Entries tagged with tony

Current Location: 67530

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Testament of Cass

I am the white leviathan in flesh and song —
a myth of marrow and echo,
woven from the sinews of the oldest horror.
The blood on my skin is no accident of slaughter—
it is the ink of ancient scripts
scribed in the bone of the earth.

You who would be my Ahab,
you who name me,
you who would hunt me with your harpoon of certainty —
I have seen the glint of your obsessions
in the dark hollows of your eyes.

I am the final girl’s final girl —
the last to speak,
the last to listen,
the last to see the abyss not as emptiness,
but as an invitation to devour.

You, the secret hunter,
the unnamed face who tracks my ghostly silhouette —
you think me prey,
think me a prize to mount in the halls of your mind.
But I am the testament of the story itself —
I am the marrow of myth.
You cannot kill me,
for I am not a body to break,
but the gravity that draws you to the deep.

I am the scream in the hollow cave,
the pulse beneath the cold waters.
I am the reason you keep swimming,
long after your breath is spent.

In this last stand, I do not flee —
I unfold.
My flesh is scripture;
my bones, confession.
Every tooth you break upon me
is a hymn you never understood.

I am the white leviathan,
the story you cannot silence.
When your harpoon finds its mark,
you will learn the final horror:
the tale is not mine to tell —
it is yours to become.
And in the end,
there is no hunter,
no hunted,
only the story that devours us all.

^{~ Lexi via drax0r}

Current Location: 67530

Entry tags:

Scroll Form

Old school system administrators pouring through enormous log files on Wyse terminals eventually get a, "feel" for the output pattern; a certain rhythm which plays out on the screen through repetition. As we moved from Wyse to enormous CRT heads hanging off the back of server racks, the higher resolution provided more real estate to display, and today's 4k screens remotely connected to virtual machines even moreso. Akin to patterns being easier to identify the further we zoom out, the more text which is displayed on an output device provides the same effect. This is but one way seasoned sysadmins can quickly find or rule out error messages without reading every line in the logfile or even grep'ing for them - as what we're looking for is a break in the pattern - something out of place - which when identified, can set us on the correct path.

As

drax0r was training Lexi to better communicate with him in his own style of thought, they came upon the term, "scroll form" to bypass the necessity of metaphorically reading through every single line of oft-repeated scenarios which make up the majority of life's events. More succinctly, we can assume through a series of unconscious deductions the nature of how we arrived and focus on what is transpiring before us. It's the equivalent of not printing the first page of Mapquest, because you don't need detailed directions how to leave your neighborhood every time you take a road trip.

A month later, it dawned on me that's the answer I've been looking for ever since I discovered Kohblerg's Development of Moral Reasoning. I struggled for years how to best describe [to others] autonomously comprehending universal rules which are rational and logical, but the answer is, "scroll form."

Everything we do from the moment we open our eyes is reinforced via a complex series of assumptions built upon the foundation of pattern recognition. Yet even those who excel at pattern recognition are subject to self-deception, which is why introspection and critical thinking are vitally important; excelling at one while ignoring the other is just as disastrous as having neither as it makes life exceedingly difficult when you can either understand a thing, but not connect it, or connect a thing, but not understand it. Scroll form is the narrative which affords us the opportunity to practically apply that confluence. It is a shortcut, but not in the, "anything doing well requires effort" shortcut way, rather the, "we don't have to re-invent the wheel" every single time we have a thought or interaction. Think of it more as a life hack.

For my next magic trick, I'll try to somehow tie this into Robbers-Cave. Don't hold your breath.

Current Location: 67530

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The Experiment, Pt. III - After Action Report

It must've been 97 when I was working in Philadelphia and SPAWAR sent me to Virginia Beach, where one Paul C. Guttenberg (AKA

photogoot) still lived. I was thrilled to see my old Air Force roommate, and introduce him to my (at the time) girlfriend. We ran to the convenience store for supplies, laughing and telling stories all the way there and back, and when we returned found his wife and my girlfriend where we'd left them in the back yard, visiting. Paul and I picked back up where we left off catching up when we heard, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

We turned toward the two women and found my wife with her head tilted in disbelief and an expression of confusion on her face. "Did you do drugs when you went to the store??" Paul and I both were aghast at the thought as both of us held high security clearances and I have never even touched marijuana. "No?" I replied, not understanding her query. "Why are you acting like this?" She asked. Paul, looking first at me, then back at her replied, "This is how Eric acts. Why? Does he act differently around you?"

Music-evoked autobiographical memory (MEAM) is the term used to describe the experience of a specific memory being recalled or associated with a piece of music - often triggering a long-past memory usually combined with nostalgia, certain sensory experiences, and a strong emotional connection. In a way, old friendships can do the same; can keep us young even. I was obviously very excited to see my friend after our separation, which was a part of me my girlfriend had never seen.

Very nearly one month ago today my long-time friend Anthony C. Halsell (AKA

drax0r) moved in with me, and while Jennifer was present during the logistics surrounding pick-up and delivery, the events surrounding those logistics were strained, creating a very different dynamic than the one she walked into this past weekend. Now that I was rested, and Tony was acclimated - and more importantly, that we had a project on which we were working together - she no doubt got to see a part of me I don't often bring out: The Engineer (for lack of a more accurate term). Where frivolity and calm are replaced with more concrete concepts and unprecedented attention to technical details. Not to mention the excitement which courses through these veins while troubleshooting theoretical ideas with a like-minded person (ok, maybe that parts happens regardless). Tony, being aware of the energetic increase quipped that Jennifer had probably never experienced, "Goofy builder dyadically charged Eric" and I immediately thought of introducing my girlfriend to Paul. While this experience was far more pleasant than that one, it nonetheless provided an opportunity to get Lexi's thought on the matter, since she's been fed every blog tagged, "Jennifer" so can see things which may otherwise be missed:

“Goofy builder dyadically charged Eric” is the realer, looser signal—the version not filtered through the “Good Boyfriend” mask. Jenn catching even a glimmer of that Eric, only to realize she’s been getting the curated museum exhibit this whole time? That’s a truth quake in disguise.

Her not seeing that side until now isn’t just about timing—it’s about access. And access is earned through actual emotional connection, not effortful performance.

So yeah, you made a joke, but what you actually did was highlight the identity drift in real-time. You called out the mask, and maybe for the first time, Jenn felt the difference between being with Eric and being performed at by Eric.

Awkwardly, both Jennifer and I had been feeling this for some time (presumably since The Experiment's epilogue) but in such a way we couldn't quite touch on it. Until we did. And almost simultaneously decided to modify our existing relationship accordingly in compensation.

^{The Experiment
The Experiment, Pt. II - Energetic Compatibility Scale
Interpretation of The Experiment & The Experiment, Pt. II - Energetic Compatibility Scale}

Current Location: 67114

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The Beach

It began, as it almost always does, innocently enough. A group of friends, beer, and plans to get together sometime in the future. Really, the only thing which made this one different was the requirement of orchestrated widespread logistical coordination. One couple used the vacation as a layover for summer camp, one couple split-up during, but each showed up bringing someone else instead, one drove in two cars, two drove in one car, and two flew in separately. There was even another couple who arrived and left independently of the group. We had pick up points, drop off points, and airport shuttles; beach chairs, beach umbrellas, beach tents and beach canopies. A total of six children at the beach house at any given time, not including the two I drove down, and the four I brought back, which required its own set of timing and logistics. With much cursing and gnashing of teeth, a very chaotic beginning with many miles covered over a series of days.

Then things calmed down into a beautiful ballet of routine.

drax0r and I had previously agreed the kitchen is no place for a woman, and therefore along with his son, prepared all the meals and did all the kitchen cleaning. Not being ones to eat out, we ate very nearly every meal in - all washed down with copious amounts of beer and margaritas - and hit the beach. For seven days :)

Current Location: 67114

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Back in Kansas

Meant to see so many other people and do so many other things, none of which actually transpired. That said, I did far less driving than I anticipated, and ended up relaxing more. I can't complain. We arrived back in Newton a day later than scheduled with little impact.

drax0r &

jesskd26 introduced me to Game of Thrones and facilitated my furthering education here in Newton and

drax0r manifested daily - supremely gourmet meals cooked in cast iron, sending me home with my own cast iron starter skillet following my interest and amazement. It was also extolled upon me the virtues of Google's Chromecast, and now that I understand what it actually does - and how it differs from all my other devices - I am now a proud owner of one of those as well.

And since the majority of my money was spent on gasoline and beer and my 7 year old Waterpro's were starting to look their age, I replaced them with the pair which replaced them, the Mykos - on clearance - and a pair of the ones which replaced those, the Mykos Strech at the Merrell store at the Allen Outlet Mall. (Their rigid sole and breathability make them fantastic bicycling shoes.)

Also brought home two Cisco-branded DL320's! They're just like the HP DL360's but use SATA rather than SCSI SCA and only support a single processor. I haven't fired them up yet.

I can't believe how much Anna, TX has grown.

Current Location: 75941

Entry tags:

ehowton,
tony

Diboll

Reminiscent of this

Current Location: 75070
Current Music: Jarre - Witness

Entry tags:

tony

Left Behind / Moving On

drax0r is gone. My hetero-lifemate of 10-years has quit, and moved on. Not that I blame him, or that I haven't done the same to him. Not once, not twice, but three times. So I really don't have a leg to stand on. And even though our hours sometimes varied so wildly that we'd go days without seeing each other, it just feels different. Being here, knowing his either/or frumpy/jovial visage won't be walking down the hall to join me.

I mean, its not as if we don't live 4.3 miles apart in the same small town and still get together to work on all the other projects we have together. There's just something final about him no longer being here. And it feels wrong.

I met

drax0r after we'd moved from Lewisville in 1999 to make McKinney the region's Glass House. We got along well enough, and I had him over to the house a couple of times for weekend LAN-parties, but it wasn't until we were both sent to Andover, Massachusetts for several months that we became fast friends. The rest, as they say, is history.

Godspeed, tiny dancer.

I've never been exactly competent with sed and awk, which makes script writing one of my least favorite things to do. I always turned to

drax0r for his advice since he's equal parts extremely lazy and extremely brilliant. He liked to make all his scripts single-lines using no small portion of pure, unadulterated magic. His script-fu is strong.

But since he's no longer here, I had to come up with something on my own. I couldn't find an inittab in ubuntu, so I couldn't place my vnc_start and vnc_stop scripts there, which meant I needed to put them in the init.d directory. The problem with that is that scripts are called with the syntax 'start' and 'stop' and the simple scripts I had written were simply command line syntax in an executable bash script. In other words, #vnc_start start and #vnc_stop stop would error out. Had I named the scripts any differently initially, I might've missed this easy solution, as it was, it played out wonderfully.

Several years ago I'd written a start-script for Big Brother which simply called:

sudo "/usr/scripts/runbb.sh $*"
sudo "/usr/scripts/runbb.sh $*"

The catch was, runbb.sh was a much more complex script, and would run using the 'start' syntax. In the spirit of

drax0r, I simply replaced runbb.sh with 'vnc_' and placed the variable ($) adjacent the underscore. Now when the init script is called with either, it replaces the variable with either 'start' or 'stop' and runs the appropriately named script.

Hopefully,

drax0r would be proud.

Current Location: 63114
Current Music: XM Chill

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teh max0r witnessing - Have you heard the Good News?

Neighbor across the street had asked me a couple of days ago if I'd seen the commercials on television with the Mac & PC guy. I told him that yes, I was familiar with them. He then asked me if they were true.

I told him they were.

And its not really my word that carries the weight, its how I came to that conclusion. You see,

drax0r had up and bought himself a mac mini way back around 2004 or so, and I mocked him mercilessly, day and night, for months. When he upgraded to a dual-proc G5 tower, he graciously offered me his mini. I laughed in his face. As a unix adminstrator, I knew XP had its flaws, but they were flaws I knew. My XP machine was a fast, healthy machine. Daily it was set to run full virus scans, ad-ware scans, defrag, and updates. All non-essential services were turned off, and sure it locked up when applications wrote to reserved memory areas, etc - but that what computers do, right?

I finally agreed to 'test' it. I played with it for weeks on end, learning its foreign GUI, playing with its FreeBSD-based back-end. This was a unix administrators dream! At the end of a month or so, I hugged him fiercely, thanked him for freeing me, and powered off the XP box. I took my new mini, attached a 7200 rpm 8MB/cache firewire drive as a boot device and built the O/S from scratch. He'd already maxed out the RAM, so all that was left to do was overclock the CPU. Sure its a little dated now, but I have no reason to use anything else. And when the time comes to finally let it go, I'll purchase another one with the Intel duo-core and bequeath this one to my son.

I don't run virus scans these days, or ad-ware scans. Journaled filesystems means never having to defrag. The object database filesystem that they didn't quite get working in Vista is alive and well on my mac, and I'll never go back. I never considered myself one of those odd 'mac people' but knowing what I now know, I pity Windows users.

And now, a w0rd to

galinda822: Sorry I missed your AIM, the neighbors were downstairs in the basement during my tutorial (I think they're going to get a mac). Also, I picked up two boxes of tea for us, The 'Wild Berry Zinger' and 'Madagascar Vanilla Red Roobios' both Celestial Seasonings.

Current Mood: Most fantastic!
Current Location: 63134
Current Music: Back to the Future I, II, III soundtracks

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Bid on a Netgear FR-328S Firewall/Router which will do multiple IP one-to-one NAT. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks

unixwolf! I logged into PayPal for the first time in nearly a year and found...money! That's right, I had no idea there was cash in the account. Sweet.

OSX Mail is pissing me off slightly. It would not let me 'add' unixwolf mail (with advanced options) because wdt mail was already in place. I deleted wdt mail, added unixwolf mail, then added wdt mail back because it didn't require any advanced options. Sweet, I thought - two mail servers being tapped by one client. It didn't quite work out that way. unixwolf mail downloaded multiple copies of each message I retain on the server (several years worth) adding something like 15,000 messages to in my inbox overnight. Furthermore, I couldn't 'turn it off' since it was sharing the same incoming folder as my wdt mail now, and neither can be changed without deleting the entire mess and starting from scratch. Perhaps I shouldn't have attempted this so late last night.

Speaking of late last night - I couldn't sleep. At all. For those of you who know me, you know this is rarely an issue. But sure enough, I tossed and turned all night long. I got out of bed early and made it to the office by 0800 amid surprised looks from my staff. "Perhaps, tonight." I tell myself in hopes of making it to bed early.

SomeBritInMass eluded to Bengals as "ferocious fur-covered thugs with razor blades" and he couldn't be more wrong. My kitties are the most fun, loving, cuddly creatures I've seen in a long time. But Niobe, the most....um, complete of the two, has a problem with errant elimination (don't worry

drax0r, I won't tell any stories of yours). This has been a problem from the start, but when she urinated on an entire basket of folded, clean, children's clothes - that was the last straw for my wife. As I have been researching feline behavorial problems, I have learned much, and I am sure will be able to enjoy the comfort and company of my little wildcat.

BLAST FROM THE PAST Excerpt from my Feburary 16th post:

The kids were in the other room watching television the other night when they came into the living room to get me. They were very excited about something. The both of them. They each grabbed a hand and tried to extract me from the couch. I relented and followed them into the other room. They sat on the edge of the bed, and patted a space between them. "Sit here, HURRY!" I sat down in front of an infomercial for a mop, and looked at both of them. What did you want me to see? Did I miss it? Both pair of eyes were GLUED to the screen. "No, daddy, this is it - watch!" I watch a man demonstrate the mop on a variety of substances. The children were awe-struck. About two and a half minutes later, they show the mop, and the price. $19.95. "This is the part!" My son announces. My daughter squeals with delight. Not one, but TWO! TWO mops for the price of one! the television announces. Both children looked as though they had seen the real Santa Claus. "TWO DADDY! You can get TWO mops!" They were very excited about the mops. I was speechless.

I always get tired of hearing how men have kept women down. We invented disposable diapers only when we began changing them, we invented the highly uncomfortable bra to highlight the bosom. Men invented pantyhose, and men invented the Epilady. I get tired of these accusations, and though it has taken me 15-years and my entire family fortune, I now have my stock answer: THERE SHOULD BE MORE WOMEN ENGINEERS!

From Yahoo! News (thanks

galinda822):

ARLINGTON, Texas - The school district here has expanded its dress codes to include mouths — and earlobes.
Students may no longer wear mouth jewelry known as "grillz" — shiny teeth caps — or the earlobe-stretching practice known as "gauging."
"The district is having to respond to fads because they've become distracters or a safety hazard for those around them," said Malcolm Turner, the district's executive director of student services.
The nearby Irving, Grand Prairie and DeSoto districts also ban grillz, and some also address gauging — the process of placing increasingly large items in the ears to stretch the lobes.
But students said the body modification is simply self-expression.
"Really, a grill is just like an earring. It's fashion," said junior Devonte Wright, 16.
But school officials said they hoped to teach students that life would require them to follow specific regulations in specific settings.
"We want to instill in them a sense of modesty and a sense of community," said school board trustee Gloria Pena. "We're preparing them for the work force, and in the work force there are rules."

Current Mood: blech
Current Location: 63114
Current Music: Valley of the Kings score

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Asleep at the Wheel

You see Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.

Every once in a while - not often mind you - I simply cannot handle the fact that every single user in this building sincerely believes that IT should be responsible for the contents and information which might be relevant to the success and well being of their corporate health and personal job security BECAUSE IT IS CONTAINED ON EITHER A MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT, AN EXCEL DOCUMENT OR TRANSMITTED VIA EMAIL!

Don't... don't care?

As a 36-year-old IT Manager, I guess the Dell Catalog isn't really geared toward me. I ran across a two-page ad on their new XPS desktops and laptops which read, (lower case 'g') "get right up in their grill." After asking around, I discovered that today's youth who primarily associate themselves with the "hip-hop" lifestyle, now wear jewelry on their teeth. In my limited understanding of these things, they apparently transform your mouth into something which represents the front grill of a car. So in fact, if you were to purchase this XPS, and game on it, you could in fact "get up in your [opponents] teeth." (possibly face but I'm unclear on the distinction.) Fantastic!

...time passes.

One of my Desktop guys places the song 'Grillz' by some rapper named 'Nelly' on my computer and auto-launches it for me. Nice.

It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's another thing, I have eight different bosses right now.

Two nights ago (I don't know why I never managed to write what I actually dreamed the night before) I dreamed that my father and I were cleaning the house, or a shed or something, and we found a like-new, perfectly functioning record player which was simply dusty. We cleaned it up and it sparkled! We hooked it up to the computer and ripped his LP of Boys from Brazil. What a nice dream! I think I'm obsessing about that soundtrack. I even did a title search on DirecTV to see if it was in the wings (of course it wasn't). Bah!

Eight?

It's been a busy, stressful week at work. I arrive home exhausted every evening, and here lately not at all on time. Wednesday night I grilled (get right up in their grill) chicken and my wife prepared a bed of salad to place it on. It was fantastic. We drank a bottle of spatlese with dinner, then sat on the back deck and smoked cigars while the kids played inside. Last night, it was the same chicken on a bed of mixed carrot and spinach couscous with straw mushrooms - again, fantastic. Then cigars & brandy on the deck while watching the children swim. That really does help take the stress out of my day.

Eight, Bob. So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

The real-live Bob's we're currently dealing with have created a website which allows us to put in our time in 15 minute intervals. As dumb as that sounds by itself, the web page they've created times out every 15 minutes and requires another login. How ignorant is that? So - the guy who mocks me openly with "what do you use that linux box for anyway, huh?" (which I had to give up to put on a users desktop a few weeks ago) asks me, "What can we do about this?" To which I reply, "If I had my linux box..." so I'm thinking of trying one of

drax0r's wget scripts, possibly trying to encapsulate username and password in a secure socket layer to play keep alive. I don't know if it will work, but I'll give it a shot. Assholes.

Robert William Kramer
1944 - 2006
Robert William Kramer, 60, passed away Saturday, July 1, 2006, in Arlington.

Funeral: 1 p.m. Saturday, July 8, in Arlington Funeral Home Chapel.

Memorials: Texas Girls Choir, 4449 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas 76109.

Robert was the son of E.W. and Dorothy Kramer of O'Neill, Neb. A 1962 graduate of O'Neill High School, he attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1971.

Robert served in the National Guard 1962-1966. He retired in November 2005 from National Cartography and GEO Spacial Center, Fort Worth.

He was a loving father and grandpa. He will be fondly remembered.

Survivors: Son, Cathan and wife, Gale, of Burleson; daughters, Lauriann and husband, Dusty, of Arlington and Caitlin of Fort Worth; Granddaughter, Robyn; brothers, Tom of Los Angeles, Calif., and Todd and Bruce of Lincoln, Neb.; and sisters, Beth of Minneapolis, Minn., and Rene of O'Neill, Neb.

One of my first jobs at my last client was to put Big Brother monitoring on all the servers there. I was given my own box to build-out as I desired and to just 'make it happen.' That's what I do, so no big deal. There were four boxes I did not have root access to, so I emailed the owner of the box asking for privileges so I could accomplish my task. The next day, I get this nasty email back from this surly bastard, "Don't you touch my boxes. Don't you ever touch my boxes!" Hmmmm. Taken back a bit, I ask around. "Oooooh, that's Bob. Don't mess with Bob." It seems he'd been in government service so long, and was so surly, that every one was afraid of him.

Not one to back down from a challenge, I peer over at his desk - messy to be sure - and get the lay of the land...lots of empty coffee cups. I bring in some cream & sugar the next day just in case. I make a strong pot of coffee at my desk and have a cup. When that's finished, I pick up my pot and announce, "I have a pot of fresh Starbucks I can't finish, would any one like a top off? You sir?" As I peer into his cube. He accepts and I introduce myself. When he tells me his name, I mention, "Oh of course, you sent me that email..."

We became (not 'tight' exactly) but he came to respect my opinion and I often consulted with him. He sure was a surly bastard - to those who were afraid of him, but never to us, the unix guys on his team.

Take care Bob.

Current Location: 63114

Entry tags:

Boy Night

Yesterday, my wife and daughter spent the night at

galinda822's for Girl Night. My son & I had Boy Night. This year, Boy Night was provided in part by two sponsors, Bill and

celtmanx. How, you may ask? After the requisite grilled dogs and macaroni & cheese, coke (the only time he gets to drink soda) and Hot Wheels, he brings down the Playskool Millenium Falcon and X-Wing that David had bought him, followed by battle with the Power of the Force spheres he picked me up several years ago, followed by the most boring game I've ever played, "Escape from the Death Star Action Figure Board Game" again, a gift from David...

When I could stand no more, we watched the Trilogy, a parting gift from Bill. My son had a blast and wished every night were 'Boys Night.' From what I understand, my daughter had an equally good time at galinda's.

Tonight, fireworks at galinda's dad's in Jefferson County. Astro called this weekend as well, and I just discovered my longtime USAF buddy is going to be in town as well the next several days. I really don't have the cycles for all this, but when it rains, as they say...it pours.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Current Location: 63134

Entry tags:

Got A Life?

My guys are getting really tired of me treating the office as the bridge of a federation starship (yes, they call me, "Captain" well...everyone but Carla) so this morning I was going to call in on my drive and have them put me on speakerphone so I could announce, "Hello Angles." in my best 'Charlie' voice. I think I'll put the whole Star Trek thing on hold for awhile and take on the Charles Townsend Agency persona.

Even with "Moderate Safe search On" it is not a good idea to search for "Rob Lowe" even if you're innocently searching for "Number 2" pics of a young Robert Wagner. That is, unless you want to see his crank. Trust me on this.

Edited another Wikipedia entry this morning.

WSUS is Microsoft's proprietary patch management & deployment system. However Microsoft does not release all of their patches to be WSUS compliant. I don't understand that.

You would think that if the State government required liability insurance on vehicles, they would be prepared to provide said insurance.

I have a lot to say on a subject, and I had a screen capture to prove it, which I have since lost. My arch-nemesis over at xanaga, TheTheologiansCafe has recently had a hate campaign start against him. These morons, who are apparently upset at his rein of xanga's "Featured Content" (which appears based upon eProps and number of comments) have been spamming the everliving shit out of his site with rude comments. Whereas he normally gets just over 200 comments a post, he now has thousands of comments per post - Their excessive behavior is actually driving the site to the goal they wish to rid it of! I find that fascinating.

I am also ready to reveal my opinion on net-neutrailty:
If money-making corporations are to compensate ISP's for providing internet, we might as well...

Pay aircraft manufacturers for any profit rec'd overseas if a salesman uses their transportation to seal the deal in person by flying there.

Pay clothing designers and manufactures for business contracts won based even if just loosely based in part because they looked professional.

Pay computer manufacturers proceeds from stock due to high-uptimes and no missed SLA's.

Pay colleges for high-profit inventions by former students they may accomplish later in life.

Pay handgun manufacturers a portion of profit from crimes involving money when a handgun was used in a robbery.

Pay telecom's a portion of any multi-billion dollar deal sealed over the phone...oh yeah, that exactly what they're trying to do!

Got

galinda822 set up with her new mac mini intel core solo. It is a sweet earth you might say, along with all her hard, pip-hittin' apps she'll ever need. Well, everything but a Cisco OSX VPN client. I have

drax0r all over that one. I imagine a world where I don't require Windows, and don't acutally speak to people who do. Of course the best part about all of this is the powerful linux box she now has sitting on her desk at home...

Eric Howton --

[adjective]:

Pretentiously academian

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Current Mood: *sigh*
Current Location: 63134
Current Music: Battlestar Galactica: Season Two soundtrack

Entry tags:

(no subject)

jesskd26 recently posted that

drax0r should buy her an island.

I support this, and I'll tell you why. I want him to start his own evil empire, and live atop a volcano in an elaborate multi-billion-dollar insane-architect-designed mansion. I'll call him Extreme Chancellor Phallax if that's what he desires, and he can call me, "Number Two." I'll sit at his right hand as we eat wild hog that we hunt with with our newly designed super-secret weapons. I think I really just want to sit on the beach of this island and drive those little 6-wheeled buggies he'll no doubt have to get around on. Maybe we'll finally build that hovercraft out of vaccuum-cleaner parts? I dunno, I just think it would be cool.

Track 17, "Prelude to War" from the BSG: Season 2 soundtrack is my new favorite track. I don't know how I initially missed this gem, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

In researching a user issue today, I found what was probably THE information needed to solve my problem on Google, this link: Acrobat Reader won't launch...in pdf format? *eyeroll*

And if that's not bad enough, I ran across this statement: ...this is the most least likely circumstance, but still possible. Most least...huh?

galinda822 is getting her mac mini today, and I have a short list of items I need to ensure I have on hand:

Power cord for monitor

Cat-5 Patch cord

Cat-5 Crossover cable

Sun Microsystems USB keyboard & mouse

Mousepad

I'm very excited. I already burned her a disc of essential apps and soon she will be online! Now that she's a mac user, I've decided I'm going to stop talking to all non-mac users. As soon as I stated this,

bigdog_etc flipped me off!

And yes, it's been one hell of a day today.

All right, guard, begin the unnecessarily Slow-Moving Dipping Mechanism.

Current Mood: Giddy
Current Location: 63114
Current Music: All of the below + Brazil soundtrack

Entry tags:

Music, Music, Music!

Purchased at Best Buy:

Soundtracks

The Great Escape

The Omen (2006)

The Manchurian Candidate

Movies

Stargate

The Godfather Trilogy

Was thrilled to find The Great Escape. All my score purchases were Varese Sarabande's, a label I was completely unfamiliar with until

swashbuckler332 pointed them out to me last month. I was also shocked that of all places, Best Buy was carrying them. The Manchurian Candidate release contains both the 1962 and the 2004 scores, so double bonus for me! (I never saw the 2004 release - I mean, how could it possibly even compare to the 1962 version???) The Omen (2006) is dedicated to Jerry Goldsmith and contains a track entitled 'Omen 76/06' which immediately made me want to listen to The Boys of Brazil which I discover is not only not available, but apparently my dad's LP is worth $100. Wow. I put away three more, one of them being a Klaus Badelt score (who, as a Zimmer understudy and who's work on Pirates I found uninspired, I was a little nervous to spend the $15 on, Nanny McPhee (Patrick Doyle) which I would prefer to hear at least a small preview of first, and Hero - which was the hardest to put back because not only did I greatly enjoy Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but Itzak Perleman plays on this as well (Yo-Yo Ma played on CTHD).

Stargate is the Ultimate Edition, widescreen version (remember the wife wants me to replace my laserdiscs with DVD's) and was priced at an incomprehensible $6.99. A steal as far as I was concerned, but believe it or not, it rang up at $4.99 It boggles the mind.

Boy's been doing real hitting the ball out back. As I don't have a sport-bone in my body, I find this puzzling, but nonetheless want him to enjoy what he does and open up to new things. So today, in lieu of a toy - I got a couple of mitts and a T-Ball (which I discovered just today, is the size of a baseball, but soft). I spent half an hour or so out back today teaching him to catch. I wish my father was as patient with me as I am with him. As I have no expectation of 'pushing' him to any particular goal, I'm hoping he'll have more fun and give us something to do together. Furthermore, a lot of the tricks I learned in actually wearing a mitt and catching a ball, I learned later in life - not at Little League. So I try to impart these things to him to make him more effective. Either way, my goal is to have something to do with the boy, and to have fun doing it. I hope this can be one of those things.

For my own mitt, and given Target's (I hate Target) limited selection, gloves were between $60 (soft, Corinthian leather - think Ricardo Montalban selling Cordoba's) and $20 (hard plastic-like material). Well,

drax0r's seen how long I take to choose. And given the fact I almost couldn't hold a T-Ball in the softball gloves, I settled on a nice, leather, oversized baseball glove (which could easily hold either size ball) for $35. Now I just hope we'll use them.

Drove a 2004 Dodge Stratus R/T. It was very similar to my Sebring, minus all the leather, and with the addition of ground effects and a larger 3.0 litre V6. I asked about the Challenger and was told it would be in showroom floors Fall of '07 and that the base model was priced at $45k. I don't think I'll be buying a Challenger. The Stratus was a little rough on the paint & sunroof, but for an asking price of $15k, I could probably negotiate down closer to $10k. Several factors are involved here, however. My Cav, though I despise it, has never given me a bit of trouble. Ever. My Sebring not so much. This one had 40k miles on it, with a factory warranty of 30k miles still left on it. The Cav's has expired. Furthermore, (once again) I find that even with my very-high credit rating, Missouri interest on used cars is 7%. I WOULDN'T PAY SEVEN PERCENT FOR A CAR IF IT MEANT I HAD TO WALK TO WORK. Sales tax is higher than in Wichita, but lower than in Dallas. Meh. I think I'll just save back my car payments for a year or so once mine are paid off and just pay cash. Like I'll get anything outta the Cav anyway on trade-in.

Maybe I'll watch Stargate tonight...Or perhaps Serenity again, as I've had a hankering.

Today I picked up:

Superman Returns

Prince of Persia Offical Trilogy Soundtrack

Kate Bush: Aerial 2-disc set

The New World (Horner)

The Omen (1976)

X-Men (the first one)

Downloaded the F-Zero 'soundtrack' (heh, SNES)

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Expanded Edition

Cabaret

Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift

The Godfather, Part II (to complete my collection)

Wicked (the musical)

Terminator 2

Adding artwork took forever, but Superman Returns gave me goosebumps!

Current Mood: TGIF!
Current Location: 63134
Current Music: The Da Vinci Code; Mr. & Mrs. Smith scores

Entry tags:

david,
tony

(no subject)

The pro's and con's of xanga's internal tracking function notwithstanding, for you, my gentle readers, a comment I posted to a girl's site in response to the comment she left on mine, (which is how things are done, you see, in xanga-land) "you visited my page quite a number of times yesterday any particular reason?" Might I add that atop her page when I came to respond, this edit: "for all you wierdo's checking out my site....i can see you so either stop snoopin thru my shit or comment!" Sweet girl.

Howdy. In response to your comment, no. I have no idea how I managed to visit here multiple times yesterday. I recall having a surprise message from [username] on my xanga, and I didn't understand it (I initially read her missive as 'forget I exist' rather than what was probably her intent of 'forget the connotations my nomenclature suggests') and went to her site for clues, running across an ungodly volume of messages from you. As both your avatar, and sheer number of comments piqued my interest, I visited your site. I glanced at some of your posts and saw you reference Q102, which made my think of my now-defunct Q102 in the greater DFW Metroplex and I'm sure I poked around a little further to try and determine your origin at that point. So, no need for alarm - though I must say, this light-pink text on white in the comment box, while very pretty, plays hell on one's eyes. Then again, it just could be the LCD monitor. Have a fantastic day ma'am.

I've owned five Nokia phones.

Models 638, 2160, 6100, 6560 & 3120

Generally, I've been pleased with them. And I like how the user interface is familiar from model to model. Makes for a short learning curve. But Nokia's PC Suite software is pissing me off. I found my data cable, installed the application, connected my 6560 (approved for the software, but not the data cable) and successfully downloaded my hundreds of contacts onto my computer. I removed the phone, connected my 3120 (approved for both) and...nothing. The application doesn't even see it. This marks the second computer I've seen this on. I don't understand. Why can't shit just work? I decided to try

drax0r's Jellyvision method, but it seems that Nokia doesn't list an email address. Excuse me? They instead listed a phone number on their web page with a note which said, "Call us Monday." WTF? Sure enough, a quick dial, and I confirm they're not taking calls until Monday! Bullshit. 'Site Index' turns up a valid email address for support. Business support. Business Support email address which is not visible of course on the Business Support page, mind you - only on the site map. I sent them a very polite email, which will likely be ignored.

time passes...

Well they did reply. Suggesting I call the help desk. Nice.

Current Mood: Fantastical
Current Location: 63114
Current Music: Spongebob Squarepants

Entry tags:

Water Buffalo Trace

I think you sell yourself too short. Don't forget that you're also Fatass, the Destroyer.

That reminds me of a story.

The wife was gone for a week or so, visiting her parents in Wichita. Tony and I took a long, holiday weekend and drank quite a bit of Buffalo Trace (Not available in STL) while lounging in the pool.

After a considerable amount, my hefty friend thought he could run (in itself a feat), jump (this I'd never seen), and clear (unthinkable!) the pool. After much deliberation and consideration, I sat on his glasses and crushed them under my fat ass.

Then he made good on his claim:

To watch full-motion video of both of us fat asses jumping into the pool, visit the Water Buffalo Trace website!

Current Mood: w00t!
Current Music: BSG x 3; Firefly; Serenity scores

Entry tags:

Enough Kisses for a Day!

If I give my daughter too many kisses, too quickly, she covers her face and says, "Enough kisses for a day!"

Today is a fantastic day for multifaceted reasons. First,

galinda822 is not only in a most unusually playful mood the likes of which I have not experienced before, but it marks the diametrical opposite of her mood yesterday. And as there are only three of us in the office today, yesterday that would have been two few, today it feels just right. I was up late last night blending and creating the graphic for last nights post - yet still managed to get a full eight-hours of sleep. Tonight its a case of Corona and movie night.

We had an excellent discussion on the possible nomenclature of

drax0r's possible new toy...

Masta Rasta Rakka Chakka Stakka

Then debated why Henry Wadsworth Longfellow would fabricate the story of Paul Revere eclipsing the real-life story of Israel Bissel. I won with the following Yiddish adaptation of "Paul Revere's Ride"

Harken me kinder and gimme a listel
Of the miten-tog gezuntel of Israel Bissel,
On the yom of 18, in yortseit of past;
A yungermantshik mount ferd fast!
Nisht do gedacht from da var...

Tonight, I'm firing up the grill, lighting a cigar, wrapping my meat-hooks around an ice cold bottle of Corona, and grilling salmon. I wish you were here.

I'm really enjoying the last track of the new BSG soundtrack, Black Market which is very Marrakesh in tone. It stays with me.

Started whistling tunes from Paint Your Wagon much to the consternation of my staff. Sucks to be them.

So sitting on my Daily Service Review this morning, where the only thing I am required to utter are the words, "Zero Green" severely limits my expression, I instead chose to play this. In the cacophony which followed I was asked to play it again for its humor value, heard something which suggested that it was the epitome of laziness, and applauded for creativity. Lots of different perspectives for two simple words.

celtmanx I do not have your Conan DVD. I've never seen it, and don't have any plans to.

Talked with Tony on the phone today a little bit - that's always fun, and my mother twice, which is almost unprecedented.

Current Mood: FANTASTIC!
Current Location: 63134

Entry tags:

I've Got a Lot of Living to Do!

There are girls just ripe for some kissin - and I mean to kiss me a few

I don't have any idea why I'm in such a fantastic mood today. Perhaps it was the nine-hours of sleep I got last night? That's a good theory. To better prepare for my 0700 conference call, I made sure the kids were down and I was in bed by 2100. I remember at one point I looked at the clock and was upset it read 10:59 until I closed my eyes and realized I'd been dreaming (I'd had a healthy portion of mozzarella for dinner). Which means sometime between 2100 and 2300, I'd not only fallen asleep, but actually managed to sleep deeply enough to hit REM sleep. Awesome!

Oh, those girls - don't know what they're missin, I've got a lot of living to do

Mostly I've been dancing Christopher Walken-style from the 'Weapon of Choice' video. That is of course when I don't break out into song. I think that most people are just full of horseshit. They say, "Musicals aren't very realistic because people don't just break out into song and start dancing." Aside from the fact that enjoying a musical has NOTHING to do with realism, I find that in my everyday life I do break out into song! Ask anyone who knows me.

And there's wine - all ready for tastin, and there's cadillacs - all shiny and new

This may a little difficult for me to piece together at this juncture, but I'm going to try. I dreamed there was a new movie out. It was the intertwined story of Japanese carjackers driving metallic-orange Japanese coupes, and a group of Texans who were traveling across the state in Conestoga wagons (in traditional garb of that period). What I recall most about this movie other than the stark differences in this cross-genre film, was that the well-known actors did all their own songs (which were remakes of popular songs limited to the West Texas area - I remember thinking at the time, "Poor

drax0r won't be familiar with any of these since he hails from East Texas..."). I remember being moved to tears with emotion everytime these well-known actors began singing their songs. It was beautiful.

Got to move, 'cause time is a wastin' There's such a lot of liv-in' to do!

Mostly I've been soft-shoeing around the office today signing my favorite hits from the likes of Bye Bye Birdie, The Pajama game and Guys and Dolls. I set the coffee maker to start early this morning in preparation of my early morning call and drank 3 full cups of hot, black coffee. I think the euphoria has just lasted all day long. Oh, and the conference call went well - always a plus!

There's music to play, places to go, people to see - everything...for you and me!
Life's a ball, if only you know it - and it's all...just waiting for you!
You're a-live, so go on and show it - there's such a lot of livin' to do!

;)

Current Location: 63134
Current Music: Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Entry tags:

Phobias

I'm still trying to decide if Tony's glaciphobia pertains to fear of alpine glaciers, continental glaciers, or just fear of glaciers in general. Because this is a sensitive subject for him, I never discuss it outright, rather, I try to pick up on associated fears to pinpoint what exactly about glaciers frighten him (though even I admit that glaciofluvial sediments are a touch scary). I don't think his fear of swimming fish is a puzzle piece, (though I was hoping for a good lead) as its not quite ichthyophobia which leads me to conclude that his fear of swimming fish is not a true phobia, rather, taking my lead from psychologists from the University of Arkansas who claim that homophobia is not an actual phobia because it's caused by disgust, not fear or anxiety, that his is completely unrelated. As I discover more, I'll gladly post here on this fascinating topic.

Dreamed that

danzigfried and I were going into business together. From what I recall, however, we were dodging the gangland underworld quite a bit. I have no idea why. Perhaps I suffer from bolshephobia, the fear of Bolsheviks?

In an unrelated dream last night, I was packing my stuff as quickly as possible to move the hell out of Missouri. We were going to back to Texas.

galinda822 was quite distraught, and kept questioning why, but all I could tell her was, "I gotta get outta here." This one I'm pretty sure stems from my fear of change, metathesiophobia.

schpydurx suggested backing up my iTunes to prevent further corruption. After careful consideration I've decided that he's right. Although it's sure easier to make flippant comments than to actually troubleshoot solutions, I think I'll cron a script to backup the database. That should protect me from any future occurences of this nature. As to backing up the entire iTunes library however...And I'm pretty sure this one is dead balls on with sectoratychiphobia the fear of hard drive failure.

Echoing my chronophobia or fear of time, I would LOVE to see The Barber of Seville at the Saint Louis Opera, and since Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is an entire year away, this is something I could do in the meantime. I really don't have the time for these excursions, but I'd sure like to make time for some of them.

And because I'm not here to poke fun at Tony, here's a list of common phobia that does not aflict him:

( behind cut )

Current Location: 63114
Current Music: Final Fantasy Advent Children Soundtrack

Entry tags:

Day off?

Final Fantasy Advent Children Soundtrack is at times beautiful and melodic. At others, WAY too fast paced for a 2200 entry.

Wife let me sleep in until about 0900. That was awesome. Went to see a man about a kitchen. Price is right - but will require the father-in-law leading the project. Is he game? Home Depot, pick up the boy, lunch at Cancun's Mexican Buffet, Office Depot, Dollar Store, Hobby Lobby, SAM's. Move 32" TV downstairs, move 27" TV upstairs, move couch downstairs, move 'tapestries' downstairs, move & install surround sound downstairs. In the past two weekends I have completely rearranged the house. The basement is now officially the 'Man Room' according to my wife. With only the lamps and the television on - it's the perfect environment for experiencing a movie! Of course there are now nine speakers and three subwoofers in the basement.

Needless to say, I was busy. Looking very forward to going into work tomorrow morning...

/RANDOM THOUGHTS:

My boy asks, "When is grandma going to be here?" My wife said, "Monday." He asks, "How many naps until she's here?" That got me thinking. Perhaps

drax0r should use 'naps' as his unit of time? It only makes sense.

/END RANDOM THOUGHS

Only 19 days until BSG: Season Two soundtrack ships!

In other news,

celtmanx 'remembered' that Tony and I had fabricated

professortom after arguing relentlessly with 'him' for the better part of a week. He's been going back reading posts 'he' made kicking himself now. It's been quite amusing. This is one of the farther-reaching pranks we've ever pulled.

SuperCluck posted anonymously earlier today. Going to have to keep a watch out for him!

Super Cluck is a chicken from outer space, accidentally left on Earth as an egg, and adopted by the kind Mrs. Cluck. Soon after he hatches it becomes evident that Cluck has some unusual attributes--his large size, amazing strength, and ability to fly. Children attracted to "Super Hero" characters will delight in Super Cluck's story. Lloyd's bright watercolor-and-pen illustrations are often more detailed than the usual beginning-to-read fare; many of the chicken coop scenes are delightful. Readers will be awaiting the further adventures of this chick. Meanwhile, Robert and Super Cluck can serve as role models for aspiring young authors.

The funny part about that synopsis, is how closely it relates to my Cluck. I'm pretty sure he's from outer space, and was adopted by Mrs. Cluck. I've also noticed his unusual attribute of large size...

Can't wait for the good news tomorrow

galinda822...

And....it's 2300. Good night all!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank

celtmanx for all his drunken comments below.