Seriously, today felt like 10 work days rolled into one. I didn't even have a chance to eat. I think I seriously need a vacation - and although I have vacation days - I can't even imagine a time when I could feel like "could" take time off and be able to relax with everything that needs to be done.

So, as I mentioned yesterday - I am teaching this 4 hour a day PHP class which as I said yesterday I love doing but I barely have time to get everything ready with all the work I am doing. 4 hours a day is a lot with everything else. Then 1 hour before it ended I start getting all these emails that two of our main servers were down. Would you believe that the issues were totally unrelated. Really, two servers, in different networks both became inaccessible at the same time with totally unrelated problems.

I had to cut the class short in the emergency to try and figure what the heck was going on. If there was only ssh it would have been easier, but the stupid windows server only allows two users at the same time with reote desktop and two people were still logged in so I was locked out.

The production server could not access the database server but it was weird because I was able to get to the database server from everywhere else. From inside the server I could ping other internal IPs but could not reach anything by domain name. This is when we realized it was a DNS issue and I hunted down the server team to find out after talking to several people that someone way more important than me took down one of the DNS servers around the time it went down.

To make it more complicated at the same time I get an email from (e:enknot) saying that our external server was down - the one that ran yroswell. I was able to get to it from my phone so I knew something was up with the networking in that case too. Turned out to be some new firewall rules that someone implemented. This all happened at he same time.

And then I get all these other requests for stuff that needed immediate attention and once again had no time to write up the presentation for tomorrow's lesson. Not that it really needs it but it is a lot to have something they can copy from and print.

I hope that tomorrow I have time to eat. It really makes me feel better.

I had a crazy day today. I didn't program much because I spent the day preparing lessons and teaching PHP at work. I kind of miss teaching a bit. Too bad there is no where I would like to teach in Buffalo and that it pays so poorly in comparison to programming.

When I got home I was exhausted for some reason. I hope I am not sick.

I didn't go skiing with (e:terry) and (e:matthew) today so that I could reset up the old server and go shopping for my mother's birthday with (e:mike). Inside the old server I found a 250GB drive I installed but never mounted. That was really freakin convenient for backing up some important info before removing centos 4.5 and installing centos 5.

We went over to the galleria to get my mother's gift. The nail studio near Macy's was exuding a cloud of toxic gas so bad that the whole wing of the mall is like one poison gas cloud. Seriously, I was not being overly sensitive, just ask (e:mike). It was unbelievably strong, we had to use another door to exit.

Random pics:
Can this be real? This coffee $50 coffee machine uses 1100 watts of electricity?


This is just way to many police for whatever the situation was with that Aldi's shopper. If he didn't have a gun then really do they ever need more than two? There were like 4 or 5 police cars on main street.


The smoke stack at UB south campus reminds me of the imagery in the movie metropolis


Does anyone remember this bar on Main Street. I think it was called Molly's or something. Did they finally get shut down for underage drinking?


These two houses on Main St near the Trimain building aways remind me of houses overlooking a river. I think it is really overlooking the railroad tracks.


I ate some more octopus at Kostas on Hertel. It is the only place in Buffalo i can find it this way. I love eating octopus. They got rid of their fresh Calamari appetizer on the menu and only have the fried kind now, lame.


Dork Chic is apparently back in this year. I will fit in well during the summer.


Damn, the apple store was so crowded. It seems like everyone and their mother are converting to Mac.


I kind of want an RV like this one but I know I have like 30 more years before that is practical.

I also got a big monitor for programming like (e:jim,43029) but mine is not quite as big.

I only got a 24" model, however, this one that rotates so I can turn it up on its side allowing me to view lots of lines of code. I think this will speed up some programming tasks I have had recently. Now I just need a bigger monitor at work.






(e:matthew) and (e:terry) got something too. There go the tax refunds.

Free gifts from China.

I almost died on the way to the doctors when my car spun around a couple times on the 90 and then flew down and embankment. Miraculously, everything was froozen solid so the car and myself were not damaged. Normally, the creek I rolled onto would have been mush but it was solid as pavement and I was able to drive off.

Seriously, it was a freakin miracle. Its so scary when you are spinning around out of control on the highway and mac trucks are coming at you.

I was trying to drive to the doctors on transit. I made it but really this is why I want a doctor in the city.




On a side note, I discovered my notphone can browse all the files on my real phone as though it is anotherf drive. How cool is that. I don't even have to trasnfer stuff via bluebooth message.

"We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected," Microsoft told Yahoo in a letter.

"While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo that we are proposing," it said.

I knew this was going to happen. Semmel is leaving and (e:ajay) is going to end up working for microsoft!

I wentto Zhang's buffet on union with some of my coworkers tdoay. We saw an estrip bumper sticker in the parking lot and it turned out to be (e:umcutsaniflush) and (e:leetee) who are going onh a cruise. I am so jealous. I want to be in the sun.

This time I only ate the seafood and rice plus a chicken wing and it was much better. It would be hard to mess up mussels.

I still think their sushi is not good.

So yesterday (e:jim) emails me to say the SL economy has crashed .

Then, I woke up this morning to find that someone had returned all my property form Slate. My hometown in Secondlife. I was so mad that it was gone and then I thought, wait - thats my land how did they banish my stuff from it?

Then I logged in and saw - someone seriously paid 200,000L/$700 US dollars for my remaining tiny plot of land. I can't believe it. It has had the price tag of $700 for months, maybe even a year and everyone always tried to bargain down. I refused to budge on the price thinking I would rather own the land then sell it for cheaper. Then this morning I wake up and bam. I get an email saying my shit has been returned to me by the owner of the land.



I know the secondlife economy crashed yesterday. But its still worth $700 US. This means I have made almost $2000 off this game I never even play. Should I cash out or re-invest in the long term. I think I might just cash out. I figure if I ever want back in I could just buy some land.

You have sold L$209530 for a total of US$732.59 using LindeX. Your Second Life account will be credited the net proceeds.

:enknot and I went to lunch at Kunis again today. I freakin love their food. It is so tasty.



I got tuna and yellow tail rolls


I really like their wakame salad.


This squid was really yummy and really cool looking.


The marekerel was exactly the type I like. I would suggest theirs definately.


Everything was perfect as always. They really just have the best Sushi in town. It is, however, a most expensive lunch if you are not getting the Bento box. I seriously think my lunch came to $19.00. Seeing as I barely eat out anymore - I am going to jusify that.