Here I am blogging from the Student Conference sponsored by the Concho Valley AITP branch. I just got tagged to make a sponsors powerpoint presentation for the awards ceremony backdrop and the backdrop for the evening social as well.

Big fun!

AWESOME!

I just got back from the 10th Annual Goodfellow AFB Car Show, and had a ball. There were something like 90 cars entered, along with 10 or so 'Hot Boats,' and about 20 cool motorcycles. All of the cars were either pristinely maintained originals, meticulously restored, or customized. With the exception of my ratty old Jeep, there was not a beater car to been seen.

My pals Mike Campbell, Rod Carter, and Jim Eimer won 'Best in Class' awards with their awesome entries. Mike brought his beautiful pearl-white Harley Davidson Road King and won the 'Best American Touring Bike' award. Rod won the 'Best Metric Touring Bike' award with his vintage Royal Enfield Bullet w/sidecar. Jim won '70-79 Modified' with his cool '74 Jeep CJ-5.

Something I learned this time out: there are two new classes, "80-89 Stock" and "80-89 Modified." I've been competing in the '70-79 Modified' class even though my Jeep is actually a 1980 model (technically, it was built in 1979), but the class the covered my Jeep covered all cars from 1980-present. I never had a shot at an award because of all the cool newer model 'Vettes, Camaros, Trans Ams, Mustangs, and other cool modern hot-rods. Based on what I saw of the '80s models that showed up, I need to 'represent' my real class... and should stand some good chances to win some awards as a result.

Regardless, it's all good. I was thrilled that Mike, Rod, and Jim won their classes - it would've been cool if my other pal Harry LaClair could've won as well with his awesome Ural w/sidecar, but he was competing with Rod - and someone had to win. (Personally, I think his daughter's pink plastic backpack kinda worked against him...)

But everybody had fun and it was good. I kept up my tradition of getting sunburned (so I now look like a raccoon), but I bought a new battery for the Jeep this year and didn't have any problems starting it up when it was time to leave this time. Kinda broke tradition there (since I normally need a jump-start after running Jim's cooler in my back seat all day).

Can't wait til next year - I should have a new front bumper, some nerf bars, and maybe even a new rear bumper (so I can maybe finally get the new rear corners installed that Jim gave me as a Christmas present something like 4 years ago). I've also taken some advice from some of my pals and have decided to name my Jeep 'Predator' (because they say it looks mean with the fenders open) so I'll be airbrushing some Predator hood art before then as well.

After that - I'll be looking to dump the AMC 360 in... and even further down the line - new paint. But that'll be another few years maybe. We'll see.

Whew! Finally!

I started today in my new position as a GG-12 'permanent' employee. Actually, I'm doing the same job as I was Friday, except that I'm no longer worried about getting let go for coming to the end of my 'term.'

Now I just need to keep my nose clean for the next year's 'probation' phase and keep running my program to keep the bosses happy.

I'm also on-hook to earn the industry-recognized certifications demanded of my position - can't hide behind 'being a Temp' any longer. Time to knuckle down for Security+ and CISSP.

Oh yeah - I've also received a pay-grade increase as well as eligibility for retirement benefits and insurance coverage... so it'll be nice to not have to worry about those things.

Been awhile since I've updated this.

Today is my last day as a 'Temporary status' GG-11 employee. It's been a year now since I was hired into my current position, so my time is up.

Fortunately, my boss has worked wonders and gotten me hired into my new 'permanent' position beginning Monday.

... was a huge hit!! I took it to Brass Band rehearsal this evening and everybody loved it.

It took me a bit of playing, but I actually started getting used to it tonight. I hadn't actually played it much since receiving it Friday afternoon, and tonight was the first real opportunity to play it. Everybody was impressed with how well-preserved the horn is, and even said the more I played it through the evening, the better I sounded. I guess that's mostly because of settling into playing it. It's a lot different experience than playing one of the Euphoniums or Baritones - it's a much smaller 'cylindrical' bore, whereas the Euphonium has a 'conical' bore - meaning the sound has more space to fill, making the sound 'darker' and more mellow. The smaller bore on the Trombone is consistent, so the sound fills in quickly and moves through the horn - producing a 'brighter,' brassier sound. As a result, my intonation was all over the place early on, but as I got use to the new sound and way I had to play it, the intonation settled down quite a bit. I actually started to get some decent sounds out of the horn.

I also have a bit of a sore back now, since I must actually sit up straight to play this horn. I didn't realize how much I 'lean' on my Euphonium (and Baritone) when I play them. I have some 'woodshed' work to do on several pieces we're going to play for the Butterfield Trail Days celebration in a few weekends in Grape Creek. So, hopefully, my sound with the 'new' horn will only get better.

Had to babysit the Art Club Gallery today. Pretty boring - helped out one of the ladies print labels for mailing (the files were all jacked up, so I fixed them).

Got some 'marching orders' for some changes to the website.

Pretty 'blah' day overall.

Still no word about the job situation. This is getting to be pretty irritating, since I have no idea if I've even filtered through the computer-aided review process. AFPC was supposed to provide the listing and resumes to my boss by COB Thursday - but he's got nada. Hopefully, Monday something will break loose.

Got my 'new' 1922 Conn Valve Trombone today - it's in awesome shape, considering it's an 86-year-old horn - I'll post pictures on the Music page soon. Plays fine, valves are smooth and fast, and all of the slides pull fine as well. The case is even in decent shape - even though I know it's not the original case, it'll work and has lots of room inside. The horn is pretty tarnished, but not nearly as beat-up as it could be - the biggest bad patch is on the bell right next to where the valve-body lives, so it probably isn't even that noticeable when played - and it's only some minor wrinkling... nothing too horrible. The rest has some minor scratches and tiny 'dings' here and there - again, not bad considering the age. This should be a nice fit into the Brass Band motif - I just hope I can play it as well as I do my Euphonium and Baritone (well... as 'well' as I play, anyway...)

Made it through having the bosses up from HQ AETC - good bunch of guys.

Mr. Murphy is retired now, so we won't have him as a viable resource anymore - he's a virtual wealth of historic information, not to mention an outstanding mentor and friend. But, the man's done his time (41+ years of service to the Air Force) and I wish him nothing but the best in his retirement.

Still no word on the job situation yet - even though I've been assured by those in power that I have nothing to worry about. Hopefully, it'll get squared away next week in time for the pay-period issue not to cause a gap in employment. No biggee if it does, but it would be nice not to lose leave or my time spent this past year towards retirement.

Hopefully, it'll quit raining long enough to dry out the ground so I can mow the lawn by Monday.

So I get home and my wife tells me it's the drain pan in the A/C unit overflowing. She put a pan under it and it's been collecting water all day. So I get out there and commence to taking the box enclosing the evaporator apart and discovered there's no way for me to actually fix anything with that panel off.

OK - so I took the drain system apart and water began running out of it once I 'rooted' out the fitting that goes into the drain pan. Ran the shop-vac and sucked out the rest of the pan water.

After more cleaning and reassembling of parts I removed, 2 hours later the A/C was back together and running fine. I emptied and put the pan back under the unit (just in case - I know my luck when water where it's not supposed to be is involved). So far, so good. Although, no drips means it's either working properly, or the pan hasn't filled up yet.

I take no chances.

What I'm listening to right now: "In the Mood" - Preston Lloyd Big Band (one of my Beginning Band teacher's current band efforts - makes me smile when I hear it.)

So I burned a day of leave trying to find a reason for there to be water on the floor in the hallway bathroom. There were no new plumbing issues that I could find, no leaks from recent rain storms, and the A/C evaporator seems to be draining just fine. Beats the crap out of me. Spent 2 hours trying to find a reason for the water to be there - Damned if I know.

Let it go... if it's a leak, it'll get worse. If it's a roof leak, it'll happen again with the next storm. Hopefully, it'll make itself known sooner than later. I hate mysteries.

What I'm listening to right now: En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor (Brass Band tune featuring a Flugelhorn solo from the movie "Brassed Off!"

I went out to the base to see how things are progressing along with the Arts & Crafts Center and more specifically, the Auto Hobby Shop.

The Arts & Crafts Center is really nice. It's roughly 4 times the size it was before - and very poorly designed. The entire building is supposed to be one complete facility, yet whomever was responsible for the layout unwittingly (or maybe intentionally) segregated the Auto Hobby Shop from the rest of the facility. The only way to get from one side of the building to the other, is to walk straight through the middle of the Wood Shop. Since the Wood Shop is also smack in the middle of the facility, ALL of the patrons of the Arts & Crafts Center now get to hear plenty of 'shop noises' as a result. As well, this critical flaw now cuts off the major lavatory facilities from the part of the building who will potentially be using (and needing) them the most. It's a nice facility... just not very well thought out with a single-minded, purpose-driven solution.

The Auto Hobby Shop itself is pretty nice - but there's some major things that should've been done differently in there as well. Not everything was doable, because the work done was basically an addition to the building using existing walls - some being structurally integral. Some of the other considerations seem to be, again, not well thought-out... almost like there was absolutely no input from the people who would be running this part of the facility.

But oh well - like always, the Auto Hobby Shop will function and get used to the 'newness.' Hopefully, it won't take TOO long, since I still need to replace the clutch on my Honda ASAP! (before it gives up on me)

I just finished updating this page with all of the old straight-up HTML 'posts' I made to my old 'Right NOW!' page. So now I have an official blog/journal.

Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it up to date a little easier without the task seeming as daunting by having to edit the page each time.

Today, it's raining... JUST raining... for a change. It hardly ever JUST rains around here. Usually, there's some drama or minor to substantial damage that comes with the rain in the form of hail damage. So far, so good though. Thinking about stuffing the new OS Max CV-X .12 engine in the new HPI RS4 Nitro Racer I scored on eBay a few months ago, but we'll see what happens. I also grabbed a nice HPI primer fuel tank as well, so I might actually be able to get this thing running. The engine that's in there won't turn over - it's either too tight, or there's an obstruction. And with no primer on the tank, it's a b!tch to get running anyway. Jim's almost got all the bugs worked on his car, so we should be ready to run 'em soon.

Speaking of, now I need to update my R/C page to show all of the new cars as well.

I think I'll check in with him and see if he wants to run out to the newly-renovated Auto Hobby Shop for a look-see.

OK!! This is more like it.

I goofed with the style sheets to the blog skin and finally worked everything out the way I want it to look. Took a few minutes but I finally got the various details on this particular skin looking right:

• The calendar was all jacked up, so I imported the settings from another skin's calendar that I actually liked into this one.
• The post topics didn't show the date they were published, so I swiped the code from another skin that I liked as well.
• The post attributes were all jumbled up and not spaced well, so I played with the code for it until I got what I wanted as well.

So far, so good. This 'fun' is starting to pay off.

Now, I'll get started on building a 'blog for my Computer Stuff journal and 'import' my old HTML 'posts' into that one. Fun, fun, fun.

I was told today that the job process is moving forward - finally. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer, and I'll have my permanent position squared away - providing I survive the resume review process, that is.

Nothing new to report on my job status. Still waiting to hear back from AFPC as to whether my resume dropped and I'll even be considered to be hired into the job I'm currently doing.

Sounds weird, eh?

My current position is a 'Temp' slot. The SSO is working on making it a 'Permanent' slot, and since I'm a 'Temp' employee, I have to re-apply for it to be considered for permanent employment. Sounds all wrong, I know... I should be automatically considered since I'm already in the position doing the job. But oh well, that's how it rolls.

I'm hoping to hear something by the end of next week... something positive, that is.

BEGIN!

I've been playing with Php, MySQL, and the b2Evolutions Blog software for a couple of weeks now and making satifactory enough progress that I'm good with putting this thing up for real now. I've been playing with the style sheets and graphics a little to try and come up with a nice skin for this one - but it's slow going and I'm not quite where I want to be yet. Stay tuned!

Anything posted with a date older than this was 'imported' from my straight HTML page with the dates changed to reflect the actual date/time I made the entries into the old page.

Even more stuff has happened since this time last year: I work for the government again in charge of computer security for the 17th Training Group at the base - it's a 'Temp' slot, but my Boss is working hard to make it a permanent slot. The Honda's been getting a solid 34 mpg since I resurrected it, and I even spiffed it up a little with some window tint, new rims & tires, and some major clean-up. I'm also teaching myself Php and MySQL - so far, so good. Here's a link to my Test Weblog page - it'll be incorporated into this site (mostly replacing this page) once I'm happy all the bugs are worked out. That will also prompt even more changes to my main website and its sub-pages. The lack of current updates is pretty much what sparked me into learning some new coding... that, and I don't want to be left behind as far as how to put together decent websites without having to do it the hard way.

Now I just need to learn some of the finer points in Dreamweaver so I can rip the pages out as fast as I can 'draw' them (and cut-n-paste into DW, then dump the Php on top of it all).

OK, something happened to me. Either I got older and wiser, or cheaper, or something. I bought (more like rescued) a '95 Honda Civic VX hatchback from a friend who blew the head gasket on the way to work. I offered to help him fix it, but he finally hit the point where he'd had enough of messing with the car and decided to let it go. I got a helluva deal on it at only $800, and my plan is to fix it up and drive the wheels off it while enjoying awesome gas mileage. Check out the new page I made for it HERE

Tomorrow I go to the Kendall Art Gallery to pick up my entry in the Anything Goes, Almost Art Contest. After joining the San Angelo Art Club, the contest came about and I decided that since I hadn't put up any work, I'd have to make some kind of a showing by entering the contest. My pal Jim suggested I paint another one of his Jeep dashboards, but I didn't think I'd have enough time to do something well. So, I went with something I'm very comfortable with: pencil on art paper. I also picked a subject that I've very comfortable with: American Bald Eagle. I surfed around for some reference pictures and got some nice shots. This one was the reference picture, and I decided to go with a little more intense look with some focus out of frame... oh who am I kidding - this is how it came out. Close but not exact... although I like the look of mine a little better - considering it's pencil. I also tried a new technique - using the graphite collected from my Drafting Pencil Lead Pointer, I used some cotton balls and Q-Tips for the 'smeared' values, rather than using my finger this time - which came out a lot cleaner. I'd also never used ArtGum eraser in the same manner - most all of my drawings had some kind of an 'outline' between the subject and its background... which the ArtGum worked through quite nicely for a more realistic look.

Oh yeah - here's my picture: HERE I'm going to try and get a better picture of it - without all the reflections - soon.

I don't know - I guess this officially makes me an 'Artist.' Well, that, and a friend (who really IS an artist) made me a Worry-Stone with the word 'Artist' engraved into it. So I guess it's official now.

All of my websites are now restored. After some mediocre attempts at restoring the hard drive partition, I took the drive to a very savvy friend at work and he was able to recover the partition information and save the drive, and burned my web-root directory onto a CD so I could restore my sites. Thank you, Randy!

I'm going to be more proactive about backing up my critical information - whether it be simply stashing another copy or two elsewhere in my network, or backing up to CD the stuff I need kept. Come to think of it - I have a ton of pictures on my hard drive that need to be burned onto a CD or something, in addition to website stuff.