2007-04-19
i was on a national game show and won!
I played GSN's phone-in game 100 winners overnight and i answered the question correctly and won $160!!! Sure, i didn't find the jackpot in the vault, but winning any amount of money rocks!
2007-04-15
HAPPY APRIL 15TH!!!
It's quite rare to see snow this late in the year, even up here in the northern midwestern treasure trove that is Fort Wayne, Indiana
Everyone else seems annoyed by this, but I don't mind so much. However, the cold weather cut short mrs. mabus' cub scout leader training camping trip this weekend as she was supposed to arrive home today, however they decided to cram all the rest of the training in on saturday and leave late at night to come home so they wouldn't have to sleep out in the sub-freezing temperatures for another night. wimps. :P
2007-04-14
nearly electrocuted
On wednesday, I was tasked with installing some servers at our hosting site in indianapolis. this is a pretty routine task, however this time we had a new model of server that so happened to come with rails that were longer than previous models. further complicating matters is that the racks at this data center are not deep at all and so happen to have very thich rear-mounted vertically aligned power strips. Not paying any attention at all to this, as i was struggling with trying to get this rail kit installed for one of the servers, it so happened to wedge its rear metal hook between a plug's conductor blade and the power strip. I didn't notice this until after i mentioned to the lady from the contracting firm from whom we buy the rack space and said "i feel juice".
i don't think she quite understood what i was trying to say, and as i stepped away, the rail tipped down a bit in front and sparks flew from the area where i was holding the rail. it was quite a light show i tell you. needless to say, it tripped the breaker on the power strip (mind you, this is a large 20A strip meant to power half of an entire computer rack). fortunately though we have alot of redundant equipment with redundant power supplies plugged into different circuits. so, none of our website or site-to-site WAN links went down. this certainly was a helluva way to QA our redundancy, but in the end management was pleased that our past planning paid off.
now, why didn't i get fully electrocuted? well, i believe that the electricity never left my hand as i was wearing rubber soled shoes and the floor in there is an insulator. I was touching this rail with my left hand, and if i would have contacted metal elsewhere to complete the circuit like a foot or my right hand, the current likely would have coursed through my heart and i likely could have died.
ultimately, we did get the servers installed, but unable to put them in the nice rails, we had to set them on a shelf at the bottom of the rack, which will make future maintenance on those boxen a pain in the arse, but was necessary.
yargh.
i don't think she quite understood what i was trying to say, and as i stepped away, the rail tipped down a bit in front and sparks flew from the area where i was holding the rail. it was quite a light show i tell you. needless to say, it tripped the breaker on the power strip (mind you, this is a large 20A strip meant to power half of an entire computer rack). fortunately though we have alot of redundant equipment with redundant power supplies plugged into different circuits. so, none of our website or site-to-site WAN links went down. this certainly was a helluva way to QA our redundancy, but in the end management was pleased that our past planning paid off.
now, why didn't i get fully electrocuted? well, i believe that the electricity never left my hand as i was wearing rubber soled shoes and the floor in there is an insulator. I was touching this rail with my left hand, and if i would have contacted metal elsewhere to complete the circuit like a foot or my right hand, the current likely would have coursed through my heart and i likely could have died.
ultimately, we did get the servers installed, but unable to put them in the nice rails, we had to set them on a shelf at the bottom of the rack, which will make future maintenance on those boxen a pain in the arse, but was necessary.
yargh.
2007-04-08
bad bad brunch on a nice easter sunday
As I was visiting my parents for Easter Sunday this weekend, they invited my family to go with them to a reception hall known as "Long Island Sound" in the bustling metropolis of Aurora, Illinois for a brunch buffet. And, for nearly eighteen bucks a head, one would expect some darn great service and impeccable fare. Well our experience was anything but.
Even though we had reservations, we still had to wait nearly a half an hour in a crowded hall for an available table. Once we finally had a table, we had to ask no less than 4 different waitstaff to get us water, and the coffee took nearly 15 minutes to arrive, and cold no less. They ran out of orange juice before any of us had an opportunity to grab a glass, and when they finally did bring out more glasses of it, it wasn't actually orange juice but rather it was something that resembled a hybrid of tang and rancid sunny delight. What's worse, is that when my parents confronted them about the juice, the owners wouldn't even admit to the faux paus. Making matters worse was that the potato pancakes were, according to my dad, the same kind that come in large frozen cases at sam's club and hardly something you'd expect to find at an expensive buffet. The only shining star was the fact that they offered custom-made omelettes, which were actually decent, and the only food that was served hot - which is a stark contrast to the belgian waffles served ICE COLD.
Also, in this same exact reception hall, the local YMCA was hosting a fundraiser of some sort and making ample use of the extraordinarily loud PA system. We were subjected to people singing horrible songs ridiculously offkey and was so bad that even the American Idol reject show would not torment the viewing public with their wails. Suffice it to say, no one mentioned this co-event to my mother when she called to book the reservations a few weeks ago.
In the end, we all agreed that IHOP would have best served our Easter dining needs instead. And we ask anyone in the area to NEVER book an event at Long Island Sound in Aurora. You have been warned!!!!
Even though we had reservations, we still had to wait nearly a half an hour in a crowded hall for an available table. Once we finally had a table, we had to ask no less than 4 different waitstaff to get us water, and the coffee took nearly 15 minutes to arrive, and cold no less. They ran out of orange juice before any of us had an opportunity to grab a glass, and when they finally did bring out more glasses of it, it wasn't actually orange juice but rather it was something that resembled a hybrid of tang and rancid sunny delight. What's worse, is that when my parents confronted them about the juice, the owners wouldn't even admit to the faux paus. Making matters worse was that the potato pancakes were, according to my dad, the same kind that come in large frozen cases at sam's club and hardly something you'd expect to find at an expensive buffet. The only shining star was the fact that they offered custom-made omelettes, which were actually decent, and the only food that was served hot - which is a stark contrast to the belgian waffles served ICE COLD.
Also, in this same exact reception hall, the local YMCA was hosting a fundraiser of some sort and making ample use of the extraordinarily loud PA system. We were subjected to people singing horrible songs ridiculously offkey and was so bad that even the American Idol reject show would not torment the viewing public with their wails. Suffice it to say, no one mentioned this co-event to my mother when she called to book the reservations a few weeks ago.
In the end, we all agreed that IHOP would have best served our Easter dining needs instead. And we ask anyone in the area to NEVER book an event at Long Island Sound in Aurora. You have been warned!!!!
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