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  • I Feel Dirty

    Yesterday I had a meeting with the boss, and I found out exactly what’s going on.  I’ll be working half-time at both Architecture and EWS (I’ll save you the links for these, since I included them in the last post about this).  Apparantly at both depts I’ll be using my Group Policy and MSI mojo to make things run a little smoother.  Yes, that’s right, my GPO and MSI skills are being whored out to other DS run departments.

    I can see why this is done, but in all honesty, nothing that I’ve learned about GPO’s and MSI’s has been difficult.  The only true advance knowledge I have about the stuff is actually using them.  Otherwise, you could just as easily read a book and setup a test machine to play with.  I just find it funny. 

    I think I’d rather jump into something totally new, but this will be nice, especially at EWS, because they are essentially starting all over.  They used to use a Novell eDirectory and Zenworks, but they are now migrating to use AD and the free tools for machine administration and package deployment that come along with AD.  From what I gather they really don’t have any experience with AD stuff at all.  So, hopefully, I’ll be setting up what DIA is like from scratch there.  At Architecture, they have labs that they want fairly automated, like what we have here at DIA.  That shouldn’t be too hard, since everything can be done via GPO.

    I’m looking forward to the move, but as I’ve said before, I still have my reservations.

    **Update**
    The more I thought about this post, the more I sorta want to change my opinion.  I’ve sorta realized that this is indeed how businesses work.  It’s not really about knowing how to do something or not, it’s more about how you do it and that you’ve done it.  Like I said before, anybody can read about GPO’s and MSI’s and making their lives easier.  However, I’ve actually helped implement a system that uses these technologies fairly seamlessly.  I can see why someone would want me to come in and help.  It’s not that they can’t, it’s just that, since I’ve already done it, it will be easier for me and make the user experience better.

  • McDonald’s and the Fast Food Lifestyle

    I just got back from watching Super Size Me at the New Art Theatre.  Documentaries like that are insanely more fun to watch for me, then any of the big Hollywood films.  If you haven’t heard about it, or are too lazy to click the friggin link above, it’s about a guy that eats nothing but McDonald’s food for a month.  That’s right, 3 meals a day, plus snacks, etc from McDonald’s.  As if that’s not bad enough, he stops exercising.  He tries to become a “normal” person with respect to exercise, so he takes a cab everywhere (he’s in New York), and stops walking everywhere.  It’s actually quite revolting was becomes of him. 

    At first the doctor’s didn’t think anything was going to happen, but boy were they wrong.  He gained more than 20lbs in under a month, his cholesterol drastically increased, and his liver at one point was almost at the point of failure.  The doctors were quite worried about him, but according to his interview on The Daily Show, his brother encouraged him to complete the month even against the doctors advice. 

    The movie definitely shines a light on what you’re eating, and what you really shouldn’t be.  Now, I rarely eat fast food.  The last time was when Colleen and I went down to Jackson after a full weekend of climbing.  I don’t feel bad about eating in those types of situations just because I rarely eat when I’m climbing, so I need a larger influx of carbohydrates and fats.  Before that, I can’t remember the last time I’d been to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Taco Bell, etc. 

    It’s just disgusting how horrible the American diet actually is.  Now, I’m not one to talk, because, frankly, I don’t eat that great all the time.  However, I don’t eat nearly as bad as most, and I work out at least three times a week.  Let’s just say, according the the movie, that’s about at least three times more than the average american 🙂

    The role that children are put into was equally digusting.  When I was in school, there were no soda dispensers.  All we had were water fountains.  Imagine this, we all lived too!  Now, it’s horrible how much soda children are sucking down a day.  There is absolutely nothing beneficial about it.  My mom would almost always make dinner too, which is hard to come by now.  Hell, even when I was in high school I’d have dinner with my parents, and my mom would prepare a healthy meal.  All my other friends in high school were on their own for dinner.  They would almost always end up at a fast food place.  My mom would also only buy diet soda.  Granted, it’s still not the greatest thing for you, it’s almost infinitely better than regular soda.  Ever since I’ve only had diet.  I actually dislike the taste of most regular soda’s because of how sugary they are.  They coat my teeth and I absolutely hate that.

    Oh well, I’m sure it won’t get better until the government somehow intervenes, just like cigarettes.  It seems as if us American’s can’t help ourselves until we’re almost forced.  As horrible as it sounds, it may be what lies in the future.

  • More on Dept Change

    Well, from what I’ve heard “through the grapevine,” it looks as if there is a chance of me moving to three different deptartments: Food Science & Human Nutrition, Engineering Workstations, or Achitecture.  Apparantly, I’ll be doing a half-time position at 2 of these.  Which 2, however, has yet to be figured out (at least, that’s the last I heard). 

    Of course, I haven’t heard any of this from my actual boss.  I’ve heard it 3rd hand from my Unit Contact at DIA. 

    But I won’t bother you all with a fun topic about that 🙂  Instead I’ll talk about the beast that is half-time.  When I worked for

    Benteler Automotive I essentially worked half-time at Goshen, IN and Fort Wayne, IN.  Well, actually it was more 3/4 time at Goshen, and 1/4 time at Fort Wayne.  Talk about a pain.  Granted, most of my time was spent in Goshen, because they seemed to have all the problems (also 3x the users), but working out a plan to hit problems in both locations became strenuious at times.  And then, if there was only a few things to do in Goshen, my boss would ask me to stay there in case other things cropped up while I was away, essentially taking my time away from the Fort Wayne plant.  Now, I understand that things will be different here at the University, since both depts will be have me for half my time no matter what.  And since each dept here is run so differently (especially the 3 that are my possibilities), it’s going to be totally shifting gears when going from one to the other.  Hopefully I’ll be able to divy my time up by days (i.e. 2 full days at one dept, 2 full days at another, etc), instead of half a day one place, half a day another.  I don’t know how well I’d be able to handle that. 

    I’ll guess I’ll just wait and see.  Hopefully I’ll hear something about it before the 1st of July (when I’m apparantly moving).

  • Best Buy

    Things I hate about about Best Buy:

    1.  The fact that nothing is priced correctly.  Granted, it worked in my favor this weekend, but seriously, how hard is it to post the correct price on the product when it is essentially all you do.  I went and picked up the Katie Melua album this weekend, after downloading it last week, and it was clearly marked as $12.99.  However, when I get to the register, it rings up as $9.99.  It just reminds me to be extra careful at that place, since who knows if it works in Best Buy’s favor some days.

    2.  How much crap can they try to push on you at checkout?!  It was bad enough when they try to push you the Performance Service Plan (PSP), but now they try to cram Entertainment magazine down your throat too.  No I do not want that, and no, you don’t have to point it out to me.  If I was at all interested I would have looked at it myself, or I would already subscribe to it.

    3.  I hate how Best Buy is the only place open on weekends, that sells some computer parts.  I was looking for a USB 2.0 card for a drive enclosure I recently purchased.  You can always rely on finding the worst price on computer accessories there.

     

  • Congratulations!

    I want to send a congratulations out to Jason and Sara on their special day 🙂

  • Possibly Leaving DIA?

    What’s that you say, move depts?  Yes, it’s true, I’ve talked to the boss’m and have asked to be moved out of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA).  Yeah, yeah, yeah, sit there with your mouth open.  I know that DIA is definitely one of the best depts on campus, and that you get all the perks when you work here, but alas, I still want to move out.  As I see it, there’s no challenge left in DIA.  Thanks to Nick and Bud’s foresight, and my ability to continue what Bud was trying to do after he left, DIA works as a well oiled machine.  In my mind, there’s also no need for 3 full time IT employees there either, especially since there are 5 students doing a lot of the day-to-day work. 

    The only hard part that I’m going to have to work with is moving out of working in a “business” scenario, into an “academic” scenario.  Everyplace that I’ve worked worked at, including DIA, has been either a business or run like a business.  When I say business, I mean that computer users are just that, users on their machines, not administrators, and that the IT department controls computers and other IT related devices (networking, mobile computing, etc).  Now, here in the world of academia, it doesn’t necessarily work that way.  In many of the depts on campus, professors and other users of computers are administrators.  That means they can install what ever they want, whenever.  There is no baseline for what machines should be, or where they come from.  The machines are essentially stand alone machines with not centralization at all.  Now, for those of you that are systems administrators, I’m sure you’re just cringing right now when I say this.  Hell, I’m cringing.  Being a systems admin of a dept like this is like trying to battle an x headed dragon, when x is the number of machines and/or users you’re trying to administer. 

    Also, many of the academic units don’t have any money, or at least they don’t feel like they have any money, that can be spent on IT related goods.  Things such as centrally housed servers with user data, backups, machine patching, and anti-virus goes overlooked in many of these departments because nobody has shown them the light, so to speak.  A certain part of me wants to be that person who guides them into IT bliss, but another part, the part that hears the horror stories from other academic system admins, runs in fear because it knows that it’s not going to be easy at all. 

    However, I definitely don’t want to spend my time doing nothing here at DIA.  When I worked hourly at various different IT jobs, if I wasn’t doing anything, I’d just go home.  To me there was no point in sitting around doing nothing, when I could be doing other stuff at home.  Granted, I wasn’t being paid to do other things at home, but I guess that didn’t really matter to me.  I still feel the same way now, but since I’m salaried, I’d feel even more guilty just going home than I do trying to find work to do. 

    I’ve talked to my supervisors, and they are aware that I want to move.  And hey, that was one of the perks of joining DS.  You’re not stuck in one place the whole time if you don’t want to.  There’s opportunity to move around.

    Hopefully I’ve made the right decision.

  • It’s Here

    Well, I got my bike yesterday.  Walked in, and they know who I am.  Man, I’ve gone there way too much in the last week.  Anyways, I took it for a test ride before I made my final purchase.  It’s amazing how light it is.  I still can’t get over that fact.  It’s like I’m not even riding on anything, especially when I’m mentally comparing it to the steel frame bike I had when I was a kid.  So of course I took it for a ride after I made the purchase.  I will definitely get a lot of use out of the bike.  Probably even more-so once/if I move dept’s and have room to store my bike when I ride it in.  But more about leaving DIA in a later post.

  • Bike Part 2

    So I get a call today from Durst saying that they called Cannondale, but the didn’t have the size I needed in the color (blue) I wanted.  I was going to say that it was ok, I had made my purchase at Champaign Cycle already, but then he went on to say that they had ordered the green one and that it was at Durst.  Again, I was about to say that I didn’t want the bike, but then he said that I could come by any time and give it a ride. 

    Well, I don’t feel as bad now.  I thought they had ordered me a bike, and that they were ready for me to come pick it up.  Granted, I never said I wanted it, but it still would’ve made me feel a little bad.  Needless to say, I’m not going to be going to Durst to try out the bike.  Maybe if he would’ve let me know back on Tuesday like he said he was, about what was going on with Cannondale.  But, he screwed up royally on that one. 

  • New Bike!

    So, over Memorial Day weekend I went bike shopping.  Talk about choices.  I started at Champaign Cycle.  They carry Trek’s, Gary Fisher’s, and Klein’s.  The guy that I initially talked to was very helpful.  He asked what I was going to use the bike for, and then, amazingly enough, started me off on the cheapest bikes.  I told him how much I was looking to spend, and then he brought me around to those.  Unfortunately Saturdays (especially good weather weekends), are probably the busiest days for bike shops.  Needless to say, the guy that initially started helping me got bogged down with another customer as I took out the Trek 8000 for a ride.  I then asked the other guy what exactly going to the 8500 got me.  Obviously the components change, but how much does that really change the feel of the bike?  So, he told me to go for a ride on it and see.  For one, shifting was obviously smoother.  Granted, if I took it someplace other than a sidewalk, I could probably tell more of a difference, but the shifting alone was enough.  Now, as nice as the shifting was, it was priced a little more than I wanted to spend.

    I told them I’d have to think about it, and then headed over to Durst Cycle.  Now, they sell Cannondale’s, Schwinn’s, and Giant’s.  So, I head in, and the place is packed.  It takes me forever to get any help over by the Cannondales.  Finally, after 10-20 minutes of standing around, a guy helps me out.  I tell him about how much I want to spend, what some of the components are on the Trek I’m looking at, and he points me to the Cannondale F600 and the Giant XTC 1.  The Cannondale felt like a good bike, comparable to the Trek.  However the Giant felt cheap and flimsy.  They didn’t have any of the F600’s in stock in my size and color.  So, the sales guy took down my name and number and said he’d call Cannondale on Tuesday and then let me know (also on Tuesday). 

    So now I take about 30 minutes to cool off on the bike browsing and head over to a friends and ride his Cannondale with him.  It’s a nice bike, nothing to complain about.  The bike of his that I rode was more of an easy-rider bike than I was looking for.  So, I then headed back to Champaign Cycle to talk about upgrading the brakes to disc brakes.  The guy gave me some numbers, but told me he wasn’t very informative about what’s good and what’s bad.  Instead he said to come by on Tuesday and talk to Brandon about them. 

    Tuesday rolls around, and I head in to talk to Brandon about disc brakes over my lunch hour.  He gives me the general low down, and then I did some of my own research.  I didn’t want to say yay or nay to them because I was still waiting to hear back from Durst. 

    Needless to say I didn’t hear back from Durst.  Talk about crappy service.  Granted I’m not laying down huge amounts of money, but still nothing to sneeze about.  So, today after still not hearing back from Durst, I again went in to Champaign Cycle during my lunch hour and ordered my bike.  Unfortunately they don’t have the 2004 Trek 8000 in my size in stock, so I need to wait a few more days.  They did, however, have the 2003 version in my size in stock.  I elected not to grab that one because it was only discounted $50 and it doesn’t have the necessary hubs and wheels to upgrade to disc brakes in the future. 

    I’m so excited for it to come.

  • One Way Around $2 A Gallon?

    So, I was reading my RSS agregator today, and I stubled upon this article over at Wired.  Now, upon closer examination, I was amazed to see how easy it actually was to make biodiesel.  And to think that using straight biodiesel is better for your car, better for the environment, AND is less than half the price of a gallon of unleaded. 

    It was great to read more about exactly how to make biodiesel in your house from one of the links in the above article.  Definitely a possibility as I’ll be looking for a new car sometime in the future.  Hopefully my current car will last until I turn 25 though.  That way I could get a new car AND have lower insurance rates!

    Speaking of my car, I walked out this morning to find my windshield cracked.  The other day I saw some of the neighbor kids throwing around a baseball near where it was parked.  It looks as if something hard hit it (while it was parked no less) right below the windshield wiper.  I’ve sort of deduced it was probably them, but I don’t know them, and anyways, how would you approach somebody about something like that?  Especially if you don’t have any proof?  Argh.  What really bugs me is that the windshield on my hella cheap truck, is very expensive.  I’m not looking forward to replacing that.  Maybe I just won’t, who knows.  I’m thinking about putting a mark where the fingers of the crack currently are to see if it’s actually growing.  However, it has split my windshield right in half, since one of the fingers goes all the way to the top.  Oh well, another perk of renting.