Full Metal Lunchbox

Well, dear readers, it has been just about 8 months since I first undertook this humble blog, and it's been loads of fun.  I've leared a few things about the blogging trend and perhaps even about the Internet in general.

I thought this would be a good time (about 6:30AM) to check in with you and write a bit about the state of this blog.

First of all, I'd like to pay tribute to a good friend, without whom this blog in it's current form might not be possible: Monster Energy Drink.

This overpriced and sugar-free (I drink the low-carb version) energy drink is available at my favorite local 7-11 and allows me to stay awake at work long enough to do my job, study, and post to this blog (not necessarily in that order).

Now, don't get the wrong idea here; I'm not getting any money from Monster to promote their delicious and expensive highly caffeinated beverage.

But I am getting money from Tiger Direct, the new official sponsor of this blog and and its sub-links.  I wont be getting a lot of revenue for this advertising, but as a dedicated geek I do appreciate them for their awesome low prices.  If you've never been to Tiger Direct before you should check out their Hottest Deals of the Week!

Speaking of places to visit from this blog, be sure to stop by my Photo Gallery, where you can view snapshots, explore my work history in pictures, and even get to know my good friend Karl Rove.

If you've really got too much time on your hands, you can amuse yourself for hours with my links.  Sing along to We like the moon!



And don't forget about the pugs!.

Finaly, I'd like to pay tribute to you, gentle readers, who have taken time out of your busy lives to visit this humble blog (regularly or by accident).  Without you, I'd have one less excuse to procrastinate.

Speaking of visitors, several hundered of you have stopped by (165 since July 12, as of this posting).  Using the various logs and reports provided by my hosting service and my web counter, I've been able to observe the comings and goings of many of my visitors.  Some of you are easily identifiable from your hostnames.  

But a few of my visitors have been a complete mystery.  My favorite mystery visitor stops by every few days from AIS Construction Equipment in Michigan.  Who are you, Mr. or Ms. bulldozer dealer?  How can I best tailor this humble blog to meet your needs?


Finaly, I'd like to make a shout out to my employer's IT Risk Management Department, representatives of whom have visited my blog at least twice so far.  Keep up the good work!

That's all I have to say for now.  Thanks for visiting my blog, and please feel free to leave a comment.

427 South LaSalle Street

It's 3:30AM and all is quiet here at the CIS Project.  I provide technical support to teams of verifiers, scanners, balancers, conflict resolvers, and other worker bees.  Unlike their daytime colleagues, the production staff I support are allowed to make a lot of noise--gossiping loudly, playing music, sometimes even getting up and dancing.  But somehow, like a rare alignment of the planets, everyone seems to have gone to lunch at the same time.

It's so quiet now I can hear the rush of air through the ventillation system.  The sudden peace has in a matter of minutes taken me from somewhat disgruntled to mildly disaffected.

KPMG auditor

Everyone around here is nervous now that the long delayed compliance audit is underway.  This has had quite an effect on the atmosphere around here and has led to me getting a lot of grief.  The same guy (his government codename is "Stupidhead") has complained about me two mornings in a row and I think today he might be planning on it again.  Fortunately, I have a new plan for dealing with this situation: no matter what is asked of me I will just smile and say "Right away!"  Don't know why I didn't think of that before!  Live and learn.



I would use this time to sink into a blissful nap, which I am now able to accomplish while sitting up, but regretably my 7-11 Big Gulp-brand diet soda is now inducing a strange desire to be productive.  My big test is coming up 8/6 and I should study.  I'd better get to work before the caffeine wears off.

It's not like me to make a product plug on my blog (not without getting paid, anyway), but I'm majorly geeking out about LaCie's new 1TB External Hard Drive!

Let's put this into perspective:



Your typical collection of pornography (you know who you are), baby snapshots, or (in my case) pug dog porno rarely uses up even a fraction of an average computer's internal disk drive.  My entire MP3 collection takes up less than 60GB, and I doubt many people have more than two or three times that.  1 Terabyte = 1,000 GB.



1 terabyte is enough space to hold every book you ever read plus every book read by your friends and their friends and everyone they hate.  All the books in the Library of Congress, the world's second largest library, equal about 20 terabyets.



My birthday is October 24.  (hint hint!)

Here's a blurry snapshot of me on my bike on the way to work this morning.

I'm working a split 3rd/1st shift this week so I can get trained on sys adminy stuff.  I'll be working 4AM to noon.

It was a little weird getting up at 2:30AM.  But it helped that I slept all day Sunday.

New to pugpaw.com is my Rogue's Gallery, this month featuring Karl Rove.  Learn all about the man behind the legend, and even view a homemade Karl Rove slideshow.

Adobada del Puerco

Here is a satelite photo showing where I work.  My building, 427 South LaSalle Street, is indicated by the red dot, and the photo resolution is 8 meters.  Try to imagine this photo taken at night, as that is the only time I'm ever here.

We arrived in Champaign at the home of Kathleen and Shea just in time for their annual July 4th BBQ.

I'll post more photos of our visit as soon as I upload the photos from our camera.  (The only snapshot I took on my cameraphone is this "lobster phone" pictured in one of Shea's food magazines.)

While Jim and Dan went out to pick up some essentials from Home Depot, Justyna and I went out for breakfast and then visited the Missouri Botanical Garden.  This was the best botanical garden that either of us had ever visited and was the highlight of our visit to St. Louis.  (I'll post photos as soon as I upload from our camera.)

When we returned to Jim & Dan's house we found that two of our dogs had escaped and spent up to two hours outside in 100 degree heat.  It didn't take long to find Sadie & Breeze because they were also looking for us, but poor Sadie was pretty shaken up and wasn't fully recovered until the next day.

By afternoon it was time to move on.  So we loaded up the pugs and drove east over the Mississippi River back to Illinois.  Here is a picture of Justyna and Sadie enjoying the comfort of our car's A/C.

Jim and Bodica on Day 1 in their new home.

Here I am waiting in line for beer at Fair St. Louis during the Black Eyed Peas concert.  Disorganized and delayed by some very awful fake Mexican food, we had to fight the crowds to catch the second half of the show--but it was still worth it.

Justyna and dogs and me about 40 miles out of st louis. visiting jimmy and dan and bodica for the holiday weekend. Nice day for a drive.

(This post was submitted via SMS from the car somewhere near Peoria.)

Here we are on the road to St. Louis to visit our friends Jim & Dan.  This is the first of several photos I posted directly from my cellphone.