It wasn't me. You can't prove anything.


2008-11-30

Sunday

I got absolutely nothing done today. I didn't really try. By the time Nat and I got home all either of us wanted to do was crash.Nat asked Bill to bring home some hamburgers. He was a good guy and did, but I just cannot eat another hamburger. I had some crackers. The sink in over flowing with dishes so I just don't want to deal with making anything. Elle ate, so I'm not worried about it.

I tried to get a picture published on picasa using their Linux software, but that was a complete wash. It wouldn't even show up on their site much less mine. So, I'm sticking to my server for the moment. I've been taking pictures of sunsets more often. I should have a series. I should use a better camera than the shit-stick-pinhole on my phone. Hmm. The G1 has a 3.1 megapixel.

After several days using a Windows box I realize Linux has a better interface for multitasking. There is no arguing with that. Even if you have multiple monitors, you don't have multiple desktops and there for cannot keep things separate. No sooner would I start reading some blogs than I would just end up closing the video page that I was sorting through between the blogs. Even with multiple taps on all browsers It did not make up for multiple desktops.

I like the command line text to speech engine called espeak over the only one for Windows that I've had work consistently called ReadPlease. Do note that I've only used the free version of ReadPlease. It is all I can afford. Still, espeak works better because it just reads what I paste in to the window. That's all it does. That's all I want.

Again I had to go through the whole send me my password email thing with Farmers. I do not know who set up their page, but I have never had the kind of consistent


2008-11-29

No Ping

I just tried to hit one of the web pages on my server at the house.Nothing came up. It sends all these scenarios through my head. I picture coming home to a kicked in door and the place has been ransacked. Maybe the dump burned down. Maybe the ATF finally caught up to me. Next I start thinking the electricity went out. When did I pay the bill last? Then that the cats did something and I'll end up killing them both over it. The most likely cause is the DSL went down, followed closely by the computer just passing out for no good reason.

Which will it be when I get home? You know,as long as My family is good, I don't care. The thieves or the flames, or the crappy code can have the place. I go on. I go on even if nothing is left. I go on even if the lawyers have padlocked the front door I go on. I go on without electricity or working computers. I go on.

...

Then, five minutes after I publish this post, the site comes back up. It was the DSL crapping out. Frigging ISP companies are just not worth the money. I guess it is back to my boring life. That or the ATF is trying to lure me in to a false sense of security. Crafty bastards.

24

Oh, my God. What have they done to this show? Five minutes in to the first episode of the season I can tell how it is going to play out. Fortunately, it mostly played in the first episode. I'm just not that curious how the rest of it is going to go.

This season is all about Africa. How appropriate.t NPR is all about Africa. You can hear about African affairs all over the liberal media. In order to please the East and West coast conglomerate, 24 has decided to milk those headlines. I'm only curious how the writers are going to make enough out of the no-oil fights and massacres that happen in Africa every day it seems. I feel for the people of Africa and their children that are ever forced in to fighting these wars. I do not much car that the people in the governments are wiped out. They fight and moan like a bunch of middle school fat goth kids.

The writers of 24 are already dragging thing out. The scene where Jack runs after the trucks and the bad tracks him around the buildings had a feel of being dragged out. Jack gets punched straight in the nose hard enough to knock him out and the close up a couple seconds later didn't have any blood that I could see.

I give up. I'm going to go watch cartoons.

Very Local News

  • I just don't have the drive to write today. There are all kinds of great news stories. Not great like good news. Great as in something to talk about.
  • I watched a bunch of John Wane movies today.
  • Watched a bunch of Myth Busters.
  • Went to a couple places for a phone shoulder thing. Found one at Office Depot. That will save my ever aging neck at work. I'm glad we were not out for some serious shopping. The couple places we went were madhouses. I did get to check out an Acer laptop that was a little bitty thing. It was $350 and had some decent numbers. Next year they will be $200. I may end up with one yet. Besides, I want one that will run Linux and that I do not pay the Microsoft tax.
  • My parent's met Elle's dad, Ted for the first time when they came over to pick Elle up this evening.
  • Watched some stupid videos on LiveLeak.
  • Ate Leftovers.
  • My dad made some pens.
  • Played with my father's new anvil. No, I didn't ruin it.
  • The electric company came by today to trim trees. The one behind my parent's garage got quite a buzz. Nat was still feeling bad so I moved the car out from under the tree next to the driveway. Then I moved it back after they were gone.


2008-11-28

Thanksgiving Pictures

OK, There is not a whole bunch of Thanksgiving in the Thanksgiving pictures. But, here they are.

New police car

Police car hell, I want one for my family. This thing looks nice.

With as many friends who are cops, I like the idea of giving them every advantage modern science can throw at them. A new car is a good start. I remember the place I grew up. Missouri City Texas had Volvo police cars. We were the laughing stock of South East Texas.

Turkey Boxing Day

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas. Turkey Boxing Day is hence forth the day after Thanksgiving.

So, Elle and I are watching cartoon channel while watching the Cartoon Network. My parents are off looking for knife making bits. Nat is upstairs resting and recovering after surgery. The dogs are being dogs. All is well with the Universe.

The bill collectors did not call yesterday. That is a good thing. They call with a robot that says "This is an important call ..." I know to delete the message or hang up. Normally they do not even get through because I screen my calls. Doesn't every one screen their calls these days? I know I have bills due. I know I cannot afford topay some of them. I'm deliberately not paying some in favor of others. This is a normal thing now days.

I've tried calling over to Adam and Lorie's place to find out how Thanksgiving day went. The last I heard, 22 people were supposed to show up over there for dinner. I'm very curious as to how things went. Our dinner went well. Everything was delicious. Nat was till in the hospital, but she got a good meal too. This is going to go down as one of those Thanksgiving days not to be remembered. Nat would probably prefer to forget it. Poor thing.

Soldiers will be boys

Nothing like a big bang to make life worth living. The text along side this video said they are playing with some C-4. Yikes. I swear I can hear Jake and Quintin in the background.


2008-11-27

Front loader showoff

I'm impressed. It looks like there is some kind of weight in the shovel. How do you find out you are any good at this sort of thing withoutwrecking a bunch offront loaders?

4.3G

2008-11-25 I had a file on the internet side of things that needed to get to the internal side of things. It was 4.3 gigabytes. It was an ISO image file for an operating system. I tried copying it using a portable drive. The drive was formated in FAT32 which has a limit of 4G minus one byte. I would have to split it in Windows and join it in Linux so screw that. I would try to use the portable DVD burner we have access to, but A) the guy who has it locked in his office is on vacation and B) There are no known external machines with burning software. So, I find another portable drive formated in NTFS, which accepts the file just fine after I figure out that it will not go on the root folder and must be placed in a sub folder. Take it to the Linux box inside and bada-bing, no dice. Red Hat apparently does not come with the NTFS mounting kit installed. I don't know off the top of my head how to install it. Didn't Ubuntu just work with NTFS stuff? Seems I remember thinking how cool that was. I tracked down an internal Windows box and copy the ISO off to the network. Then, I use Samba to copy the file from that windows system to my Linux box. Then, I needed to get my work done. Ah, what we do in the name of security.

Very Local News

2008-11-25 I wore my Raiders of the Lost Ark hat in to work today. No reason. It worked well in the car blocking the sun coming in from the side. Must remember that. I got some coworkers who sang the song as i passed on the way to lunch. =] Listened to a podcast about the prostitutes at the fames Chicken Ranch working for less money. The parties are being discounted. More men are coming in, but spending less money. The number of women applying for jobs is at an all time high. They have had lay-offs. Things are tough all over. Citygroup gets 20 billion dollars of my and your money. Throwing good money after bad. They already got 25 billion in the previous bailout. This is 20 billion more. Are sub-prime mortgages even illegal now? When I'm I listen to Marketplace or other podcasts that give financial numbers, I usually already know the numbers from today. it gives me a sense of knowing the future. They always hint at a future at some point in the shows. That seems to be why they are around. I very rarely find myself saying anything like "How right you are." They are almost always at least somewhat off. Two Coast Brand: A company or brand that is only available on the East and West coast. Macy's was one of these for a long time. They couldn't advertise during their own parade because they were not a nation wide store. Someone's wife is pregnant. Matt worked on a senior project that put a head-up display in a motorcycle helmet. Someone said they needed it for diving masks to detect sharks. Someone's sister's kids coming over for the holidays and he refuses to be responsible because she does not watch them. Nat and Elle went to the Houston Zoo this morning. I got the bullets over the phone while at lunch. It sounds like they had a ball. Nat will be off line for a bit after her surgery tomorrow. The rest of the world believes that the U. S. was built on the backs of slaves and on the land of the American Indian. I suppose it was. I'm not giving in to liberal guilt. No one from then is alive today for you to sue if you feel so inclined. I'm not sure what to tell you except get over it and make yourself a life in today's world. The pyramids were 2 million two ton blocks over 20 years. A 10 hour day average means a block falling in place every three and a half minutes. The replica pyramid in Vegas took five years with modern equipment and unions. it is much smaller. The workers who worked on the original pyramids were well fed. They were not slaves. "quif" means haircut in the British version of the English language.

Hospital

W got up at 05:00. I didn't even take my bag because I thought I was not staying. Well, I stayed. Nat asked me to sleep in the room with her and I did. I was not the good husband that people tried to tell me I was. I was a grumpy, snoring, lump who just got in the way.

We walked in and found a coffee bar that was closed. Another group of folks there were waiting for surgery as well. The lady came in and directed us where to go. We went to a prep area and were told how things were going to go. I was a nice place with a flat screen TV and cable. We ended up going down the long hall between buildings and ended up in the older part of the hospital. The waiting area I ended up waiting in was drab with a hundred year old pot of coffee that was cold. I ended up wondering around, and I man around the outside of the hospital looking for that elusive place the Valhalla coffee place that I had seen that morning. I ended up at the new cafeteria with a breakfast burrito in my in my mouth. It was made all the better by the length I had to go to to get to it.

I ended up right back in the waiting room with a purchased cup of coffee listening to he other group of people. The older gentleman was fascinating. I of course missed this for the first half of the conversation he was having with his doughtier. His wife was in for surgery. They answered the phone on the wall that said "Waiting room phone, please answer." and of they went never to be heard from again. Ate least by me.

Then the doctor came in and told me Nat came through the surgery with flying colors. He noticed the clock on the wall was an hour off. It had never been changed after time change last week. I was so relieved. If I had ever smoked, I would have wanted a cigarette. He told me it would be forty five minutes before they would call me back. I sat and waited for the phone to ring on the wall with our name on the other end. It came.

Nat was tired, but in good spirits. She took for ever to show up to the room.Something about a dispute between the surgery nurses and the guy who was doing transport.

We found the goody-closet. We were encouraged to pilfer the closet to keep her fluid levels up. Nat was mostly concerned with an all day NCIS marathon. That made her happy. It was a good omen of sorts. She went in to surgery saying that she wanted to watch her Abby after. Thing is, she had just recently watched NCIS from the library marathon style a couple weeks ago. We did go through seven or eight episodes. She finally wanted to watch something else.

I hunted down something to eat at the cafeteria. It was a cheese burger and fries. With some cookies and a drink it was $8 something. Not a cheep meal, but not too bad. I missed out on the brisket. I had a sample earlier in the day along side my parents who came to visit Nat.

The night was long. Poor Nat was up ever ten minuets. I slept through a bunch of nurse visits. That bed couch thing turned out to be dangerous. I nearly broke my neck a couple of this. The top cushion that doubled as a mattress wanted to slide off the base and dump me on the floor. I survived. Maybe I should have used the chair that reclined flat in to a bed. Hindsight.

During the night, Nat kept getting up and running down the hall for stuff. She wanted to run down to some vending machines for snacks after midnight. It was to get out of the room, I just know it. The night nurse would not tell her where the machines were until I agreed to go with he. I moaned and complained the whole way. She got me some of those rub er soled socks to ware, but I wore my boots. The security guards waved at us as they patrolled. It was good to know there were other people still in the building keeping an eye on things.

Then came morning. I tried to keep sleeping. That was my mistake. I should have just gotten up and started the day. I should have known better. Nat was such a sweetheart too. She went to the goody closet and made coffee and brought me a cup. What a gal. She cares.

It is particularly cruel I think to put women having a Hysterectomy in the Maternity ward. With all the troubles Nat has had in the area of female bits over the last couple of years, she didn't feel she had much choice. I hope she feels better. She has been in pain for so long. I want it to all be better. Nat deserves it.

Elle went up for a visit this morning. She is her normal pill self. Elle is haded over to her father's for Thanksgiving dinner. Elle refused to eat anything and I wonder if someone told her not to eat so she would be hungry for Thanksgiving dinner.

When I got to my parent's place I got to check out my dad's new anvil. He bought real honest to goodness anvil. IT bounces when you hit it with a hammer and everything. That is a sign of good steel I'm told. He is making knives out of old wrenches. There is ome very good steel in old Craftsman tools.


2008-11-24

Monday Evening Videos

Almost looks planned with those other two bikes in the shot. If it is real, I'm impressed.

Kitty gets schooled.

Post Crash Feeds/Podcasts

No, not financial crash, computer crash.

I have an old backup of many of my podcasts and feeds. Remember feeds are RSS/Atom/XML feeds that allow you to download updates automatically. There is no way to follow them all with just a web browser. You will never remember what you have read and have not read.

The software that controls the list of feeds is called an aggregater . That is, it brings different materials together and mixes them together in to something useful. In this case, information. They are required for the following of dozens of blogs. Podcast software does the same thing for podcasts. Some software does both. It is the same XML structure, one points to a web page and the other points to an MP3 or other sound file.

I've found it quite liberating loosing most everything and having to go from memory. I know of three podcast off the top of my head that I do not bother with right now. It shakes the list and lets the chafe fall out. I really hope I have no more crashes.

With podcasts I went from memory mostly. That and a few peaks at what was left on my thumb drive for ideas. With blogs. I started with memory. I realized I had no idea what several of my favourite blogs were called. I went to one that I knew I liked called Belmont Club and went down their list or blogroll checking for names. I ended up adding nearly every blog on the list. The thing to do from here might be to go down all their blogrolls, but I'm far too lazy for that. I'll try these for a while and work my way out from here. That is how I got started in the first place. Except, I think I started at Little Green Footballs' blogroll.

Those sites I seeded from are conservative political blogs. I also get things like regular news feeds and geek blogs like Geekology and Slashdot. Then come my friend's blogs. Unfortunately, most of my friends use MySpace which only about half the blogs work with aggregator software that I have tried. Still need to figure that one out.

Google

There is already iTunes. iTunes works for podcasts so well that the name podcasts come from the iPod for which iTunes exists. Apple wrote the book and software on the subject. Podcasts existed before iTunes. They were just not called podcasts. They were called things like "audio archives" and such. Not nearly as sexy as iTunes or podcasts.

There are a hundred different software names out there for blog aggregation. There are several for podcast downloading because not every one has an iPod or iTunes. Some people are broke or have different players and thus use different software packages.

Then come the online aggregators. There must be twenty for blogs.Some of them seem to work with podcasts. I don't know I haven't looked in to it much. After my recent crash, I'm using Google Reader for my blogs and news feeds. I'm still using gpodder for my podcasting. It's free. So is Google Reader.

Now I'm using Blogger (part of Google) for my blog, gmail for my email, Google Docs for online documents and Google Reader for aggregation needs. Why do the words "eggs" and "basket" pop in to my head? Well, I suppose I could use all Microsoft products to do the same thing including my operating system.

Very Local News

  • Even though gas prices have come down in both the U. S. and the U. K. causing a long term drop in demand. The level of demand drop will take a long time to come back if ever. The only people complaining are the oil companies and green projects. I've said it before, OPEC found the limit. Western Civilization will change its consumption habits when the price is high enough.
  • Holiday travel is expected to drop this year. Duh!
  • It takes 17 gallons per mile to paint the yellow lines on the road. It is very special paint that you cannot just buy at Home Depot. Each line has glass embedded in it that causes that sort of glow from the headlights. Those lines are 10 feet long.
  • There is some proof that living well and healthy actually overrides some genetic factors that cause bad things like cancer. Even if you have a family history of bad things, it is still worth eating properly and getting some exorcise.
  • Extremely loud speakers destroy even titanium hinges and mounting brackets given enough exposure.
  • For the longest time, if you went to Google and typed in "just kelly" with no quotes, this blog popped up. These days are over. It still works if you use quotes. Not for long I bet. I'm just not important or popular enough to draw that kind of attention.
  • I don't need all the answers, just the right ones.
  • Pretty soon you will be able to order pizza from your TiVo. Right now you can track your pizza online with one of the companies. Yee-gads.
  • Even with $50 a barrel oil, the economy is trying very hard to tank. There is plenty of potential to survive this stress time. There is plenty of opportunity for people in charge to screw it up.
  • You have to admit, the auto industry executives all flying in on corporate jets looks ridiculous. Someone estimated three million jobs are on the line. Someone estimated a worse case scenario of 9% unemployment if the big three all tank quickly.
  • Nat brought up some lunch today. Quiznose. It nearly killed me. I was already sleepy most of the morning. After eating a big sandwich with my sweetie, I had to use band aids to hold my eyelids open.
  • I heard an interesting quote on the podcasts today. It stuck with me. "Bill Clinton could be elected Pope in New York State." That scares the hell out of me. There has got to be a way to throw New York out of the Union. I need to start googling around.
  • 8 Trillion dollars worth of losses in the stock market over all.
  • The Democrats want Bush to start handing out money before he leaves office. That way the bill shows up on his tab. Why not? People love to hate him already.
  • The Democrats say that the best recovery plan will be 50% money, 50% symbolic, 50% past, 50% future, 50% Christmas, 50% bipartisan, 50% politics, 50% new cars, 50% gas prices, and 50% consumer spending for a grand total of 500% of the current bail out price tag. Well, that's what I heard.
  • Odometer fraud (rolling back) is up 259% in Texas. With cheap new cars, used car buyers must be on their toes. Carfax.com might save you a couple tons of lemon.


2008-11-23

Random Pictures

Just a random picture taken at the gun range yesterday. I wanted to run up and take pictures of the rules, but we were leaving.

Let's call it Little Witch blogging.

Dastardly way to treat Republicans

This is Bush-bashing gone too far.

This is how they transport and unload donkeys in Iran. Too funny. Where is PETA?

Meteors

Cool compilation video with well chosen music, of meteors slashing though the atmosphere. Some are quite spooky. It surprises me how many surveillance cameras are aimed at the sky.

Sunday Watching

I'm watching an episode of The Office. (American version). This is the first episode I've sat through. The people are inain and shallow. Every one is a steriotype. No one stands out for a good reason. People are identified by their quarks or habits. Just like the real office.

This episode contains a plot to get a fellow employee fired by framing him for possession of drugs. The genuinely funny scene was the guy outside buying drugs. It is nuts funny. I still had a hard time watching.This wa also the dirty microwave episode. I've lived that same scinario. It was also the guy who buy's his parent's old house without telling his wife episode. The only funny thing here was the room he was not alloud to go in to even after his parent's death and his purchase of the property.

I really need to delete my bookmark to hulu.com.

Sunday morning

Elle is wearing her witch outfit. Just for fun. I caught Merlin a minute ago and presented him to her as her familiar. As I came back to my computer, I could hear the sound of claws popping against the couch. He was trying to escape. Then Elle grunted "Come ... back ... here." But Merlin flew past me and in to the other room silently. Elle sniffed and said "Silly witch cat." She then got up and chased him under the kitchen table. She didn't giggle. She cackled the whole way. That's my girl.

Sometimes Sunday mornings are for more than sleeping in.


2008-11-22

Videos from today's shooting trip

It only took me for ever to get this to work. The range was crowded, but we still had fun. A couple videos.

This is my father firing his s&w .40.

This is my Mom, the best shot in the family, shooting her .22

Shooting Range

I actually hit the target a couple of times with an open site pistol. I'm trying to remember if I have ever done that before on the 25m range. I don't think so. I've hit the green a couple of timse on closer ranges like 5m or so. I'm proud of myself

Elle sure missed me. It sounds like she was board out of her mind while I was gone. "I watched cartoons. Now I'm watching a move." It was Aladen. Nat is a bit under the weather. She was crashed most of the time. I'll kick out some hot dogs later.

... Then I took a nap.

I made the hot dogs. Set the computer to a static IP. Got to remember to let the network services control the network device. That got me today. Nat is up and feeling good enough for a couple of hot dogs. I tried to get some videos (phone) working, but they didn't work. Dag-nab-it.

Elle in the Evening

Nat took these. She is on a kick lately about how much Elle looks like she did at the same age. Elle looks like Natalie. I believe it. Elle looks tired because this picture was taken after 22:00 on Friday evening. Elle has been fighting us for hours not to go to bed. Nat has been giving in. It is cute to be honest..


2008-11-21

Pictures

Two of those boxes made it home. I had to take them home on the bus. They are in the garage right now. I'm supposed to put them in the attic for the next time we or someone we care about needs boxes. I left two more of the same boxes sitting outside the front door of the office for trash. Shame. These are prime boxes.

Another picture from work. This is probably the best picture I've ever taken with the phone.

Just a bunch of crap in our living room.

The Snub That Wasn't

You just plane cannot take what you find on the internet without a dose of salt. Except me. I'm reliable. Never forget that.

There are the Aliens!

Found the aliens I wanted in the previous post. Too bad it is the wrong continent. Oh, wait. This is a meteorite.

Lightning (where are the aliens?)

I half expected a Martian Battle group to emerge from the storm after watching this video. Yikes. Wonder what sets this sort of thing off.

Very Local News

  • Again, this morning, I wake moments before my alarm goes off. I do this all the time, but today I didn't have to get up for an extra hour and a half. Normally it is 5:30. This time it was 7:00. I woke exactly at 6:59. You have got to be kidding me.
  • When I'm out and about I will text myself notes through email. Some of them are reminders to do things. Others end up as bullets under Very Local News headings.
  • There are a whole bunch of file names you cannot use in FAT32 drives. These names are stuff like 'lpt', 'con', 'prn' and the like. These are old DOS left overs. They were reserved words and had to be bounced from the file system permanently. We just hit this trouble with a USB key drive that was FAT32. I wonder if VFAT has the same issues. It is supposed to be similar, but upgraded version of old FAT.
  • I had some files in mht format. (mhtm, mhtml) These were saved out of IE. I'm on Linux using Firefox. Firefox does not support mht natively. It is a Microsoft thing apparently. There is an experimental extension called unMHT that seems to work. In order to download the file and not install it on the Windows box, I had to use IE. There has got to be a trick to downloading those extension files using firefox without installing them. They are in a folder under Program Files, after they are installed I'm pretty sure. Since it is experimental, I would kind of like to not install it on the kiosk machine.
  • Microsoft is finally going to get in to the anti virus business. MS claims they will give it away for free. This means virus writers will only have one software to defeat in order to get their software out there.
  • Dell makes fare desktop computers. I would say they are good except I don't think any one makes good desktop computers any more. Good as in will last and are built to work on and modify. Dell among others make good servers and larger business systems. Some of the best I'd say. I like the after sale support from Dell. I also like their boxes. We use them in the attic. They are rugged. Hey, keeping some cardboard out of a land fill for a bit. Just doing our part.
  • The list of podcasts I listen to was wiped out with the system crash. I have an old backup, but I've decided to start fresh and go from memory. This will hopefully filter out some of the crap that I only kept downloading in order to fill my day with some kind of news. This action also encourages me to look up some new podcasts. I've found a couple of Sci-fi links. If they are any good, I'm sure I'll link them here.
  • One hundred parts per million can make for massive changes. For example, four nails might weigh 100 grams. A small car might weigh one ton, or 1,000,000 grams. if you put the four nails under the tires, you suddenly get a huge change in the performance of the car. Something relatively small affecting something relatively large.
  • I was pretty busy this week. It went by quick. Between work and Nat feeling sick, the week just disappeared.
  • Got the second drive hooked up last night. I'm slowly putting the machine back together. Learning a few things as I go. Knoppix will mount LVM systems, but only after jumping through some hoops. I also got livna installed and can play the xvid movies once more. Baby steps.
  • I listened to the guy who is the artist who let people shoot a paint ball gun at him online. He gamed the system to avoid military service in Iraq. One brother was killed by an American air to ground missile. Another brother pretended to be crazy to avoid military service. He is a New York university level art professor. For as interesting a story, he was so boring I couldn't finish the podcast. I nearly fell asleep.
  • Google Docs just might work for storing blog entries. I don't really understand why I want to store all the blog entries. I feel I must for some reason. I cannot embed videos, but I can write the rest of the entry and just paste the object/embed code in the document like text. At the last minute, I paste the code in the proper place in Blogger. For pictures, google docs lets you link to online pictures. No linking from an image 'yet'.
  • The Onion has a 'news' story about a robot salesman that sells itself. "If you find me at a lower price, I'll match it."
  • It really sounds like our government has no idea what it is doing financially. This is one of the side effects of only having lawyers running a country. They know lawyering and not much else. They understand making and bitching about rules. They do not know manufacturing, plumbing, programming, or practically any other living what so ever. I would like to know what percentage of the upper federal government is not now and never has been a lawyer, or even gone to law school.
  • I added a DVD-ROM to my work machine. It was a device taken from a system that had been decommissioned a while back. Normally I would not even mention something this droll. I had to hide the device in a box under my desk for a couple weeks. I'm not steeling it. I'm using it in another work system. I must be careful about moving equipment around. I didn't really need a DVD-ROM until recently when I got involved in making virtual machines.
  • The human eye, and I suppose others, has rods and cones. Cones sense color. There are a couple different cones. A) sens red and green. B) sense yellow and blue. I think there is a third one, but I cannot remember. Look it up. You know that color that is florescent green or maybe yellow? Sometimes it is one and sometimes it is the other. The way it works is it trips both sets of cones at the same level. The one that gets the most umph wins. They trade off back and forth because they detect almost the exact same level so the brain picks one then the other every time you look at the color.
  • Gmail has themes. Sweet. There is one called 'terminal' that is green text on a black background. They go out of their way to make the graphics look like the all green lines and text from way back in the monochrome Apple days. I tried it. It is very nerdy. It is very annoying. I use one called sunset. It is warm evening tones of orange and browns. The background of the mail area is still white. It works in the sunset version. The white background of the compose area is painful in the terminal theme. Nat was tickled by how excited I got by the terminal theme. Now if they would only propagate the themes to docs et al.


2008-11-20

'Scuse me

"I'm just going to hang with y'all for a minute. The mutherf***ers are serious."

No Atheists Behind a .50

Lots of swearing! Combat is very stressful. When someone is trying to kill you, you must become just enough of a killer to stop them. It is the fight for life. this is the first video I've posted using Google docs.

Random Pictures

This is a picture of the little USB sound card in action. It has an LED that basically tells you it is plugged in and receiving power. There is no volume control. I've complained about that enough I think.
This is just a snap of tonight's sunset from the front door of my work. I'm sick of trying to take pictures through the building glass. It has some kind of anti-photo coating that makes pictures I take look like they were taken through a garbage bag.

No Sleep

I didn't get off work until late. Then I worked on the computer a bit trying to get things back up to my standards. I installed flash player and thought I was having trouble. It turns out it was all YouTube and not my system. I had a combination of script settings and flash link placement to balance out. YouTube has all these external site scripts that throw my script bot detector in to panic mode.

Then I watched the latest episode of Heroes on hulu.com. That show is just plane out there. I have the hardest time following it. What happened to LOST? i wish they had kept up The Wire. I liked that show. Of course, I had to wait until The Wire was done before I caught a single show.

After this, I went to bed and tried to listen to Science Fiction, but the whole first side of the first tape was crap about fictional physics and anecdotes about writers being told that sci-fi is crap. Gimme the stores dammit. I passed out around 01:00.

Very Local News

  • It's almost Thanksgiving. Going to have a hard time thinking of anything to be thankful for this year besides Nat and Elle, and family and friends. That is plenty. I'm staring down the barrel of loosing everything that costs money.
  • I really need to mow and weed eat the yard. It is looking shaggy.
  • The little $3 USB sound card do-hickey works pretty well, but the volume thing is getting on my nerves. It would have cost another $3 to put a volume nob on, so no volume nob. The nob who designed it just jammed it in 'loud' and lets you adjust the software. It doesn't go low enough, then a quiet song comes on. If you turn it up to hear the song, the next song blows your ear drums. It was $3. It was $3. It does work with the text to speak software. I'm good.
  • I heard a song that made fun of Y2K. It was nostalgic.
  • Nat is over on the couch watching Kitchen Nightmares. She used to manage a Jack in the Box. I get her side of the story. She is so cute. I don't even need to watch the show. I can both hear it and get a play by play.


2008-11-19

Dead Box No More

So, Monday morning, before work I figured out that my primary machine was dead. The boot loader was not working. I tried to repair it, but I think I messed it up worse. Did you know Knoppix will not mount an LVM partition? Neither did I. I couldn't save anything off the stupid drive. I lost the last set of Faire pictures (not the Web ones, just the full size ones). There were a bunch of blog entries (not the one's already online) gone as well. I just don't care any more. I know I'm not going to religiously back up my data. I'm just going to have to live with the knowledge that some of it is going to disappear from time to time.

I plan on using google docs for some of my longer or more in depth blog entries. The little shit, I'm going to let slide. Can you put pictures in your google docs? I'm not sure to tell you the truth. (Oh-ya, in depth is two words.)

The box (software wise) is a goner. I re-install Fedora after contemplating Ubuntu fifteen times during the day. While re-installing the OS I notice the frigging installer insists on jacking with the existing partitions on the other drive. It won't leave the second drive in the box alone. Even when I think I have it figured out, I figure out that the installer put the boot sector on the wrong frigging drive. I had to unplug the second drive and perform the install again. I'm sure there is a way to tell the install software to "Please ignore that other drive and put all your eggs in the first basket. Thank you." but I was not in the mood to put up with the installer's crap at that particular moment in time.

It is a pain in the ass getting all your settings back the way you want them. Good thing I got a lot of practice last night. I was able to whip right through most of the programs and Gnome. Why does Gnome insist on waisting half my screen with panels at the top and bottom? I mean, one is plenty. Two is too many. It probably took them for ever to get that feature working and now they are very proud of it.

I'm putting my real list of favorites, podcasts, and blogs in spreadsheets in google docs too. I know google is another company and just might take a dive like any other company in the world, but that is less likely than my computer blowing a gasket on a weekly basis. Now, I've doomed google. They are welcome to blame me for their downfall. What am I saving any of this information for anyway? It is just a safety blanket. Either I know the stuff or I do not.

Honestly, I could have kept the blog up to date. I might have updated using Nat's computer and saving things in google docs. I might have clocked out and done some updating at lunch. I have been lazy. I apologize to my six readers.

What gets me is there is nothing really wrong with the box. The trouble started when I did an update. The OS was Fedora 9 that I had upgraded from Fedora 8, which had been upgraded from fedora 7. That was a fresh install because I tried to upgrade to Fedora 7 from Fedora 6 (which was an upgrade from Fedora 5), but it killed the machine. Fedora has bitten me in the ass like this a couple times now. Ubuntu did the same thing to me if memory serves. I know for a fact that many people could not upgrade from any version of Windows to any other version of Windows without buying a whole new computer. I should count myself blessed. Fedora 10 comes out next week. I can't wait.

Very Local News

  • How does alcohol affect your balance? Does it affect the pressure or mechanism in the inner ear? Or, does it alter the brains interpretation of said mechanism? I have lousy balance any way. I've been accused of being drunk when walking down the street sober.
  • I do enjoy complaining about being broke. I would love to have to give it up.
  • Europeans were ecstatic about Obama winning. They were on the radio (podcast) asking each other where they were when they heard the news. In Europe. There are some similar anecdotes about places in Africa and Australia.
  • Teatime bullets
    • PC games still out pace console games and it is all because most people have computers, not consoles.
    • Brian Shoemaker is officially hooked on playing and reading about WOW.
    • It is surprising that game controllers have never really caught on for PCs. There are games that require them on the PC. Every one has used them on a PC. Myself included.
    • The Orb controller was cool, but not effective against people with two mice when playing Descent.
    • Every one is getting sick and laying off drinking tea at teatime.
  • The snack bar is in to me for $4.90. I really need to pay it up.
  • My USB 4G key gets noticeably warm when in heavy use. Not bad, just a bit.
  • 'Monsters' book about bad people. Sounds very interesting.

Extra Bills

WARNING!!! Lots of cursing.

These are over and above the normal every month stuff like mortgage, water, power, trash, gas... . Oh, don't forget life. Just living costs money. You say they don't tax air, but they tax income. They get theirs before I ge mine.

  • Elle's dance lessons $1000
  • Ike repairs $1000 Still not half done. We have no carpet in half our living room.
  • Elle's dental work $600
  • Home owners Association one $500+
  • Home owners Association two $500 + (Yes, Somehow we have two companies bitching at us for not mowing the lawn and threatening to take our house away if we do not pay them. It is just plane extortion if you ask me.)
  • Electric bill may be $1000 or more this month to make up for Ike.

Any one who wants some money from me can go fuck themselves. It ain't there. I'm not the guy with all the money. I don't know who is. I'll be in line to cold-cock the SOB with every one else. Stop coming after my broke ass.

Detroit says they want my money in the form of a gift from Congress. I bought a fucking Toyota, not a Chevi, not a Ford, not a Chrysler. Kiss my ass.If we do nothing to keep our industry running, the other countries and cartells like Europe will out compete us because they are all subsidizing their industries even in good times.. This will put us at a really bad disadvantage In the world economy. Still, I ain't got it. So, kiss my ass.

Natalie is about to have some huge medical bills. She is sick and needs help. The doctors are jerking her around trying to prolong things for some reason. They refuse to just fix it. I'll let Nat say what 'it' is.

Citygroup, kiss my ass.

Circuitcity, kiss my ass.

Banks, kiss my ass.

UTMB, kiss my ass.

Galveston, kiss my ass.

This new group of international overloards who want to regulate all banking world wide (whatever it is called) , Kiss my ass.

The bank of the American Taxpayer is closed! There is no more.

Maybe I can make a run to Mexico and make a few bucks mowing yards.

USB sound card

Works like a champ. It is very much worth the $2.67 + $4.95 shipping I paid for it. The sound quality is worth $2.67. It is not exceptional for that price by any means of measure. There is a bit more of a hiss than a full blown sound card. The volume is adjustable through the software, but honestly, it is jammed on loud. It is also worth $2.67.

I've tried music and news. I would call it a successful substitution for a situation where you have no sound at all. A couple of people have asked me for the link.

The configuration in Red Hat 5.2 was pretty darned easy. Plugged in the device. Waited about fifteen seconds for the USB do-hickey to recognize a new device. Ran 'sudo system-config-soundcard' and clicked 'test' Had sound ever since. I have no idea if it works in Windows. Don't really care.


2008-11-18

Forgive me

I'm having massive computer melt-down trouble. Please forgive me. I'm writing, but not posting much. I'll get to it, promise.


2008-11-16

New toy

I'm board so I need to make up some posts.

Elle and stuffed dragon

Elle got a new stuffed dragon. She says it is pregnant. That's all we need. A dozen little stuffed dragons flying around the place.

Sunday afternoon

Sunday Afternnon Sunday Afternnon

Sunday Afternnon Sunday Afternnon

Sunday Afternnon Sunday Afternnon

I showed that fake smile back to Elle and asked her if she looked happy. She said "Yes, I look happy." Like a robot. She then went over and started dancing to the song on TV.

Yes, these are all taken from my computer chair. My computer chair is one of the last splurges I bought myself before I got married. I like my computer chair. It has done exactly what it said it would do. Which is, keep my ass off the floor and let me pivot round to get in and out. That is pretty much it. I did have to hose it off once when i spilled a bunch of crud in it. The seat is a mesh. I think it was chili.

More from Arcola, The Afghanistan side of town

I gotta get me one of those MK-19 automatic grenade launchers. That could come in handy with all the racers bumbling up and down Westheimer next to my home.


2008-11-15

High speed photography

I've seen some of this before. Still well done. I like the mouse trap and the water balloon.

Frigging Jack

Remember when I complained about splitting wood? My father got a wood splitter. Jack got a portable sawmill.

9mm bong

"Marines being Marines" was the title of this one where I found it. I feel like I know these guys.

Light Saber Poster

Just couldn't let this one slip by.

Light Saber Poster

Looks like fun

Not sure why they lit up these cars, but it looks like fun. Except for the rounds set off in the car while it burns.

Pretty sure this was filmed in Arcola. The Iraqi side of town.

Damn world conquering fish

Help me keep an eye on these monsters! (Live fish tank stream)

Cat Box

I did the cat box this morning. Humans are not the one's in charge of the planet. I think it is the fish. The one's in the tanks near humans. Their leader is that fish on "American Dad" I have no idea what their plans are. I have only today awakened to their existence. One day I will bring them down. Just when they think they have won, I'll be there pulling the plug on their plan, and pump. You'll see. I'll be a hero to the remaining population of humans I tells ya!

Where is my aluminum cap. I'll be needing that.



2008-11-14

Live puppies

Yes, this is a live stream. It will die, not the puppies the stream, at some point. Enjoy it while you can. No, this is not my place. This is just some random set of puppies exposed to the internet. Let me know if you witness a murder.

Hydrant

Leaking hydrent Leaking hydrent

This is not nearly as interesting as someone on stilts walking around the office. I have no idea what happened. It didn't look like any one hit the hydrant. That car speeding by on the left made a splash, but you can't see it in the picture. I need a real phone. No, I need to use my real camera.

Stilts

Worker on aluminimum stilts

I've always gotten a <eehem> kick out of these things. The building was looking for damaged and discolored ceiling tiles left from Ike.

A-10

First you see the bullets hit. Then you hear the bullets hit. Then you hear the gun fire.

U. S. M. C. By the time you hear the shot, you are already in line for the 72 virgins.

Knoppix

I needed to boot a machine up with Knoppix in order to figure out what Ethernet mechanism shows up. No big deal. I've done this a million times. This, however, is on a virtual machine. I've done this too a couple of times. It seemed to work fine. Not this time. The OS (Knoppix) cannot find the knoppix file system. This file system is in a RAM drive. I know the host machine boots under Knoppix just fine. It must have something to do with the virtual (qemu) software mounting the real cd drive on the host machine.

Qemu will mount an ISO so I downloaded the iso for Knoppix because I didn't leave a copy laying around after I burned it. Who the hell has time or space? While downloading from an FTP site in Denmark I remembered the rule. if it starts off slow give it a minute. The download started at 2k a second. Within about five minutes it was up to nearly 200k a second. That still works out to over thirty minutes for the CD image. Better than a stick in the eye. Then someone kicked me off he internet machine and I had to start over.

Knoppix has pulled my ass out of a dozen cracks. Those frigging Germans. I can so picture it doing it another dozen times if something even better doesn't come along before then. Laptops seem to do better with the Ubuntu live CD. Ubuntu Live doesn't have the utilities like Knoppix.

A bunch of network cards are just plane not supported by Windows. This goes double during install. The Windows install is designed to kind of work in one situation. For all the claims of Windows being the OS that so many people can use, only IT folks can get anything resembling non standard hardware to accept the Win-crap as an OS.

Knoppix booted up in German. I had downloaded the wrong language image. It runs slow in both English and German. No reason for that. Plenty of memory and disk space. I'm sure the original file system error had something to do with loop-backs and proc links and crap. It almost makes sense that Knoppix would have problems in an emulator using the real hardware. It really sucks though. I know VMWare did not have the same issues. Qemu is free.

When all was said and done, the trick didn't work. Apparently, the driver that Knoppix finds and the one that Windows finds are two different things. That is highly educational. I'm glad I learned that lesson.  Ass still firmly planted in crack.

Broke

I'm getting very tired of walking. I should not complain because we just may end up loosing the house in the next couple of years. i can't pay for two home owners associations and ever increasing taxes on top of repairs with Elle's dental work and dance lessons and every other damn thing. It is just not going to work out. We will have a hard time getting an apartment with our collective credit score and the separation trouble from past apartments. I'm sure we are on a black list somewhere. This is what they mean when they say hard times. I have a job making like sixty thousand a year and we are going to be homeless or live in a neighborhood where we can't walk down the street.

It is not going to get any better soon. The powers that be are worried intently about deflation. That is the act of prices going down on a regular predictable basis. People say "Why buy anything or start a business now? Prices are dropping so I will save money or make less money in a new business if I just wait." This kills the whole idea of an economy. We have become dependent on long term growth, or the gentle increase in prices over the long term, for our economic survival.

My family and I may loose our home.

I have no faith in a new president to do anything to prevent this. Mark my words, the only change he is about is changing his mind. He is a young man so he just might live long enough to become a real embarrassment like Carter. What do I know? I'm far too worried about the bills to care any more.

I only marginally feel in my bones that a Democratic congress will do anything much anything that helps my family stay in our homes. I have no faith in our government to even protect the country from invasion, terrorist attack, or economic implosion. I just don't trust those bastards (R, D or whatever) to make any hard decisions without consulting their campaign managers first. Do you suppose Bush is so unpopular because he has had to make unpopular decisions? That couldn't possibly be it.

So, what am I cutting back on? Everything. I have not eaten out for lunch in ages.I tried cutting back to once a week just to maintain some face time with the coworkers, but that didn't work out. I take the bus, which costs me nothing at the moment because I'm disabled. Nat and I do not go out for dates any more. At all. Ever. Let me tell you, that wares quickly. I don't go to Faire any more. That is a combination of cost and stress. Nat paid for her own iPod stuff, but I haven't paid for much electronic stuff above a RAM upgrade and recently a USB sound card for work ($8). We got some money from the insurance for the fence, but that is going for Elle's dance lessons and dental work.

I've always been on the thrifty side. I've never been too proud to ware second hand cloths. I've never been in to bling. Nat is pretty much the same way. We have a Toyota Carola. We live in a modest place. My grandparents grew up in the great depression. I hope Elle isn't the same. Those are hard lessons to learn. I remember reading a quote somewhere "The bank is too broke to foreclose." That is frightening.

Looks like Nat may have some medical expenses coming up.That sucks. There are a couple of medical expenses out there I've never paid. I hate saying that. I don't want to stiff any one. I don't feel like I'm getting away with anything. I just plane don't have it. UTMB is closing some shops up in Galveston. They site Hurricane Ike damage and overall money woes. Trust me, we feel your pain. GM is talking bankruptcy. So is Chrysler. If Ford were not in bed with a bunch of Europeans, they would be dying too.Ford probably is in the toilet. Who knows any more.

Fog

2008-11-13

it was foggy this morning on the walk to the bus stop. It is eerie watching a vehicle emerge from the fog with their headlights on. There is this glow  in the distance. Then there are two glows next to each other. Then there is a car barreling towards you at full speed. you know they can't see shit. This does not slow them down.

The grass was wet. The holes in the ground were just as treacherous as ever. Full of black water. I cannot see cars coming in the clearest of weather if they do not have their headlights on. Yesterday I used my little telescope to gage the best time to cross. Glad I did too. That will not work in the fog. On top of this, my glasses fogged up from the moisture. My Maglite slices a beam through the fog. I shine it on the ground so people can see me. Wiggle it around to enlarge my presence.

I imagined a mustang slamming in to the back of a gray dump truck. It could have happened. Most people are more cautious in fog. Some people are less cautious. It must have something to do with out of sight out of mind phenomena.

Very Local News

2008-11-13

  • QEMU is blowing a gasket at work. When I have a qemu machine open and switch desktops it locks up. I have to hit control-c in the console I started the command in to kill it. If I minimize the qemu machine window before switching desktops, it survives normally. You know, of course, I'm going to forget in a moment of stress and frigging kill the thing. I've looked all over the internet and only come up with a couple of hits and no solutions. I'm lost.
  • Weather is supposed to clear up by the weekend. I need to do some yard work. I heard a high in the sixties this weekend, clear. Nice.
  • We are about to do inventory at work. I picture having to deal with a bunch of people to get control of their boxes. Then having to be a user rights nazi  I'm not in IT to make friends.


2008-11-12

Very Local news

  • I have to ware a band aid today on the back of my thumb. The skin is so dry it is cracking. This happens to me every winter. Ask any of my friends about my bleeding hands during dry weather.
  • The holes I pass by daily were full of black scary watter this morning. I hope no one ever falls in to those things.
  • Worldview was talking about human rights in America. All I heard was a bunch condemnation and little solutions.
  • There is some guy who works for Al jazzera roaming around the mid-west running normal every day stories. He is the story more often than not. He mentioned that federal agents are following him after he does interviews asking who he interviews what he interviewed them about and what he asked. The reporter is from po-dunk Texas, ex U. S. military. He is salt of the earth. I'm sure the Feds are making sure he and other reporters from the same agency stay that way.
  • Nails and hair do not continue to grow after death. The myth comes from fungal growth. The skin drys and retracts a bit so there is an illusion of hair and nail growth after death. Cell devision has stopped.
  • Obama is promising a "new dawn" of world leadership. Is that anything like the morning light? It reminds me of the "new world order" a different president came up with a few years ago.
  • It amazes me how bitchy the rest of the world is about the U. S. government. There was a world wide celebration at the regime change here after the election. I hate to inform folks, but Obama is not going to get that much accomplished because there is no money and no one in the world wants to lend any more to us. Who needs the U. S. any more for trade? Every one wants to align with China. Now, there is a liberal human rights leader on the world stage. Funny how every country complaining is standing in line with their hands out.

How much do those things cost?

Thos Strikers are not cheep.


2008-11-11

Very Local News

  • Western Civilization is getting out of the car manufacturing business it seems. Germany is about the only country I can think of that seems to have strong manufacturing. I'm probably mistaken.
  • "Grand Collective Enterprise" Remember that term. It is the term young folks are using to refer to socialism these days.
  • I was listening to Left Right and Center. Every other sentence was "Let me finish."
  • The gays are pissed that black voters voted down the gay marriage thing in California two to one. A black lesbian came on NPR and said something to the effect "Screw the white gay community."  I laughed my ass off. It is the battle of the minorities. Her argument was basically that you can see  black and white. You can hide gay if you want to.
  • I want to take some cool pictures. I have no idea of what. I would like to take some video too. Too bad I'm so bad at it.
  • Stephen Hawking is retiring soon.
  • We are having an Italian sparkling (carbonated) wine with dinner.
Just in case you were wondering how you are expected to get off the bus if it is on fire or the right side is blocked. Half the windows have little handles that let you pop them out. They hinge at the top and swing out of the way. There is a little door in the roof too. Forgot to get a picture of that. Escape sign on the city bus


2008-11-10

Close to home

This video was taken very close to where I live. I have friends in some of the police forces in these parts. I cannot imagine this guy thought he was going to get away. He was just popping off at cops out of rage. It makes me ill.

Obama wants gun control. The Democrats in Congress want gun control. If no one had guns, we would still have killings. Bad guys will still have guns.

Very Local News

  • I envied the window washers Friday. I did not envy them today. It was raining and windy. They were up there going a hundred miles an hour.
  • This morning's commute was not so bad. I just beat the rain in. I went out of my way to go behind the construction area and ended up waiting at a bus stop about 100 m from my normal one. There  are people at this one.
  • I was so busy today that lunch happened fifteen minutes after I got there. That is a good sign right?
  • Gun purchases have gone through the roof in the U. S. since Obama has taken the lead and now won the election. Can you blame people?
  • I did my first software install at work this morning. It took ages because of all the layers of security. That is a good thing. it need to be difficult to do these things.  It is doable and yet not too easy.
  • I took a load of new backgrounds to work. I tried many. I liked them all. I have no software that changes the background periodically, but I need to find one for Linux.
  • The credit crisis started in Mesopotamia a long ago. Most of the writing of ancient people was receipts and the tracking of debt.


2008-11-09

Paper airplane

Just kind of cool is all. The music is fitting.

Elle and I

Elle and I are hanging out on a Sunday afternoon. We went out in the back yard earlier. She ran around for five minutes, tripped over the same hole that my dad and I tripped over seven times. Then she started  coughing. We came in. I fought with the lock to get the back door to lock. She watched one movie and is on another. Mostly she is terrorizing the cats. For a sick little girl she is quite active.

Elle is playing moves. That is, she picks them out and puts them in the player. Starts them. Pauses them. comments on them. She is a genus.

Nat finally put duct tape over the tape player part of the old stereo we use for the TV amplifier.

Duct tape stereo

Elle seems to enjoy Harry Potter. She is over in front of the TV laughing and clapping.

Elle having fun on a Sunday afternoon watching Harry Potter

Once I took a picture of Elle, she insisted on taking a couple of me. I think she did a pretty good job. She enjoys taking pictures. She even has her own little camera. I need to get her computer up and running, but it is under a mountain of cloths and other junk. You can see it in the picture above, to the right of Elle. Well, you cannot because it is under the pile.

Elle took a picture of me Elle took a picture of me

OK, we need to work on the whole hold still and aim thing. That comes with practice.

I shot a little video of Elle watching Harry Potter, but I don't want to get sued so I cannot put it up. So much for displaying cultural congruence.

Rules

  1. Defeat
  2. If you cannot defeat, contain.
  3. If you cannot contain, subvert.
  4. If you cannot subvert, compete.
  5. If you cannot compete, Join.
  6. If you cannot join, see rule 1.

Got to be on your toes

This might be a fake video. I mean, how convenient is that camera angle? Still, I could see something like this working some of the time.

Backgrounds

I found one place that has free wide screen backgrounds. I may have come across this site before. Thought, since they are giving it away for free, I'd give them a shout out. Its called InterfaceLIFT.

A couple of my favorites.

They have a couple for dual head machines. Not many for dual head wide screen machines. Before I knew it, I went through a hundred and sixty eight pages of pictures. I saved a load too. Good stuff.

Saturday Evening

So, I'm sitting at home on a Saturday evening minding my own business watching The Wire marathon style. I have my headphones on and I'm doing other things online. Thinking of Nat at Faire working and Elle with her grandpa.

Earlier I got to listen to a bunch of racers rumble up and down the street both in front of, beside and behind my home. I was surrounded. Just as I'm about to call the cops on a suspicious vehicle (35 of them). Before I got a chance, a cop ran by with the lights and sirens on. The cars start rumbling and the people start grumbling and they peal out of the parking lots to somewhere else.

Later in the evening I'm sitting in front of the computer watching more of the Wire and I notice too many sirens. I pause the show only to realize they are real sirens running around my place. Up one way then down the other. The cops are chasing people around. People are running from the cops. Cars are parked in my neighborhood down the street hiding from the cops.

Nat, we live in the hood baby.


2008-11-08

Pictures taken 2008-11-08

Cluttered desk

I really need to clean my desk.

Bad sunset picture

I tried to catch the sun going down. The phone just can't capture the beauty. It did get the rope dangling outside the window from the window washers. It was a nice day for washing windows.

Big rocks next to the bus stop

I, along with a every one else, sit on these rocks while waiting for the bus in front of my work. Every time I hit the stop, the rocks have been moved. Friday, one of the rocks was in the middle of the sidewalk so I picked it up and dropped it heavily on to the little rocks next to the sidewalk. I did it just to get it out of the way.

While I picked up the rock I noticed it had just the right heft for picking up over your head and hurling to the ground with a very satisfying thump. Only moments earlier someone tried to run me down while crossing the street. I hate this intersection. A fantasy came over me.

<begin fiction>

Kelly is a guy who never made it through collage. He has a bit on the ball, but never had what it took. Not at the right time anyway. Never been in any real trouble. Found some trouble for fighting as a kid. Nothing since. Kelly and Adam have been buds since way back. That is how Kelly got a job at the same company. Kelly takes the bus.

Adam is working in his corner office late on a Friday night. He is fixing something that he does not want to come in on Saturday to fix. This las minute stuff has a way of draining your will to live. Fall time change just happened the privies weekend. It gets dark before normal quitting time these days. This along with the daytime tint on the windows makes for a gloom creeping in from outside. If only some fresh air came in with it. The rest of the office has emptied for the most part. Adam will not be the last one out.

Then comes a thump and crunch from six floors below. The intersection is a bad light. Accidents happen all the time. The sound made mortal through the wall, felt as much as herd, nothing new, comes a second time. Adam stops and listens. Then, a third time. This one is a bit different. Then yelling. Is there a pile-up working outside his boring window? Is something of note happening? Adam loves to tell stories. Any old anecdote will do. Something interesting to talk about would be refreshing.

Adam wheeled over to the window to look out. He had a smile on his face. A smug "I can't wait to tell the office come Monday." Kind of smile. Nothing you would notice if you didn't know him. The look on Adam's face changes to stark, wide eyed, drained astonishment to what he sees across the street, in the light of a street lamp. It is not quite a life pivoting moment. Not a life or death situation. Just one of those things that happen that kick you in the ass. Another thump.

Weekends are funny things. They are the time between work and more work. How do weekends feel when you are retired? According to Primus, "Weekends don't mean quite so much when you are unemployed. Except, you get to hang out with your working friends." When you are working, weekends are a lifeline to freedom. An illusion to be sure. The weekend passed without incident or police or retribution or payoffs. Adam was never so glad to have a boring weekend of needless worry. Hell of a waste.

There is no buzz around the office Monday. Kelly is not in his office down the hall from Adam. Some folks heard that something happened, but no one is talking. It is business as usual, accented with a bit of awkward silences and chuckles in the halls.

It was not until lunch or maybe afternoon break that it came out in the open. Adam tels the story better.

Adam, sitting at the folding table, leaning back with a smug smile, the kind he has when he tells a story, says "I'm sitting in my office Friday. I hear this thump come from outside."

Lance chimes in "What is so special about that? That intersection is a war zone."

Someone else sitting at the table, puring hot water in to cups for tea agrees "Tell me about it."

Adam started the story "One is normal. The third one got me. I looked out the window expecting a pile up. I saw kelly." Adam paused looking around the room as if he were repeating something that every one present had not already heard bits and pieces. "The thump was him bashing in the roof of some guys car with this huge rock." The whole table laughed.

Adam continued "I ran down stairs. By the time I got there Kelly was standing there waiting on the buss. The other guy was threatening to call the cops. Kelly said 'Call them. I'll be happy to tell them how you hit me while I was crossing the street.' No one ever called the cops so I guess there was something to it."

Lance, half laughing "I knew it! I knew it would come to this." He took a swig of tea. Lance has only known Kelly for a couple of years. Only from work. He knows kelly has that streak. Thing is, it is an act. Kelly portrays that streak like an actor puts on an accent. It is to defend himself from predators, like the snake that eats eggs with no teeth. Accept the snake has teeth painted on and acts mean. It is all for show.

Ken, the loudest laugh and possibly the most intelligent among them asked "Where is Kelly?"

Adam mentions beside the point "He took a couple of days off. Wouldn't you?"

<end fiction>

It's funny what the picture of a rock in front of a fast food joint will make you think on a Friday night.

It took me all day to write it. I did proof read it once. Let me know if you think anything good or bad.


2008-11-07

We are not the only ones with a Trebuchet

Some people have entirely too much time on their hands. They also have no local police. Surly there is an ordnance against siege equipment fired over public roads or in to empty lots.

Rollover

Just driving along at in very tight streets, get nipped by a van and flip over. Drag.

Very Local News

  • Wedding Anniversary
  • I had to build a new box today at work. It amazes me how much of a pain in the ass it is to bring up a new computer for desktop use. Email alone is a nightmare on a network with security set properly. Couldn't get NFS to mount a share. Hat trouble three times with the Video card. It is an old crappy video card so  the drivers suck.
  • The U. S. has less and less influence over the rest of the world every day. This country will always have some influence. People around the world are very annoyed that they do not have a vote in our elections. Obama is a Eurocentric internationalist. The world gets what they want this time. Carter 2.0. God help us.
  • Bugged every little thing at work today. That means I documented everything. I guess I was in a typing mood.
  • The new machine at work is pretty fast. Major improvement over the last box. Now I have to get some work done. =]
  • I envied the window washers today.


2008-11-05

Truck Crash

Truck Jack-knives and hits a fire truck. It's wet and traffic looks pretty bad. The truck looks loaded by the way the tractor part gets pushed by the trailer.

Very Local News

  • The contacts are far better behaved with the new fluid, even over the long term. It makes the contacts feel like new. It is the hydrogen peroxide stuff.
  • No sound cards in the boxes at work. Humph. I need one for my text reading software. Drat. May have to buy something that will work.
  • I lost my hat while crossing the street this morning. While it was flying off I did not grab for it. I made the decision long ago never to chase anything that is not catastrophically important while crossing the street or while I'm in any perceived danger. After crossing the street, I could see the hat sitting in the middle lane. I refused to go after it because I just can't always see oncoming cars. Crossing the street is one thing, but going aver a hat is something else. I have to cross the street. Hats will come and go.
  • It is beautiful outside. This weekend is supposed to be nice. Fair should  be beautiful. I'm staying home.
  • U. S. Car sales are at their lowest in 25 years.
  • The new machines at work do not have sound cards. I didn't complain when the CD/DVD drives disappeared. I need a frigging sound card for my text to speech stuff to work. Several folks use the USB sound cards. I'm going to have to break down and buy one. It might break me after shipping. I thought long and hard about getting four or five and selling them at work to make my money back.
  • Building and moon
    Moon and building
  • Nat is watching he NCIS on DVD borrowed from the library.


2008-11-04

Stinking Windows

There is a dead Windows box at work. Someone ran the wrong program on the hard drive and there is nothing left. Full rebuild. No floppy drive. No one buys floppy drives any more. Windows still frigging wants a floppy to install drivers during install. What is a IT-monkey to do?

Go to Dell and download the program that makes a flash key drive look like a floppy for just a minute. You put the key drive in a Windows box and nothing. You put the key drive in a Linux box and it comes right up. Go figure. It took me four hours to track down that fact that the Sony key drive does not work with the little Dell utility. I lost half a day on the fact that I didn't have an extra spare key drive to try for no good reason. No errors until Windows install tried to read the .oem file. Then, the first line blew a gasket.

I do not blame Dell. They are making a buck. I do not blame the programmers who wrote the utility. I don't even blame Sony for making a shit key drive. Sony never met an industry standard they didn't piss on. BetaMax mother fuckers that they are. I blame Microsoft for needing a frigging driver on install.

Knoppix brings the SCSI/SAS drives straight up. Red Hat does too.

I hate computers. I hate Microsoft. I hate Windows. My loathing Bill Gates is renewed. There is no redemption. There is only ugly angry loud vengeance. I will blog my hatred for all things Windows!!! Microsoft will pay. Feel the burn. All six of my readers will fart in your general direction.

Very Local News

  • We had a fire alarm at work. It is a pretty big building. Any trouble in any part of it causes an alarm to go off all over the building. We didn't evacuate. It still cost some time. How did they handle this sort of thing in buildings like the towers in New York? It makes me think that people were used to alarms going off and not evacuating until they were told to do so.
  • Li-Ion batteries are called new generation batteries. I've been using them for a decade.
  • Obama Wins. Well, the results are not in at this hour, but I said this would happen. I'm trying to think of the last time I went to CNN's web page for anything. I only wish McCain had lost Texas just to put a nail in the coffin.

Site seeing cut short

Not often you get a view from the inside of a crashing helicopter. Recently a friend of mine lost some close friends in a helicopter crash. Looks like this one put down without any loss of life. I have few details other than it was a family on a site seeing tour of some island.


2008-11-03

Very Local News

  • Warring my dusty  boots from Faire. I was kind of hoping the damp grass would brush them clean-ish. Only the sides got a brushing.
  • I don't have a choice in this election.
  • Economy
    • 20% of Circuit City stores are closing nation wide.
    •  Egg products from China now have melanene. The industrial chemical makes its way in to the animal feed chain and thus in to the eggs.
    • Half the manufacturing jobs in China have disappeared since a peak a couple years ago.
    • People who left the U. S. for China's boom do not want to come back.
  • Obama's grandmother passed. My condolences to her kin.
  • Nat says the Christmas commercials are a refreshing break from all the political ads.


2008-11-02

Good camp fire

That metal cage the fire sits in is about five feet across. The fire really is stacked about six feet tall. All we had were huge pieces of wood. Wonder if any of them will survive until next weekend? I'll text someone and ask.`

Time change

More and more things are automatically changing the time when time changes every Spring and Fall. It makes life interesting. My phone, my primary time device these days, changed automatically. The computers all change automatically as far as I know.  We had a problem with very old computers that never get updated at work. They never got the change the U. S. called for a couple of years ago. Some files and some computer services blew a gasket when trying to talk to each other.

Today, I was talking to Elle about replacing the batteries in her camera when I noticed how dark it was outside. It threw me off even though i knew for a fact that the time change had happened. I really wonder why we go through the trouble of changing the time every six months or whenever. I believe the by-year change heppens still purely because we have done it for so long. It is tridition. That just isn't good enough for me. I want it to be for a real reason or not at all.

The time change doesn't really affect me except durring the cammute in to work. I get hit right in the eyes by the sun four times a year as we pass that time where the sun appears above the roof tops in the east. I head in to the east. This would happen twice a year except for the time change. Thus, it happens four times. Drag. No big deal. I can take it for the team. The whole time change thing just seems like a waste of time and effort.