Tim Russert died today at the age of 58. I’m incredibly shocked and saddened by this, more than I can ever recall for the death of a television personality or reporter alike. Tim Russert brought a level of trust and integrity to political journalism that is sorely absent in today’s highly polarized partisan landscape. Going into a landmark presidential election season makes it even more difficult. It’s hard to image watching election night totals roll in without Tim’s constant presence and analysis. My prayers go out to his friends and family. Watching MSNBC right now, and seeing the responses of his friends and coworkers, it’s clear this man will be missed by all. I can only say good night sir, and thank you for your balance and professionalism.
Tag Archive for 'Random'
Very well, James, I’ll play along…
Jobs I’ve held
Let’s see, I was a cashier at a little supply shop called The Artist’s Flat, a do-everything guy at Safeway for 5 years, an IT guy for a reprographics company, and a technician for a Computer Renaissance store.
I’m currently the IT Manager at The Key School, where I’ve been for 9 years, and I run a business (with a partner) providing IT support and managed services.
Places I’ve lived
- Louisville, KY
- Cincinnati, OH
- Glen Burnie, MD
- Annapolis, MD
- Severn, MD
- Arnold, MD
Movies I can watch over and over
Wow, this list could be embarrassingly long:
- Any of the original three Star Wars films
- Star Trek II (Kaaaaaahhhhnnnnnn!)
- Saving Private Ryan
- 12 Angry Men
- Rounders
- Sneakers
I could go on and on…
My guilty pleasures
George Michael - Hey, the man can sing.
An occasional cigar and good scotch also rate quite highly.
Shows I enjoy
Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Psych, ER, Scrubs, Alias, TNG and Voyager (yeah, yeah), Tyler’s Ultimate, America’s Test Kitchen, The Daily Show, Seinfeld, Futurama
Places I’ve been on vacation
I don’t typically go on vacation, being much more of a home body, but I went to Disney World back in October, and I really, really had a good time. I’m not even a “Disney” person, but man was it a blast. I can’t wait to go back.
Favorite foods
Again, this could get long:
- Fried Chicken - Homemade only
- Most pasta dishes involving tomatoes and cheese
- Mashed potatoes - The good kind, involving lots of butter, cream (heavy, sour, or half-and-half), Yukon gold potatoes, and a potato ricer.
- Shrimp most any ways other than cold - I have a soft spot for New Orleans style BBQ shrimp
- Chocolate, and all its assorted uses
- Eggs and grits
- Really, good, coffee
Websites I visit daily
FARK, Slashdot, Wikipedia, Engadget, IMDB, NPR
Body parts I’ve injured
- I pulled an aquarium on my head when I was 9 months old and have a nice scar to show for it. Yes, the aquarium was empty.
- I was hit by a car in 5th grade and severely injured my left knee.
- Numerous scrapes and scars from working at Safeway for 5 years and building computers for ever.
- I recently broke my big toe on my right foot. It still smarts over a week later…
Awards I’ve won
None. Who am I, Meryl Streep?
Nicknames I’ve been called
Chuckles / Mr. Chuckles, Dos, Dick (In reference to my last name…)
The same thing we do every night, Pinky - Try to take over the world!
I had no idea I was ever a G.I. Joe character. For the record, however, I look absolutely nothing like this guy.
I was a huge G.I. Joe fan as a kid, and yet I have no memory of this character. I watched the cartoon religiously, collected many an action figure, and read the comics for a few years. Funny what you come across on the web these days. In any event, I wonder how long before I break down and the buy the Chuckles action figure off eBay…
Dear eBay, please block any and all connection attempts from my IP to your servers for the next two weeks. My brain responds to your site in ways that can only be understood by Meth addicts and Everquest players. I need to go cold turkey and I can’t do it alone. I assure you that once I’ve kicked this current bender, I’ll come back, albeit in a more controlled and logical state. Please don’t take advantage of me.
Thanks so much.
Now available in geek flavor!
- Adobe is buying Macromedia. Where the hell did that come from? Rumour has it Adobe decided to buy Macromedia in case Microsoft was interested. Umm, okay.
- Just when I thought it was impossible to find good resources on performance monitoring for Windows servers, I stumbled upon this little gem. Check it out.
- I’ve been working with computers for more than 15 years, and I still can’t seem to do anything useful with SNMP. It’s probably because I’m not a UNIX god.
- I just spent the entire day, literally all 9 hours of my work day, dealing with my McAfee ePolicy Orchestrater database, which had blown up in my face. Around 3:45pm I decided to toss in the towel and rebuild my ePO server. 69 days and counting until I upgrade to Trend.
- Every couple of hours, Firefox simply refuses to copy anything to the clipboard. I have to completely close the browser and restart it to regain the functionality. It usually seems to hapen when I have multiple tabs open, as well as remote desktop sessions. However, since my workstation is like this pretty much 99% of the time, I can’t really assume it only happens under those circumstances.
- The Alpine iPod integration kit calls to me. I must resist!
I’ve been watching a fair amount of TV this week, thus the common thread…
- Have you seen that Popeyes Naked Chicken commercial where the guy comes to the counter naked to order the chicken? I thought the whole point of a television advertisment was to attract more people to your resturant. Personally, I can’t imagine many people wanting to eat at Popeyes now that they can associate their food with that image.
- Speaking of disturbing commercials, there’s a chewing gum commercial that begins with a nice girl bringing an equally nice guy home to meet her parents. Out of now where, the girls jumps the guy on the couch, right in front of mom and dad, and begins to round 3rd base. I had no idea that the chewing gum industry was so competitive as to warrant such sexually explicit commericials during dinner time.
- Remember DangerMouse? That cartoon was the bomb.
- I’ve been TiVo-ing (is that a verb?) Futurama on [adult swim] this week. Why on Earth did they ever cancel that show? Monday’s episode made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants.
It seems everyone is (or was) talking about the recently announced retirement of Dan Rather as the CBS Evening News anchor, who is due to step down in March. The conservative right rejoices the downfall of a biased newsman, while the liberal left seems to shrug its shoulders. Personally, I’ve been far more interested in the stories his predecessor has been sharing on NPR recently.
Walter Cronkite has been sharing some fascinating stories about the news events he reported on during his years as a television journalist, arguably one of most important time spans in America’s brief history. Listening to his behind the scenes tales from such events as the McCarthy hearings, the Sputnik launch, and the first plane hijacking helps me to feel as if I lived during those events. Delivered by that trademark voice in the reporting style of his era, it only reinforces my believe that TV news of today is nothing more than entertainment, scripted from beginning to end and completely sensationalized.
If you have the time, I highly recommend hopping over to NPR’s website and giving some of his stories a listen. I promise it will be worth your time.
My first (and probably last) Fark Photoshop entry…
It was from this thread