Ed Buford - Just Another Geek

nice place for a break

Ghetto-tasm Meets Malones

Last year my 90 Toyota Camry had to be put down, it was sad and I mourned the loss of the faithful little car all the way to the scrap metal yard where I cashed it in for weight. The saddest part was that I was officially without a Kayak hauler.

I pulled the Yakima Q - Towers and Cross bars off my Camry before putting er down, but the Q- Towers need to be replaced with LowRiders to get them up on my Van. Considering the height of the van I didn't want to put the Malones on it. But I decided I'd rather try to Fit the Malones instead of paying out another $300 to upgrade the factory rack with Yakima gear.

I took a good hard look at the factory rack discovered the beam and the Malones wouldn't get along. So after a bit of thinking I came up with a design that would let the Malones grip well to the factory beams.

This is my prototype spacer:

 

 

This shows how it sets on each Malone:

 

 

Reminds me of the Flintstones:

And now she's ready for the river:

 

I'm planning on hitting the water Tuesday morning, and though I know a couple of guys who are also off Tuesday mornings, I've decided first time out this year needs to be just me and God.

This present wall

During the past couple weeks, I’ve hit a wall. There was a nine day string in there that rates up there with the top five worst periods of my life. It was the culmination of a series of struggles at work (where I have not made a win in along time), health scares, broken guitar strings, broken tools, a never ending string of work that has to be done so that I can work on the thing at hand, and a constant string of interruptions that precluded me from concentrating at all.

During the past few days I’ve been able to gain a bit of perspective on it and am seeing a theme of reparation appearing. Too long, have I neglected one thing so that a more pressing thing can have my attention. I believe it’s time to stop and sharpen the tools so that I can do the job at hand, and I’m asking God to give me peace in this.

In the midst of this I’m also finding time to reevaluate my job and the goals for my job (funny how you find time to be introspective when you’ve reached a mental wall). Here are my thoughts and goals about my job that I’ve resolved to redouble. (I have similar goals for my personal life that I won’t go into at this time).

• To do my job in a way that brings honor and glory to God while serving a team of people who God has brought together at GCC to make an impact in our community.
  
• To serve my supervisor in a way that frees him up to do his job. To do this in a manner that allows him to excel because he doesn’t spend his time babysitting me; and that allows him to feel that I’m trustworthy and that I have his best interest at heart.
  
• To deepen relationships around me by putting others first, that means putting others above the work that must be done. This by the way is not the way I’m wired up.
  
• To balance my life – even if everything in my work world is falling to pieces.

To everyone who has had to deal with my Pernicious Attitude lately, I apologize. And for all of you who have lifted me up with your prayers, I thank you.

The only thing Missing is the Emoticons

Tried to install Windows Live Messenger lately?

Terminal Services Manager - Tip

Ever Get stuck in the wrong Remote Desktop session on your server?

Here's a tip that will save you some grief: open Administrative Tools and then open the Terminal Services Manager.

Right click on the session you want to connect to and choose connect... BAM you're in!

How cool is that?

We got a Wii

I was able to finally procure a Wii in the wee hours of this morning. It's been an interesting ride, one that I don't care to repeat anytime soon.

My boys are enjoying making their own characters, and boxing.

Thanks for all your help!