Category: General

Recently, I added some features to a framework so that it could send emails (piece of cake on ColdFusion). Well, I got my own emails while testing but a while later, something made me check the undelivered folder for ColdFusion mail engine only to discover that all outward bound mails have been dropped there.

I was baffled. I checked the internet connections, they were working fine. The SMTP server was receiving mails from ColdFusion if not I wouldn’t have gotten those sent to me.

After banging my head on the walls for 30 minutes, I went to the IT department to check the configurations of the main Exchange 2003 server. There I discovered that IP addresses of servers that can use the Exchange server to route emails must be explicitly added. After doing that, the mails were still not going until I restarted my own ColdFusion server (I don’t know why I had to do that but it worked).

This is actually no rocket science. The Exchange server sends the internal mails because those ones are not being routed while external mails must be routed before they get to their destinations. And since the router only takes mails from specified IP addresses, mine was promptly bounced.

Meanwhile, shame wouldn’t allow me to say (now am saying it anyway) that I didn’t check my mail log files until after I have resolved my issues. In clear terms, ColdFusion logged it that my mails could not be sent as the SMTP router was rejecting them.

It ain’t everyday you get to be called a dude and when you manage to be called one, you want to hold on fast like a leech to that even if the desperate talons of old age is fast clutching at your throat.

So you can imagine the shock of a self confessed dude who woke up one morning to discover that a beer gut has grown and attached itself firmly to his midsection. What a mess! What a disgrace!

Now, to be a dude, you gotta be trim, lanky and all the works, you know. You don’t need the six packs, four would do. Definitely, a beer gut is out of it. Not that you can’t consume beer but a dude must be able to drive through a line of bottles without his gut shooting out an inch.

With the dudeship about to be forcibly yanked away by the annoying beer gut that won’t hide itself, my dude (your dude) went about looking for subtle and drastic ways of sending the unwelcomed visitor away. The most obvious strategies were to cut back on food and hitting the gyms.

Cutting back on food wasn’t difficult because the dude could convince his wife that his new found hatred of food is good for the health of both of them (and the family inclusive) even though that is a dubious assertion on its own. Hitting the gym didn’t sound too nice because it involves strength of the mind that the dude hasn’t been able to call up. Of course, he lied to his wife, and everyone who tells him about the benefit of fitness that he’s a busy professional.

Running away from food has helped a bit but the beer gut is still hanging at the mid side though smaller. So it looks like the dude either goes to borrow strength of mind to hit the gyms or come to terms with the unwanted visitor.

The truth is, the dude is getting old and you can’t be young forever. Now, what can this suffering dude do?

It was just like yesterday that Dara (my daughter) literarily popped out into this mad mad world; and she’s been a bundle of joy ever since.

And today marks her first year on planet earth. It’s been fun all the way. I remember when I was so impatient that she wasn’t walking on time, now I practically beg and bribe her to sit down and stay still. But children ain’t corrupt like the rest of us, so she’s not playing ball.

And tomorrow, I too will be a year older. Since from my own estimate I am now a member of the Elder’s forum, I will get myself a decent walking stick and dab some white talc on my brow: Here comes Grandpa Deji!