Author Archives: Burns

CCIE Voice Written Studying + Bayside

Posted on by

I’ve been studying like crazy lately. The CCIE Voice Written has become more difficult since the last time I attempted to pass it for recertification. Every two years I have to pass the multiple choice part to keep the certification active.

I’m at a bit of a disadvantage because I’ve heard a lot of the material is similar to CVOICE. I’ve never done the CVOICE cert, so now I’m reading through the 700+ page book this week. Wish me luck for Friday. I’ve already failed this stupid test twice (by a razor thin margin) and I’m REALLY hoping I won’t have to go through that again. I can’t stand being less than excellent in my field of excellence. This was the one thing I was still good at :-P

ANYWAY – I was studying and this Bayside song came on that I’ve probably posted before.

Do you ever wake up to realize
that your life is meaningless?
Does it give you strength or lead
you to your grave at a young age?

I have an easy answer for this. Every time I’ve woken up and gone “Why the fuck am I doing this again? It doesn’t mean anything.” I’m able to say “Fuck it – do whatever you want. Do what makes you happy. You’re doing it because you want to.”

It’s empowering.

Maybe I’m spoiled because I’m responsible to no one but myself. It doesn’t hurt that the job pays the bills pretty well. At any point I could quit, move across the country (or ride my motorcycle there), and start all over again. I probably won’t, but I could.

Maybe I should search for something to give my life meaning, purpose, some greater goal. For now though, I’m pretty happy with being financially stable, able to take epic vacations, ride or drive anything that’s dangerously powerful, and drink my face off once in a while with friends. Is there more to it than that? I don’t care. Ask me in a few years.

Sometimes I go back and read old blog posts. I’m WAY happier now.

Heard this song on Californication.

Posted on by

I’ve been watching a LOT of Californication. I really enjoy all of the interesting human interaction. Also boobs.

It’s smart, funny, depressing, joyful.. all of the things I like…

Anyway, this song came on and I really liked it

All Work. No Play.

Posted on by

Makes me a dull boy:

Every weekend of mine is planned out until March 16th. I have either Saturday change windows, Friday windows, or on March 11th a full on 14 hour session starting at midnight and going all day Sunday.

Maybe the worst part is I chose this schedule myself to hit optimistic deadlines.

At least I usually only work 6 days a week.

When my March windows are done with I’m going to take some serious time off from work.

The Kills – Tape Song

Posted on by

Normally I don’t post this frequently, but I was rocking out at work listening to Pandora.

It decided to spit out one amazing song after another! I’ve heard this one before and wish there was a bigger Thumbs Up button that I could hit. If this song were a married girl I would hit on it inappropriately.

Time aint gonna cure you honey. Time dont give a shit.

Brand New – Seventy Times 7

Posted on by

I recently bought a bunch of Brand New records. This stuff is all sorts of old, but I love it anyway. They’re pretty angry most of the time. I was listening along and liked this line so much I had to post it.

So is that what you call a getaway?
Well tell me what you got away with
Cause I’ve seen more spine on jellyfish
I’ve seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids
Have another drink and drive yourself home
I hope there’s ice on all the roads
And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt
then again when your head goes through the windshield

Brand New – Seventy Times 7

Of course I’m not that angry anymore, but I still love the line.

Amazon AWS – LARGE Instance

Posted on by

I recently got it into my head to migrate to AWS and Gallery3. As part of the migration to Gallery3 I stupidly converted all of my image resize versions to 640×480. This is pathetically small but only took overnight on the web server under my desk.

With everything now on the AWS server I thought it would just be a snap to crank them all back to the 800×800 resize versions. Boy was I wrong! Using a T1 Micro image gave me GREAT performance for the first 10 seconds, then I was throttled back on performance so that it would take DAYS to convert these 8000 image resize versions.

My top output showed 98%st, or 98% hypervisor stolen time from my virtual machine. No CPU for you!

Here’s a pretty good blog that describes how AWS Micro instances allow you to burst up to 2 processors for a short time.

I watched my steal time go through the roof after just a few images were processed!

Never fear though – this is a problem that can be solved with MONEY and time. I had a bit of both this Saturday morning (and some coffee!).

I took an AMI snapshot of my web server, created a new instance based on the LARGE template (7.5GB of RAM and 4CPUs!!!!) and said.. “Hey run my disk image on this large platform”. Now I can convert images to my heart’s content. However, this costs me about 34 cents an hour.. so once I’m done I’ll take another snapshot and say “OK, run these disks on the micro instance again. I’m done with all that extra horsepower.”

4 cores is WAY more CPU than I need… but I only get charged while I’m using it, and maybe it will speed things up. It’s easy to switch back and forth too!

With Elastic IPs I don’t even have to muck with DNS.

I just say “Hey Amazon, make my public IP point to the large instance, or small instance.” Then it’s updated on the fly. Very cool stuff!

New Years Snowboarding in Vail, CO

Posted on by

I spent my Mandatory PTO / New Years in Vail, Colorado. I really wish the snow could have been better – but the front side of the mountain was open and it was an awesome time! The place is huge.

I went with Pete, Kenneth, Paul Harvin, Pete’s friend Brandon, and Kenneth’s brother Jeff and Jeff’s wife Mariana. It was crowded but fun. We apparently all like to drink because I had to recycle two giant trash bags of empty beer bottles!

Check out some pictures of the trip here: