Eastern Standard Blog

Yippie! The server is back online after nearly a week outage. Apparently there was a bad cable somewhere. Logically between the firewall and the rest of the network, but I don’t have the official post mortem. Remote site support can be a real bitch. Part of the delay is my fault too, however, I forgot to set the web server to start on system boot. Shame on me! Bad admin, no cookie!

I was in Target today getting a birthday card for my Dad, when this little transaction happened in front of me. Of course, I was buying just the one item, but none of the Express lanes were open. I mean, with like 35 check out lanes, you would think they could staff Express lanes on both ends at the same time, but then I guess you’d be wrong (like me). So in my grump, I noticed that the guy standing in front of me was also buying exactly one item. It also happened to be some form of greeting card. Strange. The clerk rang up the man’s card and then asked him if he’d like a bag. The man paused, thought about it, and then answered ‘Yes’ to my complete astonishment. But the clerk was not to be outdone by this display of ridiculousness, oh no. Instead of putting the greeting card into one of those little bags, he put a standard greeting card in a full sized plastic bag.

So, I recently moved into the EST from one of the strangest time zones it has even been my displeasure to live in. I’m speaking, of course, of the MST. But more specifically than that, Arizona. It’s one of those places where people outside of it are always like ‘What time is it there?’ They don’t observe daylight savings time, so sometimes you are in MST and sometimes you are in PST. Did I mention nobody outside of Arizona seems to have the slightest idea what time it is there. I’ve even had people argue with me about what time it is in the timezone that I’M IN!?!? Seriously. Crazy. I was trying to setup a time to call back a customer and help resolve an email issue she was having, and she wanted to tell me what time it was in Arizona. Of course she was in the EST, and I suspect omniscient by virtue of that fact.

Finally, I got off my ass and installed this software so I can blog.

Where to begin? It all makes sense in my mind, but my wife says I have a bad habit of starting things without much proper antecedents. So, I’ve wanted to start a blog for some time. When I found out that I was going to be moving into the Eastern Time Zone, I wanted to start this blog so I could have some fun with the whole idea of being a stranger in a strange land.

I purchased this domain several months ago, out of love for the book by Cory Doctorow of the same name. I was amazed to discover that the domain was freely available. That the publisher, the author, nor some other rabid fanboy already possessed it. I am a very big fan of the work that Mr. Doctorow does, both in print and in podcast form. His writing (and reading of said writing) speak to me in a very special way.

I read the novel, Eastern Standard Tribe, at a very pivotal point in my life. I find the idea of the Tribes quite amusing, and being a computer culture kind of guy could identify strong with the themes presented therein.

I listened to the podcast, When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth, at another very pivotal point in my life and was astonished to hear Mr. Doctorow reading this story to me, speaking to me about aspects of my own life. I could have been that character, and it was creepy. I was hooked. I’ve become a rabid consumer of his material and evangelize it to fellow readers and podcast listeners whenever I can.

For the record I was born (and largely raised off and on) in the Central Time Zone, GMT – 6. A continuing theme of my writing on this blog will be about my observations as a new resident to the EST as a member in long standing of the CST. It will also be interesting to me (and I hope to you) as I understand my new environment and all it has to offer. Enjoy.