Life in This MedjoPangit World

Was your gift as good as this one I got?

Christmas Blues and a whole new level of... Huh?

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12/26/2022

So I was a day late to posting, sue me. It was a good week... then again, perhaps an odd week, now that I'm recounting the first interesting thing that happened...

I had a dream- not uncommon- and in this dream, I remember I was playing a flying simulation game, but it sort of turned from me playing the game to me being in the game- and I was going along in the level, when I remembered a cool Easter Egg I almost skipped. I turned around and flew into this sort of narrow canyon, a. . .

I haven't come up with a name for the piano, yet...

Tune-up

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12/18/2022

My wife has fallen ill with the virus that's been going around pretty big, lately, and it's been anything but fun for her. Somehow, I've remained sick-free... for now.

This week, we recieved several large dumpings of snow. Considering what a dry summer it was, it is a welcomed relief... but boy did it make driving fun. It's been a good week, otherwise- went to see a show, a large and beautiful Christmas light display, I FINALLY finished editing a recording six five months in the. . .

An exciting engagement!

An engagement, a raise, and Developers, Developers, Developers!

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12/11/2022

It's weeks like these I wish I could take and spread out over the more dull weeks, so that there'd be more to talk about on those weeks, and less to overwhelm this one. But what can you do?

First of all, without a doubt, the biggest and most important thing to happen this week was my brother-in-law getting engaged. He and his (now) fiance are in charge of a comedy group event at their university, and we got together as a family to head up and see their last show before they leave. . .

Those moments when we gaze up and wonder why.

Oof, you lost a lot of progress. That's a deep frustration, a real punch in the gut.

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12/04/2022

And onto Decmeber! The Christmas month! And yet, howbeit I've only put on my Christmas playlist like 3 times since Thanksgiving? Ah well.

It was no quiet week for me. There was, and still is much to do for myself at work. Monday was no small example of that when I spent almost 14 hours working, and had to drive through a bad snowstorm several times in the same day. In one of my visits that day, I spent an hour replacing a keyboard on a laptop- a job that on most systms takes . . .

My Cousin-in-law's dogs. Cute!

Decentralization

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11/27/2022

Well, the most interesting thing I think I can talk about this week is the efforts I made to de-Google both my and my Wife's lives. For me, I finally setup my own CarDAV server and even WebCAL. It was actually surprisingly fairly easy- it was just a matter of making sure to back things up before jumping ship, and knowing what I was doing. On my wife's end, she is finally de-Googled from her photo library. It's all backed up now, locally. And she's now starting to use Brave browser in lie. . .

My poor, poor office chair.

Old gray chair, she ain't what she used to be!

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11/20/2022

It's another cold November week here in my neck of the woods. Frankly, I don't recall a November ever being so cold as this one! We're hitting pretty consistent temperatures in the 10's to 30's Fahrenheit. Not fun.

But on to more essential things than climate and weather- let's talk about my office chair! ....okay, maybe it's not as important as that. For two decades, give or take a little, I grew up with this fabric-grey spacious office chair with wooden arm rests. It. . .

Most apologetic litter ever!

The rains came, and the winds picked up.

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11/13/2022

This week's fun photo is brought to you by the most apologetic piece of litter I've ever seen blow up on our back porch.

Gee, in the matter of just one week, so much has happened. Where to even begin?

Well, for starters, my wife and I performed a musical number in church. The funny thing is, we didn't actually decide what exactly we were going to perform until the night before, at which point I began plunking things out on the keyboard, and my wife patiently followed a. . .

A campsite in City of Rocks

Picture this, SON!

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11/05/2022

So yeah, I know I'm a day early to this one, but it's partly with good reason, as I need to post something to test something I'm implementing. Speaking, of, images are finally a thing now, on this blog! In that wise, you'll notice an image attached to this one. It's not exactly a perfect implementation- as McCoy would say, I'm a network engineer, not a programmer! ...or something like that. Anyway, I'm glad I got it working.

Speaking of speaking of images, I've also finally ac. . .

Awaken the Child Within!

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10/30/2022

Halloween is on the brink, and if you know me, as expected, the child in me is quite alive. I love Halloween, and just enjoy the holiday season in general.

As a fun fact, growing up, my mother would often put on a neighborhood block party for Halloween- we always called it a pumpkin walk. I don't know how widely that term is used- if it's even a term at all, but those words bring alive a part of me from my past, and it was only yesterday that I think I fully realized it. And it'. . .

Beauty and Brokenness

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10/23/2022

And cold weather befalls us in these parts. It seems like, despite the gradual shift in temperatures over the past month, this weekend saw a huge difference. In fact, we even got snow in high places. And believe me, in these parts, that is good news. But I digress.

Probably the biggest accomplishment in my personal life this week was finally getting my photo library sorted out! Well, mostly, anyway. Still have to go through and do a little fine tuning here and there- but sort. . .

The Winds Start to Pick Up.

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10/16/2022

And the days march onward. It is now dead in the heart of autumn, and honestly, really nice weather. But like the actual winds that came in since last night, the winds in my life are picking up, and there may be another big change coming.

Without going into any details, there was a little incident in a work meeting for me at the beginning of this last week that wasn't even remotely about me- and yet, it made me realize, despite what I had expected, and now much I enjoy my current. . .

One Day at a Time.

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10/09/2022

You know, I didn't even realize it- it snuck right up on me, but it's been just over a year now that I've been posting these blogs! I say that with excitement, imagining hardly anyone reads this blog, as of right now... heck, there's still a lot of features I want to implement on this website but just have nowhere near enough time to tackle right now... but that's a rant for my own personal self.

No, this week has more interesting things to talk about. For example, there was the . . .

Won't you be my neighbor?

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10/02/2022

The weather is growing cooler this time of where, where I live... and although I initially was largely rejecting the notion in my mind, I'm starting to accept it, and even embrace it. I'm definitely more of a summer person, I think, by far... but there is something I can't deny I love about the fall... and maybe it's mostly Halloween. Haha.

This week held the grounds for two unexpected things I did. I suppose we'll start with the less interesting. Whenever I want to take a trip. . .

Does Time Really Heal All Wounds?

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09/25/2022

Another week gone by; and I've been playing a lot of catch-up at work, but had a fun weekend. Not much to say or talk about.

I mean, I guess if there's anything to really mention, it's that for like the first time in almost two weeks, I got to sleep in my own bed. Between Covid and having to wear a mask for several more days afterwards, I didn't want to expose my wife to it. So, when I finally got the privilege to sleep in my own bed again, it felt quite nice. And then the next. . .

Fear is Fear.

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09/18/2022

And a week isolated went by like that. The first few days were pretty miserable. Aches, chills, tiredness, and yet (because of the aches), a certain inability to sleep.

But for a man with Covid, I sure did end up getting a lot done. I put my back porch back together, after the landlord had the back decks renovated. I finally got around to figuring out how to setup Home Assistant. I have a lot more to do in order to truly abandon the Google Home devices I'm currently stuck with. . .

A Turn for The Worse

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09/12/2022

I am a day late posting here, but it's with good reason. Yesterday, I discovered I have covid. Or at least, very likely, if the rapid test was accurate. So, I was an achy, tired and yet sleepless lump of uselessness, yesterday. Today, I'm a little better. All the same, you probably have an idea of what to expect in my next week's blog entry... not much. Wee, isolation is fun. But on to some of the things this week that were more interesting. For months, now, I had run into a problem. . .

A Weekend of Unexpected Big Accomplishments.

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09/04/2022

Despite the fact it feels like a fairly ordinary week, looking back, I had quite a lot of experiences.

But where to begin? Well for one, I finally achieved my goal of biking to work (which was a 20 miles commute one way). It almost ended in disaster right from the start, when my chain fell off my bike at the intersection right outside my house; but thanks to a spare bike I've dubbed The Black Arrow, I made the journey- mind you, with no rear shocks, and a frame that's much smalle. . .

Finding my Inner Peace.

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08/28/2022

Some weeks in the life are more interesting than others, and sometimes that varies on in what way it's interesting. For example, perhaps it was just very eventful- or, rather, it's because I did one hugely important thing. This week wasn't either of those, necessarily, but I feel like I grew more spiritually this week. But first one of the more mundane stories!... eh, it's still technically somewhat spiritual.

So, at a fire station we do IT for, I was trying to troublesho. . .

Summer Storms and a Well Needed Holiday

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08/21/2022

And a well needed holiday came and went. The past week or three have been mounting stress and tasks to do at work; what with some of our clients being schools, session is back in, and naturally, everything is suddenly problematic. In fact, right up until the hour of the morning I left home, I was still dealing with work-related issues. But thank goodness, Wednesday arrived, and for several days, I didn't need to worry about whether such-and-such client had problems.

The occasion. . .

Sometimes you gotta jam!

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08/14/2022

This week, for me, has been a LOT of work. Some of our clients are charter schools, and with it being mid-August now, you can guess what that implies.

One of the dumbest troubleshooting hijinx went down the other day. I showed up that day, with way more than a day's worth of things to accomplish... and I would end up getting none of those things done. Within minutes of me showing up, their networks all went down. I was amused by the timing, but the timing would truly end up be. . .

Mini Trip down Memory Lane

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08/07/2022

For me, it's been a slower lazier week, but a good one. It's one of those weeks I should've spent more time taking care of some backlogged tasks on my list, but I just felt like relaxing and resting- which was sometimes well needed. But on the other hand, I also had a fun couple doses of nostalgia.

For one, I invited all the bros over to my pad and we ate pizza and played N64 and other games like it was 2005... and helped cook up a German dish. It was pretty dope. Nothing like . . .

A stone's throw in the right direction.

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07/31/2022

You know how you suddenly have that one weekend literally filled with way too many things to talk about, and you wish you could more easily spread it across other more boring weeks?

Besides going to a baseball game for the first time in over a decade, I have other fun stories to tell. This weekend was our official Nerd Camp; I've been experimenting with various locations and sites, and tried something a little new this year by choosing a site out of cell service, no electricity, a. . .

Question the Possibilities.

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07/25/2022

And another hot week has come and gone. I didn't get the worst of it by any stretch of imagination, but I I did have an opportunity to find myself cleaning PCs and Laptops in a room of a school where the air conditioning wasn't on, it was the second floor, and there were natural skylights shining down in. So, it's no brag, but besides driving all around without A/C, I feel the heat.

But for real, I had one awesome moment this week. At work, we monitor our clients' networks a few. . .

The Light at The End of the St. Paul Pass

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07/17/2022

Where to begin this one... this week, I went on a vacation roadtrip with my wife and my parents-in-law, and we had one fun time of it! We went to the Buck Knives factory, we went biking, rafting, kayaking, and more! I won't lie, it was pretty awesome. But I'll only talk about a couple of the experiences that stood out to me.

First, there was the Hiawatha trail. This is a popular, albeit still sometimes lesser-known trail out on the border between Northern Idaho and Montana. To. . .

Abraham Lincoln was right.

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07/10/2022

Another great week has come and gone. I almost can't believe July is almost halfway over, now. But as usual, this has been another week with some highs and some lows.

One of the harder thing this week was a learning moment at work, for me. I think I've mentioned, in months previous, that I have had the awesome opportunity to really jump into the scene of becoming a networking engineer, with setting up a new client at work. That itself has been both hard and fun, but there was a. . .

Be a Don Quixote!

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07/03/2022

Some weeks I feel like there's little to write home about. But this week? Well... actually quantity-wise, I guess that's still mostly true. I mean, my mom's side of the family had a family gathering again, and that hadn't happened for years now! It was so nice to see everyone. But as far as a meaningful experience, obviously it means much more to me than most anyone reading this, so there's not much more to say about it. But the tale of a strange spare-time project might well be worth t. . .

Choose Something Like a Star.

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06/26/2022

And what a nice week it's been. I found it was a kind of surprisingly slow week at work- well, barring an urgent ticket I got on Friday just before I was supposed to head home. That was its own flavor of fun, but not too bad. I also decided to catch up on a Saturday morning cartoon from the 90's that I never got to see. Turns out, despite some cool animation and some story, Mega Man did not age quite so well. But maybe that's a rant for another time, especially since I've only seen a few. . .

Don't be a Saul.

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06/19/2022

It's been another week in paradise, honestly. It's had its challenges, but it's also been fun. Honestly, I feel like there isn't much to talk about in my life events... but I did gain some interesting insight this week. Even in many Christian circles, the story of Saul (in the Old Testament) isn't talked about all that commonly. That's with good enough reason, as it's kind of a downer story of a really good man who fell pretty hard. And while there's a number of things you could gleam fr. . .

Oh, how I've missed the summer.

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06/12/2022

What a lovely week it has been. I went to a theme park for the first time in a decade, I roasted s'mores on a summery evening, and said goodbye to people I only met a week ago, and yet became such close friends with. Strange, isn't it?

This week wasn't without it's unfortunate moments, though. I was upgrading something on a camera server for a health district we manage at work, and told them it would probably take 90 seconds, but as much as 15 minutes. It took three hours. All. . .

Like the typical Roman I am.

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06/05/2022

What a weekend it's been, and continues to be, in my case. My in-laws had a foreign exchange student living with them some years ago, and this weekend she and her now-fiance have come to visit us for a week. They hail from Germany, and they have been just so fun, and it has been great to get to know them! Our experiences so far have included hiking a steep trail to a fantastic cave with an equally fantastic tour guide, walking around and shopping at a local (very big) farmer's market, gett. . .

I Didn't Become Spiderman.

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05/30/2022

Hello and happy end of the month of May, and welcome to the start of another great summer. If you are geographically close to me, you'll notice it's odd weather welcoming us to summer, as cold rains have come, and even snow in some parts- but then, it's hard to complain when our area is in such a drought.

What's new in my life? I accomplished some more physical alterations to my network, and now not only is my server closet just a bit quieter and less power hungry, but much of my. . .

A Well Needed Journey.

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05/22/2022

I love coming back here a week later and really having something to talk about! And boy, is there much to talk about. At the beginning of this week, I found myself feeling exceptionally unprepared for a big vacation I had planned, starting Wednesday. And my feelings were just, for I did not end up preparing or packing until about 10 PM the previous night (where we were leaving the next morning by 9). Alas, my wife and I made the last minute stressful preparations, but I came to realize it. . .

When the Music Moves Through You.

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05/16/2022

What an eventful week it's been for me. I could tell tales of more home network setup ventures, a big dinner buffet, the many busy tales of being on-call this week at work, or the nearly-finished endeavor of engineering recordings from a choir to sound good. I could even tell the tale of checking out at a Walmart, buying a tiny pocket-sized camping trowel, and having to get clerk assistance because it was apparently a dangerous weapon. Perhaps above all, I would love going on about the eve. . .

Connecting to the Stars from a Land Down Under.

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05/09/2022

If you've never heard of Montezuma Creek, UT, that's no surprise. Every state has it's more obscure cities and places, and for Utah, this is almost as far southeast as it gets- right in the middle of nowhere in the empty desert. Although it would fill up at least an entire blog's worth of ranting, I'll suffice to say that, being an Indian reservation, the housing there is pretty meager. You know- looks like it was built in the 40's and updated in the 70's... at best. Well, we were setting. . .

Your inner child.

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05/01/2022

In spite of eating the best Indian food I've ever had, installing ethernet cabling for my brother-in-law, and listening to the beautiful music of a pipe organ (which is easily one of my favorite sounds in existence), it seems I have surprisingly little to write home about this week. Even at work, I've had some great up's and some of my worst luck in terms of downs, but I've learned to take it as I go. If nothing else, I should highly brag about the fact that my amazing wife ran a 5K this we. . .

No more sorrow, no more pain.

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04/24/2022

While I've done a lot this week, I find myself with limited time with all to share it now; and yet there's only one real big thought I feel inclined to share this week. Saturday, we celebrated my mother's birthday, and the celebration was... different... than you'd expect for a celebration of life. Frankly it was odd in many a way. For one thing, it was a surprise party- but in the opposite sense- as in, the guests were the ones more surprised than she. But stranger yet, she chose . . .

WE MEET AGAIN, MY OLD FOE!

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04/17/2022

Have you ever wrestled with a problem for hours and hours, gave up and went with a different solution, only to unexpectedly be faced with the same problem three years later and nearly have to once again give up and go with a different solution, only to finally solve the problem a mere 30 minutes before the deadline arrives?

...yeah. That. Several years ago (how does that both seem like a millennia ago, and yet only a few months ago at the same time?), I was helping a local choir . . .

And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

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04/10/2022

To say my week has been busy almost feels like an understatement. I've been taking on, like 4 big undertakings at a time.

First, I started by deciding to build my sister a gaming PC. I had a spare motherboard, but it was kind of wimpy in terms of gaming, so I decided to do some switching around with my motherboard situation. And what started as an idea to shift motherboards between three cases turned into late and long hours of shifting between, in fact, five cases over the cour. . .

The trapdoor just before the end of the tunnel

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04/03/2022

It seems a fitting enough title. To be more honest, I would say this week hit both a high and a low in two consecutive days.

In recent months, I've taken a couple of certifications for Sophos brand products (they're big on firewalls). Having done pretty well on both of those, and with some encouragement from my higher-ups, I decided to go for one of their higher-ranking certs: Architect. Although I've become more familiar with the basics of the firewalls in various forms, I deci. . .

From the heights to straight to the pit

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03/27/2022

Of all the events that occurred this week, one takes the cake by far. At my work, I've been spearheading the network cutover for a fire district in the north part of that county. On Thursday, I even setup a temporary station of theirs practically singlehandedly (minus terminating some CAT6 cabling). Keep in mind, while I've been both going to college for and enjoying personal hobbies in this subject for a few years now, I've only had an IT "career" for 10 months. So, naturally, I felt pre. . .

Projects, projects, projects.

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03/20/2022

Well, I've had no shortage of those, this past week.

Last-last Saturday I installed one indoor and three outdoor lighting fixtures for my mother. Was fun, took most of the day, and looks good!

Monday, I spearheaded my first big network cutover project at work. I was pleased at how well it went, and how the process continues to go.

Friday I installed a network rack in my utility closet- and to say it barely fit would be an understatement. To my amazem. . .

Worlds of unspeakble beauty!

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03/13/2022

This week has been pretty fun and chill, for the most part, and much has happened.

On one note, my laptop running Pop OS started bogging down quite a bit, and so I decided to replace my laptop setup with a desktop PC and a new flavor of Linux to which I hadn't given much thought before- Mint. I've gotta say, I feel like I was really living under my privileges, in a sense of speaking. Pop was nice, but Linux is that much more sleek, easy to use/customize, and just all-around smoot. . .

The light just beyond the end of the tunnel

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03/06/2022

Allo again, all. Oh gosh, that accidentally gave me flashbacks... does anyone remember Google Allo? No? I don't blame you.

It's been good this week. I finally got a more proper data backup solution running on my network. I also decided to try on a more simple sounding bike ride this week around a nearby reservoir. Turns out, in a combination of losing the trail, falling through ice, trudging through the worst snow through which I've ever trudged, and stupidly small shoulders . . .

That moment when you didn't know what you were getting yourself into.

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02/27/2022

But seriously, I did something super insane this week and didn't even fully realize what I was getting myself into.

You see, while hanging out with my friend this week, his older brothers were over and had bought some wings and some hot sauces to go with them. Being no stranger to having tried hot things like ghost pepper wings (and even straight ghost pepper sauce- but that's a story for another time), I decided to go for it. I started with the mild sauce, which was good and tas. . .

Back in The Limelight, baby!

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02/20/2022

Aaaaaaaaand... weeee're back! It has been a few weeks now since my website was constantly up and visible, and now it's better than ever! ...well, I mean, it looks the same, but the back end of things is more stable and secure than ever! My home subnets are designed and in use, my domain has been transferred to my desired registrar, SSL is working in strict mode, my sub-domains are working, and my physical setup here in this apartment has been moved somewhere more stable and s. . .

Still in the dark.

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02/13/2022

The tragic part about this week's blog is that I'm still in the middle of transferring things on my domain/website, so unless someone is really persistent and knows a few tricks about navigating here, they won't see this post. But then again, I naturally do ask myself the question at large- does anyone actually read these posts? I mean, I've told a few family members about this blog, and a friend or two, I think... but more than likely, I feel that, as of so far, at least, my words are but . . .

Welcome to the middle of my personal chaos

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02/06/2022

So, I decided to do a major redesign of my home network, and re-subnet everything. That alone wouldn've been a project enough for the Saturday I gave myself, but then I also completely rebuilt my primary bare-metal server, installed a Dell PowerEdge, and also gave my DNS a major overhaul. By the way, if anyone wants helpful advice on setting up piholes that are both recursive and sync to each other, and then use PiVPN to block ads on the go, I can tell you a lot about working out the kinks.. . .

Shadow by degrees

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01/31/2022

There I go again, forgetting to post until Monday. This week's fun antics include getting a school's network up just in time, right down to the very minute class was due to start. But my fun didn't end there, since right after that, I hauled out a MASSIVE server that I realized only after the fact weighed probably over a hundred pounds. Thankfully, my car was pulled up right close so I didn't have to carry it very far... but then I made a rookie mistake by trying to leave a door ajar with . . .

Three head injuries, two songs, and one fan.

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01/23/2022

♫ And a partridge in a pear treeeee! ♫

Vague titles and jokes aside, it's been a more productive and fun week for me than usual. For one thing, I replaced a bathroom fan unit. It involved sitting a one heck of an awkward angle in the attic, trying to understand vague instructions, and putting a nail in my head- thankfully, only skin deep, else you'd not be reading this (but let's face it, it's not like I'm all whole on the inside, anyways). But yes, that nail and two . . .

Catching up and gratitude.

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01/16/2022

To be honest, it's been a slower week for me. Well, mostly. In any case, I just spent more of my time this week relaxing and spending time with my wife, and putting off the ever mounting task of organizing my backlog of old data files. One day here, soon, I'll do it... soon. Yeah.

But the most busy things I've had this week was cutting over a new client we got onboard at work, and setting up their main site with a robust network, as well as a smaller site of theirs. It was goo. . .

I found two more reasons to dislike Windows this week.

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01/09/2022

For one thing, they totally just non-chalantly stole my data from Firefox and put it in Edge. Sadly, that's nothing new (seriously, are there any red flags Windows doesn't wave anymore?), but I was pretty upset, all the same. On top of that, I had to reimage a laptop with Windows and had to go out and find the specific driver for the NVMe that originally came with it. Normally, I'd blame HP for that, but Linux loaded just fine and found the drivers on its own... not like silly Windo. . .

Accidental new year's resolutions... yeah, it happens.

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01/02/2022

The holidays have gone on, and life along with it. For me, I attended another funeral- granted, not my grandma this time, but a great uncle. I was rather amused and impressed with his request (beforehand, of course) that everyone dress up casually. I don't know whether to say if I prefer it more than a gathering of formal dress, but there was something simple and authentic about it that I liked quite a lot. And although I knew less family members at that gathering, it was nice, all the sa. . .