greyduck.net

Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Category: Life

  • The Tao Of GreyDuck

    I could tell you about the outrageous shopping trip with Lil’ and Anxiety during which much snacky goodness was purchased in between snarky phone calls to Mari for ice cream advice.

    But I won’t.

    I could tell you about the delightful evening spent in the company of the aforementioned Mari, her eerie Irish doppleganger Lyse, and the always-alluring Lilith.

    But I won’t.

    I could tell you about the searing, mind-numbing emotional depression and angry outbursts I suffered this morning, likely spawned by too many weeks spent under too many kinds of intense stress.

    But I won’t.

    I could tell you about how my friends, among whose number I count the aforementioned ladies as well as Wendi and her friend Amy, collectively brought me back to something resembling normalcy through the simple expedient of being caring and supportive.

    But I won’t, which shouldn’t be regarded as a lack of gratitude.

    I was sitting at my new desk, pondering all of the above and thinking about a journal entry, when I noticed that among the books unearthed during the mini-move on Saturday is my copy of “The Way Of Life,” better known as Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching. Using my old favorite technique from Richard Bach’s “Illusions,” I flipped open to a random page and started reading.

    21
    The surest test if a man be sane
    
Is if he accepts life whole, as it is,
    
Without needing by measure or touch to understand
    
The measureless untouchable source
    
Of its images,
    
The measureless untouchable source
    
Of its substances,
    
The source which, while it appears dark emptiness,
    
Brims with a quick force
    
Farthest away
    
And yet nearest at hand
    
From oldest time unto this day,
    
Charging its images with origin:
    
What more need I know of the origin
    
Than this?

    I leave the meaning of this as an exercise for the reader. Me, I just wanted to share a bit of something I don’t show very often: My soft spot for philosophical mumbo-jumbo.

    Please have a pleasant evening. Relax. Be well.

  • Another multifaceted update

    I did finish the rearrangement of the house yesterday. Bernie’s computer is now where the dining nook “should” be, and he has the big chair from out of Wendi’s room. The house is online again, though there’s still two gaming PCs to hook up. That can wait.

    During the start of the dinner break, Lilith and Geoffrey and the smaller demonspawn stopped by for a bit. Sadly, it was during the part where my room looked like a dorm room after a LAN party. Ah well. They didn’t seem to mind too much.

    I nailed Cat-5 to the walls, I vacuumed (yes, Lil’, I vacuumed), I threw out all kinds of garbage, and eventually I was able to call it good. It’s not a stretch to say that I’m very, very proud of myself for not making a disaster of it.

    Wendi came home from her second gig for the weekend, and we promptly went out for our official Last Date. It seems appropriate that two people who noticed each other during a pre-Rocky (Horror) dinner at Denny’s should end up sharing appetizers at a Shari’s. It was a very pleasant evening and we’ve reaffirmed that while we are parting ways, we’re parting as friends.

    This morning I went in to the office to do the email maintenance (basic version) and traffic system backup (single pass) as well as set up some of the new computers we ordered for the incoming KWJJ/KOTK staff.

    The good news is that I assembled every computer we’ve received so far. The bad news is that we’ve only received three out of the twenty-five we ordered. And the move-in date is this coming Friday.

    Speaking of work stuff that makes me nervous, I’ll leave you with yet another example of how Karel Is A Goddamned Idjut:

    Months ago, we ordered the licenses for the webserver project. I insisted that since I already have Win2K Advanced Server installers, they only needed to send me the regular Server install media.

    Cut to Friday. I frantically searched for the aforementioned Win2K A.S. CD. What I found instead was a regular Server installer, and I thought, “Damn, wrong one.” Eventually I had to call off the weekend project because without the Advanced Server installers we can’t accomplish a single thing.

    Late last night it dawned on me. “Duh,” I said to myself, “You’ve never had more than one copy of Windows 2000 Server, the one you found in your CD cabinet. You assumed all along that it was Advanced, but obviously it wasn’t. Moron.”

    Now I get to a) scramble to get Advanced Server install media, b) reschedule with the very-expensive-consultant and c) explain to the Corporate Internet folks the delay in getting their promised-by-month-end server cluster online. Eep.

    This is not the sort of thing that fills me with confidence in my ability to perform my job. *sigh* Ah well.

  • I shall call it… Mini-Move.

    Today’s the day. I’m going to attempt to reorganize (all by myself) large portions of the house so I can get my new bed into what is currently the computer room.

    The plan:

    • Clean, clean, clean.
    • Disassemble computers.
    • Move chair out of Wendi’s room.
    • Move black tables into position in Wendi’s room.
    • Set up computers on those tables and run Cat-5 back to the computer room. Er, my bedroom.
    • Drag bedding into my room. Assembling is optional.
    • If time and energy permit, get Bernie’s computer out of my room and run the 50′ cable from its new location back to my room. (I may not have a choice, depending on how the furniture is allocated throughout the day. I’m flying solo today so I’m not sure what the hell is going to happen.)
    • Whatever else ends up needing done as the process reveals. I’m woefully incapable of predicting how this is going to turn out, I’m afraid.

    So, if any of my friends are unspeakably bored today and want to help me redesign the layout of the house… well, they know how to reach me. (Okay, if you don’t… you can email my nickname, you know, the main part of this domain, at the Verizon SMS email domain, which is vtext.com. Was that spam-proof enough for you?) Gifts of snackyfoods and root beer are encouraged.

    This should not be seen as begging, mind you. I’m determined to get this done with or without help. I just figured I’d float the idea just in case. Never hurts, right?

    And tomorrow night, whenever I end up coming home, I’ll be sleeping in my own bed. This is a good thing. Progress.

  • Bits of random during trying times.

    In the interests of wasting valueless time, here are some bits and pieces:

    • Wendi’s getting a lot of mileage out of her journal nowadays. In a weird sort of way, it seems as though she’s been waiting for the right kind of incentive to really start writing out all of the things going on in her life. I’m almost ashamed to admit that she’s doing a better job of journalling her life right now than I am. Hey, more power to her, though.
    • Say what you will about Compa– er, HP computers, but you have to admit that the SmartStart CDs are just about the coolest thing to have if you need to set up Windows servers without much oversight or effort. Very neat.
    • I took Lilith out to dinner last night, partly because any time spent with Lil’ is time well spent, and partly because I wanted a real-world test of my financial independence. Yes, I have my own (very small) bank account now. Whee! Dinner was nice, the company was great, and nobody yelled at Lil’ for accidentally picking the same song twice on the jukebox…
    • The KWJJ/KOTK move-in is progressing more-or-less as planned. Email is working, though not without some issues related to the incestuous relationship between Groupwise and Outlook. The computers we ordered supposedly shipped on Monday so we’re hoping to have everything set up for the incoming Sales and Traffic folk by the end of next week. Wish me luck.
    • Me? I’m doing okay. Some days are better than others, and I’m learning a lot about myself. I’m scared, yes. But I have to do what I think is right, and a little fear isn’t going to stop me. I also have some of the coolest friends anywhere to back me up. There are worse places to be.

  • Father’s Day 2003

    When your day starts with breakfast in bed and the giving of gifts, you know it’s not going to be too bad of a day.

    Wendi and the kids brought me french toast and bacon. I love bacon. Mmmmm, bacon. I also received a bunch of Father’s Day cards, both commerical and handmade. Add to that a stack of music CDs and you’re talking about a pretty good morning.

    For the record, pardon the pun: Phil Collins’ “No Jacket Required” and “But Seriously,” and Sting’s “Brand New Day” and “All This Time.” One of the discs I already owned, but that’s okay. I was very touched and very happy all the same.

    I spent most of the day playing games by myself, recouperating from the stresses of work and from the strange day Saturday turned out to be. At day’s end, Wendi went out and picked up a bit of chinese-ish food from Safeway as well as various pizza-like objects and a whole bunch of Henry’s root beer.

    A side note for those who are interested: If you really want to butter me up then bring me Stouffer’s french bread pizzas, the pepperoni if you please. Thank you.

    Another side note: Safeway’s chinese-ish food is really not all that great. As if you needed to be warned.

    One more side note: Henry Weinhard’s is the best root beer on the planet, bar none.

    I put in a call to my own father late in the evening. Some incorrect notions about the divorce needed laying to rest, and we talked about falling headfirst into major life changes. All in all, we had a nice chat.

    The last event for the evening was a round of Boggle with all five members of the current household. Yes, even “grampa” got into the act. After a number of truly horrid rounds (“I can’t believe you managed to make that entire half all vowels!” alternated with “Um, how did you manage to only get one vowel?”) we closed out the game with the boys all well ahead on points. I won, of course.

    Yet another side note: We play Boggle with slightly modified rules. To wit, the kids are the only ones allowed to write down or score from three-letter words. It forces the adults to really work for their words, and it ensures that the children will get a respectable score as long as they put forth reasonable effort.

    After the Boggle game we shipped the kids off to bed, Grampa went singing, and that was pretty much the end of the day…

    I can only hope that dads everywhere had at least as good a day as I did. Happy Father’s Day!

  • Snapshots Galore

    My sister Christine and her husband John are in town this week on something of a late honeymoon. Today the Kerezman household went to my Aunt Jean’s place outside of Wilsonville to a family gathering where Sis could show off her hubby. Grandma Arlene and her husband Walter arrived with Great-Grandma Penny in tow. We collectively chowed down on burgers and hot dogs and chips and later on some chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and M&M Minis sprinkled on top. Man, that was a nice cake.

    Erica got to feed goats and hold a turkey. Alex got to play on a piano. Both kids splashed around in the pool for a while.

    The adults talked a lot as adults are prone to doing, especially members of a family that isn’t exactly known for its frequent gatherings.

    A nice time was had by all, everyone praised Sis for landing herself such a nice and good-looking husband, and the awkward family moments were kept to a merciful minimum.

    For the complete set of images I snapped during the afternoon, check out the “Family Gathering, June 2003” gallery.

    I also uploaded (finally!) a few of the pics from back when one of the Sakura-Con staffers had some folks over for a housewarming. Look in “People, Places, Things” to see his super-cool, super-mini screening/gaming room.

    There are more random images strewn about, but you’ll just have to poke around in the Gallery to find them all. Happy hunting!

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