Dear users,

3 days left to the brand new portal. Everyone is on their toes working round the clock to ensure we leave no stones unturned.

During the test phase of EDUvis, we might be pulling down the site for a couple of days before the 1st of December. We regret the inconvenience thus caused.

We look forward to providing you with a wonderful experience with our new portal.

Regards,
Team Spurr

Web44 is currently down and we’re looking into it. We’ll update this post when we have more information

Update 1: The problem appears to be related to the filesystem. We are currently running fsck on the server.

Update 2: Unfortunately fsck didn’t fix the issue so we are going to re-install the machine and restore all data from backup

Update 3: We are still recovering all the data from our backup servers. We are using our latest backup which is from less than 24h before Web44 went down.

Update 4: The machine is now back to normal apart from a few large MySql database which are still being imported into MySql. Open a ticket is you notice any problem with your account.

Are you going some place special for Thanksgiving or are you going to be working in your online classes? Just like when you are ill, please let you students know with a News item when you are going to be online this week.  For example, here’s the one I put in my online classes:

This week, I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family Thursday and Friday.  During this time, I am not planning on checking the class.  So, please be patient with emails during these two days, I’ll be back checking on Saturday.

This really helps solve a number of issues.  First, it helps the students know when you’ll be able to reply to them.  It also lets them know it’s okay to take a break for a couple of days without missing anything.

If you are going to be offline Wednesday through Sunday, that’s okay.  Just be ready to deal with a large number of discussion posts, emails and assignments turned in when you return.  Many online students use holidays to get caught up with their online classes.

As for the Distance Ed office, Chia-Chi and I are taking Thursday and Friday off.  We’ll be back in the office Monday to help with D2L.  Don’t forget D2L will be down from 6AM-8AM Thursday, November 26th for an upgrade.  Sorry, you won’t be able to update that class if you are an early riser on Thanksgiving.   However, it should be back up by mid-morning.

Have a great holiday!

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management for Google, explained Google’s vision for Chrome OS Netbooks to a room full of journalists last week, revealing, perhaps unintentionally, that Google is focused on more than just the software.

Chrome OS is aimed at netbook users and is designed for fast, lightweight computing. Pichai’s presentation, and much of the resulting press coverage, focused on usability issues, drawing obvious comparisons to Microsoft.

Yet, as CNET’s Tom Krazit picked up, Pichai revealed with the single sentence “We really want software to understand the underlying hardware,” that for Google, reinventing the personal computing experience is about more than just the software.

I don’t know as yet, what the many developers who have started playing around with Chrome OS since the open-source code was released think, but I do know this: Chrome OS is designed to push applications up to the cloud.

When consumers come to choosing their devices to access this cloud, they will need to know that the cloud they are accessing resides in a part of the stratosphere that is always on.

We don’t just need High Availability. We need it available full stop. Guaranteed Ultra High Availability will make or break the user experience, and therefore the business model. Reinventing the personal computing experience is indeed, about more than just the software.

It’s that time of year for reflections on what you’re thankful for. I know I should reflect daily on what I’m thankful for, but during the month of November I often reflect more about my thankings. This week I only have to work until Tuesday afternoon, then it’s time to load up the Jeep (or the big black nasty as I refer to it) and the pepitos and head to Abilene, Texas. This year we are having a HUGE get together at Tascha’s house. I’m way more than excited as I love to get together with my family and do one of my favorite things: laugh. I love to laugh and as I have over 27 cousins, there’s A LOT of laughter to be giggled! I’ve been preparing and researching what treats I’m going to bring to the fabulous get together and I have it narrowed down to about 5 things. Some recipes are old and others are new that I have found in cook books that I’ve acquired over the last few months. This past year moving back to Texas, has been a blessing in a way that I’ve been able to spend more time with my family. My family has had it pretty rough this year and I’m glad that we’ve had each other to lean on and come together to enjoy some delicious food and laughter.  One thing I can count on is my cousin Mikael (I have changed the way he spells his name, because he aggravates me so much) to really pester me. It’s hard to come with a comeback because he snaps so quick you can barely get your brain around his joke and then you go blank because you’re laughing too much. An example, a fresh one at that, was when Tascha (Mikael’s wife) was telling my mom that the only time my mom made a mistake and before Tascha could finish her sentence, Mikael shouted from the other room “was when you made Jalys”. Laughter and giggles filled the room instantly, I think I actually snorted from laughing so hard.  Again, laughter is never slim in my family. What is even worse is when Mikael and my other cousin Paul start tag teaming, the insults/pestering/jabs/quirky remarks never seem to end and you just hope they don’t roast you too long and they find someone else to pick on! But it’s all in fun and that is what our family is about: aggravating and a really good hug before you leave the house.

That’s right, you will never leave my family members house without a hug. Actually, you arrive and don’t shake hands, you wrap your arms around each other and give each other a big ole hUg! That is something I’m thankful for, no matter if you’re coming or going, you have at least 15 people at a given time giving you a hug and a smile. A simple hug can be taken for granted, but in our family it’s how we say hello and good bye. If you bring a friend, well I hope they aren’t germ-a-phobic because you’re going to be greeted by EVERYONE with a hug and you have a pop quiz in which you have to name everyone by name…as you hug them bye.

I’m also thankful for my friends, I know it’s cliche, but my friends that I’ve met through the years have been pretty awesome. I can count on them for a pep talk when I’m feeling down or a good sarcastic comment when I’m feeling goofy. My friends have been there through me this year as it’s been one of the most difficult. I’ve called my bfff Kasey (Kasey Lynn Photography) many of times just down and out and she’s had the amazing ability to have me laughing about stupid stuff we’ve done in the past during our tenure at Tech. Believe me we could right a novel about our adventures and moments we’ve shared with each other and our other friends in our circle. She and Christina will often send me facebook messages with just random thoughts that make all three of us bust out while reading! It’s the little sarcastic comments/memories that help me get through the tough times.

I’m of course thankful for my parents, if it weren’t for them and their constant support, I wouldn’t be here. My mom has always been my number one cheerleader, every single photograph I’ve ever taken… even the blurry ones, is the most epic pic she’s ever seen. It’s great to have a support system like that. My dad also helps with giving me advice against the haters and even though it’s the same advice every time, it still is something I need to be told almost daily. Just keep doing what you’re doing and don’t pay attention to anyone else. Yes dad, I will.

Lastly, I’m thankful to Austin. Everyday I live here in Austin is another day I get to live the dream. In my last post I’ve talked about my dreams to become a full-time music/concert photographer and living in the live music capital of the world, I am exposed to achieving my dreams everyday in Austin. Just tonight I was granted a photo pass to my absolute FAVORITE band that is marching through Austin in December. I’ll let you guys try to figure it out but I have a “theory”  you guys will figure it out eventually! HAHAHA .

I know that I am thankful for a lot more than what I said above but I think I dug a little deeper into my soul tonight and exposed more of who I am. I can’t wait to share photos from our Thanksgiving feast as well as some new photos that I will be shooting for family and friends over the holiday. Of course a post isn’t complete without a photo, so I thought I would leave you a photo from one of the series I’m working on called… wait for it… textures! hahaha. From my family to yours, I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving and I hope you get to share it with the ones you love. Also, pick me up something from your Black Friday shopping! Just saying.

Love it, live it, capture it!

~ Jalys

We are experiencing difficulties with the server which runs the Library Catalogue which means there is currently no access to any Catalogue functions.
We hope to have it up and running soon.

Down for Maintenance.
Blogged.com is currently undergoing maintenance.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
www.blogged.com

Thanks Hadasa!

Network rather than individual server, this time: apparently we need more fiber or something.

I have no idea when all this will knock off, though I suspect it may be a day or two yet.

Almost daily I’m asked what my dream job is or what I see my future as. I often day dream of my future, I love the thought of spending my life expressing my soul through a camera lens. I love every aspect about photography, I love, live and capture photography. I crave photography and so it is simple and easy for me to say that my dream job would be for me to be self sufficient with my photography. But to go deeper, I’d love to make my living through music photography. I love music almost as much as I love photography, combining my two loves as a profession has been nothing less than amazing. Every show that I get to photograph makes me more passionate about my “dream job”. Don’t get me wrong, I love shooting portraits, I love shooting and capturing people’s personality through a single photograph, but what really gets my heart beat pitter patting is concert photography. Over the past month, I’ve been exploring this profession more and more and am pleased with the work I’m producing and only hoping to get better with time and practice. I’m working on a solid portfolio to send to magazines and other mediums to solidify my dream of becoming a full-time concert photographer.

Along with shooting concerts as my primary income, I’d love to go back and give LA another try. I love California and I do miss it dearly. During this episode of my life, I need to be back in Texas to be with my family and to stay grounded. LA can definitely break a person as it is a very cut throat city. I’m the type of person that would rather have my work speak for its self rather than my ability to throw someone under the bus for a gig. Austin and Texas have been very welcoming in my return to this great state, however my heart aches to be back on the West Coast. I know that when I do go back, I will be a better person and know exactly the type of person I am and will have a better sense of what I need to do during my second tour ofCali. I can’t wait to embark on that journey but I feel that it is still down the road until I am able to work up the nerve go back.

If you can tell, my dreams haven’t said anything about love, marriage, and a family. I believe my love, marriage and family is my passion and love for the job that I want to create/maintain. I’ve never been a relationship person because I’ve always knew it could, in no way, take on the love I have for something else. Most people base their life around finding the one person they love and creating a family to get them through their time on earth, which in theory sounds like an awesome life, however, for me I’ve never felt that as my purpose or path in life. Maybe in time and years added on to my current age of 25, I will to find the focus and the necessity to build on my personal life but for now it is not apart of my dream scheme.

I hope through reading this blog you are able to get a better glimpse at what I want to become. I am not the easiest person to read or get to know, I’m very guarded; but to work on my dream job, I need to work on myself and I thought this blog could break the ice. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it! I’d love some feedback!

Love it, live it, capture it.

~ Jalys

AND because a blog isn’t fun with out some fotografia, here is an UNSEEN shot I took during my tenure in California. This photo is helping me stay motivated to make the trek back to Cali as I’ve missed this scene from my daily life.

Dreamhost is currently having some issues resulting in unplanned downtime. Will follow up as we know more.

Twitter will be down tonight as part of its scheduled maintenance. For those of us in Colorado, Twitter will be down from midnight to 2am. If you’re one of those folks who stays up late catching up on tweets (and learning how you can have perfectly white teeth for only a couple bucks), you might be at a loss as to how to spend that time.

Fear not, I’m here for you sleep-deprived zombies. Here are three things you can do during Twitter’s downtime:

Hop over to Yelp and review the last couple of places you had lunch. Businesses love your feedback, and so does Laura L., community manager for Yelp Denver. Be constructive, be fair and please proofread what you write. Which leads to No. 2…

Work on your grammar and spelling. Last week I chatted with Mignon Fogarty, host of the peerless Grammar Girl podcast, and she concurred that Twitter is home to some pretty appalling displays of poor grammar and spelling. Take this time to review your last few pages of updates, and assess how well you’re communicating. Specifically, learn the difference between its and it’s.

Unfriend some people. The Oxford University Press recently named “unfriend” its word of the year. In celebration of this feat, spend a few minutes unfriending, unfollowing and unfanning those users who plague your social media salad with fail sauce. It’s cathartic and will make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

There you go! By the time you’ve done the above, Twitter will be up and running and you can be micro-hilarious all over again. Yay! I would advise you to get some sleep instead of playing on Twitter, but that level of consideration makes me uneasy. I only want the worst for you. Enjoy!

Welcome to my blog. I will write here while I go about life doing my job. And what is my job? Simply I sell equipment that will restore diesel fuel to it’s optimal quality. Too many fuel tanks contain diesel or other fuel that has deteriorated and spoiled. Then as soon as you start your generator and put it under load, your filters clog and well you know the rest. Our equipment and/or services in turn will help you or your client’s engine driven machinery to operate at it’s peak performance. Free of filter clogs and downtime related to poor fuel quality.
So here it goes. And if you stumble here and want to leave a valid comment, feel free as I welcome good comments and questions. And if you want to learn more about how to keep your fuel clean check out my website.
cleanfuelmanagemt

Cleaning fuel.…it’s what we do.

Tim

The Main Blog is offline for a few moments while the server is physically moved. Shouldn’t be down too awfully long.

Update, half an hour later: And it wasn’t.

Rocker has been in our lives for 2 months now, it’s been awesome as he’s helped ease our hearts through Rudder’s passing. The very day we got him, he has been a cuddle bunny. He loves laying in my lap while he sleeps and dreams about rabbits. When I’m trying to work here on the computer, he’s usually at my feet either trying to attack them or laying his head on my feet like a pillow. He has a lot of qualities of Raider when she was that age such as chewing my shoes, eating everything he can get his month on, but most of all loves having his belly rubbed. He loves to get between raider and I when we sleep so he’s in the middle and has all the cuddling powers. He loves playing with chew toys and loves all the attention he gets from everyone, whether we are at home or at the dog park, he loves all the faces that come and play with him! Raider has been a great big sister as she’s helped him settle into the family and become one of us! Almost a month ago, I took some pictures of Rocky playing at our house in Winters, TX. Here are a couple of the photos I shot. He’s even bigger than in these photos, so hopefully I’ll be able to shoot some more updated photos for you guys to see! Hope you enjoy them!

Puppy Power!!!

Following big sister’s lead!

Chilling with mom and dad’s dog, Yogi Bear!

Hopefully one day he’ll use these to listen to me!

Love it, live it, capture it!

~ Jalys

We were just notified that a number of University systems will be down this Saturday, 11/14, from 7-10 am. This is due to some needed electrical upgrades which will be made to the University’s main data center.

The systems that will be down for the upgrade include Library services that require authentication (i.e. logging into My.Scranton) including the article databases, ANGEL, and university email.

If all goes well, these systems will be back up and running by 10 am that morning. Thank you, library users, for your understanding and patience! Please plan accordingly!

I was five and rolling high in Kindergarten, it was time to get in line to get ready to go outside for recess. In my particular class we had a number that was taped to the ground and were given a number to stand on so my teacher knew who was here and who wasn’t. Well, during this particular day, a boy decided to stand on my number and I was not happy! I told him over and over that he was standing on my number and he needed to find his. After several attempts to get him off my number, I had a decision to make. I could take the high road, let it go, and move to his number until the teacher saw the mess up or I could teach him a lesson about not listening to me and school this five year old on how to wise up and not mess with me. I contemplated this decision for all of two seconds (maybe), let it go or show some action? Thats right, I chose the latter, as fashionable as I was back in the day, I had on a pair of black pointed toe cowboy boots and with the decision I chose I kicked him with these awesome boots right in the leg and told him to get off my number and find his as he stood there crying and me basking in my glory of telling him what’s up. Of course I was right and wrong, right in that he was in my place but wrong as my actions were to school this kid with my boot. That was over 20 years ago but my mom still loves to tell that story. Through out the years I’ve often made the decision to not let things go and have held grudges or couldn’t forget ways people have wronged me.

With all the things that have happened this year,I believe I blogged about how horrendous this year has been, I am trying to put the pressure on me to just let certain things go. Let it go. Simple enough, easier said than done. But as 2009 closes and 2010 opens up different doors, I’m soul searching into letting things go. Let.It.Go. That is what I tell myself when situations/aggravations come into play. So I hope that each of you as well as I learn to find it easier to let it go and forget about it and move on. With my new outlook on situations that yield my new philosophy, I will need constant reminder. So my friends might see this message come up again in my life, permanently.

Love it, live it, capture it.

~Jalys

So I have a new idea for my blog, I know a lot of photo bloggers do these sorts of things where they list their likes and dislikes or kisses and disses (J. Star.) SO I thought I would take a gander and try my own version out for size. So introducing Hugs and Shrugs. This past week had many highs and a few lows. So without further ado… here are my Hugs and Shrugs vol. 1!

* 36d Management and Randy Rogers Band — thanks to Robin at 36d Management and Randy Rogers Band, I was able to expand my portfolio with concert and music photography. Friday night was an amazing opportunity and I am ecstatic with the way the photografia turned out! Shooting shows like this only fuels my passion for music and concert photography and I became energized to keep going and hopefully will make it to the big times someday! Plus Randy Rogers Band is an amazing band anyways…. love, LoVe, lOvE, LURVE their music!

*  Cook books… It is getting that time of year where its all about family and food! I love love love getting together with my family and having lunch/dinner or both! I’m sure most of you guys know this as I blog a lot about my family and what we’re up to. This Thanksgiving a bunch of us are getting together for  lunch and I’ve been perusing cook books for some yummy ideas for food. I’m definitely my mothers’ daughter as I love to try out new dishes that I find through cook books and what not. I can’t wait to blog about our Thanksgiving feast so pace yourselves and try to wait for that yummy delicioso blog!

*  iTunes. I’ve had an ipod since they first came out and everyday I fall in love with iTunes more and more. From songs to ringtones to apps for iPhone, I think it is the greatest invention EVAR! So keep the music/games/apps/awesomeness coming!!

* Scentsy… I love candles, always have; always will. But this new form of candle is awesome. It’s a flameless candle. Scentsy brand candles come in these ceramic containers and you can buy all these scents that come in the form of wax in a little ice cube tray looking thing and  take out the wax from the tray and put them in the Scentsy dish, turn on the light and the wax melts and makes your home smell lovely. My cousin sells these awesome contraptions, go to her Web site and check them out. I promise you it’s totally worth the money. I have two; one in my living room and one in my bed room and I take turns turning them on to get my house smelling awesome town. You can even order online through her and your candles will be shipped straight to you door. Since Christmas is coming upon us, this would be a great gift idea for your friends, family, coworkers, etc!

* The Office and Modern Family… These are two of my fave shows right now on TV… Well actually the Office has been a favorite of mine for a long time. But anyways, I’m glad sitcoms are making a come back. Modern Family is a new show that comes on Wednesday nights @ 8pm on ABC. Totally check it out, I love dry sarcasm and this show is full of that dry sense of humor and sarcastic behavior. The Office continues to make me laugh at its quirkiness on Thursday nights at 8pm on NBC

* Torchy’s Taco’s. Anyone living in or around the Austin area should check this place out. It’s pretty simple.. you guessed it, tacos. But they are so much more than Tacos! HAHAHAHA. My recommendations are either the “grilled chicken taco” or the “trailer park chicken taco’ make sure to try their poblano ranch.. amazeballs. One day I’ll try to photograph these yummy tacos before I dig right into them!

* Coke Zero. The other day at work I had a delicious Coke Zero, I put it in my bag right before I left and to my knowledge the lid wasn’t all the way closed and it began to leak and spill all over my Iphone, Ipod, and point and shoot camera. Before I knew it my poor phone was soaked and I frantically tried to dry it off and do everything I could to take the moisture out of the phone…. my mission failed and my iphone is now a has been. I’ve been in the worsts of moods thinking about my no longer working phone. I was so attached to that phone, I could check facebook, twitter, email, news, weather, sport scores…. basically my whole life was in that phone. Coke Zero- you suck for murdering my iphone. I want a new one!

* I-35. I don’t know what is going on in Austin through out the day but for some reason this past week Northbound I-35 has been horrendous. I don’t understand what the problem is but please fix this issue, Austin! At 1pm there shouldn’t be any traffic on the interstate– especially when southbound is going 85 miles an hour!

* Gloomy days- Actually these are half hugs, half shrugs. I love these days because its not the typical hot stinky weather. But, BUT, BuT… I don’t get anything accomplished because all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch movies or catch up on the DVR. When you have 1.5 million things to do gloomy days yield a non productive day and that’s why today it’s in the shrug category.

I think this is a good first installment of my Hugs and Shrugs. I’d love some feed back and be sure to check the links through out the blog!

Love it, Live it, Capture it!

~ Jalys

P.S. Here is another UNSEEN photo from the Randy Rogers Band concert!

First for the “Fame”!:

Yesterday, I was surprised to receive a note from WordPress that my Toddler Tips had been chosen as one of their “Freshly Pressed”:

How exciting!!!  I hope all of my new viewers are enjoying my posts, and that you will stick around for our adventures to come.

And now for the “Freedom”:

My youngest just turned 1 last week.  I think something happens to our boys when they hit that magic first birthday.  It seems like a switch is flipped and are immediately more independent and just happier in general.  Which, in turn, means that Mama is a bit less exhausted at the end of the day….and thus my 15 minutes of “free time” before I crash for the night.

So what should I do with this newfound luxury?

15 minutes is not a lot of time, but I do want to take advantage and take some time for myself to relax and recharge.

Here are some ideas that I have, in no particular order:

1.  Browse through a (non-child-related) magazine or read a few pages of a book.
2.  Take a walk.
3.  Chat with my husband about something non-work, non-child related, just like the “old days”.
4.  Organize and continue unpacking (we’re now at the 10-box-post-move state…if we’re not careful, those boxes will still be full until our next move!).
5.  Bake cookies or other treats (probably more than 15 minutes, but perhaps I can prep as I am cooking dinner?).
6.  Have a glass of wine or tea and just be one with my thoughts.
7.  Call up / email a friend I haven’t talked to in a while.
8.  Continue knitting the blanket for David.
9.  Clean something.
10.  Go to sleep early.

OK, I just nixed the two “work related” items that escaped my fingers before I thought them through.

What do you suggest?  What sort of things do you do when you only have 15 minutes?