So About The Wedding

Hello All,

It is sooooo warm today. It's 71 DEGREES. It's so nice out. I just got back from a walk. I'm so glad I'm not working today.

A couple of you have asked how preperations for the big day are going. My answer is that I believe they are going well...

So ya know... if you could see me writing this blog in real time, you would have just watched 5 minutes pass while nothing about this page changed. I'm still trying to figure out what it is I want to write about these things. I guess all I can do is be honest. Boy, this whole wedding thing seems way over my head. If nothing else, let me just say that if you come to our wedding and you have a great time, the person that you should walk up to at the reception and say thank you to is Kristine. As it stands now, I have supplied some input into what I like and what I'm not really into, but outside of my small insights, she's set everything up and I made sure to have the checkbook handy.

I must say, even the smallest of tasks seem rather daunting to me. Even just inviting people. It's because of the need to invite people that I've learned some weird stuff about myself. For instance, I have very little idea of who my family is. This is made ever more daunting by the fact that Kristine knows all of her family.

Now, I know family members. I've been to enough family picnics over the years to be familiar with my family and when I see family members at these gatherings, I'm always happy to do a few minutes of catching up with everyone. Also, having spent a few summers with my grandparents at their beach cottage as well as a couple of Xmas's with them in Florida, I would see countless family members when they were visiting my grandparents. Somehow though...maybe it's the fact that there weren't many Burghoff's or Dorsey's in my age range, and maybe that I never really developed good social skills until the end of my high school years...But I don't really have a connection or a bond with many of my family members. How weird is that?

And you know what? I'm going to give you the perfect example of this because I've never forgotten this moment. It was the Winter of '92. My Grandfather had recently passed away and my Grandmother was living by herself in Florida. Since I was going to school in Florida at the time, one day I drove to her place which was about an hour away so that we could go out for dinner.

Now the thing about all the time I had spent with my Grandparents in the past was that the house was always busy. There homes were like the family meeting place so I would end up chatting with whoever was most interesting and then move on to the next person when the conversation was over. In all this time spent in their homes, including all the times my Mom and I would just visit, I assumed that I was very close with my grandparents.

And yet, I remember to this very day, sitting in my Grandmother's Florida livingroom with her. And we're sitting there...and after our casual hellos, how are you doings...we ran out of conversation. I remember sitting there thinking, "Oh my god. I'm out of things to say." And as if reading my mind, she said to me something about that I didn't need to feel like I had to force a conversation. And I should also add that just before we ran out of things to say, something must come up about Grampa because she was also sniffling and wiping a few tears from her eyes.

I forget what I said next but the realization that I had was that the woman who sat in front of me was no longer my disciplinarian, nor the person that I had somehow come to expect to carry the conversations and quite frankly whatever else was going on around her. She was a person and a loved one and I was going to have to show up and not sit back lazily. It was like the slate had been wiped clean and although we had so many years of history together, we were new friends.

I think I told her something like I had just been distracted for a moment and that I wasn't trying to force a conversation. I did say though that we should probably get going to dinner and the two of us went to the Olive Garden. And while I can't recall what we talked about, I remember very vividly sitting in that restaurant, feeling like we had escaped a very tense moment and also that I was having one of the best conversations I've ever had with my new friend, Grandma.

Unfortunately, one of the few family members I've bonded, my Grandmother, is no longer around and will not be attending my wedding. Also, all of my family from my Father's side who I do have a sort of natural bond with...well, they all live out in Ohio so they won't be attending the wedding. Thankfully, though I have bonded with my Cool Ant Sara who is somewhat local and she will be attending. Ya know it's funny because the defining moment where I realize that I connected with her was while we were out to dinner. It was a place called Frankie's near Clinton Beach. Maybe I should just meet up with all of my family members and take them out to dinner.

After you consider your family for wedding invites, then you get into friends. Boy, that's a tough one. Because then you have to start rating your friends and decide whose more of friend and how long it's been since you've seen or talked to that friend. This is a problem for me because you're either cool or I don't like you. I have a few friends who I put up on a pedestal and after that, the rest are pretty even on the good people scale. So there's a number of people who I've been great friends with over the years but if we were good friends and haven't talked in a couple of years, that's why you didn't make the cut. Nothing personal I swear.

It's funny because as I sit here, I'm wondering where I was going with those thoughts. Alright. Just to catch me up...Kristine's done most of the wedding planning and inviting people to the wedding has weighed on me some. Also, I love and miss my Grandmother.

As for the actual marriage itself, all that I'm worried about is that I'm missing something now. By that, I mean that I already feel like I'm married. Kristine and I have been together on and off since 2000 and we've been living together since June of last year. We've certainly had to jump over some hurdles and we've made great strides in understanding one another. If there's something about marriage that will change about our relationship that blindsides me and kicks me in the ass... Whatever that is, it will catch me completely off guard and I will be screwed.

Kristine and I have grown to love each other and trust each other and we desire to grow old with each other. This might sound awful, but I see the wedding itself as a great party that will cause us some stress and once we get passed it, we can get on with our marital lives.

On that note, I must say goodbye as Kristine called during the writing of this entry to give me a few wedding related tasks to do for the wedding. Having realized a few things during this writing, I'm anxious to jump on them and help out.

I Hope You All Have A Great Weekend
Dave

Network Security Part 2

"and if you give me access and I know you can't catch me...well, I might look around."

So yesterday I went to Caffeine for my afternoon cup of coffee. As you enter Caffeine there are a couple of chairs and a couch that give the illusion of a living room like setting and it is from that couch that I wrote the first part of this blog entry. Sitting on the couch with his laptop was the employee guy I often talk to about computers and what not. He looked tired like he hadn't slept all night and since there weren't many customers, I guess he was taking a break.

Before I go on, I should mention that there was a very small detail I left out of the first part of this story. When I was browsing thru the files of Mr. Linksys, I happened upon an image file of Caffeine's store logo. It held my curiousity for about 2 seconds and then I just let it go as a coincidence. After all, Caffeine does not have their own wireless internet. Maybe they hired a local to design the logo. I didn't really think much about it as it was the least interesting of the files I was seeing at the time. However...

Now that this guy and I were talking, I asked him again to make sure Caffeine didn't have their own wireless and he said that I was correct and I said, "Ya know, that's really funny because the guy whose wireless I was using yesterday had the Caffeine logo on his computer." So have you guys got it yet because it was after those words left my mouth and before he answered, "That's funny because I have the logo on my computer," that I got it. OOps.

For those of you not with us yet, the coffee shop guy was also stealing Mr. Linksys's wireless internet while I was blogging and it was in fact Mr. Coffee Shop Guy's files I was snooping around. Thus, I need to ammend some of the statements I made in my last entry.

First, my appologies to Mr. Linksys. You are merely a slightly innept person who allowed me free internet access. Thanx.

Second, if you are the file sharing porn viewing type (Not casting a stone. Not even holding a stone.) and you like to hop on other people's wireless internets, then lock your files up. Actually, you don't have to do much to avoid people getting on your computer. Having created shared folders on protected networks, I can tell you there's quite a bit of work involved. Mr. Coffee Shop Guy had to jump thru a number of hoops to give me that kind of access to his computer. God only knows why.

And by the way, I didn't ask. Needless to say, there was a moment of akwardness when we both realized I'd been snooping around his computer. We had a quick polite conversation with him asking how I got in and me telling him that he'd left the door open and that was about it. Aside from mentioning the logo, I didn't get into specifics about what I had seen and aside from an empty porn folder, there wasn't much for me to see. Hopefully, our employee/customer acquintance casual conversation friendship will remain intact.

Just a quick couple of notes. To Mr. Anonymous: "Waaaaa... I didn't like your story." If you felt like Network Security read like a tech manual, your nuts. Second of all, this isn't a call-in show and I'm not pretending to be an expert. I have enough problems writing what's on my mind, let alone what you'd like to read so let's just stick to what I feel like blogging about.

Also, and I don't think Rob misread it this way but for those of you that don't know, eDonkey is a filesharing program and not a porn site... Actually, it's pretty funny. I just googled eDonkey to make SURE it wasn't a porn site. It is not. Thank God.

Until next time.
Dave

Coming Soon

Man, I just so wish I could get into it now but my lunch break is almost over. Just to let you know, there will be a follow-up to yesterdays Network Security post. Stay Tuned.

Network Security

Last week was long. I had a couple of days where I didn't have much sleep and when I was able to catch a few weeks, they were inconsistent. Thank god for the weekend though and now all is well. I've got some time to kill because I don't have to start work for another hour, so I figured I'd just do a little jamming on the blog and see what comes out of me.

First, let's start with my current setting. I'm in Caffeine, a local coffee shop in SoNo. Not only do they have good coffee here, but they also have free internet access. That is not to say, they offer free internet access. However, there are around 10 wireless networks in range to Caffeine and only four of them are locked.

Now, I know this is biting the hand that feeds, but if you've got a wireless internet base station, lock that thing up. You might be thinking that in a perfect world, the worst that would happen is that maybe your neighbors would jump on the internet for free and provided they weren't downloading big files or file sharing, no harm no foul.

Unfortunately, we live in a world with some bad bad people in it. People can use your wireless networks for illegal activity and they can hack into your computers on the network, invading your privacy and screwing things up.

Here's a perfect example. I know nothing about hacking computers. My only chance of seeing anyone's computer files thru my computer is if they have shared folders that allow guest access. This is where I can type in any name for a screen name and no password. If that doesn't work, I can use "guest" as a screen name with no password and that might work. Once you get past those options, I won't be "hacking" into your computer.

The network I'm on right now "linksys"...well that person has an unprotected folder with all their stuff for all the world to see. Oh...and by the way, a easy way to figure out if a person's network is hackable is if their network is named LINKSYS. Anyone who can't take 2 seconds to change the name of their router clearly lacks the skill to protect their computer.

Now, I don't consider myself a bad person but I am nosy and if you give me access and I know you can't catch me...well, I might look around. Mr. Linksys appears to be into graphic design and file sharing. HEY!!! For all you kids out there who don't want to get sued for downloading illegal music and movies, it's best not to label a folder on your hard drive, "eDonkey2000 Downloads", and then put it somewhere where anyone with a laptop and a cup of coffee can see it. (By the way, fret not RIAA. Mr. Linksys appears to be interested in stealing software and not music.)

There's one other reason why you might want to take a minute or two to password protect your wireless network. That reason would be if you have a folder on your computer labeled, "watchusmasturbate.com". When I saw that folder, my first instinct was to stear clear of it. I may be misguided on this, but I tend to associate the word masturbate with males more than females and I didn't want to risk it. However, when I went to copy the name of the folder so as not to mispell anything, I decided to take a peek. The folder is EMPTY. How friggin stupid is Mr. Linksys? I guess he didn't want the smut anymore but he just couldn't part with the folder.

In conclusion, if you have a wireless network, 1-change your network name from the default name that came with the router, 2-put a password on your network, and 3-if you're going to discard your porn, it doesn't matter unless you also delete the EVIDENCE of said porn. (I know, there was the music thing too, but lists work better in threes.

Alright. As always, blogging took longer than I thought, so I'm going to bail now and check in with you later. In theory, I should be posting consistently through the week.

Until next time.
Dave