« September 2002 | Main | November 2002 »
October 29, 2002
Halloween in Elmore.
I have never seen a town, no matter the size, get more into Halloween than little old Elmore, Ohio. I'm serious. It started last night with the Halloween parade, yes...that's right...a parade through town a few nights BEFORE Halloween. There is the business trick or treating tomorrow afternoon and then it really comes to a head on Haloween night when the town's kids (and this town is SWARMING with kids) come out in mass to trick-or-treat. It's not only Elmore's kids...but kids from all over come to Elmore because it's apparently the best place in NW Ohio to trick-or-treat. The cops shut down streets for it!
The adults in town get into it as much as the kids do too. More than half the houses in town have orange lights and probably 90 percent are decorated up to the max with orange and black and spooky things. It's really amazing. We've got some cute orange pumpkin type things up....joy. I'll try to get some photos on Thursday night of the streets just swarming with kids...our first year here it just floored us. I had NO clue!
I've never liked Halloween.
Posted by Pepperguy at 08:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Reunited and it feels so good...
I got back in touch with someone I had not heard from/of in a while. She's the ex wife of a friend of mine and in all honesty, didn't know if it would be appropriate to say hi to her. Kinda a weird situation when the only real way you know someone is through the marriage of a friend. Then if that marriage ends...what do you do? I went ahead and shot her an email though and it's really nice to be back in touch! Definately made my day chit chatting with her today. And I can't WAIT to have some of her Indian cooking!! ;-)
I also had a rather deep email exchange with another long time friend who's going through some rough times. I've been there...I think most of us have been there, but when we ARE there, it's hard to believe others have experienced the same things. I think I connected with her though...hope I did at least and maybe she can start perking her self up a bit.
NBA season started tonight. This is my favorite time of the year. Football is going good (and BG is good!!!) and basketball is starting. It's getting cold out...I LOVE cold!! It's just good!
Oh yea...Halloween is coming. I get to be home by myself that night. Hmmmmmm...will the light on the Cummings' porch be on!? I don't think so! NO!
Posted by Pepperguy at 08:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Why I still love sports...
...because it's the only place things like this following story can happen.
Most of you that visit this site (both of you?) got this link in an email from me this AM, but I think it bears posting here too. It's such a great story!!
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2002/October/24/LStop2.htm
I actually came across it looking for articles on BGSU and Marshall University. It's in Marshall's home newspaper. If it doesn't make you smile, then there's something wrong with you!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 01:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 28, 2002
That Novell Server...
Ok...here's the novell server I was talking about over the weekend.
Nice!!
And just for fun....here's my view while driving home today:
Posted by Pepperguy at 08:54 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 27, 2002
YES!
It's a lazy Sunday morning and Footloose is on TBS! WOO HOO!!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 10:09 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 26, 2002
Crazy week
Well that week is behind us. It was ok...but really busy. I had a "meeting" on Thurday that went pretty well. It will be interesting to see what comes of that. More info to follow on that.
Yesterday I got a trial by fire in Novell...our novell server at work lost one of it's hard drives. What a peice of crap. 4 scsi drives in an OLD pentium 233 MMX "server" running dos 5 and Novell Netware 3.12. The drive that died, we replaced and then had to re-install novell on and the restore it from backup. What a joy that was. Oh...and once we finally found a drive that would work in the box, the power supply gave up the ghost...right on cue. SO...I had to go all over Toledo to find a 300W AT powersupply. Not ATX mind you. I finally found one that would work, BUT it didn't fit in the case at all, so....Mike and I found another solution for securing the power supply. DUCT TAPE!!! I kid you not. I'll take my camera in tomorrow and get a picture of it. What a joke.
Going to the BG football game with mom today. It'll be her first game since dad died. Going to tailgate a little bit first with the folks from AZZ.com.
Tomorrow there's a basketball scrimmage!! Yea...it's getting to be that season. My favorite time of the year. Basketball season!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 22, 2002
Blah
Michael Jordan played last night. :-) Hard to beleive he'll be 40 in February...
I have a headache.
I think Kris Tuel would be perfect for a writing job like she's considering!
Posted by Pepperguy at 08:16 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
150,000 Miles!!!
WOO HOO!!! This morning, on my commute in to work, my truck...my trusty, faithful 1994 Chevy S-10, rolled over 150,000 Miles!! I never thought it would make it that far. Now my goal is 200,000! The amazing thing is I'm still on my original clutch!! It's had a new starter coil, a couple of exhaust systems and most of the front suspension replaced, but other than that, it's been a GREAT truck. I think it's all because it's purple!
Posted by Pepperguy at 08:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 21, 2002
Monday already!??!?!
Weekend was good, but not very relaxing. Saturday AM I had errands to run. Saturday afternoon we went to the BG football game which
was awesome...BG won in overtime. Then we went straight from there to Dorie's place for her bonfire until about 1 AM. Sunday I had to
usher at church and get everything set up for our first PowerPoint
presentation. (I'm the "technology coordinator" for my church now...) That
went great!! Everyone just loved it. It was a day for children (my favorite you all know). the PP presentation was just some animated photos of kids from the
congregation and some photos of adults from when they were kids. Our pastor
wrote a song and performed it along with the slide show. Really cool!! Pr.
Chow rules!
THEN after church I went home, got Maryellen (who couldn't get up for church
;-) and we went BACK to Woodville to get mom and then on to Toledo to have
lunch with my dad's best friend Ed. It was nice catching up with him and
his family. A little emotionally draining, but it was good overall.
THEN we came home and crashed on the couch for the rest of Sunday night.
:-)
I'll add more later...
Posted by Pepperguy at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 18, 2002
Finally Friday
Wow...another week from Hell, they just seem to get longer and longer and longer. I finally got to go on site today though. Got to go to one of my favorite clients' too. Munro in Waterville, they make dragons. :-)
This weekend will be pretty busy. Tomorrow I'm cooking!! Gonna make chili and some bread, then Mellen and I are going to the BG football game and then possibly to a bonfire at Dorie's place!! Sunday I have to get everything set up for a PowerPoint presentation at church.
So now people are saying the "Sniper" is Al Qaida....who cares what he is really? Just catch the MoFo! 9 murders in 11 days = 9/11 yeah whatever. Conspiracy theorists make me laugh. He may be Al Qaida, but I doubt the 9/11 thing was his intention.
Yesterday I became CISP free! (well, except for those 12,500 stock options ;-) The Cobalt server that I knew and loved so well had been up and down quite a bit for like 72 hours and that just wasn't cutting it for my BG site. So...luckily I'd been backing the site up via a CRON job every night and just untarred that puppy and put it up on the new host.
I expected it to be much more difficult than it was, but I was able to modify the perl scripts and permissions and get everything running in just under 15 minutes once it was uploaded. I switched DNS over and was good to go!!
Pretty cool, I know I've mentioned this before, but running the only fan site for a top 25 football team is just cool!! I've been contacted and have logged hits from all over recently and imagine with a win this weekend it will just continue to build. Had a guy from the site contact me and ask me if he could kick in some $$ to help defray costs. I told him to give some to charity (MS or Jimmy V Foundations) or to get me something off my Amazon wish list. People don't get it when you tell them you're not in it for the money. ::shrug:: I could probably make some cash from the site if I wanted, with the kid of hits I'm logging now, but that's not why I'm doing it. It's for the love of the game man!! Falcon love! Have you got the love?? LOL
Tuel is probably the only one who could come close to remembering this...but I'm trying to find the entire dialogue from an old Reebok commercial from the 80's. It's a bunch of guys playing street ball and they're talking about this legendary playground guy named "Lamar Mundane" I've scoured the Internet and haven't been able to find anything but veiled references to the commercial and the legend. I've contacted Reebok and they've been no help. I've looked through the video tapes of games I recorded back in the 80's and came up dry.
"When you talk about playground legends, you gotta bring up a guy named Lamar Mundane" DAMN I need to know the rest of it. I know bits and pieces, but that's not good enough.
Posted by Pepperguy at 04:05 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
October 16, 2002
Kinda funny
Yesterday I mentioned Barefoot Hosting...today I work for them! ;-) I'm doing support for them and some sys-admin tasks because they're really cool!!
If anyone needs great hosting at a really good price, let me know!
Posted by Pepperguy at 09:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pockmarked with divots...
I just like that phrase. Someone on the radio used it to describe U of M's football field after a recent game and I thought it sounded cool.
Posted by Pepperguy at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 15, 2002
Good hosting company!
I'm going with www.barefooting.com for the new location for ay-ziggy-zoomba.com. I've got to say, if you want good service, check them out. They've been nothing but awesome as far as helping me out, giving me shell access if I need it, you get 500MB space, php, mysql database, email, webmail, you name it for $9.95/month. And the three guys that run it are really cool!! If you're looking, check them out!
I have GOT to move AZZ.com soon...maybe this week. I can't have the downtime I had yesterday. I'm the only fan site for a top 25 football team. LOL...it's funny, but that's actually a LOT of responsibilty! I've logged hits from the NYTimes, Sports Illustrated, ESPN offices and all kinds of news media looking for info on the BGSU Falcons! That's pretty cool!! I can't complain about the downtime really though, because my site has been hosted for free for how long now? CISP doesn't even know it's there I'm sure (well, K-Large does). I just need one more good backup (tonight) and then I'll shut the forums down and move the site.
May have another job prospect that doesn't require the commute from hell. We'll see what happens with that.
Posted by Pepperguy at 04:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What people are looking for...
I found this humorous. This is a list of the search strings that are bringing people to pepperguy.com according to my stats:
# Num Percent String
1 9 11.39% 1967 caprice
2 9 11.39% 1971 chevelle
3 3 3.80% pontiac grand le mans
4 3 3.80% sam featherstone
5 2 2.53% 1967_chevrolet_caprice
6 2 2.53% list of peppers
7 2 2.53% redhead.jpg
8 2 2.53% wint-o-green lifesavers spark
9 2 2.53% ziggy zoomba
10 2 2.53% zoomba
11 1 1.27% 1967 caprice 3 speed automatic
12 1 1.27% 1975 le mans
13 1 1.27% alcohol percentage of beers
14 1 1.27% ay ziggy
15 1 1.27% ay ziggy zoomba
16 1 1.27% berkeley breathed
17 1 1.27% berkeley breathed email address
18 1 1.27% blond jpg post
19 1 1.27% caprice rally rims
20 1 1.27% caprice rims
Posted by Pepperguy at 06:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 14, 2002
www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com DOWN
Just in case anyone comes here looking for info, the site is down currently due to my old host being down. This is all the more reason for me to get off my butt and get everything migrated to the new host. I just didn't want the downtime during an exciting football season. Hopefully everything will be back online soon and I can start moving things over.
Thanks for your patience.
GO BG!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 03:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Upgrade
Just upgraded the blogging engine to MT 2.5 Testing to make sure all went well.
Posted by Pepperguy at 09:56 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Frost on the pumpkin
I had to scrape my windows this AM.
My truck will hit 150,000 miles this week.
That's all.
Posted by Pepperguy at 09:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 13, 2002
Amelie and sneakers squeking
Saw Amelie today. One of the few foreign films I've made it all the way through despite the subtitles. It was really cute. It's funny, because the premise is something I've been living for oh...at least 15 years now. Do little things to make others feel good.
I've been a fan of leaving my spare change where I figure someone will find it and it will bring a smile to their face for a while. I also never take the best parking spot available because I know how tickled some people are when they do find that "perfect spot." Heck...there's a Seinfeld episode on just that subject.
Yesterday was fun...went to Oak Harbor to the Apple Festival. That actually was NOT fun, but afterwards we took my mom to Zsuszka's restaurant in Genoa. It was AWESOME!! I never would have guessed that such amazing food could be had in Genoa! I got stuffed cabbage and dumplings and mom and Maryellen both got chicken paprikash. Crepe's for desert topped off an awesome meal!
I went to the first BG basketball practice yesterday too. Brought back lots of memories. Dad would always go to the first practice, so I'm carrying on his tradition. Plus I used to use Anderson Arena as my own personal study hall in college. It was convenient because it was right next to the library, so I could get the materials I needed and then just stroll over to Anderson. I'd always sit up in press row where there were chairs and a desk type thing. There's something about that old building that is just intoxicating to me. Especially on a day like yesterday...no one in there but the team, the coaches and 2 or 3 people in the stands. Coach Dakich runs a closed practice, so people can't just come and watch, but he's always said I'm welcome...so I take him up on it! The sound of the balls bouncing and sneakers squeaking in a big, empty gym has always been one of my favorite things. Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens can go to hell!!
Got up at 4 this AM...couldn't sleep so I came downstairs and didn't sleep. LOL...I'm sleepy today but I didn't nap at all.
The new choir director at my church sang solo today....wow. She just floored me! Lelsie sang Ave Maria and honestly brough goosebumps to my flesh! I've always been a sucker for a beautiful female voice...she definately has one. She's a music major at BG and she sings JAZZ!! I've GOT to hear that!
Posted by Pepperguy at 07:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 11, 2002
Longest Week EVER
My GOD this week seemed to take forever!! It's Friday 4:30...feels like it should be next Wednesday at 2:15 AM, or maybe two weeks from yesterday in the late morning, or perhaps it feels like early summer 2004...whatever the case, it doesn't feel like it's Friday at 4.
I'm envious of the teachers today...around here at least they got a "Fog Day" and school was closed at Woodmore. I actually saw one teacher at Franklin Park during lunch...she was obviously happy and taking advantage of her day. What makes it even better for them is they already had Monday scheduled off for Columbus Day. That's right...Columbus Day. MMMMmmmmmm Hmmmmmm.
I really want to pick up a MIDI cable this weekend. I'm hoping to go to Mars Music this weekend and see if they have one in stock. Maybe I'll call them from work before I head out.
Don't have a lot planned for this weekend. Going to basketball practice tomorrow, other than that...I dunno. Just going to try to keep Maryellen occupied and busy. The story of my life.
Ed and I ate at the mall today. The other regulars (Chad and Todd) were apparently too good for us. ::shrug:: Maybe they had to strategize their Magic strategy for tonight. Blue deck baby....blue deck!
I don't mingle.
Posted by Pepperguy at 04:37 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 09, 2002
Grandma & Beer
Well, it took her 86 years, but yesterday my Grandma Rife had her first taste of beer!! http://www.pepperguy.com/bday
The really cool thing about it was it was some beer I brewed!! Happy birthday Grandma!!
Tomorrow is my mom's birthday too. She'll be turning 60. This doesn't bother her at all, but it makes me feel kind of old. Strange. Happy birthday Mom!!
Today I realized all my comp accounts from when I worked for GlassCity.net are still active! I found that I have 12,000+ messages in my inbox. Several dialup accounts on all kinds of different networks...funny.
Laurie is back from Qatar. I'm SO glad she's back before we begin any campaign against Iraq.
I think tomorrow I go to Weston again. That's cool, because I come back through BG where there's always something good to look at. :-)
Anyone know why IE doesn't hold onto the favicon.ico for more than a session or two? I've been using Netscape 7 for a week or two and really like it. I think it's cool that it actually uses favicon.ico the way it's supposed to be used and displayed! Netscape has a cool tabbed interface too...makes it a little easier to have multiple sites open.
Guess that's it for now. I have ideas for some posts, but I always forget them when the time comes. OH!! I got some sweet music composition software today...one step closer to writing my song!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 10:28 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 07, 2002
Stood up...
Well, since I got stood up for lunch today by Ed and Chad, I strolled around a little bit. Malls pretty much suck. Amazing collection of people to look at though. There's this one guy at Franklin Park who is there EVERY SINGLE DAY, he's a big hispanic guy with a fabulous mullet! He recently shaved off his facial hair though, he had the mullet/goatee combo going on that is SO effective.
I checked out some magazines at Waldenbooks...nothing interesting there either. The only thing remotely amusing about the whole lunch experience was the smell of those roasted almonds. They smell SO good...very Christmassy.
Tomorrow my grandma turns 86...and then Thursday my mom turns 60.
Less than a week till college basketball practice starts!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 01:32 PM | Comments (4)
October 06, 2002
Sunday night...
I found a story that I started writing with a friend of mine. I think it would be a fun story to expand and finish. It's about a pretty normal guy, his basset hound and some talking items in the kitchen. It's very funny...quite Douglas Adams-ish.
Speaking of DA...if you liked him, do read "Salmon of Doubt." While it's not a whole book in the traditional sense, it's a great read and a good look into his mind. Some really interesting essays and other articles I'd never read.
And in that same vein, check out "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett if you get the opportunity. It's HILLARIOUS!!
Anyone know much about MIDI? I've got a keyboard with MIDI out...don't know if I can just get a cable and connect that into thme MIDI/Joystick port on my soundcard and that's all I need or if there's a whole lot more to it? I've got some software that will "type" the notes as you play on a MIDI compatible instrument...guess I should just try it. That is, if I can keep that damn machine running for longer than a couple of days at a time. Now the powersupply is dead on it. Pat is bringing a replacement over tomorrow.
Bowling Green's football team is pretty damn amazing!! 72 points yesterday got them some recognition. They're ranked 26th in the nation now. I think they'd blow Tuel's Huskers off the field this season. ;-)
Watched Monsters, Inc. on Friday. Pretty sweet! Awesome what Pixar can do...good story too.
Ok...gonna get some grub and settle in for the work week.
Posted by Pepperguy at 08:02 PM | Comments (1)
October 04, 2002
RedHat8.0
Well, I'm posting this from the RedHat side of my box here at work. Yesterday I used Partition Magic 7.0 to cut and repartition the 40 GIG drive into two 20's. The first kept all the Windows stuff on it and the new partition became RedHat8.0. It's pretty slick! It is rather slow...but this machine is a PII400 with only 64MB of ram. I'm guessing on a faster machine, it would be pretty quick. I like it so far...the refresh rate seems a bit flickery right now, so I'm going to have to learn some Linux GUI and see how to change that. I'm used to /etc/httpd/conf....not click and click and click...
Went to Central United Methodist Church over my lunch hour. The drive there was pretty interesting. Once I got on Central (right by Toledo Hospital) all the street lights were out until you got to Detroit. Pretty fun playing Dodgem through the intersections. The church computer lab was pretty cool. They need some help and I intend to get them up and running. Right now they have 4 computers sharing a dialup using Windows Connection Sharing or whatever it's called. UGH...I'm going to get them a router and they're getting cable from Buckeye-Express so it should be a nice transition for them. They have several "new" PC's that don't have CDroms in them, so I'm going to help them come up with 5 drives (anyone got one or two to spare???) and install them for them. More on this project as it develops.
Gotta work on this refresh rate...it's giving me a MAJOR headache!!
Posted by Pepperguy at 03:45 PM | Comments (2)
FRIDAY!!!
Well, driving to work this AM I heard the voice of the UT RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRockets, Mark Beier, talking about the Rockets' Midnight Madness...and even though it's Toledo...that means one thing! BASKETBALL SEASON!! WOO HOO!!!!
NBA training camps opened up on Tuesday. Michael is playing another season. Antonio is in Portland now instead of San Antonio. In college, BG looks like it's going to be a rebuilding year, but since when has that stopped me from thinking they have a chance to get to the NCAA tourney??
I'm kind of excited because I'll be writing about the Falcons' basketball season for a website this season called www.collegehoopsnet.com! They approached me about adding a link to my site www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com and I declined because they didn't have ANY coverage of BG or the MAC conference at all. He responded that that was because the didn't have anyone to cover it, so we reached an agreement. :-)
Today, over lunch I'll be heading to the Central United Methodist Church in the Old West End of Toledo. It's some mission work...I'm kind of excited about helping them out. They've got a computer lab that is regularly attended by about 27 kids a day, but they only have 4 computers that work. They have recently come upon some older Pentium133's and need to get them set up for their network. So that's where I come in!! Today I'll just be meeting them and assessing the situation, then I'll come up with a plan to move forward. Pretty sweet!!
I'll update after lunch once I know what they have and what it's going to be like down there.
BGSU homecoming this weekend. I think Ravi and I are going to go if it's not too wet.
Posted by Pepperguy at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)