Nasty News

Coffee, cream and crash

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:36:54 GMT

Coffee, cream and crash

ewlett-Packard, Microsoft and EMC Retrospect have not always been in my best books. I've had a few problems with HP and RAID systems on their Proliant series over the last 6 months. I've never been able to do a painless system restore with Retrospect, and needed a few times. And Microsoft software is dumb*.

So here I am, again, on Saturday. Woke my ass up at 7 AM to check up on a client's server. HP came out a while back to replace the mainboard on this server and managed to 'forget' to turn the RAID back on. So they sent us some instructions on how to turn it back on and 'take a vaild backup just in case'. After turning the RAID back on, it found the existing 'Optimal' RAID drives. (Not sure how they were optimal after 2 months of changes) - Of course dumb old Windows bluescreened at first signs of booting. I was stunned it could not start the operating system, but did manage to load the blue screen kernel message.

Oh well... RAID verification then - finished this morning. Still blue screen. Only option, restore from backup.

Then starts the good old Retrospect story. After installing windows server 2003 from scratch, restoring from a backup should seem pretty easy. As it looks in the manual. After restart, windows always asks to restart in Directory restore mode. So let's do that... No.. Retrospect has managed to break a fresh windows install with a system restore, to a level where I need to start all over again.

I am now at rebuild 4... I've released my anger by crushing some boxes... and now by posting it on Live Journal... not that anyone will read this or understand it... but it makes me feel better. Hope googlebots will index it and rate it high!!!!

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW" RANK='No1">

*Yeah., MS make a lot possible, and a monkey can install a server. However monkeys are not supposed to install servers, if it doesn't work there's nothing that tells you why and how to fix it. Just click here to start ... unknown error. And no - it doesn't look nice anymore, it looked cool in the 90s, all other operating systems look 10x as cool and are at least 100x as fast. Windows Server is dumb slow and ugly!

Coffee, cream and Cervantes

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:19:29 GMT

Coffee, cream and Cervantes

riday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. I had an extra long weekend and spent it in around Cervantes. I booked a last minute bed in a hostel, drove up (2h30) enjoyed some time walking on the beach, dinner at a nice restaurant, went for a walk in Mt Lesuer national park to see the crazy wild flowers, did a scenic flight over the Abrolhos Islands, landed on North Island for lunch, a bush walk and a snorkel, saw ship wrecks, tiger sharks and a whale from the plane, shared the hostel room with the band members of the band that was playing in Cervantes, visited our ancestors 'the stromatolites' once again, drove into the desert, did some off road racing with my 1.4ltr Hyundai Getz over the dirt tracks of WA, bought some cheap plants for the back and front yard, read a book, traveled 1255km by road and 300 by air, posted my weekend on live journal and feel totally rejuvenated.

Coffee, cream and camping

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:35:17 GMT

Coffee, cream and camping

hat's right, I've been camping. Two weeks ago, in the long Easter weekend, I went down south to Esperance. My dad was still there with his girlfriend. They'd been road tripping for two months through WA... and came as far as Esperance from Perth. Talking about taking your time!

Anyways, we had a great weekend. Saw a fund raising concert with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra WASO and Andrew Winton, a local Perth musician. Very John Butler / Xavier Rudd like... He was quite a character on stage, likes to chat between his songs, which is always funny. We also drove around the area a a bit, did some swimming in the ocean. It was all good good good. And BTW in my new tent! A 6 person tent, for two people... hahaha... never had so much room with camping in my life! It was a 1700 KM round trip and only used 100 liters of petrol..

The next weekend I went to Yallingup with Tanya, Emma and some of their friends. We had a very nice time down there, did a cave trip, had nice breakfast and lunch at some wineries. And met some very nice people. ;-)

Coffee, cream and cars

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:13:49 GMT

Coffee, cream and cars

his is a story about Nissie, Wasabi and Chloé. It's been a rough ride, so to speak... Nissie was my beautiful backpacker's van, which drove me all across the country. From Sydney to Mildura, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Broome and Perth... Nissie hasn't been happy in the last year... City life is no life for a multi-color van... So I looked for a different car.. and there was Wasabi, my Green Saab 9000 CS... which lasted me about 3 weeks... and a few more weeks of 'trying to drive it' after 7000 dollars of purchasing fixing and insuring i decided to trade Wasabi in. End of January I bought Chloé, my tiny 1.4 liter city vehicle. Chloé takes me for tours in the city , to Freamantle, the beach and down south. She's a cute little car.

So Wasabi is with the Hyundai dealer now. They gave me $2000 dollar for him. And Nissie, she's now with two German backpackers.. .They're taking her for a drive around WA and back to Darwin. So she's back on the road. Next week I should be getting off my Probationary license and have a full one... So finally all should be coming together with my car drama stories of the last 6 months... (Wasabi's story)

I'm sitting here with Loretta, celebrating life with a bottle of Vasse Felix Cabernet Merlot 2005.. Keep you posted (probably in another 7 months time... sorry for being slack!)

Coffee, cream and citizenship

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:56:23 GMT

Coffee, cream and citizenship

his morning I woke up to a very nice phone call. My migration agent told me at 7:23 AM that I could stay in the country. I've got my sponsorship for the next four years!!!

After this it's up to citizenship!

Coffee, cream and celebration

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:00:24 GMT

Coffee, cream and celebration

uly the 3rd. That's right! The most important day of the year.

I turned 29 today. Happy birthday ME!!!! <:o)

Coffee, cream and chardonnay

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 08:24:34 GMT

Coffee, cream and chardonnay

eople of planet earth: I have a dream job! Last week we had to install a computer network down south in the wine region of Margaret River. We're staying at a resort right on the Beach in a $2M apartment.
Every day consist of over priced breakfast, some consulting work, over priced lunch at a wineries with some wine tasting, some consulting work, very over priced dinner with local top wines. And I have to go again this week. Poor me... ;-)

The rest of my life is also good, thanks for asking. So here's my Out of office message for the week.

Sorry, I'm drunk.... I'm not in the office this week, because I am trying to taste every possible wine from the south west region of Western Australia. Please feel free to joing me from 8AM to 10AM from 12PM to 2PM and 5PM onwards.
Your message will self destruct.

Kind regards,
The King.

Coffee, cream and cough

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:34:56 GMT

Coffee, cream and cough

he last two days I had 4 computer screens on my desk, 2 servers to install, 11 work stations and 2 laptops to install and 5 networks to manage. And Oscar's home sick... coughing his longs out... I'm so tired right now, I can't even come up with a funny explaination about how a client called me out of bed this morning at 5 AM... Because his website was down.

Hands up for all who've had a busy week (and the week is not over yet

Coffee, cream and contract

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:38:57 GMT

Coffee, cream and contract

omething went completely wrong this week with the alignment of the stars. I was going to take over the rent from Paddy, cos he's moving out. Sad to see a friend leave, but I had another friend moving in.
Then suddenly Matt and Toby also decided to move out, Wara and Emma-Jane moved out last month, so suddenly I had a house all alone and a rent to pay by my self and 4 weeks bond to cough up. Now I don't swear much... anymore... but this was pretty sh*t.

The city is covered in rental notices now for a certain house in Glendalough. :-S I signed my renting contract saturday and explained the landlord the situation. Luckily he's letting me pay off the bond in terms, cos I don't want to rob a bank.

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:57:17 GMT

Coffee, cream and ceiling

ust for a change, we did something else yesterday. We put up a new ceiling in Quentin's house. One of his rooms needed a new one, and it's easier and more fun with five people. Plus Wendy cooked us a beautiful meal!

Of course my expertise was very useful..., because I never ever in my life put a ceiling up before. Luckily for Quentin, master Paddy is a builder by profession and made me look like a woman with two left hands. I was very good at eating the food though. And next time you need a new ceiling you can count me in, because it's as easy as.... ehm... taking one down i guess...

Coffee, cream and cycling

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:44:49 GMT

Coffee, cream and cycling

uch... we went mountain biking last weekend. In the hills of Perth... There is of course no point in being careful when you're going downhill... There's just one thing you have to keep in mind... (actually thousands of them) Big rocks on your path!
At one point I thought it was a good idea to reduce speed. The bike and gravity however did not agree with me using the front break while going downhill... So the ground came up towards me (no, I DID NOT FALL), and Andrew had a good chance of leaving a tyre mark on my leg. And the rocks took the chance to leave a mark on my hands and leg.

Fri, 25 May 2007 08:20:27 GMT

Coffee, cream and cremate

noopie is not with us anymore. My mom went to the vet with the cat today....

He was a great cat! When he was young he chased the geese and bring birds and mice home as a present.
Later these brids and mice became rabits. Then one day after we came back from a skiing holiday, Snoopie decided to be a lazy old cat. From that day no more running and chasing. Just being a cat... walk around, lie down, sleep in the middle of the room, wake up, eat, sleep again, ask for attention, and sleep more...

Thanks for having been a great cat Snoopie! Good on ya!

Coffee, cream and comrads

Wed, 23 May 2007 10:07:40 GMT

Coffee, cream and comrads

aul and Evelina are in Perth! Two friends from Mildura. Evelina is Swedish, but lived in Mildura with Paul. Now they're on a trip around OZ. They're staying in Perth for a bit so we're just having some fun and such...

I was a bit penny wise pound foolish this weekend... I bought a 900 dollar tux.... At the register they gave me a 30 % discount! which was a very good surprise... didn't you see the "30% off" sign outside? I didn't look.... but i'm happy!

And I signed up for a Telstra Next G phone, tried it out and returned it.... What a terrible phone... you wouldn't give this phone to a dog.... (even if they needed one)...
so if you can't reach me at the moment.... it's because i'm transferring my number... and i've got incoming call restrictions for overseas numbers or some weird invention like that...

Tue, 15 May 2007 09:42:37 GMT

Coffee, cream and criminals

ight new movies!
I went shopping frenzie last weekend.

3 Kung Fu Movies for 20 dollars
I watched one of them The House of Flying Daggers
About this criminal organization in China in the Tang dynasty

5 Chick flicks.. including Great Expectations and A Walk in the Coulds for 30 dollars
Now the directors of that last one are extreme criminals releasing it out in the wild. Do NOT watch. This movie is rated for audience who don't talk yet only!!!!! Worst acting ever.

And then the coolest of movies I bought with a discount!
Sin City!!!!
If there's a movie with a higher criminals-to-non-criminals ratio than this one let me know. No one in this story is not related to a crime!!! Definitly worth an 18+ rating... i'll leave you with Wendy....

Coffee, cream and cold

Wed, 09 May 2007 09:42:05 GMT

Coffee, cream and cold

ven in winter Perth is not so bad I have to admit. I started freaking out about the weather. We had some rain and all. And suddenly my Dutch friends started sending me text messages it was warmer there than here!!!!! (Fair enough it's getting summer there and winter here, but still.... you know... )

But fortunately we've just had two beautiful days with 26 degrees (79F) and the weather in Holland is also usual. Cold and rain!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHA... Take that you Dutchies! (Yes ur welcome to come and visit)

Coffee, cream and cotton

Mon, 07 May 2007 10:00:46 GMT

Coffee, cream and cotton

oly Sheet! We went shopping for sheets this weekend in the marvelous store Holy Sheet because they had a sale on. I bought Egyptian cotton sateen sheets! Holy Sheet that's a Sheet hot product!

Francis invited us for dinner at the Marrakech (Moroccan restaurant in Subiaco) and we all got really drunk and smoked bongs after dinner and had a great night. Getting drunk happened again on Saturday - Toby and I went to the Manor in Leederville. Lotsa hot girls but that says everything... they're girls... not ladies. And then Sunday it started all over again in at the Little Creatures in Freo and later in OBH in Cottesloe. But this time I was the designated driver so I had a bunch a drunk flatmates to carry around the suburbs of Perth...

Back to work... found out one of the servers got hacked again! Different deface this time.... :-/ I'll get them those ... ... ... well who am I to call them names ;-)

Coffee, cream and cracked

Tue, 01 May 2007 10:00:06 GMT

Coffee, cream and cracked

ackers have cracked our servers! I found an evil root kit installed on one... poor server.

The weirdest thing happened yesterday. I arived at work and I found a pair of garden cutters on my bumper! Paddy must of put them on there the day before and they never fell off when I drove to work.... lucky lucky lucky i didn't blow my tyres on it.

CU later gang!

Coffee, cream and convenient cruise

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 06:44:47 GMT

Coffee, cream and convenient cruise

've been a lazy bastard this weekend! It was great (feel a bit guilty though cos ozzies are always active). I did so much last week, there was nothing left to do in Perth! Example: I went shopping on Saturday morning. I walked around town for a few hours, out one shop, in the other.... in the end, bought nothing. Another example: It was a beauty of a day Saturday, I did NOT go to the beach! Did not surf, nothing.

In stead we watched a DVD Sat nite: an inconvenient truth... Man we're doomed for destruction. Half way through I wanted to switch of the TV cos it uses electricity! (And here I am at work with three computers on my desk!)

(Everyone in holland have a great Koninginne dag!!!! Miss you!)

Coffee, cream and casino

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:06:58 GMT

Coffee, cream and casino

ednesday was Anzac Day. The Australian day of remembring soldiers who died in the wars of the last 92 years. We woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning to go to Dawn Service, where we had a minute of silence. After that we had brecky and saw the parade in the city. Quite an experience.

My roof was leaking, and having a day off, i decided to go and fix it. I climbed up the roof. H ad to crawl through the branches of the tree that are growing on (i mean into) our roof and found the broken tile. With brute force replaced it with an other one from a bit where my flat mate sleeps (hahaha kidding)...

All this done, it was still morning... waking up at 5 is weird!... We went for a surf at scarborough beach. Didn't get up once..... again....

At 7 we went to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow and I signed up with the Western Australia Poker Leage
You can go and play poker for free any night of the week, somewhere in Perth. Pretty good because I suck at this game (any game basically - i don't have the i-need-to-win-spirit) and I don't like losing a lot of money. With these mob you just rock up, show your card and they give you your chips... There's also nothing to win... but I don't care really... Toby (my flatmate who's got the leaking roof now) finished 3rd (of the 48 people who started)!!!

All in all Wednesday was a constructive day. Yesterday wasn't too bad either. Toby and I went to Yoga class! The whole week was pretty good, with a day off on wednesday. Feels like having 2 mondays, 2 fridays and 2 saturdays.

It's weekend now.. so I'll leave you people to it!! See you on Monday!

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 07:47:45 GMT

Ozzies, kiwis and waves

or the Easter weekend we went to Esperance. My flatmates and friends all stayed at the beach for a few days. Beatiful beach for our selves. Needed some 4WDs to get there, so my van stayed at the beach entrance. Despite the rain (yes yes rain, and oh how happy the ozzies are with it), we had a lot of fun. Perfect waves to go surfing. Lots a supplies to get drunk. Heaps a food to fill the barbie.

On the way back I dropped Linda (a new friend) off in Corrigin, close to Wave Rock. My only surfing picture of the weekend ;-)

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 04:41:41 GMT

Ozzies, kiwis and Perth

K OK, I know.... I've been lazy with my communication. I've not emailed you all, I'm never on MSN or Hyves and my last livejournal entry was in 2006. But I am alive more than ever. I've been in Perth for several months now. And all i can say: it's Perthect!

I had a fun job as coffee barista for a few months at the Merchant Tea and Coffee. Very busy cafe down town. Two weeks ago I started a new job. I'm back in computers. It's a fun place. I don't know who's crazier, my employer or me... Haha...

I've met some very nice people. My flatmates Paddy, Wara, Matt and Emma-Jane. My colleages Carlos and Narelle. And my special friend Yasmin.

Anyways... lunch break is over... talk to you all soon!!

Ciao
Ernesto

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 05:09:35 GMT

Ozzies, kiwis and 10,000 kilometers

his is just a quick message to let you all know I'm in Perth. Sofie, Dale and I travelled 3000 kilometers to Darwin from Cairns and visited beautiful Kakadu National Park (1000 km round trip).

Back in Darwin we met Andrea, Stephie, Johannes and Flo. With two vehicles (Nissie and Rusty who are now officially in love) we travelled another 6000 kilometers from Darwin to Perth. On the way we stopped at Katherine Gorge, drove past the Wolfe Creek turn off, visited Broome, checked out Karijini National Park, snorkelled Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay, hung out with the dolfins and the stromatolites in Monkey Mia, and played with the overactive Koalas at Yanchep national park.

Now we're in Perth where the Redbull Air Race planes have been practicing their track for two days. The channel 29 road trip gang (named after the channel they used on the walkie talkie radios) has split up and all will go their own way. Nissie and Rusty will miss eachother very much!

From left to right:
Rusty, Ernesto, Stephie, Andrea, Dale, Sofie, Johannes, Flo and Nissie

Ozzies, kiwis and the weather

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:24:32 GMT

Ozzies, kiwis and the weather

ou know, in Cairns we say: Life begins at 30°C. And the last week people have been complaining because it was windy and the weather forecast said: 29°C Mostly Fine. But that's just not good enough. We've been sitting at the lagoon, hiding from the cold wind.
Of course the gorgeous women around there made us feel some warmer.

This week Julian, Hendrik and I have been pubcrawling a bit too much too. All the things that happened and we didin't forget we just deny. So in the end no stories there. :-) Well just make up your own funny stories about me.

Ozzie's, kiwi's and beaches

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 11:55:26 GMT

Ozzie's, kiwi's and beaches

ast week was a really good one. I socialized a bit more than before. Went to the cristal cascades and the beach with some good looking swedish and irish gals.

Then last night was hed kandi night in the velvet underground in Cairns. I still can't believe I paid only 15 dollars to get into a hed kandi party. It was good... of course... julian my work buddy and I were about the only two who were not on drugs in there and he was not to glad about not being on drugs... plus found out that australian women are not venomous.. .thank god.. but do bite

Ozzie's, kiwi's and spark plugs

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:56:36 GMT

Ozzie's, kiwi's and spark plugs

irst of all, I am going to change to English in this blog because i live in an English speaking country now and not just Dutchies will read this.

Last week did some more repairs to my car. After first changing the tyres:

I changed the spark plugs in my engine myself, as you can see they needed to be changed badly too: