In most conversations, when I use the Underpants Gnomes reference I get blank stares. It’s truly sad.

So, when I saw that Gartner analyst Lydia Leong makes reference to their master plan in a recent blog post about Sun buying Q-Layer I couldn’t help but feel happy. (Possibly happier than I should have been… I’ll have to think about that.)

Strangely, the gnomes’ master plan inspires me to think about this blog. (See image below if you’re not familiar.) I haven’t had much direction here. I honestly didn’t know what the blog was for, just using it as an outlet for whatever random thoughts I wanted to develop. This has fit into my idea of the blog’s audience just fine, because I assume there is essentially no readership. (Except for my mother, of course, God bless her.)

Well, in the very near future I’m going to change that. I intend to split the current queuefull blog into two parts, one of which will stay behind at this location while the other is moved to my personal website. The point is to allow queuefull blog to focus on technology such as networking, cloud computing, web and the Internet, etc, by giving me a new place to take my personal ravings… er, thoughts.

I also intend to loosen my standards for posting to my personal blog while increasing my standards for writing on queuefull blog. One might consider this a negative thing, considering that my most recent post here was about 3 months ago. But, as part of my 2009 new year’s resolution, I am setting a goal of posting at least one article here each week. Not just a fluff post to meet my quota, but a considered and meaningful article.

The goal is simple: I’d like to make a blog that is useful to a readership. It’s about helping others, establishing community, and (frankly) pushing myself to be more consistent about reaching goals.

We will have to see if I’m successful. My track record suggests failure. But that’s no reason to stop me trying.

In the meantime, if you read this blog and/or would like to read the queuefull blog that I described above, please let me know what kind of articles would be useful or interesting to you. If you would like to write articles about IT technology, in particular about tech infrastructure, please let me know. I’m open to any input; the more we know the better the odds of success.

Until then, ponder this:

Recently I bought a device (via EBay) that logs temperature and humidity. I intend to use it to monitor my wife’s greenhouse when we get it completed, to make sure it’s ready to support her orchids before we move them in. But in the meantime it’s been riding around in my backpack. Here’s what a day in the life of my backpack looks like:

It starts off in my work office, where it stays nice and cool until I go out to meet my wife for dinner. Then I returned to the office and worked late, finally returning home around midnight.

Note the rising humidity in my home office where the logger spend the night, until morning when it rained. It’s nothing remarkable, sure. But it’s amusing. And it tells me I need a dehumidifier.

ACLU Says No Deal on an Unconstitutional FISA Compromise (6/5/2008)

“As news continues to trickle down from Capitol Hill regarding a deal on surveillance legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union once again voiced its fervent opposition to any attempt to undercut the Fourth Amendment or allow the telecommunications companies to gain blanket immunity for illegal spying. Before the Memorial Day recess the ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) floated what he claims is a compromise on surveillance legislation that will allow for sham court proceedings, virtually guaranteeing immunity to telecommunications companies. The ACLU strongly opposes this unconstitutional proposal.”

Wow, it’s been an eventful afternoon. Nothing of lasting impact, but a strange collection of improbable events.

I spent the day at Savvis’ office in Herndon. This is my first time traveling since I fell ill late last year, so it’s a bit of an event for me. But the office, hotel, my meetings, etc, went as expected. As the day came to a close today I kept working, trying to get some bandwidth data downloaded onto my laptop before leaving, and running late a little too much for my comfort zone. I’m the sort of traveler that needs a large time buffer before a flight leaves to feel comfortable. But honestly, I told myself, I had plenty of time if everything went ok. No need to worry.

So I drove to Dulles airport, stopped by the overcrowded gas station to refuel my rental car, and rearranged some things in my luggage to lighten the load. Then as I drove toward the National rental lot I got rear-ended. I was turning right onto the street where all the rental companies are located, which those of you familiar with Dulles might recall is a wide turn ramp with a yield sign. I yielded to an oncoming police car. The vehicle behind me didn’t yield at all…

The police asked me if I was ok. Apparently the hit caused my vehicle to jump off the ground. I was driving a Jeep Liberty SUV and the other guy was in a little Honda; he ran under my rear bumper and popped my rear tires off the ground. I was fine, I told them, just a bit shaken up. So we pull into a lot and fill out reports. The police wrote “At Fault” on the other guy’s report which kind of made me feel good. I asked him if he was ok and shook his hand, and he apologized. Everybody was ok, so I was content.

National rental was good about it. Nobody spoke English as a first language, so explaining the accident was lengthy. But they were all nice about it, so again I was content. But of course by the time all the reports and claims were done I was pushing it to make my flight in time. So as I rode the shuttle to the terminals I double-checked my Blackberry to make sure I knew when my flight was. And lo and behold, it is delayed. Kind of fortunate, I guess. Usually not so fortunate, but this time I was glad.

I checked in and checked my main bag. I went through the premium security line (I’m AA Platinum, yay) and found myself behind 30 or 40 pre-teens wearing bright green t-shirts. I don’t know what this is all about, but they’re clearly not going to make things go quickly. So the attendant grabs me and sends me down to another line where things go more smoothly. Until, that is, I’m reassembling myself on the far side of the metal detectors (you know, putting on my belt and shoes, dropping phones back into pockets, etc), at which point my awesome Booq backpack that I’ve been carrying every day for about 8 years breaks. Not terribly, mind you, but the zipper pulled away from the seam leaving a hole in the top. I’ve been looking for a bag that might replace this one for the past 5 years, bought and tried a few (which my wife teases me about on a regular basis) none of which met my standards. So now I don’t know what to do. Maybe I’ll just have to replace it, or maybe I can sew the zipper back on without making the bag look like a franken-bag. (Or maybe that would be cool; I can’t decide)

Anyways, to finish off my journey I take the weird tram thing that Dulles uses to shuttle passengers between terminals over to terminal D where my flight is. There are like 50 people with me. But as we emerge a short woman picks me out of the crowd and asks me if I’m on the flight to St. Louis and if my name is Schliesser. I don’t know how she knew me, but it was freaky. She tells me that the Admirals Club is closing early so she made arrangements for me at the British Airways club. Pretty nice, I guess. But I’m still freaked out by her picking me out like that.

So now I’m sitting in the British Airways lounge and I have to say that it’s nice. A bit more roomy than the Admirals Club here at Dulles. And they have an open bar. (Like the Admiral’s Club at Heathrow; just walk up and pour your own drink.) If I start traveling back and forth to Oxford again I’m going to have to look into membership here.

But for now I’m drinking a whiskey and Coke, eating Walker’s shortbread, letting my nerves settle down, and rambling on to you while I wait for my flight. Maybe next time I’ll have something more meaningful to say.