DanRochman.com

Yay! It took some doing (I had to reset some permissions on my web server after a lockdown tool set them a little TOO securely - yes, I know you don’t care), but I FINALLY HAVE THE JAPAN PICS UP IN THE GALLERY.

I gave blood again today - when’s the last time YOU gave? A gentle reminder to all readers (um, reader) to go donate a pint. Then go replace it with, um, a pint?

And if it hasn’t been delayed (or cancelled), Em and I should be going to see Vic Chesnutt at Bottom of the Hill tomorrow night. Apparently there was a fire…?

UPDATE: Show is postponed due to a fire next door, and some water damage at the club. Bummer. If you haven’t heard Vic Chesnutt, go buy About to Choke. If you don’t like it I’ll buy it off you and give it to someone who will.

The first-ever Man Night festivities were held Chez Moi last night. Well, Chez Moi-et-Emylene, but it was MAN Night, so Em was deliberately absent.

I think it was a pretty resounding (if mellow) success. Those who came partook of MEAT, and POTATOES, and BEER, and PLAYSTATION 2 (I rented Wreckless - badly reviewed, but we had a lot of fun with it), and generally sat around enjoying “the company of men in the absence of women”, and the presence (and celebration) of gratuitously manly things. Well, more like GeekBoy things, but we’re not quibblers. Three Fine Fellows (plus Yours Truly) inaugurated the event, and we’ll probably grow it soon, although it’s good to keep these things small. The next Man Night will revolve around the upcoming (May 15th) release of The Matrix Reloaded. Oh, yes.

Note that there was no running with wolves, or beating of drums, or… none of that New Age crap, period. Don’t be startin’ no rumors. And please - don’t be hatin’.

There *may* be photos of the next Man Night, if I can get consent forms signed. And Arnon, you’re officially invited - we’ll toast you in absentia in the meantime, but try to get out here if you can.

I finally figured out why Movable Type wasn’t sending me any e-mail notifications - after wasting entirely too much time trying to figure out what was wrong with MT, I realized that it was all actually a problem with the way SMTP and DNS were configured on my server.

So, now that all is pretty much happy-happy in MT, I’m thinking of rebuilding the site around the fairly impressive Tiki platform. But I actually want to keep using MT for my blogging, and so I have to see if Tiki and MT can play nicely together first. I don’t see why not…

My friend Joe just got back from Hawaii the night before last, and came over for Man Night last night, and already has his trip photos online. I’ve been back from Japan for ages, and still haven’t uploaded mine to the DanRochman.com - Online Photo Gallerygallery. I am shamed, and have a renewed determination to get them online tonight.

PASSED.

Passing Score: 755. My Score: 866.

Thanks to Arnon for the support.

Half-Decent Excuse: Been spending all spare minutes cramming for Microsoft Exam 70-228 (Admin, Install & Config MS SQL Server 2000). Joy.
Real Reason: Still not in the habit of blogging - I occasionally stop and remember that I have a blog now, and can/should post something to it.

I’ll be taking the exam in a couple of hours, so I’ll blog freely later this evening, before Em and I leave to see CAT POWER at the Great American Music Hall later tonight. I’m expecting it to be an awesome show, so at least I have a nice reward to look forward to for studying hard and passing my SQL exam. Ahem. I *will* pass the SQL exam…

Wish me luck. That means YOU, Arnon.

Just doing some work from home, and listening to the generally amazing Radio Paradise, and on comes Johnny Cash doing his cover of “Personal Jesus”. And I just have to take the time to blog that Johnny just ROCKS. Yes, I know (and love) his cover of “Rusty Cage”, and this cover isn’t quite as good as that one, but it just reminded me that the guy is cooler than the other side of my pillow.

This weekend had me almost convinced that I’ll *never* have my Japan pics posted, but I haven’t quite given up hope yet. I’m just another human with more tasks than time, that’s all. A common affliction, and I’m sure it’ll work itself out.

Alright, I’m *not* getting around to posting the Japan pics. Sigh…

In the interim, and before I forget:

Some Things the Japanese Do Right

• the COOLEST toilets in the world - I MUST have one
• numbered subway exits
• oshibori
• onsen (hot springs / communal baths / hot tubs)
• love hotels (rooms for a “rest”, or for the night - very discreet, and set up for, um, love)
• wicked hand dryers in public washrooms that actually DRY your hands, in SECONDS
• bullet trains, commuter trains, subway trains - a public transport system that rocks, although it can be INSANELY overcrowded and often doesn’t run late enough

Some Things the Japanese Do Wrong

• ironically, really AWFUL toilets
• most restaurants serve tiny drinks, and NO refills - not even of water
• most streets (in TOKYO!!) don’t have NAMES, which makes finding places almost impossible

Some Random Japanese Trivia

• no wasabi with your sushi - IN your sushi, but no extra side of wasabi like in North America (but you DO get pickled ginger and soy sauce)
• napkins (usually bad) in restaurants are usually standing on end in a drinking glass on the table
• 100 Yen (US$0.80!!!) for a pay-phone call - a TIMED one (get a phone card for 1,000 Yen - MUCH better deal!!)
• they don’t do open reservations at restaurants - i.e., you have a table from (e.g.) 19:00 to 21:00, and had better be done and gone by 21:00

That’s all I can recall right now. Anyone got any others?

I’m staying at the Drury Inn in St. Peters, and working at a site a few miles away.

The nearest Starbucks is probably back at the airport.
Thus, I am counting the minutes until I get back to the airport Friday evening. The coffee at the hotel is awful, and the coffee at the client site is worse. Sigh

The last two days have been really long - getting back to the hotel too late to even think about (e.g.) using the pool or walking through the mall next door. [Gotta pick up some St. Peters souvenirs, ya know?] Maybe tonight… Although I doubt it. Friday is a short day because we fly out in the early evening, and need to be at the airport early - and the schedule is jam-packed. Looks like two more long days (and a short one) to go. Sigh.

Sighs aside, things could be worse - it’s cold and dreary here (mostly), but no freezing rain or tornadoes. And the hotel room has cable, and broadband - I get to junk out on media streams before I crash at night. All we have at home are a few fuzzy channels (because - and to make sure that - we don’t watch much TV), so it’s always fun to stay somewhere with lots of channels and catch up on pop culture. So *that’s* what MTV looks like.

From the “since I’m here” department:

Over two hundred years ago, in 1789, the first building was erected near what is now the Old Town area of St. Peters. An old Indian trail, later called the Salt River Trail (Road), crossed the Dardenne Creek near where the present bridge is located.

In 1999 St. Peters has grown to over 54,000 people within 20.1 square miles.

[Lifted without permission from http://home.att.net/~d.lanahan/walkstl/stpeters.html]

Yawn. Working LONG days. Can’t wait to be home again.

Never been to St. Louis before. Flew into STL today, and I can still say I’ve never been to St. Louis. Sigh…

I’ll be here in St. Peters (um, west of St. Louis, off I-70) all week on business - we have a client with offices here, and I’ll be loading software onto some of their shiny new servers. It doesn’t seem to be a rocking travel gig - airport to hotel, 5 days of hotel-client-hotel, and back to the airport on Friday afternoon. Typical. It’d be cool to get into St. Louis proper, but the schedule doesn’t really allow for that, and I’m not the one with the rental car. I’d have hung out here an extra couple of days for sightseeing if Em could have joined me, but she couldn’t, so nix that.

I’m not all that excited about the idea of seeing St. Louis, except that my old friend (and college roomie, once upon a long time ago) Melanie is from here, and my friend (her boyfriend in those faraway days) and “Flash Legend” Rob Reinhardt is from Creve Coeur, somewhere not too far away. Not that I’ve spoken to either of them in two years or so, mostly because I suck at keeping in touch with people. I *hope* I can still count them as friends.

[Just shelled out, wrote them each an e-mail. Feeling better now. Better late than never, yadda yadda. Hope they reply... Maybe they'll wait a couple of years before they do - serve me right, right?]

Cripes - it’s almost 3:00 AM here, I’d better get to bed. I didnt’ get a chance to upload any of my Japan pics yet, but maybe tomorrow night. I’ll be stuck here in my hotel room, which (joy of joys) actually has FREE BROADBAND IN EVERY ROOM. Hallelujah. May I live to see free wireless broadband everywhere on Earth - but for now, this is a small victory.

G’night.