My Dad and I took a trip down to what was once an Old West movie set town in Agoura Hills today called Paramount Ranch. It is about 76 miles from Santa Barbara and off of Kanan Rd. Quite a few classic old western movies have been filmed there including: “The Streets of Laredo” and “Gunsmoke”. Parmount Ranch was primarily used from 1920 - 1940 and still often used for tv series/commercials. The National Park Service took over Paramount Ranch in 1980 and reduced the actual movie set town quite a bit, but at least the land is preserved.

Paramount Ranch is not super popular as we were the only ones there but there was this really nice older volunteer that gave us a tour. He is there every Saturday from 9 - 2 and has a wealth of information including the game of guess which movie this set was shot in. He also has bucket loads of photos showing how one set can be changed for different movie needs. The only odd thing about him was he had this tiny dish of water on the ground and there were no dogs around. Perhaps it was for the lizards or squirrels.

Parmount Ranch Movie Sets, Click to View More

Tonight was our annual summer social event at work. Instead of the normal style of a picnic, our great staff reps put together something a bit different that many have never done before, a sunset cruise on Santa Barbara’s own Land Shark. It was a very fun adventure. Got picked up out front of the Museum and then headed down to the harbor where the vehicle drove right in. On the journey down, got many waves from random spectators…people can’t help but notice this giant boat vehicle heading down the street. Had some nature of sea lions in the harbor. After the sunset cruise, headed back up State street to the Museum. We had a two hour tour and did not end up on an uncharted island.

Heading to the Land Share, Click to View More

Well now I have done it…something I said I would never do and have mocked many for it. I have joined the revolution of having an Apple product. An iPhone. After all my hate of Apple and protection of Microsoft SmartPhone devices, I have made the change. Wonder what caused this to happen? Perhaps it was meant to be. The biggest selling point for me was the ability to have direct push info from Exchange, wihtout that it would have not even been an option. Perhaps the latest “I am a PC” ad really made me feel sick and felt it was time. Perhaps I secretively always wanted to use one but was afraid to let go of my Microsoft base.

I do know that in my four hours of constant use of so of the iPhone 3G, I am quite impressed. Has not crashed once and everything is so simple. Requires no thought process at all. A bit too simple, there must be a catch at some point. How can this device do everything? Everything from handle my mail, contacts, calendar to telling me how to get somewhere or what phone number to dial. Or even tells me where I am with the GPS find me.

So good bye to Mr. T-Mobile Dash..who served me well for over two years. And hello Mr. iPhone, who provides great business assets and joy at the same time.

Yes, I have gone to the dark side, but maybe it is much lighter than I ever imagined.

Visit theiphoneblog.com

The last Nights! of the season at SBMA was awesome, ended with a bang as it should. The two nice features of the event were that it started at 7 PM instead of 5:30 and the entire plaza was used as an outdoor club with KCRW sponsored DJ Jason Bentley. Sauza was the alcohol sponsor for some good margaritas (not nearly as good as mine, but whateva). The crowd had a great time and there was a good vibe overall.

Video of Projection Effects:

The Gang (minus Chuck, taking photo):

Tim, Patricia, Myself, and Amy - Click to View More

OK, if you are in Vegas…you absolutely must see the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage. The entire show from entrance to exit is amazing. I knew it was going to be great when we got to the theater as the entrance way was fun and all the ushers were dressed in costume. Great Beatles music is also playing in the background to get you in the mood. Once inside, there are ladders moving around and projections. Then the show starts and they raise the bar so high you wonder how the rest of the show will go. Lets just say they kept setting the bar higher and higher during the show and ended it perfectly. The stage changes constantly with different set items flying in from top and bottom. Everybody in the audience was totally into it (young and old) and the show ended with imagery of the Beatles projected on hanging sheets.

We had the lower price tickets in the balcony, but they were perfect as you could see the entire stage. During one scene the whole stage level seats are covered with fabric…and it looks like a giant cloud floating. I still wonder what the audience saw under the fabric…hmmmmmm.

Entrance to LOVE, Click to See More

While in Vegas, I had to get this drink at Kahunaville. It is ridiculous and bubbles while smoking.

So here I am in Las Vegas again, a short month after the last trip. This time I am here with my buddy Amy from SBMNH for the Las Vegas Souvenir & Resort Gift Show. I know, what is an IT Manager doing at a gift show? Figured what the heck, might be fun to do something different. As a bonus to the trip, Tammy (another good friend) flew in from AZ to surprise Amy who has not seen her in about five years!

So here we all are in Vegas exploring souvenirs. To my surprise, the Fun Expo is also in the same convention center and it is a blast over there. Everything from carnival games, latest video games, bowling, video walls, etc. The highlight of the day was playing this new NASCAR video game where you sit in this roll cage type of car thing and compete with the other players (each has their own car). That was super fun until it caught on fire today. I guess it used too much electrity and caused an electrical fire in the floor of the convention hall, Ooooops!

Tonight we are all going to go see the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage. I am really looking forward to the show as I have wanted to see it forever! Then Friday is the long drive back home, another adventure ending.

Tammy, Myself, and Amy - Click to View More

Mmm…gotta love disk storage space. Recently finished up rack mounting the latest additions to my family at work. Got a new HP DL 360 G5 for our file server. Attached to that is a MSA60 box with 1.8 TB of enterprise level storage. Each drive is 300 GB, 15K, with dual port domain functionality. The MSA60 has a dual domain card so there are two pathways to the data in case one pathway dies, love redundancy!!! got a new robotic library to back every up with. A HP MSL2024 tape library that has an LTO 4 Ultrium 1840 tape drive and 24 slots. The new tape drive can hold up to 800 GB native and 1.6 TB compressed per tape, for a total of 38.4 TB tape storage combined, sweeeeet!

Today was the farewell party for my supervisor Diane who I have worked with over six years at two different organizations. The theme was college football, so we decorated accordingly and had all types of tailgating style foods. I even found an inflateable five foot palm tree to give it the look. I will definitely miss working with Diane as her and I have a great working relationship and understand one another.

Tailgate Zone Ahead, Click to View More

Found this today on our mail room copier at work.  Pretty much sums it all up.  The copier is definitely possessed and wants to mess with our heads.