Howard French Insurance

Bonnie and I have several rental properties to help suppliment our income. One of the expenses we have for these investments are the insurance requirements. There are a lot of things you must understand to get the right insurance. This is one of those expenses that you hate to pay every month; but when you need it, you're glad you have it. I'm a picky customer, and I can't stand any company who only considers me a number. I prefer the one-on-one treatment and customer service that I provide to my customers. It's not easy to find people dedicated to doing what is in your best interests instead of what is in their best interests.

After Hurricane Rita, my previous insurance company tried everything they could to NOT pay for the damages to our property. I never received a call from my agent, and when I called him, his attitude felt like he had bigger things to worry about. It was at that point that I started looking for a new insurance agent. We've chosen Nationwide as our insurance provider. Specifically, the Howard French Insurance Agency is handling all of my insurance needs.

Howard French is an agent for Nationwide Insurance. When Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Gulf Coast, Howard was quick to contact me to see if I needed any assistance. I've used several insurance companies before (Farmers, Progressive, State Farm, Allstate, etc) and I've never received customer service as good as I have from Howard French Insurance.

My auto insurance, homeowners insurance, and rental insurance is all through Howard French Insurance. I recommend you give him a call, or visit his website (www.hfiagency.com) to learn more about the services Howard French Insurance can provide. There are several pages at his website which describe the types of insurance Howard French provides.

Howard French is not restricted to writing Nationwide only policies. In fact, several of my policies are actually from other providers. Howard French carefully explains the coverage I absolutely need, and then offers suggestions to help suppliment any unforeseen situations. Any company who operates with my best interest in mind is an excellent company to have on your side. Howard French Insurance practices this in their customer service, and I enjoy recommending the Howard French Insurance Agency to all of my friends.

I trust Howard French Insurance to provide me the best insurance coverage at a fair price. If you are in the Houston area, and need Home Insurance, Auto Insurance, Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Renter Insurance, Business Insurance, or any other type of insurance policy, please do yourself a favor and call Howard French Insurance.

markwilkinson.net lives again!

I've had a lot of things going on for the past 8 months. Unfortunately, my website had to pay the price! The major items impacting the site was a crashed hard drive, Hurricane Ike, tons of work, and purchasing/moving into a new house. Things finally settled down a little, and I actually had time to get the site put back together and back on the Internet.

The hardest part was the crashed hard drive. I was not able to locate my backups even though I had them scheduled for weekly fulls and daily differentials. I checked everywhere for a single copy, but could not even find a hint of the data. My guess is they were misplaced during the Hurricane and subsequent move. I'm working on an alternative method to never allow this to occur again.

So you may be thinking, "You had to redo your entire site! How did you get all your posts exactly the same?" Well, fortunately, the kind folks at http://www.archive.org keep historic copies of indexed websites. It didn't get everything back, but it did get the hardest parts to duplicate. I owe them a tremendous thank you for their excellent site. I've used their site to view historical information for several other websites, and finally had to use them for mine. Check out their site, and understand the value they offer!

That being said, you may find some information missing from my site. I'll be rebuilding the missing sections as time permits. Functionally, the site should be usable. Enjoy the information!

WinImage Write Error When Creating ESXi USB Install

I downloaded VMWare's ESXi iso, and after reading this post, I decided to try my luck installing ESXi on a USB drive I had laying around.

The machine I tried to create the USB drive on was a fresh install of Vista; but I quickly found a problem when I tried to use WinImage to write the .dd image to the USB drive. WinImage popped up with a non-informational "Error" message box. A quick Google located several other users having similar problems, and they all offered other suggestions involving other image writing utilities.

The ultimate answer was to try using XP. Well, I didn't want to go that route yet (this was a FRESH install of Vista). So I tried other options.

In my search, I did run across a post which mentioned using the HP USB formatting utility to clear the USB drive before trying WinImage.

I downloaded the utility, and the full format of the USB drive was taking forever... while waiting, I just HAPPENED to try to run WinImage again. I was expected a drive-in-use error or some other weird issue. To my surprise, WinImage begain writing the image to the USB drive! I stopped the WinImage write, the HP format utility, and tried the WinImage write again from scratch. WinImage failed to write to the USB drive.

To make WinImage write the ESXi .dd image to my USB drive, I had to start the HP format utility, then start the WinImage write. After WinImage began writing the disk, I was able to kill the HP format utility process, and WinImage continued to write to the USB drive. Go figure!

Hope this helps others who run across the same issue.

Miranda Fern Ley - Historic Costumes

The co-worker who introduced me to Pete (from the band Pete Simple), is Miranda Ley. In her spare time, Miranda creates historically accurate clothing. Think of the Texas Renaissance Festival, Dickens on the Strand, or theatrical productions, and you'll be in the ball-park of the type of work Miranda creates.

Her website, mirandafern.com, can put you in touch with Miranda. I'll be attending the TRF at some point this year, and I'll definitly be looking for Miranda. She said she'll be there every weekend. Apparently, it's one of her favorite times of the year.

If you're interested in her work, you should consider attending the TRF or Dickens. If you can't make it to those events, you can always visit her website. If all else fails, let me know. I see her every day at work...

Pete Simple

I have a co-worker who showed me her boyfriend's website. He's a member of a band called Pete Simple. I've heard a few of the songs on the website, and liked the song called "Here". I wasn't fond of the beat-box on several other songs, but I've heard the beat-box is no longer with the band.

If you listen to the songs on their site, you should understand Pete Simple is a part-time band. The members can't afford to pursue their passion full-time. Check out the site, and let me know what you think. I'll pass on any constructive comments or criticisms...