The (somewhat) Daily Check Ins of 2013 - Freeze-Frame Radio

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

RE: The (somewhat) Daily Check Ins of 2013

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

Good day, all. I'm still among the living. Spent three days in a training class, so checking in really wasn't possible as I was sitting in the front of the classroom. Anyhoo... that is done and I'm back at my desk. Despite working hard to keep up with the daily work requests while I was in class, I've still got a list of stuff to do. At least I won't be bored for the rest of the week.

It was a good weekend. Miah and I made tacos for dinner on Saturday, then after it was all cleaned up we went to see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2. I thought it was a cute movie with a nice overall message of "just because someone is not like you doesn't mean they are necessarily bad". On Sunday we baked some peanutbutter cookies and made some baked turkey & muenster cheese sandwiches that Miah wanted to try.

Today has been busy thus far. Hoping the rest of the day flys right by!

Let's all try to have a good one.

WebGuy · Doesn't Do Windows

Howdy.

I got notice last week that I am getting called in for jury duty again. I went in and explained my situation in that I am self employed, and on call 24/7 as I'm solely responsible to keep over 500 web sites and their email accounts online. They gave me a hardship/inconvenience form to fill out. I filled out the form, again explaining that if I am locked into serving a trial, and there is server trouble, those client's sites and email will be down until I can get back to get things working again. I was careful to make the request about my customers, not about myself.

They called me back yesterday to tell me that judge denied the request. I wonder how well she (the judge) would accept it if she couldn't get to her work email for 8+ hours. I'm expecting it wouldn't go over well.

Ugh.

All I can hope for is that I won't get selected, or it will be a case that I'm close enough to to be disqualified.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

Good day, all. It is quite the somber one her at Camp Not-So-Happy today. Over the weekend a long time friend / co-worker passed away. It was a combination of an ATV wreck and a heart attack (not sure which caused which) that lead to his death. I got word yesterday afternoon, and ended up speaking with several other friends. We are all stunned and saddened by this loss. Can't imagine how hard it is for his wife and kids, especially for his teen aged son who found him afterwards.

Otherwise, not a lot going on. Didn't do a lot over the weekend other than go to the gym. Did watch the Chiefs game over at my brother's house. I'd love to be happy about the 6-0 record for this season, but got the first message about Eric's death in the last few minutes of the game. Had some other errands to run for other family business, which I did manage to press on and get taken care of.

In some (hopefully) good news, Kev has a couple job interviews today. It would be great if something would come of that. I could use a little light at the end of the tunnel that would be something other than an oncoming train.

Ah well... sorry to be a downer. Hope everybody has a great day.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

"Happy" Monday all.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend and coworker Mema. Hopefully Kev can get a job to balance things out.

I had one of those balancing weekends. It was busy and fun, with some stress thrown in. But the fun cancelled the stressful things out, so it turned out okay.

I'm anxious to start NaNoWriMo. It'll be nice to escape into another world for a while.

WebGuy · Doesn't Do Windows

Hi ya.

Our weekend kite fly was kind of a bust. Saturday, the wind totally died about 2:00pm. Sunday, we had way too much wind with gusts around 30. We still had fun hanging out together though.

The court house called Saturday morning to tell me that the case I was to appear for jury selection settled out of court. Yay! So, I don't have to go in Tuesday. I don't know how long until I get off the current list.

It's raining off and on today. Its cool, but kind of nice to have a little rolling thunder now and then.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

Afternoon all. Today I have returned to that pesky (but needed) job thing. It has been okay so far today. Although, I did have 348 emails. Hmm. Take six weeks off, get some email. I have sorted through and made my way down to 117 unopened emails. There are 14 that I have opened but still need attention. I hope I sleep better than I did last night I woke up at 3am and it was about 4:15 the last time I looked at the clock before finally getting back to sleep. So of course I was tired when the alarm went off at 6am. I have a feeling this will be an adjustment week and then I'll be back into a better sleep pattern.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

Sorry you didn't win the lottery in time, Fuzzy. ;)

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

Welcome back to the working world, Fuzzy. You might not have missed it, but sounds like it missed you.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

It would seem the working world, at least on this floor of this building, did miss me.

And it was a total bummer I didn't win the lottery in time Mz. But I'll keep trying. Maybe I can win just in time to retire at the end of the 2013 calendar year. Now that would be nice. And really excellent timing.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

I was talking with myself on the way to work this morning about becoming a more regular player of the lottery.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

I play when the jackpot is large. And I really don't spend much - maybe $10 or $20. That probably won't get me the winning ticket. Although, it only takes one line to win.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

That is usually my way as well. I was just thinking that I could radically improve my life for much less than a big jackpot.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

It would be nice and very helpful to just win the second top prize.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

I could live a lot easier with $250K. Yep... it has gotten to the point where I actually think about that.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

We usually get 2 tickets a week. We don't always play Powerball, because the odds aren't as good for it as the Hoosier Lottery. Sure, the jackpot is smaller, but I figure it would still help.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

Mad Mema wrote:
I could live a lot easier with $250K. Yep... it has gotten to the point where I actually think about that.

'Xactly.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

Mad Mema wrote:
I could live a lot easier with $250K. Yep... it has gotten to the point where I actually think about that.

Don't worry, I have been doing that for years. When I am sitting out in the back yard with no real purpose, I think about all the projects around the house and yard that I could complete with a $250k win. I also calculate it based on the after tax winnings. Yep, I'm that kind of a nerd. Numbers, they are what I do.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

Yeah... I guess I always assume "after tax" lump sum. Ah well... still gotta play if I wanna win.

Meanwhile, I think I've received about 10 e-mails regarding the funeral logistics for my friend. We are kicking things off in about a half hour with a happy hour. Our supervisor was planning on getting one together for us at some point while out remote employees are in town, but decided it would be better to do it now. Most of them are here now anyway. The powers that be also decided to have a fire drill for us this afternoon, so that killed the first half of this last hour of the workday. And just when I was having an amusing conversation with my sup about a vaguely creepy counterpart:

Rob: Yeah, I don't have a good fix on him. I know he is an introvert, so maybe that is some of it.
Me: Maybe. I dunno. While I was over on loan in that crew I tried for a bit to figure out what his deal is because he gives off an odd vibe. When I was working there he never really gave me the time of day unless I directly got in his face. Now that I'm back in our side of the world, it seems like he goes out of his way to say hi to me, even if I'm way far away down the hall.
Rob: Sometimes introverted people are like that. They over compensate which gives off a creepy vibe.
Me: Maybe.
Rob: I also know he is single, never been married, and he's a gamer.
Me: Oh... that explains it.
Rob: What?
Me: It's gotta be sock puppets.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

Good day, all. This week has finally meandered it's way to Thursday. Not a dang thing going on around here today. I had a little bit of cleanup work to do. Did what I could, but can't access one of the sites I need to work on, so that is now on hold until we get access back. Ah well...

This evening is my friend's visitation. I plan to go to that, difficult as it will be. The actual funeral service will be tomorrow. Eric was a biker, so that dictates the dress code for the next couple days. I even hauled out my leather riding jacket since it is pretty chilly in the mornings now.

Anyhoo... hope everybody has a great day. I'm gonna try.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

It sounds like this is one of those days where you would prefer to be can't-think'straight busy.

It's Thursday. Yep. Not a whole lot going on. I got the illustration for the cover of my new book. It looks awesome. So now I actually have to finish it. It's just formatting and such to do yet, but that's the boring stuff. So that's what I'm doing with my weekend.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

I usuallly do prefer to be slightly overwhelmed. One thing I can say is some of the heaviness has lifted around here. The services will be tough, but right now the focus seems to be on doing stuff like accumulating a collection of stories from Eric's friends about our interactions with him, communicating about the fund that has been set up to help his family in the short run, and deciding how to, as a group, convey our respects.

WebGuy · Doesn't Do Windows

Hey y'all.

I'm sorry about your friend, Mema. That's never easy.

It's "cold" and windy. In January-February, this would be a beautiful day, but at the end of summer, it feels cold.

I'm sleepy.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

I went outside a bit ago and it has warmed up some, which is nice. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler and raining in the afternoon. I hope it holds off until I'm back at the office.

Pambo is planning to make an appearance this evening. I hope she is really okay enough to be out for a bit. Yesterday was rough for her. She didn't take her meds because she was confused on the days and thought she was going to have to drive herself over here to the funeral home. By time I got ahold of her to straighten things out, she was in a lot of pain and was crying. That sucks.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

Hey, guess what? It's Monday. Yay.

I didn't get half the things done this weekend that I needed to do. And this is going to be a busy week.

One of those things was to get out our old wedding clothes to see if they still fit. We had a renaissance wedding, so we've decided to wear them for a costume party this weekend. I imagine they'd still fit, but I'm worried about things like missing pieces, deteriorated elastic, etc. Hopefully they're OK.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

Good day, all. Indeed, the Monday is upon us again. It is yet another quiet one here in the office. At least it is a little more upbeat around here today, or so it seems anyway. Out of the 10 people who have desk assignments in my row, only me, the boss, and a guy named David are here today. David will be out for a while starting tomorrow... triple bypass surgery. So David is not really what you want to call "upbeat", but that is pretty understandable. I hope it goes well for him.

Otherwise, the main activities of my day have been largely administrative things. Today is day one of our benefits enrollment period, so I knocked that one out already. Unlike the government, my employer has the health care enrollment down to a science. Took me all of 5 minutes to click through my options. Basically all I changed was to max the available life insurance for ol' Kev, and to up my AD&D coverage which also ups his AD&D. He was asking me about that stuff since I got a mailer over the weekend from the company saying it is time for enrollment. I think I will decline to inform him of just how much I am insured for. He doesn't need to get any bright ideas about trying to off me. Once I got that done, I figured it was time to send in all my stuff for the "employee wellness" program. Basically the benefit there is that they will eventually pay me back for my gym membership. There is also something about accumulating points toward some form of rewards. I've no real idea what that is all about, but when I signed up for it a month or so ago they challenged me to lower my blood pressure and lose 13 lbs in 13 weeks. The blood pressure thing won't be a problem. I couldn't remember what it was at my last check so I took a guess. Apparently I guessed high as I know my bp is in the very good range. The weight thing is coming along. Not sure I will actually hit that target though with the holidays coming up. I am giving it the ol' college try though.

The weekend was good. I stayed fairly close to home for most of it. Did go meet some friends to watch the Chiefs game. Yeah, they won... but it was pretty darn ugly. Going to have to get a lot better on offense if they want a prayer at the playoffs. Still have 2 games against Denver, and playing the way they did last night they will not do well. Peyton had a bad game for the Broncos... but I think he will recover.

Ah well... Monday on everyone. I hope it is a good one.

confuzzed · Permanent State of Confusion

Morning all. I know I have been MIA. I apologize for that. Last week was rough. I know I overdid it. I couldn't help it. It was a matter of take so much time to get it correct now and done right the first time, or find time somewhere before year end to correct two months of work. We were running up against deadlines. It sucked, but it was finished. Now all I have to fix is one month's worth of work. The temp they had trying to do my job is a bit strange. And he took iy upon himself to mess with my files. Nothing bad, just weird. He took it upon himself to color the tabs of my monthly spreadsheet. I guess I could see where he was coming from, but by not being used to it, I simply find it annoying. He decided to color each tab a different color. He did that and then any input cell he left clear. I guess it helped him know where he had to input numbers. You know that next month I will be changing the spreadsheets back to the way it was. So I'll have two months of weird spreadsheets. Let's hope they never need to be seen by anyone else.

I feel like I can breathe today. Today is a clean up/file kind of day. The temp will be in later. He had an interview this morning. I think I'll have him file. After all, he is the one that made it hard for me to put all the back up together. For some unknown reason he decided to put the backup in the folders before everything was done. I think he made it harder on himself. He would have to open the drawer, pull out a folder, open it, file the taxes, print confirmations, paperclip all the paper and then put the folder away. Whatever. Oh, and you know he has told me that I do too much work and that there needs to be another person in this department. He told me this and he didn't even handle all of my work.

Oh well, there are things to do. Have a good afternoon.

Work on.

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

Whew. I do not envy you Fuzzy!

I've got one of those, "I've been printing for 30 years..." customers that thinks things should be cheaper than they are. We're already the cheapest in town when it comes to digital printing. He also went into the, "You kids nowadays have it so easy with doing all the layout on the computer..." If I could've reached through the phone, I would've smacked him.

Mad Mema · Bad Biker Granny

... why back in my day we didn't even have one of them fancy 'slide rules'. We had an abacus and a ball of string. That was it. And we were darn glad to have that!

WebGuy · Doesn't Do Windows

Hi ya.

I've been MIA the last few days too. It's been a LONG three days.

Sunday morning, I was in church and I got a text that I had a server down. From the sound booth, I tried to access the command line and couldn't get in (the SSH service was not running). I went into the web control panel and tried to restart the SSH service and it wouldn't start. Weird thing though was that the server was "up" but monitoring said it was down.

So, I checked a website and it just showed "internal server error". Check more sites, all the same thing.

I rebooted the server and that didn't help.

Then I started getting notices from two other servers that services were failing in them too. Ugh.

That began a LONG few days with little/no sleep.

A hacker had passwords to one of my servers. I still don't know where he got the passwords. I think it has to be either a virus here on my laptop, OR he got into my support account at the data center. I've ran scans and watched the network traffic out of my laptop and both show clean.

Anyway, due to my own stupidity and laziness, I had all servers set to the same passwords for convenience. When he logged into the first one, he went and looked at the "known hosts" file which shows you what other servers have been connected to through this one. That's how he found the other two servers . . . . tried the same passwords, and he was in.

Two of the servers, he got some system files replaced and deleted. He replaced the main SSH file with a hacked version that every time someone logged into ssh, it emailed him the username/password. He deleted all the logs to hide his tracks, and deleted the firewall.

On the server that went down, he must have made a mistake. I don't think he was trying to take it down, I think he was just trying to get access and hide there a while to log usernames/passwords. That server couldn't be saved, we had to totally reinstall it and restore the sites from backup.

I think I'm finally getting things back to normal again. I'm still worried about HOW he got my passwords initially. And I'm carefully watching the other two servers for strange behavior in case he got other hidden back doors installed. I'm exhausted and stressed but seeing the light at the end of this tunnel. I just hope he still doesn't have access to the passwords, but I'm changing them a couple times a day for now just as a precaution.

Ugh.