Oberon is here...

Oberon has joined our family. He's a 6 pound rescue (skin and bones) from the Clay county animal shelter. We picked him up yesterday.















He's only about 8 weeks old and very much under-weight.

The good weekend in which Bobo tried to kill me.

I'm waiting for 50 frames of an animation to resize by 50%.

It's work that I did this afternoon.

It's work I can't get to because my company's VPN sucks balls.

That's the official computer term for it.

Pooks and I had a really good weekend. After waking up early Saturday morning.

(I had a nightmare that I was trapped under a net in the water. I was breaking the net off of my face to get to the surface, but it kept reforming and I would sink after getting a breath. I was yelling help over and over again b/c I knew I was dreaming and I needed Pooks to wake me up. She heard me eventually and woke me up fully.)

We made coffee and grabbed some snacks and rode our motorcycles down to a park on the river. It was a cool clear night and the roads were empty. We got to the park about 4am and we talked and drank coffee and watched the stars. We saw two satelites fly overhead. We prayed and sang some songs and watched the sun rise in the East. We left there to go get breakfast.

That's when Bobo tried to kill me.

Around 7am when we left people were coming into the park to walk their dogs. We had just pulled out of our parking spots while a lady ahead of us was getting out of her car. Pooks pulled around her with no problems but when I got close a little pamper pekinese jumped out of the drivers side of the car and ran right in front of me and stopped. "Bobo No!", the old lady shouted and she tried to shield Bobo from me with her body. I was not going to hit this lady or Bobo so I had slowed down as soon as Bobo hopped out. I think the lady was really stupid though, instead of putting the leash she had IN HER HAND on the dog, she tried to herd him, while still acting like a human shield, over to the sidewalk. Leash your dogs before you get out of the car or else someone may hit them. I was able to stop in time though, even though Bobo tried to kill me.

We had breakfast at Dave's and as we were leaving me Mom & Dad going in, so we all stopped for a long breakfast.

We did a lot more riding on Saturday, out to get Pooks' plates for her bike. The bike shop was having a customer appreciation lunch and we enjoyed hamburgers and talked with another biker there. We road home and took another nap. We were dead tired. Sunday was even worse, I got a bad sunburn on my head and so spent Sunday kinda feeling awful, probably a little sun stroke. All in all though it was a great weekend we had together.

I am preparing to move servers... still... in moving though I found a treasure chest of old chat logs. Lots of conversations with friends and things I had totally forgotten about. I'm really happy to have found them again!

Moving virtual data is hard work....

Data has no mass... well as a form of energy it can have mass. So moving data is hard work, kind of like moving a ton of goo. I'm spending time moving my web hosting around, ugh, it's not something I'm enjoying doing. It needs to get done though.

I'm getting better at riding, I drove on my motorcycle into work this morning. I wouldn't mind taking some longer trips soon. Pooks got me a orange jacket road-hazard jacket to go over my leather one. I didn't wear it today, but I think I will attach it to my shoulder things on my motorcycle jacket to make it like a cape, that'll be cool.

I can't wait to get my helmet though, my eyes dry out in the wind, or I end up with tears coming down my face while riding as the wind pushes my eye moisture out the edges of my eyes. It's a weird feeling.

Pooks is now almost moved out of her old job, hopefully into a new one soon. We've been having problems getting to sleep recently. We get to bed but just can not fall asleep, like staying up later is a norm. This really makes for long afternoons where I feel like sleeping but can't.

Riding in this morning was great, it was cool & nice. A bit windy, but nice. I need to fix a mirror, it's a little loose in it's mounting, but really I want to replace them. I can't see around my shoulders, I need the mirror mounts to be a little longer for that.

Spent the weekend cleaning, the house really needed it.

Cover Letter...

I.T in general and System Administration specifically are customer service fields. There are a lot of people in I.T. that give this philosophy lip-service claiming that they are there for the customer one second, but then bad mouthing them the next. I believe that Google provides real customer service as part of it's fundamental mission. Google understands what people need, ostensibly information, and at the same time believes in giving this to them with a service oriented attitude that does not talk down to the customer.

I believe this too and want to be part of the services that Google provides. I worked in the public sector at various service organizations and the best jobs are where a difference is made by using I.T. to help someone. I see I.T. as a way to change the world for the better by giving information, in a way teaching people to fish. I am able to communicate this vision well to my employees and peers, and to effect change through it.

I see working at Google as a chance to be a part of something bigger than myself, while at the same time being personally involved with the mission. I would enjoy working within Google to provide the services our customers need.

Thank you for your consideration.

--Donald Cowart