The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey March 7, 2017

7 Feb 2017

Wow. Am I a slacker, or what? I've been really busy. Work is keeping me on my toes, and (wonderfully), we're finally cooking with gas! We got a KitchenAid Dual Fuel range - a natural gas range (that could be converted to LP if needed) with two electric ovens. Yay! Getting the range was Marcia's birthday present, and she got the gasfitter to run the line for Valentine's Day. No massacres yet! * * * On the professional front, I'm working on the options for extending my Red Hat Certified Engineer status. I'm probably going down the automation path, with…

Brian Bilbrey February 19, 2017

19 Feb 2017

Well, here we are, barely a month into this Republican Administration. How do you think it's going. I'm pretty disappointed. By now, I was sure we'd ALL have gold-plated hotels of our very own. Sad! * * * I was helping Marcia box up some stuff in her sewing area in the basement, and I may have gone overboard: Of course I blamed the dog for this. Why wouldn't one? * * * We've had an unseasonably lovely President's Day weekend so far. Unlike the heavy snows of the last few years, we're up into the 60's and 70's for…

Brian Bilbrey February 12, 2017

12 Feb 2017

A quiet weekend around here. A haircut, some shopping, a few dog walks. Ooooh, yeah: I got my BSidesCharm 2017 tickets tonight. Yay. It's a superb, impactful, (mostly) defensive security conference. I've enjoyed the first two years of this con, and the third year's program looks like it will be a worthy continuation. The first round of badges has already sold out. The second half of the tix go on sale 26 February. Keep an eye on @BSidesCharm on twit that day. You may need to be quick... * * * This Republican Administration continues to disappoint, to no one's…

Brian Bilbrey February 5, 2017

5 Feb 2017

A good weekend, as such things go. Saturday, I roasted some coffee. In the evening, we headed over to the Annapolis Shakespeare Company's new digs, and enjoyed a superb performance of Thorton Wilder's Our Town. Not a play I'd seen before. Excellent direction by founder Sally Boyett, and powerfully performed. Patrick Ryan Sullivan takes a very pleasing and strong turn as the Stage Manager, but my personal favorite for this show has to be the tender and heart-rending Emily Webb as given to the audience by the talented Laura Rocklyn. As each season with this company progresses, I see new…

Brian Bilbrey February 3, 2017

3 Feb 2017

Another interesting week near the heart of power. Well, when I say "heart", I mean corroded hunk of radioactive tin encased in an orange waste of skin. Ah, well. One does what one can while watching the wreck of trains, above and below. In the meantime, I managed to get Kubuntu installed on my old Mac Air (2011). The install was fairly trivial, just a couple of trips to the search engines to get me over the occasional install hump. Everything but the thunderbolt port works flawlessly, and here it sits next to it's new big brother: The primary failing…