Today is the day. We go in at 11:00am to sign papers on the new house. I’ve got a cashiers check for an ungodly amount of money to hand over (I might cry). Betsy has the OK for a “Long, early lunch.” All systems a go!

After that’s done, we just wait until Monday. We’ll get the keys sometime Monday or Tuesday morning, assuming all goes well. It will be worth it. We’re going to the Oregon State Fair for our 1st Wedding Anniversary and spending the night in Silverton.

I’ve got some time off from work (THANK GOD!) for the next week and a few days. I’m going to take it easy when I’m not setting up the house.

Gregsta’: OUT!

It’s just before 6AM. I’ve been up for awhile now doing some work on the servers at the office from home. Why? Because it needs to get done. This is the call of the IT leader. Technology administration know no convenience in your life (unless you’re a user, and even then it’s limited to when the damn things work.)

The good news is that I have successfully converted our beloved Domain Controller (the thing that allows everyone to access anything on the network) and converted it to a Virtual Machine. Yes, I’m sure that means nothing to most folks, but to me it means power savings, abandoning ancient hardware and server portability. Booyah.

We had a nice dinner with Ann and Brad last night at Chez Machin, this nice little Creperie over off of Hawthorne. As with most French Food, I’m feeling the indigestion still. Good times.

Things are winding down at work today. This is my last day in the office for a little over a week. We’re moving to the new house starting Monday next week (keeping fingers crossed). I hope our contractor is done with everything by then. Good news is that there’s really nothing left to do other than fix the sidewalk, a little cleanup and put the painted railings back up on the porch. I hope to post some pro-pics of the place on this blog and the house blog. I’m having a hard time with the wide angle lens that I have, but I’m determined to make it work.

Gregsta’

This post is really about you, the reader.

For years, I have worked effortlessly to entertain the 5 people (hi mom!) who graze this site. Has it worked? Not really. Rarely do I hear “Son, I think you’re out of line on your blog” or “Dude, that was the best post EVER.” Nope. Mediocrity is my mainstay.

So why do I put so little effort into it? Is it because I’m a slacker? An invalid? A criminal?

Probably not.

The real reason for the lack of luster on this blog is that there’s nothing exciting enough in my life (that I can share) to write about. It’s THAT simple.

Bwahahaha.

Find me on Facebook. It’s much more, er, Interactive.

Gregsta’

Today we head to the church for the funeral of my late Grandfather, Donald Morse.

He was a great man, surviving a difficult childhood without his mother. He was tossed between step-mothers and caretakers through much of his childhood. At some point, he ran away and joined the Merchant Marines.

Through the years, he traveled around the world. He found God and shared it with everyone he could. He was the type of guy who was grateful for being saved. He went around the world 5 times and earned nearly every medal possible in the Merchant Marines.

Don would married Bonnie in 1958 and had 4 children and countless grandchildren.

Even until the end, Don was a fighter. He survived 5 heart attacks in 2009. The last finally took his life.

We will miss him dearly.

Here we are again, Sunday. You, me, the cat, this laptop and an inclination to take a nap. This is what Sunday is supposed to be.

Gregsta’

The iPhone. I loathe it. I love it (I think).

I just picked up the old iPhone 3G (the 3GS is PLAGUED with problems). I’m in the process of converting over to it. Here’s the first impressions. Remember, this comes from a seasoned IT guy (16+ years) setting up his life on a fad that he doesn’t like.

1. Why the iTunes activation? My wife didn’t have to activate her’s through iTunes. Why do I? What did I miss? INCONSISTENCY DRIVES ME INSANE.

2. Why are the updates to iTunes 84MB and the updates to the iPhone OS 235MB? Has that much really changed between 3.0.0 and 3.0.1?

3. I still have a very hard time with this iTunes thing. I don’t want do download music to the dumb thing. I got it for it’s PDA properties. I have to agree to some license agreements I don’t really agree with, but I don’t get to opt out of the parts I don’t like and continue on my merry way. Of course, this can be said of every license agreement I agree to.

4. I’m 30 minutes into turning the phone on and TRYING to set it up, and I’m still waiting for the 235MB firware update to finish. According to the progress bar on the display, I’m about 30% complete at this point in time.

5. Okay, firmware is done. “Do you want to check to see if any of your songs can be ringtones?” Um. You want me to pay for them again as a ring tone. I’m sorry, go fuck yourself. Thank you.

6. Apple wants me to send them diagnostic info when it crashes. Okay, that’s fine. Greater good, right?

7. Exchange ActiveSync: Done. Gmail setup: Done. Both very easy.

8. Syncing some of my playlists and photo library. Okay, looking good. Time for a dinner break soon.

That’s all. So far, so good. I’m not impressed. I don’t see why people are going ga-ga over this thing, but oooookay.

Gregsta’
Neo-Luddite in the making…

What a strange week. 2 days at work, 3 days off of work to move. It could be a lot worse, but then again, it’s a good thing it wasn’t.

I’m so sick of street kids right now. Here in Portland, we used to have a fairly simple no-sit/lie law that was a nice way for law enforcement and private patrols to gently move street kids and other homeless folks along. It was a simple tool that helped keep the peace and clean downtown (as much as can be).

Recently, it was deemed unconstitutional and no longer can be enforced.

This isn’t good. Sure, everyone has got a right to use public areas. But this has gone too far.

Now we have gaggles of street kids taking over the sidewalks, leaving trash and heckling customers and people who work down here.

Nice fucking work, people. First of all, I don’t think the sit-lie rule was unconstitutional. I think it was a good order-keeping ordinance. Now what? Are you going to go after stop signs? How dare anyone tell me when I have to stop my car?

Bullshit doesn’t even begin to explain the situation.

Sadly, the Portland police have not responded the way they should. I’m not entirely sure who’s running the show around there anymore, but they really need to get a clue. The new tactic – arrest and haul off anyone caught spitting on the ground or littering – things that most street kids can’t NOT do due to their complete lack of respect for order.

Okay, this is WAY overkill. I watched 5 cop cars and then again as many officers cuff and haul off a 17-year old kid after they witnessed him spitting on the ground. Really? Is this good use of our tax dollars? Fuck no.

Here’s my solution for consideration – let’s build some resources for these kids. How about a nice hostel and soup kitchen? Require that these kids participate in keeping it up and teach them some much needed life lessons. Help them become contributing members of society.

Sure, there will be lots of kids who have no interest in it. We need to educate society to not give these little fucks hand-outs (food, money, booze). We need to make it an misdemeanor to give pan handlers what they want. Deter people from feeding the animals.

Let them starve to death for all I care. Leaches on society who don’t want REAL help have no place here. Let them wander into the areas where they’ll be shot at by farmers and hunters who see them as a threat.

The point is – we have a problem on our hands and no amount of pussyfooting around the issue and trying to be “fair” to all these street kids is going to work. Some of them are going to have to suffer. Nothing is perfect.

Gregsta’

Forgive me father… for it has been many moons since I last posted anything to this blog.

..or something.

This blog has sadly become an afterthought. The Facebook and House Blog (http://schillerhouse.blogspot.com) have become my main-stay attention leaches. Oh what fun!

To get you up to date: We moved, we’re settled at the Father-in-law’s, the new house is almost done, Betsy’s Grandpa is ill, we’re exhausted, I go back to work tomorrow and there’s hooch in the night stand.

Yes, there is hooch in the night stand.

The night stand is a fridge.

The hooch is Champagne, Beer and white wine.

Who got the hooch? ME!

I must be tired.

Gregsta’: Goodnight