Monday, August 8, 2016

Road Trip!

Well, I'm glad Sarge (potentially soon to be known as Henry, Steve or Moley, the jury's still out) had a thought provoking post today (Sunday) on the 71st Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima or as I like to refer to it "The first notification that We didn't start it, but we WILL end it.".  The reason I'm glad that he had a post that was thought provoking is because I don't.

This was the weekend that I have my de-geekifying sessions. I have just returned, exhausted, but geek level reduced to within tolerance.

 As most folks are aware after retiring from the AF, I put my college degree(s)  to use and work IT for the local school district.  As such, I'm the DBA in charge of all the student and faculty data and any queries needed of that data.

 As an additional duty, I am "Printerman!"  Can't print?  Call me!  "Yes, I'll drop that overdue report to the Superintendent to come clear your jam, because you don't want to walk all the way across the hall to a working printer. "

"No, really, I don't mind, not one bit. Wouldn't want you to get a nasty papercut!"

Oh, and I'm in charge of Active Directory, the guardian of user accounts and computer accounts.

In short, I'm in charge of a lot of geeky fecal matter and it starts adding up.

So, once a year, I need to go and remove the geeky matter build up, by being in close proximity to people who, actually, are more geeky than I.

I found them at SQLSaturday in Baton Rouge.Some could safely be said to be a "black hole" of geekiness.  Proximity to them causes the gravitational pull of their geekiness to pull the geektrons off me and add it to their event horizon of geekiness.

Seriously,  They were at a professional computer programmer conference in full star wars costume. Storm Troopers, Sith Lords, Rebel Soldiers, Darth Vader, Ewoks.  Princess Leia (No, not in THAT costume!)

All Day.

Outside.

Baton Rouge LA

100 Degrees

95% Humidity

I feel better already.

I was unable to arrange to meet VX, as I had the rest of my office mates with me and "Herding Cats" was the order of the day.  


In lieu of actual photographs of Jedi Geeks or cat hearding, let me introduce the Newest Member of the Juvat clan.  Her name is Schmedlap.
(If I ever find who threw her out of the car on the highway, you're dead meat buddy!)


Unfortunately, they were pretty good at herding cats and I was unable to slip away.

Friday, we went to Parrains (VX's suggestion from last year), where I had a very nice Andouille Encrusted Fresh Drum (Drum being the name of a very tasty white fish), served over crawfish with garlic mashed potatoes.  Paired nicely with an Abita Andygator beer.

Saturday we went to The Chimes.  Right across the street from LSU, I raised the average age in the place by a bunch.  My colleagues fit right in.  The food here was not the primary draw (Pun intended, It WAS directly across the street from LSU!).  With 80 Beers on tap, 127 in a bottle, and 5 in cans, the decision was difficult.  I settled on Founder's Breakfast Stout.  This went quite well with the blackened Aligator appetizer.  (Tasted remarkably like chicken albeit a bit chewier.  Served with a mustard creme sauce.)  It also paired nicely with my New Orleans Spicy BBQ shrimp on a Fried Tasso Grit Cake.  

Got back to the hotel in time to avoid a torrential downpour and hit the rack. (Note to self: Self!  you'll sleep a heck of a lot better if you bring the power cable to your CPAP with it and you. Dummy!)

Arose this morning and RTB.  Had a good time, but it was nice to get back to the Auld Sod!


Of Course, crossing the state line only means 388 miles to go to get home








24 comments:

  1. Great road trip! Getting to interact with other IT professionals, that must have been "wonderful."

    Love Schmedlap, she's adorable. I'll help you torture and maim the douche-nozzle that tossed her. I have a zero tolerance policy on mistreating animals.

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    1. I'm not sure "wonderful" is the right word. The people watching was "interesting" and "highly entertaining". Ranged from guys in button down shirts and slacks to guys older than me in shorts flip flops and tie dyed t-shirts, pony tails, beads in their beards and smelling of patchouli oil. Women ran a similar gamut.

      Yeah, Schmedley (the nickname) is a sweetheart. Yes on the zero tolerance.

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    2. So her real name is Schmedlap and her nickname is Schmedley?

      Color me...

      ...confused.

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    3. I'll just call her puss. Like every other cat I see. They don't respond to their name anyway.

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    4. More like in "Schmedlap! That's not where we poop!" and "Here, Schmedley, Schmedley, Schmedley". Neither of which work by the way.

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  2. AD..... shudder..... Some slob monkey'd with the object, pc lost trust.

    Previous method - login as admin, remove from domain, call AD admin, have pc removed and re-entered in AD, add back to domain, 10 minutes max.

    New security software only allows admin login with a trusted pc. Reimage time. Unable to reimage due to changes in the EHD. Try a boot disk, unable to dl iso for boot disk due to security restrictions. DL and burn at home. Next day, unable to boot via CD due to security restrictions. Ordered replacement. Next day, 90 minutes to bring up to snuff and load recovered data.

    Best time to date (only done once so far) - 13.5 hours across 3 days. Security theater now complete.

    I'm tired, and it's only Monday......

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    1. Sounds like your security software is VERY secure but there's a fine line between security and functionality. We've got lost trust issues all the time (Kids thinking they're master hackers usually), so we're still using your previous method to fix the issue. From the sounds of your issues, I'm pretty sure I'm going to vote against changing.

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  3. My brain glazes over when the digital stuff begins. I'm like Oddball, I just drive 'em, baby, I don't know what makes 'em go. The Star Wars angle sounds interesting. Was the gator certified humanely raised and slaughtered?

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    1. I got that. "Kick the tires, Light the fires" worked for me for quite a while. Then I started having to work for a living and depression set in. Ah...Well!
      Re: the alligator, I believe so. There was something on the menu about its last meal.... (No, wait! I'm not going there!)

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  4. juvat, glad to see that you made it home ok.

    Paul L. Quandt

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  5. juvat/

    Notice you havent mentioned anything about the Hammerheads suspended in air from the ceiling in the main bar. Or have y'all gone directly to the dining area each time and missed the sharks. We always try to get a table in the bar to eat...a little less noisy..

    The humidity DOES take some getting used to. IIRC the morning after my commissioning #LSU in Aug 66 I took my date home @ 0600 in New Orleans (having driven down with my parents for the weekend to celebrate) it was already 86 degrees and 90% humidity OUT OF THE CHOCKS! lol. And when I first arrived on campus at LSU my freshman year in early Sept '62 my roommate and doubles-partner on the tennis team (tragically passed in Jan 2012) and I decided to go out to the nearby courts and hit some. It was 2:30pm After about a half an hour WE BOTH THOUGHT WERE WERE GOING TO DIE!! The shock to our systems was THAT bad. But ones body does
    learn to adjust--for the same reason that southern football teams always have an advantage when playing teams from the north at home early in the season. I remember one summer (my soph iirc) when I was playing the midwestern summer circuit I was playing this kid at the Springfield (ILL) Open that I had known for a number of years and when we changed courts after a few games, drenched in sweat, he looked at me and said "My God, Virgil, you're not even sweating!!" LOL. So there's occasionally that advantage..
    Football night games in Tiger stadium were the same way. The first two years I found them insufferably hot (EVERYONE wore coat & tie in that era) but by my last two years I found late fall night games to be sometimes bordering on the uncomfortably coolish by the fourth quarter.

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    1. Yeah, straight to the table. Nice place and great food, but a tad loud. As my wife says, "No soft surfaces". We'll go back again. While in College, I worked summers painting houses at Columbus AFB. Wasn't unusual to have to stop painting in the afternoon because the wall sweat would cause the latex paint to run. Moving the kids in and out of college at College Station was always an episode in soaked to the bone in sweat.

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  6. PS: Just clicking on the Andygator beer link made me think of how simple and/or cheap times really were back in the sixties. No such thing as "craft" beers or few foreign beers as well. Beer was 25 cents/bottle or can in the local bars and if one went "upscale" to a "premium" beer like Michelob it was 30 cents, lol. Could get a CASE of Falstaff for $2.75, lol!! Honestly, I don't know how college kids of today have any social life at all unless they're rich or into debt up to their eyeballs. I paid $3, 400 cash for my fully equipped Barracuda (w. dealer install air) in summer of 1964. Was a helluva car. Cost of its equivalent today? Well my God..

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    1. When I was in College, Dad was at Columbus (see above). The legal age in Texas was 18 and they didn't sell Coors in Mississippi (or even east of the River). So when I'd come home for summer or Christmas, I'd load up my Vega ($2000 new) and bring it to the base. I was always worried about getting stopped enroute. Dad and Mom's parties were always popular for a while after each visit.

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  7. PPS: Now y'all know what kind of Fossil I really am! :)

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    1. Nah! I've developed a new theory. You count up to 50 and then back down. I mean you're in diapers at both 1 and 99 aren't you?

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    2. Dang, you youngsters get off my lawn!

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  8. Sounds like a 'fun' weekend...LOL

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