Archive for December, 2009

Happy New Years!

Posted on December 31st, 2009 by Ryan Reed

Another year gone, 2010 is now upon us. Should be an interesting year, but then again, every new year looks interesting when looking ahead.

Some New Year's Resolutions (that are bound to be ignored like everyone else)

  • Stop procrastinating and earn my CCNA
  • Actually continue working out every week instead of stopping and starting 20 times a year
  • Possibly look into new job opportunities more toward the south (I'm not a cold weather kind of guy and wouldn't mind changing things up a bit)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but I'm sure I'll add a few on by the end of tonight.

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European Vacation Incoming

Posted on December 29th, 2009 by Ryan Reed

I've been thinking about it a lot and would really like to take a vacation to Europe while I'm still this dashing, young guy. I mentioned this to one of my friends at work, Chris Teekema (Teek for short). Teek has family that actually lives in Amsterdam and said that he was looking to take a trip out there sometime this year. Definitely an opportunity has arisen.

Teek mentioned his granparents would likely allow a few of us to stay at their place in the city for free, which would be awesome. So now we're planning a trip to out to Amsterdam for sometime in late March, early April. I know it is going to be a tad pricey but I really think it'll be well worth it and an awesome experience.

So yeah, that's the plan. Should be fun if we follow through with it. Updates to come in the near future.

Note: The Gallery is back up. Yay...

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Pictures from Knoxville

Posted on December 26th, 2009 by Ryan Reed

So, just a few pictures from my vacation to Knoxville this year. Nothing too exciting but I like how some of these turned out.

DSC_0531 DSC_0605 DSC_0608 DSC_0628

DSC_0540 DSC_0610

I am a tad disappointed in the bird picture. The shot could have been a lot better but the lighting was pretty crappy, I wasn't really ready for it, and I didn't really mess with the settings enough on the camera. Next time I'm in Knoxville, I hope to grab a better shot.

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The Redesign (v3.0)

Posted on December 26th, 2009 by Ryan Reed

So, out of boredom, I've been working on this new design. I am definitely liking this design a tad more. It's cleaner then the old design and much easier to modify. There are a few things I need to update a tad but so far, it's looking good. I did also upgrade from WordPress 2.7 to the newest version 2.9 while I was at it.

This was also the first design that I modified on my home server first so that I knew exactly what was going to happen when I implemented it. It was a lot easier then the previous design where I was editing in notepad, uploading, and refreshing to see if the desired effect took hold.

If you notice any issues, definitely email me. I've been trying to check everything but you just never know.

Note: I am aware that the site doesn't display perfectly in Inter Explorer 6. The sidebar shows itself below the body. I think I know why but I don't care enough to fix it. IE7+, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are currently supported

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Operation Boxhead

Posted on December 21st, 2009 by Ryan Reed

So, I recently took a trip to Tennessee to visit the family, but that's really a story for another post. This story is about what happened when I returned to that non-island of a state, Rhode Island.

Before I left for TN, I decided that the best place for my car was the parking lot at work. It would be pretty safe from vandals as the place has security almost 24/7. But I did recognize that it could snow and I was not there to move the car for the plows. I decided that I would leave the key in my locker at work and ask a friend, Jason Lomba, to move the car if needed. This may have been a mistake.

When I got back from TN, Brian Roy had offered to pick me up. Pretty cool as otherwise I would have just grabbed a taxi. When we got to the parking lot, I noticed my car was in a different spot and the plows had packed me in pretty good. I chalked up the new parking space to having to move the car for the plowing, nothing weird.

I end up grabbing a shovel from work and starting to shovel out the front of my car. Brian suggested starting the car up just to get it warm. Not a bad idea, I thought. I hop over to the driver's side and notice 4 of my friends, Joe Webster, Jason Lomba, Chris Lomba, and Jim Stergiou, hiding behind the car. I immediately knew something was up. I looked in the car and saw that my car had been completely filled with packing peanuts.

Now when I say "filled with packing peanuts," maybe you're thinking "must have filled up the seats and floor." Not sir/madam, that is not really what I meant. The peanuts filled up the entire car and were put in place through the sunroof of the vehicle.

A couple things to note:

  1. Joe spent $120+ on biodegradable packing peanuts.
  2. My boss, boss's boss, and boss's boss's boss were all aware of the prank. They were concerned I'd be upset. I definitely was not.
  3. The name Operation Blockhead came from George Simon's son. I went to a BBQ at George's and his son asked him "why does he have such a block head," referring to me. Yup...
  4. The peanuts start to biodegrade as soon as water is introduced. This causes them to get really slick and stick to the bottom of shoes. They were really annoying to get off.
  5. I had to drive around for a while, looking for a gas station with the large nose vacuum hoses and not the narrow, easy to clog noses.

I must say, it was an interesting experience. Check out the pictures after the break. (Higher quality pictures will be uploaded later this week)

(more...)

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