I’m here in Aurora writing this on my Mom’s iMac, after loading up Fetch and BBEdit and getting it organized. I have to admit, I’m impressed by how zippy this 3-year-old machine really is. If I was to find one at home used for less than $400, I’d probably buy it so that I could give Renie her beige G3 back.
Christmas was fantastic up here; everybody had a great time and enjoyed their gifts. Renie, as usual, knocked herself out and gave me a beautiful progressive-scan DVD player which also plays MP3’s on CD-ROM discs- wow! I’m going to have to rethink the whole musical situation at home and really figure out a way to wire the house so that the TV/DVD player is hooked into a receiver that reaches upstairs. Mom and Dad gave me a beautiful used flash unit for my Minolta, which is fantastic- I can’t wait to get the roll I shot up here developed to see how the flash syncs up with the shutter. But I’m thrilled- finally I can use it in low-light situations, like the basement…oh, yeah…that’s done already.
Jen was wonderful and gave me a beautiful silver ring, the first piece of jewelry I’ve ever owned (and worn) and it looks like it belongs on my finger. She was nervous and worried that I wouldn’t like it, bless her heart, but once I put it on my finger it hasn’t come off. I’m still holding it up in front of mirrors and looking at it as if aliens stole in the bedroom at night and put it on my hand- it’s shocking, but very comforting, to see something that beautiful but masculine on my finger. Also, my obsessive-compulsive tendecies have kicked into high gear, and I find myself playing with it when I’m nervous or bored.
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Just realizing how badly over to the PC side I’ve gone…this page looks like crap on a Mac running IE 5. I just spent about 10 minutes cleaning up bad HTML. Makes me wonder if the other pages look the same (I’m too scared to look and too tired to clean them up.) My skillz are nowhere right now. I need me a Mac bad.
Working on a javascript for the Breakaway pages where the page will randomly select an image and drop a container table data around it with the proper background color and href tag. Looks like I’m successful; now I think I’m going to see if I can add the possibility of Flash images as well.
I’ve burned Rob and Karean a series of good mellow electronic discs for listening to: the first two Hooverphonic albums, Radiohead’s Kid A, Protection by Massive Attack, and Psyence Fiction by UNKLE. I’m burning Tricky’s Maxinquaye and Portishead’s Live in NYC right now, and I’ll probably add Supreme Beings of Leisure in there too, and that should make, with a bottle of wine, a great gift for them.
X-mas shopping is almost done too. I just have Jen’s final two gifts to buy tonight and I’m all set.
I added a few things to the list from the 13th for after we get back.
Lord of the Rings is amazing. What a great movie. I want to learn how to shoot a bow and swordfight now.
Another morning of sloth and tiredness. The cats were having fun playing behind the nightstand with the cord to the lamp and clock when I woke up; at about 4am Teller decided to bring a play mouse up onto the bed and tussle with it on my chest. Ugh.
Yes, for those of you in a menstrual way, your prayers have been answered: Vinnie’s Tampon Cases. Words cannot describe… (via salon)
Today I was able to get the log pages into a yearly format instead of just monthly, which meant updating whole directories and links throughout the 12 months. Yuck. But at least it’s done. So there’s a 2002 directory now ready for content (although there’s nothing in there yet.) I also finally understand why all the bloggers have links set up on their entries; these being static pages right now I’ll probably add a link anchor in by hand each day (considering I do all this by copy–>paste anyway, it’s not a stretch) until the site is moved to a different server. The limbo I’m in right now kind of sucks. So, here’s an example: Looking through the past months, I realize just how little I had to do at Supon on April 26th. Isn’t that sad? I should have known something was bad back then. Oh, well. yes, I realize this link doesn’t work, because IE doesn’t understand how to find anchors on a horizontal axis, only vertical. Oh, well. Sue me.
I also was able to get a randomizer script up and working on the Breakaway site- all I need to do now is figure out how to get the result of the randomizer and check it to add a background color to the table.
For reasons somebody at Marlin Perkins’ Wild Kingdom would be happy to explain to me, my body has gone into a hibernation cycle approximating that of a large North American Brown Bear. I find it extremely difficult to get out of the bed when the alarm rings, even when there is a Staind song playing for the one millionth time on my clock radio, the cats are doing a flamenco high-step on my chest attempting to wake me up, and the sun is shining brightly on my face.
Last night I moved the DSL router and mounted it to the board below the wiring panel downstairs; for the time being I put the Barricade on top of two stacked speakers and hooked all the wiring up; then I found out that wiring the jacks to the ‘A’ code was not working, so I switched them all to the ‘B’ standard and got link lights and connectivity throughout the house. I need to figure out how to mount the Barricade to the wall in a somewhat appealing manner, then tighten up the cabling. Then I re-route the coax feed from the satellite dish and clean it up, and I can close the whole panel.
Today I think I’m going to do some shopping for a digital camera when I’m taking breaks. Hopefully I can find a good unit for about $200 with USB or FireWire and at least 1.3 megapixels.
| camera | memory | capacity | zoom | price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kodak DX-3500 ZOOM Digital Camera 2.2MP 3X Zoom USB | 8MB | 2.2MP | 3x zoom | $219.95 | review |
| Olympus Camedia D-370 Digital Camera Bundle | 40 total | 1.3MP | 4x optical | $239.95 | review |
| Kodak DX3600 Zoom Digital Camera | 8MB | 2.2MP | 3x zoom | $299.95 | review |
| Olympus Camedia D-510 | 8MB | 2.1MP | 3X optical | $399.95 | review |
What I’m seeing from the sample photos on this review site is that the cheaper Olympus, while being a good deal, takes pictures that have a lot of warping and fuzz at the edges of the pictures- a cheap lens. The Kodak cameras, while feeling rather cheap and plasticky, take larger and better pictures. The more expensive Olympus is probably not worth the extra $100 right now.
I just found out the company is taking us out to see Lord of the Rings tomorrow at noon. Pretty cool!
Mumia Abu-Jamal got out of the death sentence today; the federal high court decided he needed a new sentencing. Granola hippie kids and stupid liberal Hollywood stars are rejoicing worldwide as we speak.
This morning I heard ‘Riders on the Storm’ by the Doors while on my way into work; a fairly portentous and ominous song, but a great bassline and fitting melancholy mood for a gray morning. Then I heard ‘Merry Christmas (Come Home Baby)’ by the Eagles twice before I got to work.
We went out on Saturday night with T. and J. here from work, and got some dinner at Peter’s; afterwards we drove over to Lager’s Pub and threw back until they put all the chairs up on the tables. T. and J. were up late and crashed at the house; by the time we woke up from our slumber, wiped the cobwebs from our eyes and took a few advil, I realized we had nothing to eat, so I walked J. down to the store, got some grub, and returned home to find Kate, Dan, and four other people staring T. and Jen down on the couch. They took off for the Cyclocross race up in the park and Jen and I commenced to fixing some breakfast for the weary.
The Cyclocross race was very interesting—about 3,000 people in Patterson Park with a crazy-ass course up and down the stairs, hills and across the grass. Those crazy fools rode for an hour—something like ten laps—on this course, doing 7-minute times on road frames where I would have done about 30 minutes on my mountain bike.
Found the Monson Snowboards site. (via kottke.org)
I read today that the lead singer of Big Country was found dead in Hawaii today. I went and downloaded ‘In a Big Country’ on Morpheus today. RIP, man. (via cnn.com)
I ran one mile today in 10 minutes! woo-hoo! (please don’t laugh at me when my hamstrings contract into vise-grips and I lay screaming on the floor under my desk clutching my broken, mangled ankles…)
Holy nasty. (via redcricket)
In a very ambivalent mood today. Been reading a lot of navel-gazing about blog people and what they ‘should’ and ‘should not’ be writing about. I’m gonna write about what I want to write about—this section of my site is for me; if folks want to read it, they can. If not, well, there are a bunch of other sites to read written by funnier, more interesting people than me.
Nate got me listening to Digable Planets’ Cool Like That today. That song brings me back, man.
And this link is just frickin’ hysterical, man.
Note to automotive product designers: make the stuff easier to use. I had to bust out the Leatherman and actually saw the windshield wiper off the metal arm to get it off the car. Turns out it was just a small, invisible retainer clip that i had to stab underneath the arm to get it to release. (yeah, you figure it out in 40-degree driving rain, smartass.) Now that it’s replaced with two shiny new Anco blades, I can’t wait for it to rain.
Looking forward to an evening of TV, the cats, and a cold Anchor Steam or two. Seems like Jen and I have been constantly on the move for the past two or three weeks.
I was able to get link lights and working signals from all the ethernet cabling except for the living room; once that’s done tonight I’m going to attempt to move the DSL modem and the Barricade router downstairs and install them permanently. After the holidays I’ll go back to IKEA and buy the little metal cart I want for a server rack, but right now a pair of old homemade speakers will do just fine, thanks.
So, after the holidays, the list looks like this:
Oil change for the Tortoise – $40- Fancy server rack from IKEA – $40
- Save $3,000 for the Wyoming Scout.
- More blank CD’s – $20
CD cases- 1 for Rob and one for me – $20
I think, if I can save up over $1,500 by the end of February, I’ll reward myself with a $200 digital camera.
Walking home last night from the Rite Aid parking lot, I heard a bunch of yelling from up te street. A minivan was parked up a block and a half with two women sitting/standing near the front seats, and the driver was screeching at her kid, a boy of about 8 named Jason.
Mother: Jayyyy-son! Get Back Here Right Now!!
Jason: (walking away from the minivan) No! (unheard protest)
Mother: Jayyy-son! YOU GET THE FUCK RIGHT BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!
Jason: (running away from his ignorant, stupid mother) No! (unheard protest)
Mother: JAAAAYYYY-SONN!
I watched for about 2 minutes, until I got so depressed I had to turn and walk to my house. Keep running, Jason.
What the hell is wrong with people? Raping a baby doesn’t cure AIDS, but execution of a baby-rapist sure thins the herd of the monumentally stupid and ignorant….
Huh. Metafilter had this link and this link about some kind of a legal ‘exact definition of pornography’- sounds like a slippery slope to me. And this is funny too— I think these idiots should be escorted into Congress to answer all the questions by a squad of huge ass-kicking federal marshals. What a bunch of Texas yahoos. To think they were Bush’s major backers…makes the mind just reel, doesn’t it?