Live Fast, Die Hard - The Movie

My wife was invited to go to the Columbus premiere of a indie movie called "Live Fast Die Young" a dude she went to High School with was staring in the film and he was flying out to promote it.

So, last night we went. With a title like "Live Fast, Die Young" I was thinking it was going to be some rated R movie that has a lot of adult situations in it. I wasn't much looking forward to seeing. Boy was I wrong!

At the start before the credits rolled, the director and two of the actors, including Holly's old friend, got up and started to talk about the film. They were praising God and said that without Him this wouldn't have been possible. I was pleasantly surprised, but then I started thinking, Oh no, a Christian film with bad acting in it. (Have you guessed I'm a bit of a pessimist?)

Well, I was proven right for a portion of the film, but overall, I found the acting to be pretty good and the production value to be not so bad either. The message was good, an actor turned Christian was being ostracized by his fellow actors/directors, etc. They are all at a party and someone dies and they are all forced to speak with one another and hash out issues of life and death. It is a pretty good film for a non-catholic religious angle.

They're trying to get the movie in 22 cities. It's playing in Columbus at the Drexel on Main, otherwise, check out the site and find out how to get it in your area.

A teen before he's a teen

My 9-year-old this morning did the unthinkable in my eyes.

He has always been the one who would do the minimum when he did his chores, he would try to skate by, when asked to do more work, he would complain of a headache or being tired. He avoids prayer with the family and he fights with his brothers.

This morning, however, my wife asked him to get a new paper towel roll from the garage because he was the only one with shoes on. He responded with "Why do I have to do everything!" and she told him to just do it. So, he huffed, put his coat on (which was unnecessary) got the roll, and when he came back he threw it at her and said "Here is your stupid paper towels!"

If I had not had 4 hours of sleep and been in bed at the time, I would have probably held him to the wall three feet off the ground and read him the riot act. Instead, Holly disciplined him, but she admitted she didn't go far enough, she wanted to leave it up to me.

He was in his room all day after school, I got home and laid into him. I think I put enough fear of God and me into him that it will be a while before he tries this again. I felt horrible for having yelled at him but I felt I was defending my wife's honor.

But interestingly enough, later that night as I helped him with his homework we were reading the Baltimore Catechism he is learning from. The second was on life everlasting and it said that in order to have life everlasting we must "die to self" and the explanation was to do something you don't want to do to please God and others. i.e. A sacrifice.

I found that the Lord really put this teaching here for a reason I was so amazed. I shared with him ways I sacrifice and ways I fail to die to self. We tried to come up with examples in his own life as well.

At bed time he hugged me and told me good night. It was great.

YOU try to install Exchange!

Well, I'm sure many of you could have done this quicker and easier than I did. But I have to outline how my own lack of doing research cost me three days of work.

For those who don't know. Exchange is Microsoft Exchange Server or their mail server product. If you work in a corporate environment or even small business, most-likely they're running Exchange server.

We have an old server that is dying. It is still running but it has a bad fan in a power supply and it will go pretty soon. So, time is of the essence. Our journey to install a new server has been fraught with peril.

The day I learned we needed a new server I got permission from the higher-ups to purchase it. I couldn't do it immediately because my account rep was not back from medical leave. On the day he was back to work, we had a level 2 snow emergency in Columbus and I was at home. So, I ordered the next day. The server, surprisingly was on the Museum Dock the next morning. That was fast!

However, I didn't have an Operating System yet; Microsoft hadn't approved the order. That afternoon I had two frantic phone calls from my account rep saying that Microsoft would no longer give us Charity pricing! They would, however, give us Academic pricing so I had to fax over our 501(c)(3) paperwork and things would be on their way. Well, Finance was preparing for the audit so they couldn't give me the paperwork and it was a Friday. So, Monday they said they would try but it wasn't until Tuesday when I got the paperwork. I immediately faxed it off and that afternoon I had the server software. This is getting long and I haven't even gotten to the installation!

The Museum owns Exchange 2003. We want to upgrade to Exchange 2007 but we can't just yet. Exchange 2007 requires a 64-bit installation of the server operating system. So, we decided to go cutting edge and install Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit. I got it all installed and went to install Exchange but server 2008 was missing a component required to install. I googled to find that Exchange 2003 won't install on Server 2008.

So, I reformatted and re-installed Windows Server 2003 64-bit. I got it all installed with all it's patches and went to install Exchange and it says it won't run! Checking the settings it says that Exchange 2003 will not run on a 64-bit Operating System! So, I had to reformat and reinstall a THIRD TIME to Windows 2003 32-bit. Two days of work just trying to install.

We had to make a decision about whether or not we attempt to upgrade to Exchange 2007 or wait. If we wait then we would have to format and re-install the operating system on the server in order to get Exchange 2007 installed on there since it will only run on a 64-bit OS. By the time we do that, we'll probably just have to purchase another new server. Spending $6,500 more next year to save $2,240 this year. But if you don't have the 2240 to spend this year, you can't do much about it.

Betrayal? I think not

I'm reading this article at EWTN entitled Obama's Abortion Reversal a "Betrayal," Says Catholic University President and I had to laugh. Really? Obama's Abortion "reversal" is a "betrayal?" First of all, Obama didn't reverse anything! He was the most liberal pro-abortion candidate ever to run for the Presidency! He has the furthest left stance you can get when it comes to abortion.

Why would Catholics ever think that he wanted to reduce the "number of abortions"? Oh, he said it once that he was personally opposed and incorrectly accused Bush of having not reduced them himself. But who can believe what he says when his record speaks for itself? He has supported 100% of all abortion promoting bills that have ever come before him. He said himself he would sign FOCA the first chance he got. Why would Catholics ever think he would be any different in the white house.

So now, The president of Catholic University is complaining that when Obama signed the executive order to allow overseas abortions its a reversal and a betrayal. Let's be clear here, this was no reversal and as for betrayal. I don't even see it like that either. He's always been pro-death and has made no bones about it. Anyone who believed otherwise has no common sense.

Catholics who voted for Obama got what they wanted. A pro-death president that has reversed himself on many other things already in office (Washington Insiders, Lobbyists , and more) but he has not reversed himself on abortion. You wanted him and we all got him.

Peanut Butter Scare

So, I've seen the reports and they say get rid of all your peanut butter. Well, our peanut butter jar we've been eating out of for weeks so I didn't bother throwing that away. Nobody's been getting sick here so I am not too worried.

Today I got a letter from Sam's Club. Their records indicated that I had purchased some peanut butter zone bars and that if there are any left I should return them for a full refund; they're being recalled.

Then I started thinking... I've been having these nasty gassy nights lately where I'm just bloated and feeling like garbage. Normally by the next morning I'm okay but once it lasted into the afternoon the next day. Well, after a while of not eating them, I've taken up eating my zone bars! I'm starting to put two and two together! Ack!

Sealy Customer Support is Awesome!

Six years ago I purchased two pillows. While I was in a JCPenny they had a pillow sale. Sealy Pillows, buy one get one for a $1. The pillows were these Encompass Pillows. They were expensive but they have a 10-year warranty. Who the heck uses a pillow for 10 years? I figured I had two choices, buy a $5.00 pillow every year or spend $31 on two and keep them for 10. Why not?

Well, 6 years from now the pillow is pretty flat and I'm kind waking up with a neck ache. So, I decided to get my receipt out and contact Sealy Customer Support. I e-mailed them. A day later they asked me to send the pillows and they'd give me new ones. I asked if I could have them send me pillows first. They agreed.

I got the new pillows and, honestly, they were defective! The inner core that helps keep it shape was all shoved to one side making the pillow quite uncomfortable. So... I wrote them again. The woman, Beth, was very helpful! She said I could keep those defective ones and she would send me another set of pillows that didn't have an inner core but should still be good for me. In addition. I can continue to keep the old pillows if I wanted. (My children aren't picky and they would welcome the old pillows.)

The response time and the helpfulness of their support was just great. I just love them and will continue to buy Sealy pillows for the rest of my life. Thanks Sealy!

Had a Good Time

On Thursday two weeks ago I was notified that I wouldn't be able to keep both of my IT staff members; the budget just couldn't sustain two people this year. This was a major blow to me and the staffer I had to let go because she was really great. I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and she was really a saving grace there in the department.

Now it's been a week later and bunch of us took her out for a night out. It wasn't necessarily a night for us to commiserate but more of a celebration of who Charla is and an optimistic look at her getting a new job.

So, we went down to Tip Top on Gay Street and we all sat, ate and drank. We had a great time talking about everything from fat cats on leashes to Jesus Christ saving the world. I sprinkled in there my tragic Guinness story and some others.

I had this blackened tilapia that was delicious but the rice that came with it was so spicy I think I lost some taste buds. I love spice and heat but man, that was overwhelming. It was good for the first 10 or so bites, after that I stopped eating it.

Before I left I needed to use the bathroom, of course, three beers will do that to you. I headed to the doors, entered the bathroom; the same one I entered earlier in the night. After coming out everyone was cheering and laughing at me! Not only at my table but others. I was wondering why. I couldn't understand it... then they told me to go back and look on the door...

Sure enough... I went into the women's bathroom.... twice. It never dawned on me that since there were no urinals in there I was in the wrong place. I also considered how there was someone using the stall next to me. whew. With that, I went home. I think I left on a high note.

Newspapers... Supply your carriers with cars!

My mother delivers newspapers for the Northwest Florida Daily News. She's 74 years old and has a great arm. She can toss a paper over the car and it can land on your doorstep.

So, this morning, she is delivering the papers as she has for the last 12+ years. She drives on the left side of the road to get to the newspaper box and deliver the paper. Now, she's normally delivering papers between 3am and 6am. So, there's nobody really on the road.

A police officer pulls her over and says she is not allowed to drive on the left side. She explained that this is the only way to do this efficiently but nonetheless he said, "You can't drive on the wrong side and this is a warning. If you do, I will give you a citation." So, she said okay and proceeded to go around him on what she always thought was a circle drive to get to this one box. He immediately turns on his lights and asks for her license, registration, the usual thing. She got a $133 ticket! She tried to tell him that she was trying to get back on the right side of the road but he would simply yell at her saying, "Tell it to the judge!"

So, this afternoon she calls the newspaper and they say there's nothing they can do for her. She got cited, too bad. She called the officer's boss and he said "You cannot drive on that side of the road." and even said that the US Postal Service drives on the correct side! DUH! They have cars with the driver on the right side. His response was that the Northwest Florida Daily News should supply cars to their paper carriers.

This is unbelievable. For 12 years she has been delivering papers and now she's going to have to take double the amount of time it normally takes her because every 10 feet she will have to stop and get out of her car to deliver papers across the street from her.

I told her the Daily News should do a story on this and put it into the public like a Op-Ed piece. It probably won't happen but I'm submitting this to them anyway. In my humble opinion, the paper should at least be supporting their carriers when they have ridiculous issues like this rather than telling them too bad.

Why have a personal website?

I have been exploring this for a while and I am not entirely sure what I think yet. I have had my own website for many years; since about 1999. I created a blog there before there was really even such a thing as a blog. I built the code and design myself (it's outdated, I need to update it).

The website was a way for me to keep family and friends updated with what was going on in our lives. Well, as you can see, it hasn't been updated since 2007 (as of this writing) and I don't forsee myself updating it anytime soon. At least not with more pictures.

Why? Why have it? With the coming of Web 2.0, now we've got facebook, flickr, youtube, twitter, friendfeed, you name it. There is no real reason to put your life up on one website anymore! That is, unless you simply want to make that one website combine the feeds from all your other websites and that would be a lot of work.

Right now, it's much harder for me to prepare pictures, crop them, resize them and upload them to my own site--the interface that I created to make it easier for myself--than to go into iPhoto and and choose "export to facebook".

Most of my family and friends are on facebook so it's easy to show them my pictures and activity. I can do regular updates of my status on twitter which propagates to facebook and flickr can be linked to facebook, etc.

So, I guess my question is, is there a reason anymore to have a personal website?

Bingo

Bingo is an interesting thing. I never really knew what went on in a bingo hall other than smoking before I had to work it for my kid's school. Every two weeks I head to the bingo hall and sell "instants". In fact, my name is "instant" on Friday nights.

So, here's the basics... People buy the sheets in order to play the main bingo games, there are 20 of them. However, they also buy these instant win games as well. There are many types of instant win games. Their names are all catchy like "Break the Bank" and "Win on Diamonds" or "Banana Rama" and my personal favorite "Rednecks". When you get win with Rednecks, they have a "You might be a redneck" joke with it.

Now, in any given box of these instants there are more than 5,000 tickets and only a handful of real winners. Then there are "holds" which are also called "numbers". People hold onto them and after the entire box is sold (and believe me, they always sell out) then they "call the game". There is a pull-apart tab that the head guy opens and reveals the grand prize winner which could be up to $1,000. Normally it's like $500 bucks though they split up the winners.

So, my job is to put these instants into a utensil tray, the type you would put in your kithen drawer and walk around with hundreds of dollars in cash and sell these instants. People buy them 20, 30 at a time for a dollar a piece. I have seen people shell out over $300 on instants in one shot. These are people who don't have a lot of money! As you sell them, they pop them open and if you're not quick enough to get away fast, they will throw at you the $1 and $5 winners for you to give them more instants in return.

Sometimes you can be stuck at one table for 10 minutes while three or four people around you are yelling "INSTANT!" trying to get you to come to them so they can buy. Others will get up and come to you because you're not moving. Granted, there are 3 - 5 of us on the floor but it doesn't matter, there are never enough sellers on the floor.

Near the end of the night, it gets slow, nobody has any money left to buy so you try to push them on people so you can sell off the box so they can call the jackpot winner. You start looking for people who opened $1, $3, $5 winners and ask them if you want to trade them in for instants. They normally do. When they're down to 50 or so, then one person walks around with them in their hand calling them out "Last of the 33's" just wishing someone would buy them off you.

There are many who are obviously addicted. There are others who pay big to win big. I saw a woman tonight who won the $500 jackpot, an instant pay out of $55, $75 and $100. She was raking in the money! And she never even one a normal bingo game! She walked away a big winner.

Selling instants is back and feet breaking work. But it goes to a good cause. I put up with the people who try to scam me or the irate people who complain I'm scamming them. I put up with the cop that rags on me everytime I take a 5 minute break (once a night) or when I get something to eat since I haven't eaten dinner. In the end, there is terrible beer and not-so-great pizza, but there is good conversation. And it's great to see people win the grand prize.

So, next time you're out in Columbus, come on down to Mater Dei Bingo at St. Mary's on Napoleon avenue near Whitehall. It's smoke free!

A scare at Mass today...

My two-year-old, Nicholas, today was running on the pew and when my 9-year-old grabbed him to stop him, he fell and banged his head full-on. I happened to be out of the pew at the time so I wasn't there to prevent it completely.

He was noticeably sluggish. I took him to the back and tried to see if his eyes were okay (looking for a concussion). He was very lethargic. I went back into the pew and I couldn't keep him awake. I saw my wife's OB/GYN so I grabbed him to look at my son. The doctor said he appeared okay but after I brought him back to the pew, he fell asleep completely; I couldn't keep him awake.

Well, I called my pediatrician and he said that after he wakes up just keep an eye on him and see how he's doing. After we got home, Nick was better and appears to be a normal two-year-old now! Thank the Lord!

A Computer in the Kids Room

I don't known about this. I got a computer from one of the priests at my parish and was going to give it to my Sons' school but I felt it wasn't powerful enough for them to use. It simply was too old. I did procure them another one though.

So, we had this computer, I was going to give it back to my priest to give to someone else but he said to keep it. So, here we are with a computer that perhaps the kids could use. Yeah? Well, my wife comes up with the idea that perhaps we could set it up in their room for them to do school work on and seriously restrict the Internet on it and such. I agreed. I thought it would be fine.

Today is the first day it's been completely operational in their room. I have restricted the Internet to lego.com and pbskids.org so far. This evening they spent more time in their room than they ever do. Could it be the veggietales movie they were watching? Yeah, that was part of it. And the fun they were having on Lego.com.

I dunno man. A computer in the room. This is big. I hope I don't regret it!

Trying to Transfer Domains

This has started to become a complaint-fest on here. Hopefully this isn't the theme of my blog! I just gotta get this off my chest.

I'm trying to cancel my domains from 1and1.com internet. I am moving them over to godaddy.com. This was part of my move to change hosting which failed. On the 26th was when I signed up with GoDaddy and started the hosting. As part of the sign up I transferred all my domains over. After canceling the hosting I decided simply to keep the domain transfer going.

I noticed by the evening of the 26th I didn't have a notification from 1and1 that they had accepted the transfer, so I did some digging. I had to actually go to a page and cancel my contracts with them. So, I went through that process and they asked me for about 12 of my domains, to sign a paper and fax it in. Well, seeing as though I don't have a fax, I had to do that on Saturday the 27th.

On Monday I was way too busy to notice the transfers didn't happen but on Tuesday I called and they said they would "escalate it to the transfers department" which then I was disconnected. I thought perhaps that was intentional... that they would escalate it and I would have to wait.

So, this morning I received a bill in the mail from 1and1 for two of my domains. It was the registration renewal for the domains! I just paid them $18! Why was i doing that?! I called them up to ask about my transfer and got several people telling me nonsense. Finally after they simply told me it was in the hands of the department and would be handled, I went to the billing department to get my $18 dollars back.

Well, they went through the whole process with me again and told me that the domains would be released TOMORROW (New Years Day) even though I had completed all necessary steps. I'm told it takes 5 business days. Really? In this age of computers it takes 5 business days?!

Oh, and as for my refund. They're really sorry but I should have canceled my domain before the renewal so there will be no refund. AAAARRRRRGGGGG!

Work Woes

I'm supposed to be vacationing but instead I have been working!

Sunday @ 12:33am our primary Active Directory Server died. The hard drives simply got corrupted. It's a good thing we had a secondary AD server so we could continue to function.

On Sunday, my excellent 2nd in command spent all day working on the server trying to get it functioning while I was at The Works with my wife and a few of my kids. It was my wife's birthday on Sunday, she turned 35. I didn't have to field too many phone calls from work that day but I did get some status updates.

So, on Monday I worked even though I was taking a vacation day. I spent the day getting the new server online and also helping install three new networked copiers. That was interesting. They will be a great addition to the Museum.

I wasn't completely done with the server but I went home nonetheless and worked from home. Turns out, when I was changing the IP address of the server to what I wanted it to be (static IP) I accidentally assigned it the same IP as the other AD server! So... with both servers inaccessible from home, I had to drive into work at 9pm last night and fix it.

While I was there I simply stayed and finished up the things I wanted/needed to do with the system to get our network fully functioning again. I got home about midnight.

I'm hoping I don't have to work anymore this week.

Waiting at work

Wow, three posts in two days. I don't know if I can keep this pace up for very long.

We have a rotating schedule every two weeks with our offsite storage warehouse (who must remain nameless). It's been this way for over a year. They called twice to confirm that we would be here on the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas for the switching of the backup hard drives.

I spent most of my day here dealing with Godaddy. Then at 4:45pm I go upstairs to get the drives to plug them into the backup server and what do I see? The case I put up there was taken by the company but they never delivered with it the next set of drives.

So, I contacted them and the man said, "What do you want me to do about it?" I said, go get my case I need it today!  I described it as the black square case and gave the name.  I told him I wouldn't be there since I have to work Mater Dei Bingo but I would be in at 11pm to plug the drives in.  Well, I got here at 11:20pm to find out they brought the wrong case! We have only two cases, the guy brought in the BLUE case that they took away this afternoon!

So, now I'm sitting here at midnight waiting for a call back from the after-hours technician to determine if they even have the black case and when it can be delivered. My wife is at home with a sick child wondering when I'm going to be home and she has to work at 9am.

The man on the phone is eager to help me because he'll get paid triple overtime for doing the work. I, however, won't be paid for sitting here so I just want to go home.

Can't host with GoDaddy

I host with an excellent hosting company. I love them to death. However, I simply was looking for less expensive hosting. Now I know that price just isn't everything.  Well, I always knew that but it hit home today.

I talked to a great GoDaddy rep. She was really helpful. I asked questions about having multiple domains and then I signed up for hosting. I then found out the horrible truth about the things I didn't ask about. EMAIL.

I have several websites and on those websites I have a few that have list-serv's. These are like Google groups or Yahoo! Groups where people can subscribe or you can have a newsletter, whatever. Well, I have lists like that with my own domains.  I also have one or two that simply have an e-mail address that forwards to like 50 others.

So, I quickly found out they had no list-serv support. But then when I wanted to setup an forwarder it said I had to pay $2.95 for the option. Well, Okay, i'll do that. I paid the money and it says that if you want to forward to more than one address, add a comma between each one with a 129 character limit! What is up with that?! You can't forward to more than 6 addresses much less 50!  To add insult to injury, if you create a full-fledged e-mail account and set the option to CC an e-mail address when the e-mail comes in, that is a 256 character limit! You can forward to more people with a full address than one designed to forward!

Well, GoDaddy. You may be the cheapest out there. but you're not the best. I guess I have to continue paying what I am for great service.  But then again, why do people have personal websites anymore? I really should write a blog post on that topic.

First Post!

I used to go to this website "perversiontracker.com" It used to be a site that outlined terrible software written for the Mac. However, it's now blocked by my openDNS service as a porn site so who knows what it is now!

Anyway, each time they would post, people could post comments and there was always some guy in the top spot that said, "first post!" and that was it. His entire goal in life was to get the first post on this little website.  Now you can see it on woot.com and others.

So, anyway, this is MY first post. For all I know, it will be my last post.  I have thought many times that I should start a blog. I have had my website, fromtheduke.com, up for a very long time and I suppose you could say I was blogging on there before there was such a thing as a blog. But now I'm a father of 6 children and my time to update everyone on what is going on in our lives and post pictures is simply not as easy anymore. Especially when there's Facebook, Flickr, You Tube and the like. So why have a personal website? Perhaps that's a subject for another blog post.