Call into our front desk, someone having trouble getting into their account on the web server
Conversation between me and the front desk.

Shawn (12:50): Login name: xxxxxxxx                    In real life:
Directory: /home/prov3/xxxxxxxx         Shell: /bin/ksh
Never logged in.
No unread mail
No Plan.

yyyyyyy (12:57): does he key in that whole thong
thing
Shawn (12:57): key in where?
when he logs into the server, that should be the directory he's dropped into
if he's using an FTP client that requrires a full server path, then yes, he needs to put in: /home/prov3/xxxxxxxx
probably /home/prov3/xxxxxxxx/public_html, actually
since that's where web pages live
yyyyyyy (12:58): on the address line on the web site
?
Shawn (12:59): address line in his browser?
yyyyyyy (1:00): I have no idea what he is doing
he is getting upset with me for not understanding  I think
Shawn (1:00): if he's typing the address into a browser window, it's http://www.---.edu/~xxxxxxxx
yyyyyyy (1:00): I am asking where he is typin this in at
Shawn (1:00): ask him what the name of the program he is using is
yyyyyyy (1:01): front page
Shawn (1:05): is he on campus?
cause FTP is blocked from off campus
yyyyyyy (1:09): He is at Ashburn
Shawn (1:09): ok that should be ok to get in
ftp://www.---.edu/home/prov3/xxxxxxxx/public_html
yyyyyyy (1:16): he got to the site
Shawn (1:16): cool
yyyyyyy (1:16): now his user name and pasword are not working
ahhhh
Shawn (1:16): what?
how did he get to the site, if his name and password didn't work?
yyyyyyy (1:17): not sure
he is using his email user name and password
is that the right one?
Shawn (1:18): NO
xist

this is totally separate
from email
from netid
from acad
ldap
portal
cmail
webmail
research2
any other system
completely independent
user name is that xxxx crap
this is what he requested when he set up the account
zzzzzzzz
for a password
tell him to try that
yyyyyyy (1:22): The username is that long ass name from the beginning?
still nothing
he does not want to come all the way down here to change this
wants to do it over the phone
kill me
Shawn (1:24): i JUST logged into the server with that username and password
yyyyyyy (1:24): is the password that long title spelled out completely
Shawn (1:24): what?
yyyyyyy (1:24): sorry not pswrd username
Shawn (1:24): spelled out?
no
xxxxxxxx is the username
you understand the relationship between the username and the account's address, right?
yyyyyyy (1:25): yep
the username and accoutn name are the same right?
Shawn (1:27): yes
and = what comes after the ~ in the URL
yyyyyyy (1:28): the password is zzzzzzzzzz
Shawn (1:28): yes
yyyyyyy (1:28): got it
does not seem to be working for him
shaould he come in and change it
Shawn (1:29): why?
that IS the password
i logged into the server with it
yyyyyyy (1:32): the message he is getting : an error occured opening the folder on the FTPserver make sure you have permisson to access the server , there is no such file or directory
I need a drink
Shawn (1:33): amen
yyyyyyy (1:33): a gun
somethong
something
Shawn (1:34): sigh
ok
we've given him the account's login
password
path
protocol
i don't know what else to tell you
i don't even have front page to look at it
the public_html dir is there
it has the proper permissions
ok

[ at this point she walked over to ask if he should come in and reset his password]

yyyyyyy (1:40): he just wants to be able to get into the site he says he is not even in front page at this moment
Shawn (1:40): what is he using
yyyyyyy (1:41): he is at the logon page at the site
and user name and password are not working
Shawn (1:42): in what application
yyyyyyy (1:42): he has not used any application he just wants to get into the site
so he says
on the old server he got in ok
Shawn (1:43): what program, yyyyyyy
think about it
how can he be at a login screen
if there's no program he;s using
yyyyyyy (1:54): i got to the loginscreen just by typing the path name, I got him off the phone
you gave me
h not sure how but I did
Shawn (1:54): typing the path name where
yyyyyyy (1:55): in the address box on MyGw
Shawn (1:55): what?
yyyyyyy (1:56): when you key in the link you gave me starting w ftp://
it takes you there
Shawn (1:56): on mygw
yyyyyyy (1:57): yep I am there now
I cut and pasted the url you gave me to give to him and got to the login page where he is and can go no further
wanna see
that is where he canot get past


This conversation ended with me, at her desk, saying, "That's not FrontPage, that's a web browser"

Thanks for proving you're more concerned with two dudes kissing than education, health care, and the saftey of your sons and daughters. I really fear we've entered a black period in the history of the United States and the effects of this election will be felt for the next 30 years.

in other news, safe sex increases as girls are increasingly paranoid of having to carry kids to full term if they get knocked up, once roe v. wade gets overturned in about 8 months.

Someone tried to start singing that behind where Eben and I were standing, waiting for the Sox to come by on Saturday, and I think he got punched.

Seriously though, I don't think you could have found much ill wiil in the city of Boston on Saturday. Still reeling from the Victory High of Wednesday night against the Cardinals, the team was fêted, Caesar-style, on Saturday morning. Eben and I drove up the night before, making it in decent time (despite the ENORMOUS rush hour hangup from DC to Baltimore) thanks to the I-95 corridor road work that had plagued my entire life in DC finally being done. Yay.

On the way up, Jason called from ESPN to tell us that there was a call-in show on ESPN Classic with Freddy Lynn and Kevin Millar and amazingly no one from New England was calling in. Suddenly presented with a chance to speak to a couple of our heroes, Eben and I were suddenly presented with a conundrum: What on earth do we ask these guys that won't make us sound like tools?

We shut off the radio and brainstormed for a while and played with the phrasing, until we were finally satisfied we had a unique and open-ended question that would generate some discussion. And we called. And we got a fax line. Great.

We got to Ben and Jamie's and went to bed around 2, then woke up at 6:45 to get down to the parade route. We staked out spots on the rail at Boylston and the Storrow Drive ramp at about 7:45 and proceeded to wait in the drizzle for ten o'clock to come around. Suffered through the girls behind us arguing over who they would totally marry on the team, before all agreeing that "Boston's Most Eligible Bachelor" Theo Epstein (nope sorry girls, he's dating someone) would make their grandmothers the happiest because he was Jewish AND owner of the Sox (wrong again). At about 9:40 some guy and his kids show up, one of whom proceeds to push his way to the front, between me and a woman, then loudly and continuously tell his little brother that he didn't deserve to be in front because "i got here first."

What exactly are the rules on smacking someone else's kids again?

The parade went by a little too quickly and I was only able to get a couple pictures per Duck Boat, and didn't get to see all the players as some were on the other side. But I guess it evens out because I got to see Johnny Pesky and David Ortiz and Jason Varitek, and the people on the other side didn't. Still, it was a good time and the rain could hardly begin to dampen the mood of the crowd. I still haven't seen final numbers but where we were was strangley thing. A couple blocks away at Mass. and Boylston, it looked 30 deep; by us it was five or six people deep. Eben and I agreed that it wasn't anything life-changing - I mean, I've been closer to lots of these guys at ballparks - but the memory of being there is what we're taking.

After the parade passed us, we walked over to Fenway to say hi to the old girl, and then to The Baseball Tavern where we met up with Eb's friend Hillary and some Sox people: Mike, Kathe, Nicole and Katherine, all excellent folks, and we raised a few beers to the team. Later we grabbed pizza at the Same Old Place and went to a Halloween party with Ben and Jamie. I discovered a latent talent for playing flip cup. Best costumes: Jimmy & Tina and the Update desk, Joe and Marylin, the obligitory Johnny Damon, and Ben as well, Ben Affleck.

Rolling back to DC on a beautiful Halloween day (stopping in Sleepy Hollow for lunch), it all kind of started to sink in. 82 times next year, my team will be announced as, "Your World Champion, Boston Red Sox". Damn. Actually being in Boston (for me I think the first time since '01) was good, hanging with other fans. Totally different atmosphere even vs. a Sox bar in DC. The people, the park, the neighborhoods, the sheer joy over what had happened just made me feel so at home, it was something that I'll hold for a long long time.