Pancake Stories

12:08 pm - Computer hardware

I need to make a recommendation on computer specs for a small business, and this is one of the areas where I fail the computer geek stereotype, as hardware just isn't my thing. So, they're hoping for a computer that will last 5 years, and this will be a general office computer, running MS Office, etc. The most pressing technical need they have for the machine at the moment is that various employees will be using it to watch training videos online. I can't imagine that any new computer would have a difficulty with that task, but that's why I turn to you, lazyweb, because I'm not completely sure. I'm guessing for longevity, getting max memory would be a good idea. Do I need to worry about any particular processor setup, improved video card, size of hard drives? I'm most familiar with Dell, are they still a good choice? Obviously, a lot of this will be matters of opinion and speculation, which I'm okay with. :)

12:36 pm - Recognition

So, a week ago, a friend was playing this song (from: this album) and I recognized the artist before any vocals began, mostly from hearing the drums. Of course, they have a very distinctive drum sound, especially in a few of their more popular songs, and this track very much follows that style.

I was thinking about that this morning as a song started on the radio, one I've not heard before. The song starts out relatively subdued, for metal anyway, and as I'm listening to the cymbals, I think I recognize the drum set. The song turned out to be "The Day That Never Comes", by Metallica. What I found most interesting is that I think I recognized it by the sound of the instrument at least as much as the style (the beginning of the song doesn't seem to me to really have Metallica's "stamp" on it, stylistically speaking).

Current Mood: tired

10:37 am - efficiency proposal

Currently, my financial aid is disbursed to the school, and is used to pay for tuition and fees, etc. and I get a refund check of what's left. I have a proposal for a more efficient system: my financial aid should be split between UTD and Starbucks, and UTD can continue to refund me what I don't use of the disbursment there. No such contingency needs to be set up for Starbucks.

Current Mood: tired

11:37 am - A conversation

I almost titled this "interesting conversation", but interesting is not strong enough a word.

Found this post by some random clicking, and glad I have done so - there's really a lot to consider here. Warning, the posts and threads below deal with rape, sexual harassment, and related topics which may be a trigger for some. There's a great deal to read in the comments to the posts, and I haven't even come close to reading all the comments for the original post.

Original post

Followup or related posts I also found compelling or interesting (many referenced in comments to original post):
here
here
here

One particularly useful thread from the comments of the original post is here.

And one more interesting link I noticed in comments.

Current Mood: contemplative

03:26 pm - On the subject of fidgetting...

I was moved by the DSO's performance of Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony. I watched one young woman fidget distractedly, and listened to another man open a piece of candy during the piece. This reminds me to apologize for all the times I have been similarly distracting. On the other hand I'm not sure how much I can fault others. My right knee hurts from sitting still through the performance. Had I not found the piece so moving, I probably would have popped it. I'm not sure what the moral should be here. :)

06:31 am

Yesterday, I picked up my new CPAP machine, and learned a couple interesting things.

I've had a CPAP machine since November 2002 - the same CPAP machine. In the last few months, the motor had started running louder, such that I had to move the machine from atop my nightstand to the floor. I finally made an appointment with the pulmonologist's office last week, and they were surprised they hadn't seen me in 6.5 years. That appointment went pretty well, and I walked out with a prescription for a new CPAP. The prescription also specified that the CPAP should be appropriate for camping. As an aside, most insurance companies, including BCBS, won't cover the cost of a new CPAP machine more frequently than every 5 years.

My Durable Medical Equipment (DME) supplier called me Tuesday, to discuss filling the prescription, and I elected to come in for a visit, so I could see what options I had for machine and mask. I was especially interested in a new mask, because I've suspected that my mask was not optimal for me. As it turns out, I was correct. The pressure on my machine is set at 16 cm H20, which is a fairly high level of pressure - the sleep specialist had to verify that my chosen machine could accommodate that level of pressure. My previous mask is a nasal pillow type mask, which means that air is delivered through cushions that rest against the nostrils. Nasal pillows are not recommended for pressures above 12 cm H20. The sleep specialist actually laughed when she saw what kind of mask I had previously (in response to my verbalized assertion that I suspected my previous mask was not performing optimally). So, I now have a new mask, and this one is actually designed for active sleepers, so we'll see how this works. :) I also now have a CPAP with battery pack. The battery is rated for 11 hours at 10 cm H20, I'll have to see how long it lasts at my pressure, and that's without the heated humidifier running. Running the humidifier is reported to reduce the run time of the batter to less than 50%.

So, the first interesting thing I learned yesterday is that my CPAP has been improperly configured (insufficient mask) for as long as I've had it. The second interesting thing I learned is that as medically necessary equipment, CPAP machines do not count against the carry on limit when flying. I've been putting my CPAP case in the bottom half of my carry on luggage the last few times I flew. I'll probably get one of these to help with that process. The sleep technician also recommended checking the airline's website for any forms to print out to go with it (I already keep the letter of medical necessity in the cpap case).

Current Mood: happy

07:00 pm - Out-of-context Theatre

Me: the tea was kind of bitter.
ghostdogmeta: That's because it was flavored with the tears of small children.
Me: But see, usually I like that.

Current Mood: relaxed

08:48 am - Links

Just a couple links I ran into last night.

Potential Space Weather Catastrophe!

Another sci-fi idea being brought to life

Current Mood: tired

12:54 am - Mini-update

Really productive day, and I'm really tired. :)

Current Mood: tired

05:17 am - How not to watch the clock

( Pancake story about trouble sleeping... )

08:29 pm - Communication hardware curiosity

IMG_0020
Originally uploaded by Sir Martello

11:23 am - Accomplishment

I have lots to post about, and hopefully will be doing so soon. However, I just needed to quickly point out that for the first time ever, I have a cumulative GPA of 4.0. :) Once during my undergrad, I got a 4.0 for one summer semester that I was only taking one course.

Current Mood: ecstatic

10:32 am - Holiday Music Meme

Post one or more YouTube links to your favorite Christmas music, and invite people to comment with links to theirs.

So, this isn't technically Christmas music, and it's not my favorite Christmas music (though I am quite fond of it), and it's not even my favorite performance of the piece...

But this is entirely too cool to not be my submission. :)

06:29 am - Change of plans

I had an interesting conversation with my graduate advisor yesterday.

My goal in pursuing my graduate degree is to be an IT manager with an emphasis on people skills. I want a solid foundation of business skills, but I'm not going to be an entrepreneur, and I may not even ever work in the private sector. I want enough business skills to do my job, but money making isn't a priority for me (obviously). It's the management of people that interests me, and for several reasons, I'd like to stay in IT. In order to prepare for registering for my spring classes, I've been working on my full degree plan. I put together a degree plan to discuss with my advisor that had as part of the business core and all of the non-IT electives courses in Organizational Behavior, with course titles such as Managing Organizations, Foundations of Work Behavior. I asked my advisor if it was possible to take a minor in Organizational Behavior. The answer is no - basically, the master's degrees are short enough (36 hours) that a minor doesn't necessarily make sense. However, getting a second master's degree only requires a minimum 18 hours of new course work if it overlaps enough with the first. So, now I'm looking at a Master of Science in Management and Administrative Sciences (MAS) with a concentration in Organizations and Strategy. So, instead of getting one degree in two years, I should be able to get two degrees in approximately three (I may take a couple extra courses in the second degree).

( Degree plans below the cut )

I'm looking forward to answering "Why two master's degrees?" with "They were on sale, buy one, get the second half off."

Edit: Oh, and I still need to get the new degree plans approved - these are just the drafts I came up with last night.

Current Mood: excited

01:59 pm - Stuff

It's been too long since I posted. Beginning of semester hell is almost over, I think. It's not as bad now as it was 3 weeks ago, but we're still getting crap that only happens in the beginning of the semester. At least it's not a steady stream of crap. I don't really have time to be posting right now, but I'm going to anyway. (And in fact, I wrote this post yesterday, and got interrupted and didn't have a chance to hit the post button) :)

Classes are going pretty well. Not surprisingly, I've been having trouble keeping on top of the work load and reading. However, I have been working on that, and have been doing better than I feared I would. I've made all the assignment deadline so far, have been caught up on the reading by class day more than once, and am only a little bit behind on online lectures. I'm also not yet taken advantage of some of the self-tests available to me online. I'll be working on a 10-12 page paper with cdk, and I'm glad to be working with him. We have another team member, who is senior business student, and looks like he's going to be more of a liability than I am. Both of my professors seem to be pretty good, and the classes are interesting enough considering my background. :)

So, what prompted me to post is this. Naturally, I want it, but I'm not sure I *actually* want it... I'm hoping to split the cost of Guitar Hero, World Tour with eldercat, who owns an XBox 360, and Rock Band. The RB and GHWT instruments are supposed to be compatible with each others systems (at least on the XBox and Playstations). I'll keep the GHWT instruments at my house, so both of my XBox friends will only need to bring over the XBox (and maybe a guitar). It looks like it would be better to have the GHWT drum set rather than the RB2 standard drum set (both of which are better than the RB1 drum set), because that will let you play all 6 tracks on GHWT (3 drum heads, 2 cymbals, and pedal), and the 5 tracks on RB. The Ion kit mentioned above would likely be much more awesome than either, especially for drumming outside of the game (though that would also require a "drum brain", version recommended by Ion sells for $359), but you'd miss the extra track in GHWT. I have a goal of getting an actual drum set after I graduate, and I haven't decided whether I'd rather have a "real" drum set or an electronic one; either way, I'm not going to have time for a real drum set before I graduate (not and still make it to graduation, anyway). Maybe by then, there will be an even better premium set that will be compatible with both Rock Band 5 and Guitar Hero 8. ;)

Still - *drool*

Oh, one more thing - I've been told that I'm not allowed to have this. ;)

Current Mood: content

10:41 am - Month of doom

August has always been the worst month to work at UTD - end of the fiscal year and preparation for the fall semester, rolled in to one month of suck. I'm not sure if this August is worse than usual - it may just feel that way because we've had an extra heaping dose of chaos at work recently (massive shifts in job responsibility for colleagues I work closely with).

We've had two major "fires" this week, and a very long list of things that need to be done, and I've just been exhausted since Thursday night. Most likely this will continue next week, when classes start on Thursday. I'm not especially looking forward to starting classes with the brain fog I have now.

The beginning of the semester is a horrible time to start classes.

Current Mood: exhausted

11:56 pm - That was fun

I mentioned a while back that I would be in Las Vegas for a professional conference. Well, I'm almost done, and it's been a very productive and educational couple days. Tonight, the last official part of the conference was the party thrown by the conference sponsors.

I can't believe I was on the dance floor for a solid hour and a half.

I forgot how good aerobic exercise felt.

I remembered the pain, though. :)

There were prizes awarded for dancing, which I did not receive. On the way out, a couple actually mentioned to me that they thought I should have received a prize. That was cool. I also attempted to teach a couple tipsy English ladies how to juggle (I wasn't doing so well myself).

ETA: last night I remembered the pain associated with aerobic exercise, but forgot about the pain associated with high-impact aerobic exercise. Ow. I wasn't completely moshing, but if there had been an award category for most dancers bumped into, I probably would have been a shoe-in. ;)

05:58 pm - grad school progress

Today I met with an advisor (not the person who will be my advisor, as she is out today). They are still waiting for my application to make it into UTD's system, but the advisors know now to look for my stuff. The advisor I talked to today suggested I shouldn't have much problem being conditionally admitted until my GMAT score comes in. I've scheduled an appointment to take the GMAT on July 25th. I also need to finish creating an updated resume (first resume in 10 years) and send that in.

(Edit to fix typo)

Current Mood: tired

09:29 pm - Application

My application for a Masters of Science in Information Technology and Management has been submitted to UTD, 13 days before the deadline. ;) Still need to take the GMAT, and I'm going to talk to a graduate advisor in the School of Management about what else I need to take care of.

Current Mood: happy

10:00 pm - Adventures in Electricity

So, on the way home last night, we get a distressed phone call from home - the stove is out of order. We get home, and discover that while nobody was using it, the stove made a popping noise, followed by the smell of burnt electronics. The circuit breaker for the stove is tripped and warm, and there is also a warm spot near the switch for the fan. We check our home warranty service, and naturally it isn't covered. We start trying to get in touch with our landlord, who is on a two-week vacation out of the country. We then go out for a nice (unplanned) dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse. When we get home, we find out that the landlord has received the email and put in a call to whoever is house sitting to get in touch with the handyman.

The handyman show up tonight, and it turns out that there was a short in the wires for the switch for the built in fan- diconnect that piece, tape up the wires, and everything else works fine. The handyman is going to look for a replacement switch. After all the recent excitement we've had for the house, it's nice for something to work out relatively simply. :)

Current Mood: sleepy