ShimmyT Was Here

Yeah it’s time to update. Also watching the google wave demo!

That’s my new theme song / a great starter song. It’s been a rough start to 2009. All sorts of craziness going on that I am trying to get my head around it. Also it does not help at all that I had a piss poor run tonight. I was supposed to do 6 miles and could only muster out 3 and a half. Not what I wanted at all.

So in trying to keep my head up though, my moodle cluster is going surprisingly well. I am now running into what I hope is a solvable issue which is my LVS not being able to keep up with the simulated load that I am throwing at it. Maybe some TCP/IP tweaking will get it going. Who knows. Anyway I’ll try to keep this updated going forward. Pray for me ya’ll!

Another year and another auto show. The G word I would use this year wouldn’t be “Glamour” but “Green”. Every manufacturer seems to be rolling out concepts of vehicles that will “revolutionize” the auto industry and batteries, and blah blah blah. When I was here 3 years ago they said this technology would be coming this year but now it’s 2 more years out. Well here are the highlights so far that I’ve gotten to be a part of:

Sunday:

• Got here kind of late so missed the car and truck of the year awards (my bad).
• General Motors had Mario Impemba (kick ass) do a rolling intro of some of their new this year and next year cars Chevrolet Volt, Cruz, Equinox, and the Cadillac SRX. The Equinox was a lot nicer in person then it was online which is a good thing. It looks like a smaller Chevrolet Traverse which isn’t a bad thing. The SRX is very hot. Imagine a tall CTS station wagon. Lastly they introduced their concept which is the Cadillac Converj. Yeah it’s just a volt with chrome and a Cadillac crest. Wasn’t too impressed. I’ll try to get more time with it on Tuesday.
• Lexus introduced another Camry I mean Lexus… I was zoning out during this press conference.
• Ford touted how their sales are doing and hyped up how well the Focus, and Fusion are doing. Every time I see that Fusion I like it a little more. Plus with the new hybrid version getting kick ass MPG it’s looking better. They also rolled out the new for 2010 Ford Taurus… Well at least they didn’t mention how many golf bags it could hold like they did for the 500. I personally thought the 500 was a damn sharp car but the market didn’t agree with me so hopefully this one does better.
• Chrysler rolled out three EV hybrids. No production cars. I don’t think you can sell concepts so what’s the point?
• Went downstairs and rode in the backseat while Marion drove an Escape Hybrid around the track downstairs. That’s actually pretty cool the little track. They have a whole green scene setup and everything. If you go to this years show head downstairs and check it out.
• Skipped the rest of the day lol
• Went to Bucharest Grill in downtown Detroit. Fantastic little lunch / bar place. Had my first shwarma. Not really my thing but a very cool atmosphere to say the least.

Monday (Today)

• Saw the Lincoln press conference this morning. The new MKT is pretty cool. Imagine a lincolnized Ford Flex with more rounded edges. It’ll take some time getting used to but definately not like anything else on the road. Their concept was kind of ho humm i’ll get more details and pictures about it tomorrow. They really hyped talking to the computer in it. Go figure.
• Saw the GM presser next. They talked about the batteries for their future hybrids and how they are going to be built in MI!! Well I guess assembled but hell it’s more jobs for the area. They are also building / opening the headquarters for their battery research in MI (yay!!), and partnering with UofM for education, and engineer progrsams. LG Chem got the cell contract for manufacturing of the cells.
• Toyota unveiled the new Prius. Looks like the new Honda Insight actually, but some damn cool new features. 50mpg, and it has a solar sunroof that aids in powering the batteries on sunny days, and when the car is parked on a hot day the sunroof powers the fans to circulate the air in the cabin to keep the car cooler. Very cool stuff indeed.
• Drove one of the Tesla’s around the track downstairs!! It’s kind of frightening how much power those things have for being so quiet. Had to wait in line for a while for them though. They were only running them for an hour. Something about 0 to 60 in less then 4 seconds freaks people out.

Well that’s about it so far. I’ve got some video that I’ll be putting up on youtube today as well as some photos that will be going up on flickr. I’ll post them all to the blog as I finish up.

Well start of a new year, so therefor hopefully the start of many big things. Or in my case the continuation, and the finishing of big things from 2008. Ironically I’m back on Vista to start 2009 so maybe things have come full circle. I do have a couple of major milestones this year to look forward to. I will be turning 30 as much as I try to fight it I don’t think I can roll back time. Also it’ll be 5 years that my wife and I will be married and 10 years together. A lot of interesting times together indeed. I don’t think I’d rather go through them with anyone else. Maybe go through them less but with no one else.

Well my goal for next year amongst continuing to grow, technically, spirtually, mentally, and physically as well as being a better husband, friend, and brother is to run 500 miles in 2009. and you can track my progress here:

I figure if I average about 42 miles a month all year long I should be able to make it. If you’re counting at home I need to do 2 miles 4 times a week or start bumping up my distances which I want to do anyway.

Well still on holiday break and I’m back in the office. Although this part of the job I really love. Not so much the politics of the position but the actual technical work I get to do is absolutely wonderful. Some things I’m doing today, getting one of our districts network setup in VMware, and also finding some nice tools to create virtual floppies. Still looking for something good though. Also the new version for FastSCP is great as well, works a lot better then their previous version.

Also if you’re running VMware ESX on multiple hosts and you’re looking for a free monitoring solution please check out Veeam’s Monitor free solution. Excellent little app, that I will be reviewing soon.

Well as you can tell, the site has been changed around a lil bit. First most recent comments on the side (yay) then all of my Nike+ data. I’ve also got a tag cloud going (bigger items are things I talk about more), and all of my latest tweets (I’m using twitter a lot more now). Let me know what you think

I think it’s time for a site redesign, I have a lot of crap on the sidebar now so over the next few days I’ll be playing with themes I think.

Since I was asked about how the running was coming and wether or not people could track me on the sidebar there you’ll notice my little Nike+ guy. He motivates me, and plus you’ll see when I don’t run for a while he’ll get all lazy and start playing video games and stuff. You can see how my training and stuff is going from there as well. I’m still looking for a way to put up my challenge info too.

In my ever expandng search for fne spirits I set off on a searh for some scotch that my VMware trainer recommended. The name of the brand is Glenrothes. I thought it would be harder to find, but turns out my local Holiday Market carries it. Price wasn’t too extravagant, about what youd expect for a nicer bottle of scotch.

Now the only scotch I have to compare this to is a bottle of Chivas Regal 18 R.O. (thanks H). The bottle of Glenrothes  I purchased was the 1991 Speyside Single Malt. I was expecting there to be major differences but damn I didn’t think they would be that great. So starters when you open the bottle it’s got a sweet smell, not like the Chivas but sweet none the less. It also has a woody smell which I’m guessing is from the casks that they keep it in for all of those years. It’s got a mild sweet taste, with a very straightforward kind of feel where as the Chivas has a bunch of different flavors. It doesn’t burn coming in or going down which is also a plus. Does give you a nice warm feeling all over after you finish the glass though.

Is it a keeper hell yes. I’ll probably start saving up for the 1984 bottle now too. This has also piqued my interest for other single malt scotches. Other things happening now, I’m finally on the last episode of Mad Men season 1. Such a good damn show. Looking forward to getting Season 2 in HD. One last thing I think this bottle of scotch is going to be going fast.