Yeah, I’m a slacker who hasn’t updated in a few weeks. In my defence, it’s been busy! Work, work.
Jason DeRulo
My main reason for attending the 2009 Virgin Music Festival in Deer Lake Park was to see Our Lady Peace. I’ve been a fan of them since about 2002, when they released “Gravity“. I like most of what they’ve done, both old and new. They’re a canadian group that was formed in Toronto, Ontario.
Our Lady Peace @ Deer Lake Park (Virgin Festival)
One of the songs they played live was called “Paper Moon”. It’s a softer song, but moves into a strong passionate rock. It’s off OLP’s seventh studio album, “Burn, Burn“. So far I like quite a bit off their new album. OLP has a very unique sound, in both their style of music and of their lead vocalist, Raine Maida. They had a great performance, and despite a very easy going attitude on stage, they have such a passion for their music, it’s unmatched. During the performance, Raine even starting climbing up the stage. They continued playing even as a severe thunderstorm took over Deer Lake Park, even cracking jokes about joining the crowd in the downpour.
“I was thinking that if you know a way out, then I’d like to go with you..”
In an effort to push myself to post on this thing more, I’ve decided to steal an idea from the intarwebs: Music Mondays. I’m going to try to post at least each Monday with something simple about the music that I’m currently listening to. My tastes change so much, it should be easy to come up with new topics.
To kick off Music Mondays, I’m going to introduce you to MUTEMATH.
MUTEMATH @ Deer Lake Park (Virgin Festival)
I saw these guys live at the 2009 Virgin Music Festival. They are a Grammy Award nominated American rock band from New Orleans that formed in 2003. I had never heard them before, but they effing rocked the house (had there been a house, mind you). They have a very power driven sound, and you can feel the raw passion for their music. “Spotlight” is the first single off their new album “Armistice”.
Ready for another chestnut in the “how big of a geek am I” fire?
So this week was momentus for the NOC.. we finally got brand new workstations for the whole thing, after waiting on them for quite some time. Quite an upgrade from the Frankenstein’d boxes we were working on prior. So in this new set up, I moved to a external hard drive with my own operating system, which allows me to move my workspace around between systems. However, I had to pick a unique name for my workstation.
Naming your computers is always a big thing for a geek. It has to fit the system. Many times, you have a naming convention to stick to, while others, it’s just picking something that fits.
The result of my search?
cblecker@alexander:~$
Alexander fits this system. You wanna know in how many ways? Check this out:
- My desktop systems usually have a male name, and mobile systems a female name.
- Alexander is the male version of my personal laptop’s name — “Alexis”
- It fits with the sort-of naming convention of a lot of Vancouver servers — after alcoholic beverages (such as sleeman, budwiser, shiraz, etcc), in this case, after “Alexander Keith’s India Pale Ale“.
- It also has a fear-striking quality, in that it was also a name shared by a great king and feared army commander, “Alexander the Great“.
So you see, a lot of thought goes into a good name. And yes, I really am a big frickin geek.
Out Of Office
The below was cross-posted to the Peer1 Internal Staff site, as part of my participation in the Peer1 Employee Exchange Program.
Hey Peer1,
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Christoph Blecker, and I’m a Network Analyst working in the Vancouver NOC. I was chosen to be the first participant in the new Peer1 Employee Exchange program, and am spending this whole week in the ServerBeach San Antonio office. I’ll be spending the majority of the time with the SB Support Team, headed up by Mark Melin.
It’s been a fun week so far. By sheer coincidence, I’m not the only person starting in SAT support this week. Jim Park, formerly of Los Angeles DCO roots, picked up and moved down to Texas last weekend. This is his first week working as a Support Specialist on the San Antonio support team. We are both learning the ropes of this office together.
So far I’ve spent time shadowing a few different members of the support team:
- Brenda C. in doing Support Level 1
- Jayson A. doing Support Level 2
- Stephanie D. doing Billing
- Allison H. doing Winback/Cancellations
I’ve also put tons of names and faces together, as well as collected a much deeper insight into the scope of issues that crop up at The Beach. Holy Plesk issues, Batman!
I’ve also been able to sample local cuisine. Breakfast Tacos? Beef and Cheese Enchiladas? Yummm! Much better than Taco Bell (the extent of my previous Mexican experience)! So far so good! I’m getting comfortable down here now, which isn’t that where the fun begins?
The other big thing I’ve noticed is the heat. I’m a Canadian. I’m most comfortable in that 17-20C (62-68F) range. It’s been up to 101F (38C) at the peak this week. I’m not down with that. At all. Thankfully the beach is kept at a nice, cool temperature. Safe to say, I’ve been huddling inside.
More to come!