Month: June 2003

  • Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!

    After nearly six full months during which it came be known to its participants as the Amish Tech Support Live F***ing Forever Pool…

    … we have two, count ’em two, deaths that count as scores for some of the players.

    Please note that we here at The Little Grey Duck do not make a habit of celebrating the death of other human beings. Unless, of course, those human beings really really piss us off. This is all in good fun, and the humor-impaired can jolly well bugger right off.

    To follow the fun and frolic, click the provided link, or use the handy “Death” icon down at the bottom of the left-side column.
    Amish Tech Support Dead Pool

  • Grr. Argh.

    Bite The First:

    So we’re given a budget for new computers, since the machines currently at JJ aren’t fit for bringing onto our network. That’s all well and good. I went to our wonderful CDW rep and asked for a quote on enough computers to equip the people coming over, and enough Netware licenses to get them on our server.

    And then I asked her for a bigger quote, adding some machines and network switches to the mix. I looked at the final quote, called it Good, and fumbled my way through the paperwork to get everything ordered.

    Two hours after I faxed over the purchase order, I looked at the quote again and noticed something lacking: The Netware licenses. Gah! Dumbassed me! A frantic bit of phone tag later, our wonderful CDW rep promised a fix, and disaster was narrowly averted. Didn’t help my frame of mind much, though.

    Bite The Second:

    The plan for migrating the “former Fisher folks” onto our email system called for Fisher to make the change to the email domains tomorrow, after confirming that everything was ready on our end.

    For instance, it would be unwise to repoint the domains if the new email server doesn’t have the accounts set up, wouldn’t it? And since I’d only very recently received the list of accounts, I was spending the afternoon entering those to the server.

    One of the ladies from the business office came to ask why emails to folks over at JJ were bouncing back. I looked at the bounce message and sure enough, Fisher had already made the change. Gah! Dumbassed Fisher! I scrambled back to my workstation and cranked out the rest of the addresses, and now all I can do is hope that there weren’t too many bounced messages.

    Mind you, now we have a bit of a problem. Even if mail is coming here now, that means nobody over there can get to it. It looks like we’ll be making the WAN change earlier than we’d planned.

    Which doesn’t help my frame of mind much…

  • Age of Mythology rocks!

    When Wendi came to pick me up from work yesterday, she had Hannah as well as Nzhone with her. Sure enough, a while after we got home Hannah’s parents Amy and Michael came by. We talked and talked for a while, and the discussion of games led us to the idea of trying for some multiplayer Age Of Mythology.

    A bit of backstory might be in order. You see, I have loved each iteration of the Age Of Empires game series. Each is better than the one before, and the Age II expansion is one of my favorite games of all time.

    So here comes Michael offering me a chance to dive headfirst into the latest Age game. Woo hoo!

    Long story short, we got it installed and networked, and the four of us (Amy Michael Wendi Myself) played a game through. I came through with a Wonder win, though technically Wendi finished her Wonder first (but had it knocked down, whoopsie!).

    Yes… I have a new toy… mwahahaha!

    (Gaming addict? Moi? Say it ain’t so.)

  • Getting out there and socializing

    I joined first, then Wendi joined shortly after. The Portland Bloggers group on Yahoo, that is. Turns out they (or is that “we” now?) meet on the first Friday of each month, and have done so for over a year now.

    This was our first opportunity to do so. Great timing, wot?

    We had a good time, drank some Henry’s (root beer, good stuff) and chatted merrily with other local folk who feel inclined to pour their lives and loves onto the Web for all to see.

    It’s a fairly good bet nobody there had read either of our sites before the meeting, which is a Good Thing since nobody was compelled to ask awkward questions. We all had fun, and that’s what matters.

    At any rate, I’m now a member of yet another group. Socializing is a good thing.

  • Past, Present, Future – Round Sixteen

    Life is full of questions, many of them with unsatisfactory answers.

    PAST: When we’re children, we often aren’t aware that some questions are best asked with a certain amount of discretion. Tell us about a time you piped up with a good question at the wrong moment.

    PRESENT: Right this moment, what’s the one burning question on your mind?

    FUTURE: You have a foolproof truth serum. You have the means, motive and opportunity. Who, and what question, do you ask?

    Lilith probably doesn’t remember sending me this week’s seed idea, but that’s okay. Leave a comment, folks, so we know where to find your answers. And when you link back, please use http://greyduck.net/ppf/. Thanks!

  • Still alive, still kicking, still progressing.

    How am I doing, people ask. I’m getting along, I reply.

    It’s not easy. Of course it’s not. Dismantling a relationship that’s been a dozen years in the building isn’t something you do or take lightly.

    On the plus side, I am doing the right thing. I very rarely doubt that. Also, Wendi and I are being very cooperative with one another, very supportive, and are communicating well. The children are taking things fairly well, but we’re still going to get them some counseling as soon as we can.

    On the downside, between the (gradual, impending) divorce and the KWJJ/KOTK situation (and other things I’m not yet willing to talk about here) I feel like my entire soul is in a vice. My heart aches constantly, and that knot in my belly comes and goes in an almost whimsical fashion. Nevermind that rampant self-doubt and depressed introspection aren’t really contributing to a healthy worldview.

    I’ll be okay. Eventually. I have to be, or none of this was worth it. Between now and “eventually,” however, I don’t expect to be happy much. That’s the way it works, folks.

    Gee, I wonder what I’ll do for the PPF this week…