Cisco Live! 2019 - Day 2

Day 2

Glad I got some sleep, felt good today, went to the conference when the doors opened due to still living on Eastern time. Had some really nasty breakfast sandwiches because they are food and they really had me at food anyway.

Sessions

Had a ot of sessions involving UCS servers today, new CLI commands to use for troubleshooting connectivity, methods to test Hyperflex disk IO, all things I never really paid much attention to, Ehren at work usually delves into those things, never really absorbed the stuff. Good sessions to have. Lunch at the Marina, amazing weather out here. I have found a amazing amount of dude bros that sit in the middle of 2 seats during sessions, and at lunch just openly take 2 lunches, right outta the gates. Its weird, and they have no idea what they look like.

After the sessions

Went out to Fogo de Chao for my first Brazilian steakhouse experience with Dan from Sentinel and the fellas from the MSU network team. Oh my god, I can get used to people just reloading your plate with meat till it feels uncomfortable to stand. Why is this not more of a thing? Dan had a rough night the night before, I suspect he turned in early, Brian Franke and I went on to a Nutanix event at a Bar inside the Hard Rock hotel. I was not surprised to find out I am terrible at Guitar Hero. Zero coordination from this guy. Free beer made up for it. Turned in before midnight, nice day.

This room

Have learned that all partying on the block ends at 3:30 AM, must be when the bars kick everyone out. The music in the bar stays on for at least another hour, the staff must be closing out then.  The bums on the block have a particular preference to yelling incessant obscenities around 6 AM, it must be a sunrise thing. I have seen far to much of my floor-mates when visiting the community toilets. Uh, not necessary, people! Pretty sure the hotel manager puts something THC related in the morning coffee, just can't prove it. Its still delicious.

Cisco Live! 2019 - Day 1

This is the first year MSU has sent me to Cisco Live! 2019

I have never set foot in California, this is an amazing place!

The journey here

Wow, it sure seemed to all be in order, until I got on the plane.The first damn plane. Managed to somehow run into Brian Franke, a co-worker at MSU who happened to also pick the same doomed 6:30 AM flight out of Lansing. They backed the plane out to the tarmac, and then it set. No engines running, nothing. We sat and we sat. Eventually they informed us that they were resetting a system, and were in touch with the mechanics over the phone. 20 minutes later, they informed us that the super amazing reset was complete, and they were doing paperwork. 20 more minutes later they informed us that what was really being done was that they were trying to get permission to override the use of a device that "handles GPS and altitude settings to coordinate with ground control" Call me crazy, but that sounds pretty God damned important. Then they mentioned that it wasn't just them, it could be a nation-wide problem. Went a few times to the Delta app while I was stuck in the plane and I found that they started offering us alternate flights. I hesitated the first time I saw it, then when I went back, the choices dropped by 50%, so I picked a new later connection that I was inevitably going to miss waiting here, had nothing to lose. After 2 hours they conceded to us all needing to continue our day without them, so they unboarded us. With no ETA when we would ever get this flight out of LAN, I had a choice to make a choice with a connection waiting for me 120 miles away, 4 hours from now. With no guarantees the LAN flight was ever leaving, I got back in the car, and drove fast as hell to get to DTW and board that next flight. Made it to DTW, and the day went on as planned. And if you wonder if that flight ever left, yes, it did with about a 10 minute gap to catch a connection 1 terminal away, of course. I never would have made that run, I chose wisely. Shitty morning drive though, going from Albion to Lansing to Detroit, but oh well. Brian and his cohorts from network were not as lucky, they reschedule to get here later that day or the next.

Its only the airport, but oh shit Palm trees, yesssss!

Holy shit, I am in California!

Got here eventually, 1:30 PM Pacific time. Good enough for me to get settled in and get my room and Cisco registration stuff done

This is the convention center for Cisco Live! 2019

That's Hiro, he is down the hall from me, we waited out in the heat for the 3pm check in, this is their "lobby"

This is my room, yep, that's it.

Found a room at the Gaslamp Quarter hotel in the middle of the district. The entire experience getting a room here has been hilarious from the beginning. Upon doing more research on this place, turns our it was built in 1904 as a brothel. So I guess i am not going to give this room the workout its used to.

Dinner

Went down the street to Volcano Rabbit and found me some Ahi tuna tacos and a few local IPA's to drink.

That was good enough for me today, off to sleep, breakfast at the marina in the morning :-)

Waiting for the cable guy

Getting the cable and Internet connections today

As is customary, I got to the house early for the cable install. I wanted to make sure that they had no excuses. This is WOW we are dealing with here. WOW has a history. WOW has proven to me they need to be babysat. Nearly always. Got a phone call from the installer wondering when I would be onsite. I muttered to myself "as if they are ahead of their schedule."  I picked up and let him know I was a few minutes away. Got to the house and I saw a new utility junction box mounted. I ask the guy "So, what's been done so far?" "I already installed everything." he said. Skeptical, I wondered where the line he ran went because he had never even set foot in the house. He found what he believed was the last working line, cleaned it up, and ran it into this new junction box. Chrome connectors, new unions, cleanly mounted in the new junction box. "Wow, man, check you out, today" I said to him. He mentioned that he re-ran everything from the pole back to our house, He just didn't trust it. Took the initiative and got it done, early for that matter. Being that he made an assumption on the cable running into the house, I figured out he ran a line to our basement. Asked him if he would run a second line to the living room and as expected he said "I've got to cut the other line then." After being incredibly grateful for running all that line I asked if he would just leave it in the box for me so we could split it later for the kids room. He agreed. Unheard of with those folks at WOW, they love cutting shit that isn't live. Brought 2 cable boxes into the house to my confusion. "We are getting one, right?" I asked him. "Well, I know how they treat these things in the warehouse so I brought a spare new one in" he explained. It turned out they both worked, but he decided to leave the newer one anyways. New Internet connection expected to cap at 100 megabit capped out at 115 when I tested it. No drops. Impressive since the last encounter I had with WOW took 4 visits and an overhaul at the the next router hop. Had to tell this guy, he killed it today, best one I've ever met from WOW. Of course he got an uncomfortable hug.

Conclusion: I was ready the throw the book at WOW today, and hot damn they completely stuck the landing on the install. Well done, installer dude. Well done. Had to give them credit where it is due.

So hey ya'll happy weekend!

Whats new this week?

Bought a house this week!
This is me knowing what I had to look forward to just before closing

Mostly moving stuff out of my rental house, moving into the new house.  Lotsa room for unpacking.
Here's a pic of Jamelah and I with a house full of nothing

Did manage to get some furniture bought for the living room today, curtains are next. It's an exciting and terrifying time. Hoping to get a moving truck next weekend, get the rest of the Potterville house empty by then.

I really look forward to having a stable place where I have Jamelah and the kids all in one place.

Upon watching the usual Sunday morning news shows

Political crap ahead, you were warned...

Here are the conclusions I have from what I have seen from the politics this week, and then I will need to be done with it for the week. I spend way too much time watching this crap.

Jim Jordan, that guy is a fucking weasel and a typical Republican. He is everything their party is proud of, and they should be done with them if they care for anyone other than themselves.

Adam Schiff, also a weasel, is clearly on a path to impeach the Cheeto at any cost, even if it means the dems look petty in the process.

I am curious to know what Mueller came up with. From the morning shows and people who have been in the department of Justice it makes sense that what will come out are facts, and a lack of accusations. That's pretty professional. But it is also not some sort of bombshell that will make all dems sleep better tonight. There will be dirt, there must be. How could their not be? It will back the facts that have already been known. 6 people in the Cheetos election campaign worked with Russians, an enemy of the United States. They were his people. They reflect on him regardless of how much he wants to distance himself from this. He makes it clear he keeps his tiny hands involved in all major aspects of his affairs. He was clearly aware. Like all good gangsters, he managed to keep enough distance between himself and all the corrupt crap to avoid any indictments. A lot of people will be thrilled that no indictments of obstruction or collusion. It has not changed the truth on the Cheetos stand on racism, the environment, and furthering his own company agenda at the cost of the presidency. He is a terrible person, he has treated a majority of America terrible, the people he has sworn to protect, like absolute shit. People need to rally to get him out and every other Cheeto supporting Republican. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Walberg and Barrett. 😡

That amazing tax break Cheeto gave us the middle class that the gullables are believing.

Thanks to MSU failing to do anything to help me beat the cost of living increase this year (I can blame my union too, not just MSU) it was fairly easy to assess how much the AMAZING TAX BREAKS helped the middle class, like me. I quite simply took my change in pay from this year and compared it to last year. The only thing that changed was my tax withheld. I then compared the tax returns from the same year. The only thing that changed there was the implementation of the Cheetos tax plan

This is the result:

$29 dollars. Being that I needed to live off that money that came home every month because I am in fact broke 3 weeks into every month. It means that vacations, car repairs, all of it are not going to happen this year. The Republican devout will ramble on that I should have withheld more, and they are missing the point. He didn't do shit for the working class. He paid off his rich friends who will be doing nothing for you. You should be upset. You should vote him out.

Bullshit politics aside now...

The kids get their alterations done today for the wedding and they are really excited for it. It is now the terrifying phase of knowing it's coming so soon and there are so many little things that still need to be done. I barely got involved in the last wedding, this time I have tried much harder to be involved and I really enjoyed it. Jamelah and I are an amazing team, she's da best and I love her so much 😊

Because I really hate Facebook.

Because of that, I am back.

Here because after months, maybe years of dispising Facebook for being a bunch of dickbags over our information, I find that I am mostly sick of the misinformation that you get. That's not all Facebook's fault. It's all our fault. We only post the glowing happy shit out there, never showing all the real facets of our everyday lives. It sucks, it's so disingenuous. I am mostly sick of the news. All the shitty news, All the inaccurate news. All of the gullible people who don't do their responsibility as fucking adults to question everything, and not just be led by news sources that are really out to scare you, and those same people need to be scared to be led. It really saddens me, and it has challenged many friendships along the way. I'll get into some of this later.

Hello everyone!

Marriage

So, what's new out there for me? I'm getting married! Yeah, I am marrying Jamelah Earle, the truly better half of me that makes me a better person as a whole. My partner in all my crimes, my hiking buddy, and my voice of reason in what sometimes can be shitty days, sometimes good ones. Regardless, she is there, and it makes me very happy. The kids are really happy about the idea of having a mom and dad back in the house together, and they love Jamelah a lot. I am a really shitty cook, I think besides needing a reasonable, strong female figure in their lives, they are really hoping she will teach me to not cook like shit. I am kinda hoping for that too 😏

Us on our biggest hike at observation point in Zion NP

House

That brings the next update, Jamelah and I are getting a house together! We close on a house in Albion Monday. In my usual chaotic and "in one big holy shit pile" method we are doing all these thing together at once. The house is a terrifying thing for Jamelah, and understandably so, This is the first time on her own in literally decades, and not just picking me up as her new live-in, but 3 very noisy, but loving girls every other week will be a enormous hurdle for her to overcome. She is very used to a very quiet household. We will all have a lot to learn through this, I really hope we all find the balance to cohabitate as fast as possible.

Front view of the new place

Side view of the new place

Backyard view of the Kalamazoo river

Our wannabe Presidential Cheeto that I refuse to call by name in this blog...

So, the report we all anticipated for years made it to the Department of Justice yesterday

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/23/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-report-russia/index.html

I can't believe that piece of shit didn't get indicted. I trust that Mueller did his job the best he could. The report was never going to be the smoking gun. His actions on a daily basis shown his true dickbag self. People need to take a hard look not just at the shit he says on a daily basis, but really look at what he doesn't say. He give zero shits for a majority of America and has no interest in caring for them as time goes on. He needs us all out of the way, and any cost so he and his family and friends get richer. It's frustrating. It's sad. It's not how a leader should lead. He and every Republican that enabled or ignored this NEED TO BE VOTED OUT. For your families, for your environment, and for people's well being vote against these people in 2020. I say it that way because the next election is going to require a lot of people who support a lot of good platforms to come together to vote against a 40% voter base who are very well aligned and love what they hear out of their leader, no matter what stupidity it is that falls out of his mouth. Independents, Libertarians, Green Party, Democrats are going to need to rally to get him out. I pray it happens. I pray for a majority of America to care and put whomever it is that comes out as the strongest leader to drop their convictions, and work toward a greater good, greater than that racist motherfucker in office.

But back to Facebook...

Anyway, yeah, hating Facebook and the sides of people I dislike. I am trying to get out. I know i'll relapse, but you have to start somewhere. Its shown a side of some of my family and friends I never wanted to see. Maybe I needed to see it? Maybe it showed us a side we all needed to see? Maybe it helped us to keep an eye on the people we never suspected could act and feel that way. I hate seeing the fake news I get from friends on it. It sometimes makes my day worse. And I can't stop watching it sometimes. I should stop but there I am staring at it, day after day. Hour after hour. Makes me hate myself sometimes. I feel my place to land socially down the road is Instagram for photo sharing and a blog to share my thoughts. Maybe Facebook just to connect the group I am connected to to a place I transition to. But seriously, fuck Facebook.

Those are the thoughts for now, going to try to keep this going on this page.