The Blog Pages of Kellan Meig'h

"End Game" Chapter 8

Well, "End Game" Chapter 8 has been posted for your reading pleasure. I'm sure the surprise at the end will get your attention.

My eye is coming along nicely but I'm afraid we (my better half and I) won't be able to attend a get-together in So Cal this month. I won't have my glasses done by the last weekend and we just don't seem to have the time off to take, either. I'm bummed.

Have a nice weekend,

Kellan, the old warhorse

What's Wrong In This Photo?

So, what's not right about this?

My friend The Silver Coyote will probably figure this one out. I can't tell you how shocked I was to see this one.

Take care,

Kellan, the old warhorse

Troubles With The Commenting System

Just a note for all of you-

The commenting system I am using for my blog right now seems to be kind of sketchy as of late. If your comments arent showing, just wait a little while. JS-Kit's servers seem to be down at the moment.

Have a great week-end,

Kellan, the old warhorse

A Comment About Commenting

It looks like the "Recent Comments" portion of my blog no longer works. I was warned this might happen so I'll have to design a workaround for the situation.

A little background; JS-Kit took over Haloscan only to discover the system (the software and the server hosting Haloscan) was failing. They decided to roll out Echo, a paid ($12 USD/yr) solution. We will have to see how it works out.

Still waiting to hear from one of my proofers before I post chapter 1 of "End Game". Maybe this weekend.

Slainte!

Kellan, the old warhorse

General News

I want to start by saying I'm rather disappointed ... it seems nobody may have read the last posting.

*looks down at post below this one*

Anyway, I'm having to swap over from Haloscan commenting system to Echo by JS-kit. If the site looks a bit wonky for a day or two, that's me adjusting the new code.

Slainte!

Kellan, the old warhorse

Have You Ever ...

Have you ever found things that didn't belong there?

I had to assist with some troubleshooting of a piece of equipment that was malfunctioning. The equipment in question is an older Rawland Telecenter communications head end unit. It has an issue when going off-hook to page. The unit 'feeds back' but not like you would think; it is a somewhat single pitched sound that disappears as you speak into a handset, then returns when you aren't speaking. Odd to say the least.

Once we tore into the beast, we found signs of an unwanted houseguest; droppings.

Sitting on the PCB's ...

Doing damage ...

First picture is Curtis, trying to clean the damage.

Second is some of the worst damage. Doesn't look good to either of us.

Some more damage. The affected area extends under the chip.

So, at the end of the day, score was critters 1, technicians 0. We're hoping Curtis' boss has a stash of spares hidden somewhere.

On the way to help Curtis, I took a moment to take a nice shot of Mission Peak in the sun. This proves it is green here at least part of the year.

Anyway, that's all for now. I need to do some laundry and some grocery shopping, since my tigress is still contagious. I'm hoping to get some pictures of historic Niles this weekend for your viewing pleasure.

Slainte M'hath!

Kellan, the old warhorse 

First Blog Of 2010

I'll start this first blog of the new year by wishing all of my friends a Happy New Year.

I'm sitting here, being a good hubby by helping to do the laundry. My tigress and I are both sick I have the flu and I hope her's is just a bad cold. I know I've been very ill, actually missing out on a number of get-togethers with family and friends.

My companions have been Sudafed, Mucinex, Afrin nasal spray and an occasional dose of Robitussin DM for my cough. I know my friend The Silver Coyote would possibly suggest I ingest something amber colored, at least 80 proof to go along with the other more traditional medication. It probably would have helped.

I'm still trying to wind up "A Loss Of Rights" and I would guess my illness has made it hard to keep a line of thought going. I start typing and the idea just disappears in my mind. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track with this.

The storyboard for the next "Immortal Warrior" saga is coming along nicely and I hope to start posting the first chapters in March. What I will need is a proofreader for this story. I have noticed that my typing, for some reason, has become very sloppy. A good proofer would be a great help to me. Let me know if you're interested.

Anyway, I have to help put the laundry into the dryer so I better cut this short.

Slainte!

Kellan, the old warhorse

Last Blog Of 2009

This is the last blog for the year 2009 so I thought I would share a few of my musings with all of you.

2009 has been a very challenging year for us here at Casa Del Meig'h. It started with the new year, finding us trying to cope with my being out on workman's compensation due to an injured back. I eventually recovered enough to return to work only to find myself the only tech on duty for several months.

We had made a few plans that were derailed by the need to help family members to get by until they found employment. Oh well, maybe next year.

Anyway, that brings us to today. Here I sit, sick with a nasty head cold. I'm going to cut this off and head out to get something to make me feel just a little better. After that, I'm going to set down and storyboard "End Game", the penultimate saga for Torvald and Victoria Svensen.

Wishing all of my family and friends a joyous New Year,

Kellan, the old warhorse.

Of Spammers and Forums

I have a few forums that I administrate and it is kind of hilarious the attempts at spamming the board. Most of it is by 'Bot' that can sign up on PHPBB automatically. One forum I set a delay of one minute before it would accept a registration and that stopped the spammers cold. The other forum, one that refuses to upgrade to a higher revision, I set for administrator approval. Now this is where it gets funny.

Almost all signups are by 'Bot' so the bot chooses an avatar for the 'user'. I took the default avatar and changed it with Paint Shop Pro into the following icon-

You know not a soul would pick that icon! Well ... maybe a few would. Anyway, after I see they're using this avatar, I go to Stop Forum Spam and check their I.P. address against known spammers. If they show there, they're gone. I usualy ban their IP, too. In drastic cases, I report them to their ISP while I'm at it.

I have to do some Christmas shopping later today so I need to get ready.

Take care,

Kellan, the old warhorse

Monday Evening

Okay, so I have installed XP Pro and a few productivity programs so I can work for the moment. I can say with all honesty some programmers have never used their programs. Teric, this is not aimed at you, just so you know.

I tried to install Thunderbird and Firefox on my laptop only to be thwarted at every turn when I tried to copy over my files/settings. It finally came down to brute force that I was able to do so but not the accepted way.

I installed Thunderbird and then brute-force copied from my old installation the whole program and identity file. Same for the favorites in Firefox. Unorthodox but it worked. I was aided by turning the old drive into an external USB device for copying. Added a whole $13.oo USD to the grand total but what the hey, it worked.

Anyway, the laptop had never ran so crisp. I'm pleased, so far.

Kellan, the old warhorse

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

Okay, what's the last thing you want to see on your computer screen?

"Operating system not found"

Yeah, I was greeted by that bit of information this morning when I attempted to boot my laptop. Several reboots later I was up and running but let me tell you, I'm kinda in a rush now to back up my information and get this over with.

I now have a Western Digital 320 Gb Hdd to replace the original and hopefully, I will have my laptop up and running XP Pro in a few days.

Tomorrow's my birthday so I will be away from the 'net to spend some time with my family.

Take care,

Kellan, the old warhorse

Transfer Test

You all may or may not be able to read this as this is a test to see if I can transfer my blog to another computer.

The reason? It has become time to clean up the old laptop and remove that hunk of malware called Window$ Vista Premium. To that end I have to be able to blog while this work is going on. As many of you know, I purchased my laptop with Vista installed. I can get all the drivers for XP so I'm going to revert to a faster, sleeker OS for my lil' laptop.

Take care,

Kellan, the old warhorse

UPDATE!

I have moved this database from one computer to another and back again! Yay for me! 8D

Saturday's Nonsense

Well, this one again is for my friend in SoCal, The Silver Coyote

Not how I want my work done! I'm sure SC will have a word or two to say about this!

Kellan, the old warhorse

For you techies ...

Straight from the NFS-640 Operations Manual, Appendix D: Point and Systems Troubles List:

EPROM ERROR - The application and/or boot code is corrupt. Service required.

Nice, huh? BTW, it's done this about a dozen times since I posted that pic. Not good. Boss says the company that looked at has it under control. Is that why they cleared the panel history so I couldn't see what they did or did not do? Hmm ... I have a fire watch on that site now.

Oh Well,

Kellan, the (amused) old warhorse

Monday's short blurb

Thought I would share this with all of you-

Not something you want to see on your fire alarm panel. Same as BSOD on a window$ machine.

Sorry about the quality-taken with my cellphone. Found on 03 Aug 2009 like this. Nobody at the site OR the monitoring company(!) bothered to call us to let us know.

Slainte!

Kellan, the old warhorse.

Resolution of a sort ...

The meeting behind me, I can breathe a sigh of relief for now.

The meeting started on a very ominous note, being told straight up that the funds, vehicle and tools of the trade have already been transferred to the new department. As of Monday, 3 Aug 2009, the victim, er ... I mean the lucky employee would report to the new department. If one of us didn't volunteer, an unfortunate tech, um, I mean a candidate would be chosen by management.

Our union rep stepped up to the plate at that point, stating the job transfer would be by seniority, reverse order per the Ed code. The new guy who I will refer to as 'Bob', was the unfortunate victim, I mean lucky guy. The person that actually started this whole mess, the tech with the most telco experience, looked at 'Bob' and actually said, "Sorry, I was just looking out for number one".

It was an interesting meeting, making me realize why the telco guru didn't want to over to the new department. There was definite bad blood between him and the new dept head. He actually called him a liar in the meeting! Unreal!

Anyway, 'Bob' is taking this very well, since he doesn't have a beef with the new dept head. In retrospect, if I had enough knowledge, I would have taken the position. This new dept. head, since he's trying to build an indispensable empire, would fight tooth and nail for you in a layoff.

The bad part is I am the low man in my dept. again. Bummer. But I still have a job and a certain coyote said I could pick his brains if I needed to. Thanks for the offer, SC.

Have a great weekend,

Kellan, the old warhorse

An Unnerving Situation

Well, the old warhorse is sitting here on pins and needles this Wednesday night, wondering what tomorrow will bring ...

Tomorrow is technically the last work day of the month but that's not what worries me. As some of you well know, I work for a school district. I work as a Communications Technician, which means clocks, bells, public address systems, cable television, intrusion alarms, fire alarms and to some very small degree, telephones.

My department is part of maintenance. Always has been. Tomorrow, however says whether I will still be in maintenance or not.

You see, the director in charge of computer/internet technology has decided that he should have phones and cable television in his little empire that he's building for himself. That means the money that was in our budget goes over to his budget, along with one technician. Possibly me. Or not.

As I have said, I'm not the low man. Our leadman has said it should be offered and passed over by seniority, since we are a union shop. We think the director has eyes on the best phone tech but we can't be sure of that right now. That would not be me, by the way. At any rate that means the leadman would pass, The tech that has the most experience would pass, then I would pass. That leaves the 'new guy', who has said that he would move over to the other department just to keep his job. I know, that deal stinks. Don't think I don't feel bad about it because I do.

Honestly, if I had the skills, I think I would move on over to the other department, if not just for the fresh air. I just don't have the skills, which is a long story for another day. It suffices to say, this deal stinks all the way around.

What of the union? I dunno. I think they're still scrambling to figure out what to do. I think it's too little, too late.

And what of Human Resources? Again, I dunno. They've been out of the loop ever since this little fiasco started.

The bad thing is this; if we all pass on this move for some reason, the money is still gone. One of us will get laid off (the new guy, who has a family to feed) and the job would go to the outside. Again, this stinks to high heaven. I guess I should point out the fact the 'new guy' as I refer to him by has actually been with the district about two years.

The real scary part is the possibility that I may be forced to move over to the new department against my wishes and then get let go at a later date because I can't do the job. That sucks but it could happen.

I really hate to see someone forced to move like this. It's wrong on so many different levels. I guess it's just the way business is done these days. Screw the employee, he/she will get over it in time.

I guess you can see why I'm on edge.

Kel, the old warhorse

Just some information

For my friends that frequent PlanetFurry-

I know that some of you may have not read that the server for PlanetFurry was being moved. I know it was scheduled for 23May2009 but I guess there was some reason that Hikaru had to move it sooner. That was 2200 hrs central time on 18May2009. PF was supposed to be back up in 24 hours but as you all know, there are unforseen troubles that might crop up. As of now, 0840 hrs pacific time, 20May2009, PF is still down. If I hear something more, I will post it.

Kellan, the old warhorse.

Something Of Interest

Just something I want to share with all of you-

I keep getting this spam in my inbox on another website I own/maintain.

<paste in crap body text from spam email>

Dear Website Owner,

65% of people searching the Internet will never find your web site unless you're ranked on first page of Google, MSN, or Yahoo. If I help you obtain as much as 4 times more WEB traffic to your online business by promoting you to the first page of the search engines would you be interested?

Our company is on the first page when you search on Google for our primary search term "SEO Company." We would like to do the same for your web site so you can come up for your main keywords as well? All of our processes use the most ethical "white hat" Search Engine Optimization techniques that will not get your website banned or penalized.

This special SEO program includes:

• No upfront fees

• A month-to-month program

• More traffic guaranteed

Please reply to my email and I would be happy to send you a proposal.

______________________________________________________________________

Sincerely,

Leema Dk

501 VERDUGO WAY

WESTLAKE VILLAGE , CA

91362 - USA

</paste of spam/scam/garbage>

OK, so this company wants to help me out by making sure that if somebody searches for "Kellan Meig'h", they will find me. You know, that's not a bad idea, just in the off chance somebody couldn't find me. And this sounds good dollar-wise, too. No up front charges seems to be pretty confident they can help.

So, try this: go to ask.com, msn.com, yahoo.com and google.com, the big four search sites. Type in Kellan Meig'h and see what happens. Amazingly enough, I seem to be on top of all of the search engines. Good metatags is all it took. No secrets, no hokus-pokus. I'll share this little secret for free, too. Don't send me any $$$ for this information-it's all free on the 'net!

The thing that stands out about this particular scammer/spammer is this: do a search on google.com for "SEO Company" just like they ask and check the output. Pretty scary, huh? Notice they never mention their company name? Did I mention the person sending this email used a gmail account that has no ties or suggestions that this mail came from an SEO Company? Did I also mention that the address is non-existant? Verdugo Way is in Camarillo, CA, by the way. The mail's originating IP address was in Tustin, for those that were curious.

If you need help with metatags, there are numerous sites on the 'net that will tell you how to optimize your site. You don't need this scammer/spammer to help you do what you can do for yourself. If you have questions, email me and the Old Warhorse promises that I'll help you out. Honest. No strings attached. Well, maybe a link back to my site ...

As a side note, the new pain management medication the doctor prescribed today seem to be helping as the Old Warhorse is not feeling that much pain tonight. A litle pain, but it's very tolerable. Now, if I can sleep better and actually get some rest, I will be one happy stallion.

Slainte mhath! (Scots Gaelic for Good Health)

Kellan, the Old Warhorse

Thursday's Blog

Well, I thought I would jump in here to let everyone know that I would not be posting Chapter 17 tonight but possibly Saturday.

As a side note, I wonder how well the Ducks will do tonight, swimming in the Shark Tank. What do you think SC? Think they have a chance against the Sharks?

Take care,

Kellan

P.S., If anybody sees my muse, tell her to get her butt home!

Of interest to Canon PowerShot camera aficionado’s

OK, there's more that I wanted to blog about but this needed to be posted before my aging mind forgot it.

Although I use a pair of Kodak cameras (C7430 and Z885), a Pentax P30 MF 35mm and an Olympus point 'n shoot for my photographic work, this is a hack worthy of note.

Hack Your Canon PowerShot to Add Superpowers 

It looks pretty easy to do and getting RAW support is worth the effort. If anyone does this hack, let me know.

My normal blog will be up later today.

Kel