Effect 47

Almost There

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:15:15 -0500

I have checked the results of last week’s poll and TechLand came in with the highest total of votes (7 of 9) so that is gonna be the theme I use for my new blog.

I also plan on putting up a small forum, I will be using Simple Machines Forum for the forum software package as I have been running a smapp forum using SMF on a free hosting solution for a while now.

I plan on purchasing the domain and hosting space for the site Friday evening and unless things go totally bottom up I will have everything ready by Monday morning at the latest.

One last thing to note, if you go and look at the TechLand theme you may notice the image at the top. I am looking for a replacement image and as yet have not found anything that would work. I am looking for an image about 900px wide 150 px in height. I have found a few creative commons pictures on flickr (1,2,3) that I like but they don’t fint well in the dimensions that I need the image to fit in. If anyone has any images they would let me use, places to look, etc, I would very much appreciate it.

Making Progress

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:51:30 -0500

I have decided on a host as well as a domain name for my new blog/project. Although I still want to be vague on the specifics my blog will consist of a blog, website, and possibly a forum. I am planning on using Wordpress for my blog and I have found a few themes I would like to use. I would like some input though, follow the links below and check out the themes, them please come back here and let me know in the poll which one(s) you liked. Thanks in advance for your help and keep checking back here in the next few weeks as I keep the updates coming on whats goin on.

Slow Goin'

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:33:51 -0500

This are pretty slow over here right now. Look for things to pick up middle of August though.

Candy Jar

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:08:00 -0500

This is a conversation I just had with my boss Linda about a huge jar of candy in the back of the Support Desk area.
-----
Me: We really shouldn't have this huge jar of candy back here.
Linda: Why? Would you rather just have it on your desk?
Me: Uhh...that would prolly make things worse.

Wedding Pictures

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:39:28 -0500

The pictures that I took at the wedding this last weekend had really bad red-eye. Need to get that fixed before I put em up.

First Night On Call

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:38:22 -0500

This week I have been placed on after-hours-on-call for the first time since I started working at my current job. For those of you that don’t know when you are on call after hours you are given a pager and when a user called into the service desk with a computer related problem the pager beeps and you are supposed to take care of the problem.

This in itself is not a big deal, pretty easy actually, thing is that last night was my first night and as Linda, my boss commented, “well, on the bright side it doesn’t get much worse than it did last night.” I got home from work at 5:30pm and at 6:05pm I got my first call. This escelated into 5 more calls between 6 and 7pm at which time I got the Windows-On-Call person on the phone and we started rebooting servers. This went on for a few hours and by 1am this morning we had all the servers rebooted and everything was working fine. I then went to bed.

A few hours later I got a page at 3am and then worked until 5am resolving the problem. I then went back to bed for an hour more of sleep until I had to get ready for work. I got a grand total of 3 hours of sleep last night.

On the bright side I get paid time and a half for any after hours calls. Still…I can’t wait till next Monday at 8am…then On-Call goes to someone else.

Weekend Plans

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:25:42 -0500

This weekend I am going to Mankato, MN to attend a wedding of a friend from college. It should be lots of fun. There will be pictures up on my Picsa when I get back.

"Every time I’m heading back to my desk from a meeting (who am I kidding, I don’t get invited to..."

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:54:43 -0500

“Every time I’m heading back to my desk from a meeting (who am I kidding, I don’t get invited to meetings) or lunch, I slow down as I’m rounding the corner because I CRINGE to see that little red light lit up on my phone. I hate retrieving voicemails almost as much as I hate talking on the phone. I’d like to change my work voicemail message so it says “This is Mark Roberts. I’m obviously not here and I will not listen to your message, so please call me back later or, better yet, EMAIL ME!””

- What runs through my brain from time to time.

How to Resolve a Conflict With Your Significant Other

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:03:40 -0500

This post is a response to A Good Husband’s post The Ultimate Guide to Winning an Argument With Your Spouse.

At the end of his post Cory asked if anyone had any comments or suggestions, I don’t think I have any suggestions but I do think I have some comments that could be used as suggestions. So, here it goes…

In any relationship (a friendship, a working relationship, a marriage, etc) there is going to be conflict and I have found out that personally my goal is less about completely avoiding conflict but more about how I handle that conflict once it has begun. About a month after I started dating my wonderful girlfriend Nicole (June 30th will mark 8 months, yay!) we had our first big fight. I can actually remember what it was about but I am not going to rehash it, that is not the point of this post, the point is what happened after. We were both furious theach other even after we resolved the issue so we sat down at the kitchen table and each explained the things the other did during the argument that the we thought were not conductive to the argument. With some of the things we realized we were being stupid and should let the complaint slide and with others we acknowledged that we were not helping the argument.

After learning what behaviors we both exhibited during an argument that were not conductive we now do something very simple: when either of us notices one of the behaviors the argument stops, period. We then take 5-10 minutes to do something else (alone or together) and then after that time if we can even remember what we were discussing/arguing about we may continue the discussion. 8 out of 10 times after 10 minutes we can’t even remember what the problem is and by taking a break we avoid getting mad at each other.

So, to summarize:

After the argument sit down with your significant other in a non-comfy setting
- Like a kitchen table with hot chocolate.
Calmly discuss the things your significant other did/said during the argument that you felt did not help the situation.
- Let the lady go first, it’s the polite thing to do.
- Use, “I” statements, not “You” statements.
With discussion determine if any of the things that were said or done seem trivial to both parties, throw these out.
Now when you argue in the future if one or both of you find yourself doing one of those things you discussed stop.
- Now, go do something else for 5-10 minutes, together or apart.
After the time has passed if you can remember what the issue was discuss the issue calmly and carefully, remember, you love this person you are talking to.
If you can’t remember what the issue was drop it and move on.

Now, I myself are partial to clamming up when I am wrong as well as beating a dead horse (beating a dead horse is almost my favorite hobby) but this system works well for myself and Nicole but it does take work. Also, one thing to note, your mileage may vary and feel free to modify this system to your specific situation/relationship.

Woo, this post started off kinda rambling, but I think it ended petty nice. This blog is kinda a splattering of lots of different things but I hope to do more relationship posts in the future, please comment and share any thoughts you may have on this post or my blog in general.

Nuttin and Blahs

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:07:38 -0500

Nuttin exciting going on, I am sick, tired, and I just wanna kick back and relax. Is is August yet? I wanna go to Boson.

I thought this was a nifty pic so I reblogged it,...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:59:14 -0500

I thought this was a nifty pic so I reblogged it, enjoy.

microwalrus:

Pixdaus: God Gave Us Pics!

The Post Turtle

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:24:48 -0500

An old Texas Rancher got his hand caught in a gate while working his cattle. He wrapped the hand in a bandana and drove his pickup to the doctor. While stitching him up, the doctor asked what he thought about Barack Obama.

The old rancher said, “Well, ya know, Obama is a Post Turtle.”

“What’s a Post Turtle?” asked the doctor.

The old man drawled, “Well, sometimes when you’re driving down a country road, you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top. That’s a Post Turtle.”

He looked up and saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued:

“You know he didn’t get there by himself, he doesn’t belong there, he doesn’t know what to do while he’s up there, and you just want to help the poor dumb thing get down.”

—————

Found that out on the net, thought it was funny and I should share.

Flash Floods Inundate Wisconsin Town for Second Time

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:45:45 -0500

Flash Floods Inundate Wisconsin Town for Second Time:

Yeah, this is like 15 minutes away from where I live…was pretty crazy around here recently with rain and flooding, etc.

Small Quick Update

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:02:27 -0500

Way too busy at work for a journal entry today.

Had CRAZY storms Saturday and Sunday, internet out most of both days. Was bored outa my mind!

Wow, it’s 2pm already…work is goin fast today…prolly cause I am so busy…

Found this out on the Tumblr main mage and thought it was cool...

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:11:07 -0500

Found this out on the Tumblr main mage and thought it was cool enough to reblog.

katydid:

An animation that has the Civil War being fought over an American Map in just four minutes. Watch it. For Civil War buffs, it’s pretty cool.

Since everything is sped up, watching Sherman’s march to the sea is kind of fascinating.

I found this on another tumblr blog and thought it was funny and...

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:29:00 -0500

I found this on another tumblr blog and thought it was funny and shareable.

ceandrew:

Went in for an advising meeting this morning and found this on Peregrine’s door

Back from Michigan

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:58:59 -0500

Alright, first off sorry about the lack of post on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday I was busy worrying about Tuesday and on Tuesday I was in Michigan and away from my computer.

So, how did tuesday go? Lets see…

4am CST AM - Woke up and did all that normal morning stuff.

5:30 CST AM - Arrived @ airport and boarded plane. (Those little airports with private planes are nice, no TSA.)

6:30 CST/7:30 EST AM - Arrived in Troy Michigan (suburb of Detroit).

7:30C ST/8:30 EST AM - Taxi dropped me off at the eye clinic, got a bit to eat at the coffee shop there for breakfast.

8:00 CST/9:00 EST AM to 9:00CST/10:00EST - Wandered the halls of the clinic, the building was freakin’ huge!

9:15 CST/10:15 EST AM - Checked into with the front desk, filled out some forms, waited to be called.

9:45 CST/11:45EST AM - Finally called to have the nurse do the inital check on my eyes.

11:15 CST/12:15 EST to 11:30 CST/12:30 EST AM - Did lots of stuff with bright lights in the eyes, got some nifty 3D pictures of my eyes taken.

10:30 CST/11:30 EST AM - The doctor showed up, was not very friendly, never did shake my hand, but did know his stuff and knew exactly was wrong with my eyes.

11:00 CST/12:00 EST AM/PM - Checked out of the clinic, satisfied because I urrently do not need surgery, just a bi-yearly eye checkup, walked to McDonald’s to eat lunch.

12:00 CST/1:00 EST to 5:30 CST/7:30 EST PM - Arrived by taxi back at airport, putzed around waiting area waiting for plane to arrive for trip home. Plane was supposed to arrive at 5:30 EST, didnt arrive until 7:00 EST. Finally got off the ground at 7:30 EST.

6:30 CST/7:30 EST to 8:15 CST/9:15 EST PM - Flew back to Wisconsin, lots of turbulance.

8:45 CST PM - Arrived home, tired.

So, that was my day, very long. On the bright side eyes seem to be alright, except for the partial retinal detachment of course, no surgery needed which is good, just checkups for now. Yay!

Oh, and appartnely yesterday while I was in Michigan I missed a big inter-department war on the functionality of our internet monitoring software. Seems like whenever I am gone for a whole day from work big shit goes down…glad I wasn’t at work for that.

Damn nifty picture.

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:57:28 -0500

Damn nifty picture.

So, journaling, lets give it a shot

Fri, 30 May 2008 11:19:33 -0500

Alright, so I have been through…ahh…1,2…4 blogs since I started blogging. First I had Thoughts of a Medic on Blogger, then I moved Thoughts of a Medic to wordpress on my own domain @ medicthoughts.com, I found this too expensive even thought it was only about $40 a year just because I didn’t blog enough. I then closed down Thoughts of a Medic and reopend my blog at Blogger under the title Effect 47 and I still even have that up just in case I need it again. My 4th blog is this one, once again Effect 47 but this time again hosted through Tumblr.

With this new blog I like that the user interface is geared toward short quick posts which helps me post more often because it is well, quick and easy. So, along with the quick and easy psots you have seen on here so far I will try to do daily journalish entrys (weekdays gauranteed weekends optional). Each entry will be a paragraph or two long and I am gonna cheat a bit and use this as my entry today and get it rolling in earnest starting Monday, just fluff for today folks.

As many of ya know this last Monday was Memorial Day and both Nicole (my girlfriend) and I went hiking at one of the state parks near by. It was a very nice day out, bright and sunny, and I put the pictures up here, go take a look. Next Tuesday I am flying to Michigan for a eye appointment. My eyes have some retina issues and the doctor in Michigan is gonna check out my eyes and I may need surgery to keep my retinas from detaching (I don’t have the energy to explain the medical stuff behind retinal detachment, please read the wiki). Anyway, hopefully that will go well. Look for an evening post June 3rd on how the doctors appointment went.

So, first journal entry, not a bad start, look for another one on Monday.

Bless the Broken Road

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:24:00 -0500

Bless the Broken Road:

by Rascal Flatts