Denver Beer Fest 2006
It's not everyday I get to hang out with someone of rockstar status. It's safe to say that Chris was the mayor of the Beer Fest, he knew just about everyone on the vendor side. It seemed like people came out of the woodwork just to say hi - at times it seemed just short of asking for an autograph. Chris is a very respected Brewer by his peers and his past students. If you are ever in Kentuky, Scotland, or South Africa, try a pint of Kentucky Ale.

Denver Beer Fest 2006
The Kentucky Ale guys have a good thing going with the lick-on tattoo's.

Denver Beer Fest 2006
All you Seirra Nevada fans, this is your guy. Super nice and friendly. Next time you are in NorCal visiting winery's, be sure to stop by Steve's shop.

Mile Post 126, I-70
Fall colors along the Colorado river in the Glenwood Canyon. I snapped this pic just after leaving the Hanging Lake Tunnel going eastbound. Cams for this area at http://cotrip.org/maps/CCTV2.html

Cat-Faced Spider
I have two of these living on my front porch. I have been feeding them all summer and they are getting huge. For reference, the gutter pipe in the background is 4". Araneus Gemmoides

My Stapler
Going back to July 2004, I spent the summer with a defense contractor in Silicon Valley seated the next cube over from Thuan Do. This was his stapler. It's the same model that was issued to all employees about a decade ago. Unfortunately he was laid off that summer because the prehistoric system he supported was phased out. Basically he had only one customer to support and only once a quarter, on something that sounded like a TPS report. His character was very much like Milton Waddams of Office Space, the similarity was uncanny. Thuan's idiosyncrasies through the course of the day started with whistling what sounded like an ancient chinese tune then mumbling through the logic of being laid off or something, then cycling back to whistling and then mumbling. He once had a rant to himself about this stapler. I honestly could not believe what I was hearing, I sat back and listened to the Milton dejavu. I didn't ask, but it would be hard to believe that he has seen Office Space. Where ever you are, I hope you are doing fine Mr. Do. Your stapler is in good hands.

My Office
Ask yourself, what has made my life easier?
Ask me. Going from 2 to 3 to 6, 20" digital monitors. Oh, and installing dual 3.8ghz Xeon procs with 6gb's of RAM. I think this system will be good for another year before I sell it on ebay for a fraction of the purchase price. Utilizing six monitors has improved my productivity by enabling me to view my workspace without flipping between window after window. Installing the extra RAM and highend CPU's (as of Feb 2006) has enabled me to run many virtual PC's at once.
So, what you see here is:
Top row screen1 - I usually use this space for a browser. Firefox b/c I can have a tab for each web site I'm viewing.
Top row screen2 - This is a MS LiveMeeting session. I'm on hands free listening to an MS security engineer presenting slides from his computer in Reston, VA.
Top row screen3 - This one is cool. I dedicate this screen to a Terminal Services session to my laptop. I'm working on a Visio drawing of a system I designed.
Bottom row screen1 - This is a virtual PC running on my workstation. VPNed into a corp network.
Bottom row screen2 - This is just cool. I found this by fluke one day as I was flying google earth low over eastern Russia. Check it out at 57.5N,134.5E, it's called Gora Konder.
Bottom row screen3 - This is another virtual PC I use daily to VPN into a DMZ.
Oh yeah, the stapler has got history that parallels the red one in Office Space.