December 1, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday (on Friday) – 01 Dec 2017

Although I don’t blog as often as I’d like, there are some weeks that I have enough to fill a Three Things Thursday post. Here are those things from this past week that are worthy of gratitude, smiles and a chuckle or two.

1 – Sweetzels Ginger Snaps

These things are fracking awesome! They’re super crunchy, about the size of a half-dollar and have that super awesome Ginger burn at the back of the throat. Apparently they’re seasonal in my neck of the woods, so I did what any sane person would do: I cleared the shelf! This was the entire stock of Ginger Snaps they had in the store and yes, I asked if they had more in the back. Now, I need to figure out how to make them last through next year because I’ll be a sad camper when they’re gone.

2 – Mantis on the Door

I was coming in from work one day last week and saw this dude hanging out on the screen. Actually think this is a dudette as the men are much smaller and not as green. Anyway, I ended up removing her from the screen door and put her down in the front garden. It’s not typical to see one so late into the Fall because they don’t like the cold. My daughter love seeing one so close and got a kick out of letting it sit in her hands. The dog unsuccessfully tried to eat it…. bad dog.

3 – KC and Lucy (repeat)

I’ve recycled this picture from my last TTT post. It was so damned awesome that I had to and couldn’t resist. They’ve both best buds and often sleep together on the bed in the living room. Lucy, the cat, is a nuclear ball of energy that has managed to get herself into everything bad. I’ve made repairs to several things including the fill line for the refrigerator ice maker/dispenser. That was a fun one, it started with the question “Why is the floor covered in water?” Yeah, not fun, but she’s so cute its hard to stay made at her for long. KC, the dog, probably chuckled and said “Oooooo, you got in trouble.”

Newly Found Music

Song: 17
Artist: Of Allies
Album: Night Sky

Thanks for visiting!

This has been a Three Things Thursday production hosted by There She Goes and was the brainchild of Nerd in the Brain.

November 2, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 11/02/2017

Hosted by There She Goes
Originally inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

I’ve had a really interesting few weeks since my last TTT post. I lost the battle about a new kitten in the house and the only stipulation I had was not having to do the litter box. A task that the daughter was all too willing to take on and hasn’t missed a single day since we got our newest member, Lucy.

This Is Lucy

You all will probably recognize that what we have here is a Tortoise Shell cat, that apparently because she has white, could be classified as a Calico. Since we got Lucy so early, just shy of 6 weeks old, she’s identified with a lot of the behaviors from her sister, KC. The bone Lucy is holding is in fact the antler chew toy that KC won’t let out of her sight, at least, except when Lucy is monopolizing it. I hope that as she gets older she’ll act more like a cat than a dog.

No Bed!

While I didn’t ever mind having a cat on the bed, I do mind having a dog on the bed. KC is a furry, stinky and shedding mess that for some reason ONLY lies on my side of the bed. She knows she’s not supposed to be on the bed and will not so gracefully jump down when she hears me coming up the steps. The picture here is KC protesting after being told to stay off the bed and as usual, her companion is glued to her side.

Fast Becoming BFF’s

The rare times that KC is able to lay on her dog bed without the tiny kitten hogging it, this is what she has to endure. KC will sleep and Lucy will nuzzle into her side. I snapped this picture only a few days after we got Lucy and KC is giving me the “why did you do this to me?” stare while Lucy is being oblivious. I’m concerned that Lucy is going to be more like a small furry dog than a small furry cat. We’ve already confirmed she’s going to be a long hair cat, and a fast dog lick will certainly cause some matted and knotted cat fur. Just glad I don’t have to do the stupid litter box.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Sober (Tool Cover)

by O’Keefe Music Foundation

September 21, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 09/22/2017

Hosted by There She Goes
Originally inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

The last TTT I posted was way back on June 15th, so I’m a little out of practice and for that, I apologize. Work has intruded rather rudely into Life and I’m finally at a point where a balance can be achieved again. That said, here we go!

Phone Is Finally Fixed

About two weeks ago, my Samsung Galaxy S7 stopped charging. It said there was moisture in the USB port that I know wasn’t there. I called Samsung and they immediately told me to send it in to be fixed. Forward 7 days using an absolutely horrible “spare” phone, it’s now back in my hands. They not only fixed the USB port, but replaced the LCD (not sure why) and put in a fresh new battery. Props to Samsung!

2017 Audit Season is OVER!

Yes, you read that right, 2017 audit season at my company is over! It was an absolutely horrible process this year. We’re reviewing our control mappings for a new compliance effort AND continuing to run the soon to be obsolete controls. Every question requires me to know if it’s the old or new control library and confusion ensues in every direction. Now, that I’m not auditing, I can completely focus on getting our common control framework built and published.

Partner at Eat Pray Vote

I’ve written for them since January 2017. I was recently asked to be a partner, so awesome! The success of the site is now a vested interest for me. Providing my technical experience and knowledge to the team of writers I’ve helped take the site to a new level. A self-hosted site now after I performed a migration a few weeks ago, it’s running smoothly and steadily growing. There’s a link to my author profile in the sidebar. There is something on there for everyone. Be sure to stop by and see what we’re writing about.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

I Wear My Skin

by One Minute Silence

June 15, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 06/15/2017

#Bathwater

Hosted by There She Goes
Originally inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

Daughter At Band Night

BandNight

My daughter plays the drums. I pointed her out in the picture because it’s hard to see her otherwise. She had fun and I think she might actually stick with it this time. Only time will tell.

Dr. Who Proudly On Display

DrWho

With a new season of Dr. Who, I felt it necessary to display some of my collection out in the open. These are two of my favorites, because what geek doesn’t want to travel is a real TARDIS and go back in time righting the wrongs done to them during school age years. The left one is a cookie jar with a working blue light on the top and the right is a tea mug with lid.

New Mousepad

Mousepad

Before you get on my case about purchasing a mouse pad let alone using one, it was necessary. The mouse I have is a laser optical and it requires some sort of texture or visual difference on the surface its gliding over. Well, my desk is white, smooth, and stark of anything worthy of a laser to actually use for movement. Rather than spend $100 on a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, I opted for a $10 mouse pad. It works well and has improved movement accuracy quite a bit.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

rockondaughter

Make Some Noise

by Beastie Boys

May 18, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 05/18/2017

Hosted by There She Goes
Originally inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

Daughter Art

I can’t recall if I shared this already, but it’s a good one none the less. The daughter did this drawing for me when she came to work with me a few weeks ago. Obsessed with dragons, dinosaurs and Pokemon, her abilities as an artist are exponentially growing the more she draws. This particular one was done by finding a picture online, and then freehanding it onto paper. The colors are her own because she told me the original colors were boring. I hope this is something she keeps with her well into adulthood as drawing apparently is extremely cathartic.

Happy Birthday Shenanigans

My cubicle neighbor turned 50 this past Sunday. Not to be outdone in returned favors, a co-worker that turned 50 a few weeks back, with a decorated cubicle by my neighbor, had the favor returned using the same materials. She walked in and left it up most of the morning before taking it down. That’s a good sport in my book. No one knows my birthday in the office for this very reason, so no decorations for me, which is how I like it to be.

Back In The Day: All your base belong to us!

Before there were PS4’s and XBox Ones, with their near reality resolution and graphics, we had to put up with graphics like in the picture above. This was advanced for the time and often, translations were done rather poorly resulting in the iconic line displayed. This was the rally cry of nerds everywhere when they achieved a major accomplishment in the games of the time. It certainly brought back memories of playing Quake III: Arena and StarCraft: Brood Wars. Both games had their own iconic sayings that I fondly remember. I miss the days of games that, well, looked like games.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Give Me A Sign

by Burn Halo

May 11, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 05/11/2017

Hosted by There She Goes
Originally inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

The Dog

Seriously? Why you no pet me?

I worked from home on Monday and apparently the dog was a little lonely. She came down to visit me in my office in the basement and after jamming her wet nose into my elbow a few times, she finally gave up and sat down against the wall. She kept looking at me with a horribly sad look on her face. I’m not sure if she is cleverly manipulative or I’m projecting my own human emotions onto her canine facial expressions, but she ended up getting to sit in my recliner to the left out of view.

No, I not drooling on your comforter.

Later on Monday, after a long hard day of staring at me with “puppy dog eyes”, she was apparently really tired. That must be really hard work. She took to slowly sliding down the chaise lounge chair in the corner of my bedroom while the wife read.

Increasing Viewership

I’ve been writing for EPV now for just over 3 months and am loving every minute of it. I doubled my unique views from March to April to end up with the above number. If only I could get that kind of viewership here, that’d be really cool. Rather than toss out as many pieces as I can, I’ve taken a more measured approach and take my time writing and publishing a piece every few days. It really paid off for April and I’m on track to do more views in May. Hard to believe the EPV site is only 8 months old!

Back In The Day: ROFL Copter

Something a little new and hopefully a regular entry to my TTT weekly post. I was sent this from a colleague at work for saying something really funny on a conference call that no one could actually laugh to. It’s now made the rounds several times over between all of us at work and it’s still going. It made me quietly reflect for several days of all the things we used to do “back in teh day” when computers were new and relegated to the nerds and geeks of the world. I’ll be digging into my past and pulling out some gems to remind myself of days long past when it was actually fun to talk to most people you found online, aka Pre-Troll-ERA.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Royals (Rock Version)

by Relic Hearts

May 4, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 05/04/2017

Inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

Daughter at Work

It was National Bring Your Son or Daughter To Work Day last Thursday. Naturally I brought the daughter with me to work so she could be bored to death all day and see just how boring my job really is. Surprisingly though, she enjoyed herself and even brought a laptop so she could “work” on things like finding new backgrounds, researching her book battle authors and pretending to do what I do; stare at screens pretending to work 🙂

We Have Tomatoes

The wife decided that we needed to try our hand again at growing things. We’ve not had a good track record these last few years and it comes down to either not enough watering or too much watering. I try to remember, but trying to figure out what she’s done things will typically get overwatered and drown. This tomato plant is small, and has a lot of dirt under it with holes in the bottom of the pot, hopefully they won’t die and I’ll get fresh tomatoes later this year. We planted Chocolate Mint and Basil plants as well along with some weeds (aka lettuce).

Todoist

I don’t think this is the first time I’ve talked about this one, but I’ve come to love it again after a brief period of ignoring it’s reminders that I had crap overdue. They recently updated it and the whole experience is so much more seamless across devices that it’s made it rather easy to remember to do things. It’s only $30US or so per year and well worth the money if you need help remembering to do things when they need to actually be done. Disclaimer, I’m not paid in any way for endorsing this application.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Fading Star

by Weaving The Fate

April 27, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 04/27/2017

Inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

Fuzzbutt

The cat has been on a real tear recently with eating, puking, eating some more, repeat…. We don’t have the cash right now to pay for a ridiculously expensive vet visit and think it’s probably a big hairball or something. He’s been sleeping like this covering his nose and face with a paw. As long as he manages to keep some of his food down, we’re good. He’s going to be 12 this year.

The Daughter, 10 years ago

The wife and I were going through old pictures in an attempt to organize our giant 100GB directory of pictures taken over the last decade or so and came across a bunch of the daughter. This was roughly, give or take a few weeks, 10 years ago just after Easter. Everytime we put her in this seat, that vibrated, she smiled and giggled the whole time. I miss these days sometimes.

The Daughter, Now

I need to remind everyone, this girl is 10 years old! She was all dressed up going to a baby shower this past weekend with my wife. I took picutres of the both of them as its rare for any of us to get dressed up for anything. I realized very quickly I’m in trouble when she gets a few years older when my wife told me that boys (nephews of the expectant mother), aged 14-16, were talking to her at the party. They apparently didn’t know she was only 10.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Step Up (I’m On It)

by Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster

April 13, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 04/13/2017

Inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

A New Fence….

Actually 3 pictures stitched together, Android did a good job…. So did the contractor.

The wife wanted a new fence, so we got a fence. It’s not a true Spring unless we go into more debt building a new fence to keep the dog in the yard.

Car Show This Past Weekend

Really? You’re taking my picture? No, I’m not going to smile.

Ok, I admit it, The Dukes of Hazzard was my absolute favorite show growing up. The General Lee was probably the most bangin car on television at the time. I had no clue what the Union Jack meant back then, so no comments about that please. If I owned this car, I would certainly replace that with the American flag. The daughter was oh so happy standing in front of it for me to take the picture.

Fuzz Butt Cuteness

Where’s Mommy? I no want you.

The wife was away Saturday and Sunday, the dog didn’t like it. This was her most of the night trying to get me to pet her stinky head.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Distort Yourself

by Institute

April 6, 2017 by Andrew

Three Things Thursday – 04/06/2017

Inspired by Nerd in the Brain

BRING THE HAPPY!

Backyard Lake

No, we can’t go swimming in that….Ew!

Earlier this week we had some crazy rain one day and this was the result. Off our backyard is an overflow water retention area that collects water so that the sewer system isn’t overloaded. When it rains hard, we get a rather impressive lake of sorts in our backyard. The ground was so saturated that we were getting water in our sump pit that was periodically being pumped outside. It was a really crappy day but I was happy that our sump pump was working and didn’t need to be replaced (as was the case with so much else in this house the last 10 months). Yay for underground pumps keeping the basement dry!

Another Painting

The wife had a bunch of friends over last weekend to have a painting party. They get together monthly for some random activity that months host decides on and I’m happy they spend money on tangible things rather than on alcohol (which is what they used to do). This is one of her best paintings and will certainly get a worthy spot on the wall in my office. I’m starting to run out of wall space though, so I may need to come up with a genius plan to extend the available space so I can keep hanging her artwork. If I ever get around to building the enclosure around the sump pit and the radon exhaust system in the corner of my office, I’ll add quite a bit of new wall space. Motivation, where are you?

Fuzz Butt Cuteness

I’m being cute. Look! Take my picture!

Our cat, Harley, was being cute again on Tuesday night. He was even looking at me when I took the picture as if to say he knows he’s cute. The fuzz butt was repaying me with this shot for having yacked in the only room in the entire house with carpet. Queue the steam cleaner at 5:30am in the morning because if I didn’t clean it up, my wife would have definitely stepped in it. I opted to clean it up as that annoyance was so much smaller than the phone call from the wife saying she stepped in it and yelling at me for not cleaning it up. He’s almost 12 by the way, with bad teeth that cause sinus infections and weepy eyes. Fuzz butt cuteness makes up for any frustration we have with him though.

TTT Weekly Music Recommendation

Wanderer

by Red Handed Denial