We held a “fiesta” event on Saturday. Now I always find it funny when people of different cultures attempt to have celebrations of another culture thinking it would make a good party. I say go for it, its fun and no one really seems to mind. But I wonder how many people would turn up if we had a Swedish party, or perhaps an Australian romp. I guess there is a line of taste you have to be careful not to cross, to stay away from any ethnic stereotypes or blatant untruths. I think it would be cool to go to an Italian-themed party or one of many other cultures, but I wouldn’t want to go to a party that disparages that culture. Then again, I’m not a stuck-up loser, I think that poking fun at yourself and others is healthy, and there is nothing wrong with a fiesta. Ours was fine, the food was good, the music was nice, and the company was fun. I’m just saying that there is a history in the United States of stupid parties where you do things like dress up as a poor immigrant or a Jew in the Holocaust. I don’t really get the humor and excitment in this. Now, as far as I know this doesn’t really happen any more today, but to reemphasise for the fortieth time: its something to be watchful of. Keep it fun, keep it free, keep it non-discriminatory.
By the way, I got some nice pictures of our party that I hope to have up in the media section soon. Our guacamole and salsa competition was a great success and there were some excellent entries, not to mention a really good seven-layer dip.
Monthly Archive for July, 2001
Shift to third 0 cmts
Second reverse item… 0 cmts
Moving on (backwards), I picked up an iBook on Saturday at about 9:00 PM. I’ve wanted a laptop for a while and known that when I get to college I’m going to buy one. I’d held off because I was unsure: PowerBook G4 is awesome but expensive, iBook is slick but the screen is small, PCs are faster and cheaper but a real pain to get working right (and yes, I have tried them. I’ve done Windows sysadmin stuff for a while and I got to tell you, that stuff is a *(&#@ to work with). So I decide on an iBook because the 12.1″ screen, while small, is crisp and clear, bright and high contrast, and hey, AirPort wireless networking is awesome. Then I stumble upon this iBook on sale at Circuit City. Now I was holding off thinking that at Macworld they might announce some price cut or something and I wouldn’t want to be the idiot who buys the thing the week before the prices are slashed. So I wait, nothing happens, and I decide that, since Brandeis gives me only a max of $50 off, I might as well shop around. Well, everyone has the same price until I see Circuit City (in the store but not online) offers the iBook at $100 off and – get this – the promotion ends TODAY (well, on the 28th). So what was I going to do? Buy it of course, at least as soon as my dad gave me permission. Well, around 8:50 he decided that if I had to have it I might as well get it cheap, and I got to the store at 9:01, a minute after closing time. I got in anyway, I grabbed the ‘book, I popped out the checkbook, and the computer didn’t approve it. WHAT??? Okay, no problem, credit. Nope, doesn’t work. College students on their first MasterCard don’t usually get $2100 credit limits. Okay, check card! Nope, that has a limit per transaction….
Long story longer, I split the payment across multiple “platforms” as it were, and got the darn thing taken care of and was home in time for dessert. Hooray! Now to go balance the darn checkbook…
Don’t get all verklept! 0 cmts
Okay, okay, so I didn’t write, not a big deal! Really, don’t get all exc-ah-ted! I’m gonna try to recall things in reverse-chronological ardor because that’s how I remember it. First off in reverse, some re-tah-ded people at Verizon (can you believe those guys?) completely ruined my day today by making me stay on the phone for a small eternity while they went through processing all of my transfer forms to: get this: move my cell phone to Bah-stun. I mean, getting into college there in the first place was easier than this! So anyway, after three phone calls to three different operators in three different time zones, and after repeating the same information three times, faxing the same authorization letter to three places, and spouting Tax ID and social security numbers like crazy, I finally got my new phone number. And then the re-tahds went and cut off my old phone number without so much as a peep. No redirect, no message, no voice mail, just *poof* and its gone. So now 714-504-3003 is defunct, and my new number, which I won’t reveal here, is active. Really buddy, if you want it, you have to work a little harder then this. I mean, I don’t want random people calling me, but its not like my number is hidden. In fact it is present in at least one page of AgBlog! So with that I leave you to search.
Lots to write 0 cmts
There is a lot of stuff I should be writing but I’m not. Why? Apathy, perhaps, combined with that huge fiesta party we had last night (pictures coming online shortly). In other news, for some reason I randomly picked up an iBook last night at 9:00PM. More to come.
“I Shall Return!” 0 cmts
And I did. Here I am, back from the lake with lots of stories to tell. Wow, that was fun and wild and we even made a stop at the Grand Canyon and looked at it in all of its grandness. While some family members neglected to bring my favorite digital camera, we were able to take some old-fashioned film shots which I hope to get around to scanning and adding to my gallery as soon as I get around to a lot of things I should get around to. That said, more on this tomorrow (err…well…today, only later in the day.) For now…
I was looking back through my high school’s web site and recollecting on all the fond memories I have of the school, and of course all of the not-so-fond ones. I happened to stumble across an article I wrote earlier in my senior year, before all of the controversy, and I guess that looking at it now you can realize that I am a troublemaker, or just funny, take your pick. I think it was a decent bit of satire for being written over the course of one 56 minute class period and being posted the same day, along with freshly taken pictures and such! Without further ado, read proof that even Foothill High School can have a pleasant side. (Hurry and read it while you can, who knows what they will do with it once 2001-2002 school year begins and I’m not there to control what goes out on the web!
Leaving for the river 0 cmts
I am leaving tomorrow with the immediate family for a five day stint in Lake Havasu. So if you want to rob the house, now is a good time. Wait…what? Anyway, we have alarms, locks, neighborhood watch, and two vicious guard cats, so you don’t stand a chance.
You don’t get it, do you? 0 cmts
I’m thinking you probably don’t get it, not that there is much to get, but I will be dumb and petty and explain. EOF symbolizes end of file or the conclusion of the transmission. There, better? Okay, now clean your room and drink your milk before I…EOF
Proof Positive 0 cmts
Just to prove that my life is not all glitz and glamour, I’m writing from Maintex where I am waiting for some files to download so that I can do some more coding on their new website. Basically the setup is this:
- They have an okay server from Compaq that is not top of the line but not too bad.
- Said server reaches constant loads over 3 when fun stuff like inventory programs are running. For you non-UNIX geeks, that means that basically the processor is totally maxed out and the computer has the equivelant of 3 processors worth of instructions backed up that it would like to be running. Now this is not terrible for short periods, but prolonged 3s are no good.
- All Maintex stuff is running on one server, so the whole company is basically running with a single point of failure. They really don’t need incredible redundant servers and the like yet, but it would be nice to have the web and e-mail stuff seperated from the legacy system.
- We’re getting a new server, some no-name job with redundant power supplies and RAID 5 on Ultra3 SCSI and the like. Yeah, big words, basically means kick ass server. Now we could have gotten a nice server at a similar price from Dell, but our outsourced tech guru recommended this and hey, he deserves to make money once in a while!
- Once said new server arrives (and I’m trying to think of a good nickname for it as I sit here…) we’ll switch it over to the production environment and move the other server over to me. Then I get to figure out how to install Linux on it (woohoo, my first Linux install!) and get PHP, MySQL, and Apache running, along with Sendmail and whatever else we may need. If I can’t figure this one out I’ll have to get someone to help me.
- Server 2 becomes the web server, MSDS and image host, e-mail, and all that fun stuff. Server 1 stays supreme keeping up the legacy stuff as Maintex expands.
So right now I’m figuring out how to code this parsing and display stuff in PHP. That warrants another entry later, but for the time being suffice to say its not difficult, but it requires some foresight and planning, so that’s what I’m doing now.
In closing, I hope I have proven (proved? Apparently both work. No bother.) that my life in glitzy Hollywood…err…Orange County does have some normal parts. Yes, I am one of you! I am just like you poor workers! Isn’t that quaint! Okay, enough. No, really Danny, stop. EOF
More Kookie Info 0 cmts
Probably prudent to mention KUCI host Daniel Tsang is doing the interviewing, here is the page for his show at Kookie and here is the page for his research at UCI…errr…OO-Key.
Kay-Eww-Key Wants Me! 0 cmts
It is official, this Friday at 5:00PM – 6:00 PM I will be on the show “Subversity” at KUCI radio. I’m thinking this show will be a bit more…how do I say this…intelligent than the last one. Audio will be online shortly after. Just a heads up to all of you 3 people in range of 88.9 FM.
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