Franken Fan's Monster

Dealing with a failed primary processor fan in an antiquated Compaq (before HP was with them) ProLiant 5500 server is way more fun than one person should be allowed to have in a week. So I feel blessed and lucky. The refurb we obtained didn't work, so I had to take matters into my own hands and build "Franken Fan's Monster."

What I ended up with was a 120mm case fan and some connectors (from Fry's) for cooling and some jumper wires (stolen from a torn apart Cat5 patch cable). The jumpers (orange/orange-white) run from the connector in the Compaq fan into the connector for the new fan at strategic locations for fan speed detection. Don't ya just love all the wires sticking up? I'm almost afraid to put the cover back on it because it's working so well.

Thanks to all those who helped and made suggestions!!!

Can You See Me Now?

For my MGMT 4650 - International Management of IT class (Hi, Dr. Cline!!), one of our major topics is innovation and the steps that individuals (or other decision making parties) go through as they are learning about, deciding to use, and then using any innovation. A homework question this week was to consider an innovation we had recently adopted and to discuss each of the 5 steps in the process in light of the adoption of that innovation.
I picked the reflective patch I attached to my backpack to make me more visible at night when I'm on my motorcycle. Above is the jacket further away so it can be seen that it's a jacket and then closer so all that's really visible is the reflectors that are part of the jacket. Below is a picture of the backpack with the new reflective patch worn with the jacket. I got the patch at the spring motorcycle show at the North Atlanta Trade Center.

Little Baby Blue

Somewhere along the way there wasn't a post when I acquired my pretty blue toy back in March. My Little Baby Blue is a 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250R. I'm loving it. Since the picture was taken, we've had it lowered 2" to give me flat foot versus the balls of my toes.

What an Adventure!!

I'm a little late in posting this, but thought I'd share anyway. Most people I'm close to know that I was in Hawaii the last week in May. We were on Oahu the whole time, and let me just say that it was breathtakingly gorgeous. I loved it. The views, the clean air, the cheap sushi!!



So, anybody who knows me pretty much knows that I have an aversion to being submerged in water. As it turns out, clear blue-green ocean isn't as horrifying to me on a rare trip to Hawaii as one would've originally thought. Though the first wave was a bit chilly!! The novelty here is me being in the water at all. :-P

A Post I Made on Another Blog

I have edited it some here due to the change in posting location:
I just found a blog that I posted a comment on and it has provoked me. The topic was, Are you what you read? I have been an avid reader all my life. I was born into a home full of books and have maintained that myself. In recent years I've added audiobooks and ebooks to the ranks, but still I read. Last year I read 146 books (according to my tracker on www.shelfari.com). That's an average of 1 book every 2.5 days. This year I don't know that I'll get the opportunity to read that many. I do know that I'm going to work toward better multitasking. I plan to move more of my reading to the cardio machines. Maybe I can take the audiobooks on my Zune to the weight machines with me. Workouts are such a solitary thing, much like reading. And I tend to always find reasons not to do the workouts and end up laying around reading instead. Why not combine them?

Snow Comes to Georgia

This is my driveway this morning. I suspect I'm not going far today. =P

Sent from my Windows Phone

Enuff Ducks?

Sent from my Windows Phone

The Avian Theme Continues

Theoretically it may even be a Turkey Theme. I don't know if I've ever mentioned the turkey vultures that live in our subdivision. There's a flock of about 60-70 of them that roost in the tall trees. These pictures were taken around the corner from the house. Sometimes they're in the trees in our yard. This just happened to be a really clear day with a really good vantage point from which to get some good shots of these things. They're HUGE if you've never seen one up close. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture

I Can't Believe I Forgot This

We'll blame my crazed job situation at the time and leave it at that.

Here's what becomes of Bananas Gone Bad (http://uponmeetingalice.blogspot.com/2009/10/bananas-gone-bad.html) after a year goes by.

I don't have to be reminded too often what a horrible awful person I am. :P

Do You Think It Means Something?

So, to start this story, I must mention that I recently obtained employment after a somewhat short (they tell me 2 months is short in this economy....it seemed pretty long to me) break that was not of my choosing. I now find myself driving 40 miles from home to Alpharetta, GA to go to work. I started the new job the Monday before Thanksgiving. Talk about having something to be thankful for!


So Wednesday afternoon (the day before Thanksgiving) I drive from the sticks of Georgia (where I live) to Alpharetta (the big city). It was an uneventful, albeit long, drive. As I'm pulling into the parking lot, I notice that there's someone behind me. Several someones. When I get out of the car, I identify it as actually 3 someones of the wild and gobbling variety. I'm told their tempers are not to be triffled with. I want to know now if I should be concerned that I was being stalked by wild turkeys in the city and on the day before Thanksgiving, no less. Wonderland never ceases to puzzle me.

I Have Become Fearful

There's been an oil spill disaster, but not the one you think. Okay, folx this is just plain scary. The picture below is of the sidewalk from the parking lot to the back door where I work. Monday morning, (presumably) someone from the shop crew that comes in at like 6:00 am had gotten breakfast from Burger King including hash rounds. Apparently, some of those hash rounds spilled on the sidewalk on the trip in from the parking lot. Keeping that in mind, this is what the sidewalk looked like TODAY (being Thursday of the same week) after lunch. The oil slick is STILL there. If it does that to a sidewalk, what does it do to the internal workings of the human body???????

Check out this cute little tree frog

There were two of them stuck to the wall by J's front door when we came back from dinner. :)

New Toy Acquired in July

As mentioned in this post, I attended the Beginning Motorcycle Safety course and got my motorcycle license. Next logical step is to get a motorcycle. DH had been shopping around for something and finally found me a bike that we purchased on July 4. It is a 1993 Honda CB250 Nighthawk. It's a cute little thing, isn't it?



I've been riding it around some in our subdivision and have even ventured to the subdivision across from ours, which has meant getting out on the road that our subdivision is off of. I'm not great at it yet, but I'm improving!

A Passion Inspired (Possibly?)

My youngest child A fits in my motorcycle gear, as shown in the first picture. So we let her go for a ride on the back of DH's bike. I wouldn't let her ride with just anyone, especially on a bike like "Secret". She loved it. DH said she was a really good passenger and listened well to his instructions. She had a lot of fun and didn't even mind the fact that we made her wear all the gear (we wear it ourselves so she has a good example on that one....we all find that we are fond of our skin and head and eyes and such).

Another Sporting Event

The Atlanta Dream WNBA basketball team is one of the clients for the company that DH works for. As a show of support for the team, the company paid for employees and families to go out to see a game at the Philips Arena in Atlanta on Sunday, June 27 against the Los Angeles Sparks. It was a a lot of fun and I find that I have a basic enough understanding of basketball from those horror-filled childhood gym classes that I could actually follow the game for the most part. It was a good game. The Dream won 89 to 81 and it was close throughout the game so it was exciting. We had a lot of fun.

I Think There's a Hole to Wonderland in the Yard

You're thinking that I've posted pictures of a flat squirrel on my blog. And the obviousness of its location in the driveway just makes it all the worse. Then I tell you that this weird creature puts itself there and that we have nothing to do with its location or its flatness. Every other day or so, this bizarre creature flattens itself out on that same spot in the driveway and just lays there until something startles it and it leaves. Sometimes, the car coming in will startle it. Sometimes, after the car is safely stowed in the garage and no longer startling it, it comes back and once again flops down in the driveway in its spot. My daughter K is the first to have seen it and was as startled as it was when she approached it and it decided to leave. I finally caught it on camera Sunday. I think it returns to Wonderland when it leaves the driveway.

The Strange Things You Sometimes See

Monday, I think it was, DH and I were out questing for food in the lovely city of Winder, GA. We ended up at the Dairy Queen because we could see the scene in the picture above from the parking lot. It struck our interest, both being computer geeks with a strong vested interest in copper wire staying where it belongs rather than heavily loading down the trunks of cars. Go figure. Today, DH was perusing the Internets and found this ITEM regarding the photo above. The moral of the story is, a trunk-load of copper wire that obscures your license plate is probably going to attract attention you might not have been seeking.

Feet on These Chairs are Wearing Shoes

This is a funnel cake shop in Helen, GA. I almost want to go to Goodwill and find some baby shoes. :P

I Miss My Opposable Thumb

I took the Beginning Motorcycle Safety Course through the Department of Driver Services (formerly DMV) on June 12 & 13. I passed the course both written and track and got my waiver for my motorcycle license. I have been back to DDS and gotten my license too. So, based on that, anybody who doesn't already know is looking at these pictures and thinking what did you do to your hand if you passed? About 3/4 of the way through Sunday's class, I was clipped from behind by the runaway rider (DH asked me at the end of Saturday's class if we'd had any runaways so I guess experienced riders expect such things). She hit me on the left side of my stopped bike and threw me off the right side of my bike. I instinctively (stupidly?) threw out my right hand to try to catch myself. I had on good gloves so at least it's not covered in road rash. It's not broken but the wrist and thumb are sprained. In the above picture, that's a bruise not a shadow across the palm. I did get back on my bike and pass my road test after the injury though. After being out on that blacktop for 2 days in the blistering heat sweating in places I didn't know I had and frying my brain like an egg, there was no way I wasn't going to finish the class if I could. DH says he's very proud of me and is now shopping for an inexpensive used bike for me to spend more time learning on. The class was fun other than the heat and the crash. :)

One Whopper of a Bruise

Savagely attacked by wall pictures that were propped up behind my supervisor's office door. That's the back of my right thigh. Ignore the translucent skin that displays all of the veins. Yes, I know that's the palest skin anybody's ever seen (disregarding the bruise, of course). One wonders if I have some vitamin or mineral deficiency to bruise like that.