MCSE

Today I completed my certification track for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Windows Server 2003 -- one of a 40,000+ member ever-growing groups of professionals. It has taken about three months to complete -- and a lot of study hours. Woohoo!

Best wishes, my friend

My colleague, Jim Sawyers, was visiting the office this weekend. Knowing the camera drops a note to me when someone enters on the weekend he decides to send me a message. The downside to this is that he has brainwashed his wife into joining the dark side as well.
Seriously though -- Jim & Carmen -- best wishes in North Carolina!

Pirates and a Lady

So, movies were the theme of this weekend. On Saturday Steph and I went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." I think it's well known that Johnny Depp is a great, diverse actor. In this sequel he seems to play a more muted role than in the first -- a lot of the plot centers around Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and William (Orlando Bloom). Nevertheless, Depp was awesome yet again. Someone is engaged to the arrow-shooting Elf boy. Who was that? Oh yeah, Keira. The trilogy wraps in 2007 with "At World's End."

Sunday afternoon went to M. Night's "Lady in the Water." Should you see it? If you like Night's movies you will like this movie -- intense attention to detail, no stone unturned, twists and turns and wonders of meaning. If you are not a fan of his films -- at least wait for the DVD. No spoilers here, but the movie has another good message to it -- at least one that I walked away hearing. Not quite as loudly said as "Signs" but still great.

It's Hot out there! (and you need a pool!)

Tower of Power

It's that time of year when we IT nerds professionals deploy new equipment to the general population. This year's unboxing porn brings us the Dell Optiplex GX620 with a 3.2 Ghz Dual Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 80GB SATA, DVD+-RW and of course, the beloved flat panel of which our users will enjoy for the next year 48 months.

Quote of the week

This week's "quote of the week" is awarded to Chris Bransford. During a recent Battlefield 2 free-for-all is piloting the AH-64 Apache in a full throttle strike on my character he announces in his best Maverick voice:

"Goose, I'm too close for missles, I'm switching to crash."

God Bless America

As we celebrate the 4th of July holiday I thought it fitting to re-post the original transcript from Red Skeleton's TV show. I've never heard it put any better than this:

I've been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?"

I -- me, an individual, a committee of one.
Pledge -- dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self pity.
Allegiance -- my love and my devotion.
To the flag -- our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there's respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody's job!
United -- that means that we have all come together.
States -- individual communities that have united into 48 great states.
Forty-eight individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose; all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and that's love for country.
And to the republic -- a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.
For which it stands, one nation -- one nation, meaning "so blessed by God"
Indivisible -- incapable of being divided.
With liberty -- which is freedom -- the right of power to live one's own life without threats, fear or some sort of retaliation.
And Justice -- the principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.
For all -- which means, boys and girls, it's as much your country as it is mine.

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country
and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance...
UNDER GOD
Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said
that is a prayer
and that would be eliminated from schools too?
God Bless America!

Superman Returns (with today's CGI)

The Man-O-Steel has returned to the big screen. If you haven't already seen the new movie -- do so. It's worth the price of admission (even as it is these days). Today's special effects are incredible (though you understand how amazing the original Reeve's "Superman" film FX were back then). I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone but fans of the original movie series have to see this. Spacey's Lex Luther is much darker than the original and he plays his role quite well in this film. Outside of Spacey, I think the reason this movie will do so well is actually the lack of stars in the movie. Of course, we've seen Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane) in a few films (Blue Crush, Remember the Titans), the majority of the roles are played by lessor knowns so that you concentrate more on the plot itself and not so much "that girl from that movie". Enjoy the show!

It will be alright

It's been "one of those weeks" so far. Servers dying, contract negotiations, studying for exams, hectic schedules -- these are things we IT-folk deal with routinely and at times can even become numb to -- yet some days it brings out evil-Photoshoped-Jason. :)
(No Jason's were harmed in the production of this image.)

Is it Friday yet?

Sorry for the "lack of noise" around here, but I was on an attempted vacation last week. I'm sure I'll be fussing about something on here real soon. :)

Yes!

The ultrasound and CT scan results are back and everything is clear! Still pending one bloodwork result that should be back on Wednesday, but everything so far is just peachy!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad and all others reading this!

Short post today, but I did want to share a funny video with you..

Dodge Caliber & "Binky"

"Customer Service"

Anyone who knows me knows that my biggest pet peeve is poor (or no) customer service. I do completely understand that some accidents happen and that everyone will "screw up" on occasion. The trick to customer service is [1] mitigating the risk of such an accident or mistake, and [2] how you will "make it up" to your customer.

On the other hand, at least in my eyes, the past two years my eyes have been opened to poor customer service of a seemingly blatant nature. A few examples:

• I went to Mrs. Winners on West End with Chris the other morning. I said to the Fast Food Order Acceptance Engineer, "I'd like two chicken biscuits with cheese and two large sweet teas." The FFOAE responded, "Two chicken & cheese and two large sweet teas. Thank you, drive around." I proceed around to the window where I'm told my total and pay. When the bag of food is put in my hand the bag is open and I see no evidence of yellow through the wrappers (read: no cheese corners). Chris opens one of the wrappers to reveal a chicken biscuit sans cheese. When I inform the FFOAE that there is no cheese she says, "Oh, I forgot to ring that up, that will be eighty-seven cents." So, let me get this right -- I ordered, you confirmed my order, gave me the total, and now you still expect me to pay you to fix your mistake?
• My father recently purchased a new entertainment center from Rooms-to-go which was delivered with cosmetic flaws. When he contacted Rooms-to-go customer service they said a replacement would be sent. When the replacement showed up it also had the exact same problem. He told the delivery driver he had to make a call to RTG before they unloaded it -- instead, they drove off. RTG's offer for all of this trouble? A $30 certificate toward other merchandise.

These examples may seem anal, and perhaps I sometimes am when it comes to customer service -- but these are weekly occurrences. Of course, there are FFOAEs out there that are excellent -- though if the FFOAE at Subway on 21st Avenue asks me one more time if I want my sub "heated or toasted" I don't think I will be able to restrain myself. Toasted, please, hold the heat.

Prayer Request

Tomorrow morning (Friday, June 16th) is my ultrasound and CT scan. Then, on Monday the 19th I will meet with Dr. Shipley to get the results of those and have blood drawn for the bHCG and AFP tests.

I ask for your prayers for great results and a clean bill of health. Thank you all!

Q are the one for me

Today I [finally] got my hands on the Motorola Q from our friendly Verizon rep. Awesome device, especially once Nashville gets EV-DO fully running in late August. The screen is incredibly sharp and bright, buttons are easy to use, and the size is only slightly larger than a RAZR V3. You may drool now...

HOV abusers: Move over

Each weekday my commute is about 70 miles round-trip. During this 70 mile journey I routinely see stupid unskilled drivers. Along I-65, as with most interstates these days, are signs like these:

Of course, on the northbound lanes it reads 4PM-6PM MON-FRI. The text is in plain english (which could be the problem) though every day there are multiple single-occupancy vehicles travelling in this lane around 4:30PM going 10 miles under the speed limit. To top it off, Nashville's finest Metro Nashville PD is busy pulling everybody and their brother over for speeding but seemingly ignore the fact that the HOV is being abused. Oh, the humanity!

The Dyson DC14

Okay, time for some man talk about VACUUMS. When I first moved into my home in 2002 we received, as an early wedding gift, the Hoover Bagless WindTunnel. Initially this machine was quite the cleaner -- until lately, as a matter of fact. The HBWT lost suction quickly when it's HEPA filter became clogged. Sure, you could clean the filter which would get you another run, maybe two before clogging again. Sure, you could buy a new one (for $40 a pop) and get a few months out of it before it really clogged again. Then there was the belt it needed three times in 4 years. Needless to say, it took more time to clean the vacuum in order to use the vacuum for cleaning!

Enter the Dyson DC14:

As James Dyson put it best, "It quite simply doesn't lose suction." Admittedly, when these things first hit the US market I thought "who in their right mind would drop 4 Benjamins on a vacuum!" The answer, as it turned out, is me -- and boy, is it worth it. Guys love numbers (and motors) so let me hit ya' with this -- typical vacuum motors run between 5000-7000 RPMs while the Dyson RootCyclone models churn an F1-like 14,000 RPM. This machine truly loses no noticeable suction. Bradley labs (aka my house) tested the DC14 model on some very dusty crevices and ceiling fans (which had been spinning 24/7 for months). With the waste bin half full the unit just kept on going. If you're in the market and have the means, make the wise investment.

Vrooooooooom...

Just in case you Comcast users out there have been crying that your 6 or 8 Mb connection is too slow, hold on tight. The "cable company" will soon be bringing you all kinds of speed for your gaming enjoyment -- up to twice your current limit at times. That's right, 12 or 16 Mb, baby. Talks with a Comcast friend also yield that the upstream is going from 384Kbps to 1 Mb, which is great news for those of you wanting to get your VoIP and online gaming fix at the same time.

Read the article from Cnet here.

Prayer Requests

Tonight's post is a bit more serious in nature. I'd like to ask for your prayers for:

• My cousin Daryl, who had chest pains today and will be going to Centennial Hospital this evening for 3-5 bypasses in open-heart surgery.
• My uncle Perky, who had chest pain while on the road in South Carolina and has to have a stunt reworked and is unable to return home for several days.
• On June 16th and 19th I will have my six-month CT scan and oncology checkup.

Thank you, friends. -Jason

Johnny 5: "No disassemble!"

Warning: This post contains graphic material not suitable for some viewers. Discretion is advised.

Here we have a photo I thought I lost with Chris proudly displaying his ability to boot a Dell Latitude D600 using only the mobo, RAM, CPU, and a display for proof. The owner, a law student, didn't know what to think seeing her baby's guts strewn about like this. Some people have weak stomachs I guess. :)