PooDBrown: Tech and Stuff

Personal Update

2009-06-07T21:50:00.002-05:00

"As the sands flow through the hour glass...so do the Days of our Lives", pretty much sums my summer of 2009.

Recap:

May 30 -- Moved from Bellevue 10 miles southwest of Nashville to Spring Hill 35 miles south of Nashville; from 1000 sq ft apartment to 1600 sq ft townhouse.
June 1 -- Discovered a move to a major Interstate 65 makes commuting time go up way up! from 15 min to 45 - 60 min
June 5 - 8 -- Seaside, Florida Weekend getaway!!

Future Plans:

June 13 -- Wedding (Madisonville, KY)
June 20 -- Wedding (Clay, KY)
August 22 -- New Core and Server Distribution Network Upgrade at work utilizing VSS

All in all pretty easy summer...except for the sunburns :)

CCNA

2009-03-26T20:34:00.003-05:00

So on my tasks, I had to get CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). This task has been accomplished. It is official today as I finally confirmed it on the certification website.

I would like to thank:

GNS3 and Dynamips
Cisco Press
RCQs (Random Cisco Questions) from the guys at work

Without the constant stimulation probably wouldn't have gotten it.

Now I set the next task of getting CCNP, I think the first test will be BCMSN just because the LAN is where I am all day everyday.

Wish me luck on that one.

Tasks Ahead....

2009-03-17T23:29:00.005-05:00

I have not posted nearly enough this year, the year before, or the year before that...I guess I don't post enough ever. I am going to try my best and get this thing posting at least once a day. We shall see how long this lasts.

A list of things to come in my life:

1.) Taking the CCNA exam on Thursday

2.) Configured VSS (Virtual Switching Service) on 6509s in new core and distribution, now coming up with new plan to implement new core, distribution with no down time :).

3.) Keep banging away at the Bourne series in book format by Robert Ludlum...still on Identity

4.) Also reading Watchmen...saw the movie not impressed but with the graphic novel I should be able to walk away.

5.) Looking for Good to Great on audible.com...I want to get into audio books more.

That is the plan!!

Friday the 13th

2009-02-15T22:12:00.002-06:00

I went to see this movie on Friday the 13th. Lets just say that in the first oh...10min of the movie you see....5 people get killed each in a different way, a pair of breasts, a sex scene, a forest of marijuana plants, and one ugly killer. Then the credits roll.

As the movie continues, they do lengthen out the next set of killings but it stays true to the Jason mantra. A set of high school to college age kids, made up of scantly clothed girls and pot smoking college guys, that all get killed.

If you enjoy Jason movies I think you will like this one.

GNS3 0.6 Beta

2008-10-13T21:25:00.002-05:00

GNS3 0.6 beta came out a few days ago. Pretty stoked, not a great deal of feature adds...except for a few new features. One of the best of these and something I have been waiting for is the ability to view the interfaces on the diagram. Just like in Visio you can now see your interface names right on the screen. There are a few more front end tweaks but other than that its still the same great open source software.

Don't forget to check out GNS3 Labs for the future stuff and workable labs.

Nights in Rodanthe

2008-09-27T09:38:00.005-05:00

Rant

Yes, I saw Nights in Rodanthe...I can admit that I saw yet another chick flick. What makes it better I saw the movie with my wife...so I can at least say I didn't go alone.

Review

The movie itself was pretty good. Diane Lane and Richard Gere are excellent actors and have impeccable chemistry on screen. The movie is based off of the Nicholas Sparks novel "Nights in Rodanthe". This is the same author who wrote the "NoteBook", as well as several other chick books that were made into movies.

Surprisingly enough I was satisfied with the movie. The plot is enough to keep you interested and everyone crying around you, to make you feel a little weird that your the only one not.

Go take a lady friend, your wife to see this movie...The after affects are well worth it :).

Amazon MP3 for Linux

2008-09-12T22:16:00.003-05:00

Tonight I was looking up some music on amazon.com, I wanted to buy some music, which normally means I have to load up my Windows VM for the amazonmp3 down loader software.

To my surprise when I went to the page, Amazon had Linux versions of the down loader software. Finally a company that recognizes another OS is out there.

Kudos to you Amazon.

I had a little trouble with getting the rpm installed on my Fedora9 box.

This site helped me out: fedoraforum.org

Here are the commands from the website if you don't want to go there:

Super thanks to GoneSouth on the fedoraforums for posting this:

1. download the fedora 8 rpm (amazonmp3.rpm) from the amazon site
2. cd to your download dir
3. su -c 'rpm -i --nodeps amazonmp3.rpm' (this tells rpm to ignore dependencies)
4. cd /lib
5. su -c 'ln -s libssl.so.7 libssl.so.6'
6. su -c 'ln -s libcrypto.so.7 libcrypto.so.6'

The last two steps just soft link the .7 version of the libraries that come with F9, to the .6 file names that amazonmp3 is looking for. You should now be able to download amazon mp3s on your F9 install. Cheers !

Hope you guys enjoy the Amazon down loader as much as I did.

Moving to gOS 2.9

2008-05-05T20:35:00.003-05:00

Ubuntu 8.04 is great...but I love to try distros that are new and doing different things. Yes, gOS 2.9 is based on Ubuntu 7.10. So under the hood there is much of difference, but in this case its on the outside that counts.

gOS 2.9 is the "Space" upgrade to gOS 2.0 Rocket. Instead of Enlightment this time they go with Gnome and the Avant Dock Bar.

I will be installing on the trusted Dell 9300 1.6 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD, 128 MB Ati Radeon Mobile. We will see if she can handle it.

I will also be redoing my Desktop Compaq 1.5 Ghz 1.25 GB RAM, 40 GB HD, 128 MB Ati.

Ubuntu 8.04...Good Stuff

2008-04-24T21:55:00.002-05:00

Ubuntu 8.04 just came out and I am so stoked. Been using it at home and can't wait to upgrade my work machine tomorrow.

Internet Down

2008-04-08T21:32:00.002-05:00

Yeah, so I don't know how many people out there go through this but here is what happened to me. Sunday out of the blue at around noon my Internet connection went out. I called Comcast. They stated they would send someone out at the earliest convenience which would be on Tuesday.

I write this not because they didn't fix the issue but if at my work if we didn't fix an outage like this in 3 days, I would be fired. Not to mention millions upon millions of dollars would stop flowing.

As the day approaches for AT&T to come into the Cable market I say to them....Welcome. Although I am not to sure how much better their service would be any way.

Hospatilization...but I am still kicking

2008-03-29T20:01:00.002-05:00

Easter weekend, went home and was enjoying the days off from work and having a good time with family and friends. Sunday morning, I woke up with tingling, numbness, and chest pressure all on my left side. At 22 you don't think about stroke, heart attack, or feeling bad. Needless to say I was scared, I woke my wife up and we made a trip to the ER. After a 2 day stint I was sent home on Tuesday, with what the doctors could only explain as Belles Palsy without the Palsy. After the stay in Ky, I came back to TN where I went back to work on Wed. probably too soon. I worked both Wed and Thursday, by Thursday night I was back in the ER with the same symptoms. The doctors ran the same tests and found the same results, nothing. Again, it was hopefully it will pass in a few days. Right now I am getting stronger and feeling better, I think the big key is more rest and not getting right back into things.

Lets hope for a better rest of the year.

If I had...the ultimate computer

2008-02-17T23:25:00.002-06:00

Imagine, 16 Gigs of RAM, Quad-core, 4 x 1 Terabyte drives, 768 MB SLI Video Cards, 2 x 24 Inch flat panels, with this hardware, what would you have? My current dream workstation. I have been wanting to buy a new computer/laptop/workstation for the past year, money right now is a little tight so its out of the question, but I still like to spec out what is out there now.

I am looking to replace all the crape PCs I currently have with one monstrous machine. The way I think about it is if I had this workstation with enough power to virtualize all my other desktops I would be in business.

Now, is this practical...I have right now 6 desktops each one below 1 Ghz, I have one laptop at 1.6 Ghz all are rather old and slow, but I did not spend anything for them except the laptop. Now if I spend $2,000 - $4,000, I could replace them all and still have expandability.

I love virtualization and with that kind of machine I could have as many as I needed and wanted and still be able to do some serious computing.

I am going to have to break out the old calculator and see if it is financially in my best interest.

Any thoughts would be huge.

V-day

2008-02-14T20:01:00.002-06:00

My wife is awesome...I got coffee. Kick ass coffee and a new cup to go with. Now the guys at the office don't stand a chance with me wired all the time.

Gnupod

2008-01-22T22:15:00.000-06:00

What the Program is?

Gnupod is a program that allows a Linux user to access the iPod in a more Linux way, wait I don't want to say Linux way. But what I mean is you don't need a UI to use your iPod or put music on your iPod with Gnupod.

Usages or How I use it?

I think I wrote a month ago about podget a great little CLI program that goes and gets your podcasts. Gnupod puts those podcasts over to your iPod or your music however you want it.

I set mine in a script to run and move my podcasts over to my iPod.

Here is my script:

#!/bin/bash
IPOD="/media/MyIPOD"
iTunesDB="iPod_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB"
#GnuPod add songs
rm -rvf $IPOD/$iTunesDB
wait
rm -Rvf $IPOD/iPod_Control/Music
wait
gnupod_INIT -m $IPOD
wait
find ~/Podcasts -type f -name '*.mp3' -exec gnupod_addsong -m $IPOD {} \;
wait
mktunes -m $IPOD

Gnupod has a set of tools that help to work with your iPod. I won't go into much detail but there are sites out there that do explain it.

Installation in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)

Open a terminal pop-in the below commands:

$sudo aptitude install gnupod-tools

of if you want to

$sudo su
[your password]
#aptitude install gnupod-tools

Movie Weekend...Dresses, Earrings, and Translation

2008-01-21T21:18:00.000-06:00

Sometimes going to see movies or staying in and watching movies is just something you need to do in a weekend. Especially on a long weekend. Movies watched this weekend were:

27 dresses ( with the wife)
Catch and Release
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Lost in Translation

So four movies over a 3 day weekend. Now before you think dang this guy needs to check his testosterone. I have a wife its a requirement to watch chick flicks.

27 Dresses

This movie was pretty good, sold out every showing at the theatre I was attending. The majority of the audience was women, a rough estimate 80% with 20% being the guys that got drug to the movie. Although a chick flick the movie was funny, I can see why it would sell out theaters.

Catch and Release

Funny, with Jennifer Garner as the lead female role and a decent plot. This was a bearable movie.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

If you like Scarlett Johansson and who doesn't, this movie is for you. An old world classic based on the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Check it out if you have the time and patience.

Lost in Translation

Bill Murray and bring back some more Scarlett Johansson for a film about two people in a different place who don't relate to their surrounding only each other.

Any way check those out if you have time.

PodGet

2007-12-31T19:06:00.000-06:00

Podcasts are a huge part of my life. Since, I do commute to work and I like to listen to music while driving podcasts are a life saver. Its also how I get up to date on a great deal of my tech news.

That being said, I am always looking for a new and better way to get these podcasts. I started out using bashpodder. It was a good way to get podcasts but lacked some features. I then went to using graphical tools those were a bust because I wanted something I could schedule and was easy to configure.

Roll in podget. Its very easy and simple to use and does the job I want.

A huge plus is it is already in the debian repos.

Installing is a snap. I run Ubuntu 7.10 so to install podget was simply:

$sudo aptitude install podget

Once installed there is a first time run interaction, which creates ~/.podget .

The ~/.podget file is where all the default configuration files are for podget. Two files are stored there podgetrc and serverlist. Podgetrc is the configuration file for the script. This allows you to adjust were podcasts will be stored where logfiles should be stored and other settings.

NOTE: I had to change up the variable most_recent due to podget downloading all podcasts. This controls how far back podget will try and download by default set to most_recent=0. I set mine to most_recent=2.

The serverlist file is where all the RSS feeds are stored. It is a very simple syntax of . That is correct categories. Which is a feature I really like.

Following the documentation and several sites that had some podget info. on them I set it up in cron.

$ crontab -e

15 04,16 * * * /usr/bin/podget -s

This allows for podget to run at 4:15 and 16:15.

Anyway, here are a few links I found helpful. Enjoy podget.

Review of my Christmas Vacation

2007-12-31T18:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday evening was the conclusion of my vacation travels for 2007, although I am still off until Jan 2. I feel a small recap is in order.

On Dec. 21, my wife and I embarked on a the first two hour journey to my parents house in Western Kentucky. The drive was easy and when we arrived dinner was on the table and waiting. Thank you mom.

On Dec. 22, my wife and I went to my Aunt's house for our Christmas party. We played the usual family games and had discussions on life and politics. This year we had a near birth at the party with my cousin's wife having contractions for a few hours.

On Dec. 23, we journeyed up to Southern Illinois 2 hours away to my wife's parents house. We enjoyed some good meals and watched some movies.

On Dec. 24, still at my wife's parents' house we visited all of my wife's close friends and attended the candle light service.

On Dec. 25, of course we opened presents which is always good. I got several accessories for my Xbox 360, games, new coat, clothes, and tools. The fun began after the present opening. My wife and I were to go back to my parents' house for more presents. We were about 15 mins out of her town, listening to Queen, when we heard the sound, (flup, flup, flup). Feeling my stomach sink down I pulled over into a parking area and sure enough we had a flat tire. It was on the left rear.

After changing the tire and driving slower than usual we arrived at my parents which took 3 hours instead of 2 hours due to driving slower.

On Dec. 26, woke up and went out to get my tire fixed. Couldn't just patch the tire had to get a new tire. Also, had to go to Evansville, IN to get it. 45 min. away.

On Dec. 27, get tire from Evansville and get tire replaced total cost $100.99. Also, went out on the town with wife for some local grub and visiting of friends.

On Dec. 28, hung out all day at the house.

On Dec. 29, my wife and mom left at 11:00 PM on Dec 28 to Bowling Green, KY for my cousin's wife baby was being born. My Dad, brother, and I worked all day on the "cabin" in the woods lifting logs and being men.

Came back on Dec. 30 and reopened presents.

All and all a pretty good but busy vacation. Now I am at home and fixing to start to party with my wife. No going out for New Years trying to save some money.

Few and Far Between

2007-12-18T21:09:00.000-06:00

This is one of those I need to post more posts. I know I need to and I pledge to...especially over vacation since I won't have anything else except for presents.

Christmas Time Again

2007-12-06T21:47:00.000-06:00

Basically, its Christmas time again. I like this time of year. I especially like the smells, by that I mean the smell of cold air, burning wood, and the warm apple, cinnamon smell. I love that smell. Now that I am a full time worker the best part of this year is the Vacation. I get some sweet days off. Also, all changes come to a hault which is really nice. All in all I am pretty happy with how things are going.

Cisco 6500 VSS 1440...Makes One BIG Switch a bigger switch

2007-11-14T22:47:00.000-06:00

As I went through my Google Reader the other day, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that I had gotten a few new hits on my Cisco tag section. Looking into this further turns out Cisco had a product announcement.

Low and behold what I had been waiting for was there. Cisco finally announces the VSS 1440 for the Cisco 6500. Ok some people are like what the @#%%^. What this means is you can now "stack" two 6500 chasis.

If you are familar with the WS-C3750 switch you will know what this technology is right off the bat. If you don't I will try to explain.

Basically, stacking technology is a way to join multiple standalone switches into one logical switch with one IP address and one routing instance. Lets say you log into a 6 switch 3750 stack. If you did a show run you would see one main configuration with the typical stuff but when you got down to the interface section you would see once you got past the first 48 ports you would then see Gi2/0/1 and so forth.

This gives you one place to configure all the ports instead of individually logging into each switch. This also give you the ability to link all the switches together without having to "daisy chain". Eliminating problems in that area. As well it gives you the ability to get better redundancy as well as (if I am not mistaken) an 2 x 4G Etherchannel.

Etherchanneling is taking several ports in this case 2 x four ports over one logical switch (6 physical switches) and bundling them together for a bigger pipe. This helps in reducing spanning tree traffic.

A typical configuration of a Ehterchannel would look similar to this:

int Gi1/0/49
!This creates int port-channel 1
! The int port-channel is where you configure your etherchanneled ports
channel-group 1 mode on

int Gi1/0/51
channel-group 1 mode on

int Gi6/0/49
channel-group 1 mode on

int gi 6/0/51
channel-group 1 mode on

! Then configure your int port-channel
! After configuring this it will pass the config down to the etherchanneled ports

int po 1
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,11,12,13,14,15
switchport trunk native vlan 888

Make sure you do a no shut on the int po 1 after you configure it so that the configuration gets put on the ehterchanneled ports.

On the otherside of the Etherchannel you need to do the same thing on the other switch combine in an Ehterchannel it does not matter what the number you is just make sure it is not in use.

OK, if you get down here I am sorry I went on a rant there but a background would at least help out. The VSS 1440 would allow you to combing two 6500 chasis. This gives you 18 blades at your disposal (in a 6509).

You can then have one IP and one routing instance as well now you have essentially removed spanning-tree between these switches and now you can have 2 X 4G Etherchannels combing into one 8 G Etherchannel.

Etherchannels must go to the same switch, because essentially it is just a big cable. So if you logically have one switch....you can put all your ports hooked to either physical switch and combine all of them. Super through put.

Some other things when I was talking to my boss about this was that you could also use this with the IBM BladeCenter switches once they move to the 3750 chipset. Right now hte IBM BladeCenter Cisco Switch modules are physically two switches but if the stacking technology gets implemented there one logical switch and again some serious throughput in combination with the VSS 1440 on the 6500.

Thank you Cisco, thank you.

Martian Child

2007-11-07T23:38:00.000-06:00

I don't know if I mentioned seeing Martian Child. Go check this movie out its smart funny and very deep all at the same time.

Two movies that are just really good and makes perfect since.

Dan in Real Life
Martian Child

Martian Child stars John Cusak, Joan Cusak. Check it out I think you will be surprised.

A Distro Whore

2007-10-30T00:40:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am a distro whore. Now before you stop reading let me explain what means. A distro whore by definition is someone who gets several Linux distributions and continually switches them in and out for one another.

Well, that is me. Over the past few years I have tried several distributions. Currently at my house I am running:

Ubuntu 7.10, CentOS5.0, FreeSpire 2.0, Debian 4.0, openSuSe 10.3, FreeNas, IPCop

Downloading and fixing to install or try out:

DreamLinux, Fedora 7.92, DesktopBSD 1.6RC3, PCBSD1.4, Fluxbuntu 7.10, FreeBSD 7.0, Gentoo 2007.0, OpenBSD 1.4, SabayonLinux-3.4e

I think that is the making of a distro whore.

My new slogan in life is: Linux its an addiction

Dan in Real Life

2007-10-29T23:23:00.000-05:00

Dan in Real Life...

Pros:
Steve Carrell
Funny

Cons:
I don't see anything really wrong with the movie

I know that I am the worst movie critic ever...I hardly ever post about movies. I just had to say that Dan in Real life is a good movie. If you have a wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever, take them to see this movie.

When we went to the movies both my wife and I were mad at each other when we left we were holding hands and skipping.

I must see movie.

Merge the TWO

2007-10-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

I have decided that I will be merging back together the Tech in with the Personal. Don't laugh it was a tough decision. Anyway get ready for some tech stuff on the my personal blog!

Way Behind

2007-10-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

I read on of my friends posts about the stages of a web developer. It was a good look into different mind sets, I am not really sure what mindset I am in right now but I can tell you in everything right now I am behind schedule.

Anyway, new things happening:

Got a Kitten (named Apache "1.3" Brown)
Working more
Trying to work less

Yeah, that is how exciting my life is at the moment. I have got to get back on the horse with the blogging stuff!!!

Also, I am thinking of bringing the tech back into the personal just because that is me....Any thoughts?

Weekend with the guys

2007-09-24T01:08:00.000-05:00

This weekend I had a great time with some old friends who came into town. I hadn't seen them in a while and when we get together we always have a great time. We all have "ladies" so they also came down. My wife and I were playing host to 6 people in our apartment. The weekend went pretty smoothly just like old times.

We made a couple of videos for our website. If you want you can check out Soundtrack Guy and Magical Pleasure Land. If you like those please check out our YouTube channel.

We went to a couple restaurants that were awesome. Buca di Peppo, an Italian style restaurant which is really good for a large group. Overall a fun and great weekend.

Status Update Marraige so Far

2007-08-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

I have been married for about 3 weeks. My wife and I had a disastrous trip to Pigeon Forge and we have had lovers quarrels. Marriage despite what people say is not a hard institution its really an art of how well you can tow the line and be able to see where your failing. Balance for me is the hardest part if anyone knows me I love technology, working with technology. So you can only imagine when I get to live out a dream at work playing with high-end Cisco gear coming home sometimes gets pushed back. I love my wife, just sometimes I know I don't put my priorities in the right order.

I have to work on putting the Family first. I declare no more workaholic activity!!!

Weekend Trip Part 1 -- On the Way to Pigeon Forge, TN

2007-08-05T23:26:00.000-05:00

This weekend I went to Pigeon Forge. Since, I live in Nashville the drive is only around three to four hours long. The trip sounded promising, I took a day off of work on Friday so we could travel Thursday night, wake up ready to go exploring on Friday. Wishful thinking got the better of us on this one.

On Thursday I had my oil, liquids, and other various parts of the car checked so that we would be ready to roll. We left Nashville and about 30 miles out my Battery, Brake, and Door ajar lights come on the dash. They flickered off and on. My first thought was when they checked the signals and lights and the battery they had bumped something or the computer needed to be reset. We continued on the journey of 208 miles on I-40. At mile marker 320 the dash began to grow dim, the lights on the car began to fade. Then at mile marker 336, the dash panel, gauges, and radio all went out. My wife was driving the car and panic set in. We kept the care moving and exited on 338 to a shell station just in time as the car shut off.

I had dealt with alternator failure before, but not 208 miles away from home. We ran into the gas station to check for mechanics, towing, and room and board. The time was around 9:00 PM Central.

I called a towing and repair shop in Crossville, TN about 20 miles away. A nice man named Billy Ayers answered the phone and with a kind voice said he would be there in 45 min to a hour. Amber called her mom to find a hotel in the Crossville area. Come to find out that there was a huge rummage sale going on that spanned 3 states and just happen to run through Crossville. All hotels were booked. There was one place called An Jen Inn, a bred and breakfast off the beaten path but close to town.

The lady there was older but kind enough to move out of her room and down to the couch. Billy couldn't get to the gas station soon enough when a "mysterious Hiker" showed up and sat down in front of our broken down car. Several times he signed to us for a cigarette or various other things which we did not have.

After an eternity of sitting in a broken down care the tow truck arrived. After about 10 mins we were loaded up and on the road headed back to Crossville. Billy said he would on the car in the morning and he would take us to the Bed and Breakfast. The An Jen was about 5 miles out of town and set up on a hill. It was well crafted plantation looking home. It had 5 rooms each with its own bathroom. A wedding chapel, pool, and a nice porch with comfy chairs.

Billy got the car done as promised and after 348.43 dollars of parts and labor it was fixed. It was noon on Friday and we were extremley anxious to get to Pigeion forge to say the least.

Going through Knoxville, Sevierville were the worst parts. Yes, worse than being broke down traffic, 10 mph traffic.

Simpsons Movie

2007-07-29T13:23:00.000-05:00

After 400+ episodes and the logest running American sitcom the Simpsons finally put out a movie. I saw this movie on Friday night along with about 200 other peers. My opnion of the movie was it was a good and true to the Simpsons mantra. It was a very funny film with surprising parts and hilarous pieces of comedy mixed together like a fine ice cream with chunks of fruit. You get a little bit with every minute of watching.

The movie for me was entertaining and satisfying. I have always watched the simpsons and find their show very funny. The movie poked fun at almost everything that has happened on the show and in real life. From my perspective and what I found most of the audience is everyone will enjoy the movie.

Officially Married

2007-07-26T23:37:00.000-05:00

I got married on Saturday July 21, 2007. On Monday July 23, I woke up and went to work and she make me breakfast while I was taking a dump. That night homemade spaghetti with meat balls and sauce. She also cleaned and did stuff I wouldn't do during the day. I could get use to this...bonus I get as much sex as I want!!

New Car...Honda

2007-07-04T00:33:00.000-05:00

I got a new car from my cousin for a very good price (thank you Chris). The Honda Accord '99, coupe EX V6 is one hell of a car. The truck that I was driving had problems at 70 mph the Accord I can't even tell that I was going 90 mph. I will post some pictures as soon as I take them.

Baseball Weekend

2007-06-24T22:06:00.001-05:00

All weekend long in Nashville, TN, I watched baseball...high school level baseaball. My brother and family came to down to play baseball. The entire weekend I was the driver across town for my family to and from the ball game. The baseball team, however, was terrible they didn't win a game. It was good to get some sun!!! Next Weekend is my cousin's wedding and that is a trip back home.

Rocky Balboa or Rocky 6

2007-06-18T01:39:00.000-05:00

The final chapter in the Rocky series and I watched it this weekend. If you have seen this movie and you thought it was bad or not up to par you should be beaten for saying or thinking so. This was a good movie solid. Yeah it doesn't have all kinds of stuff in it but it was simple and to the point. Rocky is a staple in a America. The guy who goes from rags to riches back to semi-rags then in one last heroic attempt he goes after what makes him happy. Essentially this is what the movie is, however, there are 3 huge dialogues/monologues where Rocky gives that made me shed a tear. Before you say, what a puss, hear me out. Rocky in this movie to me portrays my father, he doesn't know a whole lot but what he knows he knows very well. Wisdom comes with age and when your dad tells you something you should listen. Rocky gives a speech to his son and it felt like my dad was on screen or right in front of me telling me that same spill. Anyway it brought a tear to my eye.

Those scenes are not the only thing that make this movie great its the fight, the montage, and just seeing another Rocky film and knowing it will be the last one.

Not totally stupid

2007-06-04T21:37:00.000-05:00

Today at work I felt like I was back in the infant stage at life. Everything I did was wrong. I couldn't even put four screws into a rack without two other guys there helping or taking over. It feels like I am going backwards instead of forwards. I know I have the skills just at the moment I am so apprehensive about looking stupid I look stupid. I ask dumb questions that I know the answer too. I am afraid of making mistakes. Jesus, the more I am scared the worse I look. I went to school for four years to look like a jackass. I have got to get a handle on the nerves and get some confidence back. Learn the shit and just do a good job. Mistakes will be made but I have to move on.

Sometimes you just got to let it out. But I am really frustrated with my performance.

New Job...New CAR

2007-05-28T19:22:00.000-05:00

I have started my new job and the first week has been awesome. The people are really cool and the pace is not to fast but not to slow either. I am learning a whole new way of doing things and equipment. Its been a very fun and fast first week, and this next week I can't wait to get started on.

Also, I am buying a car 99 Honda Accord. My cousin made me one hell of a deal on it and I had to take him up on it. This car marks my first big item I can call mine.

Anyway I have been really busy the past week and hopefully will stay busy.

Bored to Tears

2007-05-17T23:24:00.000-05:00

I moved in Monday to Nashville, TN. It is now Thursday and I have finally gotten Internet and cable. For a person that usually spends at least 15 hrs. a day on the Computer/Internet I was somewhat bored to death. The first day was ok I had things to do, I read, I cleaned, I set things up, shopped. The second day was harder, I had watched all my Netflix movies, so I pulled out the Lappy and watched some SouthPark episodes. I then started listening to music and back to reading. Reading is probably what saved my mind. I am currently reading Deception Point by Dan Brown and am almost finished thanks to this week. I am also reading Marathon: Ultimate Training Guide and CCNA exam study guide. Anyway on the subject of boredom, I am use to coming into work everyday having somethign to do some structure for the day and someone to talk to almost all hours of the day. This week I have had no one except for the phone and the people I could reach. Anyway I can't wait for work to start so I will have more to do during the day then read and watch stuff all day.

SquidBillies...Cartoon Jesco White (Dancing Outlaw)

2007-05-07T00:02:00.000-05:00

My cousin asked me if I had seen Squidbillies, a cartoon on Cartoon Network's adult swim. A basis synopsis of the show can be found at wikipedia, but I will also give one here. The show is about squids in the mountains of Georgia and all the people that make up the mountain town.

Early

Rusty

The two main characters are Early and Rusty, a father and son team who have various adventures together.

Episode 1: This Show is Called Squidbillies

I compare to one my favorite movies/documentaries The Dancing Outlaw, just in cartoon form. The Dancing Outlaw is about a man named Jesco White, who lives in the hills of West Virginia. He is the son of a famous Mountain Dancer, who was tragically killed in a stand off. It is one of the saddest and yet entertaining documentary on rural life in America.

Exert from The Dancing Outlaw

Squidbillies reflects Jesco in many of the episodes I have seen, of course the issues are a little more outrageous but most of the time they reflect the backwardness of rural life.

I would suggest checking them both out for some serious laughs, but be prepared for some very controversial topics.

Trip to Elizabethtown

2007-04-22T23:55:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I made a quick trip up to my summer stomping grounds E-town. You might have seen the movie Elizabethtown but I can say from experience, it is nothing like the movie makes it out to be. The simple fact that when I drive down the main strip there is not a kid riding a bike with weird looking glasses motioning to me to go this way to my cousin's house shows the difference in the movie version and the real.

Elizabethtown, for three summers was a great place to live and work. I had dreamed of coming back after graduation and living there for the rest of my life. However, I went with a larger city, which in some cases is better.

The visit was to see my second cousins, Hadley and Hayden, 5 and 3 respectively, who were both playing their first games of the season. Amber (my fiancee) and I headed out at about 1:00 PM and got there in plenty of time to see Hayden in T-ball. The problem instead of playing it was only picture night. We drove in a rush to see him but to no avail, as he was justing getting pictures done. After eating we then went to Hadley's soccer game which was quite exciting. Three on three soccer action. Hadley for the most part either kicked dirt or ran after the group following the ball. She also did wonderful playing in the net. All in all it was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. Hayden of course wanted to go out and play with Hadley, but he will have to wait his turn in the fall before they unleash that beast on the field.

The next day, was started by having both kids come down and wake Amber and myself up at 8:00 AM. We then spent the day playing in the creek and just having a good time outside. We ate Mexican food at one of the best places in E-town to get Mexican food, Los Napoles. If in Elizabethtown, defintely stop there or El Rodeo. After our meal we then planned a grill out with the neighbors, whom over the years have become family. Amber and I also got some pictures taken but the kids alas wanted to be in anything we were doing. The results were some really funny pics.

Sunday, of course was the sad day, the day we leave the kids and my cousin's nice house and drive back to Murray to study. Everytime I leave up there its hard to leave the smiling faces and beautiful memories.

On the Edge of Explosion

2007-04-17T16:27:00.001-05:00

As of this week my school year is beginning to get a little more hectic with papers being do and other projects starting to come up. The tension is mounting but with very little hours this semester I didn't have to much of a problem getting things done. I am slightly off my workout schedule, for about the last 2 weeks because of being so busy. I think the upcoming last few closing weeks I will be able to get back on the horse and at least start up again at working out. Hopefully, this will get it back on track. In other news, my apartment is waiting down in Nashville and its edging closer everyday. The worst part is rent will be due soon.

Anyway it feels like if stuff doesn't slow down I am going to explode.

Blades of Glory...Sweet Jesus

2007-04-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

If you have seen Talledaga Nights, Anchorman, or any Will Ferrell movie you will know that he is outrageous and hilarious in anything he does. Blades of Glory is without a doubt one of the best movies I have seen. The movie is a different kind of funny but if you are a Will Ferrell movie and can just laugh. John Heder is equally funny and the cameos are some of the funniest.

Thumbs UP, way UP!!

I am still laughing from that movie.

Starting UP

2007-04-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

As school closes down, I am beginning to begin to start up my new life in Nashville. For the first time I will have to search out different services on my own and then make the payments, whereas in the the past I let my parents choose the best and I would pay. Right now, I am looking for new car insurance, rental insurance, cable/internet, electric, and water all for Nashville. I move in May 14, so I have a little time to search determine the best and then get signed up with the services. Looking for all this stuff and actually taking responsibility for stuff I guess is the beginning to a new stage in life, which I welcome with opening arms.

A few things I am looking forward to no more dorms, no more doing laundry with quarters, no more parking tags where I live, no more tuition, no more books to buy, and no more part time job.

2007-03-23T12:47:00.000-05:00

Nashville Address

My fiancee and I went to Nashville on our Spring Break with one goal, FIND A PLACE TO LIVE. We began our search as soon as we got down to Nashville with a list of apartments that we had found on the Internet and could possibly live there. The first couple of apartments were on the West Side of Nashville off of Charlotte Ave. Nashville is a relatively big city and when driving out from Nashville I began to get a little worried about the neighborhood it was getting a little bit dirty. By dirty I mean it had some trashy looking places on the side and it was looking older. My friend once told me you can tell quite a bit from the roofs of houses in the area. The roofs in this area were troublesome. We went to the first apartment and were pleasantly surprised at how nice and new the apartment was, the price was in our range and it was a 2 bedroom with washer/dryer connections. We then went to three other apartments in the same area and were depressed by each one although the prices were considerably cheaper the area wasn't all that great. If these were the apartments that we found then we were going to be living in a rough neighborhood. Later in the day we drove down to Hillsboro Road/Green Hills area, oh my dad, this area was super nice with really nice apartments and houses all around. We checked out a few prices and got depressed really quickly not in range. We then drove around to see what else was in the area. A huge mall, Cheese Cake Factory, and all kinds of really nice restaurants all around.

Then next day we went out to Bellevue area with determination to find a place that was suitable, we drove passed several places that were not on the list. We looked at around 4 apartments in the Bellevue area and we were set on one particular one that we wanted, however, we looked at one last apartment and that is where we settled it was more expensive but the area is unbelievable. Anyway we found an apartment in the Bellevue area and now we have a Nashville Address and I will move in May 14, 2007.

2007-03-17T01:44:00.000-05:00

Fiesta Friday...Regrets

Ok so today was like a flashback to about a year ago when all the guys at work would go to lunch together and have a good time laugh and joke, we would listen to Latin music and just relax a little. Today, we had an event called "Fiesta Friday", we journeyed to the Traveling Taco Cart to grab some cheap yet some what authenticate food. When I ordered the Burrito Loco I had no idea that would be almost 5 lbs and as long as my forearm. It was a shocking specimen. The Burrito Loco came with Chicken, Steak, Pork, Beans, Rice, Lettuce, Tomato, and a mixture of other things all in a tortilla. I only ate about half of the burrito because it was so freakin huge.

Now as I sit here at home for Spring Break my body is saying, "Why the hell did eat that burrito". I sit here in a cloud of flatus that is disgusting it makes me honestly gag.

Status: Regretting Fiesta Friday chose of Food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-24T22:12:00.000-06:00

Life or no Life...

I have come to the realization that maybe I don't have a life or I have a life but am not living it. Example: Friday Night, instead of me going out with my Fiancee and having a good time at some place around town, this Friday I sat in my room and did my Visual Basic Homework, watched TV, and just read online Linux Forums until about 2:00 AM. This is why my Finacee can't leave me alone for than a night if she does I turn into a very serious geek. Now I think there is time to turn this around, or not, no there is no way to this around. I will continue down the path of the geek, destined not for greatness but carpul Tunnel.

2007-02-21T09:48:00.000-06:00

Mindless Drone

This is my last semester at Murray State. My classes are setup so that I have maximum time to be able to study other materials, and by other I mean certification exams for after school. As of right now I have not cracked one of these books open to even begin studying. Currently, I get and go (only if I am feeling like I haven't been to class in a few days) to my Visual Basic Class where I listen to an arrogant professor tell us how stupid we are for not knowing how to program with Visual basic before the class. Then he goes on and on about material we have covered a week ago, its a very iterative class. Then I go to work. Then I go to my Rootkit lab and then its off to the Personal Finance class. Currently the best class I have is Personal Finance, reason being its about my money and ways to make more money.

My schedule is relaxed but this semester it feels like my mind is just not getting a workout. Last semester I was in some high pressure, high stress classes that really pushed me to the brink. This time I have to much downtime?? 13 hours of class isn't much especially when 3 hours of those hours are not in a class room I am glad that I don't have that much class but at the same time I think I am doing a disservice to myself by have taking all my hard Capstone courses early and now taking electives.

I think I am becoming a mindless drone with no work or projects to keep my mind fresh and critically thinking.

I pose the question: Which is better to setup your last semester as the easiest semester of your career or Take those capstone critical thinking courses??????

Workout 2007 -- Week 3

2007-02-01T21:19:00.001-06:00

This is wrapping up week 3 of my "Workout 2007" plan. The last post I made on here was about "Super Size Me" the documentary and since then I have worked really hard to get back in shape and not eat such bad food. I get up at 5:30 - 6:00 AM every day and go to the gym. My exercise routine on Monday, and Thursday comprises of:

Run for 20 min
Leg Press 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 160x180x200
Leg Curl 3 sets 12x10x8 reps not sure what the weight is
Leg Extension 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 95x105x115
Calf Raises 3 sets 12x12x12 reps 95x95x95
Lat Pull Down 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 95x105x115
Seated/Compound Row 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 95x105x115
Biceps 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 65x70x75

The Tuesday and Friday workout is as follows:

Run for 20 min/ Sometimes swim on Friday
Chest Press 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 95x105x115 (discovered how weak my chest really was when I couldn't get 115x125x135 the desired reps)
Incline Chest Press 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 85x90x95 (refer to note above...weak!!)
Shoulder Press 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 70x80x90
Laterial Raise 3 sets 12x10x8 reps 50x65x70
Tricep pushdown 3 sets 12x10x8 reps not sure
Tircep extension 3 sets 12x10x8 65x70x75
Abs 3 sets 20x20x20

The Wednesday workout is as follows:

Run for 30 min / Swim sometimes
Abs 3 sets 20x20x20

Now at week 3 I have to say I am starting to feel better about myself I have a long way to go but I hope to be stronger, have more energy (if I go to bed early enough), feel better, and have more endurance by the 8 week mark. My body weight is staying the same but my muscle tone in my arms, chest, and legs are coming along. My toughest areas I really have to work on is the stomach and the neck ( don't ask).

So far so good if I can keep this up and steadily improve on the reps and the weight when I reach the reps I plan on raising the weight up a notch.

Wish me luck!!

I am not in shape!

2006-12-19T23:26:00.001-06:00

I hate netflix!!!! I don't really but I just got a movie in tonight called, Super Size Me. This was a documentary about fast food and its health issues. A guy embarks on a experiment on himself to eat 3 meals a day of nothing but McDonalds menu and get no exercise and limit his walking to 5000 steps a day. I want go into it a whole lot but needless to say I decided to take a look at what I eat on a daily basis now using Google Docs and spreadsheets. today, Tuesday alone I had 5 cokes, only two .5 liters of bottled water. 2 cups of coffee and the food was bad too. I decided my intake of cokes was way to high, if I replace cokes with water I would be much better off. I am allowing one cup of coffee, my goal no fast food except once a week but smaller portions when I do go, kiddie coke, single cheeseburger, no fries, and a kiddie parfait. I am going to work really hard this next semester and hopefully it will stick because I really want to loose some weight and get back to a healthy BMI again.

Damn you McDonalds!

Stress Relief

2006-12-10T01:28:00.000-06:00

OK, so the past week of school as been hell. Basically it was the week before finals, all assignments were due and projects had to be turned in. I finished everything, my group term project, my lab report, my group term paper, and several other assignments I would rather forget about. I turned in everything but my lab project. All of my data stored on my 6 GB thumb drive. The night I go to print off my lab report 60 pages of A work, my thumb drive quits. Needless to say I lost everything, I tried every trick that I know to extract data off such as using dd, ddrescue, and ddrhelp on the drive in Linux, nothing. I then crack open the drive to reveal a Compact Flash connector with a micro drive (i.e moving parts). I plugged the drive directly into a Compact Flash reader to see if it would work, nothing. This confirmed for me that all was lost.

I talked to my professor, I worked out an arrangement that I thought and he thought was fair. After the stress of this week I am not ready for finals.

Oh but on a happier note I got a job for after I graduate!!

Movies and choices

2006-11-11T02:20:00.001-06:00

Over the next last few weeks I have watched a number of movies that made me think about my life and what has been going down. The movies that made me think about my life were 'Click' and 'Stranger than Fiction'. I stongly suggest watching both of them in my opinion are good movies and are worth watching. They made me think compared to what the characters were going through and how I can realate it to my own life. It was a pretty amazing look. I shed a tear or two.

--
Heath Brown

NetFlix...I love you

2006-11-03T18:20:00.000-06:00

Alright, I have joined millions of people and started on an incredible journey of right now 122 movies. I had no idea there were so many movies that I had never seen before. My first three movies American History X, Prison Break Season 1: disc 2 and disc3. First off I am amazed at how cool it is and easy it is to get all the movies I want at an interval that is at my control. No more late fees and no more having to take a movie back to the local video store. I don't have to wait for movies I want to see at the video store all I have to do is put it on the list. Heck if something isn't on DVD yet I just put it on the list and and wait. I freaking love NetFlix. Nuff said.

Running

2006-10-15T01:23:00.000-05:00

Running has been part of my life for some time. IN high school I was a XC (cross country) runner for 2 years, but the love of running was instilled much earlier. After about 2 years of not running in a focused manner I have come back with a vengence. I have set goals and have tried to reach those goals. IN high school I could run a 18:15-18:30 5k pretty good, sub 18:00 was hard to come by but I did do it once. Now getting back to running I was not expecting instanst sub 18:00 on a 5k but I was expecting to at least get sub 24:00 (8:00 min. a mile). I have been running now back at school for around 3 weeks consistently running 2 to 4 miles a day. My first attempt back on the 5k running in the ALS run at Murray State University with a time of 22:03 very respectable my first mile was 7:20, second mile consistent with a 14:40, and of course 22:03 for the last mile. This was a pretty consistent time on all three miles. Part of running is consistent times on miles. I was very happy with the time of the race for a first race back it was pretty good for me especially after being out of running for about 2 years.

The next race for me was Homecoming run 5k, this race was much stronger for me. 20:19 with a place finish of 6th overall and 2nd in age group. Hell, placement doesn't matter but to be up there felt pretty good. The reason I was so happy was because I hit my goal of under 22:03. Like last time I had consistent mileage times which is proven that helps you hit the goals. In my next race whenever that will be I hope to continue improving to under 20:19. If I can I want to find a longer distance run possibly a 7k. I hope to find another 5k in the area to get under the 20:19.

Any suggestions for a 7k or 5k run in the area of Murray or western KY?

I am on a roll

2006-10-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, school is going way to fast and I need a slow down. All my classes are converging on a serious projects and that is killing me. To many 8-10 page papers due at the end of the semester to many lab reports due at a certain time. To many group projects due at the end as well. This is my only semester I have felt overwhelmed within the first couple of months of school. I am sure I can make it through but classes have ot slow down dramatically for this to be close to healthy.

NOw I must study for my three test while working on my 3-5 page paper due on Wed. and then on Wed begin research on my speech for next week. Geez, Fall Break can't come soon enough.

--
Heath Brown

School has begun

2006-08-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

School is in the air and once again I am walking the walkways of Murray State University. Being a senior feels good and knowing that I will finally graduate in May makes this year look promising. I am taking some great courses and one not so good course called COM 161, maybe you know it Public Speaking. A much needed evil, however, not what I wanted to be taking my Senior year. All my other classes are within my major and are very exciting. The professors are very good this time, finally a higher level of thinking instead of a lower class of professor. the courses that I am taking now allow me to do quite a bit of investigation and exploring of the labs.

I have met several people insterested in the CCNA and will be studying for it this time and hopefully will have it taken by Dec. Hopefully, classes and softball will go well.

One thing though about this year is all the guys I worked with who were old school, are gone. I walked in on the first day and was depressed from not seeing all the old faces. The younger guys are great don't get me wrong but there is nothing like sitting down and having some of the discussions about life, computers, and technology that we had back in the day. The hay day of the place I work is over and that is a sad fact. No longer can I learn from the people around me, I must venture out into new worlds. Hell, that was pretty deep.

Moving, Working, Moving

2006-07-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Alright today at work, which by the way has been busy as hell. Number one we just moved into a new building with a brand new infrastructure, that means from the ground up all new equipment. A total gig backplane. Now we have a DS3 connection which runs at 45 Mbps which is flipping fast. we have around about 15M for data, 10 M Vpn, and the rest for voice and other resources.

We have a brand new phone system which is VoIP and TDM phones. The biggest introduction however has been the two Pix firewalls. Although I am not a Cisco guru or anything nor have I ever worked on a Cisco Pix firewall before but I did get a pretty good look at the config files that were used and it seems pretty easy as far as commands.

I couldn't believe the time it took to put all the equipment in the server room. patching things down, racking servers, plugging switches in and making sure they were in the right VLANs, Looking at the DMZ, hooking up Fiber Cons on the switch, router, and firewall interfaces. It was a interns dream to be apart of one of the companines biggest moves.

And although it went smoothely there were still some problems that arose as far as routes in the firewall and router that weren't quite right. VPN tunnels not being set up. Weird things like a VoIP phone being plugged into two wall jacks causing a loop whne patched in and causing the phone system to crash.

All in all it was one hell of a weekend. I finally go to spend a whole 24 hour shift moving and configuring it was cool to be needed by the other tech guys for questions. It was a great feeling being the only guy that had worked with linux and being able to work (while being monitored very closley) on the IDS.

I had one hell of a weekend at work and this week we will be getting back to normal.

Update

2006-07-15T15:35:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to update my blog on more of a regular basis but alas it is hard to do when you are always doing something. So today on a nice Saturday afternoon and after I have done my duty of cleaning out my truck, weed eating the grass, and swam for a small portion of the day its time to sit back and enjoy the blogging.

As I sit here and enjoy a Rolling Rock, it occurs to me that most of my IT friends at this point are over in KC or thinking about KC. Either that or they have jobs in pretty nice places. I think about this because I am still an Intern with one more year of school left and everyone i have talked to about Network Administration or System Administration or Security positions have said it takes a while. Well, I want to be a Network Administrator or Security Administrator whenever I get done with school. Here is my brief roadmap to make this happen.

Take Security+ test (since this is a Comptia test it will stay with me and it is basically just knowledge from a book not real world experience necessary.
Take CCNA while in college and use the lab as my study arena.
Begin taking microsoft certifications because most places like to have MCSA and MCSE in the house
After taking Sec+, work on other certifications like Lin+, Net+ just to have them.

So there is what I need to achieve in order to get to what i want to be and oh yeah i have to be able to give detailed answers on every technology they ask about without blinking an eye. I hope to be a Badass at networks and security. Until then I am a Badass in training.

Elizabethtown sadness

2006-06-26T23:17:00.000-05:00

Wake up in the morning around 11:30 because I had worked the night before moving 70 people into a new building when you hear a blood curdiling scream from next door. This is how Saturday rolled me out of bed my neighbor screaming. I am pretty close to the neighbor and their family when my cousin finally told me what was going on I knew that the rest of the week was going to be rough for them.

The news that made the neighbor scream was her step son had killed himself. What a way to start your Saturday. All this weekend its been nothing but trying to to just see what they need and kinda stay out of the way and let the family come in and begin to mend and talk about the life that was lost.

Yeah its a little deep but its what went down this weekend. Its hard to know what to do for a family in that situation. I have alot of empathy for them.

One Phone Call

2006-06-09T23:11:00.000-05:00

Today I have discovered that one phone call can change the entire weekend and possibly your entire life. As we were having dinner (my neighbors, my cousin, nad her husband) and enjoying some beer and interesting conversation a phone call came in on my cousin's husband's cell phone. You know a phone call is not a good one when he says, "How bad is it?", Where are they taking her?, do you need anything?. Those are not the question of a positive phone call. When the phone went down we discovered that his grandmother had blood on the brain and that they were going to operate tomorrow. Of course he loaded up in the truck and went home. It is amazing one phone call. I fail to mention that loading up the truck meant the kids and luggage and making several phone calls to family members and making arrangements for the kids with the other grandparents. Needless to say its a hard pill to swallow.

The neighbors this morning at around 3 AM got a disturbing call from a boys mother who was in a four wheeler accident. The kid was only 15 or 16 years old and he wrecked and in intensive care. This one phone call canceled all plans and made the daughter who was the boys friend devastated. Even worse was when another phone call came to say they were pulling the plug because he was brain dead. The girl devastated went to the memorial ceremony tonight and will probably never be the same. i fail to mention the tears but also the girl lost another friend a few years ago and that is a pretty tough pill to swollow when your 16.

Last Septmember I got on of those type of calls. My grandpa was in the hospital for blood on the brain and it was a stroke I remember dropping everything and rushing to his side. Scared to death it would be the last time. I hate those phone calls when you know its serious. Have you ever had a phone call you knew just wasn't going to be good?

Life comes fast. Realization of the night.

Blurry Weekends

2006-06-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

So I am officially 21 thats right 21, and lets just say that the first weekend was a littler blurry. I went to my first liquor store and bought a 12 pack of Amberbock (great beer), Killian's irish Red, and makers Mark. Later on some guys from work came over to the house and we played some poker. Here is where begins to get a bit blurry. By the time they all came over and we got started playing i had alreayd had 3 beers this was 7:00 pm then around 8:00 i had 5 my head was a little dizzy. As i moved on i decided to try Makers Mark this was a bad choice. Needless to say I don't remember a whole lot after I had the whiskey I went back to beer another two I think. I think I said some stuff and did some wiered crap but the typical thing when your are drunk. One problem i had to be at work at 11:00 and then I had to stay till around about 3:00 in the morning. i got sick that night and was puking all night and then that next moring. It was a struggle to get up but i did and that was a mistake as well.

moral of story don't get platered when your a weak drunk.

Downer

2006-05-16T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I am in Elizabethtown now and working at my summer job again. I love the people, i love the atmosphere, but there is one issues that will never escape me. Its called limited permissions and here is my case. I have been at the company for 3 summers now and have proven myself every year. Yet, it seems that every year I return I have fewere and fewer persmissions to work with. I do realize i am part time, I am just an intern, and everytime I return there are new bosses with new policies and new ways of doing things. I get that, I don't get not giving someone enough permission enough rights to do his or her job.

Think about this today someone sent a work order to see who had a particular file open on the server because they needed to some work on it and it was locked. This is a very simple task of connecting to the file and print server's compmgmt.msc console and going to System Tools>Shared folders> Open Files, this is a very easy task. There is one problem though you have to have pretty substantial rights to access this, however, I know you can give a group rights to certain objects and not allow access to others. This would be nice. Instead of putting in red tap everywhere and making work orders wait in the Database for several days until the guy with the rights comes in and you can talk to him. Its stupid why create this black hole, I am not asking for the rights to grant permissions to add Security Groups in AD or change the Global policy. I just want enough rights to do my job, to handle tickets, hell to learn. I think is a saying about putting a goldfish in a small tank, it says he won't grow he might even shrink, if you put the goldfish into a large tank he'll grow to be really big. I think this is kinda what is going on, I mean think about it I am in a small permission set and it feels like my brain just turns itself off cause I know I can not do anything about certain tickets so I don't even attempt to troubleshoot (half the time I don't have the rights to troubleshoot properly).

I just think that before glorified Senior Admins, Top Mangement, decide to restrict Junior admins, technicians, they should think about how much time they are wasting by throwing in so much red tape. I know it is a requirement but think it through, be smarter. Eventurally workers will like the fact that you care.

Davinci Code Attacked

2006-05-10T02:25:00.000-05:00

Alright, I am a Christian, I like to read and I like to read Dan Brown books. To some people apparently this is a sin. I was watching a show tonight that was just one of those that jumped out while I was doing a flip through on the channels and I saw some theologians talking about the DaVincie code being a total disgrace, blah, blah, blah. They were basically saying the the Davinci Code portrays Jesus and Christianity into a shame and all these other allocations. Another point they brought up was the fact that it makes Leonardo Davinic look bad.

Ok, so I am a Christian, I also understand the fact that a book is a book. Dan Brown is a author, and he has the write to write about anything he wants ( I think that is the first amendment, this is also how I can write about the stuff that he writes about) I am also aware that the reason that people can worship whatever they want and do what ever they want is based on the same thing. And yes they can say the stuff they are saying about hte DaVinci Code; however, seriously though wtf mate, get off of the book its fiction for the love of pete. I mean come on. So what if he makes up all kids of crap and puts into the most kick ass plot ever. DaVinci Code is what made me start reading again. Why not read something that captivates the mind?? The DaVinci Code didn't make me start not believing in God or the way I was taught about Jesus or from what I have read about in the Bible. It didn't make me doubt the Church either. Its a book, and I for one am going to see the movie which I think will kick butt, just like I saw Passion of the Christ. I didn't really hear any complaints oh wait the Jewish community did about that too. But hey you can say what you want I just wanted to rant about the fact that the DaVinci Code is a fiction book full of speculation, any reader can determine this, I mean come on.

I hope that if people thought DaVinci Code was bad that they will really be pissed off about Angels and Demons, which I thought the book was even better than the DaVinci Code. I really hope that this gets made into a movie as well.

Stress

2006-05-07T00:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, school is ending which I love. Don't get me wrong I love college, I like the people and the free atomosphere, but there is something called FINALS in college. I am not going to lie these are some though tests, but then there is one thing every college student hates with a passions the FINAL PROJECT. If you ever have a professor talk about a final project just leave the class, don't bother sticking around. If you leave you have a chance of living a longer life in the end. If you don't leave you will be like me in a constant state of stress about the project and what must be done. The pain of the Final Project is just the amount of work to be put into it. One of my professors gave us our project 1 week before class was over. The project is due next week. WTF, how the hell can you do that to people. Either don't give the final or something, to me its ridiculous. I hate final projects. I can't wait to get the work over with.

School is almost over!!

2006-04-28T00:13:00.000-05:00

So here is what is happening right now. I am about to pull all my hair out of my head and then take duct tape and rip all the hairs from my gouch and my crack out. Yeah that is how bad school is going. Maybe it is not exactly that bad but I am so ready to get out for the summer, I need a break!!! I really can't wait for the summer because I am going back to Etown once again this time really is my last ride up there though. After this summer I will graduate from MurrayState and be in the REAL WORLD. A scary thought for me but one that is very much embraced. As far as everything else goes I have been on a podcast listening tangent over the last couple of weeks listening to Linux, Tech, and other computer related jargon all over the internet which is pretty cool. Hopefully, I will update before school lets out.

Much needed catch up!

2006-04-09T15:17:00.000-05:00

I haven't written in a while so I figured I would catch the interenets up to speed with what has been going down. Since the last time I wrote anything I was going to Spring Breake with a bunch of people, it was really fun I had a great time. My classes have been going pretty good but this last push to the end is really getting old its like you hit a certain poiont where you just dont want to go anymore and I think that is where I am at. I am not saying that I am quitting, just you get tired of the same crap being spewed at you day in and day out. I have been really disapppoi9nted in the level of difficulty in my classes this semester not enough to make it a challeng make me want to do better. I know you should try your best but if I am not challenged then I won't try. For the most part the smesmbester is going very well and Summer looks to be awesome. Its back to Elizabethtown for me to do some work hopefully move some computers into a new building.

Spring Break Begins

2006-03-19T00:07:00.000-06:00

Spring Break has officially began for me, currently sitting in Nashville, Tn or at least Fanklin which outside of Nashville. Tonight to begin spring break or the first phase of our trip we went to a palce called 12th and Porter and listened to some bands play there were 3 that we listened to and two kicked butt. The best one by far was The Remedy, they are like inbetween Kelly Clarkson and Jimmy eat world as far as music. 12th and Porter is definatley a place ot revisit in Nashville. Its pretty quaint with a bar and a resturant with another room for the "concert". The bands aren't big but they definatley rock the house most definatley check it out if you go Nashville.

Phase 2 of Spring break starts tomorrow or Monday morning at 1 AM the trip to Ft. Walton, Florida. This will be the best part the drive which will be pretty eventful (if today's trip through the ghetto is any prelude to the drive of monday).

The week looks promising and I am very excited about this trip.

--
Heath Brown

I haven't written in a while

2006-03-14T00:51:00.000-06:00

So I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with my blog, so sue me its been a pretty rough semester and I have been really busy with work and school. I am only taking like 15 hours yet because I didn't get TSM 450 on the web it screwed me up. instead of being done with class at like 2:30 everday I am going to class till 5:00 and its killing me. I swear if I get screwed on my senior year I will be pissed. Anyway midterms are posted and I have 3 A's and 2 Bs which is not to shabby. The first few tests of in my classes were pretty rough and thinking that I did pretty terrrible I did ok. I got a 85 on my TSM 352 exam, 77 on my TSM 450 exam, 96 on my CIS 307 exam, around a 90 on my MKT 360 exam, and a 96 on my TSM 443 exam.

All in all grades wise my grades are ok but eventually that will change just because it always changes towards the end of the semester.

--
Heath Brown

VIM on windows = Happiness

2006-02-17T20:01:00.000-06:00

I have officially crossed over to be a pure dork now (not that I wasn't before). I have been messing around quite a bit with Linux in lab for my TSM 352 class. I have been using VIM extensibly in this class so tonight i found a version for windows a standalone exe that when placed in the sys32 folder will make a command line editor just like in Linux. Personally I love it, I know most of my friends will call me stupid but I find myself getting better and better on the Windows and linux command line. You might say why??? I say why not if you can fly around in the command line of windows and linux why would you want to really move to the GUI. To tell the truth I am using the Command line to get the skillz for the Linux machines the more you practice the better you are. With VIM by my side its going to be pretty cool working in windows from command line.

--
Heath Brown

Life goes well

2006-02-05T14:02:00.000-06:00

Alright so I am actually doing pretty good in my classes this time. Officially I am barely ahead of the game which is actually good. Staying on top of my homework and turning all the busy work so that I don't have to worry about that plus the big dog assignments. I am really enjoying my classes for the most part. So fat TSM is disappointing me once again. Every semester I get excited and then there is a let down to me learning or accomplishing anything in the class. Oh well. My roommate from Korea leaves in about 2 or 3 weeks which is cool but I will hate to see him go. As bad as this sounds he is probably my best roomate I have ever had except for Lee freshman and part of sophomore year of college. I don't we get along and he is fun to talk to most of the time. We watch boogoos of music. Funny thing is I thought I wouldn't have anything in common or there would be a language barrier of course this is typical American BS trying to say that we are better. Although that is not the case turns out he speaks perfect English, I am more interested in his country, we actually know what each other is thinking most of the time. Sometimes I have to explian the slang terms that I use but for the most part we get along.

Girlfriend status is I still have one. We have had to work through some tough patches this semester nothing like life altering just some rough patches that every relationship in the world goes through. Plans for Spring Break are to go to Fort Walton, FL with some pretty cool people that I know from White. This should be a pretty good trip we are staying in a pretty kick ace hotel that overlooks the beach. This trip I am not sure when its going down however should be really cool. I love staying on the beach, I really am not that big on doing a whole bunch of stuff I like just being lazy like I am all the time. That is why on the weekends I sleep till like 11:00 and don't move until like 4:00. its pretty crazy.

Well that is a pretty good little update a glimpse into my lazy weekends.

--
Heath Brown

Update on the Blog

2006-01-27T01:29:00.000-06:00

Alright so a quick update before I go to sleep this year and this semester I really plan on hitting the blog race pretty hard. A few things I want to accomplish with the blog is to get the Tech and personal portions coming n more often. I really like the technical part and the fact that I can look at and review programs and even though people don't read the blog its cool cause it makes become a little better on writing things. Another goal is to redesign my site which has been off the web for a while heck technicallly it was never on the web. But that is ok I am definatley going to get it back up. The master plan is to have two different blogs on my site and few other interesting tid bits. I am currently working on the database portion of the site which will run the site. I am also technically going to working on a posting interface for the database and posts for the blogs. The blogs will be pretty cool just to have and to work them on a database level will be pretty neat. Hopefully all my plans go well and I can get this up and going before next semester.

Well I am going to go to bed and then home tomorrow so I will post some other time.

--
Heath Brown

Portable Applications -- UPDATE!!!

2006-01-25T10:58:00.000-06:00

Ok for the past like month I have been going nuts on the Portable Applications and this is an update to what I know have accumalated over the past month. Here is the list:

7-zip (compression tool)
Defygo (encryption/password vault)
EasyPHP (apache/php/mysql on a THUMBDRIVE)
FoxitReader (pdf reader/editor)
Mplayer (kickace standalone mediaplayer)
Portable Abiword (word processor)
Portable Filezilla (ftp client)
Portable Firefox 1.5 (web browser) -- I have placed extension on to my Portable Firefox 1.5 and now firefox officially kicks major but the new extensions are crazy nuts like the IE view tab, FoxyTunes, WebDeveloper, FasterFox, Gspace, and more.
Protable GAIM (IM client)
Portable NVU (html editor)
PsPad (text editor)
Router emulator (router simulation)
VCD (virtual Cd rom utitlity)
Xplorer (different type of file viewer)
Portable OpenOffice (office suite)
Uniform Server
SWI
Portable Opera

This is all on a 512 MB drive with around 117 MB left to spare which isn't bad for how many programs I am packing.

Probably some of my favorites would have to be Defygo, 7-zip, EasyPHP, UniForm Server, Portable GAIM, Portable Firefox, PsPad, VCd, Xplorer, Portable OpenOffice. Theses apps are just like the real thing.

7-zip

As stated above 7-zip is a compression utitlty that has some pretty cool features for the archives that you make. It is a different compression format 7z but it does beat the standard .zip in compressoin ratios. The options are pretty nice you can choose how much to compress the archive, set whether you want to only allow updates and new files, or anything of the sort. It has easy navigation and doesn't take up to much space.

Defygo

This is an application devolped by some friends that will be coming out soon after they work out the bugs and get it going with all the features and looks they want. The website is e-liberty.org you should definatley check it out. Anyway Defygo is a password manager and file encryptiong tool that is portable runs off a Thumb drive. It works well and the encryption works great with AES and Triple DES you can encrypt files so no one can get in. Another cool option to Defygo is the working with the forum portion of the website in order to use Public and Private key style encryption.

Easy PHP

Like it says its PHP, better yet its alos Apache and MySQL on a Thumbdrive that can be run from any Windows computer without being installed on the computer. Straight off the Thubdrive. PHPEasy runs all services from the Thumbdrive. NOw you can work on your projects on any server anywhere. Awesome program.

FoxitReader

This is a standalone pdf reader and allows you to edit the pdf file either by copying and typing extra text onto the pdf file directly. Lightweight and very easy to use. A great deal lighter than Adobe Reader. The best part no installs its just a standalone executible.

Mplayer

Standalone exectible that plays all realplayer files. It also plays other types and most mp3 and music and video files. Cool application.

Portable Firefox 1.5

Probably one of the best applications I have ever used. It works very well. Probably the best thing for Portable Firefox 1.5 is the addons. I can't say enough about the addons right now as I type this I am running Foxytunes, Fasterfox, IE tab, IE view, Web Developer tools, Gspace, Download them all. Foxy tunes allows you to control your default player from Firefox. Fasterfox is a configuration addon that makes Firefox perform and gather pages faster. IE tab allows you to view pages running the IE engine inside of Firefox as a new tab. IE view allows you to set the options that a site may be loaded every time in a IE tab inside of firefox. The web dev tools is a toolbar that checks all scripts on the page can tell you what forms go where. The Get and Post variables on the page. You can edit the CSS of the page and see the changes. Gspace which links with GMAIL and allows you to upload files under 10 MB to GMAIL to use like a extra drive. Download them all is really neat it allows you to make faster downloads from sites by opening up more bandwidth and calling files faster and allowing faster downloads.

Portable GAIM

The messenger client on a thumb stick carrying several different messengers on a thumbdrive. All of them works perfectly and smoothley.

PsPad

A really cool portable text editor with multiple syntax highlighting capabilities.

Portable OpenOffice.org

An entire office suite with almost the same amount of features of Microsoft Office. Some of the features are even better like diretly exporting to a pdf instead of handing it to another application. Open Office has several different mini programs much like Microsoft Office. Writer = Word, Calc = Excel, Impress = PowerPoint, Base = Access, Draw = MS Paint, Math = no equivalent. Open Office is one of the best office suites plus its free if you want to spend the money for $70 dollars you can buy StarOffice which is Open Offices cousin except is directly supported and maintained by SUN.

Xplorer

A exploer.exe replacement type app this allows you to instantly go to where you want on the system with a command prompt with one click. It gives you better file size and tons of information about the files and where they are.

UniServer

Is a WAMP on the go. It fits on a Thumbdrive and can make any Windows machine an instant WAMP. meaning you can code and test anywhere there is a Windows machine and a USB port. Simple files allow for quick startup and shutdown.

SWI

This is an information gathering exe. Fits on a thumbdrive and is a standalone executible. The cool thing about this exe though is that can extract the keys used for products like Microsoft products and it tells all kinds of information about your machine. Just like system information except it gives better detail with more complete findings.

Portable Opera

This is Opera on a thumbdrive. makes life easier because any windows machine with a USB drive can have Opera running on it. great for testing WEb applications across multiple browsers.
--
Heath Brown

Portable Applications -- UPDATE!!!

2006-01-25T10:35:00.000-06:00

Ok for the past like month I have been going nuts on the Portable Applications and this is an update to what I know have accumalated over the past month. Here is the list:

7-zip (compression tool)
Defygo (encryption/password vault)
EasyPHP (apache/php/mysql on a THUMBDRIVE)
FoxitReader (pdf reader/editor)
Mplayer (kickace standalone mediaplayer)
Portable Abiword (word processor)
Portable Filezilla (ftp client)
Portable Firefox 1.5 (web browser) -- I have placed extensions on to my Portable Firefox 1.5 and now firefox officially kicks major but the new extensions are crazy nuts like the IE view tab, IE View, FoxyTunes, WebDeveloper, FasterFox, Gspace, and more.
Protable GAIM (IM client)
Portable NVU (html editor)
PsPad (text editor)
Router emulator (router simulation)
VCD (virtual Cd rom utitlity)
Xplorer (different type of file viewer)
Portable OpenOffice (office suite)
Uniform Server
SWI
Portable Opera

This is all on a 512 MB drive with around 117 MB left to spare which isn't bad for how many programs I am packing.

Probably some of my favorites would have to be Defygo, 7-zip, EasyPHP, UniForm Server, Portable GAIM, Portable Firefox, PsPad, VCd, Xplorer, Portable OpenOffice. Theses apps are just like the real thing.

7-zip

As stated above 7-zip is a compression utitlty that has some pretty cool features for the archives that you make. It is a different compression format 7z but it does beat the standard .zip in compressoin ratios. The options are pretty nice you can choose how much to compress the archive, set whether you want to only allow updates and new files, or anything of the sort. It has easy navigation and doesn't take up to much space.

Defygo

This is an application devolped by some friends that will be coming out soon after they work out the bugs and get it going with all the features and looks they want. The website is e-liberty.org you should definatley check it out. Anyway Defygo is a password manager and file encryptiong tool that is portable runs off a Thumb drive. It works well and the encryption works great with AES and Triple DES you can encrypt files so no one can get in. Another cool option to Defygo is the working with the forum portion of the website in order to use Public and Private key style encryption.

Easy PHP

Like it says its PHP, better yet its alos Apache and MySQL on a Thumbdrive that can be run from any Windows computer without being installed on the computer. Straight off the Thubdrive. PHPEasy runs all services from the Thumbdrive. NOw you can work on your projects on any server anywhere. Awesome program.

FoxitReader

This is a standalone pdf reader and allows you to edit the pdf file either by copying and typing extra text onto the pdf file directly. Lightweight and very easy to use. A great deal lighter than Adobe Reader. The best part no installs its just a standalone executible.

Mplayer

Standalone exectible that plays all realplayer files. It also plays other types and most mp3 and music and video files. Cool application.

Portable Firefox 1.5

Probably one of the best applications I have ever used. It works very well. Probably the best thing for Portable Firefox 1.5 is the addons. I can't say enough about the addons right now as I type this I am running Foxytunes, Fasterfox, IE tab, IE view, Web Developer tools, Gspace, Download them all. Foxy tunes allows you to control your default player from Firefox. Fasterfox is a configuration addon that makes Firefox perform and gather pages faster. IE tab allows you to view pages running the IE engine inside of Firefox as a new tab. IE view allows you to set the options that a site may be loaded every time in a IE tab inside of firefox. The web dev tools is a toolbar that checks all scripts on the page can tell you what forms go where. The Get and Post variables on the page. You can edit the CSS of the page and see the changes. Gspace which links with GMAIL and allows you to upload files under 10 MB to GMAIL to use like a extra drive. Download them all is really neat it allows you to make faster downloads from sites by opening up more bandwidth and calling files faster and allowing faster downloads.

Portable GAIM

The messenger client on a thumb stick carrying several different messengers on a thumbdrive. All of them works perfectly and smoothley.

PsPad

A really cool portable text editor with multiple syntax highlighting capabilities.

Portable OpenOffice.org

An entire office suite with almost the same amount of features of Microsoft Office. Some of the features are even better like diretly exporting to a pdf instead of handing it to another application. Open Office has several different mini programs much like Microsoft Office. Writer = Word, Calc = Excel, Impress = PowerPoint, Base = Access, Draw = MS Paint, Math = no equivalent. Open Office is one of the best office suites plus its free if you want to spend the money for $70 dollars you can buy StarOffice which is Open Offices cousin except is directly supported and maintained by SUN.

Xplorer

A exploer.exe replacement type app this allows you to instantly go to where you want on the system with a command prompt with one click. It gives you better file size and tons of information about the files and where they are.

UniServer

Is a WAMP on the go. It fits on a Thumbdrive and can make any Windows machine an instant WAMP. meaning you can code and test anywhere there is a Windows machine and a USB port. Simple files allow for quick startup and shutdown.

SWI

This is an information gathering exe. Fits on a thumbdrive and is a standalone executible. The cool thing about this exe though is that can extract the keys used for products like Microsoft products and it tells all kinds of information about your machine. Just like system information except it gives better detail with more complete findings.

Portable Opera
This is Opera on a thumbdrive. makes life easier because any windows machine with a USB drive can have Opera running on it. great for testing WEb applications across multiple browsers.
--
Heath Brown
--
Heath Brown

Etown is going swell!!!

2005-12-21T16:00:00.000-06:00

I thought I would throw an update on the old blog. Right now I am at work and doing pretty well it took just a day and I am back into the swing of things once again. The best apart about this visit is I am doing a bunch of cool stuff. For instance, I changed my alternator in my truck in one hour and 30 mins. Which might be really long but when you are very non car savy. I think its pretty good.

I got the grades back:

ART 121 -- A
MGT 350 -- A
CIS 304 -- A
TSM 343 -- B
TSM 340 -- B FIN 330 -- C

For the term GPA: 3.33
Cumalative as of now: 3.45

(not to shabby dropped 4 points from a 3.49)

If I am not mistaken I think I called this one from day one. Which is sweet ASS, I must be Nostradamus or something.

E-town Tablet

2005-12-18T16:38:00.000-06:00

I am in Elizabethtown, Ky sitting on a couch and writing this e-mail on a tablet PC. I am also babysitting at the same time I can't believe I am actually writing out this post.

--
Heath Brown

Portable Apps -- Virtual CDrom portability

2005-12-17T01:34:00.000-06:00

Oh yeah once again I am all in to portable Apps. Tonight I was kinda playing around and discovered two things one is PStart (a portable application control panel) which will search your thumb drive then once you install the application portable to your thumb drive it will create a tray icon which you can then run and have the control panel show all portable apps on your thumb drive.

The other thing I found that was really pretty neat is the Virtual Cd rom tool that I use can be used portably, if of cource the sys file that comes with it is placed in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers folder of the machine your trying to use it on. the cool part is once that sys file is dropped you can then use the virtual Cd-rom to load iso images from network drives and therefore never use a cd if you don't want to. This tool is very useful especially if you don't have the CDs or DVDs to burn to. Oh yeah, the tool also loads DVD iso images.

Check it out!!!!

Portable Applications

2005-12-13T21:05:00.000-06:00

Ok I love stand alone executables, I also enjoy apps that may have a folder but can work portably off a USB thumb drive. These portable programs bring functionality and make life a little easier. Some Portable apps that I am currently trying are:

All these programs are free and all run off of the USB thumb drive they are nothing to new but they are new to me and pretty kick ass. I mean GAIM on my thumb drive is pretty huge. Another program I am currently working with off my thumb drive that isn't accessible except for a few people is Defygo, a portable password manager and file encrypter. A few of my friends are developing this program and its still in its infancy but looks to be pretty huge. Anyway I will be trying to put up my thoughts on these programs as well as all the other programs I am working with to keep who ever passes by up to date.

--
Heath Brown

Nice Weekend

2005-12-11T22:26:00.000-06:00

Even though that next week is finals I decided that a small get away was a neccessasity. This weekend Amber and I went to Buca di beppo, a really nice Italian restuarant that is family style so the portions are huge. Then we went to The Cheesecake Factory, which is probably the best cheesecake I have ever had in my entire life. The food was good Amber looked hot and all and all I had a good time.

Also during the weekend we stayed at my cousin's house (where I stay at during the summer) in Elizabethtown. Next weekend, I go back up to Elizabethtown to begin work over the Christmas break. I am pretty excited about that.

This week is closing down because of finals. It has been a decent semester and it looks like I will be decent grades. Hopefully my grades will look like this:

MGT 350 --- A
ART 121 --- A
CIS 304 --- B
TSM 343 --- A
TSM 340 --- B
FIN 330 --- C

--
Heath Brown

New Fruit ????

2005-11-29T19:55:00.000-06:00

Alright Pomegranates are not a new fruit but to me it was a discovery that was so sweet!!! Who knew that a funny looking onion thingy would be so full of sweet, tart seeds that are quite tasty and fruity. The trick is to cut the onion looking fruit in half then begin picking the seeds out (this is a messy procedure). Don't be fulled after picking all the seeds out around 20 or so you'll be like gosh where are all the seeds. They are under the white parts just keep ripping open the fruit and more and more seeds will be found pick them all out into a bowl there will be around 613 seeds which is a ton of seeds. They are so delicious and they are actually good for you.

Try it they can be found at Wal-mart for like 25 cents. Sweet deal for a tasty treat.
--
Heath Brown

I am a Doofus!!!!

2005-11-23T01:28:00.000-06:00

Ok so the whole point of a Laptop is so that you can take anywhere and be able to work on your computer and be productive from anywhere. Well, I have a Laptop, I love the thing, it goes with me everywhere, ok, that said, Laptops also need to be recharged. Well since I came home for Thanksgiving break and was kinda in a rush to leave work. I left the my cable that goes into my AC adapter at work. I only have one of these and now it is 1.5 hours away sitting in the surge protector. Ok tonight without realizing it I started to play my brother in a little Commnad and Conquer a resource hog in its own right. Well about half way through the game my battery said, "I am low". So I started to get in my bag for my adapter I pulled it out, one problem no freaking cord to the reciptical I had accidentally pulled the cord that hooks from the reciptical into the adapter at the office I am and was pissed.

Ofiicially i am know sitting here on my old desktop computer tyring to do work I can with what I got. I did however order a Power adapter and had it shipped Next Day air the cost around 65.00 to me Priceless. Having a backup power adapter is very good. Hopefully I won't be a dumbass anymore nad leave the damn thing at work.

Lesson: Don't leave vital parts at the office. Stupid!!!!

--
Heath Brown

Product Testing -- PSPad (1)

2005-11-19T22:12:00.000-06:00

Ok I am starting a new type of blogging for myself I am going to be doing some reviews just to do some reviews of programs I experiment with. Every Post title with Product Testing -- [name of program] will be these posts.

Ok here is the first post.

I am currently using a program called PSPad. This is a freeware text file editor but is way more than that. It actually can edit all types of files were talking txt, html, php, css, c++, COBOL, MS-DOS, JavaScript, etc. Here is a screen shot of all the file types.

PSPad allows allows you to set up projects inorder to easily access files for doing some kind of project or just working on a mass of files that are similar. These projects can be set up and can mimic the file structure of your folder structure of the project your working on. Here is a screen shot of the Projects.

Along with projects and accessing almost any type of file PSpad also has many other functions such as syntax highlighting, tabbed editing, as well as other features.

I have explored the program pretty well up to this point but there is still alot I don't know about over the next few weeks however I will be going into depth of it.

There are a few things I don't like so far about PSPad though. It does not automatically update whenever you remove a file or folder in the main structure of the folders it does not remove the file or folder in the project view. which is not good.

I will also over the next few weeks be going over other programs that I find interesting.

A new post

2005-11-06T23:21:00.000-06:00

Alright so last weekend I went to E-town which was a fabulous weekend. It was fun and relaxing. Amber and I enjoyed the time away from school emensley, sometimes you just need a break from your current surrondings, and is exactly what we got by going up to E-town. While we were up there we went to a fabulous Mexican resturant that I frequent during the summers that I stay up and work in E-town with some neighbors and friends. The name of the resturant is Los Nopolas, which is fabulous and good even be better than Los Portales in Murray. Along with eating great food, and spending time with family and friends we also went and visited some sites that we found in the movie Elizabethtown. Ok so I thought there was more but we only could find one from the movie and if I had my cord to my camera I would post the pics, but alas I do not. Well anyway last weekend was so awesome and I just wanted to say that it was awesome.

--
Heath Brown

Gettin' Ready for the Weekend

2005-10-28T01:30:00.000-05:00

Alright made it through one heck of a week of school. It has been one of those weeks at Murray State, nothing but business, running around and doing serious projects worth 15% of my grade. Stress has definatley been apart of my life this past week. But that is ok, this weekend I am heading up to E-town. This weekend's plans consist of going home Friday enjoying my Bro's B-Day, then driving to E-town on Sat and Sun to catch up with my cousins and friends up there.

I need this little mini vacation away from school for the weekend and I can't wait.

--
Heath Brown

Mid Term Grades

2005-10-12T00:52:00.000-05:00

So I got my mid term grades today, needless to say I did better than expected which is cool. I am still pretty stressed about this semester and still fradazzled about ART 121 (the devil). Anyway here is the run down on my grades: A in ART 121, A in MGT 350, B in TSM 340, B in TSM 343, B in CIS 304, and B in Fin 330. All in all I am pleased with my grades however I hope to have all these grade up by one and finally pull a 4.0 for the first time in a long time. That would be so sweet.

--
Heath Brown

Me and Amber

2005-10-04T00:23:00.000-05:00

Insomnia once again

2005-09-30T23:48:00.000-05:00

So once agian I find myself just chillin' out and staying up half the night just working on really nothing. I try to learn stuff but its so hard right now. My mind is cluttered with all kinds of junk, its hard to explain how busy my mind is. I am taking 18 hours of classes which isn't bad just I don't think 20 hours of work mixes well. Even though its only 18 hours it is starting to bite and it hurts when it does bite. ART 121 a class I am taking on the WEB is sticking it to me. The Assignments are not hard just take quizzes then a Midterm then more Quizzes then a final. The only problem is I am teaching myself practically and its one of those things where I am not the best at motivating myself with something that boring. This is just one of those semesters when I can't wait for it to be over with quicklly. I am pulling B's and C's and A's at this point and hopefully I can pull something out towards the end of the semester but with professors pulling projects out their ass its going to be hard to get on top and stay on top.

Post from Email

2005-09-28T00:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight I am trying out posting to blogger from email by emailing my post to a special blogger address. This is just a test to see if it works.

Banging on the Keys

2005-08-26T01:02:00.000-05:00

I figure tonight would be a good night to bang the keys a little. Maybe write a post about what is going on or something.

School is back in session, indeed it is back, and I excited about the classes that I have and the professors that I have. I think my classes won't be that difficult just because I don't thinkg the class will be that bad. Of course with every class you have to put the work in to get a decent grade. I plan on working hard because I do want that elusive 4.0. Hopefully this will be the year that I place A's all over it.

Right now as we speak I am using Google Desktop Search 2.0 which I think is cool, and google Talk. I like Google, I like them because all their stuff is simple to use. No fuss, no frills, just solid stuff and its fun to use. I like the plan backround the simple color schemes of Gmail and Google Talk. As the guys say from work I am on some seroious Koolaid for Google.

Updating...

2005-08-02T20:07:00.000-05:00

I finally have decided to update my blog. Since last time I updated nothing has changed. I am still currently working at iPay Technologies, LLC in Elizabethtown, KY for the second summer. I even got class credit for the internship this year. I only have about 3 weeks till school starts and I think I am ready for school. For one thing I want to see my girlfriend whom I haven't seen in quite sometime this summer, I can't to get back to see all my friends and hang out, I can't wait to go back to work and see what I have missed. The new Apex Center is sure to be a delight.

I think this year at school will be exciting and fun. I of course will have to work pretty hard with 18 hours of classes and 20 hours of work. This will be the epic balance. I am taking some harder level classes that is in effort. Such as CIS 304, TSM 340, TSM 343, Fin 330, MGR 350, and Art 121. I don't think Finance, management, or art will be that hard. Art is a online course my first, and the others just don't seem that difficult. CIS and my TSM classes I know will be some work that I will have to put in and I need to really push myself for better academic performance this year.

Hopefully, by the end of this school year I will be hired again for the summer to iPay once again, and make a 3rd appearance. I enjoy working there especially working under a guy like David Brooks who has been in the business of computers for 30 years. Plus has seen all kinds of systems and infrastructures.

Finally, Ambi will be the best sight for my eyes because I haven't seen her in like a month and I can't really go that long without seeing her. Hopefully, if all goes to plan we will take it to the next level in our relationship (fiancee). I know it sounds soon, but I will be 21 and I know that she is the one for me. I love her to death.

Well that is about all that is going right now hopefully I will get on track when school starts and chronicle my events a little better than I have this summer.

Plus, I am typing tonight on my new laptop that I got a few weeks ago.

Its awesome.

Knowing is half the battle...

2005-06-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

If knowing is half the battle then exactly how hard is the battle are fighting? Good question I know, what makes me think of it? I have no idea, I am so tired, I am really just wore out. Running from Webster to E-town to Illinois is crazy. I got back here on Sunday at like 11:30 and I left at like 5:00 I was so exhausted. However, works has been a breeze which really sucks, I wish that they would give me something meaningful to do, but they are going through a IT audit and aren't allowed to give me the persmissions in order to do what I was doing last year. I can't get on to any of the servers or any of that I can't even look at different things I have been training on in Classes all semester it just pretty much sucks this year. I say that but I did get a 1.50 raise and you can't beat that. Anyway I hope that it gets better and I hope that the end of the summer will be better than the last.

Good to hear from Friends...

2005-05-31T18:11:00.000-05:00

I have yet to really make a trip back home that lasts more that a few days, last weekend (my birthday) it felt like I was in and out of the county in less than five minutes. Basically, I run from Elizabethtown up to Illinois then back home in Dixon. All I do is drive, so when my friends say Hey it is a warm welcome. Although only a few have said hey which is cool because everyone is busy during the summer. I know I am really busy this is probably the first time that I have been on the computer of my own in a long while. But anyway I must be off again because I can't sit still.

in E-town

2005-05-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

So at this point I am in Elizabethtown ky doing my intern thing for another year which is one sweet gig its a little hard to keep up with because i am so busy all the time, however, this year i am really having a good time up in E-town i am not just alone and to myself i help out with the kids and i am really trying not to be a burden on kelly and jason because i know how it is when you have your own place and someone comes in and tries to get your stuff and moves it around, it ain't cool.

So basically i am just chillin as usual but having a delightful time doing it.

What's in a title...

2005-05-15T01:52:00.000-05:00

So basically I am just chillin over the weekend till I make my journey for the summer to my summer job, in Elizabethtown. Alirght now I will have some great stories to tell cause that place is like awesome. My girlfriend found a nanny job for the summer which is sweet so she will be able to see on the weekends which is really sweet considering that is the only times we will get to spend any kind of time together over the next 3 months. The cool thing is she will be an Ra next year in my dorm so that I will get to see her everyday and everynight cause she is in the same building as me. No more checking her in and out which is like sweet. So many sweet attributes to your girlfrined living in the same buliding can it be any sweeter, I don't think so.

Still up!

2005-05-04T02:41:00.000-05:00

This post if for the night birds of the world, it is like almost 3:00 am and I am still not asleep I just can't get ot sleep I don't know why. Is it weird I think I am a narkoleptic, you know the people that stay up all night long and can't go to sleep because of some kind of chemical inbalance in their brains. I think that is probably my worst problem is that i can't go to sleep, maybe i had to much sugar today or I am thinking about like fifty things I have to do this week. School is stressing me, shhh don't tell nobody. ECO is due Thurs. and my group and I are going to take it to the limit. This should be a fun time.

Anyway its good luck for me. OOOPPPPEEEEE.

OOps I craped my pants!!!

2005-05-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

WOW, the end of the semester is here and the taste for blood is in the water, I think everyone I know has Summer fever. I have a bad case of it, I have a 10 page paper due in ECO on Thurs. its Tues. and I haven't really started yet, yikes. I have taken on another small job, Tutoring for money. Yeah i know what do you have to tutor for well its pretty easy I am going to be tutoring a woman for Microsoft Office. This should be rather exciting since the lady is paying me real money and it is going to be for a while or until the end of school. I don't know how it will work out because it is like 2 hours a night beginning tomorrow and I have all kinds of assignments and what not coming up. Hopefully I will get them done before any of the other stuff comes to blows. Well I shall wish good luck to myself and adue.

The Mission

2005-04-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

ok so my friends and I have decided to make a game. Yes a computer game, but not just any game the game of the centurary. This game prolly won't be as great as we say but it will be there. It will be a rpg game and at that it takes on alot of things from every rpg game every made. So basically we are trying to start this thing and in order to have our ideas communicating I have put on my server a forum.

This forum is run straight from phpbb which is a program that is based in php and it is pretty sweet. The game is code named Night Fox I know what your saying Jesus these guys our nerds but it is something to hang on to especially with friends. So anyway it is going to be so cool, as for right now I am currently studying C++ so that we can make this game run and hopfully I can master it in a short time.

Until then you can check out the site. http://brownhostingonline.com/nightfox its not done just yet and it is in php but its not all bad ass or nothing just plain and pretty fast.

Killin' PHP is so sweet

2005-04-27T00:27:00.000-05:00

I have discovered the world of PHP which is pretty sweet I must say, I was surprised at how easy this was. I only use it for simple non PHPie things but it does make me look all cool cause I am using it to put together a simple web page which is really surprisingly easier than with a template in Dreamwever. Did I just say that?? I am such a bad man. That is terrible to talk about a god sent like Dreamweaver.

Oh yeah I just thought that I say something about my life. It is going splendid.

2005-04-24T23:38:00.000-05:00

Me Dancing around in my Under Armor

2005-04-24T23:36:00.001-05:00

Daniel in Chicago IL on the road trip

2005-04-24T23:36:00.000-05:00

Dan and BJ in chicago, IL on our road trip

2005-04-24T23:35:00.000-05:00

Me and Amber

2005-04-24T23:34:00.001-05:00

Me on spring Break with my Tiki cup and my Lifeguard MuG

2005-04-24T23:34:00.000-05:00

Amber in a hat