Personal on duckland.org

Check-in 2025Q2

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

Check point 2025Q2

TUI Challenge: Day 7

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

This is the end, my friend

TUI Challenge: Day 6

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

Every Task In Its Place

TUI Challenge: Day 5

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

A Song For The Terminal

TUI Challenge: Day 4

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

A Song For The Terminal

TUI Challenge: Day 3

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

A Web of Trouble

TUI Challenge: Day 2

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

Email in the Terminal!

TUI Challenge: Day 1

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

TUI Challenge starts

Check-in, 2024-01

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0700

Time Has Past

Hum…it has been almost 6 months since I last posted here, And only two total last year. Not very good record on my part.

The ${JOB} has not change, still building Linux stuff for a large bank. The family is still doing well. And the weather sucks. It is currently 27F (-2C) with a windchill nocking it even colder. This time, it supposed to only be 36-48 hours, unlike two years ago

Check-in 2022-Q4

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 04:00:00 -0700

Where did the year go?

Check-in 2022-Q2

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 04:00:00 -0700

School has ended

Check-in 2022-Q1

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 04:00:00 -0700

What has been keeping me busy

The Start of Fall Update

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 04:00:00 -0700

No updates, but things done

July 2021 Check-in

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 04:00:00 -0700

Getting back to basics

GitHub Payback Time

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 20:26:45 -0500

Time to payback

March 2021 Check-in

Sun, 04 Apr 2021 04:00:00 -0700

Things are getting better

Firewall Saga, pt II

Sun, 21 Mar 2021 04:00:00 -0700

The saga continues

Crash of the Firewall

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 04:00:00 -0700

Box go Boom

February 2021 Check-in

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 04:00:00 -0700

That should have been a fun month

Well, that was fun

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:00:00 -0700

Snow Days Still Exist

January 2021 Check-in

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 04:00:00 -0700

Not gone yet

Still Alive

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Still alive and kicking

Life in the new world

Sun, 09 Aug 2020 04:00:00 -0700

Strange things are up at the QuickieMart

Another week (or three), more weird

Fri, 15 May 2020 08:00:00 -0700

Settling in to the ‘New Normal’

Week 5

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 04:00:00 -0700

How are you coping?

Lockdown, week 4

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 04:00:00 -0700

Life among the family

Life Is Weird

Sat, 21 Mar 2020 04:00:00 -0700

Changes are afoot

Happy Christmas!

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:25:08 -0500

Photos of Christmas 2019

A look behind, and a look ahead

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 12:15:24 -0700

As 2018 draws to a close, it is the way of things to look at the year past, and then look ahead.

A look behind…

My main tech experience this year has been using the PixelBook as my main computing device. This for the most part has worked out well. Everything I needed to do I figured out a way to do it under ChromeOS, and most of the time it was as easy to do as under Linux.

New Year Check-in

Mon, 09 Jan 2017 06:36:14 -0700

First week of the new year is behind us, and how are things looking? Well, aside from the cold over the weekend, I think things are going okay.

I have not done formal resolutions for a while, but I have tried to improve myself, and sometimes a new effort matches up with the calendar. Aside from my New Year’s Day Post

Happy Christmas

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 07:31:44 -0700

Note- This is late due to software breakage

Just a quick note before the end of the year to wish everyone a happy Christmas, holidays, and/or New Year!

Exit, Stage Left

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 12:11:43 -0700

So, the current gig is not what I expected when I interviewed. While the people working there are dedicated, intelligent, and hard-working, the fit is not right for me. I’m going to rhetorically vote with my feet and go elsewhere — in the words of the immortal and beloved Snagglepuss, “Exit, stage left.”

Starting November 21, I will be transitioning into a new roll. The new gig is a home-coming of sorts, as I will be re-joining GTI at JPMC here in Houston, but in a different role then I was before. The new position is in more engineering/architecture than the old one, and it promises to be a lot of fun.

Harley Hates Bad Drives

Wed, 28 Sep 2016 22:30:36 -0700

Drive failed. Harley does not like that….

More Random Things

Fri, 23 Sep 2016 00:04:47 -0700

As Fall has according to the calendar, but mother nature has something to say about that. We are going on something like 13 days where the low does not get below 72F. Ug.

The Fall sports have started back, with all three doing something. Soccer, Volleyball, Tae Kwan Do, and Wrestling. A very mix bag, to be sure.

So, over the summer, I took part in the Windows 10 Free Upgrade on the kids machine, which turns out to be a bit of a mistake. The box is a Compaq desktop with an AMD CPU from about 5 years ago. Even with 16GB of RAM, it started running very slow, until Tuesday, when it rebooted by itself and then did not restart. I was planning on upgrading it at the start of next month, so of course, it fails now and I am forced. But, at least I had done research, so I could just order it in a few seconds.

Deadpool BOFH

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 21:33:17 -0700

There is a new sheriff in town.

Random Mid-Summer Updates

Sun, 31 Jul 2016 21:33:17 -0700

Wow…summer is almost over. Three more weeks until school starts again.

Need to spend more time putting pictures up from some of the trips we have done. I think there is time to squeeze another visit to the beach before school starts up, but we will see.

One of the projects I have been working on is taking over web hosting for an organization I volunteer with. The old hosting was with a former member at his hosting company, but he is retiring as of the end of July, so I stepped up to host it. Some of the code used has not been updated in a while, and one of my first projects on it will be to wrap it into a more modern frame-work so other people can help maintain the site.

SpaceCity Comic Con 2016

Mon, 30 May 2016 21:11:46 -0700

Many, many, many years ago, I went to a comic/game convention in Austin. This was pre-internet, and really pre-console gaming, so the games were all table top type. Steve Jackson Games was prototyping something called ‘Car Wars’. Pretty cool stuff.

But, I never really had a chance to go back to one. Until this year. This past weekend, we went to SpaceCity Comic Con 2016. It was a hoot. Learned a few things (pay for the tickets at the door, as the line was way shorter; don’t leave the food area with food and expect them to let you back in; silly things like that).

And May is almost over

Sun, 22 May 2016 15:36:23 -0700

The month is almost over, and again, this site is quite. Sorry about that.

Last week, I was in Austin, TX for OSCON 2016. The show was fun, and it was the first time in over 5 years that I was just an attendee instead of a presenter or booth worker. While OSCON seems to be targeted more for developers and the DevOps scene, there were a few things I could use in my current Ops role.

Why, hello there

Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:36:05 -0700

Happy Leap Day!

Another month has gone by, and things have been busy. In addition to all the normal crazy that is life with kids, I have been elected to the kids pre-school board of directors. Now, the oldest two no longer go there, but the youngest will be there another year, and my term is three years, so there will be a bit of time when I will not have a kid there. They did ask me before, but that was years ago, and I was not in a position to be able to do that back then.

Where did the time go?

Sun, 31 Jan 2016 14:53:31 -0700

Wow...end of January already? Where has the time gone?

We are already three weeks into the Winter Volleyball season, and the team is doing great. Going into last Friday's game, we are undefeated, and in second place out of 7 teams.

This weekend, the boy and I did the sleep-aboard program on The USS Lexinton, and he had a blast. I did not get a chance to take too many photos, but I will see if I can get some up.

Light Sail!

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 19:51:49 -0700

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Growing up in Houston, I have followed our space program off and on. I am also a big reader of Sci-Fi. So, when I heard about the Solar Sail Kickstarter Project from The Planetary Society, I jumped on board. And, while they have raised almost 4 times their goal, I think that this is a project which will have more of an impact on humanity than some of the other projects.

Moving

Fri, 12 Jun 2015 10:30:39 -0700

Well, after 4 years (almost to the day), it is time for me to say good-bye to HP. The team I worked on is a great team who really know their stuff. However, I am a geek, and I want to be doing things with tech, and not talking about tech, and for the most part, talking is all I have been doing. I have learned a lot and was given a chance to do some [traveling <travels>]{role=“doc”} which I do not think I would have been able to do.

Goodbye 2014!

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:44:55 -0700

As 2014 draws to a close, I look back at the year.

Overall, it was a good year. The family staid reasonably health (just a case of the flu which every one of us caught).

Work slowed down a bit after only three trips, and the last one was in June, but I did get to spend two weeks in London which was cool. While the work has been not what I really want to be doing, it has been interesting, and next year promises to be very interesting. I have no clue if travel is in the cards or not, but I will keep the camera handy.

Another Year

Fri, 26 Dec 2014 18:33:36 -0700

Another Year

Well, 2014 is drawing to a close. For the most part, it has been a good year with the family, but time is always in short supply. I am going to try to focus a bit more on my photography, as well as technology. We shall see.

Happy new year, and make it a safe one.

This posting thing is not working right now

Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:12:58 -0700

Wow...missed November by that much. It was a good month, but busy with the start of the holidays and all.

A bit of work in the background on some projects, but nothing to show for it. Still a new picture daily over at my photo blog, so go check it out.

Another Month Going Quick.

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 06:10:00 -0700

Well, October is almost over already. Time flies. This fall has been very busy with non-work things. Kids in sports (with me being the coach for one of them), kids doing scouts, kids doing Y Adventure program (with me in the leadership), kids in advance classes at school.

Free time, how I miss you.

My Travel Map

Sun, 23 Feb 2014 17:02:00 -0700

EDIT 2019-06-22: It seems that sometime in the last 5 years, this went away. Oh, well.