Discovering the Lost City of Atlantis

I think I'll discover the lost city of Atlantis this weekend. Maybe I'll write an aria. Who knows exactly what I'll accomplish this weekend. For the first time in several weeks, I feel capable of accomplishing just about anything. Except, perhaps, creating a gravity-powered model vehicle from a rectangular block of wood. Tomorrow, the boy and I are going to build our Pinewood Derby car. I'm likely the least qualified person I know to do this type of work, as I have zero aptitude for this type of activity. So I've decided to play on my strengths - I will research the hell outta this: techniques, design, type of paint, tips & tricks...its what I do. Victory may not be ours - I'm aiming a little lower; Not having the most embarrassing entry.

Speaking of aptitude, I'm running four ubuntu boxes, all of them server edition with a variety of success. My most incredible box is my IBM Thinkpad T60 (firefly) with the Intel core-duo 1.83GHz chip & 2GB of RAM running xfwm/xfce. Its futuristically fast and blow's my mortal mind. My oldest ubuntu box (intrepid) is currently hosting http://darkvoyager.homeunix.com. It was built out of crap parts strewn across drax0r's floor several years ago. Its a P4 1.6GHz with 768MB of RAM. Its running pure server, and outside of the dist-upgrade from hell it manages to run without question. My Ultra-10 (serenity) has been running sparc-server with xfce atop xdm. Its...slow, but I mostly use it for opening 876 terminal tabs for my day-to-day work. Lastly, the thorn in my side, my (formerly) über-box (überuntu). Running at 2.8 hyper-threaded gigahertz, and 1GB dual-channel RAM, she's one unlucky sonofabitch. Most of my ubuntu install CD's don't, and her GeForce 5300 PCX nvidia card doesn't either, most of the time. I'm currently downloading and burning [k-x]ubuntu's entire library in hopes I find some combination which will (yes, I've tried the different framebuffer drivers - AFAICT the GPU reports itself differently between reboots).

Went shopping this morning for the highest-capacity, fastest SD card I could find. That being said, I honestly don't have a need for a 32GB card (not that I could find any retailers around here who actually stock that capacity) but I did find a nice SANDISK 4GB (SDHC) Ultra-II speed card for my Canon S3. Nice! Our stockcar may be ugly, but at least we'll get some pictures of it. Also got a Mac-compatible USB wireless card for the children's PowerMac G4. That was much more difficult to come across. I wanted an XP/Mac card, but I could only find one, or the other at all the major electronics retailers. Thinking I must've been out of mind last time I was there, I drove to Wal-Mart and sure enough, they have a Belkin which can be used in both operating systems. Yeah, I bought that one.



And checking out at Best Buy I reach for an energy drink. They don't carry...Monster? I'm next in line - I grab a "ROCKSTAR" (Party like a ROCKSTAR the can suggests.) Whatever. They taste like ass. I picked up a 24oz. Monster while I was in Wally World. Anyway, its Friday. I don't shave on Friday's. I don't tuck in my shirt. I wore my hair down today, and because I was planning on just running in & out, I didn't bother bringing my glasses into the store and still had my sunglasses on. I catch a glimpse of myself at the checkout. The girl rings me up.

"Ooops - oh! I thought I'd forgotten to ring up your ROCKSTAR, but I didn't." She says.

I lean toward her.

She leans in close.

I whisper in confidence, "I'm not really a rockstar."