Mitchell Guist
I was bummed to hear about the death of Mitchell Guist. I met he and his brother at a tribute concert to them (by a band called "Glitchell" (a combination of both of their names). Both brothers were extremely quiet and nice, thanking people for beers that were bought for them and agreeing to have their picture taken with people at the show, all while watching these punk rock bands play songs about them.
http://www.history.com/shows/swamp-people/bios/glenn-and-mitchell-guist
Swamp People!
The Blues
I found this on a website today. I have no idea who the original author is, but I thought that this is pretty spot on:
How To Sing The Blues in 20 Easy Lessons:
1. Most Blues begin “Woke up this mornin’…”
2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick somethin’ nasty in the nex’ line like, “I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town.”
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find somethin’ that rhymes… sort of: “Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yeah, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound.”
Jack Tramiel
Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore, died this past Sunday. My very first computer was a Commodore 64. We kept that thing, literally, until the keys stopped working on the keyboard. Jack was a very good, and sometimes very ruthless business man. Whatever his driving forces were, he created the opportunities for a lot of my generation to own their first computers. For more information about Jack and Commodore, I highly recommend the book "On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore" by Brian Bagnall.
Commodore Founder Jack Tramiel, dies at 83.
Jack Tramiel
Jim Marshall
I just read that Jim Marshall died yesterday. The guy did some amazing things for Rock N' Roll.
Read more here:
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/06/local/la-me-jim-marshall-20120406
So long, Jim. Thanks for all of the amps you gave the world. And as Nikki Sixx said, all of the hearing loss.
Slash and Jim Marshall in front of a Marshall stack.
A Lesson Concerning Power Over Ethernet (PoE) and a Dell 5548 Switch
Alright, so earlier today, my amigo and co-worker, Remy The Prostitute, asked me to help him swap out two older switches with the new Dell 5548 switches that he ordered. The swap went well, we got the old switches disconnected and pulled off of the wall, and got the new ones configured, connected and screwed onto the wall. All went well until we plugged in our Power Over Ethernet (PoE) cables. No blinky lights. Huh. That's a bummer, man. So, Remy The Prostitute remoted into the switch and checked his configuration. Everything seems to be good there. He and I take to the Google skies to see what other people have done here. Nothing. The only mention of PoE and the Dell 5548 switch is an instance where a guy had his switch replaced. Not really ready to call that our issue yet. So, Remy The Prostitute and I scratch our heads for a second and stare into the cold, pale, white glow of the monitor. Then, the little light bulb goes off in Remy The Prostitute's head. "These ports are, of course, configured for gigabit speeds. Maybe PoE won't work over gigabit?" Looking at each other, shrugging, with a "sure, why not?" glance, my amigo Remy changes the port speed from gigabit to 100 megabit. Bingo! The PoE ports start going to town.
The lesson here: If you are operating PoE devices (at least on a Dell 5548 switch, probably many others), make sure the ports that those devices are plugged into are configured for 100 megabit speeds. You're welcome.
St. Patrick’s Day
Baton Rouge has a surprisingly nice St. Patrick's Day parade. We met up with our friends, Matylda and Thomas, and their daughters and went this year. I usually try to march with the Buzzards on St. Patrick's day, but since Jose 2.0 got here, that has been rare. This is probably the only time I have ever attended a St. Patrick's Day parade sober.
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- Jose 2.0 chillin in his ride
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- Our friend Thomas and his oldest daughter. Matylda (his wife) and their youngest daughter are up near the street.
Arbor Day – Burden Farms
Arbor Day is in January, here in Louisiana. I had no idea until my buddy Pearce called me up and asked if we wanted to go plant trees with him, his wife and their young son. There is the farm in the middle of a very populated area of the city called "Burden Farms." Apparently, the Burden family runs it and donated much of it to the city, providing it stay as a tree farm. They have all kinds of nature activities and conservation awareness programs that they provide, which is really cool. So, we planted a few trees with Pearce and his family, and the Burden farm people gave us the coordinates. The idea is that we will be able to find the trees that we planted with our kids. It's a really cool idea.
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- Jose, Jessica, and Jose 2.0, standing by our newly-planted tree
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- Pearce, Jose and Jose 2.0 after planting our tree. This is the most manly thing we did all day.
Coach McCord
My sister called me last night and told me that Coach McCord, a long-time coach and driver's ed. instructor at the high school I went to, passed away yesterday from Cancer. I was really bummed to hear that. Coach was a legend at my high school. A rabid Ole Miss fan (I won't hold that against him), who didn't take gruff from anyone. Before any student even met him, they already new about the Legendary Coach McCord and his antics. My dad made me take driver's ed over the summer, so my car insurance would be cheaper. After two months of driving courses 5 days a week with Coach, I had three things: Cheaper insurance, driving stories that I still tell people to this day, and sympathy for every American high school student that did not get to take driver's ed with Coach McCord. There were 4 of us in that car everyday: Me, Coach, my buddy Joe McMillian, and this guy named Steven Riker, who went to a school in a neighboring city (during the summer, all driver's ed kids in the county had to migrate to my high school to take the course). Coach was a little...unorthadox, to say the least, so everyday, we got a new story that the three of us probably still haven't forgotten. Here are a few of my favorites: