Personal

My 38th Birthday

Well today is my 38th birthday just two years away from 40….no big deal to me, growing old is just a part of life.

Yesterday was one of the hottest days of the summer and the AC wasn’t working at work all day. It got up to 94 degrees in my office very hot. The repair guy didn’t get here till 5pm. It was a blown fuse from a grounded fan.

I’ve been busy with server upgrades and getting things ready for the La Vigna picnic on July 30th. The 4th of July party turned out great. We had a clam boil going with clams, potatoes, muscles, lobsters and a lot of old bay We also had the usual stuff as well. Everyone had a blast.

I have upgraded one of our main file servers and our Internet server that runs our mail, web and ftp services at work to CentOS 4 “The Community ENTerprise Operating System” which is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution that is based on SRPMS provided by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor with the initials of RH. It is a good distro and allows me to load a lot of newer versions of software. The next one is going to be firewall so I can upgrade to the new version of “Checkpoint NG”.

On the home front Avery had her dance recital on fathers day weekend and she did an excellent job. I think she could make it on the dance team in the next few years if she really works at her dancing. We signed her up for Ballet, Jazz and Hip Hop for next year. Right now she is off from dance camp till the first week of August.

Carolyn is doing well and getting read to go on her trip to DC with her sister next month.

Waiting for the family to start rolling in for picnic week and heading to the shore….

Well that’s all I got so far for today will try to up date a little more often then I have been…..

It’s done and now let the parties begin

Well the yearbook is done and off to the printers. Now I can focus on the Memorial Day party on Sat. So the run to Sam’s Club is tonight. Tomorrow is set up the sound system and start getting things ready to move out side. We should have a good party this year. No theme for this one but I have some big ideas for the 4th of July party.

Sunday Carolyn and I go to Sachdeep’s wedding reception and it sounding like it’s going to be a great time, I am looking forward to good Indian food and a good time with friends. Most of the people I hang out with at work will be at my party and the wedding so it will be fun. So my congratulations go out to Schadeep and his lovely bride.

A thank you to the LIS yearbook committee..

What a long strange trip it’s been…..

I have handed over the disc with the yearbook on it to Maureen to take to the printers.

It’s been an interesting experience doing the layout of this book. I now have enough scrap paper from all the printouts I did to last me the next year at least. I was still getting pictures as late as 10 pm last night and I used each and everyone. The final layout finished saving at 1 am and the conversion to PDF finished at 2:30 am…..

I couldn’t have done it without all of your typing and taking pictures and proofing all the proofs. If I have to this again I wouldn’t want to do with another group of people. All I ask for is more time…

To a great Yearbook committee and to our fearless leader Kim…. 🙂

I hope you all like the final product…..

William Bilancio – a very tired but happy layout guy…..

It’s been a long time with a lot of stuff going on….

Since becoming “Geek of the Day” I have been extremely busy with LUG/IP stuff, work, as well as a new project.

The middle of April found my LUG/IP buddies at 2 tables at the “Trenton Computer Festival” handing out the LUG/IP live CD. It was a big success we gave out about 200 CDs and signed up about 180 people to the mailing lists. Our outside table in the flea market didn’t do that well, we sold most of the stuff Chris brought to sell but there wasn’t much of a crowd. The whole TCF was a disappointment, we heard a lot of the vendors voicing their feelings that the pricing was too high for tables and that there wasn’t enough advertising for the whole show.

The rest of the month has been busy working at work on getting the office done. All the drywall has been hung and spackled. I am now waiting for the door and the window to be installed then have it painted and the floor installed. I figure I will be able to get the data cable guy in here early next week and then move the equipment in here by the second weekend of May.

On top of that, I am doing the layout of the 6th-grade yearbook for my daughter school…I haven’t gotten any of the art or pictures yet and I have to have it done by May 25th. Nothing like pressure and a deadline as well the rest of the stuff going on in life…

I am going to try and keep up a bit more on putting up more posts..it’s just been really busy this last month

First House Project of ’05

It was either work on a customers computer in the basement or work out side demolishing the wall between the back yard and the patio. Hmmm, computer work or demolition. I picked demolition..and I remembered to take photos. The before and after shots can be seen at http://www.bilancio.org/gallery/patiowall.

The reason I wanted to remove the wall in the first place was that I felt when you were in the yard you were separated from the patio and vise versa. There was also no flow from the patio to the back yard. I will be removing the bush when my aunt gets back from Florida and put it somewhere else on the property. Hopefully, I can get grass to grow thereby memorial day and the first party of the year…

A sure sign that spring is here……

Well a sure sign of spring is here is the announcement and sale of the Jimmy Buffet summer show in the Philly area. Tickets went on sale this morning at 10 am for “A Salty Piece of Land Tour”. The dates are August 25 and 27.

I of course got my tickets for this year. 8 tickets for Saturday, August 27th at a new venue for Jimmy the “Citizens Bank Park” which is great because they were able to fit about 4 times the amount of people they can fit at the Tweeter Center in Camden. They didn’t use Ticketmaster for these shows which I think is great they are using a new online service new era tickets it was a little slow but what do you expect with Jimmy. So an hour and 36 min after the tickets went on sale there are still tickets left which is unheard of when Jimmy plays at the Tweeter Center…..

So with 5 months to go, it will be something to look forward to getting through the rest of the winter and early summer……

Yes it’s been a while.

Well another month has just flown by and I am 9 days into the new one already. Between work and research on the comic book store January got a way from me. We have hired a consultant to look into the feasibility of opening a store in this area. All they do is comic/pop culture store consulting and were recommended by about 2 dozen comic shop owners I talked to from around the US. We figured it would be better to pay his price to tell us yes or no on the store then lose all our money opening a store that has no chance of making money. So I have been running around getting some of the info he needs.

Work has been busy as well. I have been working on implementing IRM to do computer/software inventory. I am also going to use it for call management and a knowledge base so I don’t get the same questions all the time. This will also let me track projects and support calls electronically instead of a ton of post-it notes all over my desk.

I set my folks up with e-mail address on the bilancio.org domain. Yesterday I got 4 e-mails from my mother before lunch. This is major because she has been a computer novice big time, other then a lot of typos she is picking it up pretty fast. Dad has a slight cold and decided to go to the ER in Casa Grande to get some better meds then what he could get over the counter at the drug store. They said he had no fluid in his lungs and just gave him some antibiotics.

Avery got all A’s and B’s on her report card this semester and I am very proud of her this year. She is enjoying school and is growing up fast..turning into a teenager and has the attitude to go along with it. I have signed up to chaperon her trip to NYC with her class. I hope I don’t go nuts with all those kids. I will try not embarrass her to much, well maybe a little. 🙂

So that is all the news that is fit to print here at casa bilancio…….

An Idea and maybe a dream that comes true 1

For a long time, I have always wanted to do 2 things

1. Own and Run my own radio station
2. Own and Run my own comic book store.

I know that number 1 will never happen because my last name is not “Mr. Clear Channel”, but number 2 is starting to look good. Carolyn and I have been discussing it a lot in the last few days. We have started doing some research and asking others what they think. So far the people we have talked to seem to think it’s a good idea and have had there own ideas of how we can make the store a successful place. So more on this later…..

Another year coming to a close and another back spasm

On Wed I was pulling cable and somehow pulled my back out. I suffered through the rest of the day at work and figured I would be alright…wrong…..I spent Thursday sitting on the couch with the heating pad. I felt OK and figured I would be OK. Headed to bed and crashed out and woke up to a massive back spasm. I got up and kicked Avery out of her bed which has the better mattress. I slept OK in there once the pain subsided. In the morning it was right into the shower for a hot shower aimed right at my back. That loosened me up enough to move back downstairs to lie on the floor on the heating pad. I ended up sleeping on the floor and being able to get around a little better on Sat and yesterday was feeling good enough to go food shopping and doing some work on a customers new machine that I am building for him. I also got the turkey defrosted and in the marinade for Thanksgiving.

This morning I am in a little more pain then Sat and Sun. but I think I will make it through. If I can make it home at lunch and lie on the heating pad I should be able to make it through the afternoon….. I have to be able to move around better soon. I have to get stuff ready for Thanksgiving dinner we are having 18 people over this year.

It’s been awhile

Well since last I typed. My aunt Clora and I have traveled to Cleveland to be with my parents when my dad had a heart valve replacement at the Cleveland Clinic. All went well and he made it home a week after the surgery. My aunt and I spent 2 hours the day after the surgery at the Rock n Roll hall of Fame. It was great, even though we skipped all the multi media stuff. I am planing on going back with Carolyn and Avery and spend more time. I think it would take 2 days to see everything at the hall.

Have spent a lot of time working on getting my consulting business up and going. I have a little more paper work to get done then I can get going legal. Got the basement cleaned out and 1/2 the work bench built and up. I still have to get some more wood to make the other 1/2.

The rest of the time has been spent working and getting ready for Thanksgiving and the holidays. We are breaking tradition and inviting all the family since my dad is going to be down and people want to see him since the surgery.

Got the NYC office moved but they are without telephone and Internet service because MCI messed the order up. I am on the phone constantly with them trying to get it fixed. I finally got a manager who doesn’t have his head up his ass and is getting things done. So hopefully it will be resolved and up and running this week.

I will be trying to post a little more then I have been. I did get a few old posts from 2000 moved over from and old Blog account I had. They are interesting because it was the time I was switching jobs from Elcom to Arora.