Geek

I am typing this entry at work. Yes, it is 11:01 p.m. Eastern Time as I’m doing it. Our little network monitoring system here at work decided it wanted to go on strike and stop monitoring our customers’ systems. Figures. It runs on Windows.

I am probably going get a nice butt-kissing award for this, but I really don’t mind coming into the office at night if the situation warrants it. It gets my geek juices flowing. It lessens the stress of trying to do my work from home over a crappy VPN (connecting to my work computer) connection. And I like my job very much, which is a bonus.

Plus, I’ve got that ‘love to drive at night’ thing going on.

So I sit, wait and watch the network monitoring system for a little bit to make sure that’s its working properly before going home to get back in bed. While I’m here, I might as well make use of the really fast internet connection we have; there’s no one looking right now.

Sometimes its fun to work for the phone company that also owns an internet ISP!

Inspired by discovering the fan film “Star Wars: Revelations” yesterday, I did a little research online and found an absolutely wonderful fan film project in the spirit of Star Trek. There’s a complete episode documenting an adventure of the “Starship Exeter”, with a second episode in production. Like the Star Wars fan film, I am in awe of the cinematography and special effects involved with these productions! You can take a peek at the Starship Exeter project at starshipexeter.com. I’m particularly impressed with the teaser/titles clip of “The Tressaurian Intersection”. Go all the way to the end and watch the opening credits and listen to how good the music is! Wicked cool! I haven’t had goosebumps listening to music in a long while, but I got goosebumps when I heard that original piece.

These projects remind me of a lame attempt to film a “fan film” of Bewitched back in 1988 with myself as a flamboyant long lost relative of Samantha’s. Using an 8 mm camera, a few lights, some helpful friends, an old DEC Rainbow computer and a cat, I popped in and out, zapped a change of clothes and basically kicked up my heels as a witch like the best of them. ‘Tis a pity I lost the films in a breakup 15 years ago. I fear that they’re going to show up somewhere, someday!

I feel another project stirring on the horizon…. Hmmm….

When I was a kid, I always had to be reading something. The newspaper, a magazine, my grandmother’s “old ladies’ paper” (Enquirer, Star, etc.), a sci-fi book… it didn’t matter, if I wasn’t watching television or goofing off in the back 40, I was reading something. My mother one time came down as we were all getting ready for the day and I was sitting on the toilet reading the phone book. (Don’t ask why she walked on me while I was sitting on the john, now that I look back on it it seems kind of odd.) When you grow up in a small town like Pulaski, N.Y., there’s not much of a phone book to read, but I like to think that reading that phone book prepared me for my present career as a telephone man.

Anyways, I’ve found my reading habit has translated well to the world of bits and bytes. I am adding more and more blogs to my blog roll on a daily basis. I’ve shunned making fun of people in the reality television message boards and usenet groups in favor of peering into the life of someone else that is living their life out loud on the internet. Why audition for CBS when you can put it all right here, forever archived on a computer backup tape?

I have a feeling that my current enjoyment in blogging will continue. I find it all so fascinating. People talking about comics, men talking their latest conquest, writers sharing their latest toys. It’s a wonderful way to keep your finger on the pulse of the people.

It’s also a great outlet for rambling on about the most trivial of things. It’s right up my alley.

Ain’t technology grand. I’m finding myself using iChatAV more and more these days. Now my mother is on there (through AOL Instant Messenger) and we’re video chatting back and forth. Once my sister gets her internet connection going while she’s in Russia, it will be a much cheaper way to keep in touch!

My little indicator over there on the right side of my blog page lets you know when I’m online if you want to drop a line and say hello.

Now I have to remember to keep my clothes on.

No internet connectivity from 4:00 p.m. yesterday until 5:30 a.m. today due to a widespread outage in the area. I’m still recovering. But looking at the bright side, the shakes have finally subsided.

O.k., I’m baffled by this one. According to this article, those affected by Hurricane Katrina that wish to apply for aid online from FEMA MUST use Internet Explorer 6.

For those not familiar with the software, Internet Explorer is a web browser bundled in with Windows, which allows you to browse the internet. It’s what lurks behind the big “E” on the Windows desktop.

So this FEMA website can not be accessed by anyone with a non-Microsoft (Mac, Linux, Unix, etc.) computer, as well as those running Firefox instead of Internet Explorer (usually due to security concerns like adware, malware, viruses, etc.) or any older computer that hasn’t been upgraded to the latest version of the software.

While the internet was designed to be accessible by all, regardless of operating system or platform used, Microsoft has introduced several proprietary extensions to Internet Explorer that stray from the standard, and leave other web browsers out in the cold.

Nice planning FEMA. If you don’t have a Windows computer, you can call FEMA directly at 1-800-621-FEMA (1-800-621-3362).

I’m trying to be a good little soldier at work and play by the system administrator’s rules. This is unusual for me because after all, I know it all, but nevertheless I figured I should set a good example by using all the correct tools provided on our computers for our job. Unfortunately, this means I must use Windows XP, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook.

I’ve installed the “MSN Toolbar” so that I can have tabs in Internet Explorer. Since I’ve done this, it’s hosed my “Internet Options” screen so that every time I try to make a change, the program freezes and I have to “force quit” it. (Sorry for the Apple lingo there).

In Outlook, when I delete a message, it stays there until I “Purge Deleted Items”. Sounds like a supermodel fantasy, but it’s an unnecessary extra step.

Also in Outlook, whenever our database program tries to send an e-mail out automatically, I have to answer “Yes” to a “Another program is accessing your e-mail!” dialog box twice, wait 10 seconds and then do it again. I must say that’s a glowing example of productivity.

Then we have Updates automatically downloading, virus programs installing new virus definition files and all other sorts of bits and bytes horseshit.

Can you tell I’m getting a little frustrated here?

Nevertheless, I’ll get through it. Can’t guarantee that the monitor will make it in one piece though.

I’m going to give my PowerBook a hug when I get home tonight.

Never fear, jpnearl.com is back online again. I logged on from our hotel suite here in Buffalo and to my horror, discovered that our domain name registration had expired! A few frantic keystrokes of credit card numbers and voila, it’s back, and renewed until 2015. The world is suppose to end in 2012, so now we’ll be able to give up to the minute coverage of armageddon.

I was thinking earlier today that I needed to stop and pick up some stuff for the house. Cleaning supplies, cat supplies, that sort of thing. I really didn’t cherish the idea of heading into Wal*Mart (Always White Trash, Always) and I’ve become positively bored with Target so I it looks like I was stuck with K-mart.

The K-mart closest to us is crap. And that’s hard for me to say, because when I was a small kid, that’s where we always shopped, at K-mart with my maternal grandmother. We’d get popcorn by the jewelry counter, do some shopping and such. Or if the timing was right, we’d eat lunch at the K-mart Cafeteria in the back off the store. But no, this K-mart is rapidly becoming a junk store, and that kind of makes me sad. There are six registers, numbered two through nine. The store has one of those ugly “Big K” logos on the front, but it’s all faded. The lights buzz. The shelves are in disarray. It has a decidedly early 1980s feel to it.

You’d think if they wanted to remain competitive with Wal*Mart and Target, they’d keep the place hospitable.

I don’t expect a lot from my local discount department store. I’m not a big fan of Wal*Mart SuperCenters, though I have given them a fair chance. They are just too damn big and crowded. And Target seems, well, I don’t know. It’s like it wants to be Sears but have carts too.

You know, I’m going to admit it. I miss Ames.

Ames opened up in my hometown in 1977. It was store #80, before they acquired Zayre, before they acquired Hills, before they acquired Big N. It had everything we needed and it wasn’t sprawled out all over the place. I always thought it rocked because the record department was right in front next to the jewelry counter (at least before the first remodeling done in the mid 1980s). I didn’t mind when they moved the record department (and added computers) to the back corner of the store.

I worked for Ames just after college. It was a pleasant experience, quite comparable to my “Hills at Christmas” stint in 1990. I got to interact with lots of people, I wore a red vest that didn’t look too gawd awful and the pay was a little more than minimum wage. And then in the mid to late 1990s I had actually applied for an IT job with the company. They were getting ready to implement an entirely new computer system in all of their stores and I wanted in on the fun. But I wasn’t ready to move to Connecticut. (Plus, I had met this new guy named Earl and I thought I had a future building with him).

I always liked shopping at Ames. It was just the right size, they had popcorn near the front registers and I didn’t feel like I needed to hop a crosstown bus to get from Health and Beauty Aids to Pet Supplies. I know, as a gay man I was suppose to be all decked out in designer-label fancy clothes purchased at a mall boutique that featured bear-chested twinkies, but I liked the clothes at Ames. I felt stylish in them. There was a rugged air to them. I wasn’t shunned when I wore them.

But then they went and closed up shop in 2002.

I never did make it K-mart today. I’ll probably go over the weekend. I’ll deal with it, but I won’t find my Bargains By The Bagful.

This weekend while we were out playing with our own kind, our neighbor asked us “Why do you guys have a Mac, anyway?”

Oh. My. God.

Luckily, I was so relaxed that I didn’t start a geek tirade anyway. I simply smiled and said, “No spyware, no adware, no viruses. Ever.”