Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Birthday

Today is my young one's 19th birthday. He is a freshman at the University of Toledo and is a music education major. He has accomplished this all on his own, without any financial or emotional assistance from one of his parents and what little that I have been able to offer to him.

He is advanced beyond sad to resentful and angry that he has had no support, emotional or otherwise from his male parent since our divorce 10 years (yep, it HAS been that long) ago. Once he became fully ensconced in his new, remarried life, he has found it extraordinarily easy to "forget" his sons...and it has been a bitter pill that each one has swallowed in their own time and are dealing with in their own ways.

The firstborn has given up....his mindset is such that he acknowledges that he is fortunate enough to have a father who is not dead...but he might as well be for as well as he knows him or is involved in his life. The young one is much more intense, and his reaction is vehement...he feels let down, cut off and pissed off, that in another of the very important phases of his life, his father has opted to "keep a low profile"...

It is what it is...when they get angry about it, they vent to me...and last night...the night before his 19th birthday, the young one was angry...I cannot apologize for the behavior because I cannot understand it...they are always MY children, regardless of how careless others can be about it...

So..Happy Birthday my young one...I am so very proud of you...and love you more than you will ever be able to know....

That's it for now...till later...much love to you....

v

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

There are a lot of GOOD things about being a geek....

People think that geeks are dull and boring people who have their heads plugged into their monitors all the time, keeping up with the latest install of Linux or crunching some code to do something or other that noone cares about....nothing could be farther from the truth, in my personal experience....

I work with a lot of people who are very "tech-savvy" and have to be to get their jobs done. They are informed on the latest tech advances in hardware and software and are very literate on the ways of networking and application use, as it applies to their particular jobs. You would think that with all that knowledge base to pull from, you would not need a person like me in the mix....that is where you err....

A support person is there because they are well-rounded in all the different things that people do, use and need to be able to do all of their jobs. They are expected to know everything about everything or at least how to figure it all out...and do it with speed, efficiency and if you are really good at it, with generosity and grace, so users don't feel like an inconvenience or a burden.

I think I am a really good support person....I am accessible, empathetic, not intimidating by any stretch of the imagination, and responsive. I will take a user's problem as my own and work it to its resolution, no matter how long it takes or how many tries I have to make at it....I do not take unsuccessful attempts as failures...I see them as "learning experiences"....chances to get more knowledge and be more successful in the future.

These are trying times in my office for IT...but I am still happy to be a geek...I can use my skill set to assure that at least the end users have some sort of stability and security in the face of a dynamic and changing IT environment....wish us luck....we are going to be needing it!!

That's it for now...till later, much love to you....

v

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

News....

Work is extremely busy....there are staffing changes in the offing that are causing a lot of fast-stepping to get things ready. The end of the month will be a frantic sprint, as we all attempt to take on new roles and embrace additional responsibiities during the transition. Challenges abound, but so far lots of teamwork and things are still getting done...it will be a difficult personal adjustment, because I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the staff member who is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

So...possible travel in the works as well...should be interesting...

That's the quick scoop..till later, much love to you...

v

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ben's Brother....more on them...

Ben's Brother

If you are getting into Ben's Brother, as it seems everyone who has access to a TV and the internet is, you MUST visit their official website and their MySpace page, where you can sample their music and find out more about them. If you have not seen the Dentyne Ice "Kiss A Frog" commercial that seems to be stirring things up here in the US for them, click on THIS LINK.

Enjoy!

v

PS - News on their MySpace declares that there is a US release of the song "Stuttering" available on iTunes NOW! GO get it!!!!

Friends....

Priscilla and LindaWent out for snacks and conversation with a couple of my dearest friends last night. These are the people that I connected with during my years working in the school district....the kindred spirits who supported me when I was most challenged and stood by me when I was down. Every one has known me from my very beginning in my chosen career as a support technician and has watched as I have grown into the IT person I am now. These are talented educators and very sweet and wonderful women. I am grateful to have them in my life.

Jackie and meWe had a great time, with lots of laughs, conversation and good food. I will be seeing one of my friends again on Thursday evening, and of course keeping in touch by phone with all. I hope that schedules allow us to get together again soon....I miss them a lot...it was great to spend time with them.

That's it for now....til later, much love to you....


v

PS - Another win for the Tribe last night - now up three games to one.....one more and off we go.....game is Thursday night....GO TRIBE!!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

More on "Ben's Brother"....

This group is taking off like crazy...the commercial seems to be an accidental exposure, judging from comments on their blog on their official website Official Website for Ben's Brother. Here you can get information on their schedule of appearances, connect to their blog, and download photos of the band for desktops.

Check it out...the band is awesome...and coming this way (US)....

More later...till then much love to you....

v

PS - The Cleveland Indians (MY TEAM!!!) won against the Red Sox last night 4-2 putting them up two games to 1 in the playoffs....Game 4 tonight at the "Jake"...GO TRIBE!!!!!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Weekend out....

Sunflowers at Hilger'sWith autumn reintroducing itself into the minds and hearts of midwesterners (after last week's near 90 degree temps and humidity!) my friend and I decided that we would take the weekend to see if the fall colours had started to show in the trees in NW Ohio and eastern Indiana. We started off Saturday morning on his very nice Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 in full leathers and full faced helmets (and YES I do have chaps and did where them!) south on Rt 23 from Sylvania to 24 toward Napoleon and other points west, namely our destination of Fort Wayne Indiana.

During the ride, we stopped in Napoleon to stretch our legs and grab a drink. We stopped at a truck stop across the road from Napoleon Harley, where there were a large number of bikes in the parking lot - obviously a rally or some other group activity going on....while we were at the counter to pay for our drinks and my ice cream treat (Snickers Ice cream bar YUM!) a voice from behind said, "You plan on winning everything again today?!" We turned to see one of the guys who was a participant in the Poker Run at the West Unity American Legion, which we attended several weeks ago. He had a big grin on his face and as we chatted, he disclosed that the event across the way was a Harley riders "Toys for Tots" event, with a band and food. He invited us to crash, but we had a plan and a timeline we had to stick to so we went our separate ways with a smile and a wave.

We traveled at a leisurely pace for about an hour and a half, stopping along the way to snap photos when the spirit moved us. We arrived in Fort Wayne and at our hotel just in time to see that there was a gaming convention and a wedding reception sharing our weekend getaway...no worries....we took a short ride to "The Rib Room" for a great barbeque meal and then retired to our room to watch the Indians whip the butts of the Boston Red Sox.

On Sunday, we slept late and took in brunch at King Gyros, which was within walking distance of the hotel. If you are ever in Fort Wayne, you have to check this place out...best gyros ever....

The day went by way too quickly on Sunday and much sooner than I would have liked, it was back to the grind of work and home responsibilities....it is nice to take these little breaks from it all....I am at work today with a good attitude and ready to face whatever is thrown at me.

I will post a few photos from the trip in my SkyDrive and also on Flickr...till later...much love to you...

v

Thursday, October 11, 2007

God Bless Microsoft...

SkyDriveWith all the stuff that they do that pisses people off, it is kinda odd and funny that I would actually be saying something nice about anything they have implemented, operating system-wise or anything else. I will say that I have been a Hotmail user for about four years, and as such have progressively reaped the benefits of several "upgrades" or "enhancements" to the online suite of services that started out as "Spaces" and now has its presence in cyberspace as "Live". The transition from one to the other for most users was pretty ugly and painful, with every new solution coming after a very problematic and tiresome deployment stage. The current iteration of "Live" has come about in the last year or so, and seems to have finally been finessed to a pretty darned good level of stability (most of the time) and a tight integration of services to support all levels of internet-savvy users.

The most recent service I have taken advantage of is the online network storage solution branded "SkyDrive", tied to your "Live/Passport" account and providing 500 MB of online, accessible anywhere you can get to the internet storage space. The capacity to use this storage for both private file transfer and public file access makes this a great FREE (yes!!! absolutely FREE) solution for traveling folks or people who are at a distance from one another who want to share photos or other files. The folder structure when you first log on is arbitrary; you can create your own directories with three different levels of privacy (private, shared, or public) and you can upload pretty much anything you own.

So far, I really like this solution and am using it to house some of the photos that I use on this blog. If you want to take a look at the interface and even browse my public folders, follow this link to My SkyDrive to see why I am pretty excited about this.

That's it for now....till later, much love to you....

v

PS - As of October 12 the size of my SkyDrive increased to 1 GB...it just gets better and better! :)

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

"Stuttering" - Ben's Brother

It's been, it's been, it's been, it's been su-su-su-such a long time-long time-long time
Since anybody touched me-touched me-touched me the way that you touch me......

So if I stutter-stutter-stutter, then I feel so-so-so unsexy...
So maybe I just keep my mouth shut...
At least until you kiss me...


So kiss me again, 'cuz only you can stop this stu-stu-stu-stu-stuttering...
Kiss me again and ease my su-su su-su su-su-su-suffering....

whoa....yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah...oh



I know, I know, it's so-its so sy-sy-sy-symbolic of everything
Everything thats wrong with me and you....
So tell me what I'm s'posed to do.....
Oh, it's been ages since we've been really honest,
But I can make ch-ch-ch-ch changes, if you really want this....

So kiss me again, 'cuz only you can stop this stu-stu-stu-stu-stuttering....
Kiss me again and ease my su-su su-su su-su-su-suffering....

Kiss me again, 'cuz only you can stop this stu-stu-stu-stu-stuttering....
Kiss me again and ease my su-su su-su su-su-su-suffering.....

______________________________________________

Get to know this group...you are hearing this song in the currently running Dentyne Ice "Kiss a Frog" commercial (look for it on YouTube) You can hook up with more information on the group including UK and US release dates for their album Beta Male Fairytales at their MySpace pageBens Brother London UK - Acoustic/Pop

This song speaks to me....enjoy...till later much love to you...

v

A quick post...

The young one has moved through "first degree" in the rush process for his fraternity and has a "Big Brother" and is learning his family lineage. Very busy and tired, but pleased at how things are going so far.

As for me, I am trying to keep things in perspective....more later...till then much love to you.

v

Monday, October 01, 2007

The flyer read.....

Emily - founder of Operation Support Our Troops in Northwestern Ohio...American Legion Riders Poker Run
to benefit Operation Support Our Troops
An area organization that sends needed supplies to active service members of NW Ohio
Sign in at 10 a.m - Kick stands up at 11

Last Bike In – 3:00 PM
Ride begins at the West Unity Legion, West Unity, OH
$10 per rider, $15 with passenger
Rain or Shine
Food and drinks available, patch sewing
For more information call Perry at 419-298-3667



_________________________________________________


The leaders of the pack...Over the weekend, my companion and I joined with the Harley Riders Group of the West Unity Post of the American Legion on a Poker Run, proceeds of which went to the local organization “Operation Support Our Troops”, a grassroots effort totally run on contributions by an ex-middle school teacher who has recently been diagnosed with leukaemia. The post raised over a thousand dollars from participants.

The day was beautiful for a ride and the people were all there to provide their monetary and visible support to this very worthy cause. The view behind from the center of the group...The included photos show what it is like to be a participant in the middle of the group in a poker run. A couple interesting things happened during the day….I won the poker hand at the end of the run, and the first place monies that went along with that, with a hand consisting of a king, two aces and three 4’s. There were also tickets sold for a fifty/fifty raffle and door prizes. We also won the fifty/fifty raffle with a value of nearly four hundred dollars, and we gave the money on behalf of the post to the lady who runs “Operation Support Our Troops”, increasing her total toward the cause from this event to about fourteen hundred dollars.



During the day, we saw a lot of beautiful scenery in NW Ohio, met many interesting people and were able to contribute to a worthy cause in a much more significant way than we had at first anticipated. It was a great weekend…my butt’s a little sore from all the riding, but every time I have to shift in my seat a little, it reminds me of the really fun time I had over the weekend!


Hope you enjoy the photos and the short narrative....till later, much love to you....

v

UT Symphonic Band...a late entry

Young one and the firstborn's Ann...My young one had his first official performance since his affiliation with the University of Toledo Department of Music last Thursday night at 8 PM at Doermann Theatre at University Hall. The photo at right shows him and the firstborn's Ann as they perform with the University of Toledo Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr Collins. Dr Jason Stumbo (of Communiversity Band and Rocket Marching Band fame) was also present conduction his group (which I do not recall the official name of) and a very enjoyable evening was had. The young one, unfortunately had a longer evening than this however, as his fraternity is responsible for the moving of equipment back to the Performing Arts building after the concert....his arrival home several hours later was the culmination of a grueling day for him and he took just long enough to grunt in my general direction as he staggered off to bed.

Hope you enjoy the photo...that's it for now....much love to you....

v