Monday, June 29, 2009
Things That Go Beep in the Night
About 3:00 this morning, Reggie sat right up and let out a little “oof.” He NEVER does that, so I knew something was going on in the house. It wasn’t too long before I heard it, too. Something was making noise in the house. About 90 seconds later, I figured out that one of the smoke detectors was chirping. Thinking it was the one in the back stairwell, I went out there, only to hear it coming from inside the unit. This madness went on for close to ten minutes until I figured out it was the one in the hallway outside the bathroom. Oh, and it was also the one in the second bedroom, too. They were both beeping.
All of the smoke detectors in my building are hard-wired into the house power, so I’ve never had the need to pull them down and change batteries. I just assumed they didn’t have batteries. Thinking I’d have to get my landlord to call an electrician in the morning, I put a pillow over my head and tried to fall back asleep. That was an exercise in futility. Finally, I got up got a ladder and looked at the smoke detectors, hoping there was a way to disconnect them. Nope. They are hard wired right into the house power. What I did notice is that there was a compartment door for a battery. I opened the little door and found a 9v battery. I guessed these needed to be replaced. Do you think I have any 9v batteries in the house? Of course not.
Here I am at 4:00 AM, and I’m driving around Salem, looking for batteries. Two convenience stores and $20 later, I have three batteries. Seriously, $20. At 4:15 in the morning, I’m not going to argue about the price. Next, I’m back up on the ladder, replacing batteries. By this time, it’s 4:30, Reggie has had an accident on the floor (despite having just been outside), and I’m wide awake. I tossed and turned for over an hour, trying to fall asleep. No such luck. I got up to get my work laptop and check my calendar (and my boss’ calendar), knowing we have auditors coming in this week. Fortunately, our calendars were clear. What I did notice is that I was a little woozy on my feet and that I had chills. These are MS symptoms, and my body was telling me to rest. I e-mailed my boss, telling him I was taking a sick day, took something to help me sleep, and went to bed. I also fed Reggie so that he wouldn’t be waking me up at 6:00.
I got another five hours of blissful sleep, waking up about 10:30. I got myself up, and headed into work.
I really hate to take sick time because of my MS symptoms. This was one of those cases where I really didn’t have a choice. My body was telling me it was time rest, and that’s what I had to do. If I had pushed myself, I would have been a mess and risk crashing. That’s the last thing I want when I’m supposed to go on vacation in less than two weeks.
I’m feeling better and back in the game. And you’d better believe I’ll be changing those batteries on a regular basis now. I hate it when these things go beep in the night.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
How to Lose a Customer
Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been a long-time supporter of US Airways. I lived in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, meaning they were the hometown airline. They were almost the most convenient airline most of the time. In the last half of 1999 and first half of 2000, I flew close to 50,000 miles on that airline. Every time I’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean, it was on US Airways. I was incredibly faithful. When I worked for IBM, I used the travel policies in my favor to make sure I flew US Airways, even though we got better deals on other airlines. Those days are long over.
Two years ago, I had a bad experience with US Airways in Nashville and Delta rescued me. History is about to repeat itself.
I should also take some of my own advice. I remind people of this on aviation forums when they complain about how the service on US Airways has gone downhill. Several years ago, US Airways filed for its second bankruptcy. They were bought by America West who kept the US Airways name and the America West product. One shouldn’t expect the same service one got on the old US Airways. Today, I proved that. US Airways lost my business. Worse yet, they lost my love.
As someone who follows commercial aviation as a hobby and who spent a decent chunk of his career being a professional business traveler, I’ve learned a few things. I know how to navigate the system, and friends come to me for advice. I’ll now be steering my friends and family to Delta and jetBlue instead of US Airways.
What did they do to deserve my anger? They were inflexible and uncaring.
I guess I should back up. Last July, I booked a frequent flyer reward ticket on US Airways from Boston to Portland, OR for my birthday weekend in October. All of the sudden, I found myself joining the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, and my birthday weekend was the chorus’ retreat. I had to cancel my trip. This was no big deal. I called US Airways, and they told me that as long as I rebooked it within a year, I could reuse the ticket, provided I paid a $150 rebooking fee. I wasn’t thrilled, but I could live with this.
Today, I called US Airways, trying to rebook my trip for mid-August. I was told that if I didn’t travel by July, I’d lose the entire ticket. Even though my travel was in October and I cancelled it in October, they base everything on the date the ticket was issued. In my head, I booked it in July for October Travel. I should be able to rebook before July for travel before October. Nope. If I don’t travel before July 6, I lose my miles. I do have the option of spending $150 to redeposit my miles for future use. Of course, I’ll have to pay yet another fee to redeem those miles. I asked to speak to a supervisor who gave me the same story. In their defense, I didn’t get conflicting stories.
So I have the choice of spending somewhere between $200 and $300 to rebook a ticket with more blackout dates on an airline who left a bad taste in my mouth or a new ticket on Delta, which will cost me about $300. I thanked the US Airways supervisor for her time and told her that I was cutting my losses and taking my business elsewhere. Hello, Delta!
Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I’m being unreasonable. Either is possible, but I don’t think so. The old US Airways would have taken care of me. The new US Airways did not.
I’ll be spending a long weekend in Portland visiting friends, and I won’t be flying US Airways to get there.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
1950 German Pfennig
1950 German Pfennig
Originally uploaded by mikehillwig
I like to think I’m a pretty good uncle. Since Sarah was a baby, I’ve been on the lookout for things to give her that are unique or memorable. About a year ago, I gave her an autographed copy of The Princess Diaries. That’s a whole story in itself.
Tonight, I was going through my fireproof box and came across this. I had completely forgotten I had it. It’s a 1950 German Pfennig. One of these days, I’m going to give it to her.
Not only is this thing almost 60 years old (which is older than my dad) but Germany doesn’t have its own currency anymore. All you can use there is the Euro.
I want Sarah to someday be able to tell her kids that her Uncle Mike gave this to her when she was a girl. By then it’ll be REALLY old. It won’t be as cool as the photo we take in front of the Eiffel Tower in a few years, but it’ll be close.
First Tysabri Infusion
169-365: Tysabri
Originally uploaded by mikehillwig
I started a new chapter in my life last week. No longer will I be injecting myself several times a week. Instead, I’ll be making a trip into the infusion unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for an IV infusion of Tysabri.
When I made the appointment, they told me to call earlier in the day to do the “prescreen checklist.” This is something the nurses have to do to make sure that you’re healthy enough for Tysabri. It does compromise the immune system, so they need to be sure. By doing this in advance, the nurse has the opportunity to order the meds from the pharmacy, meaning they’ll be ready when I arrive.
When I got to the infusion, Chris, my nurse, led me to a hospital bed, told me to get comfortable, took my vitals, made sure everything was in order and started my IV. She went to get my meds and discovered a problem. It appears that they hadn’t arrived from the pharmacy yet. She told me this may take a little while. I really didn’t mind. I had a book that was keeping me company. She brought me a sandwich, a soda, and some cookies. Really. They fed me!
When Chris came back with my meds, she did apologize. It turns out that she hadn’t sent the order to the pharmacy earlier in the day. Again, it wasn’t a big deal to me. I was in no hurry, and I had a book. When you deal with doctors as much as I do, you learn to bring a book.
As she started the IV drip, it was completely uneventful. The infusion takes an hour. If you’ve ever had an IV infusion, this was just like any other. At one point, I fell asleep. I vaguely recall someone coming by and putting a blanket on me.
After the infusion was done, I had to stay in the unit for an hour for observation. I guess in the initial trials, a few people got light headed after their infusion. Again, I had a book and took a bit of a nap.
The whole situation was uneventful, and I do love the nurses at BIDMC’s infusion unit. They’re all incredibly friendly.
Saturday, I was a little tired, but nothing too bad. I love not having to give myself an injection anymore.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Let the River Run
My first season with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus will be over in less than 12 hours. This makes me a little sad. At the same time, it’ll be a huge relief. It’s a big commitment, and the past week has been rough. This has been one of the best times of my life.
I say it after every concert, and I seriously mean it. I’m so honored and a bit humbled to be part of such an amazing group of men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1Fh-xx4T0
This video is how we opened the second act of our show. It’s my favorite number in the entire show. And there is a lot to love in this concert.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Recovery Test
My company has a policy that we do a full-scale recovery test of the database on our ERP system twice a year. That test was last week. Being a somewhat competent DBA, I should be able do this with half my brain tied behind my back. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been.
Keep in mind that I restore these databases fairly regularly, so the test should have been a formality. But this time, I had to have Derrick, our network guy, get the backup file from the long-term storage that comes back from the mine instead of my usual restores from local storage. I sent Derrick the name of the file that I needed to recover. I didn’t even care of the date on the file to satisfy this requirement.
The restore finished really quickly—almost too quickly. When I restored the database, I went to pull data from a table that would prove we had successfully restored the database. I was horrified when SQL informed me that the table I wanted didn’t exist. I scratched my brain, trying to figure out what was going on. I restored the file again with the same results. I watched my life flash before my eyes. How the ehell was I going to tell my boss that I wasn’t able to restore our ERP system from a month ago? I went back and realized that Derrick had restored the wrong backup file. After restoring the right file, my database restore ran better and the table existed again. Lesson learned: Because this system has multiple databases, the backup files can be easily mixed up. Double-check the filename before panicking.
Next came a test for our corporate controller to sign off on. I would grab a transaction from the AP invoices table so he could look it up in the system to validate that the data was entered on that date. Keep in mind that the backup was taken on Sunday, May 3. That means I should have data from Friday, May 1. As I’m looking at the data, I see transactions from Thursday, April 30. Why could I not see data from Friday? Again, I start scratching my head, trying to figure out this out. I was completely baffled by this one. I walked up to Finance to talk to Cindy in Accounts Payable. Would you believe the entire Finance team took that Friday off to go on a canoe trip?
Problem solved. After a few setbacks, my DR test passed. Now I have to document everything and get the controller to sign off. That’s usually the hard part. Not this time.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Ready for the Eighties
Next week is the last concert series of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus’ 2008-2009 season, and we’re Ready for the Eighties! Next week, we’re presenting Boys Just Wanna Have Fun: Totally 80s. What could be more fun than the BGMC singing your favorite songs of the decade of sweatbands, big hair, and Duran Duran? The concerts are June 11, 12, and 14 at John Hancock Hall. Tickets are on sale at http://bgmc.org or by calling the Chrous office at 617-542-SING.
I’m really excited about this concert. The music is absolutely iconic. Reuben tells us this is a very challenging concert to sing. We haven’t even noticed that because we’re having too much fun singing it. And you’ll have fun listening to it.
Want to know more? Let me give you a little inside tidbit. We come on stage with the Village People’s Ready for the Eighties. The opening medley starts with “I Want my MTv” and “Video Killed the Radio star.” That’s just how it starts! The second act opens with my favorite song in the concert, Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” from the movie Working Girl. The harmonies in this song are stunning. We have a medley of tv theme song that features the theme song from Amen. The finale is touching, and the encore would make Patti LaBelle proud as we do “New Attitude” as only the BGMC can do.
Seriously, this concert is going to be so much fun. There are plenty of tickets available, and they’re affordable. Every week at rehearsal, I’m continually thrilled and slightly humbled to be part of such an amazing group of gay men.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Big Gay Chip
I rarely read anything on the Huffington Post. I’m just a bit too conservative to buy into the liberal-leaning site. However, somebody posted a link to an opinion, and I got sucked in.
The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder
Here are two different items that caught my attention:
I believe the fact that an atheist, who doesn’t believe in God at all, is allowed to enter into the holy land of marriage while a gay Christian is not, shows that this law is arbitrary. Are we to believe that anyone who doesn’t live their life according to the King James Bible isn’t protected by the same laws that protect those who do?
I believe that to deny this right to the gay population is to say to them, “this god is not your god and he doesn’t love you.” There isn’t one person who is against gay marriage that can give me a reason why it shouldn’t be legal without bringing God or their religion into it.
Amen to that.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Recipe Find
I got the strangest call from my mom a little while ago. She was looking for one of her recipes and wasn’t able to find it in her binder. She said that she recalled my scanning that book several years ago and wondered if I still had it. Wouldn’t you know that I do still have it! I had to pull an old external hard drive, but I have it! The file is dated January 21, 2001. That’s over eight years ago. How many computers have I been through in eight years? I’m afraid to even guess.
Since I pulled the recipe, I thought I’d share it with you. Maybe some day, I’ll share the whole book. It’s got well over a hundred recipes from family friends, many of whom have since gone.
Hot Dog Sauce
2 lbs hamburger (browned and chopped)
3/4 lbs ground suet (optional)
2 onions, diced
1/8 c salt
1 box chili powder (small)
1 tbs cloves (use 2 tsp for less spicy)
1 tbs pepper
1 tbs nutmeg (use 2 tsp for less spicy)
1 small box paprika
1 1/3 tbs sugar
1 14 oz bottle ketchup
7 c water
1 c flour (mixed with additional 1 cup water)Add all ingredients to hamburg and simmer for two hours. Use a 6 qt pan.
I just found some open-source software for recipes. Maybe I’ll publish a few of the gems I have.
Monday, May 18, 2009
An Update
I know I haven’t been blogging much lately. I’d like to say that it’s because I’ve been busy, and that would be partially true. But mostly, I’ve not had the energy. If you’re desperate to know what’s going on in my life, I’d suggest you follow my 365 Days stream on Flickr. (http rss) I’m pretty good at keeping that updated.
A few weeks ago, my company acquired a competitor. I’ve been working on that quite a bit. Right now, I’m involved in moving their Maynard data center into our Burlington facility. They have about 20 “servers” that are running on desktop hardware. I’m in the process of moving that all to virtual machines. VMWare has become my friend. If you’ve ever been involved in a data center move, you’ll understand when I say that data center moves are close to Dante’s third circle of hell.
Star Trek was fantastic. My only regret is not seeing it in IMAX. I think the IMAX closes this week, and I doubt I’ll have time to see it before it closes.
My life has been a lot of chorus lately. Last weekend was Crescendo!, our annual fundraising gala, and we did well. If you were a supporter, thank you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODBpnhedsNY
This weekend was our annual retreat/all-day rehearsal. The 80s show is only a few weeks away, and you should buy your tickets here, and you should buy them now. Seriously, this show falls during Boston’s Pride festival, so it’s going to sell out quickly. And with a concert that’s so much fun, you won’t want to miss this one.
I’ve been spending a lot of time with my camera, and I think I’m getting better. This is one of my best photos to date.
