Jamey Wright - Tech Pages

Intro Well, I had this great idea about doing a blog on life... and well that went nowhere.  Then , I decided I would blog about food since I am a reasonably good cook.  Again, went nowhere.  It's not that I can't write or anything, I just got bored with the topics. I am going to try this again.  This time I am going to write about technical stuff.  Not just any technical stuff but stuff I have had to figure out on my own or have learned through much Internet searching.  Some of it might be obscure; some of it might seem "out there" but, hopefully, someone will find some use out of something I have written about. A little bit about me My name is Jamey Wright.  I am a licensed Ham Radio operator (WR4JW), Systems Administrator for a medium sized 911 center where I take care of many differ ent systems and just all aroun d techie geek .  Some of the things I take care of are Windows doma in administration, IP based telephone system for answeri...

A Taste of New Orleans When people mention food from New Orleans, everyone immediately thinks of Gumbo, Jambalaya, Crawfish Boils, and food seasoned with spicy cayenne pepper.  Maybe it's Po' Boys or red Beans and Rice.  Of course, it could also be bread pudding and bananas foster (YUM YUM!!!) but there's something else.  What else is there?     MUFFULETTAS!!!!!!!!! Oh yes!  Muffulettas.  Muffulettas are as much New Orleans as the French Quarter, Bourbon Street and gumbo.  What is a muffuletta you ask?  It is one of the greatest sandwiches EVER! This sandwich is pure Italian, and pure Sicilian if you want to be specific. New Orleans, in its population and its cuisine, owes much to Italy and especially Sicily.  According to some websites, the muffuletta sandwich was invented by Signor Lupo Salvadore, who opened the now-famous little Italian market called Central Grocery on Decatur Street in the French Quarter in 1906. Muffu...

This is my take on a dish I first had at Vinny's Italian Grill on Timberlake Rd in Lynchburg, Va several years ago.  Italian is one of my favorite foods and Vinny's can serve up some really good Italian.  When you say Italian though, most people think of the classic spaghetti with tomato/meat sauce or Fettuccine Alfredo.  I like spaghetti but I despise Fettuccine Alfredo.  To me, it smells like...  Well... the least gross answer I can think of is ruined milk.  Anyway...  Lots of Italian restaurants have Piccata of some sort.  Olive Garden has both chicken and veal piccata, I think Macaroni Grill has it, and Carrabba's may have it.  I think the best I have had though was at Vinny's.  When I have a meal that I really like, I sometimes try to recreate it at home.  I like to think that I am a pretty good cook so this seemed like a dish I could do myself.  I have made this dish several times over the last couple of years and tonig...

Well, 'tis the season for cooking and eating, especially get togethers for friends, family, or co-workers.  Tonight was our company Christmas dinner at 911.  Plenty of good food and lots of laughs.  As is customary with a "covered dish" dinner, everyone signs up for a dish to bring and the meat is provided.  In the past, I have made this potato casserole and it was a hit so I figured I couldn't go wrong making it again.  After mentioning it last night on Facebook and people eating it tonight, I had some requests for the recipe.  I figured I might as well go ahead and write/type it out so I could share.  This side dish is really just like a loaded potato you might get with a steak except it is a casserole.  Because of all of the guilty pleasure ingredients that are in this dish, it has been called "Heart Attack on a Plate" (thanks Teresa).  Here's the recipe: Ingredients 6 lbs Idaho russet potatoes 1 1/2 lbs thick-sliced hickory-smoked ba...

After months and months of this thing sitting idle and me not having anything I have felt like sharing, I have decided to go a different direction with my blog.  Yes, I am still dieting and trying to lose weight.  My success is not what I would like for it to be but I can say I have made progress.  This new direction will also touch on this from time to time but overall I want to do something different. I could have chosen a number of things to write about like computers and networking, or ham radio, or politics (yeah, right) but there are lots of those type blogs out there already.  I am going to write about my cooking and meals.  I have no idea how this will go but hopefully I'll be able to keep up the content.  I'll share my recipes and thoughts on improving them, family reaction to the meal, maybe some pics of the dish and who knows what else. To kick this off, I'll start with last night's meal.  Sorry, there won't be any pictures for this one ...

Well..... I really didn't... but it still looks that way.  Everybody knows how it goes.  We all get busy, life gets in the way and things just get pushed aside.  This is no exception. Well... I guess I should give an update on where I am.  In the last post,I mentioned I still had a couple of pounds to lose.  Well, I did manage to lose those pounds.  The nutritionist was pleased and I was pretty happy too.  After a couple of days, the insurance coordinator called me and said I was approve by Blue Cross to have the surgery.  Shortly after her call, the surgeon's nurse called to schedule my surgery.  Wow!!!  I was not prepared for those emotions.  I didn't have an answer for her.  I had a lot of stuff going on at work and even had some work related travel planned.  I told her all of that and that I would have to look at my schedule and get back with her.  Well, things kind of rocked along for a week or so and I ignored...

Whew.  The last few weeks have been rough, especially the last 7 days.  I had meant to post sooner but life just hasn't allowed it.  As some of you know, my dad has been sick and things are still not back to normal.  First though, I'll talk about me. My last nutritionist appointment went pretty good.  I hadn't lost much weight but I had lost some.  I still had about 3 pounds to lose.  I have been working really hard to get those three pounds off and have been somewhat successful.  The last I checked, I have about 2 pounds to go.  I have changed my diet around quite a bit but it is a slow go.  Still, I think I can make it. Dealing with Dad has really been tough the last month or so.  He was diagnosed with lung cancer in the last part of December as well as mild dementia and COPD.  Last Wednesday, he had surgery to remove the upper lobe of his left lung.  The surgery was successful but there are some side effects that ma...

Holy crap it has been a long time since I posted anything here.  Sorry about that folks.  Life has just been absolutely crazy the last few months.  Truthfully, I don't even know where to start but here we go! The last time I posted I was in Chicago and had gotten myself into some kind of funk and was kinda down.  I am over that particular funk but there is plenty of other stuff to take its place.  Chicago was an interesting place... at least what I saw (but, honestly, wasn't much).  It was a nice break away from everything here though. I really enjoyed seeing my good friends Amy and Glenn.  We didn't get to spend as much time visiting as we wanted to but we still had a good time.  Chicago was also fun because it allowed me to experience some new foods.  I had Polish, German, Chicago Beef, Chicago Hot Dogs, and Chicago Style Pizza.  I have to say that the Chicago Style pizza was my favorite.  Even with eating all of my meals out a...

Peace and quiet.  "What is that?" most people will ask.  It is kind of a rare thing for me too.  Most of the time life is constantly bombarding me with something.  I suspect a lot of people are the same way, but I really don't know for sure.  Honestly, I kind of have this weird personality.  I really don't like to mingle with and socialize with people, or at least people I really don't know.  I love my closest friends and will hang out with them anytime but when in unfamiliar places with people I just met or don't even know, I am uncomfortable.  I am in Chicago right now so once again I am around people I don't really know.  The people in the class I am in aren't too bad but when I'm not in class, things are different.  Tonight, when I went to dinner, I was really overcome with a feeling of... Actually, I was flooded with several feelings and emotions.  I felt really awkward going into the restaurant by myself.  While waiting f...

Again, I have been terrible at posting here on a regular basis.  I started to write something the other night but I could not come up with anything to write about, or at least anything I felt was appropriate to say in public.  That's the way life goes I guess. Work has been really busy lately.  We have been working on this huge project that was started in 2004.  To me, it is a pain in the ass.  My boss calls it "welfare for lawyers".  This is a FCC (read Federal Govt) mandated thing and it is being paid for by Sprint (Nextel) wireless.  I won't bore anyone with the details unless they really want to know.  In a nutshell, it involves reprogramming a bunch of police, fire, and ems radios.  From 2004 until the middle of this year, the whole project was just an exercise in killing trees and other administrative tasks.  The last month or so we have finally started actually doing the work and it has been a pain.  The contract project m...

Yep, Fall is here.  I am not so sure that I am really ready for it but it doesn't matter, there's not a thing in the world I can do about it.  Well, I could move to some tropical island but that comes with its own set of issues.  Today was a beautiful day.  The biggest complaint I had with it though was the temperature.  70-75 degrees is nice.  65 is a little cool for me. To be truthful, I dislike cold weather very much.  I guess I'm getting old because the cold weather and even approaching cold fronts make my bone and joints hurt.  Such is life though.  If the weather would stay like this from now until Spring it would suit me fine but alas, I know winter is approaching.  I have heard all kinds of nasty rumors about what kind of winter we will have here.  I have heard that it will be worse than last year.  If so, that really sucks because last year was horrible with all of the snow we had.  I hope they are wrong.  E...

Chicken soup?  Yes, chicken soup.  To be more specific, homemade chicken noodle soup, made by me.  Did it make me feel any better?  Nope.  Today has just been one of those days.  I woke up around 9:30 this morning but my body really wanted to sleep more.  It didn't matter.  My mind was wide awake and there was no point in trying to sleep any more.  It was the start of such a "wonderful" day. I got up and put on enough clothes to at least not be embarrassed if someone knocked on the door.  I immediately went to the kitchen and started to make breakfast and unload the dishwasher.  I can multitask so doing both isn't a big deal.  It was then that I discovered some of my muscles were complaining about yesterday's activities.  Yesterday, we helped my cousin Jennifer and her hubby Brandon move things back into their house.  Their house sustained quite a bit of damage when the EF-5 tornado came through Harvest, Al on Apr...

Blah Blah Blah!!!  That is exactly what I feel like a lot of people are saying the last few days, especially at work.  We have this huge project going on and it is probably going to last until Christmas.  I am tired of it already.  Nothing like being pulled 20 different directions every day.  At least I have a job and (knocking on wood) it is pretty secure. Nothing like not posting on here for a couple of weeks... but that's life.  I don't remember if I mentioned it in an earlier post but my surgeon told me I need to lose 30-35 pounds before he does the surgery.  I basically had about 7 months to do it.  I'm in the second month and have already lost around 15 pounds.  The cool thing is that I can tell those 15 pounds are gone.  I'm still not where I should be by a long shot... but it is progress.  It is hard to do though.  The thing that has made the biggest difference for me has been cutting out sugar and carbs.  I have...

Dang it... me and this writing thing are just not getting along here recently.  I had really intended to write more often on here.  I really can't explain why I don't seem to have time to write like I want to.  Some nights I sit here and stare at the monitor, almost in a trance.  Other nights I sit and listen to the ham radio bands and stare at the computer monitor... Again, in a trance.  Some nights, I literally fall asleep at the desk.  Of course, there are also the nights spent at various football fields around North Alabama; Mondays and Fridays are game days.  And of course there are the seemingly endless doctor visits.  Doctor visits...  I think I have about worn out my insurance card in the last month.  Let's see... My doctor and nutritionist visits for the bariatric weight loss program, Corey's appointments for knee surgery follow-up, Corey's physical therapy appointments, Corey's visit to the ophthalmologist and subsequent glas...

OK, not really but the boys are not overly impressed with the meal planning guide I brought home today.  That's OK, I HATE their choice of music tonight so I have donned the headphones and have massive amounts of Joe Satriani queued up in Windows Media Player.  For the moment, I think we're even. Today, I met with the program nutritionist at Alabama Surgical Associates.  He was a really nice guy but at the same time kinda weird too.  He had the attire and appearance of a real geek.  I had pretty much convinced myself he was until he shook my hand.  I thought he was trying to break it.  Good grief he had an iron grip.  I believe that the geeky look is merely a cover.  I think under those hideous clothes he is wearing a cape and other standard-issue super-hero attire.  It's the only explanation I have.  Anyway, he did a test using a weird machine but it was able to provide some numbers that detail the make-up of the body so it was n...

After Tuesday's post, I talked with some friends and got lots of encouragement.  You know who you are and thank you.  I'm still not totally de-stressed nor are any of the things that were bothering me really any better but I have just kind of pushed it aside and am just not letting it bother me right now.  I'm sure that sometime in the future it will rear its ugly head again but for now I'm just dealing with it day by day.  We kicked off the final phase of a big project this week at work.  I had almost decided it would never be completed but after 8 years it is finally going to be done!!  Of course it means more crap piled on me from now until December that I really don't need but oh well.  Now if I can just get a few things caught up I'll have it made.  Unfortunately, with one of my projects the parts I need and ordered are back-ordered and the first ones won't be in until the middle of October and the others won't be in until sometime in Novem...

Plain and simple... I am down and discouraged... about everything it seems.  As I sit here tonight and think about things I realize that I have no desire to do anything right now.  Nothing at all.  Plain and simple, I don't care anymore.  I can't really answer why... or maybe I can.  I don't know. I think a lot of it is stress.  I feel like I am under so much stress right now that I feel like I could just lose it.  The stress at work is about to push me over the edge.  I need a week away from that place so bad.  I want to take at least a week long vacation away from there.  Maybe even two weeks.  But hell, what good will that do?  Every time I take off I wind up getting called and questions asked or I have to go in to deal with some stupid problem.  Evey time I think it is getting to where I can take off, some new project or problem comes up and it always has to be fixed yesterday.  I know what I do is important and...

School is really getting to me again.  I am having a terrible time keeping up.  It seems there is just too much going on in my life right now.  When I look at my weekly life it doesn't look that busy but when comes to actually living it there is so little time for anything!  I think I need some of what Alice Cooper sings about in his 1972 hit School's Out.   If you aren't familiar with it, here it is .  I don't have to deal with pencils or dirty looks from teachers but sometimes it would nice if school was out forever.  No, I'm not saying I want it to blow up or anything like that but not having any classes would be nice.  Maybe now that the kids are back i n school I'll be a little more motivated... but somehow I doubt it.  This coming week is going to be especially tough because of everything going on.  I have to get Corey from school at 5:00 PM on Monday and Wednesday, I have to take him to pre-register for surgery at Decatur Surger...

OK, So I'm a dork.  I have been sitting here watching the special on the NatGeo Channel about the Darwin and the Galapagos Islands.  I know that watching things like this doesn't necessarily make one a dork but this is probably the 6th time I have watched it.  For whatever reason, I really enjoy it.  I like the blue-footed boobies.  No, NOT those kind of boobies.  They are birds that live in the Galapagos Islands.  There are several shows that I enjoy watching and  there are certain types of shows I enjoy.  The biggest problem is being able to watch in the first place.  It is usually monopolized by the kids (or Corey, at least) and used for playing video games.  I admit, I sometimes like to play games, but I can tell you that the boys always laugh at me because I don't have the same amunt of hand-eye coordination as them and as a result I am not as skilled as them when playing the games. The TV and DirectTV seem to be the only thi...

Well, I've not been the best about posting here but I just have lots of stuff going on.  Last Thursday, I had my first appointment with the people at the Surgical Weight Loss Center at Crestwood Hospital.  So far, all of the staff have been really nice.  Wow, they are much more thorough with the whole process.  On the first visit, before I even saw the coordinator, they did something called a "Metabolic Cart".  It is supposedly a test to measure your metabolic rate.  Yeah, ok... whatever.  I didn't really understand it but since it didn't hurt, I didn't mind.  The only thing I am really worried about is going freaking broke.  There is a lot of stuff that Insurance doesn't pay for and it is expensive.  And this doesn't even take into account the surgery.  Maybe it will all work out.  I hope so.  The only other thing that I have any reservations about is the type of procedure to be performed.  Initially (over a year ago...