greyduck.net

Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Author: Karel Kerezman

  • A Year Or So In Music – 2020/2021 Capsule Reviews

    It’s been a while since I last posted a full proper album review, not since the last Pet Shop Boys and Mono Inc records landed in my library… and it may be a while longer yet, because what you’re going to get here is a mess of bullet points with brief summaries. Sorry about that. I’ve been buying music all along, mind you. The dearth of writing about those purchases stems from the same malaise that prevents me from writing about much of anything else.

    So, since I just picked up the new Jethro Tull record, let’s try to catch up a bit with the last year or so of new material in my library. (I’m going to leave out some singles and compilations and what-not for various reasons.)

    (more…)

  • A Staging Share for Automate

    Three years ago, my employers left the Kaseya remote management system behind and migrated to ConnectWise Automate (formerly known as LabTech before the CW juggernaut bought it up, along with a variety of other acquisitions). While there are large benefits to being on this new system, such as not having been part of a gigantic supply-chain malware attack, we do miss a few things from the Kaseya system. Kaseya’s agent status indicators were far superior to Automate’s indicators, its agent software installed and updated far more reliably than Automate’s does, the agent software could be removed via the remote management system, and Kaseya featured a built-in staging share function.

    We used the heck out of that share system, mostly for patches but also for other kinds of software deployment. We’ve just kind of gone without that functionality in the years since, but every so often we lament the loss and wonder if there’s a solution.

    So this month I’ve started building one. In the stupendously unlikely event that another Automate admin is looking to do something like this, here are the building blocks I’ve put together.

    (more…)

  • Winter 2022 Anime – The Few Shows I’m Watching

    Yes, I still watch anime. Just not as much as I used to, and not the same kind of stuff that I used to. Here’s a quick run-down (alphabetically, for lack of a better sorting order) of what I think I’ll be sticking with through the rest of the season:

    (more…)

  • A New Lease On Lifelessness

    For a brief shining few moments I thought I had a plan to get us out of this apartment, which we used to love and now wish to depart. The solution just isn’t going to work, however, and when the other options are “go month to month for a whole lot more money” or “suck it up for another year of dealing with this clown-car operation for only slightly more money,” well.

    Guess I’m gonna get used to the sight of floppy shoes and red-ball noses, ’cause it looks like we’re re-upping that lease to save money.

  • Not loud, just loud enough.

    Next time we move, I want it to be somewhere that I don’t share a floor or ceiling with strangers.

    It’s not that the current downstairs neighbors are super-loud. They’re just loud enough that I, with my combined misophonia and anxiety, can’t sleep or even fully relax when they’re watching shows loudly or their dogs are barking or what-have-you.

    Unfortunately, it looks to be another year in this place before we can even consider trying to relocate. Ugh.

  • It’s (Only) Over Nine Thousand!

    I reached a milestone far earlier than originally expected, and it only took two years of a deadly and debilitating global pandemic to help make it happen: The current remaining dollar amount for the loan I’ve been paying off for let’s-not-talk-about-how-many years is a four digit integer for the first time since the original disbursements landed.

    I’m not a student, but the loan I’m paying is for a student, and qualified enough to be caught up in the “student loan flexibilities” program for the last couple of years. I’ve been making normal-amount payments anyway, thus chopping away at the principal while there’s no interest accumulating.

    And today I can see a result that makes me… well, “happy” may not be the exact word, but it gives me some hope that I might get this thing done & dusted before the year’s out.

    (I’m allowed to hope, right?)

Calendar

November 2025
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

My Links