Tag: tonytown

A Toast to Chester…

Music is Life

I make no secret about the importance music has in my life. At least an hour of my day has music in it intentionally. Not a schedule. Every day i pick the jams. It has had such a profound effect on me that for a long time I would even write in some blog entries on it in Tony’s Music. You can totally say Tony is a dork. But the reality is that music has always been my escape. It has been the voice of reason, expression, intent, consolation, and every other little voice we all have in the back of our head (it isn’t just me right?) *grin* when something really messed up is happening.

Suicide Sucks

Suicide has always been a bane for me. Like a lot of people, I simply dont deal with death very well (read THESE) and suicide is even worse. So in getting the news today it really left me numb…upset…angsty…the same thing every other time suicide makes an appearance in my life…I try to figure out how or why I didnt see it coming, why I didnt reach out more…all the stupid things and idea that rummage through your head when you try rationalize what just happened.

The Concert is a no-go for me

I was planning on being at the Linkin Park concert coming up in October. I was going to enjoy the concert on my terms without 50000 screaming fans weren’t all up in my space. 😉 But now…I don’t think that concert is a good idea for me…it well known that I don’t really do well at wakes, and thats what an LP concert would be to me now…a great big wake with 10000 other people there that are probably thinking the same thing. When I am at my most sensitive, there is always some asshat at a wake that I visibly have trouble restraining myself from shutting him up. Rather than be that guy…it’s just easier (and probably a bit more responsible) not to allow that kind of scenario to play out. I find something fun to do and relax and remember all the awesome things. A concert full of drunk people isn’t fun…for me its a fracking powderkeg. So that’s a big ol’ nope.

So while this week has been insanely busy…Chester’s suicide has totally been crawling around in the back of my mind…

One More light

Should’ve stayed, were there signs, I ignored?
Can I help you, not to hurt, anymore?
We saw brilliance, when the world, was asleep
There are things that we can have, but can’t keep

If they say
Who cares if one more light goes out?
In a sky of a million stars
It flickers, flickers
Who cares when someone’s time runs out?
If a moment is all we are
We’re quicker, quicker
Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do

The reminders pull the floor from your feet
In the kitchen, one more chair than you need oh
And you’re angry, and you should be, it’s not fair
Just ’cause you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it, isn’t there

If they say
Who cares if one more light goes out?
In a sky of a million stars
It flickers, flickers
Who cares when someone’s time runs out?
If a moment is all we are
We’re quicker, quicker
Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do

Who cares if one more light goes out?
In a sky of a million stars
It flickers, flickers
Who cares when someone’s time runs out?
If a moment is all we are
We’re quicker, quicker
Who cares if one more light goes out?
Well I do

Well I do

Find Linkin Parke here.

FYI – Sometimes I talk a lot about death, it’s a coping mechanism or some facsimile thereof. 😉 You can see all the other posts like that HERE.




5 Minute Fixes and 2 Dollar Steaks

tonytow tony hunt gets angsty

Some things just absolutely tick me off.

I’ve always prided myself on my dedication to being the best I can be in my arena. Don’t get me wrong, there are PLENTY of people that know more than I do regarding IT…but there aren’t so many that when we meet, that we don’t recognize the need to network. I only do pc support for locals, they visit, bring their machine, sometimes a bottle of wine, and I hack on their stuff in spare time…it keeps me on my game, it’s never the same, and it’s basically it’s great to meet locals.

Sometimes you think its only a 5-minute fix…

Humility licks in for me when you’re 3 tiers and over 100 hours into a technical issue with Dell’s best people helping, and the the guys got enough knowledge that we compare training and knowledge to see where we need to brush up, and immediately swap contact information so we can pick each others brains without red tape, and of course compliment the guy for being committed to the solution. There aren’t many of us around…it’s not an age thing, its the caliber of training and whether or not you actually applied it.

Hell, the guy before me that passed the buck we’re working on now wouldn’t even touch the work, he billed more than me, ran completely unnecessary diags (with dated diagnostics – I found the logs), and shrugged his shoulders and left. If he’d spend 5 minutes listening to the client, he’d have known the hard drive was dying and the laptop was still under warranty. But that wasn’t the real problem either, and now because the rest is proprietary, I’ll just say that it’s nice being at the top, and pretty fun knowing that those now 20+ year old skills are still more effective than the overpaid support monkey trying to act like they are competition.

Yes, I am working at 2am…because it needs to be done before tomorrow so I don’t have scheduling issues.

Yes, this kind of thing normally takes 5 minutes…but then, sometimes things are tougher than a two-dollar steak and you still have to eat it.

The competition wonders why people come to me over them…it’s because it’s 2am and I am working.

…and I have somehow learned to love a two-dollar steak.

–micdrop–




TonyTown Hold No Virtue Dancing With Death

The Rattler…

TonyTown Hold No Virtue Dancing With Death

So here is the story about “the rattler”

Now this was a long time ago, and I am positive that some of the facts will be mixed up, but here it goes. Kelly can correct me if I am wrong anywhere. She has access to this.

A long long time ago at a nice body of water far far away from our very own DFW (White River lake near Lubbock, TX). Two fun-loving kids (Kelly and Tony) were enjoying a few days of fun in the sun, water skiing, tubing, etc (and I think we even got dangerous and played some badminton too). Anyhow, we’re enjoying the weekend, everything was as good as it could be (we were heavily chaperoned lots of Kelly’s family was there) but we managed to have loads of fun nonetheless.

Suffice to say that a few days of fun in the in the sun was great but it was mid afternoon and alas Kelly and I had to get back to Dallas the next day. Well as it happens we were asked to make sure and get all of our stuff off the dock and boat so we would be packed in time. (I can’t remember if we were flying or not but we were definitely on a schedule.) Anyhow, it was about an hour until dusk and one of Kelly’s relatives mentioned something about them not wanting us out after dark because of all the rattlesnakes.

Now this was the FIRST mention of rattlers I had heard since we got there, and since we had been there for a day or two already I think we both completely disregarded his warning boy was that a total mistake.

Kelly and I went down to the dock, talked for a bit, grabbed all our stuff, and with impeccable timing, it got dark before we were halfway back up to the cabin. Now as it happens, I am in fact a rather chivalrous guy and was more concerned for Kelly than I was for myself (teenage immortality at its best) and was watching the ground pretty closely when I saw a “stick” laying halfway into the trail that was not there before (I know – big hint eh?).

What do I do? I stop and point the stick out (its about 6 feet away at this point) to Kelly, who got REAL jittery.

I know the range on the snake and it’s not in a position to do any biting (yet) and so I stomp my foot on the ground hard to get it to move away – nope – no luck.

I kick dirt at it twice it still just sits there.

Now keep in mind it is pretty dark and I am honestly thinking I might have just missed seeing the stick on the way down, so I decide to make sure. I tell Kelly to get back, at which point she promptly runs screaming back toward the dock. Using my beach-towel popping prowess, I use a tank-top I left on the dock and twist it up real fast for a really nice pop. Now I have left welts on people plenty when I pop people with towels. In my sheer fit of genius, what was I doing?

Yes – I was about to pop a rattlesnake with a twirled cotton tank top.

I twiirrrrll it up.

I pull the shirt back in a fluid movement.

And SSSSSSNNNNNNAAAAAAAPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!

The noise that came from that “stick” immediately after making contact with my godlike beach-towel popping prowess was one of the most surprising and scariest noises I had ever heard.

So…the “stick” wasn’t a stick. It was in fact a rattlesnake, and I just snapped it right in the rattle like a professional bullwhip artist. It was so pissed it launched itself up in the air laterally and landed coiling up towards me.

It was my turn to run, and at the time I was thinking “Kelly must be psychic! She ran way before there was a problem!” And so I ran all the way back to her to a spot relatively at midpoint between the dock and the cabin. Its not a short walk, and if memory serves correctly it was at least 100 yards from dock to cabin anyhow, by the time I get to Kelly, its not just one rattle going off – it is many many rattlers. A very large number of rattlers, all nice and concealed by the onset of full nightfall, but more than close enough to scare the both of us into thinking we were totally dead, awaited us in every direction is seemed.

…so…

We’re trapped in a small clearing with the sound of a gazillion rattlesnakes plying their trade all around us (we cant see them but we can damn sure hear them). We’ve got a distance run we cant make in the dark without light (nope we didn’t have a flashlight either), we’ve got a gazillion rattlers all around us, and basically we’re both totally thinking we’re snake food in a few minutes.

So what did we do?

We screamed our frickin’ heads off like we were already definitely gonna die in the next few seconds.. I cant remember what we said to each other but we were both really freaked out and I wasn’t about to let Kelly take the heat for my ignorance, and so we decided if it came down to it she was to get up on my shoulders when I made a run for it so at least she would get out.

But alas someone heard our pleas for help.

The neighbors heard us apparently. But unfortunately they obviously thought we were vandals or trespassers or something because they SENT THEIR DAMN DOGS AFTER US!!!!

So yeah now we have two huge dogs coming at us but apparently aware they needed to watch for the snakes too (they didn’t come directly at us at full run – they walked toward us like they were circling and growling a lot. Kelly and I are screaming our heads off even more. I tell Kelly to run if the dogs attack…somewhere in this she decides it is safer on my shoulders…or maybe I told her to I cant remember we have two dogs growling making their way toward us, and a field full of rattlers in between us and our cabin. Kelly’s relatives are made aware of our location by the neighbors and then when the neighbor finally gets within earshot we hear in between our cries for mercy “They kill snakes!!!!” Heh – do I feel like an ass yet? Oh yeah – the dogs are trained to kill rattlers! Score one for us!!!!!

Anyhow, Kelly’s gun-toting but not-so-courageous relatives wouldn’t come out to us with the damn light. But they were nice enough to offer to shine the light on us as we made our way up the trail to the cabin. So we still had a field full of rattlers to deal with.

Yep, I did it – with Kelly on my shoulders, I navigated the rattlesnake-infested field and eventually made it to the cabin. Neither one of us suffering any damage (except maybe to our egos) and the only damage to me was feeling guilty for the whole thing. Kelly was totally thankful but I never stopped feeling guilty.

Yes, I am positive one of us would have stepped on that original rattler if I hadn’t seen it. And there was no way to know if we would have been bitten by surprise on any other part of the way up to the cabin. The bottom line is I don’t consider what happened an act of courage. There were tons of things I could have done to handle the situation better, and instead of handling it better I resigned to get myself bit (or eaten by crazed dogs) to give Kelly the time and protection to make it back to the cabin.

Someone once said I was full of blind courage when I told this story.

Maybe so. I am damn near blind, and it’s no secret that Death and I have danced on more than a few occasions, but having that kind of courage entails some responsibility as well people. I might be more than willing to play the “Risk My Life” card to save someone here or there, but I’ve no right to involve anyone else unnecessarily.

Anyhow this is our Rattler story. Cheers Kelly!