jeffpollard.net

New Toys

Ok, so I'm not dead..just busy.

Work has been really busy, especially the past two days, and it's probably not going to get much better. Our new lease equipment is starting to trickle in, including a 19" LCD and a brand new Aluminum PowerBook G4. I think Glen has figured it out that all it takes to make me happy is a few new tech toys. And these are some beauties. 1.25ghz, 512MB RAM, 80gig drive, backlit keyboard.

The only problem with getting new toys in is that it means that we have to install new equipment for people in the agency. It's going to be a looong next month or so.

A belated congratulations is due for Brian and Paul, for finally making the bold decision to move to Richmond. We can't wait to have you guys living down here full time, guys!

Preparing for Isabella

Wow, so I guess we're right in Isabella's path. I've gone back and forth on how serious I think this is going to be. At first, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Then I heard stories from when previous hurricanes ripped through the eastern seaboard. It probably didn't help that the media jumped in to try to warn (read: scare) the public. Then, I switched back to not thinking it was anything serious. And, now I'm wondering if maybe this is gonna be a big deal.

We just had a department meeting here at work. It looks like we'll be covering many computers with bags later today and instructing all laptop users to take their computers home with them. Somehow I still think this is over-reacting just a bit, but I guess we're just being prepared for the worst. Steve (our dept. head) said it's likely that we won't be working a full day tomorrow, if at all. We're supposed to use common sense when we wake up tomorrow in deciding if we should come to work.

I'm really not sure what to think. This is the first hurricane I've ever been near, so it's hard to know what to expect.

New 15s!

Woo Hoo!

Meet Weekend

It's nice to be a late blogger. That means that someone else has already re-told the events and I don't have to. But, I learned some valuable things this weekend:

• A 2003 S-runner with the TRD supercharger and LSD is a wickedly scary-fast thing. Wow.

• 20-something people and 13 Tacomas in a park will eventually cause a ruckus.

• NEVER, under ANY circumstances do any kind of spray painting in your bathroom. Ever. Even if you do your best to cover the floor with newspaper.

• If you do happen to make a mess, regular bathroom cleaner MIGHT help you out a bit, but you'll never get it all up without some good old fashioned paint thinner. Which, by the way, is safe to use on linoleum floors.

• That same paint thinner (if used in an enclosed area for extended periods of time) will give you a headache.

• Don't ever let your fiance' know you have $8 cash in your wallet, because she will spend all of it...except maybe 1 dollar.

I guess that's about all I learned.

The meet was great. There were 13 trucks and probably 25-30 people..maybe more. We feasted on burgers and hot dogs (and that's about it), talked trucks, and played on the playground equipment. I've put up a photo gallery of images from the meet. Check them out!

Meet, Mayer, and a flashback

Ok, yeh so it's been a few days since I've made the effort to post on here. So what's been happening this week? Not really sure, to be honest.

I finally got around to re-assigning my moderators to their topic areas on the site. I also brought Olivia on as a mod, since she's on the site all the time anyway. So this completes phase 1 of my master plan to reorganize and rejuvenate the Taco shack. Phase 2 will include a site re-design, which is already partially complete, and moving to a new host. I figured it was better to take it in stages, rather than try to do it all at once.

I gotta say, I've really been enjoying John Mayer's latest album that was released this week. It's called "Heavier Things" and you really should check it out, one way or the other. :)

I had kind of a flashback yesterday morning as I was walking up to our building going to work. The morning was beautiful and the air was crisp and clear, exactly as it was 2 years ago. I looked over into the atrium, expecting to see that same crowd of people, but saw no one. It was kinda spooky, really.

On another note, I'm pretty excited about the big CustomTacos meet tomorrow up in Fredericksburg. Not quite sure exactly how many people we'll have, but I do know there will be some members there that I've never met. I always enjoy doing that - putting faces with the screen names. Should be a great time.

Have a great weekend!

A weekend of eating

I feel like all I did this weekend was eat. And eat. And eat.

We hit Sunday's on Friday night, Domino's Pizza at our little race party Saturday night, and then Taco Bell for lunch Sunday followed by Bruster's for some awesome ice cream, and finally Sine' for dinner last night. I should probably refrain from eating for about a week after this weekend's eats. But I won't.

Last night I finally "threw the switch" and made the new CustomTacos.com tech section live. It's nice to finally see hours and hours of work live on the site. I really couldn't have done it without Randy's help. Thanks again, man.

I also went ahead and re-organized the forum topic areas like I've been planning for so long. Hopefully the new topic areas will help people post their topics n the correct areas and make searching for info easier. It just makes sense to have the topic areas divided up the way they are now. The old way almost seems silly now. Actually, it seemed kinda silly a month or so ago when I first started planning this big change. Anyway, it's a huge step in the right direction for progress on the site. Now, the only things left to do are: roll out my new site design and move the server over to a new host. This weekend's changes were just phase 1 of my Summer 03 site update plan.

And here we are at another Monday. Last week was one of the more boring weeks I think I've ever had at work. I need a challenge. I need something exciting to do.

What Coulda' Been

Ok, so it's been quite a few days since I last posted. I guess I'm slacking or something. But...still not as much as Eric, so I'm OK.

Well, there has been much excitement lately (as usual). Our camping trip was great fun last weekend. We had something like 17 people camping up at Mike's Grandparents' farm in the woods. Mike cooked up some great food and, well, the rest is old news.

The Short Pump Apple retail store opened yesterday. I arrived a full two hours before the doors opened so that I could be sure of receiving a free shirt. It turns out there wasn't quite the crowd I was expecting, but it was fun nonetheless. It's more of a tradition now, every time an Apple store opens (around the country), there's a huge crowd of people waiting outside..some that have camped overnight. It's not that I'm THAT fanatical (but maybe I am), it's more of joining in the tradition. I took photos and posted them on the XMUG site and then alerted the Mac press to their existence. I got to sort-of be famous for that yesterday. If anything, the XMUG site got a lot of traffic yesterday, which is always good PR.

Work continues on the new tech database over at ye' old Taco Shack. I was really hoping to have it all up and running live by the end of the week, but I'm not sure if that will happen. I'm thinking not.

In other Taco-related news, I swiftly ran through my bandwidth allocation of 50 gigabytes last month for the first time since getting this hosting plan. I think I went over by 4 gigs or something. Boy, I can still remember when the site first started and it was run off of a single 8-gig-bandwidth hosting plan. I didn't think I'd outgrow my 50 gig plan this quickly. Oh well. I suppose it's time to move on. It looks like I'm making the move AWAY from OLM this time to one of two other companies that offer truly dedicated servers with 750 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth for about the same price as I'm paying now for only 50. I'm finding out that OLM's deals on shared hosting are a good value, but their dedicated plans pretty much suck.

That's about it for now. The old Nascar boys are in town this weekend. I haven't gotten any free tickets yet, but there's still the rest of today, right? Have a great weekend!