So now that I have the materials, I need to clear out the shed so I can tear down the old one and build the new. So the garage had to be cleaned in order to move the stuff from the shed… Long story short after about 4 hours of wondering around cleaning, organizing and tossing I have room to proceed.
Blog
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The Big Four Nine
So today is my 49th birthday, sigh. Hindsight is always 20/20 so in looking back there are a lot of things that I’d like to go back and do differently, but you can’t and you waste time thinking about it, learn from the past, plan for the future, and live in the present. I’ll try to make sure I do this daily.
So aside from 49, that means 50 is only a year away and it’s the round numbers that get me. Well by then I hope to have finished making the positive changes that will carry me through the golden years of my life. Here’s to progress!!!I got my first shot of the Moderna vaccine for Covid today too. And to top it all off mom and sis came over for a visit. It was a great day to be alive and I’m looking forward to the next trip around the sun.
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Shed Materials Acquired
I finally broke down and blew the $4000 on the materials to build the shed. It’s hard for me to spend that much on parts, it’s one thing if you’re buying one that’s pre-built and you’re putting it together but I’m getting rough lumber that needs cut, and built. I’m so looking forward to it!!!
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Mom’s Birthday
So four days after dads birthday and four days before mine is mom’s birthday. Oddly enough Sandy’s dad was born on the 19th also, and our friend Katie, so there are a lot of birthdays today LOL.
I was happy we got to take mom out to Cheddar’s for lunch, she cracks me up, ordered the small lunch steak because she’s on a diet and then gets the loaded baked potato which has as many calories as the steak. Gotta love her!
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Dad’s Birthday
Every January 15th, I pause to think of my dad, it’s been seven years since he left us and I still miss him. I’m sad that he didn’t get to see some of the toys I bought and what my life is like now. I’m guessing if he could see it he’d be proud at least I like to think so. The regret I have is that I only got to the place in my life where I could start to include him, maybe that’s just hind sight. In any case, miss you dad, I hope our spirits cross again one day.
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Python Begins
So I’m taking a class on Python, I’m actually super excited about this class and it’s been ages waiting to get the class. For those who don’t know Python is a scripting language that is growing exponentially in popularity. It’s amazing what you can do with it, the only downside to it is that it’s not native to Windows. You can install it without any problem but it’s not out of the box which is a concern if you are dealing with locked down server environments like I do.
When you hear Python and programming language you immediately think of a snake and the dark art of coding. It summons up an image of a person dressed in black in front of a bank of monitor while a snake slithers around the desk. The fun fact about it that the guy who was creating the language liked Monty Python’s comedy show, he needed a name and the Python language was born.
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Monday Blue
Monday’s are never easy and the first one back that not after a 4 day weekend is especially cruel. Oh well, it’s not like I had anything that needed to get done. I’m actually a bit worried that work has dried or is drying up. It doesn’t have anything to do with the virus, unless you can call Oracle a virus, and the way they destroy software they acquire that may not be too far off. MySQL, Java, Star Office are just a few that come to mind. Oh well, after a year and a half of primarily helping clients archive the data to move off of Taleo, it looks like there are some changes in the wind. Whatever is next on the journey I’ll do my best to embrace and make the best of the changes that are coming.
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Wildcard Weekend
3 football games yesterday and three today, although the Cowboys were watching the games from the couch like I was, it was still nice to have football on for 18 hours over the weekend. Not sure why, it just felt normal despite no one was in the stands and even the head coach of one of the teams was out for the Covid protocol.
I did get a chance to talk to General, it’s always good to talk to him, he thinks that the end of the virus shutdown is in sight, it would normally abate as spring and summer come to be and with the vaccination push on it should be mostly under control by the end of the summer. I’m hoping things are back to normal sooner than later but I’ll keep improving myself and my surroundings during the down time.
In other notes, I’ve started the procurement project for the materials for the shed, it’s looking to set me back about $3500 for materials alone. I guess that’s not too bad, I spent probably $1000 on tools to build it and I think to get it built would have been about $5500 so I guess I saved myself $1000 in trade to do it myself and got the tools for free, at least that’s how I’m looking at it.
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New Linux Mint Desktop
So for the longest time my old development box was sitting around with an unactivated copy of Windows 10 on it and I was using RDP to VPN in and do my torrent downloading and what have you. Those are things you set and forget because it takes hours/days for the download to complete.
After jacking with the activation and not meeting success immediately, I started thinking that I’ve always wanted a Linux desktop and they’ve always been the last stop for hardware before the junk pile. Why not see what it’s like to have a screaming fast Linux desktop? So my Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz with 24Gb of ram and 500Gb SSD is now my premier Linux desktop.
I bounced back and forth between Mint and Ubuntu, starting with Mint, getting lost because it’s Debian and not Red Hat, then switching to Ubuntu and completely disliking the GUI there even with Cinnamon installed and finally settled back with a clean install of Mint. Scavenged a blue tooth speaker with an aux port and that works for sound from it. And I have a 32 inch curved Acer Nitro EDO series – ED320QR monitor hooked up to it. So far I’m impressed. Lots to learn with the GUI but it’s a nice change. Already have xRDP installed so I just use mstsc.exe and connect right in.
As for the computer that can sit on the VPN and do my downloading? I’ve actually got my old laptop doing that. It’s also running Mint Linux and it basically closed and sitting plugged into a Gb network dongle and power source under the desk next to the UPS. Even have the VPN running and the qBitTorrent running only on tun0, so that if it dies I’m not sitting there exposed with my torrent hanging out. It did briefly happen, let’s hope no bad comes of it.
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Early Flight out of DAL
So Sandy is on her way to visit her friend in Colorado Springs and got the best deal on Southwest, I’ve never flown them personally and have nothing against them but they are based out of Love Field in Dallas, which isn’t really that far away but it’s twice as far as DFW. As I type this I realize how trivial it is but I’m not good on 4 and a half hours of sleep I got to get there on time. There’s part of me saying I’ll have energy one day when I can get out and do stuff. I’m wondering if that day will ever come if I don’t force it to… Oh well, the weekend is here and I’m going to make the best of it.
