He sees you down by the water line
Know what you're thinking all the time
He sees the rising of the waves
When the tide starts rolling in
He lets you know it's gonna be o.k.
He sees you dancing in the moonlight

His arms around you hold ya tight
And if those clouds should start to break
He'll be standing out in the rain with you
And though it's hard to believe
He believes in you

God is watching over you
As always
You are loved
Whatever you go through
He's right beside you
God is watching over you
As always
And if you think He'll ever leave you
You better think again

Phil Joel: God Is Watching Over You Lyrics
Songwriters: Bourgeois, Mark Grey; Urry, Philip Joel;

How can the feeling of an early morning trip be described? The start to an adventure of peril or wonderful safe travels.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu

The first step is usually turning off the alarm clock and getting your feet out from under the covers. By the time the morning shower is over (assuming you had time and didn't hit the snooze button) the you are on to the second step.

After the bags are zipped closed, loaded in the car, and the car begins to move the third step has been completed. From here, a thousand miles await.

The world's morning stillness, glazed in a the soft orange glow of the rising sun, presents itself for your viewing pleasure as you drive along. Perhaps it is accompanied by the wafting smell of the hot coffee entrusted to the cup holder for safe keeping. Maybe you are fortunate enough to be the passenger on this trip and have closed your eyes, oblivious to the beauty outside. The sound of the car engine sooths your senses as your mind dreams of the road ahead.

I hope you appreciate the feeling of morning trips and first steps.

When Coding Horror posted What's On Your Utility Belt I figured it was time to share my utility belt. It may hang around my shoulder, but hey, if I had as much money as Bruce Wayne I'd probably have a utility belt too!

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All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am

But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true...

Brandi Carlie singing "The Story"
Songwriters: Hanseroth, Phillip John

But I digress, SysAdmin Day was awesome on so many levels. First, it was encouraging to meet such a diverse group of admins  from departmental IT techies to gurus at Google and Etsy. Regardless of system size and complexity everyone was open to talking shop or kicking back and meeting new people. There were numerous people from all over the world who attended the meetup because they were in the city for DebConf (I had no idea Perl was still so, alive! *wink*). Second, it helped foster the desire to give back to the community and made me just a little more thankful for some of the open source projects I've come to love and depend on. Last, well, I may not frequent bars but The Ginger Man was great (a large part due to the company). My only regret was not being able to hear better above the crowd noise and having only a couple short hours to know a bit more about my fellow IT workers.

Field of Wild Flowers by Powers Road

Gogebic County, MI
Notes: 8 images stitched and cropped.

Click to open in larger window

Lucky thing I wasn't there because I'd have rescued Leia. Of course, if I did that I'd rather be Han Solo because... well, yeah.

All I've seen on the subway is a violinist and some awesome break dancers.

I find myself lowering standards on some sci-fi so it will fall into the great category just because it is unique. Other movies that have great production and effects but are mutilated by the Hollywood syndrome and generally get put in the 'fancy eye candy that flopped' category because it's worth watching even though the story is disappointing. If you don't like sci-fi then your standards are probably high and everything that a I would bend the rules on you may put into the horrible category.

Hungry for some new and original sci-fi I watched the Pioneer One pilot episode that was featured on a recent Slashdot posting. Once the preconception of it being a low budget film was overcome I was surprised at the story and professional content. The story is original and sets the stage for a drama that is realistic and can incorporate some fascinating sci-fi themes. I've seen my share of horrible sci-fi movies but the pilot episode of Pioneer One easily falls into my great category despite being low budget.

Download the pilot via BitTorrent for free and decide for yourself.  More download options and movie information is available on the VODO Pioneer One site. Well worth checking out if you like sci-fi.

I've already donated to the project, what about you? Do you think it's worth $5 to see the story unfold?