Mario Road Sign
There’s a new fad out there in the geek world if you hadn’t noticed. It’s hacking road signs to say things. Such things as Ninjas Ahead. Those are great and all, but this, this stands above the rest.
See the full story at: http://i.gizmodo.com/5154285/marioprincess-road-sign-is-the-pinnacle-of-sign-hacking
So, fun stuff right? We all like the snow (not me, I’m a curmudgeon) right? See what happens when you like the snow and you want more of it to fall? Yeah… this happens. WATER EVERYWHERE.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t block off BOTH ways out of my house to work…
All the photos…
http://picasaweb.google.com/roskozero/Flood2009#
Here it was at 1:15 today…
http://picasaweb.google.com/roskozero/Flood2009#5288709922857098306
Here it is now… (3:30pm)
http://picasaweb.google.com/roskozero/Flood2009#5288709953369348178
So there are two big changes in this year’s roller-coaster-cling-to-the-edge-of-your-seat-non-stop-thrill-ride of a letter… Okay, so maybe it’s not that exciting, let’s just pretend it is. We’ll both feel better about it, really. Change number one: I’m writing this on a (brace yourselves) Macintosh (slowly, Dean Shutt, we’ll convert the world!). Wait! Wait! That’s not a bad word anymore. It’s actually a pretty okay one these days. Honestly, I love it. It’s a great piece of hardware (I know most you can’t believe I’d ever say a Mac product is good! But there you have it). Change number two: I’m writing this in Open Office! Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned Microsoft completely. I still support and own many of their items. Let’s just say… we have a series of on-again-off-again interactions.
2008. It’s been a big year, hasn’t it? For one, it’s gone way too fast (Father Time is going on notice for that one…). As most of you know (if you don’t, sorry!) we moved back to the Pacific Northwest—yay! We both enjoyed our jobs and the people in Wisconsin; however, it just never really felt right. We learned a few things about ourselves: we hate snow (ok, I hate snow; Jess still acts like a 5-year-old when it starts to fall, although even she will admit it got a little tired after 6 months of it), we don’t like it to be sub-zero temperatures for weeks at a time, and we don’t like not having mountains near (quick movie side note: The Hulk just threw an engine at some guy in a field—that was awesome). We were planning to stay in Wisconsin longer but Jess had a great opportunity present itself back in Washington.
We were not looking really, then all at once, we found out that the superintendents were leaving each of the districts we worked in. We figured we had two options: look and see what was available back home or stick it out for a few more years. We figured it couldn’t hurt to look… Well, in the process of looking Jess stumbled across the “gimme-job-now” button and bam! We’re here! She found the job opening on a Friday, emailed about it, got called on Sunday, talked for over an hour with the director of what is now her program, applied on Sunday, interviewed over the phone Thursday, and had the offer by Thursday night. So! It was quick. Everything that has worked out well for us has been quick, so we figured we had to go for it! Once she had the “word” I started to seriously look into the opportunities as well.
I figured I’d stay in school district IT (masochist I know!); however, when I started to really delve in, I found a veritable paucity of jobs at school districts. I was looking into the Tumwater school district when I found a link to the Washington state job search. I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I threw my resume to a few of the offerings; a few weeks later I had a call from the Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals! I interviewed over the phone a little less than a week later—an interview I was convinced I did HORRIBLE on. A few days later I got a call (while I was in a meeting!) saying they’d like to meet me in person! So I arranged to fly out a week later. I did the second interview in person, had a great time with them, and had a phone call with an offer that evening (the really fun thing was landing in SeaTac at 9:30 am and getting to Olympia by 10:30 am for the interview on a weekday… by the end of the day I had been up for close to 23 hours. At that point Dr. Seuss was an amazing philosopher to me: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish changed my perspective on stuff!).
So Jess is now teaching in the preschool special ed programs at Broadway Early Learning Center in Longview, Washington. I do Systems and Network Administration for the BIIA in Olympia, Washington. We live in Kelso, Washington. Jess has around a 6-mile commute each day. Mine’s closer to 130 (it takes a bit over an hour each way, so it’s not too bad—70 mph half the way there). Before we left WI we sold the Kia (the end of a dynasty, I know) to one of my coworkers (great guy, very fun to work with).
When we got here, I drove the Subaru for a few weeks but we wanted to get something with better gas mileage (this was when gas was over four dollars a gallon) so I looked around for something I would like. I test drove the Jetta TDI, Toyota Prius, and Mini Cooper. Out of them all, I instantly knew the Cooper was for me. It was actually a bit cheaper than both the Prius and the Jetta TDI (crazy right?!) and they were actually in stock! It’s Mellow Yellow, gets 40 mpg highway, and is very fun to drive. So if you’re in the market for a small car, I’d seriously suggest you check one out. You can’t help but smile when you drive it (it’s quite comfy, roomy, and Scott Onken at 6′6” can fit in it! No one can sit behind him but…he fits).
Quick update on the movie: They just popped Edward Norton (The Hulk) to force him to change. He just punched a scientist. His skin can stop bullets, but leather straps?
Since we’ve been back, we’ve spent a fair amount of time catching up with friends and family, which has been fun. A lot of the time, though, we’re working, sleeping, and working… and to change it up, a bit of sleeping. When we can, we watch movies (we just adopted a Blu-Ray player via one of those save the starving PlayStation 3 infomercials staring Barbra Streisand—okay, that was a nerdy joke; but hey, I’m a nerd). We also enjoy paying video games every so often. So really nothing has changed on that front!
Abomination (the bad Hulk) just threw a guy out a window. That was awesome! Don’t worry though: Edward Norton (the good Hulk) is coming to save the day. According to this movie a Humvee will break an axle before it dents the front in a front-on collision. Interesting…
One of the more entertaining projects we’ve taken on as of late was growing mushrooms from a wood brick! They’re quite tasty. Shiitake mushrooms. Mmm… I met a guy though my professor from UWL (Dr. Tom Volk) who is a member of the Oregon Mycological Society named Tony. He was selling three bags for 20 dollars for Christmas as a fundraiser for OMS—normally each bag is 20. So I went for it! Best choice I ever made. I’m sure between all three bags (we gave two as Christmas presents), they’ll net well over $200 in mushrooms by store prices. Quite the value…
Best line of the movie! “HULK SMASH!!!!” Abomination is on the ropes!
While it has been a very busy year, it really hasn’t seemed like it. It’s been fast, that’s for sure! Time just speeds up once you get to be the ripe-old-age of twenty-four. Yup. Oh look! I think I had my first joint ache! Wunderbar. Yup, so old… Really though, when you’re having fun, enjoying your jobs, and making positive progress, things do move fast. But that’s fine! That’s how the world works!
So that’s it! You’ve made it. You’re at the end of the letter. So I’ll leave you with one last piece of advice. Fire up your computer, go to http://www.hulu.com, and search for “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” It stars Neal Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser!). You’ll thank me later. Seriously. Do it. Don’t worry. It’s free and legal.
We hope everyone has an enjoyable new year.
Alex and Jess
Oh look, The Hulk just transformed again. Woo. Fade to black.
(If you want to hear more incessant ramblings, or feel like checking up on us, venture over to http://www.gachis.net. I consider it to be a mildly humorous stop on the web, you might too!)
Every once in a great while you stumble upon something that can truly only be described as “Epic.” This, my friends, is one of those somethings. Thanks to Jake for pointing this out to me as it will bring me unmeasurable amounts of joy.
(On a side note, if you haven’t seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, your truly missing out. You must drop whatever it is that you’re doing currently, and go watch it. You’ll thank me later).
20-30 henchmen needed for moderately-sized supervillain organisation with large expansion potential (fortresses built into geological structures, corruption of government officials, possible genesis of ‘nemesis’ vigilante). Electrical theme.
Applicants must be willing to learn new skills, including but not limited to operation of specialised ‘lightning guns’. Applicants will also be required to wear specialised uniform when at work (functional rubber suits with my logo on front), except in cases where deception is required (posing as hostages in order to ambush vigilantes, etc).
Desired (but not necessarily required) in applicants:
-interesting deformations/obsessions/powers(?) giving rise to interesting nicknames (e.g. Claws, Pyro, Buzzsaw, and similar)
-unwavering loyalty
-being a corruptible government official
-ability to work as part of a close-knit team (unless interesting obsession is of the ‘lone wolf’ variety)
-grudge against any well-known vigilante
-flexible moral code
Equal opportunies employer. Both henchmen and femmes fatales absolutely welcome.
Great promotion opportunities - right-hand-man position constantly being unexpectedly opened. Would look good on any future supervillain resume/CV.
Send an email with details of any prior henchman work, or details of what is driving you to join the ranks of a supervillain organisation. Will reply to all serious applicants. Hope to hear from you, and with luck, welcome you into a rewarding and promising career!
- Jacque (The Zapper) Zerapi
Hate the task of changing your local admin password across your domain of computers? If your like me, you do! A large group of people only change this when they deploy a new image, a very valid time to do this! If you really are like me your also some what of a Nazi when it comes to changing passwords! I don’t like only doing it upon a new image deployment. What if I want to change it quarterly? What if I want to do it mid day? What if I’m just feeling like clicking a bunch of buttons for no reason?
Well, if any of those reasons sound good to you, then I submit to you, the following! This is all in VBS. It’s written for Active Directory with a Windows XP/Server 2003 R2 environment. It’s very straight forward, no frills. I don’t even password mask the password input fields. Why? Frankly, I just did not see the need take that much extra time just for a password mask. It prompts for a user name and password that has Domain Admin level access, and then it asks you for a Organizational Unit in your AD structure, followed by a local account and new password.
What’s the practical use? Say you have a user call the help desk from a remote location with a company machine (tablet, laptop, etc…). They’re two minutes out from the biggest presentation they’ve ever made that will land your company over a million in revenue if the presenter succeeds. EVERYTHING about making this presentation work hinges on the presenter using their personal micro-portable-ergonomic-deluxe-with-lasers-that-kill-kittens-Microsoft-sponsored-blue-bedazzled mouse. Obviously, the only option we have is to give said user the local admin account to install. And now you have to change that account across your domain machines. Yay for you! You get to click buttons.
Without further adieu, just copy and paste the following into a text file and save it as “blah blah blah.vbs” Do not forget to change the following line (line 86):
To something that matches your domain (E.g. change DC=Gachis,DC=Net to DC=YOURDOMAIN,DC=YOURDOMAIN etc…)
Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you bork your domain/computers/local squirrels by using this script. I am providing it free and open to anyone and everyone who wishes to give it a try for their own needs.
On Error Resume Next
‘constants
Const WbemAuthenticationLevelPktPrivacy = 6
Const ForAppending = 8
‘ Create the File System Object
Set objFSO = CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objFSOTwo = CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objFSOThree = CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
‘directory and file paths
strDirectory = “c:\output”
strFilePW = “\PWChanged.txt”
strFileNR = “\NotReached.txt”
‘ If..Exists. Then, Else … End If construction for directory/files for log output.
If objFSOThree.FolderExists(strDirectory) Then
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory)
Else
Set objFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(strDirectory)
End If
If objFSO.FileExists(strDirectory & strFilePW) Then
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory)
Else
Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(strDirectory & strFilePW)
End If
If objFSOTwo.FileExists(strDirectory & strFileNR) Then
Set objFolder = objFSOTwo.GetFolder(strDirectory)
Else
Set objFile = objFSOTwo.CreateTextFile(strDirectory & strFileNR)
End If
‘User input on Domain Admin Account/Password, OU, Local Account/Password.
strUser = InputBox _
(”Please enter a User Name with sufficient Domain Level Access (E.g. Domain Admin):”, _
“User Name”,”User Name”)
If strUser = “” Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strPassword = InputBox _
(”Please enter Password:”, _
“Password”)
If strPassword = “” Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strOU = InputBox _
(”Please enter the organizational unit of the computers you wish to modify:”, _
“Enter OU Name”,”Organizational Unit”)
If strOU = “” Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strLclUsr = InputBox _
(”Please enter the Local User account you wish to modify:”, _
“Local User”,”Local User”)
If strPassword = “” Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
strLclPass = InputBox _
(”Please enter the new Local User account password:”, _
“Local User Password”)
If strPassword = “” Then
Wscript.Quit
End If
‘Get Computer information out of AD and Ping active computers. If no return on ping, write “Time - Computer Name: Could not be reached” to C:\output\NotReached.txt
‘If able to change account password, write “Time - Computer Name: Password Changed!” to C:\output\PWChanged.txt
strNamespace = “root\cimv2″
Set objOU = GetObject(”LDAP://OU=” & strOU & “,DC=Gachis,DC=Net”)
objOU.Filter = Array(”Computer”)
For Each objComputer in objOU
strComputer = objComputer.CN
Set objShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
strCommand = “%comspec% /c ping -n 3 -w 1000 ” & strComputer & “”
Set objExecObject = objShell.Exec(strCommand)
Do While Not objExecObject.StdOut.AtEndOfStream
strText = objExecObject.StdOut.ReadAll()
If Instr(strText, “Reply”) > 0 Then
Set objWbemLocator = CreateObject(”WbemScripting.SWbemLocator”)
Set objWMIService = objwbemLocator.ConnectServer _
(strComputer, strNamespace, strUser, strPassword)
objWMIService.Security_.authenticationLevel = WbemAuthenticationLevelPktPrivacy
Set objUser = GetObject(”WinNT://” & strComputer & “/” & strLclUsr)
objUser.SetPassword strLclPass
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
(”Select * From Win32_OperatingSystem”)
For Each objItem in ColItems
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(”C:\output\PWChanged.txt”, ForAppending, True)
objFile.WriteLine Now & ” - ” & strComputer & “: Password Changed!”
objFile.Close
Next
‘ ==========
‘ End
‘ ==========
Else
Set objFileTwo = objFSOTwo.OpenTextFile(”C:\output\NotReached.txt”, ForAppending, True)
objFileTwo.WriteLine Now & ” - ” & strComputer & “: could not be reached.”
objFileTwo.Close
End If
Loop
Next
‘Announce to User that script is done.
Wscript.Echo “Script is Finished. See C:\Output for Logs.”
As some of you know, I got a new car! I decided to be all yuppie and get a Mini Cooper =] I love it.
It may be small, but it as a voracious apatite! (My attempt to make it look bigger than it is)
So there you have it! Our new car. It’s very fun to drive and gets great gas mileage–I got a little over 42 mpg on the way home! We’ll try to post more soon, I know we’ve been slacking.
We made it safe and sound, in spite of the inevitable delayed flight due to fog in San Francisco. We had a fun Fourth with friends from our WoW guild: Blotto, Machy, Fallee, Shrug, Yog, Darv, Towelie, Smidge, Valefica, & Bivins. Food was awesome, company was fantastic, and couches were comfy (no point in blowing up the air mattress when there are perfectly good couches to use!). We didn’t bring the camera cord, so you’ll have to wait until we’re home for pics. I think we’re going out for real Mexican for dinner and hanging out on the beach in a bit… yay!
Quite possibly the best combination ever conceived by man…
Above is the aforementioned combination (but you already knew that didn’t you!?). It’s a Jerry Garcia tie and low-top chucks. Just as it was in Holmen, everyone at “the board” (the short way of saying the Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals) absolutely loved them but when they noticed the tie WITH the shoes it was a combo I don’t think I can ever beat–that is until I find a blue pair and some crazy awesome blue tie to go with!
The day went great, I’m going to love working there. My supervisor, Melinda, is wonderful–we’ll get along great. As well, the other head-honchos/bosses/whatchamacallems were great–Bob is highly entertaining, we’ll work quite well together.
As you’ve guessed, it is a state job, so the benefits are hands-down amazing. I’m excited at the opportunities we’ll have to innovate over the next few years to help bring the staff more into the 21st century of technology. The staff is very energetic and genuinely love what they do/where they work. They’ve done a great job at making the work environment a place where everyone feels welcome.
As for my role, my primary job is centered around the Exchange server and it’s functions; however, I’ll also be working significantly with my co-workers, cross-training in what they do, working in with systems, networks, servers, etc… It’s a fairly diverse roll, exactly what I’m use to! It feels like a good fit.
So at the end of the day, I’m happy. I’ll like it at the BIIA, what more can you ask for?
Several of the muffin recipes I received from a friend called for a cake mix. This makes very delicious, but not very healthy, muffins! So I looked around and found this recipe to substitute for a cake mix:
Ingredients:
Directions:
Variations:
To make chocolate muffins or a chocolate cake mix, add 6 tbsp. cocoa to this flour mix.
When I made the peanut butter muffins I posted, I made the flour mix using 4 c. wheat flour and 2 c. white flour, then combined 1 1/2 c. of the wheat muffin mix with 1/2 box (1 1/2 c.) white cake mix.
This recipe is a variation on our friend Che’s blueberry muffin recipe (to be posted the next time I make them). This batch was made with peanut butter chips — I’ve also used chocolate chips, peanut butter/chocolate chips, and with a “surprise” Reese’s peanut butter cup in the middle.
Ingredients:
Directions:
