Busy, busy, busy.

Work has kept me occupied; in fact, I should be writing some SQL reports right now. But I’m not going to… yet. First this.

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend; we didn’t get to go to the beach as planned as it was just a little too chilly. So, instead we drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco and drove to and over the Golden Gate Bridge. A first for us, although regular commuters no doubt wonder what all of the fuss is about.

We managed to see an interesting model of the Bay area – to scale! – and I’m sure you’ll hear more from Pam on that subject. Soon. Right, Pam?

We also killed about a kajillion spiders in our garage with multiple bug bombs. In fact, three spider corpses were right at the edge of the garage door, no doubt trying to escape their fate. I also found a HUGE bug corpse of some kind – a grasshopper or cricket we think, but like no other I’ve seen. Thankfully it was also dead.

Using our new extension ladder and a rope we managed to put a large number of boxes into the loft area of our garage. We may yet park a car in that garage. One day, one day…

In other news, It’s Peanut Butter Terror Time! See the bottom of this page to find out what I’m rambling about.

I just spent the evening writing code for work… because it was interesting.

Now, I did this while downstairs with Pam and the boys, watching Samurai Jack/Avatar/Babylon 5 (lots of media this evening), but it was actually fun.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been years since that has happened.

Also, I’m actually picking up some mad SQL Sk1llZ. I managed to write a script that pulls IP addresses out of 5 separate databases and blacklists them in the hope of reducing blog spam. While it is reactive – it doesn’t prevent the first instance of spam from that host – it does kill all following spam. And, it has given me an interesting view of a couple of IP networks that are obviously owned by blog spammers. Data mining can be fun!

And, yes, I realize that a lot of these machines are simply open proxies or zombies, but my thinking is this: If you are running an open proxy or you’ve been zombified then we don’t want to exchange bits with you – you are a contagion. Fix your system.

1. The job is going well, but I am crazy busy trying to learn this stuff.
2. If I have a choice between playing with my sons and blogging, you lose.
3. Go see Over The Hedge – you won’t regret it. If you do then you’re a freako.
4. My mother is driving me crazy, and it only let up somewhat today. That whole “win the lottery as financial planning” thing just ain’t working.
5. Is it possible for a person to have an old calculator fetish? If so, I would be a candidate.
6. Samurai Jack is one of the best cartoons ever.
7. The rabbit has landed, but you’re going to have to wait until I have time to post more details, pictures and videos.

That is all. You can go back to your regularly scheduled life now.

I love lines like this:

Symantec’s DeepSight Threat Analyst Team has escalated its ThreatCon level after confirming the unpatched vulnerability is being used “against select targets.”

What, are they 14? “DeepSight Threat Analyst Team”? Have they ever had a date? Kissed a girl? HAVE THEY?!?

Sorry, I went all “evil Captain Kirk” on you.

Time to call out General Jack D. Ripper to take care of This Grave Danger.

Ah, the 20th high school reunion.

It does indeed appear that I will be attending, and by my side will be my lovely (and lively!) wife, Pamela.

Now comes the question of “what to wear”.

This sounds trivial, but it can have lasting effects on the evening. Ponder with me:

My goal in attending this event is not to show off or be the center of attention; in fact, I tend to avoid the spotlight when possible. If I wanted to show off I’d rent a flashy car and wear a lot of expensive… something.

Also consider that many (not all!) midwesterners (this is in Indiana) tend to have this habit of being highly suspicious of those who aren’t like them. And, sometimes, they are downright unfriendly of those perceived as different (despite what you might have heard about midwestern hospitality – believe me, it is conditional).

This being said, I wonder if dressing in my usual style would help maintain my desired semi-wallflower status. My typical mode of dress is as follows:

• Polo or T- shirt
• Shorts, normally of the “boring khaki” variety, some with extra pockets.

That’s about it. Surprise! – I don’t normally wear shoes. I live in the Bay Area of California, I don’t have to. I do wear them to cross the holy threshold at work – from the front door to the main office door – where they are promptly ditched until I go out for lunch or leave for the day. And, upon crossing the threshold, off they go. BART doesn’t care one way or another. Or, at least, they don’t seem to care.

Well, attending sans shoes is not really going to work well in the “avoid the spotlight” vein, so we’ll shelve that idea. Never really was on the table, to be honest, and not worth fretting over.

I could wear the faithful Teva sandals. No one blinks at those anymore, and it is the middle of June. So, no problem there.

No way in heck I’m wearing a button-up shirt… well, I could be convinced to wear a Hawaiian shirt, but that’s a little too relaxed. So, we’ll go with a polo shirt. And long pants are right out as I hate wearing them.

So, it looks like my former classmates will have to deal with me as I am… blond (I wasn’t when I was in high school, let’s see if anyone notices that…), with ankle bracelets (4 at last count) and toe rings (6, although 2 are on the same toe), in a polo shirt and khaki shorts. And, let’s be honest, I’ll probably lose the shoes part way through the evening.

I can hear the whispering now.

Oh, this evening has real potential. Pam had mentioned wearing combat boots with her dress, maybe I’ll help her get a pair.

Hurray! Hurray!