Well, after 23 years, it's time for a life change. In February of this year (a few days after Valentines no less), my wife of 23 years decided she wanted a divorce. This DEVASTATED me! After several days of emotional roller coaster riding I saw the wisdom in it. We both started communicating and sharing things that we never had done in 23 years. Needless to say, we became very good friends from this life changing event.
So, she moved into the extra bedroom and I stayed in what was now a very empty bed and room. Thus began our separation. We were renting the place and felt that it was in the best interest in the two children who were still in school that we stay until the lease ran out.
During those months there was a lot of rough times. I got the wake up call I needed and started to finally take care of myself. I started Weight Watchers, Therapy, visits with the Dr. (I dreaded them previously), work outs, and lots and lots of self evaluations. I am still defining who I am and want to be. I never did that previously - just filled the mold that people around me placed me in (parents, church, etc.). As far as the health goes, I met my first WW goal and overall, I've lost about 85 lbs since this past winter when I weighed myself and saw the heaviest I'd every been. My clothes have needed replacing, I've punched new holes in belts and in many cases had to get some new things since the old fit so bad, they tended to fall off.
We decided that the best thing to do for the emotional and mental health of our youngest was to not be nasty ex's. We are working our hardest to make sure she continues to have great parents through all of this. We aren't perfect but then who is. The divorce was granted at the end of June and we both have our own new places now. I really love my new place and it fits the new me I'm finding out that I like and want to be. She also loves her new place and it fits her really well too.
My 19 year old car was getting close to death and so I borrowed some money from myself (my stock retirement plan) and paid off some debts and paid for the transition of the divorce. Then with what was left, I bought outright, a newer car (ok, at least it was 10 years newer than my previous car). Now my son drives the 19 year old car and it's currently in need of some attention due to yet another service issue that makes the car undriveable. I love my new car and it's also something that is helping to define the man I want to be (no it's not a mid-life crisis muscle or sports car).
I'm signed up for college classes this fall and finally looking forward to school (used to dread it and all the silly things they required of you). Hopefully, with enough time, I'll finally get an Associates degree to go along with my Microsoft Certifications and other Business certifications and training I've accumulated.
So, now I'm single again and finding that it's very lonely and tough. I get so anxious to get out, see the world and experience life. This is the opposite of the man I became up until February. I've dabbled in various online dating sites and have finally settled on one. I'm at Match.com if anyone wants to check out my profile. If you have feedback as to things I should change to better attract potential dates, feel free to send it my way. I'm not looking to jump right back into marriage. I'm looking to grow my social life, go on dates, share some romance/intimacy and overall improve my mental/emotional health.
Anyway, that's the big life changes for the 1st half of 2011. I'm looking forward to more progress in the last half and for a completely new and exciting 2012.
Wish me luck (better yet, send a lot of prayers since they've got more power than luck).
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wow is all I have to say. In the past few months I can't believe how many old friends and family I've reconnected with via Facebook. My cousin Annette put it the best, "Facebook is great. I feel a bit closer to my family that is on here. At least we get to see what they post. It gives a little insight into their lives."
Friday, March 13, 2009
How to stop those pesky "autorun.inf" viruses
OK, so this won't get rid of all the autorun.inf style viruses and there are other ways but at least it allows you to setup the machine the way Microsoft should have a long time ago (they do this as a default now for Vista and Server 2008).
History: The Autorun/Autoplay feature in Windows has been around for a long time. It was primarily started for the audio CD's as welll as an automated way to lauch a program when inserting a data CD (i.e. a software installation CD). I'm not sure when (perhaps as far back as the Windows 9x days) but I'm thinking that an autorun.inf could have been setup on a network share and if it pointed to an executable with mal intent, it could have spread a virus.
Today: Eventually as technology emerged, things like USB drives were added to things that a computer could "mount". So now, some malicious code writers use the autorun.inf feature to automatically launch their code when a drive is mapped or a USB drive is inserted. I could go into more details about the autorun.inf viruses but really, I'm here today to show you how to stop the autorun.inf's from happening on things you don't want them to.
Microsoft released an article regarding this issue in February. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715 This is the most recent article about How to correct "disable Autorun registry key" enforcement in Windows. It has the link to download the hot fix 967715.
You can read the articles for more details and to see what options you have for setting the drives you want to disable from autorun/autoplay. For my example below, I chose to allow CD/DVD's and USB drives to autorun. If you want to make it tighter, just change the registry key value to include disabling the USB drives (use the value of 0x95)or all of them all together (0xFF). You just have to do your hexidecimal math.
The hotfix almost always requires a reboot (haven't seen one yet in my testing that didn't). If you haven't altered your registry or local policies to disable the autorun/autoplay feature altogether, the hot fix will set up a key in:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer called HonorAutorunSetting. This gets set to 0x01.
It also adds a key to:
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer called NoDriveTypeAutoRun with a default value of 0x91 (for Windows XP).
The last key above can also be added to the HKLM portion of the registry as well. I tested it on an account with local admin rights and one that never even had a profile and wasn't in the local admin group and it created the HKCU key and the autorun/autoplay behavior was what I expected it to be.
So, kudos to Microsoft for helping us in our fight against autorun.inf viruses.
History: The Autorun/Autoplay feature in Windows has been around for a long time. It was primarily started for the audio CD's as welll as an automated way to lauch a program when inserting a data CD (i.e. a software installation CD). I'm not sure when (perhaps as far back as the Windows 9x days) but I'm thinking that an autorun.inf could have been setup on a network share and if it pointed to an executable with mal intent, it could have spread a virus.
Today: Eventually as technology emerged, things like USB drives were added to things that a computer could "mount". So now, some malicious code writers use the autorun.inf feature to automatically launch their code when a drive is mapped or a USB drive is inserted. I could go into more details about the autorun.inf viruses but really, I'm here today to show you how to stop the autorun.inf's from happening on things you don't want them to.
Microsoft released an article regarding this issue in February. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715 This is the most recent article about How to correct "disable Autorun registry key" enforcement in Windows. It has the link to download the hot fix 967715.
You can read the articles for more details and to see what options you have for setting the drives you want to disable from autorun/autoplay. For my example below, I chose to allow CD/DVD's and USB drives to autorun. If you want to make it tighter, just change the registry key value to include disabling the USB drives (use the value of 0x95)or all of them all together (0xFF). You just have to do your hexidecimal math.
The hotfix almost always requires a reboot (haven't seen one yet in my testing that didn't). If you haven't altered your registry or local policies to disable the autorun/autoplay feature altogether, the hot fix will set up a key in:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer called HonorAutorunSetting. This gets set to 0x01.
It also adds a key to:
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer called NoDriveTypeAutoRun with a default value of 0x91 (for Windows XP).
The last key above can also be added to the HKLM portion of the registry as well. I tested it on an account with local admin rights and one that never even had a profile and wasn't in the local admin group and it created the HKCU key and the autorun/autoplay behavior was what I expected it to be.
So, kudos to Microsoft for helping us in our fight against autorun.inf viruses.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Billy Idol Concert
My beautiful wife did a really awesome thing for me. She bought us Billy Idol tickets. Billy Idol was a huge favorite of mine as an 80's teen and I still enjoy his music today (his new stuff is great too). So, here's my review of the concert.
We made it to Hammond, IN (the concert was at the Horseshoe Casino) just in time to be on the main floor of the concert as it started. We had floor tickets and that meant no seats (like anyone would have sat through a Billy Idol concert anyway). He started (and ended) the concert out on high energy. This, from a man who's almost 53 years old. He still cranks em out and provides a great show.
My wife and I ended up about 15 rows back which is likely the closest I've been at a concert. I don't get to go to very many concerts so this was a special for me (I'm 42 and have only been to the following... Roger Waters, REO Speedwagon, Sammy Hagar, Zebra (opened for Sammy), The Jets, Mike and the Mechanics, The Outfield, KC and the Sunshine Band, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Mannheim Steamroller, ELO2, America, Chuck Mangione (the last two were college concerts that came with my ticket package for the year).
Anyway, back to Billy Idol. Steve Stevens was amazing with his guitar skills. He provided amazing solos and sweet guitar skills which added to the energy of the show.
During the show, Billy sang to the ladies in the front row and even signed an autograph for one lucky lady. Later, he threw out some drum sticks and guitar picks. Then he picked up what looked like Frisbees. He then sent them out to the audience. I ended up getting one that someone else missed. It ended up on the floor and I quickly stepped on it to claim it. It ended up being a thick paper plate and was autographed. So, I got the autographed plate shown below.
The show featured well known hits from many of his albums as well as some of his new stuff from the past couple of albums. All were played excellently and were sung with near studio quality. When he and the band left the stage, we all started chanting, "Billy, Billy" and then the band came out and sang a three song encore that included Mony, Mony and Rebel Yell.
We made it to Hammond, IN (the concert was at the Horseshoe Casino) just in time to be on the main floor of the concert as it started. We had floor tickets and that meant no seats (like anyone would have sat through a Billy Idol concert anyway). He started (and ended) the concert out on high energy. This, from a man who's almost 53 years old. He still cranks em out and provides a great show.
My wife and I ended up about 15 rows back which is likely the closest I've been at a concert. I don't get to go to very many concerts so this was a special for me (I'm 42 and have only been to the following... Roger Waters, REO Speedwagon, Sammy Hagar, Zebra (opened for Sammy), The Jets, Mike and the Mechanics, The Outfield, KC and the Sunshine Band, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Mannheim Steamroller, ELO2, America, Chuck Mangione (the last two were college concerts that came with my ticket package for the year).
Anyway, back to Billy Idol. Steve Stevens was amazing with his guitar skills. He provided amazing solos and sweet guitar skills which added to the energy of the show.
During the show, Billy sang to the ladies in the front row and even signed an autograph for one lucky lady. Later, he threw out some drum sticks and guitar picks. Then he picked up what looked like Frisbees. He then sent them out to the audience. I ended up getting one that someone else missed. It ended up on the floor and I quickly stepped on it to claim it. It ended up being a thick paper plate and was autographed. So, I got the autographed plate shown below.
The show featured well known hits from many of his albums as well as some of his new stuff from the past couple of albums. All were played excellently and were sung with near studio quality. When he and the band left the stage, we all started chanting, "Billy, Billy" and then the band came out and sang a three song encore that included Mony, Mony and Rebel Yell.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The Website Is Down
A mashup of true and mostly-true stories from IT hell. If you've ever called tech support and wondered what the hell they are doing down there... well, this should answer some questions for you.Starring Apache, Windows XP, Linux and Halo (among many others)(warning, some strong language)
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
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