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UtterlyBoring.com is produced by Jake Ortman (e-mail, resume), a 30-something-year-old dad, percussionist, sysadmin, Web developer, IT consultant and jack-of-all-trades geek, living in Bend, Oregon. He created this so that his expensive journalism and technology degree isn't getting totally wasted. In addition to editing this site in his free time, he is the communications manager at Weston Technologies. He has LinkedIn and Facebook profiles if you're trying to stalk him. He will not be posting on Twitter.
Opinions and comments on this site are the opinions of the author, not the author's employer, family, friends or pets. This site is powered by Movable Type and is hosted by orty.com. Since December 1st, 2002, there have been 6476 entries. Visitors to this blog have posted 21314 comments. If you're reading this, you have too much time on your hands. |
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I Need Your HelpI know this blog is all but dead (I do most of my writing elsewhere), but I needed to resurrect things for this. If you know me at all, you know I'm not one to seriously ask for help, especially financially. I also don't usually chat publicly about my family and kids much, leaving their lives private for the most part. That changes today as I need your help. I'm Still Blogging, Just Not HereI had a conversation a while back with somebody who was convinced (because of my lack of activity for exactly two years on here) that I wasn't writing or blogging any more. I am, I'm just doing it at the day job more, specifically, on Weston's blog where I've written the content on there for quite a while now (even some of the stuff under somebody else's name, but don't tell anybody). While much of the content there is targeted towards our managed clients or prospective managed-service clients (business in Central Oregon with 10 or more employees running Microsoft-powered desktops and servers), there is some content there that my past regular UtterlyBoring.com readers might find interesting -- like my monthly tech headlines posts. So if you're looking for me, you'll find me over here. I Know, I Know...I suck. I've all but abandoned this site. I've seen the comments, I've read the emails and I know: I haven't been giving this site and my loyal few readers the attention they deserve. My professional and personal life have been chaotic -- death in the family, wedding in the family, acquisition at work that required a truckloads of hours (but was a good thing), periodic illness, family obligations, professional obligations, etc... . It's just been a nutty last several months, and the likelihood of it getting better anytime soon is fairly slim. That being said, I wanted everybody to know I was I alive (as I've gotten that email, too). I rarely turn on my computer in the evenings when I get home, preferring to spend time with my family and relax. I rarely post on Facebook (which annoys people as well, I know), and we all know my general feelings on twitter. I can say that I'm going to post more on here, that I'm going to commit time to this, but, honestly, I don't know if I can or will. Not all of us can be as cool as Jon (I kid, but Jon is a cool guy, he really is). And if I had more free time, I'd probably spend it getting bendblogs.com back up and running as that did more for the local blogger community than most of the projects I've worked on. Or I'd do none of the above, as nobody knows where life is going to lead. Meanwhile, I'm going to do what I've always done and take things a day at a time and see where that takes me. Hopefully that will bring me back to this site again so I can start writing some more (which I dearly miss), but we'll just have to see what happens. Thanks again to all of you who are still checking-in. NCAA Pick 'em TimeSo here's the deal. Unlike previous years' pick ems, I'm totally unorganized, busy, and a general mess. Personal and professional life are totally chaotic, and the last thing I have is free time for posting stuff on this site (I'd rather spend the free time I have with family -- sue me). So I haven't been able to organize prizes or anything fun like in years past. My apologies. So this year, bragging rights are on the line. Join up here (password, if it asks, is utterlyboring20). Your brackets need to be filled out by Thursday morning. Scoring remains the same as in years past. Since there are not prizes, the rules regarding prizes don't apply. I won't be posted scoring updates like I did in the past. See lack of free time warning above. Good luck! And hopefully sometime this week I'll put out my quarterly-ish link dump. Every-three-month(ish) Link DumpOK, so I know I'm totally neglecting things here. My new job at a local outsourced IT company is going well, but keeping me busy. And yes, I did just try to give them some SEO linkage there because they need it. But after dealing with computers and people's issues with their computers all day long, sometimes I just don't feel like turning mine on in the evening. But otherwise, it's going well, the people are cool, and I have health insurance for the first time in 11 years (which would have came in handy nine years ago). That being said, I'm still collecting a link pile, and have some to share, so enjoy!
Posted by Jake on 11/29/12 @ 10:20 PM Posted in Cool, Funny, Games, Geekdom, Odd, Randomness, Scary, Video | Permalink Mass Link DumpSomething old, something new, all in one big pile. Enjoy!
Posted by Jake on 09/11/12 @ 10:32 PM Posted in Cool, Funny, Games, Geekdom, Interesting, Local, Odd, Randomness | Permalink Dren Shares His Loser ShirtThe Dren, the dude that lost our last Pick 'Em (third time he's done so -- see here and here) sent me a picture of the special shirt I made for him:  If you can't read the text:  Thanks Dren for playing and sucking so bad!
Stupidly Massive Link DumpSo obviously my life is far too chaotic at the moment to post here much, but that doesn't mean I'm not collecting links to share. To keep everybody occupied for a bit, enjoy;
Posted by Jake on 07/12/12 @ 09:46 PM Posted in Cool, Funny, Geekdom, Moronic, Randomness, Sad, Stupid, Video, Weird | Permalink I Have A New Respect For Katy PerryShe does some amazing death metal work: I Think We Should Charge The Crazy Nut Job With MurderAt latest count, 99,135 illnesses and 895 deaths have been reported from the CDC since 2007 on vaccine preventable illnesses, as reported on the Jenny McCarthy body count. Quoting the site: Is Jenny McCarthy directly responsible for every vaccine preventable illness and every vaccine preventable death listed here? No. However, as the unofficial spokesperson for the United States anti-vaccination movement she may be indirectly responsible for at least some of these illnesses and deaths and even one vaccine preventable illness or vaccine preventable death is too many. Video DumpSome videos to suck up the time and bandwidth... continue reading "Video Dump"...Every Parent Will Appreciate ThisIt's Naptime: Reading Material
Three Grandmas Win The InternetThree grandmas talk about the Kardashians and end up watching the Ray-J and Kim Kardashian sex tape. (Some day I'll catch up and share more of my saved links and such. Probably not until at least after next weekend's concert.) Anybody Have Some Time I Can Borrow?So the new job is going well. I'm still trying to wrap my head around ConnectWise, but I'm getting there. The people there are great, the company's philosophies are good, and things are going smoothly. And I actually get home earlier from work, so I can see my kids more (shorter commutes are nice, though I did have to wait at a train crossing three times in the last week). Meanwhile, since it's the end of the school year, and there are a bunch of concerts, recitals, and other end of the year activities with the kids, including my own mess of stuff. I have rehearsals and/or concerts tonight through next Tuesday, which means I won't be able to come up for air much after work or on the weekends. In other words, this blog is going to be neglected for a bit more time. I have a ton of fun reading material and videos to share, but I actually need to sleep now and again. With that being said, good night. Don't Text and WalkBad things happen... Post Last-Day Reading MaterialSince I gave my notice, I've been spending the last few weeks trying to finalize and document a metric ton of projects as well as find replacement(s) for the various work I do. Today was my last day in Sunriver, and it was with a bit of sadness that I left. While I'm looking forward to the new challenges and the people I'll be working with, change is always a bit scary. But change sometimes has to be made, and I'm looking forward to a bit of change in my life. It was a bit weird removing a few e-mail accounts from Thunderbird. Meanwhile, here's some reading material that I've been sitting on for a while:
Time Killer For The EveningA Super Mario Summary has you play through all the levels of the original Super Mario Bros., but each level is summed up in a single screen. Get all the coins and jump to the top of the flag pole to get three stars for the level. Created in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 23 For the Hitchcock FansA great Rear Window Timelapse: Have a New Job, Looking For My Replacement(s)I've been a bit quiet about this (and quiet in general, lately), as I wanted to make sure it was a sure-thing, paperwork had been signed, my bosses knew and notice was given before I went public: I'm going to be leaving as the IT/Graphics/Marketing/Bit-o'-everything guy for Sunray Vacation Rentals and Discover Sunriver Vacation Rentals to take a position with Weston Technology Solutions. It was an opportunity I really couldn't pass up, and I look forward to the new challenges and working with the folks at Weston. The folks I've talked to there are all really nice people, and I've heard great things from a couple of their clients, too. I enjoyed my time down here in Sunriver and the people I've had the pleasure to work with, but it's time for a change. I was in a unique situation in that I grew up knowing the folks who own both of these vacation rental companies, which is why I was able to work at both places, despite them being competitors. They work together on some projects to help cut costs (they built/share a laundry facility together, for example), but they're going after the same customer base, and they each do things a bit differently in general (both from an advertising standpoint as well as a technical standpoint). What that basically means is that I'm going to need to find two people, one for each company, not a singular person to work for both companies. I'm still talking it over with the folks here to see what the exact job description will be at each company and getting craigslist ads written. We're still working on whether they plan on hiring full-time or part-time, but if you have experience in marketing and advertising (online and in print), graphics design. a-bit-of-everything (and having some web development and technical experience wouldn't hurt), send me a resume and cover letter: jakeortman at gmail dot com. Benefits may be available as well. My current officemate likes cats and Apple products, so keep that in mind when sending me your resume. I'm also looking at getting contacts for freelancers who might do some of this kind of work as well, as I know there has been talking about outsourcing some graphics design and/or technical duties. If you're interested, and don't mind the drive out to Sunriver, send me your information as well so I can add it to my file. Update: Here's one of the craigslist postings, will link up the other one when/if it gets created. Everything's Better With DramaJust push the button... Time Killer(s) For The Evening
Reading Material
Video DumpNeeded to get these off my desk here. Read on to watch... continue reading "Video Dump"...The 2012 Pick 'em Is Over, and BBall Magic Is Our Winner!First off, a big thank you to all of the prize providers for this year's pick 'em:
I was one of a few people that picked Kansas to win the tournament while most of the people in the 2012 UtterlyBoring NCAA Pick 'em picked Kentucky. I thought I was going to look like a genius. Not so much after Kentucky smacked the Jayhawks around, causing me to drop from first on Saturday to fourth today. As you can see, quite a few folks picked Kentucky, and I barely held on to fourth place. But that matters not, as the following folks are in the money, so to speak:
I'll be getting in touch with all the winners later this week once I get all the prizes rounded up. Per the rules, you have two weeks to get back to me from when I send the email, otherwise the prizes go to the next person on the list. Make sure your email address it visible on the tournament member page otherwise I have no idea how to verify you are who you say you are (or contact me at utterlyboring {at} gmail {dot} com and I'll give you another way to verify, involving the tournament member page). Thanks again for playing! Trying To Get In Touch With Me?If anybody tried to e-mail me on my personal email (jake {at} orty {dot} com) the last 24 hours or so, you might want to e-mail me at jakeortman {at} gmail {dot} com instead. E-mails are disappearing off into neverland since I moved my domain between servers last night (part of the move I mentioned yesterday), so I don't know if the emails are lost or not. Looking into it, but meanwhile, that Gmail account is probably the best way to get in touch of me right now. Update: After looking at all sorts of logs and such, it appears my e-mail was never making it to this server. It was making it to my old server, but was getting rejected for unknown reasons (probably because the MX records pointed here, as they should have). They were temporary rejects, but for some reason something kept trying to send email to that old server. So I just said screw it and did what I've been meaning to do and move my personal e-mail domain to Google Apps and changed the MX records all around to reflect that. As soon as I did that, e-mail started to trickle in from last night, so SMTP servers were doing their jobs and retrying. This will probably give me a better e-mail infrastructure than I could ever build myself anyway. Still do wish i knew what the heck was going on. Anybody Need Toner or a Copier? And Some Personal Notes...First off, happy Internet JackAss day. I'm too busy to really browse around and find the good stuff, so post a comment with your favorites. We're moving offices here in a month or so, so I've been cleaning out closets here at the office. I have a truckload of laser printer toner (mostly for HPs) that I have on Craiglist and also have a good Canon copier for sale. I also have a few twinky flatbed scanners and a few other parts I'm still going through, so let me know if you are looking for something specific and I'll see what we have. The rest gets a bit technical here, so you can read on if you'd like... continue reading "Anybody Need Toner or a Copier? And Some Personal Notes..."...Holy Cow, I'm Actually Winning My Pick 'emThe Final Four is over, and I'm actually winning the 2012 UtterlyBoring.com Pick 'em, but it's still going to come down to the final game. If Kansas wins, I'm the bragging-rights champ (since I'm not claiming any prizes), but if Kentucky wins, I'm going to drop down to fourth, as several folks are really close to me, and have Kentucky winning the final game. The final game is worth a bunch of points (13 to be exact) so things could really get interesting. The updated scores for the day are here. Reading Material
The Final Four Is Set!In all the years I've been running the pick 'em on this site, never have I been in contention to win the thing this late in the game. As it stands right now, I manage to pick 3 of the 4 Final Four teams and stand in second place behind "Zen-ish,", who has been close to the lead for more of the tournament. If Kansas and Kentucky win next weekend, it would come down to me and "BBall Magic" for the championship, as he picked Kentucky to win, I picked Kansas. That being said, it doesn't really matter, other than for bragging rights. I've said all along, I'm not eligible for any prizes, so should I manage to win, the prizes will be given away starting with the second place person. But you dang-well better believe that that I'm going to make sure everybody knows that I picked it right. Of course, knowing my luck, all this might be for naught as Louisville and Ohio State might win and I won't get any more points anyway, so it might end up being a moot point. |
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