I don't normally talk about work, mainly because it's hard to explain exactly what I do outside of "work on computers". Today's a big day at work though, so I'm going to talk a little about it.
A couple of years ago the electric industry got together and agreed to self-regulate cyber and physical security for "critical assets". They came up with a list of nine standards that each contained multiple requirements. What it meant for us is that we had to basically, completely change the way we were doing everything. Procedures had to be written and new processes had to be implemented in order to comply with these standards. The standards have both their good and their bad, but a fair amount of them are probably going to be beneficial to us (and the industry as a whole) in the end.
At any rate, as of tomorrow we have to be "auditably compliant" on all of the standards. Some of them went into effect this time last year, but the rest, and most of the more difficult ones, go into effect tomorrow. So today's the big day. Cross all our "T"s and dot all our "i"s. That kind of thing. We've spent more than two years working towards this day. It's nice to finally be at this point and to feel like we've got it all under control.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Short Week Ahead - Yay!!!
I'm pretty excited that the work week is only four days this week. As for the weekend just past, it was pretty good.
Friday we ate dinner and hung out and finally went to the 10:00 showing of Transformers. I was pretty happy with the movie. I don't think it was as good as the first, but I went in with pretty low expectations and the movie pretty much exceeded those. The story was pretty thin, but honestly, the story for the first one wasn't much better. These movies are all about the CGI and blowing stuff up and at those two things, the movie preformed admirably.
Saturday was yard day. The little bit of rain we got last week set the grass to growing like crazy. It was incredibly hot but I got interrupted a couple of times so I had a couple of breaks. The first break was work calling about a problem. I got that fixed and then a little while later Mom stopped by. She told us about her trip to Mexico but I didn't get to hear all of it. I was afraid that if I didn't get going again, it would just get hotter, so I got back to work on the yard.
Sunday was good also. We had a great Sunday morning service and later that afternoon we spent some time working on the new computer and I think we've finally, maybe got most of the technical glitches worked out. Now we just have to get everybody trained on the software and then start working on expanding our abilities with the video system.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Friday we ate dinner and hung out and finally went to the 10:00 showing of Transformers. I was pretty happy with the movie. I don't think it was as good as the first, but I went in with pretty low expectations and the movie pretty much exceeded those. The story was pretty thin, but honestly, the story for the first one wasn't much better. These movies are all about the CGI and blowing stuff up and at those two things, the movie preformed admirably.
Saturday was yard day. The little bit of rain we got last week set the grass to growing like crazy. It was incredibly hot but I got interrupted a couple of times so I had a couple of breaks. The first break was work calling about a problem. I got that fixed and then a little while later Mom stopped by. She told us about her trip to Mexico but I didn't get to hear all of it. I was afraid that if I didn't get going again, it would just get hotter, so I got back to work on the yard.
Sunday was good also. We had a great Sunday morning service and later that afternoon we spent some time working on the new computer and I think we've finally, maybe got most of the technical glitches worked out. Now we just have to get everybody trained on the software and then start working on expanding our abilities with the video system.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Friday, June 26, 2009
Craziness
Friday has come and the end of what's turned into a strange week is upon us. Three celebrity deaths this week.
Of course everyone is going to be talking about Michael Jackson all weekend. His death seems to be the most shocking, but when you think about it, it really shouldn't be. He hasn't looked healthy in years. Even if he was faking some of it for the press, I sure there was some truth to some of it. Just look at the guy. He was horribly skinny and frail looking and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was taking some kind of wild prescription drug cocktail. Most of everything I've heard has only mentioned the recent years of his life in passing. It seems the media is content to focus on the success he had and diminish the missteps of his later life. I guess that's fine, it's not like it didn't happen with Elvis too, but I have a feeling people won't be making pilgrimages to Neverland Ranch like they do Graceland. At any rate, the whole thing is a tragedy and I hope his family, and especially his kids, can find some peace.
Of there's also Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon to remember. I was a little too young to really remember any Johnny Carson, but every time I saw him or Ed on TV I remember laughing. Comedy is a special gift and one that I envy a bit. Beauty is also a gift and Farrah Fawcett was one of a kind. She also seemed like a guinuenly nice person. It's rare that everyone in Holloywood has something nice to say about a fellow actor or actress.
And so pass three big stars of the world. I guess it just reminds us that even the people we see on TV are growing old along with us. Have a good Friday and a good weekend.
--Paul
Of course everyone is going to be talking about Michael Jackson all weekend. His death seems to be the most shocking, but when you think about it, it really shouldn't be. He hasn't looked healthy in years. Even if he was faking some of it for the press, I sure there was some truth to some of it. Just look at the guy. He was horribly skinny and frail looking and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was taking some kind of wild prescription drug cocktail. Most of everything I've heard has only mentioned the recent years of his life in passing. It seems the media is content to focus on the success he had and diminish the missteps of his later life. I guess that's fine, it's not like it didn't happen with Elvis too, but I have a feeling people won't be making pilgrimages to Neverland Ranch like they do Graceland. At any rate, the whole thing is a tragedy and I hope his family, and especially his kids, can find some peace.
Of there's also Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon to remember. I was a little too young to really remember any Johnny Carson, but every time I saw him or Ed on TV I remember laughing. Comedy is a special gift and one that I envy a bit. Beauty is also a gift and Farrah Fawcett was one of a kind. She also seemed like a guinuenly nice person. It's rare that everyone in Holloywood has something nice to say about a fellow actor or actress.
And so pass three big stars of the world. I guess it just reminds us that even the people we see on TV are growing old along with us. Have a good Friday and a good weekend.
--Paul
Thursday, June 25, 2009
I Had It
But I lost it. "It" being what I was going to talk about today. Hmm...
We watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic" last night. It was actually one of the better romantic comedies DeAnne's had me watch in a while. I also told DeAnne that we needed to sue the people who made the movie because they had stolen her life story. I kid!!! DeAnne's actually nowhere near as bad as that. At least she does bargain shop.
We also watched, and I'm kind of ashamed to say, the first episode of the new season of "Real World". It's in Cancun this time. It's really pretty sad how terrible the show has gotten. I still remember the first couple of seasons where the people that were on it were not all pretty and they all pretty much had to find jobs for income while they were in the house and they all were dealing with real issues in their lives. Now it's just eight kids living in somewhere while cameras watch them party every night and bets are made on who's going to hook up this week. The only conflict that arises is when two of them are drunk enough to do something stupid and they get mad at each other and have a fist fight. It's sad when you think about the potential that the show had when it was just starting out.
Have a good Thursday.
--Paul
We watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic" last night. It was actually one of the better romantic comedies DeAnne's had me watch in a while. I also told DeAnne that we needed to sue the people who made the movie because they had stolen her life story. I kid!!! DeAnne's actually nowhere near as bad as that. At least she does bargain shop.
We also watched, and I'm kind of ashamed to say, the first episode of the new season of "Real World". It's in Cancun this time. It's really pretty sad how terrible the show has gotten. I still remember the first couple of seasons where the people that were on it were not all pretty and they all pretty much had to find jobs for income while they were in the house and they all were dealing with real issues in their lives. Now it's just eight kids living in somewhere while cameras watch them party every night and bets are made on who's going to hook up this week. The only conflict that arises is when two of them are drunk enough to do something stupid and they get mad at each other and have a fist fight. It's sad when you think about the potential that the show had when it was just starting out.
Have a good Thursday.
--Paul
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday Already
I was expecting this to be a long week but it's already Wednesday and things seem to be moving pretty quickly.
It rained yesterday! It rained pretty good too. We got a couple of good showers late in the afternoon. Of course, the first one decided to start just as I was pulling up to the dentist's office so that I would get soaked going inside, but, at least it rained. The rain will also probably mean cutting the grass this weekend, but that's fine. I can live with every other week or so. The high for Saturday right now is only supposed to be 94. That's still pretty tough, but it's nothing like the 101 it was this past Saturday.
You know times are bad when I'm talking about the weather. I just hate to bore you with work stuff and that's really all that's been happening this week. Something I thought was interesting though: On Monday I was having issues with Splunk. If you follow my twitter or facebook, then you probably saw the status update about fighting with it. I sent that out on twitter and used the mention feature and tagged the post with AIX and Splunk. Later that day, I opened a support call with Splunk about something unrelated. When the support engineer got back to me, he not only addressed my issue that I started the support ticket for but he also said that someone in the office had seen my tweet and told me how to go about getting the problem I tweeted about fixed. It's a total geek moment, but I thought it was awesome that twitter enabled a conversation that otherwise might not would have happened.
Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
It rained yesterday! It rained pretty good too. We got a couple of good showers late in the afternoon. Of course, the first one decided to start just as I was pulling up to the dentist's office so that I would get soaked going inside, but, at least it rained. The rain will also probably mean cutting the grass this weekend, but that's fine. I can live with every other week or so. The high for Saturday right now is only supposed to be 94. That's still pretty tough, but it's nothing like the 101 it was this past Saturday.
You know times are bad when I'm talking about the weather. I just hate to bore you with work stuff and that's really all that's been happening this week. Something I thought was interesting though: On Monday I was having issues with Splunk. If you follow my twitter or facebook, then you probably saw the status update about fighting with it. I sent that out on twitter and used the mention feature and tagged the post with AIX and Splunk. Later that day, I opened a support call with Splunk about something unrelated. When the support engineer got back to me, he not only addressed my issue that I started the support ticket for but he also said that someone in the office had seen my tweet and told me how to go about getting the problem I tweeted about fixed. It's a total geek moment, but I thought it was awesome that twitter enabled a conversation that otherwise might not would have happened.
Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Jon Or Kate +8
At least now it's official. Jon and Kate are done. It really is sad. We've always cheered for them but the longer the show has gone the more it's changed. I can't remember the last time they mentioned church or the kids going to a private Christian school, the last of the extended family that was mentioned was Jon's relatives in Hawaii and since moving to the new house they've not gone anywhere as a family like they used to. I guess they're the only ones who know the whole story but it's a shame that it's come to this point.
Anyway, on to happier things.
I'm really enjoying the Magic: the Gathering game they released on Xbox Live and I'm saying that without having played online or tried out any co-op yet. I've also started in on Wolverine and it's been awesome. It's extremely bloody but it's really just a whole lot of fun.
Other than that, it's just promising to be a long week at work. Next week is the regulatory deadline that we've been facing and we're getting close to being ready. Just a few more days to go and we can finally put all this mess behind us.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Anyway, on to happier things.
I'm really enjoying the Magic: the Gathering game they released on Xbox Live and I'm saying that without having played online or tried out any co-op yet. I've also started in on Wolverine and it's been awesome. It's extremely bloody but it's really just a whole lot of fun.
Other than that, it's just promising to be a long week at work. Next week is the regulatory deadline that we've been facing and we're getting close to being ready. Just a few more days to go and we can finally put all this mess behind us.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Monday, June 22, 2009
Hot, Hot, Hot
The '09 heat wave continues with no break in sight. It has been beyond ridiculous the past week or so and this past weekend was especially bad. We didn't do a whole lot, but who wanted to?
We ate dinner with Dad and Sherry Friday night for Father's Day. They left for their summer vacation at the beach Sunday, so we had to get it in early.
Saturday, I filled in a couple of holes in the yard that have been needing filling. That was about 7:45 and it was already over 80. I was only out there for about 45 minutes, but by the time I came it it looked like someone had hosed me down. Bryan and Adrienne called later that afternoon and invited us to go swimming. When we got there, the water temp was somewhere in the 94 to 96 range. It was more like taking a bath than swimming. After swimming we cleaned up and ordered out some Old Mexico and took it back to Bryan and Adrienne's house, watched a movie and played a couple of rounds of Rummikub.
Sunday we ate lunch with DeAnne's step-dad and that was about it. Edwin called and we played Gears for a little while last night and had a couple of good matches.
All in all, a good weekend, just hot.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
We ate dinner with Dad and Sherry Friday night for Father's Day. They left for their summer vacation at the beach Sunday, so we had to get it in early.
Saturday, I filled in a couple of holes in the yard that have been needing filling. That was about 7:45 and it was already over 80. I was only out there for about 45 minutes, but by the time I came it it looked like someone had hosed me down. Bryan and Adrienne called later that afternoon and invited us to go swimming. When we got there, the water temp was somewhere in the 94 to 96 range. It was more like taking a bath than swimming. After swimming we cleaned up and ordered out some Old Mexico and took it back to Bryan and Adrienne's house, watched a movie and played a couple of rounds of Rummikub.
Sunday we ate lunch with DeAnne's step-dad and that was about it. Edwin called and we played Gears for a little while last night and had a couple of good matches.
All in all, a good weekend, just hot.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Friday, June 19, 2009
Better Late Than Never
So yesterday morning I finally got my iPod up and running on OS 3.0 and everything's great there.
Yesterday afternoon, I was also able to finally download the trial for Magic: The Gathering on Xbox LIVE. I played a couple of games and so far, it's pretty awesome. The deck building is pretty limited, but the game itself is just like the real deal. They've also put in a lot of tips and help to make it easier for new players to understand and they've added timers so that things keep moving. The two games I played last night probably only lasted 10 minutes total. The only complaint I really had in the brief time I played was that the background music wasn't all that great, but what can you expect from an Arcade game that only costs about $10.00. All in all it seems like an awesome way to get a Magic fix. Especially when you consider that I don't have to sink a bunch of money into buying cards.
We also watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" last night. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I have to say I was plesantly surprised. It was a little strange at times, but for the most part it was a really good movie. It really had a kind of a "Forest Gump" feel to it, just in reverse. Definetly worth checking out.
Have a good Friday and a good weekend.
--Paul
Yesterday afternoon, I was also able to finally download the trial for Magic: The Gathering on Xbox LIVE. I played a couple of games and so far, it's pretty awesome. The deck building is pretty limited, but the game itself is just like the real deal. They've also put in a lot of tips and help to make it easier for new players to understand and they've added timers so that things keep moving. The two games I played last night probably only lasted 10 minutes total. The only complaint I really had in the brief time I played was that the background music wasn't all that great, but what can you expect from an Arcade game that only costs about $10.00. All in all it seems like an awesome way to get a Magic fix. Especially when you consider that I don't have to sink a bunch of money into buying cards.
We also watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" last night. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I have to say I was plesantly surprised. It was a little strange at times, but for the most part it was a really good movie. It really had a kind of a "Forest Gump" feel to it, just in reverse. Definetly worth checking out.
Have a good Friday and a good weekend.
--Paul
Thursday, June 18, 2009
So Much For That
So my two things that I talked about yesterday didn't exactly go as planned. I got home from work thinking I would update my iPod, download Magic and then have a little time to play with one or the other before we left for church. Oh, how wrong I was.
I started with the iPod. After fighting with the apple servers, I was finally able to download the new software and waited as it installed only to have an error message pop up on the screen after a few minutes. The update had failed and had left my ipod without any software on it. After we got back home from church, I was able to restore the ipod using my laptop. For whatever reason, it seems our PC doesn't like dealing with the OS level stuff with my Touch. I thought I had it fixed last night only to have to go through the same thing again. So here I am this morning, having restored from my laptop again and now I'm just trying the 3.0 update from there. Hopefully it will work and I'll be able to resyn to my PC and get all my stuff back on my ipod the way I had it. I'm afraid I may have lost all my settings and data that I had on it though. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
If Apple letting me down wasn't bad enough, Microsoft was having problems with the Xbox marketplace yesterday afternoon and I wasn't able to download Magic. This wasn't nearly as frustrating as the ipod stuff, but I was still disappointed that the one time I was really excited about an Xbox Arcade game that was coming out was the one time they have problems with the marketplace and I can't download it. I haven't seen any messages or posts online saying it's fixed, but hopefully they'll get it straightened out before long.
Have a good Thursday.
--Paul
I started with the iPod. After fighting with the apple servers, I was finally able to download the new software and waited as it installed only to have an error message pop up on the screen after a few minutes. The update had failed and had left my ipod without any software on it. After we got back home from church, I was able to restore the ipod using my laptop. For whatever reason, it seems our PC doesn't like dealing with the OS level stuff with my Touch. I thought I had it fixed last night only to have to go through the same thing again. So here I am this morning, having restored from my laptop again and now I'm just trying the 3.0 update from there. Hopefully it will work and I'll be able to resyn to my PC and get all my stuff back on my ipod the way I had it. I'm afraid I may have lost all my settings and data that I had on it though. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
If Apple letting me down wasn't bad enough, Microsoft was having problems with the Xbox marketplace yesterday afternoon and I wasn't able to download Magic. This wasn't nearly as frustrating as the ipod stuff, but I was still disappointed that the one time I was really excited about an Xbox Arcade game that was coming out was the one time they have problems with the marketplace and I can't download it. I haven't seen any messages or posts online saying it's fixed, but hopefully they'll get it straightened out before long.
Have a good Thursday.
--Paul
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Two Things Today
So there are two things happening today that I'm a bit excited about.
The first is that the new iPhone/iPod Touch 3.0 software is coming out. Apple has been talking about it for about 6 months now and I'm anxious to see how all the new features pan out. Being a Touch user, I won't get as much benefit from it as an iPhone user will, but new software/features/upgrades always get me excited.
The other thing happening is that a game called "Magic: the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers" is coming out on Xbox LIVE today. Magic, or "mtg" for short, is what's called a "collectible card game". Most people are more familiar with Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. You buy packs of cards and build decks to play the game with. Cards have different abilities and rarities and that sets the value of a card. MTG is the granddaddy of all collectable card games. It was the first ever produced and I started playing about two years after it first came out when I was around 14 or 15. About a year after getting married and after several years of having not played the game, I sold my collection. The new Xbox game looks to be a cheap way for me to play again and not have to worry about finding friends to play against since it has online multiplayer. It also cost only $10, about the same as a starter deck of the real cards. The Xbox version is going to have a limited card pool and won't have the collectable aspect of the real cards, but it should be a great way to be able to play a game I always enjoyed.
Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
The first is that the new iPhone/iPod Touch 3.0 software is coming out. Apple has been talking about it for about 6 months now and I'm anxious to see how all the new features pan out. Being a Touch user, I won't get as much benefit from it as an iPhone user will, but new software/features/upgrades always get me excited.
The other thing happening is that a game called "Magic: the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers" is coming out on Xbox LIVE today. Magic, or "mtg" for short, is what's called a "collectible card game". Most people are more familiar with Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. You buy packs of cards and build decks to play the game with. Cards have different abilities and rarities and that sets the value of a card. MTG is the granddaddy of all collectable card games. It was the first ever produced and I started playing about two years after it first came out when I was around 14 or 15. About a year after getting married and after several years of having not played the game, I sold my collection. The new Xbox game looks to be a cheap way for me to play again and not have to worry about finding friends to play against since it has online multiplayer. It also cost only $10, about the same as a starter deck of the real cards. The Xbox version is going to have a limited card pool and won't have the collectable aspect of the real cards, but it should be a great way to be able to play a game I always enjoyed.
Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tunes
No major events happened yesterday and there was no divine revelation of what to talk about today, so I'm just going to go through some of the music I've been listening to.
Better Than Ezra has a new album out and it's probably the best they've put out in 7 or 8 years. It's called "Paper Empire".
I'm not crazy about the new Green Day album. I know that American Idiot was a "punk opera" and all that, but that doesn't mean that every album you put out from now on has to be one too. What happened to just writing 10 or 12 good, fun punk songs and being done with it. I guess I'm saying that the new CD looks like they're trying to repeat American Idiot and instead of looking brilliant, it feels desperate this time around.
I finally got the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss album. It's been out for a year or two now and I don't know how long I've been meaning to get it for, but it's been too long. Just about every song is good and a lot of them are great. All very subtle and it's interesting to hear Plant sing so softly instead of using his trademark wail from the Led Zeppelin days.
Finally, there's two new "super" groups that have albums out and both are pretty good. The first is "Tinted Windows" (group and album name). The band is Jame Iha from the Pumpkins (what caught my interest to start with), one of the Hanson brothers, the singer/songwriter from Fountains of Wayne and the drummer from Cheap Trick. I would look up all the names, but I'm running up against time. Anyway, they've got a very suggary-pop kind of thing going on. It's hard to describe, but it a lot like Fountains of Wayne, only with more candy coating. It's infectious and most of the songs are pretty good.
The other band is called "Chickenfoot" (also the name of the album). Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony (Van Halen's ex-bass player) and Chad Smith (drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers). With two former members of Van Halen, a rock drummer and a guitar player that usually does instrumental rock albums, you should be able to imagine that it's a pretty rock record. Most of the songs are over five minutes long and it's mostly because of the guitar solos. It's really an awesome record with a lot of just stright up guitar rock that you really don't hear much of anymore. Great album.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Better Than Ezra has a new album out and it's probably the best they've put out in 7 or 8 years. It's called "Paper Empire".
I'm not crazy about the new Green Day album. I know that American Idiot was a "punk opera" and all that, but that doesn't mean that every album you put out from now on has to be one too. What happened to just writing 10 or 12 good, fun punk songs and being done with it. I guess I'm saying that the new CD looks like they're trying to repeat American Idiot and instead of looking brilliant, it feels desperate this time around.
I finally got the Robert Plant/Allison Krauss album. It's been out for a year or two now and I don't know how long I've been meaning to get it for, but it's been too long. Just about every song is good and a lot of them are great. All very subtle and it's interesting to hear Plant sing so softly instead of using his trademark wail from the Led Zeppelin days.
Finally, there's two new "super" groups that have albums out and both are pretty good. The first is "Tinted Windows" (group and album name). The band is Jame Iha from the Pumpkins (what caught my interest to start with), one of the Hanson brothers, the singer/songwriter from Fountains of Wayne and the drummer from Cheap Trick. I would look up all the names, but I'm running up against time. Anyway, they've got a very suggary-pop kind of thing going on. It's hard to describe, but it a lot like Fountains of Wayne, only with more candy coating. It's infectious and most of the songs are pretty good.
The other band is called "Chickenfoot" (also the name of the album). Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony (Van Halen's ex-bass player) and Chad Smith (drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers). With two former members of Van Halen, a rock drummer and a guitar player that usually does instrumental rock albums, you should be able to imagine that it's a pretty rock record. Most of the songs are over five minutes long and it's mostly because of the guitar solos. It's really an awesome record with a lot of just stright up guitar rock that you really don't hear much of anymore. Great album.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Laid Back Kind of Weekend
We did a whole lot of nothing this past weekend.
Friday we hung out with Bryan and Adrienne. Saturday I spent in the yard and then we rode over to Enterprise so we could take some stuff back to a store and look for me some new shorts and then yesterday was church. DeAnne was helping host a bridal shower for Beth Cox and I had some PC problems to work on at the church, so we really were up there all day.
Over the weekend facebook added a feature that allows for vanity profile addresses. Myspace has had this feature for forever so I'm not sure why facebook has taken so long to get it, but either way you can now get to my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/jpdubose.
I'm trying my best to come up with something else, but it's just not happening. I'll try and find a good topic for tomorrow. Maybe some awsome news of some kind will come out and I'll have something to geek out over.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Friday we hung out with Bryan and Adrienne. Saturday I spent in the yard and then we rode over to Enterprise so we could take some stuff back to a store and look for me some new shorts and then yesterday was church. DeAnne was helping host a bridal shower for Beth Cox and I had some PC problems to work on at the church, so we really were up there all day.
Over the weekend facebook added a feature that allows for vanity profile addresses. Myspace has had this feature for forever so I'm not sure why facebook has taken so long to get it, but either way you can now get to my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/jpdubose.
I'm trying my best to come up with something else, but it's just not happening. I'll try and find a good topic for tomorrow. Maybe some awsome news of some kind will come out and I'll have something to geek out over.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Friday, June 12, 2009
I Am An Idiot
So yes, I am a complete idiot. Yesterday I should have blogged, not about miscellaneous nothing, but about my 4 year wedding anniversary. I could come up with any number of excuses as to why I failed to think to blog about one of the most significant days of my life but there really is no excuse.
DeAnne, I apologize. I love you more than words on a blog could every come close to expressing. That's no excuse not to try and declare such love in every place possible so here I am today, telling you and all who will read this, that four years ago yesterday you filled the place in my life, the part of my poor, broken heart, that only the woman that God had intended for me since the moment I blinked into existence could fill. Thank you. I love you now as I will always.
--Paul
DeAnne, I apologize. I love you more than words on a blog could every come close to expressing. That's no excuse not to try and declare such love in every place possible so here I am today, telling you and all who will read this, that four years ago yesterday you filled the place in my life, the part of my poor, broken heart, that only the woman that God had intended for me since the moment I blinked into existence could fill. Thank you. I love you now as I will always.
--Paul
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Miscellany
That was strange. Blogger was letting me in but when I hit "Create Post" it would just sit there on a blank screen. Now that it's finally decided to cooperate, I don't have much time.
So, let's see.
For all you iPod Touch/iPhone people out there: Popcap Games has put Peggle on sale for $0.99 until the 14th. It's usually $5.00, I think, so personally, this was too good of a deal for me to pass up.
Edwin and I got to play some Gears last night and we got into some very good matches. It was probably one of the best times I've had with the game in a while. No connection problems, no cheaters, just a whole lot of fun.
ABC has been nice enough to air the last three episodes of "Pushing Dasies" that were shot but never shown before the show was canceled. I hate the show didn't make it. It's such a fun, quirkey, somewhat strange show. It's really a shame.
I know this post has been pretty random, but that's about all I can think of at the moment. I'll try and do better tomorrow. Have a good Thursday.
--Paul
So, let's see.
For all you iPod Touch/iPhone people out there: Popcap Games has put Peggle on sale for $0.99 until the 14th. It's usually $5.00, I think, so personally, this was too good of a deal for me to pass up.
Edwin and I got to play some Gears last night and we got into some very good matches. It was probably one of the best times I've had with the game in a while. No connection problems, no cheaters, just a whole lot of fun.
ABC has been nice enough to air the last three episodes of "Pushing Dasies" that were shot but never shown before the show was canceled. I hate the show didn't make it. It's such a fun, quirkey, somewhat strange show. It's really a shame.
I know this post has been pretty random, but that's about all I can think of at the moment. I'll try and do better tomorrow. Have a good Thursday.
--Paul
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Have I Mentioned I Want a Mac?
Apple is having their annual developer conference this week and they always start it off with a keynote speech where they introduce new products. Two years ago, they introduced the first iPhone and every year since then, they've introduce upgrades. This year's upgrade is called the iPhone 3G[S]. I have no idea what exactly the "S" stands for, but basically, they put a better camera in the phone and added video recording capabilities. A lot of the stuff they showed off though was in the iPhone OS 3.0. The new operating system is going to be rolling out to all the older phone models and the iPod Touch. It has some really cool stuff in it and the new app capabilities are pretty neat.
They also introduced some lower prices for and made some small changes to their laptop lineup. They now have a 13-inch Macbook Pro for $1200. I think this is the cheapest Pro that they've ever had. Along with the laptops they talked about the new features of their desktop operating system upgrade, OS/X Snow Leapord. It's not a huge upgrade, but it seemed like a nice one. It's also only going to cost $29 as compare to Windows 7 being $129 when it comes out. I've always wanted a Mac, but now I really want one.
I guess everybody has to have a dream. Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
They also introduced some lower prices for and made some small changes to their laptop lineup. They now have a 13-inch Macbook Pro for $1200. I think this is the cheapest Pro that they've ever had. Along with the laptops they talked about the new features of their desktop operating system upgrade, OS/X Snow Leapord. It's not a huge upgrade, but it seemed like a nice one. It's also only going to cost $29 as compare to Windows 7 being $129 when it comes out. I've always wanted a Mac, but now I really want one.
I guess everybody has to have a dream. Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
My Grandmother
Almost two weeks ago my Grandmother (my dad's mom), had a kidney removed. It had quit functioning and was causing some problems so they decided to take it out. When they did, they found a mass in it. The path report came back last Friday and it was indeed malignant. The doctor believes that he might have gotten it all, but to be sure, he wants to go back in and take out the rest of the tube that ran from that kidney to the bladder. It that's clean, then he believes that he got it in time.
This all falls into my story about the weekend in that she lives outside of Atlanta. We had planned the trip for the concert well before we found out she was having surgery. We've been planning to go up there during the summer anyway, but when Dad called and told me they had found cancer, Courtney and Edwin were kind enough to let us take their car and drive over to see her on Saturday morning. It was good to see her and she looked really good too. She seemed to be recovering from surgery really well and it was a really good visit, even though it was so short. I can't thank Courtney and Edwin enough for letting us borrow their Xtera. You guys are the best.
So after we got back from seeing my Grandmother, every one loaded up and headed out. Heather, Harry, Evan and Drew decided to head on to Mobile while Courtney, Edwin and me and DeAnne hit a place called Maggiano's for lunch. After lunch we hit the road back to Andalusia and after a pit stop or two, we were home.
It was a great time and a great concert and great to have the chance to see my Grandmother so soon after she got the news about her kidney. Please pray for my Grandmother. She watched my Grandfather die of cancer nearly 14 years ago and I know she's worried about going through what she saw him go through.
Sorry to end on kind of a sad note. Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
This all falls into my story about the weekend in that she lives outside of Atlanta. We had planned the trip for the concert well before we found out she was having surgery. We've been planning to go up there during the summer anyway, but when Dad called and told me they had found cancer, Courtney and Edwin were kind enough to let us take their car and drive over to see her on Saturday morning. It was good to see her and she looked really good too. She seemed to be recovering from surgery really well and it was a really good visit, even though it was so short. I can't thank Courtney and Edwin enough for letting us borrow their Xtera. You guys are the best.
So after we got back from seeing my Grandmother, every one loaded up and headed out. Heather, Harry, Evan and Drew decided to head on to Mobile while Courtney, Edwin and me and DeAnne hit a place called Maggiano's for lunch. After lunch we hit the road back to Andalusia and after a pit stop or two, we were home.
It was a great time and a great concert and great to have the chance to see my Grandmother so soon after she got the news about her kidney. Please pray for my Grandmother. She watched my Grandfather die of cancer nearly 14 years ago and I know she's worried about going through what she saw him go through.
Sorry to end on kind of a sad note. Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Monday, June 08, 2009
Man, What a Weekend
Now that was a fun weekend.
Thursday, Courtney and Edwin and Harry and Heather all came up and stayed with us so that they wouldn't have to drive straight through from Mobile to Atlanta. We had dinner and an intense game of dominoes and even a little Rock Band action before we hit the sack.
Friday morning we loaded up into Courtney's Xtera, which was fun with six people and met with Drew and Evan in Greenville. Drew and Evan are also from Mobile but they couldn't come up Thursday night. So we split up cars in Greenville, stopped for lunch in Auburn and then got to Edwin's Aunt Kay's house about 4:30 Atlanta time. Aunt Kay fixed an awesome dinner and after dinner it was time to head to the concert.
Traffic was terrible. I'm not sure how long it took us to make what should have been a 25 minute drive, but it was somewhere around 2 hours, maybe more. We got inside the amphitheater about halfway through Paramore's set. We got to hear all their big songs except one though, so it wasn't to bad. We also managed to get a good spot on the lawn about dead center of the stage and about as far in the front as you could get.
No Doubt was pretty incredible. I've never just been a huge fan of theirs and we really just went because the tickets were cheap and we thought it'd be fun to go on a road trip with all of our Mobile friends. I've always liked No Doubt, but I wasn't really expecting to enjoy the show as much as I did, but they were really awesome. They ran through a bit of a tour de force of all their singles as well as other songs off all of their albums. They didn't play anything new and they didn't touch any of Gwen Stefani's solo stuff.
So the show was awesome and it didn't take us too long to get back to Aunt Kay's. We stayed up and goofed all for a little while and then all went to bed. I'm out of time today and I want to talk about Saturday in a little more detail anyway, so I'm going to stop here for today.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Thursday, Courtney and Edwin and Harry and Heather all came up and stayed with us so that they wouldn't have to drive straight through from Mobile to Atlanta. We had dinner and an intense game of dominoes and even a little Rock Band action before we hit the sack.
Friday morning we loaded up into Courtney's Xtera, which was fun with six people and met with Drew and Evan in Greenville. Drew and Evan are also from Mobile but they couldn't come up Thursday night. So we split up cars in Greenville, stopped for lunch in Auburn and then got to Edwin's Aunt Kay's house about 4:30 Atlanta time. Aunt Kay fixed an awesome dinner and after dinner it was time to head to the concert.
Traffic was terrible. I'm not sure how long it took us to make what should have been a 25 minute drive, but it was somewhere around 2 hours, maybe more. We got inside the amphitheater about halfway through Paramore's set. We got to hear all their big songs except one though, so it wasn't to bad. We also managed to get a good spot on the lawn about dead center of the stage and about as far in the front as you could get.
No Doubt was pretty incredible. I've never just been a huge fan of theirs and we really just went because the tickets were cheap and we thought it'd be fun to go on a road trip with all of our Mobile friends. I've always liked No Doubt, but I wasn't really expecting to enjoy the show as much as I did, but they were really awesome. They ran through a bit of a tour de force of all their singles as well as other songs off all of their albums. They didn't play anything new and they didn't touch any of Gwen Stefani's solo stuff.
So the show was awesome and it didn't take us too long to get back to Aunt Kay's. We stayed up and goofed all for a little while and then all went to bed. I'm out of time today and I want to talk about Saturday in a little more detail anyway, so I'm going to stop here for today.
Have a good Monday.
--Paul
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Long Weekend, Here We Come!
Well, for me at least. Now that school's out, weekends aren't really any different that the regular week for DeAnne. Anyway. The reason it's a long weekend is that I'm taking off tomorrow so that we can ride up to Atlanta and see No Doubt and Paramore. Courtney put the plan into motion, inviting us and several couples that we've met and become friends with in Mobile. Four of the Mobile folks are coming up tonight and staying with us and then we're hitting the road in the morning. It's just going to be a one-nighter, but it should be a blast. The best thing is that it's not costing us a lot. The tickets were only $20 and we're staying with Edwin's Aunt. A little gas and some food and we've got a fun weekend, with little cost.
Of course, all this is assuming that we can pull DeAnne away from The Sims 3 long enough to go. It came out Tuesday so after church last night, we went to Wal-Mart and picked it up. She then proceeded to play until around 3:00 in the morning last night. She's always loved The Sims and this new one seems to have a pretty large jump in the level of detail when creating a Sim and building a house. Those are her 2 favorite activities, so I imagine she'll keep on like this well into the summer.
So no blog tomorrow because we'll be packing and getting gone. Have a good weekend and a good Thursday.
--Paul
Of course, all this is assuming that we can pull DeAnne away from The Sims 3 long enough to go. It came out Tuesday so after church last night, we went to Wal-Mart and picked it up. She then proceeded to play until around 3:00 in the morning last night. She's always loved The Sims and this new one seems to have a pretty large jump in the level of detail when creating a Sim and building a house. Those are her 2 favorite activities, so I imagine she'll keep on like this well into the summer.
So no blog tomorrow because we'll be packing and getting gone. Have a good weekend and a good Thursday.
--Paul
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The Correct Answer Is...
Monday night, Microsoft started a beta program for 1 vs. 100 on Xbox LIVE. It plays just like the T.V. show did. There's one person playing against a 100 member mob with an audience playing along. Everyone answers the questions asked and you score points based on how well you do. The unique thing about this is that it's played out like a live T.V. show. There's a host (Chris) that comes on and gives commentary all along and the entire thing is made up of all live players. The first night there were more than 50,000 people all playing. I never made it into the mob. When you're in the crowd, you're paired off with three other players and you kind of play against each other. Once the beta is done and they start the program for real, there will be prizes. Instead of money, they're going to give away Microsoft Points that can be used to buy things online on the Xbox. They're doing a few beta programs before they start the "season". Once the season starts they're going to run the live programs for 12 weeks (I think). It doesn't sound that great written out, but it was really a lot of fun. And since there's not that much on T.V. during the summer, it can be a fun way to spend the evening.
Sony and Nintendo had their press conferences for E3 yesterday and after Microsoft showed Project Natal, I don't think the other two stood a chance. Sony showed their own motion controller, similar to the wii, but with more fine-grained control, but to me, it seemed like it was too little, too late. They also showed off the new redesign for the PSP, but until they get some games on the thing that people want to play, what's the point? Nintendo really had nothing other than a couple of games that looked like they might be cool.
Most of the major game news is out now, so I'll try and spare you another day of agony tomorrow. Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
Sony and Nintendo had their press conferences for E3 yesterday and after Microsoft showed Project Natal, I don't think the other two stood a chance. Sony showed their own motion controller, similar to the wii, but with more fine-grained control, but to me, it seemed like it was too little, too late. They also showed off the new redesign for the PSP, but until they get some games on the thing that people want to play, what's the point? Nintendo really had nothing other than a couple of games that looked like they might be cool.
Most of the major game news is out now, so I'll try and spare you another day of agony tomorrow. Have a good Wednesday.
--Paul
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Bah...
Well, the videos I posted didn't resize like I thought they would and they've run over the edge onto the sidebar. I'm just going to leave it though. They are too cool just to have a link to. I want everyone that reads the blog to just be able to hit play and see what I'm talking about.
EDIT: Well, I just checked in Internet Explorer and it looks like IE just cuts the side of the video off while Firefox lets it bleed over. Chrome cuts them off too. Here's the links to the videos so you can see them better:
Video 1
Video 2
--Paul
EDIT: Well, I just checked in Internet Explorer and it looks like IE just cuts the side of the video off while Firefox lets it bleed over. Chrome cuts them off too. Here's the links to the videos so you can see them better:
Video 1
Video 2
--Paul
E3 Has Begun
Microsoft held it's E3 press conference yesterday and while the games it showed didn't just blow me away or surprise me, the features they're adding to the 360 were pretty impressive.
The biggest thing though was this:
It's called "Project Natal" right now. They never said when it was coming out or maybe more importantly, how much it would cost, but it was easily the biggest thing they showed. And while that video is amazing enough, this one is what really blew me away:
The possibilities that exists for this technology are unimaginable. Microsoft has something very special here and if all they use it for is a game console, then they are fools. Just adding it to a PC opens up all kinds of things and I'm not talking about just sitting down at your computer. Combine this with home automation tech and you could come home, walk up to the door, the computer recognizes you, the door unlocks, the computer greats you and beings turning on lights as you walk through the house. Based on who is home, it could read the latest headlines to you, tell you the latest updates from your friends on facebook, and who knows what else. The power that recognition opens up to computing is limitless.
At work, instead of carrying around a badge that can be lost, you walk up to a door and say "Open" and the door opens for you. You sit down at a computer that Joe is logged in to and say "Login" and it saves Joe's work, logs him out and logs you in.
So many possibilities and it's all starting through video games. If you can't tell, I'm just a little bit excited about this. I'm also out of time. There's some other game-related stuff I want to talk about so just get ready for a game-filled week.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
The biggest thing though was this:
It's called "Project Natal" right now. They never said when it was coming out or maybe more importantly, how much it would cost, but it was easily the biggest thing they showed. And while that video is amazing enough, this one is what really blew me away:
The possibilities that exists for this technology are unimaginable. Microsoft has something very special here and if all they use it for is a game console, then they are fools. Just adding it to a PC opens up all kinds of things and I'm not talking about just sitting down at your computer. Combine this with home automation tech and you could come home, walk up to the door, the computer recognizes you, the door unlocks, the computer greats you and beings turning on lights as you walk through the house. Based on who is home, it could read the latest headlines to you, tell you the latest updates from your friends on facebook, and who knows what else. The power that recognition opens up to computing is limitless.
At work, instead of carrying around a badge that can be lost, you walk up to a door and say "Open" and the door opens for you. You sit down at a computer that Joe is logged in to and say "Login" and it saves Joe's work, logs him out and logs you in.
So many possibilities and it's all starting through video games. If you can't tell, I'm just a little bit excited about this. I'm also out of time. There's some other game-related stuff I want to talk about so just get ready for a game-filled week.
Have a good Tuesday.
--Paul
Monday, June 01, 2009
Running Behind
I don't know if I fell asleep in the shower or what, but I'm running a little behind this morning. I'm usually wrapping up the blog post right about now.
I pretty much accomplished all of the goals I had for the weekend. I got the grass cut, I finished reading "The Host" and I finished up playing "Prince of Persia". I even managed to get up and go get DeAnne's car an oil change. It also needed a couple of new brakes, so that hurt pretty bad, but what can you do? I don't think any of the brakes have been replaced since she got the car and it's almost 7 years old now. They probably would have needed replacing sooner but it's not like DeAnne ever uses them (I kid, I kid!! DeAnne really is a good driver. Better than me, that's for sure).
"Prince of Persia" was a pretty good game. I've said it before, but the graphics were simply beautiful. The gameplay could get repetitive in places, but the levels were pretty diverse. It was kind of a pain fighting a boss 5 times in each section, but combat has never been the point of the newer PoP games.
"The Host" turned out to be pretty good. The ending felt a little rushed, but I thought the same thing about all of the Twilight books, so I guess that's just Meyer's thing. She left it open for a sequel and I would read one if she wrote one. The world she created was every bit as interesting and cool as the world in Twilight and like the Twilight books, I imagine a second one would be an order of times better than the first.
I've gotta get going. Have a good Monday.
--Paul
I pretty much accomplished all of the goals I had for the weekend. I got the grass cut, I finished reading "The Host" and I finished up playing "Prince of Persia". I even managed to get up and go get DeAnne's car an oil change. It also needed a couple of new brakes, so that hurt pretty bad, but what can you do? I don't think any of the brakes have been replaced since she got the car and it's almost 7 years old now. They probably would have needed replacing sooner but it's not like DeAnne ever uses them (I kid, I kid!! DeAnne really is a good driver. Better than me, that's for sure).
"Prince of Persia" was a pretty good game. I've said it before, but the graphics were simply beautiful. The gameplay could get repetitive in places, but the levels were pretty diverse. It was kind of a pain fighting a boss 5 times in each section, but combat has never been the point of the newer PoP games.
"The Host" turned out to be pretty good. The ending felt a little rushed, but I thought the same thing about all of the Twilight books, so I guess that's just Meyer's thing. She left it open for a sequel and I would read one if she wrote one. The world she created was every bit as interesting and cool as the world in Twilight and like the Twilight books, I imagine a second one would be an order of times better than the first.
I've gotta get going. Have a good Monday.
--Paul
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