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King of BattleArtillery, it's the next best thing to being there. (or) When you care enough to send the very best. January 19 January ThoughtsSo my daughter became an official adult this week (19 – ugh, now I do feel old) I am installing a new server at a client’s office this weekend, and tomorrow the United States will install its 44th president. I watched CNN, ABC and MSNBC just fawn all over him and contrast the coverage with George W. Bush and find it quite disgusting. While it is special that a mixed race person was elected as President of the United States, I have been told all of my life that I should "judge people by the content of their character not the color of their skin". I am more focused on his socialist and social engineering tendencies than on the fact that his father was black. I have to take him at his word (Since I am judging him by the content of his character) He says that he will allow openly gay people to serve in the US Military. He will have to get congress to overturn the ban. I think it will be hard to get a majority of Democrats to go along with that though. I would think that he would have learned from President Clinton but evidently he is slow on the uptake. Will he follow through with his socialized healthcare? If he does not recognize what President Clinton made a mistake on, how can he recognize the mistake that Hillary almost made. I hope that he does not destroy the fabric of America in the next 4 years. His tendencies, friends and financiers are socialist/leftist. I truly believe that the “Credit Crisis” that occurred during the campaign was cooked up by Secretary Henry Paulson in league with BHO. (Yes he was a Democrat appointed by President Bush). My many thanks to President Bush, for keeping us safe this last 7 years. I just read a news article that BHO was talking to John McCain and getting advice from him, What? How can you go from calling yourself a conservative to consorting with socialists in the span of 60 days. What we (Conservatives) need to do is what the liberals did when President Bush won, begin pointing out everything that BHO does that is wrong and how we as conservatives can do it better. But I am afraid that the leaders of the Republican party have fallen back to their losing ways and it is going to take another Reagan to wake up the true conservatives. Earlier this week I read a “Tweet” from a Twitter friend that said she hoped that BHO would be a cross between JFK and FDR (How come it is ok for people to refer to JFK and FDR by their initials, but when I write BHO it is wrong and hateful?) I replied that I hope not because FDR extended and made the Great Depression worse. It makes me sad how normally rational people have just lost their mind over this individual that as of now has not shown a single executive/managerial skill. (If you question this evaluation, just look at his picks for Commerce and Treasury. ) Anyway, we have begun planning a trip to Tennessee with my parents in June to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary. (No cruise this year) and a Disney trip with neighbors in July. (More than likely Port Orleans-Riverside) September 13 Ready for VMWorldI am sitting in my kitchen, I finished packing for VMWorld, watching the FSU Seminoles whip up on UT Chatanooga. FSU looks pretty good. But I digress. I was a guest last week for the podcast Political Gestures (look in itunes for it or go to Politicalgestures.com) It went quite well if I do say so my self. I am looking forward to VMWorld I think the announcements should make the show exciting. there is supposed to be 14000 attendees. That is a bunch of people. I have scheduled face time with Xen/Citrix Executives and VMWare executives as well. I heard a rumor of a new pricing model which could lower our costs. I will be twittering and Twitpicing from the floor. follow me at http://twitter.com/jeepgeek Flying out tomorrow @ 6am should be a smooth flight except for flying around what is left of Ike.
September 05 Funniest Joke read this week.
“What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?” “One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy. “The other kills her own food.” Wow, what a week!First we have Gustav (Lots of Drama leading up to landfall, not much after) Then back to politics, the RNC had their convention and there were so many good moments but none were as good as Sarah Palin's moment in the sun. (I love the line: Do you know what the difference is between a pitbull and a hockey mom....Lipstick) She is now the most popular person being searched on the Internet! She appears to be the heir apparent to Ronald Reagan. I am now a "Broken Glass, Burning Coal, Rusty Razor Blade" Republican. I am going to get my Absentee ballot as soon as they are printed and available. I am not going to miss this election for anything. I stayed up last night talking to Greg McNaughten, of We recorded a podcast and while it went long I think it was a good show. (He usually has a 30 Min show and we went over an hour and a half.) Next Sunday, I leave for VMWorld I am jazzed about this event, I have been invited to a couple of invitation only events that should be interesting. I am also studying for my Certification update Boot Camp/Exams.... Hopefully during this trip I will be able to meet up with Will and Shannon from Magic Never Ends Podcast and have reservations on the 30th Dinner reservations at Jiko's with Earl and "The Bleeping Wife" Mel from Trapped on Vacation fame. There is a rumor that " Jeff from Houston" from the Meandering Mouse podcast may be there at the same time. Now it is Friday, and tomorrow is Battle Assembly (Drill) for September. August 07 August is here, must be time for trainingWell it is summer in Alabama, doesn't seem as hot this year as some previous years.
So this year I qualified w/an M16 (Shot 32 out of 40), Visited Walt Disney World, participated in a couple of training exercises with the Army, was selected as training officer for my exercise branch. We have already conducted a DR test at work and another is planned for this month. We are upgrading our Virtual Infrastructure and will be rolling out Virtual Desktops to production soon.
Mid-September I am attending VMWorld (www.vmworld.com) in Las Vegas. (I am hoping to get a real education out of this one)(Virtual Desktops will be tops on my list)
At the end of October, I am heading to Orlando to participate in a Class to update my Microsoft Certification to a MCITP:Server Administrator. (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcitp/windowsserver/2008/server/default.mspx) While I am there, I will be staying @ WDW and thought I would try the food and Wine festival. (Being a Passholder means I don't have to pay the increased admission) I also hope to meet up with "Earl" and "The Bleepin Wife" (Mel) from Trapped on Vacation. I booked using Main Street Travel company (http://mainstreettravelco.com/) Ask for Jana. She made it stress free.
So, overall a very busy year.
We are planning on Jeeping this weekend to take advantage of the 1.75" of rain we got yesterday, hopefully we can get some more tomorrow. Should make things good and wet. We are trying to get up several friends and coworkers to make it fun.
School has started and Kyle has joined Navy JROTC and enjoys the class. Nancy starts at the Univ. of Montevallo in a couple of weeks. (Man do I feel old now).
Time for bed now, 4am comes early. Wow so far.....So, we are coming to the end of our Disney Vacation and so far so good. We are currently recovering from the Pirate and Princess Party. I thought I would write down a couple of events that happened.
The Illuminations Specialty Cruise was very cool. We had a "Friendship boat" try to run us down. I got some video and I will try to extract the audio and post it.
The Meal at the Hollywood Brown Derby was worth the 2 dining credits.
I met "Earl" from Trapped on Vacation then shared a meal at Shades of Green with him and "The Bleepin Wife" They are neat people that we have many common interests. I am also convinced that I am the "Anti Earl".
I will sort out more thoughts later.
April 13 Home Recovering and Disney StuffBig Plans are afoot.
Here are our WDW Plans:
Sunday: Leave @ Midnight or So, and travel through the morning.
Arrive at Saratoga Springs Resort. Get signed in and secure the tickets, Check over at OKW for Accessible rooms and confirm ECV delivery.
Head to DHS for a Meal @ The 50's Prime Time Cafe' Ride TOT and R&R coaster a couple of times.
Then hit Epcot for a little while.
Back to SSR for the night. Wake up early pack and Head over to OKW to get the keys. We will head over to Sunshine Seasons for an early lunch. Then meet the parents/niece at Guest Relations to give them the tickets/keys and head over to the "Seas Aqua Tour" for some Dive time.
Dinner will be at the Garden Grill then maybe a trip to Soarin'. At 8pm, we head over to Y&B Club to get on the Illuminations Cruise. After the fireworks, we head to Beaches and Cream for a Kitchen Sink.
Back home, and down for the Night.
Tuesday: Spend the Day @ EPCOT and the Evening meal @ Akershus.
Wednesday: Off to Animal Kingdom Evening Meal @ the Tusker House
Thursday: Disney Hollywood Studios, with the Evening Meal @ the Brown Derby followed by the Phantasmic Fireworks show. (We have reserved tickets for the show)
Friday: Sea World for the day. Breakfast @ Kona Cafe (Tonga Toast) then The Evening Meal @ Shades of Green (Seafood Buffet). Wishes from the Beach.
Saturday: This is a special day: We sleep in, spend some time at OKW / Pools / Boats. We need to be at the MK around 4pm, we will be taking my Niece to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for a make over and dress, dinner will be at crystal palace followed by the Pirate and Princess party until midnight.
Sunday: Back to the MK in the morning, then Epcot (Germany) for Dinner.
Monday: In the morning, nothing planned just catch up on what we missed or want to do again.
We have changed the plans a little. Originallly we were going to get dad an ECV and ended up we are going to need 2 (I blew out my ACL last weekend during Army Reserve Drill) I put them on reserve and they will be at OKW when we get there. So, now we will stop by Guest Relations and pick up a G.A.C.
April 09 About to head to the HospitalWell, it is 5:00 am and I can't sleep. I had my MRI yesterday and it showed a "rupture" (Complete tear) right in the middle of the Ligament, so @ 11 this morning, they will cut me open and fix it. I am ordering one of those electric chairs for our disney trip later this year.
April 07 Blown Knee / Surgery ScheduledWow, what a weekend.
This weekend, I had Drill and Sunday Morning we were doing PT, our group was playing "Ultimate Frisbee". Things were moving right along until I stopped and tried to turn to receive the frisbee. I and everyone that were around me heard a "Pop" and I went down. I headed to the Hospital and they xrayed it and gave me some painkillers. I headed over to my Ortho and he said that the ACL was torn and we needed to look at Surgery on Wednesday. So tomorrow I head over to the MRI Place and they will be able to confirm the diagnosis and see if there is any additional damage.
I also finished up on some planning for the trip and will blog that later. March 28 Advanced Disney PlanningOk, it is now 57 day and counting.... We are doing some advanced planning and were pretty successful at getting what we wanted when we wanted it. So for Reservations I secured: Hoop-De-Doo Thursday the 29th (21:15 Show) Germany Tuesday the 27th (17:15) Akershus (Princess Lunch) Tuesday the 27th (11:30) Garden Grill Monday the 26th 17:50 Prime Time Cafe (Keep your elbows off the table) Wednesday the 28th (11:55) Crystal Palace Sunday the 1st (08:15) Tony's Saturday the 31st (17:25) Right before Pirates and Princess Party. Kona Cafe Friday the 30th (08:40) There were no earlier shows left for Hoop-de-doo, and that will probably be the one we cancel. That is awful late for the little ones. More later..... °o° February 19 It is almost spring so it must be blogging time again.It is almost the end of February and so the summer travel planning have started. It does not look like my employer will be paying for me to attend Teched this year but I have helped the guys that are going to get off on the right foot.
My family is taking a vacation this year (the first dedicated vacation in a long time) no school/class before/during/after just us and Mickey... I know it is a shock but we are heading toward WDW this May and will enjoy over a week of madness.
I will post more on the plans later (I have to wait for 90 Days out to have a reservation on some of the stuff)
Going are: My Wife, Son, Daughter, Grandson, Dad, Mom, Niece and I. We would take up some room so we did some checking at Shades of Green but they did not have any suites left. I checked with Disney Direct and through AAA and a DVC was very expensive, I looked at some alternatives and settled on "renting points", so now We have a reservation at Old Key West (Disney Vacation Club)in a 2 Bedroom Villa. We stayed there many years ago when it was the only DVC (in fact that was it's name).
Ruby, (My Jeep Rubicon) is doing great. Kyle and I love taking her offroading. I heard of an offroad park near Birmingham and I hope to take her there. September 27 Vacation Disney, The magic is not goneWell, lets see....Most of the Vacation went as planned. But, as with all good plans it did not survive the 1st shot....
Life is goodAs I type this, I am waiting for a Server 2003 installation to finish, and thought I would put some of my thoughts into words.
I am a new Grandfather (that is truly strange) and will upload some pics in the next day or so. I am taking this weekend off and heading to Florida to Watch FSU take on Alabama. Molly, her friend (and mine) Ashley, and I are going to Jacksonville and we are excited. This will be the first long trip in the new Jeep. We also have Tickets for the FSU/Miami game in October.
Molly and I went out to California in August and had a great time. I was attending a Project Management class and she got to spend time by the pool during the day and we had enough time to sightsee during the evening. We flew out on Delta's 777 Business Elite and really enjoyed the service. We stayed at the "Ayers Hotel" in LA and it reminded us of an Old European hotel. We visited the "Alpine Village" and ate some good german food. The week ended too soon and we had to fly back, although we had 1st Class seats, that 757 just did not cut it, give me the 777 any day. We met one of the advance men for Kiss while we were in the Crown Club room.
This past weekend, Kyle and I went up to "Fort Red Rock", it is a paintball park that is about to open (it is owned by Richard and Katherine Rapier) they asked us to give them an opinion about the park. It is the most unusual park I have ever seen. There are several fields of play with different levels of difficulty. They have one field that has a plywood 2 story house, another with 2'/3'/4' wide trees stacked, another with half buried boats and Concrete pipes on their ends. They also have a very large area for speedball. They will be ready to open in about a month. It is the most professional park I have ever seen.
While Kyle and I were at the park, I showed him how to drive a 4wd vehicle through some fairly rough terrain. We did have a good time.
I am Beta testing Windows Server 2008, and that is going quite well, I have installed the Viridian (Virtualization) role and am looking to run through its paces.
I just got my new notebook, HP 8710w 17" wide Centrino Pro, Dual Core, 512mb of Video RAM, Holy Cow is it fast. I am liking this.
I am saddened by the demise of the Alabama Steeldogs. They had a pretty good run, but RIP Rusty.....
June 16 Teched 1 week later part 2Several weeks before teched I wrote the following:
What I expect to get out of this conference is:
1. Longhorn inside and out. I have been on the Vista/Longhorn beta team since the start but I want more.
2. Virtualization. How Microsoft will deal with the Enterprise class ESX server and give me more options than just VMWare.
3. Vista. I know it is released but again I want the inside story.
4. Systems Management/Forefront. I would love to find a reason to replace Alteris/Symantec.
5. Hardware. Ok Intel/AMD/HP/Dell....Show me what you got.
6. SWAG. You just can't have enough Plastic/spongy/T-shirt/thingys.
7. A Better Bag than 2005 and VMWorld.
8. A new Conference Party Venue. Please don't send us to Universal Studios again. I am thinking Disney-MGM Studios, EPCOT, Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom would be better than a repeat of 2005. Been there. Done that.
Now I am going to grade the event based on my expectations.
1. I got just about everything I was looking for conserning Longhorn.
2. I really want the Beta Bits for Windows Virtualization on Server 2008. I didn't get them though. Microsoft has the potential for producing an ESX server killer.
3. I didn't have enough time to get everything I wanted for Vista, but there were several others from the company that did.
4. Systems Management was front and center. After talking to several Microsoft SEC specialists It is not ready yet 12-18 months for that to happen.
5. Where the dump was Dell? I saw 1 guy at a AMD booth. HP Had a really nice booth and I got to speak with a mobility manager. (Brian Mancuso)
6. SWAG was there 13 t-shirts and lots of software/demos (and a screaming monkey)
7. Bag was better and worse, Design was good, Zippers were bad.
8. See previous entry. I did not enjoy the whole lets close early thing.
Pics on the way. Teched is over, and now the evaluationOk, Teched has been over for a week now I have had a chance to sort it all out here goes an evaluation.
What went well...
Classes: The Content was magnificent. I really enjoyed the "How I can hack your network in a day" the other classes that stood out were a couple of Virtualization and sharepoint classes that I can not wait for the DVD Pack.
Microsoft Kiosks: Separating them from the Expo area was a great idea. Staffing them with experts like Jeff Woolsey shows they really care about their products and making sure we can use them effectively.
Meeting people: Ali Parker and Jeff Woolsey. I wish I could have met more like Brian Marble et al.
Transportation: Usually timely. But a couple more busses on the further hotels would help.
Soliciting opinions: I filled out my final evaluation and requested to be on the attendee committee planning next years event. That would be very cool if I was selected.
What did not go so well....
Keynote: The whole Christopher Loyd thing was lost on me. It seems like they planned to do more but something happened that stopped it. No offense but, Bob Muglia is not a dynamic speaker. Bring on Steve Balmer any day. That Guy from Gartner was in a word "horrible" I have never seen a stream of persons leaving a keynote like that before. I asked a couple of them where they were heading and they said to line up for swag.
The Attendee party: I do not blame Microsoft for this but, Universal decided to close lines at 10:30 so that kept me from enjoying that funnel cake at 10:40. That just left a (Pun follows) bad taste in my mouth. The Poncho Distribution plan needed work as well, I don't know who came up with the idea to have a "free for all" but there was too much pushing and grabbing. There was no organization and they ran out before lot of people got a poncho. I did like the idea of only having resturants serve food and no tables in the street.
Breakfast: The Powdered Eggs were not fit to eat or be served. I spent 23 years in the army and have had much better in the field. I met a lady who said her name was Amy Parish, she told me that if I did not like the way things were run/served that I should take up event planning and "do better".
I have to go right now but, I have some more thoughts coming.
May 26 I have THE greatest Parents in the worldMy Parents (George and Artie Stringer) are the best parents in the world. Last week, they called and asked me and the family to come down and look at some Jeep Wranglers. We did and much to my surprise they bought me my Dream Vehicle. A 2007 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (Now nicknamed Ruby, because of the model and a tribute to my Maternal Grandmother Ruby Locke). I know it is green but, it fits. Check out the photos.
Thanks Mom and Dad! I love you both, not because of what you bought, but because of who you are, and what you made me. April 23 36 Day to go now.Not much has happend since we last touched base. According to my Countdown clock, we have 36 Days to go until we leave for Orlando. We have moved days around so we can enjoy the Princess Breakfast in Epcot but we are still doing the same things. I can't wait to get Kyle on Rock and Roller Coaster.
As far as the schedule at Teched goes, we should know soon when/where the classes are going to be held. I made a HUGE mistake last time that I will be glad to share with 1st timers. Look at the class number: if it says Nxxx then it is on the north side of the conference hall. If it says Sxxx then it is on the south side. That should be fairly obvious, the problem is: If you have to go from N320 to S210 then you need to plan on a 10 - 15 minute HIKE. There is only 1 way to go and it is a pretty long walk. If they offer multiple times/locations, try to stay on the same side at the very least if not, wear shorts/running shoes. Segways would be cool.....
I am looking for a good Camcorder light. If anyone has had a good or a bad experience with any particular models, please drop me a line.
April 10 50 Days and countingAs of today we are at 50 days until we leave for Walt Disney World. We are excited about a Family Vacation combined with some good training. Now here is our schedule:
30th of May: Depart (Southwest Airlines) Staying at Shades of Green. We should be there in plenty of time to attend the Luau and rest for a busy couple of Days.
31st of May: Up Early for a Princess Breakfast at EPCOT, All Day at EPCOT including evening Extra Magic Hours. (Mission Space here we come)
1st of June: Up Early again, this time for Disney-MGM Studios and the First day of the Star Wars Weekends.
2nd of June: A water park (Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach) Move to Yacht Club
3rd of June: Pre-Conference Session
4-8 of June: Teched
7th of June: Attendee Party at Islands of Adventure
9th of June: (Sea World) Move Back to Shades of Green
10th of June: A Water Park (Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach) Pack to go back to reality.
11th of June: An early flight back home.
I am taking my notebook, Digital Camera, HD Video Camera and should be able to upload items during the day/evening as we go.
Teched 2007Has it been 2 years already? It doesn't seem like it. Last year I did not go to Teched because my company will only pay for 1 conference a year so it was off to VMWorld. This year Teched is back in Orlando, and I am ready for it to start. I have already registered for it and a Pre-Conference "deep dive" of Longhorn server. So for me Teched starts on Sunday. We have reservations at shades of green (www.shadesofgreen.org) for a couple of days pre-conference and we will depart on Saturday the 9th. I have been doing a lot of research into this years conference and most of the information is scarce but I found a couple of sites. (http://bmarb.spaces.live.com/) (http://techedunplugged.spaces.live.com/) as well as (http://techedbloggers.net)
What I expect to get out of this conference is:
1. Longhorn inside and out. I have been on the Vista/Longhorn beta team since the start but I want more.
2. Virtualization. How Microsoft will deal with the Enterprise class ESX server and give me more options than just VMWare.
3. Vista. I know it is released but again I want the inside story.
4. Systems Management/Forefront. I would love to find a reason to replace Alteris/Symantec.
5. Hardware. Ok Intel/AMD/HP/Dell....Show me what you got.
6. SWAG. You just can't have enough Plastic/spongy/T-shirt/thingys.
7. A Better Bag than 2005 and VMWorld.
8. A new Conference Party Venue. Please don't send us to Universal Studios again. I am thinking Disney-MGM Studios, EPCOT, Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom would be better than a repeat of 2005. Been there. Done that. July 10 A fantastic WeekWell Where do I start....
I took my family to Tallahassee, FL so my son could attend the Bobby Bowden football camp http://bobbybowdenfootballcamp.com he learned alot and got a chance to meet "Saint Bobby" but I got a chance to speak to him for an hour one on one! I was a dream come true. Kyle impressed a recruiter even though he is only in the 8th grade. So all in all a very good week. I will send more pics later and will add to this as I have time.
March 14 Talking about Blogthings - Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?***You Passed the US Citizenship Test***
Quote Blogthings - Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?
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