Jared
Jared

Jared

The Feeling of Early Morning Trips

How can the feeling of an early morning trip be described? The start to an adventure of peril or wonderful safe travels.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu

The first step is usually turning off the alarm clock and getting your feet out from under the covers. By the time the morning shower is over (assuming you had time and didn’t hit the snooze button) the you are on to the second step.

After the bags are zipped closed, loaded in the car, and the car begins to move the third step has been completed. From here, a thousand miles await.

The world’s morning stillness, glazed in a the soft orange glow of the rising sun, presents itself for your viewing pleasure as you drive along. Perhaps it is accompanied by the wafting smell of the hot coffee entrusted to the cup holder for safe keeping. Maybe you are fortunate enough to be the passenger on this trip and have closed your eyes, oblivious to the beauty outside. The sound of the car engine sooths your senses as your mind dreams of the road ahead.

I hope you appreciate the feeling of morning trips and first steps.

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am

But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…

Brandi Carlie singing “The Story”
Songwriters: Hanseroth, Phillip John

Uncovering My Geekness – SysAdmin Meetup Here I Come

It’s Friday night and in just under 2 hours I’ll be at the Standalone Sysadmin’s SysAdmin Meetup in NYC. Just to prove I’m conforming to the east coast and being proud of my geek roots this entry is being typed up from a Starbucks near NY Penn Station. It’s a long way from where I was 2 years ago at this time and I feel like a little fish in a big pond… one that has lots of concrete, pigeons, and other fish just trying to make their own way.

Powers Road Field of Flowers

A field of wild flowers is splendid. It encourages my innermost. If uncultivated soil can support such magnificence how much more encouraged I should be by him who cultivates my heart?  Matthew 6:28-34

Field of Wild Flowers by Powers Road

Gogebic County, MI
Notes: 8 images stitched and cropped.

Click to open in larger window

Review of ‘Pioneer One’ BitTorrent Movie

According to my personal rating standards sci-fi movies either fall into one of three categories, great, horrible, and fancy eye candy that flopped. Hollywood has a subtle way of transforming potentially great sci-fi into sub-standard, watered down sci-fi in an attempt to make it appeal to the masses. Sub-standard and watered down how? Take your pick; cookie cutter plots, stereotypical characters, old stories with new technology mixed in, predictable endings, etc.

I find myself lowering standards on some sci-fi so it will fall into the great category just because it is unique. Other movies that have great production and effects but are mutilated by the Hollywood syndrome and generally get put in the ‘fancy eye candy that flopped’ category because it’s worth watching even though the story is disappointing. If you don’t like sci-fi then your standards are probably high and everything that a I would bend the rules on you may put into the horrible category.

Hungry for some new and original sci-fi I watched the Pioneer One pilot episode that was featured on a recent Slashdot posting. Once the preconception of it being a low budget film was overcome I was surprised at the story and professional content. The story is original and sets the stage for a drama that is realistic and can incorporate some fascinating sci-fi themes. I’ve seen my share of horrible sci-fi movies but the pilot episode of Pioneer One easily falls into my great category despite being low budget.

Download the pilot via BitTorrent for free and decide for yourself.  More download options and movie information is available on the VODO Pioneer One site. Well worth checking out if you like sci-fi.

I’ve already donated to the project, what about you? Do you think it’s worth $5 to see the story unfold?