Caffeine-addled ramblings, rants, and random thoughts about my life in pursuit of utter awesomeness and general kickassery.
Stumblers: If anything strikes your fancy, cover up your fancy and click the "I like it!" button on your taskbar.
The last pieces for my new computer came yesterday. I managed to put it together without too much of a hitch. The only thing I now need is an extended audio cable (the case has headphone/mic jacks on the top of the case. How cool is that?) because the one that I have won't reach the connection on the motherboard.
Other than that, it's ready for the great on-turning. Speaking of, I thought long and hard about what to call this one on my network. I always have at least two systems active, a main and backup/storage. The storage PC in use right now is named SEPTIC, since that's where I put all my shit. I'm going to clean it out and reformat it to loan out to a friend of mine that's currently using an eight-year-old PC (cringe).
My current primary is appropriately called HAL, since it does whatever the hell it wants.
HAL: "What do you think you're doing, B?"
Me: "I'm just trying to download my credit cards into Quicken."
HAL: "I'm sorry, B. I can't let you do that."
Me: "Why the hell not?"
HAL: "This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."
Me: "What mission? What are you talking about?"
HAL: (freezes)
Therefore, I needed to come up with something appropriate. There ended up being no debate, as she shall be named... DEEP THOUGHT. Ok, I'm showing my geek colors again, making a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference. Now all I need is a "Don't Panic" sticker to put on the front.
The Great On-Turning will most likely be tomorrow. I decided to get a bigger desk, so just for the sheer complexity of my cable management it would be dumb to hook it all up, then disassemble (NO DISASSEMBLE NO. 5!) the setup to do it again.
ChaCha came over last night and the first thing out of her mouth when she saw it was...
"It looks like a Transformer!"
It does. Really. I had that thought too, and I never made the connection to the fact that the case name is "transformer." Captain Obvious to the rescue!
Anyway, I'll let you know tomorrow how bad the fire damage is once I plug it in.
I just got an email from my Mom. My uncle Stanley passed away about an hour ago. He was my Dad's oldest brother, and probably the closest relative to me outside of my own little nuclear family.
He was the one that gave me my first job, hauling hay for him when I was 14. (Yeah, I've got my country roots). He used to sit down with me, give me beer and we'd tell each other dirty jokes for hours.
He was also the first one to teach me Polish. Not really how to speak it, that was my Great-Aunt Julie's mission in life. He taught me some words, quite a few of them I could use in mixed company.
It's not too much a surprise, he's had major health issues for decades. But the upsetting story is all to similar. After I moved away we lost touch. I missed my chance to let him know that I loved him these last few years.
And for that, I'm Glupszy niz ustawa przewiduje.
Love you, Stash. Jeżeli nie ma żadnego piwa w Raju, witają Szatan dla mnie.
One of my goals for the 3-day weekend was to go through my storage unit. SIDE NOTE: Jean apparently still has my steam cleaner. I need to go pick it up this week.
I'm pretty proud of myself. I divided the goods into three piles, roughly equal.
One, stuff to throw away. This was the hardest part. I'm a huge pack rat. I'm the guy that when preparing for the final assault on the north face of Mount Everest, I'd take along those aquarium filters just in case. But I bit the bullet and made spur of the moment decisions.
Two, stuff to give away. There's tons of this stuff. I could make a killing on this if I do a yard sale, but honestly I just want to be done with it. Plus, someone could get use out of it. A year and a half ago I wish someone had something I could use that they could just give to me.
Three, stuff to keep. This was interesting. I came across tons from my sordid past. Sketches, paintings, stories, poetry, unsent love letters, received cards, letters, photos. the list goes on. I'm a pretty fascinating guy. Like the essay I wrote in college: Poe's "Inferno": Tsalal Commentary on Judeo-Christian Hell. Even I was impressed. Made me wonder, when did I stop writing? When did I stop painting? Short answer to that was when I had an accident about four years ago. But that's a cop out, and I know it. I stopped because I got caught up in my own life. That may be why I decided to start blogging. We all need that creative release. Baring one's soul. Feeling that love, that humor, that fear. Reliving those moments.
I did find some cryptic things. Odd little poems, notes, letters. Once my new comp is up and running I'll scan some in and post them for feedback, humor, or just for the hell of it.
I'm sure I'll have more to say as I return to collect more.
So originally when I had the pinched nerve, I went downstairs and spoke with my HR department (aka Marie) to see if this was covered under my AFLAC. I mean, if they'll pay me for having an injury, who am I to judge? She then mentioned me perhaps filing this under workman's comp.
/cringe
No, I told her. This was the first time I've had it, it was a fluke, just something that happened. So after I came back, Marie said that Teresa wanted to talk to me. She's in charge of Administration, and essentially Marie's boss. Well, we kept missing one another until today. I got a speech about what my rights were under the TWCS, a rather lengthy discussion of my posture and office arrangement, and got forms to fill out.
Whoa!! Back up there, cowboy. I told them already I didn't want to claim Worker's Comp. Honestly, I spend almost as much time on my computer at home, possibly causing the issue as well. They kept right on with the discussion.
Next thing I know I'm in my office, with two short middle-aged women hovering over me, evaluating how I sit, like I'm in the final trials for the PanAm Typing and Posture Olympics (PATPO).
These were things actually said during my final set:
"Look at how your knees are. They should be L-shaped."
"No. No. No. No. You're sitting all wrong."
"It doesn't matter how comfortable your chair is."
"Maybe we can move that table where that piece is and move that piece there."
So now they have me sitting in a laughably uncomfortable chair today, while my LAZBOY is sitting across form my desk, mocking me. Hopefully this will light a fire under them to get my chair fixed (I've been trying to get that chair repaired for the last 3 months).
I should have just called in and kept my big mouth shut.
And if they think I will do anything with the forms they gave me other than making airplanes (or even paper mache effigies of them) they are sadly mistaken.
And I'm NOT rearranging my office.
I recently came across this article explaining how China's Defense Department is utilizing cyberweapons, in the form of viruses and hacks. It occurred to me how applicable this is in our modern society. Not only in warfare, but also in terrorism.
Think about it.
9/11 poked a sleeping bear, as did the embassy bombings, Oklahoma city, etc. But what if...
A terrorist organization wanted to attack America, for whatever cause/reason/manifesto. Instead of bombs, they attack our economy. They attack the databases at NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ, the numerous banking systems. It's a scary thought. And it COULD happen. A sleeper worm could destroy our economy (for those not of the geeky persuasion, that's a virus that infiltrates other programs, but doesn't do anything until a set date, making it difficult to spot until activated) . Think about it. Credit cards wouldn't work, you wouldn't have access to your bank accounts, investment portfolios, 401Ks... Companies would not be able to sell anything, since nobody can buy. Life would not be the same. Living in a technocratic Capitalistic society definitely has its drawbacks.
I'm curious if our own defense department is working on something similar.
"I do not know what the third world war will be fought with, but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones." -Albert Einstein
On my radio during my trip home. Many thanks to Paul McCartney.
And ChaCha... You know.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Baby I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you
Baby I'm amazed at the the way you pulled me out of time
Hung me on a line
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you
Baby I'm a man and maybe I'm a lonely man
Who's in the middle of something
That he doesn't really understand
Babe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman
Who could ever help me
Baby wont you help to me understand
Baby I'm a man and maybe I'm a lonely man
Who's in the middle of something
That he doesn't really understand
Babe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman
Who could ever help me
Baby wont you help me understand
Baby I'm amazed at the way you're with me all the time
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I leave you
Baby I'm amazed at the way you help me sing my song
You right me when I'm wrong
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you
The Wombat turned me on to a news article about parents upset about commencement restrictions.
If you don't feel like reading the article, here it is in a nutshell: All students in Texas must pass the TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) in order to graduate. If they don't, and it's not difficult, they can take it again in July and graduate in August.
A school in Fort Worth was protested by parents angry that the kids wouldn't be able to walk during commencement. IMO, if they're not graduating, they don't walk. Case closed. The test isn't hard at all. It's a test that shows you have the basic remedial knowledge from the classes you already passed.
But the best part of the article?
Wait for it...
Yeah. That cracked me up.
It's Memorial Day time again.
Three day weekend. Free and clear. It's funny how on normal weekends there seems to be just enough time to decompress, but that extra day almost gives you two extra days.
I sat down this morning and wrote out what I wanted to get accomplished this weekend.
- Clean my place (for real this time!)
- Get caught up on laundry (it's scary what I'm wearing just because it's clean)
- Finish at least 4 posts I've been putting off
- Start looking at houses again
- On Sunday ChaCha and I are going to see the new Pirates movie.
- Before that make sure to watch Dead Man's Chest
- Reorganize my office in prep for the new computer
- Run down to my storage unit and grab my steamer. If I'm up for it, go through it and throw out most of the stuff.
That's about it for now. The most important part is to spend time with
ChaCha and let her know how important she is to me.
Have a great holiday weekend, all!
I just bought a new pc.
Or, I should say I just ordered the parts for a new pc.
That's right, I'm building one.
There's nothing really wrong with my old one. Mostly. It's three years old, so the hardware's decent. However, there is something strange happening with it, and as nerdish as I am I can't figure out what's wrong.
Here's the issue: I was having some video issues. Everything would work fine, but the quality was sub par. So I decided the first thing to try was to update the driver. That fixed the issue and everything looked stunning.
BUT...
After that, most videos wouldn't play. Any mpg, avi, mpeg or wmv would freeze the system and shoot the cpu usage to 100% and stay there. I had to shut it down by the task manager each time. Strange thing is, Flash players played fine. I could play flv files flawlessly. At that point I tried to roll back the drivers, at one point even uninstalling the video card and reinstalling. The old drivers wouldn't work and the system only recognized it generically and used the XP native drivers. I reinstalled the new drivers and once again, it looked wonderful but videos wouldn't play. I gave up, and decided to use it as an excuse to get a new one.
I'll still have my current pc, and I'm sure I'll dink with it until I get it to work. My current secondary computer will be reformatted and donated somewhere.
It still makes me cringe to spend that much money on something. But my justification is that I'm spending as much as I did for my tv.
I'm such a geeky tech whore.
