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Category Archives: Family

Anything that is a product of my husbandry, fatherhood, sonship, and brotherhood.

Amazing things…

The simplistic beauty of nature in my back yard.

 

Seeing my daughter with cerebral palsy crawl over, push her self up, and begin petting her dog.

God is good, and infinitely greater at revealing his mercies than I often believe possible.

Are you a problem solver…

Are you a problem solver, or are you a button pusher?

When you are faced with something new, and well, problematic.  Do you marvel at it’s complexity, or do you look for the first point of attack?  Do you fret about all the damage this new issue has wrought, or do you relish in the new lessons you will learn?

There are issues around you everyday.  Some more obvious than others, but they always lie, under the surface of everyday life.  Steady course often works well to suppress these cataclysmic eruptions, but not always.  Perhaps the steady course with no correction gave these problems the added pressure to reach their boiling point.

At the end of the day it’s worth every bit of your (current and future) sanity and those around you to take time and evaluate things.  I don’t care if it’s technical, spiritual, emotional, physical, or other.  The bottom line is, change is always possible, and solutions do exist to problems.

Stop pressing the same buttons over and over again and start thinking critically.

 

Work Work, Zug Zug, Dabu…

To say I’ve been a bit busy lately would be the understatement of the year.

Finalizing critical content packages to allow the decommission of our previous systems management software.  Transitioning our infrastructure to the new systems as well, and performing software rationalizations in our environment has put me at a limit to sitting and writing.

Oh, did I mention general systems integration for a new company that I’m not certain I have a future with still?

I do thoroughly enjoy the work though as it’s largely technical and requires little (or allows for little) theory crafting sessions on the best possible way.  Don’t get me wrong, I love planning, but planning without action to me is just a miserable existence.  I don’t thrive on anarchy, but I enjoy doing work as opposed to talking about it; and I enjoy clutch situations at times.

In other, life altering news; our daughter was officially diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy last week.  I’m not really sure where else to go with that outside of the fact it is what it is.  It was a rough day last Monday when we got the news; but I think I am past the diagnosis and back to looking at my daughter for what she is, not what she will or will not be.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world. – John 16:33

When I see my beautiful daughter smile, I’m reminded how lucky I am that she’s alive and in our care.  Even if that burden is great, I gladly bear it; as would most parents.  I’m sure there will still be anger, and pain dealing with this so please, if you have been then continue to pray for us.

Will on the other hand, my main man.  He’s absolutely digging “getting muscles” lately and is continually asking me if such and such builds muscles, or telling me how or where he got some new muscle. He’s also been doing a really great job lately with being a responsible big brother to his sister in her trials.  Admittedly he still gets frustrated at times with the amount of attention his sister receives, but his love and encouragement for her continues to amaze me and makes me proud to be his father.

So back to the building muscles thing.  I came home last night from work, and my son comes yelling  “DADDY COME HERE I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING”.  So I walk into the family room, and he’s taken a toy shopping cart and pulled it up to the mantle, and proceeds to do wide grip overhand chin ups.  It was a rest day for me too so I just did some yoga that night as well, which my son was MORE than eager to get involved in; the entire time explaining to me how or why it builds muscles.  That kid is awesome.

Hah, well I ended up writing a lot more then I expected; I should quit while I’m ahead.  Take care until next time.

More tornadoes then you can shake a stick at…

I just wanted to make a brief post to let all my readers and loved ones who read my blog know that I am ok.

My wife was a bit shook up as she hates tornadoes, and we count ourselves lucky that this one missed us as well. We’ve already begun to hear reports of fatalities in the town/suburb just north west of us.

Prayers for those affected.

Tragedy…

I had thought to have more time to blog and post things of interest now that the holidays had passed and the core portion of my logon framework was completed but something(s) unexpected happened.  We arrived home and decided to go out to eat dinner when my wife received a phone call that her closest cousin’s 7 month old son had died suddenly at the sitters.  This passing was followed by the news of 3 others close to me; 1 co worker and 2 old family friends.

There is hope in their passing that I will see them all again.  With that I find peace, but continue to pray for their loved ones and those who feel the immediate loss in their life.  One of my favorite analogies of death is that, it’s like losing an arm.  Things will never be the same, but eventually you learn to live without it. 

To those learning how to live again, my heart goes out to you, sincerely.

Update…

So, in the midst of the holiday season I’ve not had a lot of time to blog, if I’ve had time it’s been spent either coding or playing one of the many games that have been coming out this holiday season.

This past week I took some time off to get away with my wife and and spend some time alone while my mother in law watched the kids.  I can’t begin to express how amazing it was to just relax with my wife and enjoy each others company.  To sit and talk, uninterrupted about something other than the work or kids.  We also went to see courageous while we were together.  We really enjoyed it, and it was nice to see a movie that we both could enjoy that covered values that we agree with.

It was especially nice considering the time was intended for us to grow together and reconnect.  This offered us that opportunity, and we have our in laws to thank for that.  Of course all good things must come to an end and this was no different.  We then spent the rest of the week with family, enjoying ourselves, but wearing ourselves out as well.  Games, kids, food, sickness, and well, family (and all that implies).

As far as gaming is concerned I’ve been through and am currently playing: battlefield 3 (pc), Assassin’s Creed Revelations (ps3), Resistance 3 (ps3), gears of war 3 (360), Uncharted 3 (ps3), Skyrim (pc), and swtor beta (pc).  I’ve so far, omitted batman arkham city and modern warfare 3.  I’ll be throwing some more technical blogs up later I’d suspect, especially involving some things I have going building an sccm health check script that’s fairly comprehensive yet light weight.  We’ll see how that goes.

For those wondering, I still don’t have any news on my current job situation.  So until I’m told otherwise, I am employed.  I suppose I’ll make it through my holiday’s with it from the way things look, but you never know.  Thanks for those praying for me during this time, they are always welcome.

That’s about it for my update, until next time, have a happy holiday.

So it’s been a while…

Since I posted anything personal on here that a non-techie person could read.  I’ve had a lot of things going on to me, and around me; so it’s about time to spill it.

Let’s start with some of the good things going on.

Maggie.

She’s getting stronger, and her confidence is growing.

2011-11-07_18-14-42_776[1]

Most people may not realize how huge seeing her sitting up on her own in a shopping cart is to her mother and I.  Is she behind?  Sure, but she’s making progress, and for that we are thankful.

Now, she’s also becoming more and more aware of things she wants to do and realizing she can’t do them (so it would seem) and she gets increasingly more frustrated and that breaks our hearts to witness.  So moments like this where she’s sitting like a big girl, elicits a very proud and triumphant smile from her beautiful little face.

Will.

He keeps growing, and he’s developing such a strong sense of right and wrong.  He’s also got a great sense of humor and a huge heart.

2011-10-27_18-06-51_374[1]

He’s as high energy as ever, and continues to push boundaries though mind you.  Asking questions and wearing his emotions on his sleeve.  He’ll be going into speech therapy soon, more for conversational reasons than his inability to pronounce single words.  With his high energy comes his blurt speaking as I like to think of it.  Essentially he has a million thoughts in his head and his mouth will only go so fast to convey that message.  With all that being said though, every day he does something to test my ire, yet cause an absolute swelling of pride over him.  A 3 year old in true form (soon to be 4, which he is certainly excited about).

Amanda.

There isn’t really a whole lot to say that she doesn’t say on her own blog, but we continue to grow together as well.  Everyday, a day at a time.  She’s my earthly joy, and the one I seek for guidance and approval.  Aside from being an amazing mother and wife, she’s taken to doing a lot of crafts lately (sewing, embroidery, and scrapbooking), lately of course being for the past year or so.  It continues to amaze me the level of quality stuff she’s been making.  I’m being serious here, it’s really neat to see the way she takes such obscure random things, visualizes something, then in a few hours or a few days has this absolutely impressive piece of work.

I also love the fact she has a hobby now.  I’ve always kind of been one to be into something.  Coding, studying obscure subjects, collecting anime, playing video games, tweaking hardware, building networks, etc.  Amanda has always had things she’s into I guess, but never really had the time/money/equipment/support/motivation to follow through on it but now she has and it excites me to see her pouring herself into it.

Me.

So the current situation for me is pretty, interesting.  My company was bought out a few weeks ago in what is (admittedly) a great deal for the shareholders.  The only kicker is, it could be bad for me, as in lose my job bad.  I’m not presently assuming that, but the reality is there.  I can’t really disclose any more then that at this time, but it’s a matter of concern.

I’m not really sure what else there is to say, I’ve been coding a lot, studying a lot, and (with all the games coming out) gaming a lot.  There never seems to be a shortage of things that need to be done, or things I want done.  Par for the course I guess, and that sums up what’s been going on lately. 

If only things were always this simple.

Maggies 1st blog post….

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gggggggggggggggggggggffffcggggggggggggggvv n bbbhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnhjHoffcccccccccvvqtgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfg

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For Steve…

Redid the File Renamer script for you based on what you asked for. This should tag common video files as v and pictures (well everything that isn’t excluded) as p.  I also added a file browser to the script as well as a general graphical interface to kind of make things simpler.  If you don’t want it in there I can easily strip it out and put it back to command line.

<#---------------------------------------------------------------------
Script: Renamer.ps1
Author: Daniel Belcher
Modified: 11/5/11
---------------------------------------------------------------------#>
FUNCTION Folder($MSG, $PATH) { 
    $SHELL = New-Object -comObject Shell.Application  
	$FOLDER = $SHELL.BrowseForFolder(0, $MSG, 0, $PATH)
	    if ($FOLDER -ne $NULL) 
			{$FOLDER.self.Path}
} 
	FUNCTION Message($MSG, $TITLE) {
		$SHELL = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
		$SHELL.Popup($MSG,0,$TITLE,1)
		}
<#---------------------------------------------------------------------
Select Folder with contnets to modify via Shell.Application namespace
and verify that the choice is correct with Wscript popup method.
---------------------------------------------------------------------#>
   $FOLDER = Folder -MSG "Select your folder..." -Path .\
if($FOLDER -eq $NULL) {
Message -MSG "Must select a folder to continue." -Title "Error" 
		break}
$VERIFY = (Message `
"You Selected:
$Folder
Its contents will be renamed, are you sure?" -Title "Verify")
	if($VERIFY -eq "2") {break}
<#---------------------------------------------------------------------
Grab directory contents and process
---------------------------------------------------------------------#>
	$LIST = Get-ChildItem "$FOLDER\*" -Exclude `
	*ps1,*exe,*mp3,*dll,*ini,*cfg,*ocx,*doc?,*xls?,*txt|Sort-Object lastwritetime
			$X = 0
	ForEach($OBJECT in $LIST)
		{$EXTENSION = $OBJECT.ToString().Split("\") | Select -Last 1; 
		$EXTENSION = $EXTENSION.Split(".") | Select-Object -Last 1
	if($EXTENSION.Contains("ps1") -eq $TRUE){break}
$TYPE = "p"
		switch($EXTENSION){
			mov{$TYPE = "v"}
			avi{$TYPE = "v"}
			wmv{$TYPE = "v"}
			mpg{$TYPE = "v"}
			mpeg{$TYPE = "v"}
			}
			$FILEINFO = New-Object System.IO.DirectoryInfo($OBJECT)
				$NAME = $FILEINFO.LastWriteTime.GetDateTimeFormats() |`
					Select-Object -Index 99
				$NAME = "$($NAME) ($($X)) $($TYPE).$($EXTENSION)"
						Write-Output $NAME
			Rename-Item -Path "$OBJECT" $NAME
			$X = $X+1
			}
<#---------------------------------------------------------------------
END
---------------------------------------------------------------------#>

#.

Feel free to modify this anyway you like, add more extensions, exclude more etc. This was kind of a lazy hack to get you what you told me, and I had a few minutes to kill since I couldn’t sleep tonight.

So stinking busy…

On a more regular basis I’d like to keep a stream of technical write ups, gaming news, theological thoughts, and or general “what’s going ons” with me and my family.  However with a work trip to Houston last week and general slap busy nature of my work since returning home; I’ve not had any time to collect some thoughts and formulate them into a blog post.  I want to hit some high points, and perhaps elaborate on them more in future posts.

High point #1 Samba DC

Ok, so people who have known me for any extended amount of time (from the age of 16 to 30) knows that I’m a Linux fan.  My work and lively hood mind you thrive around a Microsoft world, but I will never sell Linux short, nor fail to marvel at the amazing things that a thriving community of passionate individuals can create.  I also maintain a Linux server out of my home to manage DNS, DHCP, VOIP (TeamSpeak) and File sharing (NFS, iSCSI, and SMB).  I will also, on occasion, bring up outward facing game servers.  Just recently I decided to convert that server into a SAMBA DC for my, primarily, Windows 7 environment at home.

I run CentOS as my server distribution, which is a downstream of RHEL.  I’m running Samba version 3.5.4, at the time of this writing 3.6 is the latest stable release but didn’t offer enough improvements for me to go outside of my natively distributed yum version.

Also, aside from a few changes to the registry and local security policy that had to be made on the client side of the machines, the migration was fairly painless.

The first change resolves the issue of Windows 7 being able to find the domain for insertion, and the security policy solves the issue of Domain Trust at login.  It’s also wise to disable the password reset of the machine to DC to avoid potential relationship issues.  I’d not seen this issue myself, but until I see a confirmation it’s resolved (supposedly coming in samba 4) I’ll err to the side of caution.

My next step will be to integrate Open LDAP functionality into the DC, and an Apache http server.  I assume these will be fairly painless projects, but for risk of breaking my current domain environment I’ll need to wait till I have the time to deal with a potential ldap migration failure.  I also don’t have a strong enough list of pros for it since this is just a home network.  Mind you it’s more sophisticated than the average home network, it just seems a bit over engineered.  As for the Apache server, I really want to get back into some web development so I’d like the internal server for development purposes….

 

service httpd start

Ok, so now I’m running an Apache server off my server as well.  Linux is so hard.

 

 

High point #2 Admin Studio 10

So I was in Houston last week.  I’m now “officially” trained to use Admin Studio 10 for package (msi, app-v, xenapp, and thinapp) development, repackaging, and migration.

So what does that mean?

Well as most of you know I work with a product from Microsoft called SCCM.  One of the primary features of SCCM is application deployment.

So what is application deployment?

Simply put, it’s installing applications to multiple machines over a network.

Ok, I think I see.  So why would you need to do package development to deploy packages?

Well, you don’t have to.  One could feasibly shoehorn an installer given by a vendor, but ideally you want to build out a standardized installer or load for your company.  For us that means I’ll be building MSIs, MSTs, and App-v packages.  As well as isolating application installs that might otherwise break functionality of OTHER applications they share hard drive space with.

Wait, what?  Isolate, break, huh?

Almost all applications rely on libraries.  Think of them as a set of shared instructions that applications go to when asked what to do.  Well in most cases these libraries are shared by multiple applications.  And, sometimes one application wants a vanilla library, and another wants a chocolate.  Well these apps will fight, and one of them will win and another one will lose.  By isolating them I can give them what they want so they don’t break the system, or each other.

Our company will also leverage App-v packages which are essentially virtualized installs of these applications that, although they run locally on the machine, they are actually virtualized (or encapsulated) and are separate from the actual operating system.  Xenapp and Thinapp do the same thing.  I’m particularly excited about application virtualization, it can come with a bit of overhead, but it’s nice and contained.

Ok, I stopped caring somewhere around chocolate and vanilla.

Yea I figured as much.  Either way, it is a tangible notch to my hard skill set and I’m glad that I was able to get it done.

 

 

 High point #3 Gospel in Life

What does a Gospel centered life look like?

What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world?

Is the Gospel as narrow minded to culture as people often proclaim it to be?

What does a Gospel centered community look like?

These are part of the current bible study I’m involved in with my brothers and sisters in Christ called Gospel in Life by Timothy Keller. It’s a great study that forces you to take a look at your heart, your life, and your community and compare it to what and how it is defined in the Gospel. I would recommend this study to anyone who is a believer. Even if the information isn’t new to you, as most of it hasn’t been for me, it’s still food for the soul. A reminder of the higher purpose we are called to as Christians.

Truthfully, I’d encourage non-believers as well to read this study. If for nothing else, than to hold Christians accountable to the teachings that we claim to believe.

 

 

High Point #4 Ignoring my Family

I’ve taken way to long to blog this, and my wife has informed me that I should blog about how I’ve ignored my family, to blog.

When she’s right she’s right.  Thank God for her gentle reminders.