Shut Up, Laura

Burn Notice returns to us on July 10th. I am...ridiculously amped.

My last remaining student loan...is now 100% paid off. That's right, I am free of all educational debt, and have left behind the final vestiges of that hideous period of my life known as "graduate school".

If I were a person who drinks at all, I'd be cracking open a bottle of scotch right about now.  :-)

If your taste in films ranges at all towards indie and/or foreign, hie thee to a theatre and watch Mongol. As you might imagine, it's a backstory of Genghis Khan...huge, sweeping, cinematography to die for, and at least one or two good scenes of Mongol horde-i-tude.

Having been tagged by Mr. Richards, I couldn't refuse.

How old were you when you started using computers?

I was 5, if you can believe it - I was definitely a forerunner of the current crop that has grown up with the technology. 

What was your first machine?

An ADAM - basically it was a Coleco game system that also allowed you to drop out to a BASIC compiler so that it could be marketed as "educational." Bought for me by my Pop-Pop, rest his soul, because I was "a really smart kid" and he didn't want to just get me a Barbie doll or something for Christmas. For a guy who didn't make it past the 3rd grade, in retrospect we can say that the man was onto something.

What was the first real script you wrote?

Lots of BASIC programs and Amiga/Commodore64 stuff - wrote silly little games using little pixelated sprite guys just to see if I could do it...then wound up in a school system that had some teachers and a guidance counselor who (I kid you not) bought into the "girls aren't good at math/computers" codswollop, which derailed me from doing anything substantive in that arena for a few years.

What scripting languages have you used?

BASIC, whatever the C64/Amiga programming language was. C, C++, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, VBA, DOS batch files, AJAX, Ruby, C#.NET, Powershell, command-line automation with the ds* and joeware tools.

What was your first professional sysadmin gig?

Deskside support monkey for a medical supply firm. Didn't know nearly enough when I started the job, so it was massively stressful, but definitely worth putting me on the right path.

If you knew then what you know now, would have started in IT?

Absolutely. I have a profession that I'm (if I say so) very good at, that pays me well, and that has brought me an extensive (albeit physically distant) circle of friends whose intellect I respect and whose company I hold incredibly dear. I've been doing this for over a decade, and I still refer to my job as "getting to play with toys."

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new sysadmins, what would it be?

[1] It's only IT: nobody dies.

[2] If you're working for a company/boss who takes it as a personal affront that you want to take a vacation day that is rightfully yours, that is your first indication that you need to be working somewhere else.

[3] Surround yourself with people who know more than you do.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had scripting?

Writing the AD Cookbook, both times. I love seeing what I can do to efficiently automate AD tasks.

Who am I calling out?

"Tag, you're it!"

Brad

David

Princess Jorge!

So there's this chain restaurant that I love, with a branch in Philadelphia, called Fogo de Chao. (Known amongst those I love as "Frodo's".)

A few weeks ago, a competing restaurant opened up a few blocks away, so last night I tried out Chima as a comparative measure.

My findings?

Food:  Similar offerings on the face of it, but I think that Frodo's is better prepared and better seasoned. Several of the offerings at Chima were not available any less well-done than "Medium", which to me is roughly equivalent to eating burlap. (My repeated refrain when dining at Frodo's is "How would you like it?" "Rare as you've got.") I will admit that the salad bar at Chima is lovely. You have to admire a salad bar that serves carpaccio - there's even meat in the salad bar!

Service:  Frodo's, hands-down. However, Chima had only been open for a few weeks, so I'd be willing to give them another chance on this matter since they might still be working out newness-kinks.

Decor: Chima looks "nicer", like the kind of place you'd show up to in nightclub-wear or for a first date. Whereas Frodo's is, to me, a more "comfortable" place that I can walk into wearing my usual jeans and t-shirt regime and feel perfectly at-home.

So all in all, try Chima for the sake of trying it or for the sake of going somewhere new, but you'll be back at Frodo's next just like me.