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Y2K Remix
Posted on April 5, 2009 by Brian under Blog, Family, Life, News.
My dad sent me a link to Wikipedia about a new computer scare. No, its not the Conficker Virus. It’s the Y2K scare all over again. This time it’s Y2k38 and it effects more than just the PC world. According to the article in Wikipedia, The problem affects all software and systems that store system time as a signed 32-bit integer, and interpret this number as the number of seconds since 00:00:00 January 1, 1970.
What does this mean to us. Probably nothing, I have a feeling that all the programmers that worked on the Y2K issue will resolve this issue as well. We have way to many smart people on this planet to allow something like this to happen. Below is a count down for those of you that want to bite your nails for the next 29 years.
For the rest of us in the real world, I think there are more immediate thing that we need to be concerned with. Things like the deteriorating climate due to the excessive use of fossil fuels, the failing economy, the link to child related illness due to pollution levels across the planet or for those really far reaching worriers, how about the proposed end of life as we know it by the year 2012 based on the Incan/Mayan Calendar.
Me, I am simply going to live each day and worry about the things that I can change. I try not to let things that are out of my control interfere with my every day activities. If I did, I probably would never leave the house.
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Just When You Thought Winter Was Over
Posted on March 28, 2009 by Brian under Flickr.
Mother Nature decides to give you the finger. I hate Kansas!
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Spreading the Love.
Posted on March 22, 2009 by Brian under Health, Poker.
Friday night is usually poker night for Ching and I. This Friday though we decided to stay home because she had been sick for the last three days. Her fever finally broke Friday morning and after I came home from work she said that she just wanted to stay home and rest some more. We were going to go to the Invitational on Saturday anyway and on top of that we had Cory and April’s poker party Saturday evening. What we didn’t take into account was my hyperactive immune system letting me down.
Saturday morning, at about 5 am, I woke up in a puddle of sweat. I was so wet that I seriously thought I had wet the bed. I had to pee so I decided I should probably get up and go before I actually did wet the bed. This is when I realized that I was really sick. I tried to get out of bed and my body felt like I had been run over by a truck (and I actually know how that feels, another story for another time) and I was having trouble actually getting up and moving off of the bed. At this point I wished I had some Depends so that I would not have to get out of bed, since that was not an option I had no choice but to get my ass moving. Every step was agony, even peeing was uncomfortable. I finally got myself back to bed and decided that I needed to go ahead and pop a NyQuil and see if I could cut this think off before it gets started. I slept till about 11:30 but was in pain the entire time, my body ached all over. My fever broke at about 10:30 but I was so tired. However, I was determined to not let this illness ruin my plans. I felt like crap but I decided that I wanted to go play in the Tourney, I mean I worked hard to win that seat, I was determined to play.
We showed up and everyone immediately noticed that Ching and I were not our normal selves, after we told them we had been sick they wanted to know what the hell we were doing there. We told them that we were not going to let this illness get the best of us. Once we got started all I could think about was “man i want to go back to bed”. I just knew that I was not going to make it far. I figured that I was going to make some stupid call because I was not focused and was not paying attention to what was going on. Well the poker gods had another plan for me. Instead of getting knocked out early I ended up taking third place. It was unbelievable. I mean here I am sicker than crap, feeling like someone threw me off a cliff and I take 3rd place.
Later that evening I went to Cory and April’s. I was getting tired and was running on fumes. I figured that I had used up the last bit of mental energy for playing on the Invite. But no, the poker gods saw fit to bless me again with a second place finish. I was told that I should play sick more often. Cory said that it was hard to get a read on me because my expression never changed no matter what hand I had. I played my normal game but because I was sick and was not in my normal psychological state I just kept this expression of “I want to go back to bed”. I need to remember that. Maybe I will go farther if I just remove all emotional facets from my game play.
So it ended up being a profitable night. I got to play in the tourney, I proved to myself that I can play in any condition and I proved to my friends that my skills are not limited by my health. I am looking forward to next Friday now. I am going to practice this emotionless play, see if i can throw a few people off by making them think that I am still ill.
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Germany next to last day.
Posted on March 12, 2009 by Brian under Travel.
Well tomorrow I get picked up after work and driven to Frankfurt. There I will check into another Hotel but only for the night. I am supposed to go to an Italian restaurant with my boss but I am not sure that I want to go. I just had Italian tonight and I am not sure if I can stomach two nights of Italian.
I was at the Ennest facility again today for a big meeting with my boss and I got to see the training facility this time. I took a ton of pictures of some of our products. I really think that if they were to bring this stuff to the US they could really revolutionize the market and open the door to a new style of interior design in American homes.
Once I get the pictures uploaded I will share them and tell you more. Right know I am just counting the hours befoe I am on my flight and on my way back home. I am looking forward to being back in my wife’s arms.
I will blog more tomorrow if I can, if not I will blog when I get home. At the moment I am really tired as i have had a long day of meetings and I have even more meetings tomorrow since its my last day. Instead of a Blog about my day i will leave you with a blog I wrote last night and decided not to post. My wife says its really good and i should post it so i will take her advice and put it up for you all to read.
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The Blog Never Posted.
How do you know when you have crossed it. That fine line between caring and becoming a stalker. I am sure every married couple has gone through it at some point in there life. The first time a love one goes away on a business trip, the first time a loved one is gone for any long duration or just the first time you are apart period. I am sure that every couple has gone through the whole “should I call him/her”, “I wonder if I should send him/her a text”.
Right know I am one of those people. Its hard being far away from your family and loved ones, you don’t know how they are doing, you don’t know if something has happened that they might need your help and you are not there to provide it. You just don’t know. So you skate on that fine line of caring and stalking, you sit around for what may seem like hours when in reality its only minutes, after a while you get antsy but you try to hold out a little longer because you don’t want to seem over bearing or obsessive, then you reach the point of panic “I haven’t heard form them, are they OK, has something happened”. This is where people usually break down and finally pick up the phone and make the call, if only to give them selves the peice of mind to confirm that there loved one is alright.
But what happens if they don’t pick up. Do you get in your car and start a state wide man hunt, NO! Also, depending on where you are at it would be kind of hard to do, no like you can hop i a car and drive across the ocean to track down a loved one, although, I am sure some people would try. Do you continually message and call them over and over and over again, that’s an option but then you border on the obsessive. Do you send then a long drawn out e-mail detailing your disappointment, disapproval or just outright anger over there lack of communication, this is also an option, but you need to be careful because this could cause more harm than good.
Truth is, I don’t know what to do. I cant be your voice of reason, I am just as much a victim of this situation as anyone else. I am in that situation right now! I am in another country while my wife is back in the states. We had been having a pretty normal stream of conversation between twitter, e-mail and the phone calls I was able to make while at work. I was under the impression that all was good. But today she traveled to another city for some training. I called at like 9:30pm (state side time) and got her on the phone, she was headed to a bar with some friends form the training class. That was the last communication I got from her. I tried to call her phone a little while ago but it when straight to VM, which means that the phone is either dead or turned off. So now comes the hard part, do you get angry and start spamming the e-mail until you get a response. That’s kind of pointless if you r in another country, and even if you are not in another country its pointless, unless you just want them to wake up to a bombardment of nonsense from you. Calling repeatedly is out of the question, the phone is off. So what do you do?
Again, the answer is I don’t know. I feel like doing all the above but it wont accomplish anything. If he/she wanted to message you then they would have. I guess the best response is to just wait it out, bite your nails and hope and pray for the best. That’s all you can do really. Any more than that and you will just give your self an ulcer, make yourself look like a fool or worse yet, drive a wedge in your relationship and cause things to fall apart.
I truly believe that all things happen for a reason, I try to be patient but I am only human.
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Germany almost at the End!
Posted on March 11, 2009 by Brian under Family, Life, Travel.
Today was another day in Germany and luckily one of the last. I have 3 days left then I am home.
Today we did some of the final testing that I could do in Germany (most of the testing needs to be done in the US) and went through the error logs. We had a healthy German discussion (this involved a lot of loud talking) about some issues that we saw as problems but the development team saw as standard operation. I am hoping that its just a fluke and it will correct itself when I return to the states. If not then they will be getting numerous e-mails until its fixed.
I was supposed to go to dinner with Matthias tonight but the restaurant that he want to take me to was closed today for a private function. So he made a reservation for tomorrow. I think that we will be joined by his family and a few people from work. I am looking forward to it. Its an Italian restaurant that is actually run by Italians. He says that it’s the best that he has ever had, I’m looking forward to it. I am supposed to meet my boss on Friday if I choose to, he also is going to an Italian Restaurant in Frankfurt. I figure, hey the food is free so why not take advantage of it. I just wont eat Italian at home for a while.
Originally I was supposed to get a car to drive from Attendorn back to Frankfurt on Friday. After the ride up here and the fact that you can not really go “All Out” on the autobahn and I can not read any of the street signs, I decided that it was probably in my best interest to get a taxi instead. I get picked up Friday at 4:00 and will arrive in Frankfurt sometime around 6-ish depending on traffic. My boss said that if I get in anytime before 9 I should come eat. I just havens decided if I want to go or not. It’s not that I don’t want to enjoy the food and I love the company of my boss, I learn something from him every time I get to talk to him. It’s just that I was actually looking forward to just chilling out in the Hotel, going to bed early (or maybe not going to bed at all to prepare for the time zone change again) and then heading out at 5 am to catch my flight. I leave at 8am on Saturday and should arrive in Wichita sometime after 5pm. I know you have heard it before but I will say it again. i am looking forward to coming home. I know my wife misses me and I miss her deeply. I also miss my family and friends. I look forward to seeing them all when I return.
One of the things that I had the ability to do but did not was go to the “Cebit” expo in Hanover Germany. Its the largest electronics expo in all of Europe. Originally I was going to partake in this (I was offered a free ticket from work) then I decided at the last min not to. I figured I am around IT geeks all day long and I was not looking forward to being around a large center full of IT geeks that spoke little to no English. Looking back, I should have taken advantage of this. But it would have meant that I would have had to give up going to the caves or the Museum and I really enjoyed going to both. So the sacrifice would not have been worth it. Plus I liked walking around the town looking at the buildings, the views and just watching the people. In Hanover, its a larger city and it would have been more like being at home. All-in-all I think I made the right choice. Plus, they want me to come back once a year every year now because of the progress that I have made. They feel that I have something to offer and that I should come out every year for at least a week to do a “refresher” of the systems and processes and see what they can offer us or what I can offer them. I suggested a swap, one year here one year some one comes to the US, they actually liked that as well (if not better). I think I may have started a new trend in our business make up that may benefit both of our groups.
Well, I am starting to get tired and I think I am going to head to bed now. I will talk more tomorrow after I return from dinner. Maybe I will have some nice pictures of the food and the restaurant. I will be in a new town as well so I may ave some pictures of the town if I get a chance. Everyone have a great night and I hope everyone is well.
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