Jeff

Sometimes people have birthdays that end with a zero. That by itself is not necessarily surprising. The surprise comes in when she thinks she’s going to watch a baseball game with some people and then all of a sudden, there are a lot of people yelling surprise. If that isn’t good enough, bring in relatives from Florida and create a bigger surprise. The pictures will be up in a few days.

In summary:
Step 1: Plan
Step 2: Lie and avoid
Step 3: Party

When it was time to make a choice between yelling and screaming during the PSU-ND game, or having a voice the following week, the choice was easy - scream and yell.

That Saturday night ranked as one of the loudest times I can recall in Beaver Stadium, and I wasn’t even down on the field to know how it sounded down there. We were loud when the ND offense had the ball and real quite when PSU had the ball, just as it ought to be. PSU gets payback.

Of course, this whole thing is much more amusing in that I was sick and missed a lot of work the week before Labor Day and then was on vacation Labor Day week. So, I go back to the office and still sound like crap. Am I sick? No, I’m just hoarse. Fortunately that’s over, at least until the next big game!

OK, well there was nothing else done in State College other than going to Geiger’s going away party which coincided with Arts Fest weekend.

It was a typical arts fest… Artists (and I use the term loosely) peddling crap (worse this year than other years I think), a sand sculpture, some music, and something being painted in the street which I didn’t go see. Lest we forget the crowded bars (which I decided to skip) and the parties with bad beer (again, skipped).

This weekend was also a party to ship Geiger out of State College. Now, he isn’t leaving for 2 more weeks, but he is moving to Boulder, CO, so that deserves a party. And based on the crew, it was a tailgate style party - bring some for yourself and some to share, set it out on a table, and get to eating and drinking. Good beer, good food, good friends, good times. We also determined that just because Geiger is leaving, it will not affect our ability to tailgate as a group this fall. We will still tailgate, and then probably send him pictures, just to make him jealous or something.

Ok, so I went hiking out in Pennsylvania this weekend at a place called The Pinnacle and I guess the description of it (Moderate) is accurate. I’m not quite sure I want to try anything more than just Moderate. Now, I went up the steep hill to start the day, and yeah, it is steep. It was steep coming back down too.

So, to my friends who like to go to Rocky Mountain National Park, you have fun doing that. I’m going to call this hike enough for me, especially when it is hot and steamy like it was today. Pics coming in a few days

At what point does a vessel go from being considered a “boat” to a “ship”? I think it is safe to say that the little 25′ toy you have docked near the shore or in the river doesn’t really count as a ship, at least, not like this ship.

For the first time, I took a trip to Fleet Week in NYC. A friend and I took a little trip to Manhattan to check out the USS Wasp at Pier 90. The rest of the participating ships were moored over in Staten Island and based on the amount of time we had, we were not going to get there as well. We were able to take a self-guided tour of the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship.

This is the biggest “boat” I have ever been on, and it was really quite cool. It puts the little speed boats, ferries, and 100 ft fishing boats to shame. And last I checked, you can’t land a helicopter on any of those three.

Standing on the deck of this ship was possibly one of the coolest things I have done, and while I don’t necessarily need to go back for Fleet Week again, I would like to try to get there when the Intrepid returns and the museum reopens late 2008.

One of the things I encounter outside of the work is the family help desk. If you work in IT, I’m sure you have been there. You could be a graphic designer, a developer, a network admin, or even some guy in finance, but since you work with a computer a lot, you know all there is to know, such as how to turn the computer on.

Today was working with my sister on putting together a new computer. To her credit, she is real smart and is going to get one from a manufacturer, as opposed to asking me to build one (and I wouldn’t, I’m done with that), or even worse, try to build one herself. My job today was to ask the appropriate questions so that she would get one which would fit her needs, as opposed to what she thinks she needs. She should have the machine later this week, and I think everything is color coded, but I’m apparently going to have to install this thing. I think I’ll let her see how much she can do on her own and just answer questions when necessary.

New victim joining the IT staff at work this week, and lucky him, he gets to take the majority of the internal help desk stuff now. I’ll get the handful of client calls, but I can handle that. I’m going to get to do more of the project management now (which is what they pay me for) and less of the other stuff. Should be fun.

Well, I’m now going for the third different version of this website.  It started with Joomla, and then moved on to a design project.  I have given up on those for at least the time being and will be using this as a place for ramblings and thoughts instead.