This Is Getting Old
I feel like every time I write anything on this, I always have the urge to start it with "Holy balls, I'm finally posting!" My inspiration to blog anything is pretty shitty as of late, but I'm bringing myself to finally do it, so be happy.
Anyway, been going through a little bit of nostalgia lately. Since I got the new camera, I've been organizing and getting stuff into Aperture on my laptop. It's making me go through all of my pictures and all that jazz. Tagging them, geo-tagging them, tagging people's faces, etc. It's a pretty involved task, but it's also making me go through pictures from the last year as well as pictures from a long, long time ago.
Recently I was asked how and why I remember dates and when things have happened and stuff like that. The only thing I can really say is that I don't want to forget where I've come from. I don't wanna forget the things I've been through, the experiences I've had, etc. I want to have my life chronicled, either out of some paranoia that I'll forget things or that I'll want to hop into a time machine and just look at my former self. Just over the course of the last two years, I'm a different person. Luckily I can go back, to some degree, and see what I used to be like - what with Facebook, and digital photos, and this blog right hurr.
That's probably why Facebook's Timeline won me over from the get-go. In the months proceeding it's unveiling, over on the right side of the screen they had a little section called "On This Day In 20__" and it had posts from this day in 2011 or 2010 or even 2009 and earlier. I loved that. Just imagining what I was doing, who I was hanging out with, etc. a year or two earlier. It was awesome, and feeds right into my need to see where I've been.
Soooo I guess I'm fucking crazy. Meh, I could be worse off I suppose. The good pictures make me happy as hell to have the friends I have, the bad pictures remind me not to make those mistakes again. I'd say it's a win/win.
Lordy Lordy
Well, a lot has gone down since my last blog post! Since then I am now happily single, working at the local healthcare center doing IT security work, making madddddd bank, hanging out with the most awesome group of friends imaginable, and dumping a ridiculous amount of money into Vegas. It's been quite the turn around, in all honesty. There was a good 6 months of depression I'd say, didn't recognize it at the time, but now it's clear as ever. Now, every day is an opportunity, and I couldn't be happier.
Work is going amazingly well. My coworkers are awesome, we're generally pretty laid back, the drive to work is less than 10 minutes, and the pay is phenomenal. Now that I have no restrictions on what I can spend my money on (lol), I've been investing in the ride. Thus far I've installed a cold air intake, custom tuned PCM, 180 thermostat, 8000K HID headlights, 4500K HID fog lights, did a coolant flush, replaced the water pump, finished the LED project, properly installed the bluetooth adapter, and added a charge cable to the dash mount. All sorts of awesome stuff.
Next up is an engine-back exhaust system, so new headers, crossover pipe, catted downpipe, resonator, muffler, and larger diameter piping throughout. Also upgrading to red painted dual-piston brake calipers, slotted and drilled rotors, performance pads, 18-inch 5-spoke rims, and low-profile ultra high performance summer tires. Thennnnnn after that, probably going to get a set of projector headlight housings, XP cam, ported throttle body, new coil packs, and so so so much more. Feels great to finally get work done on the car. Combined with the HIDs, the sound of the intake, the interior LED lighting and the LED tails, the car looks wicked sharp. Last thing to be done will probably be a full body paint job. Going flat black across the entire car.
Fixed the cooling issue by doing a flush and fixed the front-end squealing yesterday by repositioning the lower dust shield. Currently I'm letting a can of Seafoam clean out the injectors and fuel lines, and will be doing half a can in the crankcase and the other half into the vacuum lines this weekend probably. Top it off with a nice oil flush with synthetic, new filter, and new Iridium spark plugs and we'll be well on our way. Can't wait.
Anyway, better take care of some work. Hopefully I'll bliggity blog a little more often in the future.
Rawrawrawr
Wow-fricken-ski. Oh hey, blog, sorry I've been absent for like 7 years but I'm back! In all seriousness I wouldn't be surprised if my blog stopped working when it realizes I'm actually typing a new post. I renewed the domain name like months ago, for posterity probably, and haven't written a damn thing since then. I'm like the slumlord that buys a building, fills it with stuff, then lets it fall apart for a few years before I go in and paint a wall or two. Or something. Like driving around a piece of shit car and running it into the ground.
I'd say by now I've ran this blog into the ground, through the mantle, crust, etc, and am now approaching China. But hey, I like egg rolls, so whatever.
Anyway, I had a sudden desire to blog, as random as that is. Because like I said above, I'm like one of those slumlords. Or similar to the classy individuals of Oneida's northside. HAH. But I digress. Life has been a regular blasty blast for this kid. I've been kicking around, living life, messing stuff up, and attempting to learn from my mistakes. Not a perfect plan, by any standard, but I'm getting by. Work is going swell, might be transitioning to a new gig here pretty soon - which makes my wallet and loans happy! B-Dub is going well, got a lot of clients and somewhat regular work. Which is good.
Allyssa is leaving for BMT here in a couple days. Tuesday morning or afternoon depending on when the government decides to send her on her way. I'm sad, but I don't think it's fully hit me that I won't be seeing her for two months - then another 5 months after that. She's a fricken boss, in all seriousness. She's gotten in shape, and fit, and can do pushups and run an obscene distance without getting tired. Like, picture a chick Terminator that isn't a robot. Yeah. But like I said, she's gonna kick some bitches asses when she gets to Texas. Everyone else is all "Oh wah, BMT, I don't think I can handle it, I'm so scurred" but Allyssa is like "Psh, please. Can I have summore?" Truly an inspiration. I'll openly admit that I'm a bitch and I definitely wouldn't be able to do what she's done. But hey, I guess that's why she wears the pants - not me.
It's kind of unfortunate that a lot of our "friends" haven't given her any support or words of encouragement thus far. I mean shit, c'mon, she's signing over her life to the government for several years to defend my right to type the rambling, bumbling mess of nouns/adjectives/verbs that I write on here. And the other rights we as Americans enjoy. That's more legit than most things (if not everything) I've seen people our age commit to. So madd props to her, I love her, and I'm gonna miss the shit out of her while she's gone.
In other news, on a less depressing note, I've come to the conclusion that winter sucks ass. I like to complain about it, but I really don't mind it that much. It's just annoying, slush, and wet feet, and assholes that don't understand that if the road is dry then your car will handle like it does at any other time. Jeez. Rocket science. But uhm, yeah, there's snow on the ground and it's like 25 degrees out right now. It was 2 degrees out last night as I was two-steppin' home. OH!
Haha, my car isn't inspected right now. Forgot to mention this. Yeah, I was past my inspection and got away with a warning and less than 24 effing hours later I get pulled over again - WHILE I'M ON MY WAY TO GET IT INSPECTED. But this time, oh hey, here's my license and registration, please tell me my license is suspended.
YUP.
Seriously. From a speeding ticket FROM A YEAR AND A HALF AGO that I didn't take care of apparently. Woopsies. So regardless of that, my car didn't pass it's inspection. So here I am, gotta fix0r my car, pay off the suspension fee, pay off the old ticket, and pay off the two tickets I got when I got stopped the other day. I'm taking donations to the "Save Adam From Being A Hobo Fund" starting immediately. Be a pal and send me money so I can continue to provide the best IT-related effort ever. Kthnxbai.
Uhm, well I feel like I've ranted myself closer to China egg rolls, so I bid thee adieu. Peace out and all that jazz.
Blogging Sucks
To be honest, a majority of the blogging I do on here is meaningless ranting. There's no summary or planning involved. I shoot from the hip, if you will. Sometimes it works out and people enjoy my rambling, other times it's along the lines of "What the hell is he talking about?" Meh, it's all whatever. I kinda had a plan for this particular post, but I got like halfway through and I realized that I had no idea what I was writing about. Something about technology *durr hurr*...
But anyway, it's been a long long time since I lasted blogged and I was thinking about why. It's because I've been so damn busy. Side business work has really started taking off, and life at home has been turbulent but I look forward to what the future might hold. Christmas is approaching (!!!!) and I can't fricken wait. For the first time ever, I think, I'm more excited to give this year than to receive. It's a strange shift, but I feel like that goes along with all the other changes I've gone through over the course of the last year and a half. I've gotten a lot of presents for Allyssa, and I plan to get a few more presents for her family and mine. It's certainly the season for giving, and since there's only been one day of any snow so far this season - I'm pretty much unable to complain about anything.
I finally finished reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. It was incredibly well written, and it really gives you a non-sugar coated idea of what Steve was all about. There was a lot of talk about the Microsoft/Apple view points on technology. Especially that Apple's gated garden where everything works together and they control the experience from start to finish. Whereas Microsoft makes the product and let's everyone else build onto it or build it into whatever. Open versus closed. I used to be in the open camp. Windows was what I was used to, what I learned in school, and what I had grown up with. That day in like 2001 when my parent's brought home an indigo iMac was the first step that led me to where I am now. I hated that iMac to begin with. It was different, it operated differently, looked weird, etc, etc. Pretty much the same arguments that everyone throws at the Mac camp - even now a days. But since that was the only computer in the house that had an internet connection (Dreamcast, then Verizon dialup I think), I had to get used to it.
I was only 13 or 14 at that time, and I was just beginning to cultivate my tech knowledge. The standards, the acronyms, the hardware. I had my parent's hand-me-down PC running a weird mashup of Windows 95/98SE that could barely run any new games that were out. If it wasn't for the fact that I was just getting into computers, I probably wouldn't have given the Mac a chance. Back then it was probably the 2nd or 3rd version of Mac OS X which wasn't very impressive compared to 10.7 now. As I started using that iMac more, I began to see the fundamental differences between Windows and OS X. Ease of use, intuitiveness, and the fact that it just looks good at what it does.
I was planning on writing more, but some server stuff just came up at work so I'll sign off for now. Thanks for reading, beeyotches.
Allyssa
There's a certain someone out there that wanted a blog post written about them. She's wicked pretty, and smart, and a whole lot of other things. Uhmmm, she's going into the Air Force in a couple months and I'm going to miss her a lot, but she's finally going to accomplish her dreams so I'm wicked happy for her. I can't really think of anything else to blog about, so be jealous she's mine and not yours. Kthanx.
Shiba Narratives – 11/10
Niko - "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LET ME OUT OF MY HOUSEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, I GOTTA GO TO THE BATHROOM AND I KNOW THAT YOU GET UP AT 6:30 EVERY MORNING BUT YOU MIGHT NOT GET UP THIS TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAKE UPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG I'M GOING TO YELL UNTIL YOU WANNA KILL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !#$@#%$!$%%!#$%!@#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, you're awake and letting me out, KTHANX! OMG bear with me while I freak out at the thought of running around in the kitchen! AHHHHTHISISSOMUCHFUNOMGWE'REGOINGOUTSIDE! YAY! Wow! This leash is so much fun to tug at while you're walking me to that tree! Okay, okay, I'll wait for you to attach me to the tether. *Sigh* Okay, draining my bladder. Thanks! Wait for it... Waiiiiiiit for it, almost done... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! SO MUCH TO EXPLORE EVEN THOUGH I SEE THESE THINGS EVERY DAY! OH! Leaves! Ah! Oh wait.... Gotta poop... Errrghhhh, almost done. OMG GOTTA KICK IT EVERYWHERE IN AN ATTEMPT TO BURY IT WITH TWO SWIFT KIX! RAWRRRRRRRRRRRRR TIME TO RUN AROUND LIKE A MANIACCCCCCCCCCCCCC! OH! We get to back inside?! YAYA! OMG FOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD *Takes 3 bites* DONE. OH YOU'RE GOING TO THE BATHROOM NOW? I'M GOING TO POOP ALL OVER THE KITCHEN, FAKED YOU OUT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMG CARDBOARD, I'M GOING TO TEAR IT TO SHREDS BECAUSE YOU SEEM OVERJOYED EVERY TIME I DO IT."
Bella - "Ugh, really? This routine again? I don't wanna get up, don't make me... Okay, well since you're lifting me off the ground, I guess I'll stand. Oh, you want me to go with you? Fine... Haha, he's packing his stuff up, I'm gonna lay down on the couch, let's see how he likes that! LOL, U MAD BRO? HAHA, you can't catch me! Well he's busy packing up still, I'm gonna go lie back down in the bedroom. TEEHEE, here he comes again. Alriiiiiiiiiiiiight, I guess I'll go into the kitchen. *Looks at open door into mudroom* LOL you're gonna have to drag me in there man, it's raining and cold outside, are you kidding me? Okay fine, you got me outside, but you're gonna have to drag me to the tether. OH NICE DOG HOUSE, HOPE YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DRIVE FAR TO GET IT. I'd rather stand out in the rain, sorry for making you waste your time/money. OH? You're trying to back out? Sorry, I just don't have the energy to move my Shiba body out of your way. Gonna run me over? That don't phase me, bro. Keep backing up, I'm not moving. HAHAHA, made you get out of your car LOL. I'm going to give you the most depressed look ever while you drive away. YAY HE'S GONE, PARTY IN THE BACKYARD!
Me:
Blogging? Say what?
So, it's definitely been a while since I've blogged. So long, in fact, that I forgot what my blog's address was (LOL YOU SO FUNNY ADUM). No but in all seriousness, it's been a long fricken time since I've written anything on here.
Life is going well in Adam Land. I've committed to losing weight and getting healthy, I'm the proud new owner of a 64 GB iPad 3G, life is good, work is good, and last but most definitely not least, my girlfriend is awesome.
Yep, over the course of the last 2 months now, I've lost 25 pounds! Just from eating right and exercising. Believe it or not, yes I've started going to the gym regularly. Also picked up running. I feel great, I've lost a good chunk of weight, and I look way slimmer. Fantastic news all around.
Work is the same as it always is. Slow at times, fast at times, but still all the same work I love.
Allyssa and I are doing absolutely awesome. We kind of had a realization a few months back that we were both poisoning the relationship with our bad habits and misconceptions about each other. With a lot of work and a lot of determination, we're now stronger than ever. Life is really awesome for me right now. Allyssa will be shipping out to BMT (Basic Military Training for all you civvies out there) in January next year, then she'll be going to Tech School afterwards. It'll be a total of 5 months that we'll be apart, but I'm so excited for her to reach her goals and do what she's always wanted. She's truly an inspiration no matter how you cut it.
Well it's time to put Jakey to sleep, so I'mma sign off now. Keep it real, Intertoobz.
Time Machi… Damnit
When Apple introduced Time Machine, I was excited as hell. I've had experience with other shitty forms of backups. Burning to DVD, thumb drive, dragging and dropping, Iomega ZIP drives, tape backups, etc, etc, et-fuckin'-cetera. When it comes down to it...
Backups SUCK.
They're necessary, but they suck major ass. Either they don't work, they take too long, or they're too complicated, or any number of other things. Time Machine was like a single ray of hope to finally get out of that cycle of mediocrity. Here's how it works:
TM basically does it's first, initial backup and copies everything to your backup disk. This is the longest backup, as it is starting from scratch. Subsequent backups only look at the "delta" files, or files that have changed or are new. So basically, when you add a file, it backs it up. When you modify a file, it backs it up. If a file hasn't changed, it leaves it in the file's original location on the backup disk, but adds a "marker" or "link" to that file in the most recent backup. So if you have a file that has never changed since your first backup, under any backups after the first, it's a link that points to that first backup. Awesome execution, for the record. This is definitely the best way to handle backups. If the file hasn't changed, it doesn't get backed up again.
The nice part with TM is that you can use a locally attached disk via USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt, or it can back up across your local network to either one of Apple's own Time Capsule devices, or a third-party Network Accessible Storage unit. For my situation, going with the NAS unit is fricken awesome since I have a laptop and I don't wanna plop down and let my computer sit for a few minutes while it backs up. I like portability and convenience, yeah buddy.
Unfortunately for me, I've ran into some problems with backing up across the network to my NAS unit. It'll become corrupted and tells me I need to delete all my backups and start fresh. Not acceptable, especially since I have a few months worth of backups sitting on there. Luckily I stumbled upon a website that walks you through verifying, fixing, and continuing to use your network Time Machine backups after that effing message shows up.
http://www.garth.org/archives/2011,08,27,169,169.html
Just giving that site a plug since his post fixed my issue and was a breeze to follow.
…Seriously?
So I'm going to preface this by saying one thing - I'm not gonna pretend like I wasn't a little shit when I was younger. I made mistakes and said shit that I shouldn't have. But if you follow me down story-telling-lane, you'll see that today's youth is in a serious state of decay. Or maybe it's today's parents. Whatever. Gather round...
Allyssa and I went to the track yesterday evening like we normally would. When we pulled up we noticed a group of douchebags with scooters hanging around the concession stand acting like the coolest thugs in the world. "Yeah buddy, we got scooters, fuck the ability to drive a car and the maturity that goes with it!"
Anyway, as we're getting warmed up and start running, I'm pretty sure I heard one inbred fucker yell "Get some" or some shit like that. I wrote it off thinking nothing of it. He's a little bastard that's trying to act cool in front of his friends, whatever. I graduated high school when he was probably 7, I have a job, a car, an apartment, I don't really wanna expend any energy into being pissed at this kid.
So we continue running. After the first lap, I see Allyssa slow to a stop by these kids and I can tell she's talking to one of them. Right as I catch up, the kids kinda ride away and she started running again. Come to find out after we finished our run that one of the kids said something to Allyssa that even I wouldn't say in my current state as a 23 year old.
What this asshat said was seriously ridiculous. Unbelievable. I have a decade on this kid, and he said this to a complete stranger, that was a woman nonetheless. Are you fucking kidding me? I was shocked. I wanted to wring the kid's neck and toss him in front of a moving vehicle, but I digress. It really made me stop and think for a second. How is it that some 13 year old kid would think it's...
A.) Okay to say what he said
B.) Okay to say it to a stranger
C.) Okay to say it to a woman
D.) Combine all of the above
It's retarded. Today's youth makes me wanna take a blow torch to their lips and make sure they never speak again. Granted that's a vast generalization and I'm 100% sure there's some upstanding kids out there. But the point still stands, at what point did today's kids think doing that is okay? I sure as fuck didn't when I was that age. I respected anyone that was older than me, honestly.
And on another token, what about this fuckbag's parents? What kind of shitty job are they doing when it comes to raising a child? Hopefully this was the first, only, and last attempt at raising a human being. They cleared suck at it enough to warrant having their baby producing privilege revoked.