A catch-all, catch-up post
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If I had one resolution for 2013, it would simply be to focus on my goals. I remember reading a quote on a poster in my middle school library which said:
“Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
It’s easy to get discouraged by little setbacks but that should never stop one from trying harder to make something good happen.
Peace to all of you for the new year.
-Mark
So it looks like the Mayan calendar is going to come up short and the world isn’t going to end today after all. I’m kinda glad.
In addition to the ton of other stuff I got done this weekend, I spent a lot of time getting my gadgets up and running. Last night I’ve stayed up way too late futzing with my new Lenovo laptop, for instance, trying to get Red Hat’s Fedora Linux installed on it. Apparently this is something that’s damn near impossible. It’s taken all (and I mean all) of my considerable Linux skills to make any progress with this.
Lenovo apparently took some shortcuts with its laptop firmware which throws Linux for a loop during an installation. Rather than work around it, Red Hat tends to frown on Lenovo’s broken implementation. They do this in spite of Lenovo being, oh, just the world’s largest PC manufacturer whose North America headquarters is, oh, just fifteen miles away from Red Hat’s headquarters. You’d think these two companies could get it together but you’d apparently be smoking something if you did.
My solution involves hacking Fedora’s installer and learning far more about it than I care to know. I’ll post my working solution once I find it. For now, suffice to say that a if a grizzled Linux veteran like me has this much trouble simply getting Linux set up on a new laptop then it’s no wonder most people don’t want to touch it.
Well, that didn’t last long. I was all set to eschew getting more stuff when local PC manufacturer Lenovo had its public warehouse sale on Saturday. I wound up buying a new laptop and an IdeaPad K1 tablet. Much of my Copious Free Time has been spent getting these set up, leaving me less time for blogging. I hope to be able to post more starting this evening.
In my defense, this is the first brand-new laptop I’ve ever bought. This explains why there are so many non-working old laptops lying around the house. That, and I’m a packrat and a geek!
I had a job recruiter call me yesterday. I get about one of these calls a week, often from different recruiters pitching the same job. These recruiters are often young people just starting out. Frequently they don’t know much about the industry. This call was different though.
“Hello?”
“Hi, may I speak to Mark Turner?”
“This is he.”
“I’m Ashley from Blah Inc. recruiting. Is this a good time?”
“Sure,” I said.
“I have this great opportunity for a sysadmin position and think you’d be a perfect fit!”
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Kelly and Hallie had haircut appointments Saturday morning, so Travis and I had a little free time on our hands. After a few attempts prying him from his video game, T and I went downtown to see the Veterans Day parade.
We arrived there about 10:15 but saw no parade. Fayetteville Street was deserted, with no cars and no people. We heard drumming coming from the State Capitol area so we walked over to see what was going on.
There was a crowd milling around the armed forces memorial on the north side of the Capitol but it wasn’t a parade-worthy crowd. Instead, it was kind of small. Based on the crowd after the parade, I’d be willing to bet that there were more people who marched in the parade than watched it.
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I took my watch to the mall’s watch store Friday to get the battery changed. As I was walking away, I thought to ask if the watch person could remove a link from my watch band. Now my watch band is more snug than its ever been, and that’s because I’ve lost weight.
I’ve also returned to wearing slacks I haven’t warn in more than ten years. All but one of my belts are secured at their skinniest notches.
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By Takaai Iwabu for the News & Observer
Then I looked at Takaaki Iwabu’s photo of the group, showing thirteen employees working in the founder’s basement.
Thirteen? Thirteen? Dude, come on! There’s rarely even a dozen people in my company’s RTP office suite and we have thousands of square feet!
This is not a case where a guy and a few close friends are working out of a home office. I think once the company reached 4 employees, tops, it should have found a real space. Either that, or let your employees work out of their own homes using telecommuting. I can imagine how the neighbors must feel about thirteen extra cars in their neighborhood.
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Today Travis turns 8 years old. It seems like only yesterday that I was blogging from WakeMed about his arrival.
He’s turning into a fine young man, happy with his Legos and gadgets and grand schemes. A chip off the old block!
Herndon High School Class of 1987 rides an antique firetruck in the 2012 Homecoming parade
So what did I do? I found out the date of the school’s homecoming game, created a Facebook event on the Class of 1987’s Facebook page, and negotiated a reduced-rate room deal with the hotel. My classmate Richell Sleptz lives in Herndon and suggested places we should meet. Working together, we got something going.
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