Oliver Hansen

Penguin Gets Fresh Fish For Japanese Family Each Morning

So I remember seeing this on tv several years ago. I thought the version I saw was narrated in English but this one is just ~~Japanese~~ Chinese. I would love to have a pet penguin myself!! And I love the penguin backpack.

My Network Attached Storage Solution – Part 2.5 – Update

I’ve been at a loss for what to do with my NAS for a while. I have over 1TB of storage just sitting in my room not being used. I got paid the other day and when we flew into San Diego we went to Fry’s Electronics store because we had to upgrade some computers with more RAM before the show started. I decided to check out some RAID controllers. I saw one that I remembered being on the compatibility list for FreeBSD and the box even advertised drivers for FreeBSD among other Operating Systems. I can’t remember the name of the card right now but I’ll put up a list of all the hardware at a later date. The only thing that worried me was that I couldn’t be 100% sure whether my motherboard supported PCI-X or PCI-Express. I believe it was the shorter one so and that’s what the image looked like so I got it. Taking a $150 chance but I’m fairly certain I’m correct.

Once I get back home I’ll be sure to try it out and hopefully be able to post a part 3 of this journey.

Warm And Sunny San Diego :)

Ahhhhhh, last week was so nice. I was in San Diego for work and it was sunny and 70 all week. Some days even got into the 80s. My hotel and the convention center were right on the bay and the breeze was very pleasant as well. I stayed in the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. I really need to start putting up some photos. I’ll try to do that later tonight. I didn’t bring my camera this time but I’m going down again this week so I’ll try to bring it so I can get some more photos. The photos I have are from my co-worker’s camera.

Of course every day was spent inside. Every day but the first when we purposely arrived early and walked around the city. We had lunch at a mexican restaurant and somehow the food just tasted better closer to the boarder. We also walked around Petco Park which is where the San Diego Padres play baseball. Since the movie 300 had just come out we tried our luck and being the middle of the day there were still tickets so we got to see that. It was great, but that’s not what this post is about. After the movie it started to cool down a little bit and we went back to the hotel. Meanwhile my co-worker got a call from his gf in Seattle and she said it was pouring rain. So nice to be away from that for a while!

Later that night I met my friend David who volunteered in Jamaica with me and lives in San Diego. We went out and he showed me around a little bit. The Gaslamp Quarter was pretty cool. It’s pretty much the hip strip downtown. We had dinner at a nice Italian place. The waiter was almost a little too helpful but nice. We walked around looking for a club or bar to go to but eventually just called it a night since we both had work in the morning. Next time he’s going to try to take me to one of the beach towns since we’ll have more time.

The last day I was there we scheduled a late flight out so we had the whole day. We hit up the San Diego Zoo which was very nice and also very large! Could have easily spent the entire day there and we spent a good 4hrs there as it was. Some of the highlights were these eagles. I don’t recall what they were exactly but they were just so enormous! The rhino was also so impressive up close. His skin really looks like armor over his shoulders. Looks impenetrable. Of course the photos will be much better than words so I’ll try to get a few of those up soon. Until then, I’m looking forward to my next trip down in a few days.

Just 30 Seconds Of Communication Is All I Ask

Why is it so hard for some people to just call a person back and say “Hey, sorry I missed your call. I’m really busy right now and don’t know when I’ll be free so I’ll give you a call in a few days.” How long would that take? Am I going to argue and tell you you’re not busy? Will I be upset that you told me you don’t have time for me right now? No and no. At least I don’t have to wonder and wait or worry about what is going on. People get busy and plans change — I get that. But is taking a few moments — less than a minute!– to tell someone what is going on too much to ask? I don’t think so and I would do the same for anyone I have the faintest respect for. Is it just that no one cares anymore?

My Swearing In Ceremony Press Release

Just doing some searches to find where certain articles come up in Google and I found this little press release from 2004 when my group was sworn in to our service. It’s somewhat optimistic with typical press release jargon but a reminder of those days.

On Monday, August 30, the volunteers will depart for communities across the island, where they will work with Jamaican community based and non government organizations as well as local and national government to institute education, environment, and youth development programs; implement water and sanitation solutions; and facilitate HIV/AIDS education and prevention initiatives.

They didn’t put in the specific relation of IT in education but that’s alright. Hard to believe that was over two years ago… Oh yea, “The Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller” is now the Prime Minister of Jamaica.