – 25 May 2016
Today is Towel Day.

“…it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

 

Stray Toasters

  • I visited my brother and his kids a couple of weeks ago. Despite the fact that we’re (only) 6 hrs apart, by car, and that neither of us really considers that a long drive, it’s only the second time we’ve visited in two years. Still, I had a great time. He and the kids are doing well.
  • DC Rebirth. I have many thoughts about this… soft-boot?
    REBIRTH-splash-small
  • I have my second Raspberry Pi. I’m contemplating setting it up as a media machine for TeamDiva2011…
  • The season finales of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Flash have left me with many questions.
    • I’m still pushing for The CW to call their 4-part crossover “Crisis,” in some manner or other.

Namaste.

Ones and Zeroes

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Tuesday – 22 March 2016
I’ve worked in IT, in some capacity or other, for almost 15 years. I enjoy it; I’m even nominally good at it. Today, however, I had to call my ability in this field into question.

A little over a month ago, I was tasked with spinning up a new server for an application that we’re going to vet and possibly put into service. And I did. And promptly went on my merry way with other tasks and projects. This morning, I had to come back to that server and do some additional configuration. I attempted to remotely access the machine. No go.

Huh.

Undaunted, I considered that I’d possibly built the machine in a different site. So, I tried to connect using that sites code. Still no go, Flight.

What the…?

At this point, I started getting “a little” concerned. I was sure that I’d built the machine, but not being able to connect to it or even ping it caused some alarm.

 

I logged into the local virtual machine cluster to look for the machine. There it was, big as day and twice as bright. It was on, so that negated the “Did I remember to turn the bloody thing on” question. I opened its vm console, logged onto the server, and validated that it was working properly. It was. I tried pinging the server from other machines. Pings out, no ping replies returned. I pinged the other machines from the server. Pings out, ping replies returned.

The last time this happened – last week, actually – I had neglected to turn off a server’s firewall, preventing it from responding to any external contact.

I looked at the firewall settings; it was turned off. Good. I checked its IP address. I was able to ping it from other machines. Okay, that narrowed down the range of possible problems, but it raised another question. The server properties showed that it was joined to the domain, so it should (operative word) have been registered properly in DNS. I prepared to remove the system from the domain and re-add it when I saw what the problem was.

I had mistyped the computer’s name when setting it. I hadn’t caught the error because I kept looking at the correctly-typed name in its VM console window.

...

I renamed the computer, removed it from and re-added it to the domain, and in probably the least-surprising thing I’ve encountered today: It appeared to pings and remote calls.

Super. Genius.