James M. Burke

As you may know, Rebecca and I are getting married in Lubbock, TX on December 23rd. Today, we began our trip to Texas to visit with family up until the big day. We decided to drive from North Carolina since we have a ton of stuff to bring, and thought it would be a nice trip. For day one, we made it to Monroe, Louisiana. Here’s a recap of the trip statistics for Day 1:

897.3 miles traveled
66.5 miles per hour (mph) overall average
70.6 miles per hour (mph) moving average
94.7 miles per hour (mph) maximum speed
13 hours, 29 minutes total time
12 hours, 42 minutes moving time
46 minutes stopped time

During the trip, we discovered five new states we’ve never been to: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and now Louisiana. All in all, the trip hasn’t been that bad so far — I expected to be dead tired by now…

The plan is to drive another 351.6 miles tomorrow to make it to my Dad’s house for the night.

Lately, I’ve been trying to post more about technology than personal matters, but I can’t leave this announcement out. On May 29, I got engaged to Rebecca — I finally popped the question after over five and a half years of dating….and guess what? She said yes. Rebecca has been there for me through all of life’s ups and downs. I owe a lot to her, and am truly blessed to have such a loving and wonderful person as my fiancee.

Forbes released this year's Best Places for Business and Careers with Raleigh, NC and Durham, NC both making the top 10.  Raleigh, NC came in a #2 and Durham, NC came in at #8 according to the list for Best Metros.  The home town of my alma mater (Las Cruces, NM) came in as #2 on the Best Smaller Metros list.  

I find it very interesting (and odd) that of all places, Albuquerque, NM came in as #1 on the list.  It must be attributed to the fact that it was rated #1 for Cost of Doing Business. 

Link:  Best Places For Business And Careers - Forbes.com 

Last Wednesday, I decided to make the switch (back) to using a PC rather than a Mac. Although I really loved my PowerBook, it just didn’t make sense for my line of work. NetApp supplies Engineers with desktops, and I was using my PowerBook when I worked at home. However, I discovered it was difficult to analyze Fibre Channel traces since the Finisar software was for Windows. I went to Best Buy a couple of times and became interested in the Gateway Convertible Tablet PC. After a few days of thinking about it, I decided to go pick one up. So, there you have it…I’m back to using a Windows PC. I’m still not used to having a 14″ screen and a laptop that weighs over 6 pounds, but it’s nice to be able to install all the software I’ve been missing. I will still envy anyone who gets the new MacBook Pro…

My G4 PowerBook is currently for sale on eBay (ends on Feb 18).

For the past three days, I’ve been in an “In-depth SCSI class.” It covered material from Solution Technology in SCSI, Fibre Channel and iSCSI. Just thought you’d like to know…

I wasn’t able to blog at all today, because I was having my wisdom (teeth) removed.  The procedure began this morning at 10:45am, and I chose the local anesthesia process, so I was able to drive down and drive back home.  It wasn’t too bad…other than the sounds of popping and cracking.  As for now, I’m just craving good food…

Saturday night, Rebecca got a phone call from her parents that said there was a wild fire near our home town of Hobbs, New Mexico. KCBD reported that 4 fires burned 53,000 acres, destroyed 11 homes and 2 businesses in the southeastern New Mexico area. Here is an exerpt from the news article:

In New Mexico, fire fighters are watching for hot spots after destructive fires there. Four blazes scorched more than 53,000 acres and burned 11 homes and two businesses in Southeastern New Mexico this weekend. Just more than 100 miles southwest of Lubbock, residents in Hobbs, New Mexico are returning to their homes only to find ashes. Five hundred people were evacuated. NewsChannel 11’s Kealey McIntire went to Hobbs and gives us a firsthand look at the damage.

View: KCBD - NewsChannel 11 / Lubbock, TX: New Mexico Fire Victims Return to Ash Instead of Homes

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that everyone has a great 2006!

So, today we were scheduled to fly back to Raleigh.  Our flight from Lubbock to Houston was delayed due to “mechanical” problems.  The story isn’t so funny.  First, we were rushed because there was only 1 person working at ticketing for Continental at Lubbock.  By the time we got to the front, informed them we had a pet and got the docs checked, we (thought we) had 25 minutes before the plane departed.  After we got through security, there was only 15 minutes left until the scheduled departure.  Well, when we get to gate 3, we discover there is no plane there…apparently it was delayed for 30 minutes.  Well, that 30 minutes becomes about 45 minutes…then, we’re all on the plane and we find out there are “mechanical” problems.  They said that the power that connects to the plane when it’s at the gate failed and they had to reset the computer systems.  To make a long story short, we arrived in Houston 5 minutes after the flight to Raleigh departed…of course it was on time.  So, Continental is paying for our hotel and dinner tonight.  But, that still doesn’t make the fact that we have a traveling pet, and both have to be at work tomorrow any easier.  I don’t think I’ll be flying Continental any time soon.  I know that this kind of thing happens…but it’s just the combination of slow service, grumpy service, delays and “mechanical” problems that forms my decision.  Even more reason for me to choose American Airlines…

This is a little late, but I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  I hope that you all had a great time with family and friends.  Mine wasn’t so great.  My grandmother on my dad’s side passed away on December 22.  That’s the second grandparent to pass away within a month.  It always seems to happen around the holidays - my other grandmother (mom’s side) passed away December 27, 2001.  But…she’s definitely in a better place now…the last few months were absolutely miserable for her, and I’m glad that I got to see her a few weeks ago when I was here for my grandfather’s funeral.

On a positive note, I got to see a lot of family for the holidays.  I met so many new relatives that I had no idea who they were…apparently I met them when I was younger.  This sparked an interest in a family reunion for my dad’s side.  I always knew most of my mom’s side of the family because of the reunions…but they stopped doing reunions on my dad’s side when I was about 10.