A collection of rambling posts about gaming, running, and politics. (and, in 2009, photography.)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

testing

testing, 1, 2, 3.... I should probably post here from time to time.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Health Care Bill and You

I won't mince words. I'm pro-health care. Furthermore, I'm pro-health care for everyone. I also have a strong socialist streak.

I'm sure that there are some folks out there who feel different than me, perhaps even for some legitimate and sane reasons, but I'm seeing lots of opposition to the health care bill for completely batshit insane stuff.

Let me get right to the point again: If you are getting your information about the health care bill from Glenn Beck and the folks at Fox news, then you may as well be consulting the neighborhood four year old about it. Here's a challenge for you, if you're a Fox news follower. Tell me three things that the health care bill will do. And if one of those is "Give viagra to sex offenders", then I really can't help you. Try this - look up the bill on the internet. Read about it - no, not on the fox news forum - go look it up on the rest of the internet.

I know that politics gets mighty polarized, and dems and repubs sit on opposite sides of the fence on some issues, but are you really going to let Glenn Beck convince you that "The Democrats" are trying to destroy the country? Are you that gullible?

I suppose the other side of that coin is that I'm flabbergasted by the Republican Congressional effort to stop the health care bill. A bill that is aimed at HELPING PEOPLE.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Hawai'i!

This is a somewhat brief recap of our Hawai'i trip.

I apologize if its a bit hurried. Lately I just don't have the time or attention for making these posts more pretty and such. Anyway.

My mother, who is a very generous woman, tries to organize and help fund family trips every year or two. This year, she'd setup a trip to Hawai'i for herself, Krissi and Piper and I, as well as my brother and his wife.

We left folks in charge of all of the stuff at home, and at 5AM on Saturday morning, we were standing in the Memphis airport, ready to get on a plane.

We discovered, later in the morning, that my brother and his wife, who are party animals, had stayed up till almost 2 the previous night/morning at some party or show. Stupid awesome partying people with no kids. Would you believe those jerks even slept on the airplane some? /teasing

We had a plane ride from Memphis to Chicago, a three hour layover, and then a flight from Chicago to Honolulu. After boarding the plane up sitting in the aircraft for an entire hour waiting for a de-icing truck. Geez. Fortunately, Piper was in a good humor. During our time in the sky on Saturday, we had a couple of minor meltdowns, but nothing that was not quickly corrected with a bottle or food or some kind of entertainment or distraction. We arrived in Chicago only somewhat late, and walked seemingly a mile through the airport to reach our next gate. When we arrived there, we discovered the TVs blaring news about the earthquake in Chile, and the tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific. We all stood there, transfixed and dumbstruck. So.... are we really going to get on this plane and fly to Hawai'i.. just in time for a Big Wave?

We did indeed get on the plane, and we were told that we'd fly out and if the wave hit and was bad, we'd turn around and go back to San Francisco. But it turned out to be almost nothing in Hawai'i, so we landed in Honolulu in the mid afternoon.

We ate, walked out onto the beach, which was just across the street from our hotel, and spent about five minutes playing in the shallow water. Then we called it a day. I believe that the three of us were all asleep by 9. (With the time difference, that was actually 1AM)

The days blur together, so I'm not going to give you a chronologically accurate rundown, instead, I'm just going to tell you the things that we did, and in some cases, did not do.

We hiked to, and then up (and then back from) Diamond Head. It was a fun walk to it, across Waikiki, through the little local neighborhoods and such. The trail itself was awesome. I carried Piper in the Kelty backpack. At the end of the week, I told Krissi that I would totally do the entire Diamond Head trek again, if I could. We all went to the top and enjoyed the stunning views.

We walked, a lot. We also had bus passes, and used them, but we got a great deal of walking done, which was cool. We rented a car for one day, and James, Keshia, Krissi, Piper and I all drove out to the North Shore, while my mom was doing an all-day volcano tour. North Shore was gorgeous, and the driving was scenic and fun. Everyone had a great time, and we saw some amazing beaches and mountains, and some cool waves.

We ate some good food, but for a few days, we lamented that there weren't more yummy and reasonably priced food places where we were. Sadly, we had simply not done enough exploring. One street north of us were a number of excellent food places, including Ono's Cheese Steaks, and a bunch of others. I ate at a Golden Palace chinese restaurant that had THE BEST chinese take-out I have ever eaten. Instead of leaving me with an oily, MSG taste in my mouth afterward, this was fresh and flavorful and SO delicious.

We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, which was gorgeous. It was lots of fun swimming through the reef, looking at all the coral and fish, and we saw a sea turtle, which was just icing on the cake.

Simple people watching was lots of fun. Many of the people there were simply of the "beautiful people" category. Bronze skin, gorgeous tattoos... I got a couple of runs in, but I remember commenting at least once that there'd be NO excuse for being out of shape while living in Hawai'i. You couldn't turn around without seeing a few people out running.

Piper loved the sand and water. The very first time we stuck her feet in the surf, she made upset noises and did not want her feet in it. But the next day, she was all about it. She loved playing in the sand, and though that eating it was great fun, as was picking through the sand looking for rocks and shells. She loved the water, and we let her walk in the shallow bit, and carried her out deeper and swooshed her around and she had a blast. Lots of big toothy smiles.

We hiked the Ma'ona falls, which was beautiful. This was another outing that we got to do a lot of walking on, due to a misunderstanding about bus routes. Again, we had a great time, and enjoyed the hike.

We went to the Botanical Gardens, which were lots of fun, and very very pretty. This is a great transition into picture taking. I took GOBS of photos. Around two thousand. Of course, I will not be insisting that you view all two thousand. I've already begun to go through and delete blurry or bad photos, and will try to trim down on duplicates and such. I'm slowly going through them uploading the highlights, and hope to have maybe a hundred or two hundred photos online later this week.

Although I was somewhat ambivalent about getting lots of time lying around in the sun on the beach - I'm a pretty pale dude, and I burn in no time - the others were very keen on beach time, so at least once, Piper and I took a well deserved nap while the others laid out like beach bums.

James and Keshia went on a couple of hash runs, which sounded like terrific fun, and we'd thought seriously about going along on, but the timing just didn't work out. They also did some surfing lessons which sounded like a lot of fun.

We went to the Ioani Palace, but discovered that the wouldn't admit anyone under 4 years old into the main building. So Krissi and Piper and I toured the gallery, and then hung outside enjoying the fantastic weather.

We attended a Luau, which was neat.

While out hunting for free WiFi, I discovered one of the most popular gay bars in Honolulu, which was also the only free WiFi bar within walking distance of our hotel. This is a funny story, because I did not realize that it was a gay bar until after I'd ordered my jack and coke and setup the laptop. Not that I would have necessarily avoided it - one of our guide books, as we discovered, listed it as a 'must visit' nightclub - but it certainly made me chuckle, and got a round of chuckles out of my friends. (Unnamed friend: "So you found it via an app on your iPhone, huh?", me: "Its a free WiFi locator app, I was not cruising for gay bars!")

There were a number of things that we wanted to do, that we did not get to do, mostly due to time constraints and travel. I'd loved to have visited the Dole Plantation, the Bishop Museum, and perhaps the Polynesian museum and even gone to the North Shore again. Traveling with a baby though is a whole different experience, and we had to juggle nap times, and baby supplies, and so forth.

The trip back was pretty good as well. It was overnight, and Piper had a few meltdowns when she got tired, but ended up sleeping for most of the flight - thankfully. Krissi and I did not fare as well though, and had about two hours of sleep each, so we were(are) kinda beat.

And in the end, I know we are glad to be back home. Hawai'i was absolutely beautiful, and we had a great great time. Its always nice though, to get back home to your own house and stuff and animals.

What a great trip.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Me and Steven

Names have been changed to protect the innocent.  Chronology not perfectly preserved.
 
 ***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: FW:Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
2/22/10 2:33pm

FYI

-----Original Message-----
From: Mail Delivery System [mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@ourisp.net]
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 2:33 PM
To: prvs=16697be4e4=steven@mycompany.com
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender


This is the mail system at host relay-6.dlfw.ourisp.net.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                    The mail system

: host inbound.registeredsite.com[66.97.46.122]
     said: 550 5.7.1... Relaying denied (in reply
     to RCPT TO command)

***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re:FW:Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
2/22/10 4:02pm

bob@mail.yaywidgets.com is a bad address, I've tested it from another host and got the same result.

***********************************

From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/22/10 3:34pm

FYI
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: postmaster@jimswheels.com
> [mailto:postmaster@jimswheels.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 3:26 PM
> To: prvs=16697be4e4=steve@mycompany.com
> Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
>
>
> This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
>
> Delivery to the following recipients failed.
>
>        JimB@jimswheels.com
>
>
> Reporting-MTA: dns;maccoad1.jimswheels.com
> Received-From-MTA: dns;omf1.ijnet.net
> Arrival-Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:25:05 -0600
>
> Final-Recipient: rfc822;JimB@jimswheels.com
> Action: failed
> Status: 5.2.3
> X-Display-Name: Jim B
   

***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/22/10 4:03pm

Are you positive that this email address is correct?


***********************************


From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/22/10 4:07pm

Yes


***********************************


From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
2/23/10 10:54am


Steven,

Were you sending attachments to this user?

If so, what size?


Numeric Code: 5.2.3

Possible Cause: The message is too large for the local quota. For example, a remote Exchange user may have delivery restrictions set with max incoming message size.

Troubleshooting: Resend the message without attachments, or set the server side limit or the client side limit to permit a larger message size.


***********************************

From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: RE: FW: Bob Roberts
2/22/10 4:08pm


On 2/22/2010 4:08 PM, Steven wrote:
> FYI
>   -----Original Message-----
> From:     lisa somebody [mailto:lisa_somebody@thirdparty.net]
> Sent:    Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:09 PM
> To:    'Steven'
> Subject:    RE: Bob Roberts
>
> Try bob@mail.yaywidgets.com
>
> The email that you have listed below is also correct but sometimes I can not get it to go through.  The one I have listed should work.
>
> Thanks,
> Lisa

***********************************


From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/22/10 4:09pm

I don't know what to tell you.  bob@mail.yaywidgets.com does not work, and its not a problem on our side.

I sent a test message to bob@yaywidgets.com, and as far as I can tell, it has not bounced.

***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: RE: FW: Bob Roberts
2/23/10 9:40am

FYI
>-----Original Message-----
>From: MAILER-DAEMON@mymail.myregisteredsite.com
>[mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@mymail.myregisteredsite.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:33 AM
>To: prvs=167028d6a7=steven@mycompany.com
>Subject: failure notice
>
>
>Hi. This is the qmail-send program at mymail.myregisteredsite.com.
>I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following >addresses.
>This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
>
>:
>user is over quota
>
>
>--- Below this line is a copy of the message.
>

***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: failure notice
2/23/10 9:42am

There's the problem.  His mailbox is full.

> :
> user is over quota

It looks like you're sending very large emails, that one was 9 megs.  Email does not handle large sizes very well, this is not specific to our email, most email services only allow a maximum of 2 megs, though ours typically allows up to 10 megs.

***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Re: FW: failure notice
2/23/10 9:45am

but how can I get an email from my own computer to go thru every time? And Stu is getting them it is the same way with Tim B. It does not make any sense to me.

***********************************


From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: failure notice
2/23/10 9:54am

Steven, I'm just telling you what is happening with these emails.  When you send an email, and get an automatic reply that says "user is over quota", it means that the other person's mailbox is full.  If he is getting some emails from you, then perhaps he is downloading/deleting emails.  Part of the problem may be that you are sending 10 meg emails.

***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 9:51am

here's another one.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mail Delivery System [mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@ourisp.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:46 AM
To: prvs=167028d6a7=steven@mycompany.com
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender


This is the mail system at host relay-5.dlfw.twtelecom.net.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                    The mail system

: host xxx.ijnet.net[216.xxx.xxx.xxx] said: 550
     Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for
     that user (in reply to RCPT TO command)

***********************************
From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
2/23/10 9:55am

Looks like you typo'd his address.

: host xxx.ijnet.net[216.xxx.xxx.xxx] said: 550

    Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for
    that user (in reply to RCPT TO command)



***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
2/23/10 10:59am


Steven,

Thus far, the issues with email have all been related either to an
incorrect or typo'd email address, the recipient's mailbox being full,
or the email you are sending being too large for the receiving server.

In order to avoid these kind of problems, please double check the
following things:

1.  Is the email address correct, and without typos?
2.  Are you attempting to send attachments to the recipient?  If so, how
large are the attachments?

In a previous email, you mentioned that you're sending out pricing to
customers.  We will work on making sure that you're able to send this
information out in a format that will work.

Keep me posted.


***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Re Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure
2/23/10 12:28pm

here is another one. the email address for Tom Dudefella  is correct. I called him on it.
-----Original Message-----
From: MDaemon at mycompany.com [mailto:MDaemon@mycompany.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:22 PM
To: steven@mycompany.com
Subject: Permanent Delivery Failure


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The attached message had PERMANENT fatal delivery errors.

After one or more unsuccessful delivery attempts the attached message has
been removed from the MDaemon mail queue on this server.  The number and
frequency of delivery attempts are determined by local configuration.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR MESSAGE WAS NOT DELIVERED TO ONE OR MORE RECIPIENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Failed address: tom@floorsandstuff.co

--- Session Transcript ---
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Parsing message
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  From: steven@mycompany.com
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  To: tom@floorsandstuff.co
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  Subject: Shamrock Pricing
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  Size (bytes): 1017041
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  Message-ID:<13bea0ea.1cab4b5.91331e17.365f@mycompany.com>
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Attempting SMTP connection to [floorsandstuff.co]
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Resolving MX records for [floorsandstuff.co] (DNS Server: 216.136. xxx.xxx)...
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  Name server reports domain name unknown
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Attempting SMTP connection to [generalfloor.co:25]
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Resolving A record for [floorsandstuff.co] (DNS Server: 216.136.xxx.xxx)...
  Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: *  Name server reports domain name unknown
--- End Transcript ---

***********************************
From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure
2/23/10 1:17pm


The error on this one is that you tried to send it to:

tom@floorsandstuff.co

Need an M on the end of that.

***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 11:24am

If you're sending a 1 meg PDF document to people and it
does not go through, let me know.   Some of the emails that were
bouncing were 9 or 10 megs, which is much much larger than this pricing
document.

***********************************

From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 11:30am

yes, two of them I sent with 2 attachments, so yes I can see they were probably to big. But the other ones were just the pricing. And I still cant under stranded way I can send them from my other laptop with 2 to 3 attachments. its over my head!
Thanks


***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 1:19pm

The bottom line here is that some of these rejects are coming back
because the message size is too large.  It does not matter which
computer you send it from or which email address you send it from.   If
the guy who you are sending to cannot receive email larger than, say, 5
megs, then any message larger than that will fail, no matter where you
send it from.



***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 1:28pm

All I know is that I can send 2 to 3 attachments to them from my personal laptop with no problems. I guesses I will just need to remember to send one attachment at a time from this computer!!!!


***********************************

From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 1:35pm

Okay.   Just to be certain that I've been clear.   If you are sending an email that is more than 10 megs in size, it does not matter whether you send it from your work computer and email account, or from a personal computer and email account.  If the recipient cannot receive email larger than a certain size, he will never ever ever ever receive it.

I can't really make it any more clear.

Please contact me if you continue to have problems.

***********************************
From: Steven
To: Jeremy
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
2/23/10 1:24pm


Yes that was my bad. But I turned around and resent it and it was kicked back.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeremy [mailto:jeremy@mycompany.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:18 PM
>To: Steven
>Cc: Joe (E-mail)
>Subject: Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure
>
>
>The error on this one is that you tried to send it to:
>
>tom@floorsandstuff.co
>
>Need an M on the end of that.


***********************************
From: Jeremy
To: Steven
Subject: Re: Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure
2/23/10 1:35pm


Please forward me the email in which the correct address was kicked back to you.


***********************************

[crickets]

Saturday, February 20, 2010

26 through 37

I'm trying to catchup. Today is day 51, and now I'm just 14 behind.























Saturday, February 13, 2010

Photos 22, 23, 24 and 25.

I'm still playing catchup. Maybe by March I'll be even.

Here you are.

From 365, 2010
Piper has a serving spoon for you.


Easily one of my all time favorites. That's a crazy awesome smile. For the past few weeks, when the Backyardigans comes on tv, and she hears the theme music and/or sees the characters on the tv, she lights up.




The gang.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

More Pics!

I'm on a roll.

16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21.

From 365, 2010