Saturday, April 30, 2016

Comfortable Matters

This article mentions the bathroom policy at Target, which is as follows:

"A man, dressed as a man, who does not claim to be a woman, and does not claim to identify as a woman, may use the restroom designated for women if he feels more comfortable there."

Don't believe it? Read about it in this article.

Friday, April 29, 2016

I'm Tired of the Right Wing....

....conspiracy to use Clinton's email server as a political solution to a failed attempt at establishing policies that favor the rich and wealthy.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/state-department-hid-key-clinton-benghazi-email-from-judicial-watch/

Stop Showing Off!




Jump to the 6:00 mark if you want to know why I called this post what I did.

Rare

This video was published on Oct 18, 2015. For me to sit and watch a guitar player play a cover of a Prince song is something I think will be a rare event in my life. Of course, yes, it is Dream Theater's guitarist and of course, yes, he is an amazing guitarist. Don't forget that I am simply a drummer with no guitar playing ability. Still, the fact that this video was published several months prior to Prince's death last week shows me that his music reached musicians on many different levels. I wish I knew if Prince ever knew John Petrucci or that his influence was genre-crossing. I'm sure Prince has already found his way to Hendrix, Vaughan, Garcia, Dio, Bonham, AJ Pero, Burton, and so many others I can't recall at the moment. Since there's no fans to sue, I'm sure they are making awesome music together.



Miss

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/04/john-kasich-says-tells-co-ed-if-you-dont

I think I took the reply different. I took it as if you don't want bad things to happen, don't go where they happen. Perhaps the worst example is if you don't want to be stung by a bee, don't go to a beekeeper's house. Another is if you don't want to hear heavy metal, don't go to the Metallica concert. Granted, rape is an action forced upon the victims and I am not diminishing what it means.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Bring on the Vultures

When candidates speak in front of people that are likely to cast their vote for the candidate, there are usually sweeping generalities. For example, Trump, Clinton, Cruz, Sanders, and Kasich have each said something similar to the following because this "we're going to change the world" mentality crosses party lines. Statements like, "We're going to fix A and fix B and the people that get away with C, they will no longer be able to do it!" where A, B, and C are the hot-button issues for the candidate.

As the election gets closer, though, then the sweeping generalities become more specific and, as a result, the criticism sharpens. For example, instead of saying "America is going to gain respect in the world," Donald Trump has now laid out, specifically, from which countries he wants respect to be gained. Read what he said in a speech about foreign policy here.

Perhaps a Mind Reader

Last night, I had some things in the back of my mind that I wanted to do and, despite having the opportunity to begin doing them, I did not do them. This AM, in my "Thought for Today" email, I saw this (credit to http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/readiness/):

The less I think about doing something and the faster I just get on with it, the fewer problems I cause myself. Good planning is always helpful, but time spent fretting and procrastinating is a major drain on my energy.

If I heed this advice, tonight I will "get on with it" and stop draining my energy.

Not to Defend a Clinton

I understood Clinton's comment on gangs as saying there is a need for an alternative to joining a gang, not that it is the only thing that African-Americans can do. I actually agreed with her comments and think that the Republicans are being too literal in their commentary about her comment.

http://eaglerising.com/32811/awesome-african-american-sheriff-destroys-hillary-clinton-for-positive-gangs-comments/

Analysis of a Failed Alliance

http://time.com/4308834/donald-trump-pennsylvania-maryland-primary-results-never-trump/

Magic

When I think I am done, I am not.

https://youtu.be/MKvD2Vph5ko

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Entry-Level with a MBA

I just saw this job ad and have some comments. Please, begin reading...

Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Travel

PURCHASING AGENT

Entry level purchasing agent position for individual with basic procurement or contract skills.

Okay, stop there. "Entry level" should be hyphenated, no?

Keep that thought in mind and keep reading.

Provide support to the Purchasing Department by managing and monitoring purchase contracts ensuring compliance with contract terms. Issue competitive solicitations including Request for Quotes, Request for Proposals and Requests for Qualifications as needed. Resolve contract performance and payment issues, manage third party contract interface, and maintain related purchase orders, contracts and catalog items. Responsible for the routine procurement of goods and services including freight, cellular phones, food products and equipment as well as potential involvement with campus-wide and multi-entity initiatives. Assist with negotiations of on-going contracts for the entire campus. Evaluate and recommend appropriate methods for procuring requested goods and services. Ensure compliance with Federal and State Laws, Regents and University policies and procedures and the University's Strategic plan, plus departmental and divisional mission statements.

Requirements:

• A Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or a related field, or the equivalent combination of education and experience is required; a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree is preferred.

And there it is. This is an "entry level" or "entry-level" position and in order to qualify, you need a MBA. Makes no sense.

As for me, I'm not going ANYWHERE!

Good Kind of Mold

When Papa Roach released their debut and I heard "Last Resort," I don't think I was a fan. Over time, and over seeing them live, they've grown on me like the good kind of mold. Today is the 16 year anniversary of the release of their debut album, per this article.

Two Covers of Smell



Software Patch and My Sickness Diagnosis

I think about Mom and my future when I read articles about memory retention like this one: http://time.com/4304589/memory-picture-draw/ because I've realized that I retain memories because of my sickness. My self-diagnosis is that I have Journalitis (tm). is the compelling fear of not writing about life in a journal. A journal can be a blog, a fancy journal I see at Target - they don't have enough pages for me - or a 200 page college-ruled spiral notebook (my preference). The end result is simply a collection of memories.

On this blog, I have composed details about my 10 year, 24 x 200 page notebook project. As a brief refresher, I began this project on 1/1/2012 and will finish this project on 12/31/2021. Though I have not begun planning (or purchasing notebooks for it), it has crossed my mind to undertake a second 10 year project, which would begin on 1/1/2021 and finish on 12/31/2030 and then a third project to begin on 1/1/2031 and finish on 12/31/2040. I would be 71 years, 3 weeks, 6 days when that third project ended. On top of that, I would have 72 200 page college-ruled notebooks and at least 14400 pages if I only count the front of the page. If I count the back as well, it becomes 28,800 pages. The cure for Journalitis is purchased with death.

Until my death, I must write.

Until my death, I cannot NOT write.

Until my death, I must fill notebooks upon notebooks with my words.

If I don't, I am discombobulated and distressed.

I rely on the ability to write, the assembling and mechanic action of seeing the image in my head on paper or on a screen. Perhaps I have replaced booze with writing as a coping mechanism for the trials of life.

All of this is being dredged up because I have zero doubt I am very much like Mom. She was a writer. I sometimes have wondered if she kept a journal. If so, I haven't found it. It would not surprise me to find her journal, tucked away in the house I grew up in and that Dad still lives in. Many of the words I wrote in high school papers that earned a good grade can be attributed to her editing. She helped me with so many assignments, crossing out words, rephrasing sentences, and adding new thoughts for me to flesh out my thesis. Later in life, Mom's dementia was difficult for me to watch. As I have mentioned, Mom spent 40 years in the Cedar Rapids education system, teaching kids to communicate and in her final years, she couldn't. I openly admit that it is my fear of forgetting that motivates me to feed my Journalitis with continuous writing. I fear forgetting the memories I write about before I die.

In fact, if pressed, it's my worst fear. It's a fear greater than spending the last years of my life without Karen. It's a fear best described as that I will spend my final years in a locked dementia unit. Being a lot like Mom scares me. She had to be in one because she walked out of the first facility she was in and was unable to return. The second and third facilities required entering a code to enter the part of the building where she had her bed and dresser. Many pages in my journal are rich with descriptive essays about the parallels between where she lived and a prison.

As far as whether or not she has a journal tucked away, it would be very interesting to me to understand her motivation for doing and saying what she did when she was alive. I suppose the motivation for doing and saying what I say could be tied to the journals I keep. Now that I wrote that sentence, I'm thinking about its validity. After I'm dead, maybe my kids will read what I wrote and realize that the sum of my actions and words in my journals is far greater than the sum of what I did and said. The lesson I hope to teach is that some ideas are best left on a college-ruled piece of notebook paper in a bookshelf in a den with 23 other notebooks surrounding it.

Talent Exposed

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2016/04/the-client-with-apologies-to-edgar-allen-poe.php

Monday, April 25, 2016

Great Essay

Chyna Deserved Better (via http://ble.ac/teamstream-) http://teamstre.am/1UdoJyf

Great Headline Writing

Thought I was done with the barrage of posts... And then I saw this article.

http://theresurgent.com/porno-robot-monkeys-and-the-pop-up-window/

Time to go to work....

Winter It Will Send

Blackened: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1a3FKGGAwbbqv-qYjkJ3HRmDScAGV4aO

Confident

When this video was released, I thought the drummer was an idiot for having the electronic drum behind him. All these years later, my opinion is the same...

https://youtu.be/g60vme5_-e0

Mesmerizing

I don't remember the last time I watched a 9 minute video of a guy playing guitar...

https://youtu.be/hJ9WB4l-yWU

Despairing

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/25/cruz-kasich-campaign-announce-collaboration-to-deny-trump-delegates.html

Recovering a Primate from a Prostitute

First and hopefully the last time....

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/04/24/man-paid-prostitute-with-charity-money-and-primate-police-say.html

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Left Wing Conspiracy

This accusation, if true, is awful.

The fact that the Democrats are all in a snit because the Republicans are not being candid about what happened is totally hysterical. Apply their own indignation to Hillary Clinton.

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/04/gop-clerk-who-wiped-thousands-ny-rolls

Breaking Out

https://youtu.be/gwtfDA7UVjU

Friday, April 22, 2016

Not Getting the AR Gig

From an email sent to me on Friday, April 22, 2016 at 11:19 AM:
I wanted to let you know that we have come to a decission (sp) and we have decided to choose one of the other drummers that applied. You are a fantastic drummer and it was difficult to pick just one person to fill this spot. If i hear of anyone else looking for a drummer, i will be sure to pass your name along.   Thank you once again for auditioning and for the enthusiasm you brought with you.

Bummer.

Tool Selected

After evaluating Flare, Doc-to-Help, and RoboHelp, I chose RoboHelp for the Disaster Recovery manual at work. RoboHelp was always the favorite to be chosen for two reasons:
  • I worked with it for a dozen years at Quintrex
  • I like coding HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
The bottomline is I had to decide what tool I want to have my content in:
  • Word
  • HTML
  • XML

Choosing Doc-to-Help would be the means to writing content in MS Word, which I'd be okay with because I adore MS Word macros. However, for the HTML deliverable, it would mean trusting a Word to HTML conversion as part of the publication process.
Choosing Flare would be the means to writing content in XML, which is appealing because of its acceptance as the next big thing in technical writing. However, I was intimidated by the number of "how to get started with Flare" guides. I was hesitant to invest a lot of time in absorbing multiple "get started" guides. I also was nearly swayed by the Madcap marketing campaign, especially comparing choosing a HAT to a dating game in a video on youtube.com. I think Flare is a great product but a lot of its features are not ones I would use. I will not have to translate content to other languages. I will not have more than 3 simple deliverables. It seemed like a Cadillac when all I need is a Chevy Equinox.
Choosing RoboHelp meant choosing a Chevy Equinox. My content will be written in HTML and use JavaScript and CSS to enhance it. The fact that the conditional build tags and the user-defined values and the command line compiler, which I had used previously, made it feel like a comfortable soft blanket.

I'm confident that I made the appropriate choice for my situation. I expect that in the weeks and months ahead, I will post about using RoboHelp and any neat things I discover in the journey I'm undertaking.

Prince Chyna

Editor's Note: When I began this post, I discovered I have never created a label for neither "Prince" nor "Chyna." Because I probably won't write words about either of them after this post, I am using the "Death Sucks" label.

Yesterday there were two celebrity deaths: Prince & Chyna.

When I think about Prince, I think about Richard Bounds. He was my co-worker at NDP in Cedar Rapids from 2/10/95 - 2/10/98. I don't think about Richard much because I have, literally, not seen him since 2/10/98. I do remember he was always nice to me and that he was one helluva darts player at O'Maggie's, a bar that was across the street from the NDP building in downtown Cedar Rapids. Richard adored Prince's music. I think that between 2/10/95 and 2/10/98, Prince played a concert at the US Cellular Center when it was called the Five Seasons Center. Richard went to the concert and thought it was brilliant.  I didn't go and could only mumble that I liked "Let's Go Crazy" and "1999" when he mentioned Prince. Editor's Note: Read a review of that concert here. Overall, you can read about his life on Wikipedia.

As for Chyna, she was a professional wrestler in the WWE. She was a member of Triple H's stable, De-Generation X. The main things I remember about Chyna are that she had an intimidating physical presence and that, after she left the WWE, she was on a VH1 show called "Celebrity Rehab" in 2008. I remember seeing her deny that she had a drinking problem. In 2008, I would have denied I had a drinking problem. I remember thinking that Chyna was brave for confronting her demons, though stating there is a direct link between her doing so and me deciding to live a sober life is more coincidence than anything else. Still, I respected her choice. Overall, you can read about her life on Wikipedia.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Creepy

I'm a professional wrestling fan. I don't think what Cruz said is creepy. I get the gist of the analogy. Pro wrestling is about being pinned. It's just that America is called a "she" and the author takes it to the edge of reason. For all the talk about wanting to treat women as equal to men, it's sure easy to throw "but it's a woman" to make the point that Cruz is "creepy" and the candidate for whom you should not vote. See the link below.

As of today, this is where I am on the current candidates:

I don't want Trump but I am not convinced that he is the best the Republican party could have offered. His insults are not appealing.
I don't want Clinton because I think that there is something about the email server, the speech transcripts she won't release and, yeah, I will say it, Benghazi - either one or some - that she is hiding. Editor's Note: Is this article proof of what I just wrote?
I liked Kasich but think that he cannot get the delegates to win.
I like Sanders when he says human beings are charged with caring for each other but I don't want him to decide if I have too much money or not.
I like Cruz when he talks about his vision for making America great. If he debates Clinton, Cruz easily wins.

This is the article about why Ted Cruz is creepy...

Still Swinging

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/04/20/a-transcript-of-john-kasichs-interview-with-the-washington-post-editorial-board

Sad Loss in the Pro Wrestling

Former WWE Superstar Chyna Found Dead - http://teamstre.am/1qEBllY
Reaction: https://youtu.be/q2CP1jL8xGc

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Roses and Guns

This is a very long concert review, perhaps more of a personal essay than whatever "concert review" means in 2016. Prepare for an extended break from what you were doing if you follow this link: http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/20/11464582/guns-n-roses-coachella-2016-reunion-nwa-axl-slash

Stomach Issues

As I deal with the 4 TB EHD failure and determine what to do, I know I can re-convert my 4000ish CDs to MP3 - that's just hours of sitting. What I know I cannot do, though, is re-convert all the music I recorded with my cell phone. That includes all the Uncle Rico rehearsals, the masses at Saint Thomas More, the Lou's Classic Ride rehearsals, and concerts I recorded. On top of that, there are the videos and pictures from, among other events, Megan's 2013 trip to Europe. I know she printed a lot of the pictures off to put in a photo book, but it's the principle of losing those memories as well as the files Alex & Karen had accumulated of family gatherings (Karen) and concerts (Alex).

If it is determined that those data files are worth the money to retrieve them, my path becomes hiring a "data recovery" service to take the actual hard drive apart in order to attempt expensive data recovery. Even that, unfortunately, is not an avenue of guaranteed success, especially if you ask "BrazilianBill" on the Best Buy website who specifically mentioned that dropping the drive is sometimes catastrophic:

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Congrats

Killer quote that made me giggle:

"The free snacks are nice, but you also must tolerate having your head stuffed with silly jargon and ideology.."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/opinion/sunday/congratulations-youve-been-fired.html

Monday, April 18, 2016

Magic Pills for Toenails on the Floor

The BEST LINE in this scene was edited out. Marie tells Debra that the magic pills made Frank's toenails go into the garbage can.




El Doolge

RIP Mrs. Trophy Wife

Die Trying Not To

I really like the work Erick Erickson does. I find the majority of his writing to be filled with faith to God and am often re-grounded in my own faith after reading one of his articles. I hope he recovers soon. He is in the hospital with medical issues, as described here.

It's Called a Love Affair with Big Minds

Last week, I mentioned that Kobe Bryant played his final NBA game, as described here. What didn't make my radar was that Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, played the "Star Spangled Banner" during the pre-game. Apparently, there was a lot of backlash concerning his performance. What I found interesting was that if you search youtube.com for other videos of Flea playing the tune, he has played it previously, in the same arena. I watched him play the tune on the trumpet.

My point is that this was not the very first time he's ever played the tune on his bass in that venue. Perhaps what was different from the prior times and this last time is that people tuned in to watch Bryant's final game who didn't know who Flea is, what his history is with the Lakers, and that, like it or not and believe it or not, the way he played the tune was not all that different from when he played it in 2013.

All of that paragraph is meant to set up Flea's reaction. When asked what he thought of it - and I love this quote - this is what he said:

I really don’t have any concern for little small minds that get frustrated when they get blown . . . I like big minds.

Read the article here.

Took a Break from Recording the New Album... But I'm GOOD with That

Verax

I used to play an online game called "Super Crazy Guitar Maniac Deluxe 3" and this song was the one I used to excel at playing. Until just now, I had never looked to see if it was available on youtube.com, but now I know.


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Waiting

No news on the Avery Riot audition. I still don't know, at 3:30 PM on a Sunday, whether I'm their new drummer. In the meantime....


Film

http://www.looper.com/7428/top-20-movies-2017

Friday, April 15, 2016

Yesterday and Today

At work, I have diagrams of Test & Prod servers. I want to include them in the documentation I'm creating and thought I'd layer the content. I spent the morning fighting with a RoboHelp sample project and ultimately gave up trying to get the JavaScript that worked in the sample project to also function in my "real" RoboHelp project.

After lunch, I looked for another solution.

When I came upon  http://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryit.asp?filename=tryw3css_dropdown_card, I smiled. No JavaScript and a chance to expand my CSS coding skills? I'm in. Thus, this is what I did yesterday afternoon to implement the method on the link to my purposes:
  1. Rewrote “Move the mouse” to “Hover the mouse here to view a diagram” but didn’t like that rewrite.
  2. Implemented fewer words “View a diagram of the Prod server.”
  3. Changed the CSS definition of the text over which the user hovers to be blue to give the user a visual cue.
  4. Decided the blue text would be enough of a visual cue to the user and I wouldn’t have to tell them “hover the mouse here”.
  5. Decided I don’t really want “mouse” in the instructions.
  6. Considered a phrase like “Hover your pointing device…”.
  7. Rejected “Hover your pointing device…” because I would have to define “pointing device” in a glossary or in a “about the documentation” page.
  8. Rejected creating phrases that would make the user refer to a glossary in order to comprehend the documentation. My audience is using what I create only because there’s a disaster.
  9. Rededicated myself to the CORE principle – Create Once, Reuse Everywhere.
  10. Went home.
As soon as I figure out what I want, I will implement a solution.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Hannity Under Pressure

I have found myself parroting, if you will, Sean Hannity when discussing politics with my father-in-law. It's accurate to say I typically agree with a lot of what he says. I don't agree with his support of Donald Trump and, further, I don't agree with the way this article doesn't spell out all the ways in which Hannity is "soft" on Trump. I kept waiting for specifics instead of generalities.

Twenty Years in a Snap

I can say I've been a Kobe Bryant in the same way I've been a fan of the band Yes. I respect the accomplishment, but I never felt a deep emotional bond. Bryant's final game of his 20 year career was last night. I didn't even know until I read this article.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Tribute

Back to RT

www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/04/11/gregg-jarrett-attorneys-five-takeaways-from-obamas-defense-clintons-emails.html

Rich People Who Have BIG problems

Guns N' Roses vs. Nirvana: A Beef History http://flip.it/Q_WQJ

Discuss the Trial

It is somewhat difficult to wake up and have questions about the future that can't be answered.
1. When will the job search end?
2. What am I going to do if this employer I am applying at doesn't hire me?
3. What did I do to deserve this? Or, said another way, what is wrong with me?
I called my friend Todd and talked to him about his life. The company he was working at screwed him over. He has been thrust into a job search.
Having just been through the HELL that is a job search, I really would like to have the ability to hire him. I really would like to have the ability to make the crap he is going through end. It's just not right. I feel like if I can tell Todd some words of encouragement from time to time and help keep up his spirits, the HELL that I went through could have some benefit.
It's not really fair to anyone to go through a job search and to wonder if the stars will align. The first two weeks of my new job have been awesome. I feel like I'm in the right place for the years between now and retirement. That is a good thing for me to feel like I'm home.

Not Doing It

I couldn't works for Apple - I don't think that I could answer most of these questions....

http://time.com/4122588/apple-job-interview-questions/

Monday, April 11, 2016

Shady

Stop the Wave

We went to the movies yesterday. Karen, Alex, and Melanie saw "God's Not Dead 2" and I saw "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice." The reviews have not been spectacular, but I really liked the movie. I was entertained. I appreciated seeing Bruce Wayne / Batman portrayed the way he was by Ben Affleck - his portrayal of him was really good. I'm linking to page 8 of an article I read - you should too [SPOILER WARNING] http://whatculture.com/film/7-reasons-batman-v-superman-should-still-leave-you-optimistic-for-the-dc-universe?page=8

Explanation

Regarding this cryptic post, the RoboCopy commands to create a backup on my 1 TB EHD (F) completed and the stats for the jobs are on that post. After those commands finished, I began another set of XCOPY commands to further separate the files I had been able to find on my working EHDs:
copy all JPG files that start with 0-9 from f: to a directory on the MyCloud I: drive
copy all JPG files that start with A-Z from f: to a directory on the MyCloud I: drive
to end up with
I:\0\0* files
I:\1\1* files
I:\a\a* files 
... you get the idea. Because I used the XCOPY command with the /s parameter, I then have to use Search My Files to find all the files and cut them from the sub-folder to the root directory. Of course, this creates a lot of duplicate files that have to be separated into at least 5 categories:
  1. My pictures
  2. Karen's pictures
  3. Megan's pictures
  4. Alex's pictures
  5. Not one of the above
I expect this process to take a bit of time - as in hours - to complete. Even if I could finish a letter or number in one hour, that would be 35 hours and would take about a month, which is a very generous ballpark estimate. It is, of course, mid-April and our "busy" season. Talk has already turned to our soon to be chaotic schedule. On a very non-in-depth level, here's what the next month looks like:
  • West High production of "Mary Poppins" on 4/16
  • Mark, Susie, and the boys coming to our house on 4/22
  • Alex going to Beartooth at Gabe's Oasis on 4/23
  • Pulling the camper from storage in Zhwingle to Elkader for camping season on 4/30
  • Megan moving home from UNI, Jesse Manibussen concert at church, Karen's XX birthday, Mother's Day on May 6
  • Bring Me the Horizon concert on May 12 in Des Moines
  • Alex's Europe trip auditions in Des Moines, Matthew's wedding, and Alex's prom on May 14

Finding the time to sort hundreds of files? Going to be interesting...

Needs Tweak in the HTML

This wouldn't happen on my watch. There is no need for a [strong] tag within a [h3] tag.


Sunday, April 10, 2016

Stats

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
F:\_drive_J>robocopy j: f:\_drive_j /s
                Total    Copied   Skipped  Mismatch    FAILED    Extras
    Dirs :      1066      1065         1         0         0         0
   Files :     55305     55305         0         0         0         0
   Bytes : 176.954 g 176.954 g         0         0         0         0
   Times :  31:04:53  30:49:04                       0:00:00   0:15:49


   Speed :             1712606 Bytes/sec.
   Speed :              97.996 MegaBytes/min.

   Ended : Sat Apr 09 14:49:48 2016

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


F:\_drive_k>robocopy k: f:\_drive_k /s

                Total    Copied   Skipped  Mismatch    FAILED    Extras
    Dirs :     88115     88114         1         0         0         0
   Files :    440029    440029         0         0         0         0
   Bytes : 278.013 g 278.013 g         0         0         0         0
   Times :  66:18:39  60:30:35                       0:00:30   5:47:33


   Speed :             1370368 Bytes/sec.
   Speed :              78.413 MegaBytes/min.

   Ended : Sun Apr 10 15:38:04 2016

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

M:\>robocopy m: f:\_drive_M /s

                Total    Copied   Skipped  Mismatch    FAILED    Extras
    Dirs :     10145     10144         1         0         0         0
   Files :     78169     78169         0         0         0         0
   Bytes :  39.303 g  39.303 g         0         0         0         0
   Times :  21:55:03  20:30:54                       0:00:00   1:24:09


   Speed :              571421 Bytes/sec.
   Speed :              32.696 MegaBytes/min.

   Ended : Sat Apr 09 19:44:30 2016

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

F:\>robocopy x: f:\_drive_x /s

                Total    Copied   Skipped  Mismatch    FAILED    Extras
    Dirs :      4899      4898         1         0         0         0
   Files :     67060     67060         0         0         0         0
   Bytes : 174.820 g 174.820 g         0         0         0         0
   Times :  44:19:29  43:20:48                       0:00:30   0:58:10


   Speed :             1202902 Bytes/sec.
   Speed :              68.830 MegaBytes/min.

   Ended : Sat Apr 09 17:41:59 2016

C'mon.... GET DONE

http://loudwire.com/lars-ulrich-new-metallica-album-http://loudwire.com/lars-ulrich-new-metallica-album-mostly-done/-done/

Never Trump

http://www.redstate.com/diary/cantenucci04/2016/04/09/million-reasons-im-nevertrump-guy-tweet-trump-justification-need/

Reasonable Idea

Editor's Note: While a lot of the political posts on this blog are tagged with "Republican Tendencies," the Republican party is not always correct, as demonstrated in this post.

Robert Reich posted this on Facebook:

This strikes me as a reasonable idea:

If the Senate fails to provide the President “advice and consent” on his nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, within a reasonable amount of time, the Senate should be deemed to have waived its right under the Constitution to provide such advice and consent. The Supreme Court itself has repeatedly held that a constitutional right may be forfeited by the failure to make timely assertion of that right.

So President Obama should advise the Senate that he will deem its failure to act within, say, 90 days (the historical average between nomination and confirmation is 25 days) to be a waiver of its right to participate in the process. If after 90 days the Senate still hasn't acted, the President will exercise his appointment power by naming Garland to the Supreme Court.

I expect the Senate would then bring suit challenging the appointment. And the Supreme Court would decide, presumably with Garland recusing himself.

Our system would work better this way. The threat that a president could proceed with an appointment if the Senate fails to do its job would force the Senate to provide its advice and consent on a timely basis so our government can function.

I have a problem with the above scenario. I don't think it is "reasonable" that the President "deems its failure to act" with a number of days he pulls out of thin air. The idea that 90 days is a suitable threshold is based upon just choosing a random number.

The real problem is that the Senate, controlled by the Republicans, won't even bring it up. They are stupid enough to squander this opportunity to be united. In the past, given the opportunity to be united, such as a budget crisis, the Republicans caved after drawing a line. They got up in front of a microphone and said, "Unless X, we do Y." Shortly thereafter, the Republicans caved and gave the President exactly what he wanted in the first place.

That's the real reason Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) won't even consider the nomination of Garland, but he's too political to say it. He knows that even discussing the nomination will lead to an actual vote. If actually voted upon, I foresee Garland as the next Supreme Court justice. Grassley knows this! The others in his political party will cave - there's no track record of unification!

In defense of their inaction, Republicans cling to a speech from 1992 by Joe Biden. It makes the Republicans look whiny and incompetent. The use of this rule is not applicable, as this article points out. Even the ultra-liberal MediaMatters.org has assembled a reasonable defense of why the Republicans are building the base of their objections on a sandy foundation, which will never withstand the use of logic - as read about it in as this article discusses.

Having a "hearing" about a Supreme Court justice nominee is not the same as "approving" a Supreme Court justice nominee... unless you're a Republican and have no faith in your fellow Republicans to be united.

Get the LZ


https://www.facebook.com/EchosPlanet/videos/1058789744143903/

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Friday, April 8, 2016

Coming

Disney has 6 'Star Wars' movies planned through 2020 — here they all are http://flip.it/Yj-N5

A Special Report Epilogue

Regarding backing up files, despite reading this article nearly a year ago, I did not heed the author's advice in this article.
Regarding attempting data recovery on my own, I found this article.

A Special Report Part Two

Editor's Note: This special report initially began as an entry in the table on the page I use on this blog to track the Reconversion project. However, due to the desire to write an extended essay, I moved the text to a blog post. The Reconversion page is located here.

I'll be honest now and say the fact that I had been moving files from the MyCloud drive to this new drive instead of copying files was idiotic. I should have copied the files to the new drive, done my organization work, and then made a backup. The problem, though, is that the MyCloud drive is a 4 TB drive and the new drive is a 4 TB drive. I would have needed to still remove all of the files on the MyCloud in order to wipe it clean so I could delete all the Shares on it, which was the whole point of moving the files off of it.

I only mention this because it was not smart to be doing all of this work I had been doing without a backup. That's the bottomline - I should know better. After all, I work with files and computers daily and cannot count the number of times I needed a backup of the work I just finished. I used to be really good about making backups. At Quintrex, every Friday, I would run a DOS batch file in order to copy all of my documentation files that I had on my C:\ drive to BSS's PC (because his PC had a CD burner while mine only had a CD player). Then I would burn a backup, which required multiple CDs to do.

The fact that I may have lost the music files that were created by ripping CDs is not a terribly big deal. Yes, it means re-doing hours and hours of work but, as I think I've mentioned, my plan has always been to finish the conversion and then audit it by reconverting.

The fact that I had moved a lot of Alex's files and a lot of Megan's files and a lot of Karen's files to the 4 TB EHD without a backup.... that's a terribly big deal. I'll just be brutally honest and say that when Karen and Alex found out about what I had done and that family pictures could be lost, they were furious. I deserved their fury.

In the meantime, I located a lot of JPGs that had not been moved to the 4 TB EHD. In fact, I found a directory of duplicate files - hundreds of files with (2) in the file name. I am in the process of running 7 Robocopy commands to not only consolidate the files I found to a single EHD, but to also make a backup of those files.

My prayers are to update the reconversion page on 4/15/2016 with the good news that Chad was successful in not only recovering the 4 TB EHD, but also in recovering the other two dead EHDs.

A Special Report Part One

Editor's Note: This special report initially began as an entry in the table on the page I use on this blog to track the Reconversion project. However, due to the desire to write an extended essay, I moved the text to a blog post. The Reconversion page is located here.

What a difference a week makes. I should have updated the Reconversion (Music_Shell folder stats) page a week ago. I had a count of 200,000-ish music files on the new 4 TB drive. This past Tuesday, disaster struck. I stood up from my desk in the den, didn't realize the cord was around my leg and the son of a bitch dropped from the desk to the floor. I didn't think anything of it - Windows Explorer still showed the drive so I thought there had been no damage.

I was wrong.

The next time I tried to use it was a shock. Windows would recognize the hard drive through Disk Management, but not in Windows Explorer.

I rebooted.

Same result.

On Wednesday night, I opened up the black case. There were two screws that prevented me from putting it into the dock. I wasn't confident I could remove the screws so I took it over to Matthew's apartment. Matthew is my friend who, among other things, figured out the issue with my record to MP3 device (there was a belt that wasn't "on" the roller) and is my go-to person for techie things. Matthew assured me removing the screws was okay and had the tool to do it.

Upon returning home, I slid the drive into the dock.

Nothing.

Thankfully, I mentioned this issue to a co-worker, Chad. He has data recovery tools at work and when I told him about what had happened, he said to bring it in. I came home yesterday during my lunch break and grabbed the 4 TB EHD as well as two other EHDs that cannot be read by my dock. If Chad is able to recover the 4 TB drive, maybe he can recover the other two EHDs as well! It is now Friday, April 8, 2016, and the fate of the 4 TB drive is unknown - I don't believe Chad had hooked the drive up to begin the process of trying to recover the drive. He was going to bring in a couple of EHDs from his home so that if there are files that can be recovered, there is a place to copy them to.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Bernie the Cool

Vote for the candidate who will do, not the one that you think is cool.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Predictive Text

A year ago, on 4/6/2015, I'm very curious if this article, published on the night of the 2015 NCAA championship game between Wisconsin and Duke - Duke won 68-63 - that there was a lot of optimism about the 2015-2016 men's University of Iowa team?

Recapping

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/04/snap-poll-did-you-season-6-walking-dead

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Received This

I responded to the sender of this inquiry and, despite being unavailable 8-5, M-F, I hope I can make it work. I'm willing to start working on it at 6 PM. I don't know when the "internal knowledge base writer" normally works.

We are working with our client in identifying a Robohelp Consultant to help architect a new knowledge base. Your role will be to establish a way of housing the information and mirror its architect to an existing knowledge base. You will be provided with a list of articles and be asked to help populate some of the content before handing it off to their internal knowledge base writer. The current writer is not familiar with Robohelp and you will be asked to train them on how to add, update and remove content as well as do basic maintenance.

Start Date: ASAP
Duration: through June 1st
Location: Virtual

Experience Required:
  • Strong knowledge of Robohelp
  • Experience architecting knowledge bases using Robohelp
  • Ability to be consultative and provide feedback, recommendations and training

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Audition for AR

So, a couple of weeks ago, my friend Jeff B shared a post on Facebook with me. It was a Cedar Rapids-based band called Avery Riot. I communicated with them and am, tentatively, auditioning with them in April.

This is one of the audition tunes. Note that there's a slight variance between this "live" version and the "recorded" version. On the "Ellen" version, he sings, "... go crazy crazy" because, well, it's on TV.



On the "recorded" version - and in the video below, he sings, [caution: adult word to follow] "... go fuckin' crazy."




By the Way

Posted this on Facebook and, after only 18 minutes, I have 14 likes.
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Some of you know, others do not, so I'll just say it...
I started a new job on Monday, 3/28, at the University of Iowa in the Health Care Information Systems building as a Senior Technical Writer. I'm very excited about the future!
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It's always a nice ego stroke when people I know care about me. After this post, I will no longer use the "Job Search 2016" tag on this blog. I officially close the book on that chapter as I begin the next chapter!

Benny Greb

I could probably practice 5 hours a day for the rest of my life and never come close to being able to drum like Benny Greb. It's jaw dropping amazing! Maybe I could do the part at 4:19 - the John Bonham groove. But then he goes off into the realm of impossibility (for me).

What to Do

Given this procedure:
---------------------
1. Do This
2. Do That
3. Enter the IP Address
==> 123.123.123.1
4. Do something else.
---------
Have you seen a way to make a single line on an HTML page or Wiki page (whatever) visible ONLY if you enter a password? I can password protect an entire page - that's relatively easy - but what if I only want specific lines on a page hidden?

The other option is to have two outputs: One says "Enter 123.123.123.1" - the other output says "Consult your Admin for the IP address."

The idea is that some info may be too sensitive for "everyone" to see. I can generate multiple outputs but I don't want to have to define a "rule" for each "sensitive" piece of information & then decide which rules are okay together and which are not. If I password protect a line on a page, you either know the password and can see it or you don't know it and you can't see it.

She's Sick of Lies?