Category / Writings

by dmacias

Oh Sprint How I Love You So, Let Me Count the Ways.

The last few months my Sprint bill had been in the multiple of hundreds of dollars. Usually above $300, so I finally decided to switch to their everything plan. $99 dollars + tax for all the calling, texting, and web is an excellent price and I will take full advantage of it. However, it just so happens that I have a corporate discount of 23%. Now, if you do the math, that would be a savings of at least $23 every single month! Yes, doesn’t that rock, simply everything plan for $77 + tax? However, I received my first bill today and the awesome savings came to a total of $0.18. Yes, that cents… 18 cents.

I picked up the phone and got in contact with Sprint (who btw has changed their IVR and gotten rid of ASR). The wonderful agent I spoke with, Christina, informed me that “since the simply everything plan is already so discounted, no further discounts can be applied towards it”. Well, isn’t that grand? In the long run, I will pay less, however I will miss that 23% discount. :(

~david

by dmacias

Let me tell you about my current life.

It has been a long while since I’ve had any time to breath. While I enjoy the non-stop days and nights of working all day and rocking all night… well rocking perhaps not, but sleeping yes, it is nice to just take a break. A break where you can just sit, relax, and exhale. This past week my currently project reached a major milestone. Even though we had multi-week delays, we were still able to come through and deliver. At the end of the day, when under the gun, we all realize that sleep is over rated and not really necessary. Now that this date is behind us, we can all go back and ensure everything is configured correctly and ready for production, which comes around in March of 2009. Here are some pics from my last week.

The answer is 7.

The answer is 7.

I want this sheep!

I want this sheep!

No relations.

No relations.

~david

by dmacias

Sometimes it all just comes together

I was done with my last project and was only supposed to do remote support for a few weeks. However, some issues starting popping up and I was flown in to help smooth things out. We came in on Monday and by Wednesday things were really bad. However, the customer had discovered some bad hardware and bad router configs which needed to be changed. Come Thursday morning we didn’t have much going on. Funny how everyone blames the phone system when the network fails, but packets are packets and if the pipe breaks not just your voice will spill out. Regardless, Thursday was a pretty slow day and the everyone was in good spirits, including the customer. The customer PM likes to draw and she made portraits of us all, here is mine. I have to say, I like it a lot.

~david

david

david

by dmacias

Have you backed up your computer lately?

So, I was doing my weekly backup of my work laptop and noticed that I have close to 10 gig worth of stuff in My Documents folder. Looking a little closer, the breakdown is as follows.

2.0 gigs worth of email.
3.5 gigs worth of Cisco related documentation/training materials.
2.0 gigs worth of customer related data.
1.5 gigs worth of random personal stuff.
1.0 gig worth of random files which I should probably clean up.

Needless to say, I think it’s time for some spring cleaning.

~david

by dmacias

2008 College World Series

One great thing about having a job which requires 100% travel is having the chance to take in the sights and sounds of the city that you’re in. This time, in Omaha, Ne, it was the 2008 College World Series. Unfortunately, Texas A&M didn’t make it and Rice was kicked out early, but overall it was a lot of fun. Specially when it is free. :-) A very nice lady gave us four tickets and all we had to do was pay for parking.

Some pics:

After the final out:

The Outfieder immediatly pocked the ball in his bag pocket.

The dog pile.

by dmacias

A bit of a rant

So, there are a few things which I just need to vent about.

    Airports which charge independently for internet access. Most major airports if not all, have an agreement with T-Mobile or some other major company which provides internet access, but no. There are still some airports, e.g. OMA, which refuses to get on board with this century.
    Hotels which charge for internet access. You’re charging me close to $200/night, but you still have to nickle and dime us on internet access? I’m not asking you for a OC48 speeds, heck I would be happy with just a connection that doesn’t drop every other packet.
    Yes, I have a cast. Yes, I have two broken bones in my wrist. Yes, I know you will have to swap my cast, palms, and fingers for explosive materials. No, it doesn’t matter that we go through this procedure every week twice a week. I understand it’s your job.
    I own about 8 belts, but none can be operated with one hand… actually are there any belts which only require one hand? Why hasn’t Velcro made a killing in this market?
    Expenses. I don’t think I’m alone on this one. Really wish there was an easier way.

I’m done, I’m actually a pretty happy person, but like to mix it up every once in a while.

~david

by dmacias

Welcome to the ATL.

Clark and I decided late last week that a weekend trip to Atlanta was in order. I had been a few times for business, but never really got a chance to see the city. So, Wednesday we had finalized our plans and were ready to fly out on Friday.

First, this is what Clark decided to rent, which was hilarious given the fact that so many rappers hailing from Atlanta talk about the Escalade.
The Escalade

First, thing we did was check in to our hotel to change and get some food in us. We stayed in a region of Atlanta called Buckhead. No idea why, but it is a pretty nice area with a lot of great homes and commercial areas.

We made a stop at some great restaurants. Tw!st, Einsteins, and Nan are the ones that come to mind. These places were delicious and had a great atmosphere. Here is a picture of Clark taking the last piece of the pizza.

Tw!st Pizza

This was us after the huge amount of food which was consumed on the first day.

DavidClark

Next, it was off to Phillips Arena to watch the Atlanta Hawks vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers. Let me tell you what an absolute horrendous basketball game. It looked like we were watching a high school game. So many missed shots, guys constantly rolling around in the floor, and no crowd participation at all. The arena is a dump and really looks like it is in dire need of a make over.

Phillips Arena

One final highlight of the weekend was The World of Coca Cola. This thing was a lot of fun and not too expensive. $14 if I remember correctly. The coolest thing they had was this 4-D movie which utilized moving seats, water/air nozzles, and 3-D glasses. One of the coolest thing I had seen in a while. One other highlight was being able to drink all the Coca Cola soft drinks you could possibly take. After 5 minutes this novelty wore off and I don’t think I can drink another soft drink for a while. Clark took full advantage of this though.

Clark and Coke

Finally, these are the cool 3-D glasses they gave out. I’m so hood!

David Hood

Would go back and do it again, but would never want to live there.

~david

by dmacias

Running seems forever.

So, one of my goals for 2008 is to run a marathon. However, due to injuries and just general laziness I’ve spent the month of January in a vegetative state. Aside from soccer on the weekends, I really didn’t do much more. So, I decided to jump start the month of February with a 5K race. So, while the weather was beautiful and the race atmosphere was great, I felt a little out of sync while running, but still finished the race in 27 minutes coming in 248 out of 689 runners. So, I ran a 5K knowing full well I had two soccer games about 3 hours later. Didn’t think much of it. The first soccer game went fine and we had an overwhelming victory. However, here comes the second game. I can tell I’m a little tired, so I decide to play as the goal keeper. Well, needless to say, within the first 10 minutes they had scored 3 goals on me and I had saved probably 4 others. They were good. So, around this time is when I started feeling the tingling of a cramp in my right calf. Sure enough, 5 minutes later I was on the floor with a one inch ball of pain. I was done for the evening and still feel the remnants of the cramp this morning. No pain no gain, but that was a hell of a lot of pain.

~david