I've had a couple of good times with my family out shooting up the world. It is, honest to God, fun to go practice our constitutional rights with our loved ones. I believe people should learn gun safety at an early age. I wish they had firearm safety in schools. I wish they taught kids how to sharpen a knife and clean a buck too.
Ever wonder why old songs talk about gunshots burning. I've been hit by flying brass that was hot enough to leave a good mark where it touched me. I had a casing burn a whole in a rag. Bullets don't just hurt going in. They keep hurting. When the heat dies doesn't, the poisoning begins. It is a bad deal all the way round.
People wonder why bullets flatten so dramatically. It is because the lead is nearly molten out of the barrel. This is why so many bullets have jackets of different kinds. To proetect the projectile as it leaves the barrel
Intel To Rebrand Processors In 2008DJ notes that TechARP has up a look at Intel's plans to rebrand their processors, including what must be a leaked internal chart of the old and new landscape of product names. This story doesn't seem to have been picked up anywhere else yet. Quoting: "We just heard from an anonymous source that Intel will be rebranding their processors in 2008... These new brand names will come into effect on the first day of 2008. Intel hopes that these new brands will not only leverage the strong Core 2 brand but also make it less confusing for the consumer. At the moment, the Intel Centrino mobile platform has five different logos with brands like Centrino, Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro. Starting from January 1, 2008, Intel will consolidate the Centrino Duo and Centrino brands under the Intel Centrino brand, and rename the Centrino Pro as Intel Centrino with vPro Technology." |
You think they finally figured out that in order to have customer
loyalty, customers need to know what the fuck they are buying? I firmly
believe that you shouldn't have to have a trade journal in your hand to buy
a laptop. Some of the chips are quite lame so it pays to know what you
are getting.
I remember looking for 386 or 486 on the label of a computer. Hmmm,
wonder which one of those is better?
AMD used to put the number on their chip that told you what MHz it
was equivalent too for an Intel chip. Now that the list of chips on
both sides is incomprehensible, that doesn't make any difference any
more. I doubt the CEOs of these companies could order the list of
processors without consulting the CTO.
You almost have to know the history of chips these days to figure
out how your new computer will react when you ask specific things of
it. A multi-core chip will do better in video rendering, but not much
better in surfing the web. That is, only if the software you are using
takes advantage of multi core processors. Win 98 for example does not.
The vast majority of people seem to pick the cheapest chip based on MHz. That isn't the way it works any more. You have to know what you are looking for these days.
I need someone besides the companies themselves to sit down and
figure out the which of all the chips is best for what situation. I
need the following definitions made and maintained.
You get the idea. Maybe I should start this list. If only I were
industrious. That what you need to know link kind of does this, but
they have too much crap wrapped around it.
| I
am a new graduate student in Computer Engineering. I would like to
get my MS and possibly my Ph.D. I have learned that 90% of my
department is from India and many others are from China. All the
students come here to study and there are only 7 US citizens in the
engineering program this year. Why is that? I have heard that many of
the smarter Americans go into medicine or the law and that is why there
are so few Americans in engineering. Is this true? |
90%. I'm surprised it isn't 100%. What are you doing there? Don't
you know you are going to have to live in India to find a job in that
field? The only jobs left in North American in 20 years are going to
involve handing food through a window.
What that means is that people in the US are not stupid. They know that all of those jobs are being outsourced to other countries. So, they stop taking the courses that will lead them to a career that will let them starve to death.
Let's face it. Not many people waist their parent's money on degrees
that will get them absolutely nowhere. We have families to feed. We
have phone bills to pay. We need to get all those Chinese bits of junk
from Wal-Mart. I own a pare of shoes made in America. They are boots
for Faire. Do you own a pare of shoes made in America/?
I've heard that low fly overs are used to intimidate enemy on the ground. I've heard that it is highly effective. It almost looks like this just was just passing by when this guy whipped out his camera and caught it.
I saw the Transformers
movie last night. A bunch of people didn't
like it. It thought it was very good. The special effects were well
done. The robots really did look like they sat on top of buildings. The
battle scenes looked very good. The scale looked a bit off a couple of
times. There was one guy in a special forces unit who wore glasses. I
don't think you can ware glasses in special forces. I'm not sure. I'm
sure there are tons of little crap like that.
The show really had the feel of a cheesy cartoon. I liked that. I
like the characters. I like the evil nature of the evil robots. I like
the robots getting hurt and not only feeling it, but not healing
instantly. Bumblebee ended up in a couple of pieces.
There was a bunch of touchy feely crap in the beginning. Not many of the jokes were all that funny. The little jam-box guy was annoying. All in all, The last scene after the credits start wasn't funny. I give it a 6 out of ten.
What happened to September? It was like last week that I said the same thing about August. I've heard old people say that this sort of thing happens when you get old. Time seems to slip by faster and faster. That is a drag. I still remember being a kid and waiting for Christmas morning. It took ages for the clock to roll over to present opening time.
Now, I work and work. Then I go home and just want to play for a bit
before I collapse. The weekends just fly by. I never get anything
productive done. This is the last weekend before Faire. What honey-do's
do I have planned.
Goodness knows what else needs to get done. What will I probably end
up getting done? I'm glad you asked.
So, relatively speaking, I'm a bum.
Nat and I caught up with a bunch of my work colleagues at Fuddrudkers for lunch. We
discussed complex topics about geeks and mocked
one of our friend's conversational hand movements. We plaid a joke one
Quintin by hiding his hat. We gave it back to him in the middle of
traffic with the crayons still inside. (another topic of
discussion)
It was fun. I would not trade it for a cheaper lunch.
I'm not used to eating a big lunch any more. When Nat dropped me off
at work, I nearly collapsed after about an hour. My blood sugar nose
dived. The worse thing you can do at this point is consume sugar. I
drank a bunch of water and washed my face. That helped quite a bit.
There must be something in the water because Adam and Jake said the
same kind of thing had hit them. Watch it be carbon monoxide or
something. That would be funny. <laughs sarcastically.
Our boss gave away some tickets to a Texan game this afternoon. He
makes an announcement and people herd over to where ever to answer some
trivia questions to figure out who is the better fan. At least, that is
how it worked last football season. Nat and I will be at Faire
anyway.
I know nothing about sports these days. I don't think I ever did really.
The last thing this evening before leaving work, the sun shone through the slits in the blinds over the window like a laser beam because it had rained and the water was still in the air. The light was magnified bye each drop of water the ray hit as it fell on the exact spot where it would pass through hole in the blinds where the string goes. Where it would fall right in my eye as I tried to type.
I have some friends who are bound and determined to be officers. Well, here is a little taste of what you are in for. You can handle it.
If I wrote an autobiography right now I would title it "Dragging
Ass". I've always considered myself well accomplished just because I've
hit average while being legally blind. I think that bar is not high
enough.
There is an infinite amount of crap to know in the universe. I can't
even learn everything about my TV. Any one who argues that the amount
of information in the universe is finite has not read or tried to write
a couple of sentences about quantum.
I hate loosing. I love winning, but not as much as I hate loosing.
God is good to me. God has interviewed in my life many times. The
reason for this is because I've asked. One of these days I'm going to
jot down a few examples of God's intervention. There are just too many.
That might make for interesting reading.
Have you ever noticed the kid at the field who screws up, but every
one roots him on? People put no faith in him, but they want him to win.
People teach him because he wants to learn. People help him because he
asks. More often than not, he fails, but there he is. Well, if you take
away the sports part of the analogy, That's me.
I depend greatly on the kindness of my family and friends. I have
made a living out of nepotism and leg-ups from close friends. What have
I done on my own? What dent will I have made when I'm gone? Does it
matter. Am I an NPC? Sometimes I think so. I'm not to worried about it
to be honest.
This blog fills part of that need to leave something. No one is ever
going to read this thing after I'm gone. It is just some evidence that
I' was here. It satisfies my need to rant and to teach.
I'm trying to think of something to say about Elle. I love that
little girl. She is beautiful, smart, tricky. She will be just fine I
think with out without my help. When she does something that upsets me
I've cough myself stopping and thinking "What do I want her to learn
from this?" Where did that come from? Whatever Elle becomes is her
doing. I'm just the line on the road. I do enjoy parenthood.
Will I invent something revolutionary? Will I write something world
shattering? Probably not. Will I live the rest of my days worrying
about it? No.
It seems like a bunch of prominent people were wait staff at some
point. I suppose a good lesson from that is to keep trying. But I've
not started trying to be prominent. I don't want to be prominent. I
have shrived for normal. Missed it by a bit. I'm not far off though.
I did make a new year's resolution to give up sex for a year. I kept it too. That has got to be a record.
So, what just happened between GM
and the union? GM got rid of an
enormous future commitment. The union got some empty promises from the
company that currently calls itself General Motors. The health benefits
of retries cost GM an arm and a leg. Well, not any more. It is the
union's problem now. Caterpillar did this a couple of years ago and the
money ran out in four years.
With the dollar so low, GM gets the better part of any cash deal today. I predict that in the next several years, GM will declare itself a foreign company or sell out to someone else, or go private, or move everything over seas, or switch stock exchanges. Something like that. This was just one step toward that goal.
On the bus this morning I heard a story about some guy who agreed with a level of torture that didn't sit well with other people. He was trying to get a spot in the CIA and the legislature didn't like his views on the levels of pain that could legally be inflicted in order to get information out of someone.
This got me thinking. Someone needs to come up with a way to get information out of a human brain without using the human body to retrieve it. We need a brain scanner. I vaguely remember an old SciFi movie that had something like this. Then there is the magic lasso from Wonder Woman.
This goes hand in hand with a discussion I had at work with a colleague yesterday. We spoke of how bits of electricity flip gates inside a chip. You have steps in the process where you read what is there and verify that things are working properly before you ever execute the "command". The little gates are basically physical switches that are thrown by the charge of electrons flowing past them. you could do something similar with water and gravity on a much larger scale.
Brain cells work on a similar manner. We just don't have the design
notes. Our brains are black boxed, or closed source. There will come a
day when we can scan a brain perhaps to the detail of telling what it
is thinking or what is stored in RAM. There won't be any need to
torture any one at that point. Won't that be a wonderful day? (not)
You have heard of people having 'tells' when playing poker. Well,
Homeland Security is trying to come up with a system that will look for
little signals that someone is pissed off at airports to catch them
before they commit crimes. This works off of emotions of discontent.
Were the 9/11 hijackers discontent with their surroundings? I say they
were quite satisfied that they were at least trying to do something
that they perceived would make their world a better place in their
eyes. Their lives for the last several years had built up to that
moment. If anything, they might have looked happy or satisfied.
It really sounds like Homeland Security depends on voodoo these days.
<begin rant>
A KVM is a
device that allows one to use two computers at the same
time without having to have two complete different sets of equipment.
KVM stands for Keyboard Video Mouse.
When I first got another computer put on my desk for web editing, I also got a hand-me-down KVM. It says MiniView on the front. It feels like cheep plastic. It is the old style PS/2 inputs. It is a four way KVM. That sounds cool. It would be if the damn thing worked.
It was not long after I started using the new computer that I discovered the mouse started just sitting there sometimes. It was sort of random, but it would definitely happen within about five minutes of using the mouse. It didn't have anything to do with the screen saver. I swapped the wires. I tried different ports. I tried everything. Nothing made it work consistently. The only way to fix the trouble was to unplug the mouse and plug it back in. That was a drag. So, I plugged a mouse in to both computers and just gave in to using two, swapping as needed.
It was not long after this that I discovered that the keyboard did the same thing. It would just stop responding at some point. It just took a bit longer for the keyboard to show symptoms. I went through most of the same iterations of wires and software, and came to the same solution. I have two keyboards and just use the one that is appropriate.
At this pint I started using remote desktop to use the computer sitting on my desk. The delay and video problems it causes are nothing compared to the agony of an aching wrist and soar back trying to use the second mouse and keyboard.
Well, today I had to reboot the box and it just wouldn't switch to the monitor. I mean, the monitor stayed black with a blinking power light. That means the monitor has no signal input. You have got to be frigging kidding me. No amount of plug swapped or pounding on the keyboard would make a difference.
I have spent more time fucking with this thing than a top of the
line KVM could possibly cost. I am not going to go buy one. So, I'm
just using remote desktop and swapping the video cable when I need to
do something straight on the computer. It might as well be in a lab
somewhere. I give up.
So, why don't I ask for another one? that is another rant.
<end rant>
Briton has 100 tons of nuclear waist. Some estimate that is enough
to make 17000 nukes of the size that destroyed Nagasaki. Somehow, I
doubt those numbers. I heard them on a BBC podcast today (from a couple
of days ago). This is low level waist that can be carried off using a
sack without much trouble or threat of dying from radiation. One
solution is to purify it. Basically, boil it down and make it very
dangerous to handle.
Syria has been called out trying to get nuke info from
North Korea.
Iran has made no secret of it's pursuit
of nuclear technology. India
and Pakistan already have nukes.
I'm waiting for the first private company to say that they have nukes and are not afraid to use them. Pretty soon there will be Equate brand nukes at Wal-Mart. Once nuclear technology is so proliferate that any one can lay their hands on the stuff, we might just finally get nuclear batteries like the ones running the Voyager space crafts from the seventies. It might be nice to buy a car that goes 250000 miles without any refueling, then you get another one.
I got on the bus this morning. Nothing different about that. I was listening to NPR. They hit some stupid story and I switched to another channel for a moment. They had real live record playing. I mean the kind that are made of vinal. How do I know? Because they had it playing at the wrong speed. This singing voice comes on that sounds like the Wizard of Oz. Someone threw the stitch after a couple seconds.
I cracked up. With my goatee, people have a hard time telling when I smile it seems. The lady across the isle asked if I needed a hankie. I had to ask her three times to repeat herself because I could not hear her on the bus. Between the engine, AC and general creeks and moans of the hoopty bus, it was like she was whispering. it is not the first time that sort of thing has happened.This station is KPFT. They are the local ultra liberal, tree-hugger station. That is not easy in Houston TX. They constantly wine about big business then use interns and volunteers for everything. Then, they complain about being broke. They are too proud to have real jobs I guess. That gets you people who have no idea how to play a vinal record.
We have an awesome new admin at work. There was nothing wrong with the old admin, he just needed to move on to bigger things. The new admin seems to know his stuff. He also seems willing to apply it and help out when needed. that is a great asset.
I got my first opportunity to work with him today. I don't think he has ever used Linux for any length of time. That's fine. I like what he is doing on the Windows side of things.
He made a comment that upset me. He didn't mean to upset me. I
should have taken it more in stride, I'm used to it. He said that most
companies that use Linux have a Windows box next to them for the normal
office stuff. He is right. That doesn't make it right. I think that is
a huge waist of money. I said so. He came back with a comparison that
it is just a $300
box that lets you do stuff on the Windows side. I let
it go from there, but I was thinking that it is not $300. It is $300
for the box and $700 for office and the trimmings. That does not
include the recycling of two computers over the cost of just one. That
does not include the power and maintenance on two computers over the
cost of just one. Yadda, yadda, The only reason Linux doesn't run MS
software is because MS doesn't want it to. If that fact sticks in your
craw, like me, then you should try Linux.
The good news is that at work we are experimenting with some email system upgrades. I'm not sure if we will get them, but it is nice having someone look in to it.
I had to put a drop of Crazy Glue on my glasses today at work. The
plastic sleeves over the arms of the glasses started to slide a bit
more than they probably should. I wondered around asking a couple of
folks. I finally found the refrigerator in which we keep that sort of
thing. Now there are fingerprints on the plastic of the arms. I didn't
get my fingers anywhere near the tip of that frigging tube. How did it
get on my hands? Crazy Glue is mysterious.
Well, no more sliding so far. My fingers are not glued together. The glasses are not glued to my head, though I silently vowed to just leave them there if I had and deal with it when I got home. There are no permanent fingerprints on the lenses. I'd call that a successful repair. The smell is a bit strong. You would think that would make the day go faster.
Check out all the pictures.
A great time had by all. I know some drama happened. I ignored it
and had fun despite it. There were parenting discussions that spoke of
arguments that came to blows. There were stories of cracked garaged
floors. (cracked by Heath's head by the way). We covered the qualities
of .45 ACP. We wrestled, well, the young one's wrestled. I took
pictures. We spoke of Faire and made plans.
We ate. Heath cooked. Niki made a bunch of stuff. The banana nut
bread was worth a human life. I nearly collapsed. They made home made
ice cream for God's sake. How cool is that. There were folks there who
had home made ice cream for the first time.
Thanks you every one for making a beautiful day wonderful among
friends.
I finally got Pidgin (the program formally known as GAIM) working on my Linux box. It now supports MySpace chat or so they say. I have had zero chance to try it out because none of my geek buddies use MySpace chat. No one seems to use chat any more. We just text each other when we don't want to talk to each other on the phone.
I tried using the YUM install of GAIM/Pidgin from fedora or livna. It had an error when I ran it. Something about a missing object. Blah blah. It's broke. I hunted down the error on the web. There is a "minor" bug listed that says something to the effect that the bug is not getting fixed.
I download the source and build the package. It takes me a moment to get it to install in the correct location. Now, I can only run it only when using sudo. It does work though. Now I remember why I hadn't bothered getting it to work in so long.
There is a source
RPM from the Fedora project of the version of Pidgin I need. I'm
going to give it a try. Sometimes they do a good job, but It worries me
that the RPM on the repo is broken. This is a beta build for the Fedora
folks.
...
Low and behold. The exact same error.
| > pidgin GTK Accessibility Module initialized libnm_glib_nm_state_cb: dbus returned an error. (org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown) The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManager was not provided by any .service files |
Build Pidgin on your box manually and just run it as sudo. That is
the only way to get the crappy software to work.
Very strong language!!!
It is important for this soldier to have his say. That is one of the vast array of rights he is fighting for. The fact that I agree with what he is saying has every barring on whether or not I post what he has to say.
I suppose freedom of speech belongs to those who have a blog now a days.
Nat came over and joined us for lunch today. We went to the seafood place just up the street. It is a Thursday thing
That about covers it. Nothing really deep or anything. I'm wondered what Elle was up to at school. The weather was nice. It didn't feel half bad outside. I left a couple of minutes before every one else because I needed to get back to work. It paid off. I was able to finish some work that I needed doing.
$207 in a back bedroom. I would make a crack about money under the mattress, but shit!
I got the following email (headline) from CNN.
| The Fed cuts by one-half
percent the federal funds rate, a rate that heavily impacts how much
interest consumers pay on debts. CNN
|
It also directly affects how much money people and institutions make via interest. So, long term, It is a bad thing to cut interest rates. It causes inflation, which makes all the money in your possession worth less than it was worth yesterday. It makes what you bring home every pay-day buy less every pay-day.
Lowering interest rates makes investor's money in the short term so it is a good way to get an influx of money from Joe and Jane Blow and outside institutions. That is about it. So it is a two edged sword.
Happy. =]
Watch all the way to the end. The pilot with the really thick glasses does a cool trick with a cup of milk.
Places like MySpace and FaceBook are great places to get in trouble. Parents are getting in to the act after watching over the shoulders of their kids. I've noticed that many people have given up on chat software or instant messengers and now use the built in bits from MySpace or FaceBook to chat. That sucks for me because I haven't figured out how to get those devices to work in Linux yet.
There are huge movements in schools to teach online safety. We do
not let Elle on a computer that has internet access yet. That will
come. I need to find some nanny software that Nat and I feel
comfortable with. I wonder if Elle will have me as a friend on her
MySpace (or whatever site is hot that week) page.
People really are using these sites to stay in touch. It is funny to
watch folks use FaceBook to find out when their school chums are
getting married. I've heard people say that sometimes folks won't
announce big stuff until after it happened to avoid having to invite a
bunch of people.
The Safe Haven group has attempted to use these sites to
communicate, but only the truly geeky folks keep looking for updates.
Most people log in once to put their name down and then check back
every fifteen months whether they need to or not. These are the same
people who would sign on to IM for three minutes to figure out who was
on and then drop off, thus rendering the whole concept of IM useless.
There are still a bunch of people who will not read or return text
messages. I have some people who bitch when I send them one because it
costs them money. Old farts. (The one's I'm thinking of are younger
than I.)
I fell in to the world of having one's own web page long before this whole do it for you craze came about. I had to learn how to put up my own server. It is not as easy. You have to leave a computer running. When it goes down, it is your fault. When you loose data, it is your fault. When you want more space, you go buy another hard drive. When you want to publish something you don't think others will like, you can because you own the hardware. You have complete say over who and what touches your site. So, it is give and take.
Lets move up north some place and live on a hill. The people on the balcony/roof seem to be enjoying themselves.
This looks like an episode of COPS you just cant't get on TV. It is far too violent. This is a car-jacker shooting a cop and being taken down by about thirty five officers.
The officer pulls the car over. The jacker gets out shooting and manages to hit the officer I believe in the leg. Then the jacker runs off and hides in someone's garage. An eye witness points the officers in the right direction and a K-9 unit finds him there.
When the jacker jumps out of the car, look at the cloths he is waring. This is just some gang-banger looking for a quick snatch and run. I really hope he goes down hard for attempted murder of an officer. I hope his family knows they raised a killer who never should have been conceived. Does any one know what right and wrong is these days? Is any one teaching that killing is wrong in school? Maybe we should.
I floated sheet rock today. I hung a ceiling fan too. Well, My
father came over and helped. OK, he did most of the hard stuff. I did
get my hands dirty. I'm glad for the time I spent with him. That was
fun. My mom said today that it is cool that we want to hang out with
them every now and then.
My father told stories of his dad and how they used to work along side each other on houses. My father used to get upset when my grandfather would not do a good job. That tels me how he got to where he is today. My father has no degree. He is a piping lead. Pipers are very special people. They use what they have learned in the field to design the systems that make up chemical plants. You can't train an engineer to do it because it would take them twenty years to get up to speed, just like any one else. You might as well skip the degree at that point.
After my parent's left, I went into the bedroom where the new fan is and crashed. I slept like a baby under our new fan.
The credit card has the following balance.
$0.00The day Nat and I got married the balance was $7400. Just a couple of months ago it was $4500. Now, we have just that little bit of freedom back. The monthly interest was around 1.5%, which makes sense. This is just one more burden off our backs. I hope to keep the balance at zero indefinitely. Right now there are a couple of things going to the credit card like the Tollway thing, and a magazine subscription. I'll work on getting those off too.
Kelly is a happy boy today.
I wonder how big of a bomb you could strap to one of those things and fly it right down the throat of the White House or some secure area not too far from a launch pad also known as a parking lot. Starting to smell like a security threat. That's it. We need to ban RC vehicles of all kins.
I'll get right on that.
Holy crap!!! It looks like they are getting and giving from both sides of the vehicle.
I was listening to the BBC from yesterday this afternoon. The foreign minister was bitching about the French involvement in Iraq and that the French need to rethink their future involvement because of the oil and political crap that goes on in the middle east. I learned something during his interview. I get pissed very easily when a male voice speaks in a thick French accent and says anything negative about something or someone I love.
There are a bunch of French issues in the news. French wine will be served through a straw. The young French seem to prefer vodka and whiskey. There is wine in cans, and small bottles that look like perfume bottles. There are any number of gimmicks, but they wine industry is missing the point that "old people drink wine." Wine is also an expensive buzz. It kind of reminds me of the music industry attempts to sell stuff. Will the wine industry start suing their existing customers? Only time will tell.
Thought about getting this for the Goblin King to hang on Halloween.
They probably get 15 a year though.
I wish I could watch Elle's first day at her new school. This day will last to her. She will discover new friends. She will learn how to be a bit more of a person today. The first of things that we must do mold us into what we are. What other things will she find at this new place, with these new people?
I did get to experience the first morning before the first day of a new school. "I don't like you any more!!!" "I don't like my hair clip any more!!!" "I don't like my seatbelt any more!!!" This is what we parents call one of those mornings. I think Nat was as nerves as Elle.
When I told Elle she needed to stop crying in to her dress or she
would get snot all over it she sat up, leaned forward and said
"EEEEEEE!!!" and went right back to crying. I'm not versed in four year
old, but I'm pretty sure that was a place holder for "fuck you!" ...
Four going on sixteen.
Nat tells me she had fix Elle's hair by running her fingers through it and pin it up with a Macgyver mechanism from what was in the car before Elle walked in to class. What a mom-moment. I'm sorry I missed it.
I think the bad day started when I tried to help Elle brush her teeth this morning. When I put toothpaste on a tooth brush I put it on the side of the bristles in stead of the top. This is because I tend to drop the toothpaste if I put it on the top of the bristles. I don't drop the toothpaste if I put it on the side. The trouble comes when I try to cut off the last bit of paste. That is when the bristles bend and snap, throwing off the toothpaste. Though Elle and I had gone over this issue in the past a couple of times, she dimply would not hear of the toothpaste lying on the side of the bristles this morning. From now on, I'll send her to Nat for toothpaste help.Elle says she enjoyed her first day. I'm so very glad. Something about sitting on line, and learning her abc's. She needs the help.
Pretty self explanatory. That is a heck of a pump running the hoses there.
Elle is going to go to a new school. The one she was in just wasn't
teaching her as much as we wanted. It was not structured and the
teachers were mean to the kids. Nat went today with Elle and Bill to
check out a new place. They liked it as far as I can tell. Nat said it
felt more like a school and less like a daycare. Bill has been a saint
and paid for much of Elle's school. I've felt bad recently that he
hasn't been getting good value for his money. The new place will be a
bit more expensive, but far, far better for Elle.
I really have a good feeling about this place. The whole reason we
put Elle in school was to give her a head start. Elle starts tomorrow.
She really enjoyed the orientation. Elle got to play with some of the
kids that will be in her class and already made a friend. Elle is going
to miss splash days, but we just won't mention that for now.
The uniforms cost $3XX. There are some other costs too. We were supposed to look at new tires this month. That pretty much dooms getting Faire tickets. Oh, well. Nat may have a job that at least gets her in the park for a couple hours work. I suppose I just won't go in. Camping will still be fun. Elle is worth it.
There is a tropical storm off the cost. Nobody used to pay attention to tropical depressions or storms. That all changed a couple of years ago when one came along and dumped 36 inches of rain in one spot near down town Houston. I still remember the pictures that got circulated around the net for weeks of whole freeways under water. The Medical center flooded. The Houston underground (an oxymoron) flooded. Now people duck when they pass.
This morning on the news they showed a live freeway shot in the background. The shadows of the clouds were traveling as fast as the cars. The clouds have that ring affect going on. As the storms spiral out you get the eye-of-the-storm affect where the weather turns frightening for an hour or two then is all but clear for a while. Then goes right back to rubbish again.
Nat and I saw a yellow Toyota FJ cruiser with a "Tonka'' logo in the back window on the way in this morning. It looked pretty cool. It really did remind me of the toys I played with as a very young child. I'm just pissed I couldn't get a quick picture.
This one is the correct color.
Wacko Warner did a song saying all the nations of the world some
time in the late eighties. I heard it at work the other day and
wondered how out of date it is. I've wonder many times what percentage
of the countries in the world were actually covered. I bet some
industrious geek has done the research and published it on a forum or
blog someplace. And, I'm too lazy to even google it. I'm just not up to
snuff in the geek universe.
I'll just violate copyright law by embedding a YouTube link. It's so much easier this way.
I didn't intend to look like the devil. I was not trying to frown. My god I have a lot of head above my ears. My goatee is crooked. My chest hair sticks out of the top of my shirt. I really need to not take pictures of myself anymore.
These are bifocals. They are progressive lenses. That means you
can't see the line. The cost me $50 including shipping from Zenni. This is the
third pare of glasses I've bought from them. So far so good.
Well, I know they do nothing to reduce red-eye. I got the thicker
wire frame just for grins this time. I wanted something that would mask
the thicker lens. Trouble is, these are not very thick at all. The
prescription is strong enough to make my eyes look smaller through the
lenses. Things around the edge look a bit fish-eyed. That's normal
though.
I think the bifocal brings out the bags under my eyes. What do you think?
|
It does not boggle my mind that movies as bad as "Carnage" can get made. With cheap cameras and workable editing equipment, everybody's a movie-maker nowadays, and amateur flicks like this are getting churned out in basements and backyards across the globe. What boggles my mind is that somebody thought that people who weren't actually involved in the production of "Carnage" would actually want to see it. I cannot say that this is the worst movie ever made; too many homegrown productions are out there, and surely millions of them are this painfully inept. But I can say that "Carnage" is unquestionably among the very worst movies to ever land an official, professional public release. A final thought. I'm told that there are 'at least' some people on the fringe (who visit horror conventions) that actually DO like this movie. This is true. Also, some people think Ashlee Simpson is an accomplished musician, some people think the capital of Canada is Milwaukee, and some people like to drink other people's urine. Good night. |
I'm sorry I waisted my bandwidth on it. I don't even pay that much for my bandwidth.
Someone needs to come up with a joke podcast. Just recordings of people who know how to tell a joke, tell jokes.
The liberal media gives their podcasts away for free. You have to
join up to download conservative media podcasts. What's with that? I
end up listening to the liberal crap just because it is there.
It would be great if there were some consistent volume control between podcasts. One is so quiet you have to crank the volume and the next is loud enough to crack your ear drums. This is a problem with all media. No one is doing anything about it. TV channels are pretty darned consistent. Why are other media forms not so?
There are all kinds of people and all kinds of random strange podcasts just lying around the internet. People who have something to say seem to like the medium. Most of them are boring. Most of them are inconsistent. Hell, most of the professional podcasts are inconsistent.I'll never make a podcast. I can't talk for ten minutes one one subject without breaking into a rant. I guess that would work.
I blew off this weekend. There were dozens of things to do.
I didn't do any of them. I feel bad about it, but the honey-dos are still there. I complained to a friend
|
Hey, it is good to take a weekend and normalize. Especially us fathers and homeowners and family bread winners who work all week. Our wives will lead us to believe we always need to be working on something and fixing this, upgrading that, installing this, going here, worry about this, etc. That drains us and it is good to take a weekend and just blow off the mess! |
I did feel energetic this morning. I got good work done. I needed
some down time. I needed it and I took it. Now it's off to work the
rest of the week.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I love this movie.
Find a way to see it. It is
made in the tradition of car chaises that literally kick ass. My
favorite part is the ending. That is the way it should be with movies.
I may actually ... buy ... the soundtrack.
... Maybe not.
This is definitly a Kelly Movie.
And then there was a Sunday. Just sitting there, all full of itself.
Pretty sky and warm and all. Just sitting there. Making itself known
for no good reason. This Sunday was hoping for something to happen that
might make it memorable. This Sunday was hoping for fame. Right now
thought, it just waited, picking it's teeth.
I'm typing up a very boring blog entry. Nat is taking a nape. Elle
is pretending to play solitaire while watching cartoons. Church is
letting out. The grass is growing out of control. The mosquitoes lurk
in the cool moist shadows, still and quiet, waiting.
Somewhere, someone is making lunch for their family. Someone teaches a class. Someone is driving a car into a wall. There are several wars all over the world. People are killing and dying for a cause. All I want is some French toast.
He is the guy who invented the TV.
He didn't own one. He wouldn't
let his kid watch TV. He, like Jobs and Gates never
graduated collage.
Collage teaches you to think inside the box. Any expression outside the box is met with a failing grade and ridicule. Collage is not for everyone.Nor should every one go to collage. Unless, that is, they need to think inside the box.
So, my chair at work doesn't quite go high enough. I decided to try
a pillow as a booster. So, Nat finds me these hideous green pillows.
They are god-offal. In the sunshine, they glow ugly. I carried them to
work on the bus. I turned heads. I didn't notice any cars slowing down
to get a look, but I bet some did. They are that ugly. They are on my
chair at work. They do the job. Hey, I don't have to look at them. I
don't have to worry about them getting stolen. (No tricks Adam or Jake!)
After the first day I can tell they work.
Looks like the stuff board rennies do at night in the camp site.
I wonder if seeing it coming just makes it worse.
This would bring me out of a sound sleep. The kind of waking that is accompanied by a half crazed, dazed blind man jumping to his feet wielding a .45 screaming "Where are they?!?"
"Play ... play ... play ... play ... play ... play ... play ... play ... play"
This is a drag. Pavarotti died. I think he was the only opera star I recognized by site and voice. You are missed old man.
My doctor does not have a web page. My dentist doesn't either. Neither does my eye doctor. Every other place I spend money has a web page. If not the individual place, the nation wide chain does. Most of the little shops at Faire seem to have their own page. I have several and I don't sell anything. People's cats have web pages. Midas just started up their page and man are they proud of it.
If I want to find out anything about my doctor I have to go to
national databases or skip it and go to some place like web MD. I'm
trying to think of other entities that do not have pages. I'm coming up
blank. Even the plant place has a web page. Where the hell is my doctor?
What other institutions don't have a web page that should?
Our trash days are Tuesday and Friday. Friday is the heavy pickup. That sucks because the weekend is where most of the heavy stuff comes from so you have to store whatever it is for a week until the heavy day. We get one official can we have to put everything in for the trash to pick it up. There are all kinds of rules for the heavy stuff too. If anything goes wrong with the can you call a number and they come fix or replace it. That is kind of nice.
This week we had the Monday holiday. I took the trash can down last night like normal. Only, it is already Tuesday night. I opened the garage this morning and noticed the can sitting out there. "oops" I walk out looking over my shoulder like a dumbass trying not to get caught doing something dumb and put it back in the garage.
I'm a dork.
| "AMD
has issued a press release announcing 'significant
graphics performance and compatibility enhancements'
on Linux. AMD will be delivering new ATI Linux drivers this year that
offer ATI Radeon HD 2000 series support, AIGLX support (Beryl and
Compiz), and major performance improvements. At Phoronix we have been
testing these new drivers internally for the past few weeks and have a
number of articles looking at this new driver. The ATI
8.41 Linux driver delivers Linux gaming improvements from the R300/400
series and the R500
series. The inaugural Radeon
HD 2900XT
series support also can be found in the new ATI Linux driver with 'the
best price/performance ratio of any high-end graphics card under
Linux.' While this new driver cannot be downloaded yet, in their press
release AMD also alludes to accelerating
efforts with the open-source community." |
ATI has a history of screwing with open source and Linux then bailing out with a bunch of excuses. Hopefully the new management of AMD will straighten them out for good. I don't even want game performance really. I just want a video driver that doesn't leave things hanging out on the desktop.
So, I asked for crackers. I like saltines. Nat said she didn't bother getting the big box. They are the exact crackers you get in restaurants. Next time I'll have to be more specific.
I forgot to get a picture of the box with 80 hot dogs in it. The three gallons of bleach for four buck was a pretty good deal. The milk that will be good until January is not so shabby either.
| It
may be something of a teenage nightmare: limits on when a wireless
phone can make and receive calls and to whom, restrictions on text
messages and talk time, and set allowances for ring tones and other
downloads - all at a parent's fingertips. ... Many parents want their children to have access to cell phones for safety reasons, but they don't want them making or receiving non-emergency calls during the school day, chatting away all the shared family-plan minutes or bloating the bill with text messaging charges, Hill said. |
Imagine that, give the customers what they want. What a novel concept.
I as a parent demand this kind of control over my kid's phone.
Period. I want this kind of control over my own phone to keep myself in
line.
Of course there are limitations. It doesn't sound like those will cost
me money.
| "Kids won't like it all," said 16-year-old Alex Wall, who was shopping for a new phone with his mom at a San Antonio AT&T store last week. |
Somehow, I don't think that will make much never mind to parents who
are the one's paying for all of it like me. It shouldn't be that long
before other cariers step in line.
These folks need to take some notes from the post below. I was just waiting for one of them the get the crap bitten out of them.
| Wicca teacher says he has a winning ticket
in Mega Millions ... He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night's estimated $330 million jackpot. ... Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: "You let me win the lottery and I'll teach." Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer. |
The article author keeps calling them teachers of Wicca, operators of a new age book store. I haven't found the word witch any ware. This is CNN.
Hat tip Boing Boing.
|
How To Give A Cat A Pill 1. Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow. 2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process. 3. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away. 4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm, holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten. 5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden. 6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously. 7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later. 8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw. 9. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap. 10. Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard, and close door on to neck, to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band. 11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw Tee shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom. 12. Call fire department to retrieve the damn cat from across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap. 13. Tie the little bastard's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy-duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down. 14. Consume remainder of scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table. 15. Arrange for SPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters. How To Give A Dog A Pill 1. Wrap it in bacon. 2. Toss it in the air. |
This is an oldy but a goody. I think some paragraphs have been added
since I last read it. I've heard that some dogs are as finicky as cats.
They are urban legions though. I bet it is easier to give most cats a
shot than a pill. This kind of thing is why I like pet rocks.
Here we go. Lawyers are making inroads to force YouTube filter audio
that people put in their videos on the site. I know Nat has music in
the background of all her videos. Her videos are mostly series of
pictures to music. (I usually don't like those slide shows.) Soon, you
will have to pay a fee in order to post videos that contain any
copyrighted material.
I envision a day when even having someone walk by in a T-shirt with
a logo on it requires a payment. I should patent a blank screen and a
quiet hiss in the background. I would make a fortune and RIAA would do
my fighting for me. there is no such thing as fare use. It is a
mystical beast that saved virginal maidens from the jaws of evil
dragons. In reality you have to fight a bunch of geeks with briefcases
that are far more frightening than dragons. They can take everything
you ever held dear and not only make it look like you were the one who
did something wrong, but walk away with a fat check in their pocket to
boot.
You're just another victim.
Just another victim, kid.
Just another victim.
Just another victim, kid.
Even that quote will cost me one of these days.
A guy was tar and feathered in an Ireland estate (subdivision) this
past week. The people there do not trust the cops because they grew up
in a situation where people who want to the cops had nothing but bad
things happen. The interviewer asked a couple of times "Who actually
did this?" The person answer said "The people who live there." The
interviewer called it vigilantism. I can understand being fed up with
it. One of the big reasons we left the apartment complex was the drug
dealer on the corner. He would wait at the bus stop at three in the
morning and hock drugs. That was the same bus stop I would stand at
later in the morning.
Let me tell you, I like the idea of deputizing every one who is not
a felon in a given area and just walking down the street with
pitchforks and torches herding the non-belong element elsewhere. Wrong
approach, but tempting non the less. It might take a grassroots effort
to win the war on drugs.
Since this is my blog I'm throwing in my two cents. I think the
people who bought the drugs should suffer the same fate as the dealers.
Idiots don't understand that when they spend money on this crap that
money might find itself spent on war, terrorism, more drugs, corrupting
law enforcement, any number of things that are just plane bad. This
story is in Europe where they citizens are terrified of guns in
general. Here some nutter is buying drugs so his friendly (murderous)
neighborhood drug dealer can go and buy a better gun.
Worry not, I'm all blog and no bite.
I had a dream last night that I got my new glasses and they were all messed up. They put the lenses in upside down with the close up bit at the top. They glasses made me look feminine and there was something else too. I don't remember. Can you guess that I'm worried about buying something so personal and long term as a pare of glasses online sight unseen as they say? Well, I am. I just can't afford a pare of glasses bought at my doctor's office. At least this way, I get glasses.
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