Markup.

Not so much, but yeah the 2nd was my birthday. It wasn’t a big party or anything, but everything just happened to go my way that day.  It got me thinking, that birthdays are days of magic.   After talking to my good friend who has a birthday close to mine a few days prior, and listening to his birthday experiences, I sat back and thought about what had happened to me on my birthday.  I aced both my tests that day, AND we got half the day off.  After that, I got to talk to the girl I’m currently dating, always a plus.  The check engine light came on in my car, but after pulling over to inspect, found it was something that could be fixed with a screwdriver (after 230,000 miles on a car, the check engine light sounds like a flat line).

After that, got home (with a nice bottle of Tanquarray Ten) and me and my friends watched clerks and fightclub, I played the guitar (Turned up to 11, it’s my birthday and I don’t care what you think) and general drunkness ensued.  Like I said, it’s not a great departure from the norm, but it was a culmination of simple pleasures that made the day special.

Also, new Weezer album came out yesterday! How in the world did I miss it? But then again, who knew they could pump out another album after only a year?  I’m going to love it anyways, I know this already.

Wow. So much has happened, don’t even know where to start.

Finally enrolled in the CCNA course again, this time I’ll actually take the test and (hopefully) get certified! Pretty psyched about that.  It also helps that It’ll be going deep into December…which means at least 2 more months of no work! Amazing.  Been doing as well as I had hoped, except for today, guess today was just one of those days? We’ll see tomorrow I guess.

Been working on my car – against my parents better judgment – because it needs little fixes here and there, and, quite frankly, it’s fun.  Fixed the suspension, tail lights, few missing interior pieces, the alignment, new exhaust system (old one literally fell off) etc etc.  Gives me something to do, and it’s not expensive as long as I’m just fixing the few little things that need fixing and doing them myself.  As long as I’m not going out looking for brand new performance parts or gaudy flair, I think I’m doing alright, although a few of the things I’ve replaced just so happened to be used performance parts, but they were cheaper than new stock stuff, so what the hey.

That’s all for now, more later.

So apparently I’ve been stateside for 2 weeks now.  Today I succeeded in fixing  2 leaks on my beater car and slicing my thumb right down the middle.  The former was an accomplishment, the latter…is keeping me from playing my guitar! But by fixing my car, I prevented myself from purchasing another guitar (at least for another week).  Sold some of my stuff for cash money, and was playing on my new Egnator amp until today (see before).

Also been trying to juggle work and…more work as I try to figure out why I owe people money.  It’s really not been as much of a relief to come home as I thought it would be.  Oh well.

Going to Palm Springs tomorrow to get the last little part I need for AIR CONDITIONING! I’ve heard A/C is the best thing ever (especially in the desert). I wouldn’t know, my last 5 cars haven’t had A/C.

One last thing. Since setting foot in CONUS, I seem to have lost track of all my goals and plans.  Oops.  Here in a month I’m attending a Cisco Systems course (hearsay) so hopefully that’ll get me back on track.  Until then, still waiting for my server to arrive and for transferring my music from my iPod to my new Mac to get easier.

Also, cowboys lost. *Sigh*.

So I’ve been back for a few days now, and I’ve gone toy shopping. Before I go any further, I have to justify this post by saying I’ve put a large chunk of money in savings and I’m trying to sell all the old stuff I don’t need.

Now, I’m posting from my new MacBook Pro. It’s wonderful. I havn’t fully made the transition yet, as my whole life resides on an NTFS drive, which OS X cannot write to. All my music, movies, tv shows, documents, and pictures are on that drive. So until I can convert it, I’m going to stay in this In-between phase. It was also fun stumping the people at the Apple store with all my questions.  It wasn’t on purpose this time I swear!  I just wanted to know stuff about NTFS and OSX Server and my home wireless setup.  They need to educate their people better.  But at least they’re friendly.

I also came home with a new Egnater amp and cab.  I’m short one cable until tomorrow when I visit my storage unit.  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll make someone angry.  I’m also selling two of my guitars, only so I can justify purchasing two new ones.  I’ve made it clear to myself that I can’t purchase these guitars until I sell the old ones. I’ve already got 4 guitars in my little room. I know. I’m horrible.

In other news, Ritz Camera has gone bankrupt? Shame. Just when I was going to step foot in one.  Oh well, I’ll keep an eye out on craigslist.

And of course, a little somethin’ somethin’ for Izzy. She’s a (relatively) low maintenance, classy gal; doesn’t mean I still can’t spoil her.

I’d put up pics, but there’s no one to hold the camera! Not a fan of the myspace shots either, so maybe some later. Don’t hold your breath though (like you were going to).

So for the past week, I’ve been moving about, trying to get back to CONUS.  As you probably cannot imagine, I’ve been somewhat disconnected from this world-wide network.  I’d like to say that I think I take being disconnected a bit better than most.  But then again I like to think a lot of things.

My good friend in Japan turned me to a book before I deployed (and graciously sent me her good copy), a tale of fantasy and sorcery – a book I was skeptical to pick up.  Thank goodness I did! What a wonderful tale the book was.  Thank you.

I’ve now picked up the book Catch-22, a book my old friend Doug told me I should read (about 4 years ago). I picked it up, and I cannot stop laughing. What a great book so far, except for the mildly-depressing part about Major Major. Plan on finishing this book and “The Greatest Generation” on the plane ride home.

I need a way to get a hold of Wilco’s new album.

So the Monitors came yesterday. Think of them as recruiters for active duty personell.  Of course, they brought computers. Of course, we had to hook them up and make sure everything was good. In the midst of running around, the monitor for my MOS stops me, and asks me to sit down. Great.  He asks me if I have a duty station preference. I said I’m not staying in the Corps. Then it began.

What followed was childish barking, basically letting me know that I cannot succeed outside of the Marine Corps., coming from 3 MSgts.  It started off “Well what’s your plan when you get out? And don’t say you’re going to school.” Why can’t I say that? Isn’t that what half of the armed forces are made up of? People who want to do their time and get the college money out of it? Is that so bad of an idea?  Especially since that’s the main selling point when the recruiter talks to you.  He focuses on the Montgomery G.I Bill, and rightfully so.

But these gentlemen were obviously afraid.  They knew there was nothing they could do.  In the past half hour, they had seen me work on their computers, fixing their simple problems, doing things so fast they had to tell me to slow down and stay away from the coffee.  They knew that we had marketable skills. And that made them scared. It went against everything they stood for.  So they resorted to scare tactics.

“If you don’t re-enlist now, you won’t be able to get back in! The Corps. has almost met its Quota!”
Great. I wasn’t planning on coming back to the Marine Corps. Perhaps Navy after a while, but not probable.

“Once you get out, you’re gonna end right back up here in the sand! You’re gonna get recalled, and I’m going to be standing there at the gate saying I Told You So. You won’t get the duty station you want, or a bonus!”
Yeah but I’ll get one LONG vacation before I get recalled, IF I even do.  And why would I get recalled if the Corps. has almost met it’s quota?

“Well I saw a DATA guy in the barbershop awhile back and he said he’d just been recalled, so don’t think it won’t happen!”
That little story would have been more effective if it weren’t so vague AND if I didn’t hear you use it on someone else about an hour ago.

I guess it just annoys me is all. These people are telling me I cannot succeed in the real world because THEY cannot succeed in the real world. And these are the people I’m supposed to look up to, to emulate? Sheesh.

A few days ago, we tore down the recreational computer system at our camp. This means I will no longer be able to communicate over any means but my email. It should be listed in my profile.

Today, our section started building our CV’s. It was on all our minds at the same time, and we just started doing it, and helping eachother out. We all have similar qualifications and our work experience can literally be copied and pasted between us. We each have our own style of putting one together, but all in all pretty powerful stuff. I never knew just how hard it was to quantify/explain my work experience and skill-sets on one sheet of paper. I guess that could be viewed as a good thing. Instead of saying I’m fresh out of college and used to flip burgers, I can put down military experience. It’s actually kind of like deja-vu. This is the exact thing I came into the Corps. for. Instead of begging a company to hire me part time and only learn one set of skills, I was practically GIVEN this job, where I’m now an I.T.-Jack-of-all-trades.

It’s a relief looking at job postings, whereas a few years ago job postings were like laundry lists of things I needed to learn. Now all of the same type job listings that I’m looking at make me look overqualified. But no rest for me, because I know that learning is a neverending process. And so many cool things to learn! So many programming languages I have yet to learn, so many server technologies, so many frameworks and api’s that I know nothing of! All opportunities for self-improvement.

I cannot stress this enough : I’m eager to get back to the civilian world.

A few years ago I probably would have laughed at the term blogosphere, in fact, I did: I think it’s a ridiculous word.  Even my spellchecker agrees with me. But think about it; most of your online news intake comes from a blog. I know mine does, as is the par for us techie types.

Today I officially discovered the blogosphere.  It was a surreal experience, and it didn’t help that my shuffle playlist decided that a Muse and Radiohead stint would be perfect for the trip I was having.  It began looking at a blog on web design and development (oh that one?) and it had a great article on a sister site, whose site had a great tip from another site etc. etc. ad infinitum.  Oh. My. Lord. I had just opened up my browser, and all the sudden I’ve got 80+ tabs open (which really isn’t unusual) and I’ve been pushing the del.icio.us button to the point where it could be sold on eBay as “Vintage”.

People been doin’ work. There’s alot of stuff out there in the “Blogosphere”, and the web in general for that matter.  And it gets so much better when you start clicking away at other sites, stuff that isn’t so cut-and-dry like facebook, twitter, myspace, gmail, etc.  Sites that aren’t all about content, rather on how it’s delivered. Sites that are creative in their use of elements, layout, design, and color. Sites that pop. Sites you might not visit again in awhile, but they were cool while you were there. Like a little web vacation, a getaway from the boring one-color-plus-offwhite drudgery.

So go ahead, take a little web vacation. Visit someplace you didn’t know existed. and stop sending me damn youtube links.
(I can’t view them out here! *Sadface*)

[Link] [Link] [Link]

And it’s you I hear, so loud and so clear.

Kind of in relation to the previous post, here was my “list of steps” that I took today to try and resolve this problem.  I put that in quotation, because I’m still actually on the first step, and the rest of it is a tangent off of it. Quite sad really. Lets have a look:

Problem: File Replication Service is having trouble talking to other servers in the domain (and immediate physical proximity)

- Verified FRS is running on [server1], [server2] & [server3].
- Verified $SYSVOL is NOT shared on ANY of the above servers.
- Found tool Ultrasound to troubleshoot FRS issues.
- Ultrasound won’t run without an SQL server. downloading MS SQL Server.
- Cannot Install SQL server. Cause? lack of a strong SA password. Solution? Compile provided C++ code and provide a strong password. FUCK THAT.
- Look up problem. Others are having problem installing MSSQL (also trying to get ultrasound to work).
- User told to upgrade DC to Server 2008, so that they don’t have to deal with FRS, instead using DFS-R. Thanks guys.  Hope – -;
- Will this work with MySQL? I have that…Nope. Not a Microsoft Product.
- Found a friend with MS Visual C++. Won’t compile, because it needs a file from a library in a previous version of Visual Studio.

All in all, it took me about 5 hours to realize that

1. I don’t get paid enough to do this.
2. I don’t have the resources necessary to obtain the tools and information required.
3. The people who get paid 10x what I do need to be doing this instead of me.

All-in-all a productive day.