Tag Archives: Gadgets and Nerdery

Thoughts From the Day Job

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Motivation seems to be returning. This is good.

  • Phone tech support for Hunter’s grandma.
  • Replaced CPU fan on Wren’s desktop, thereby allowing it to boot.
  • Updated video driver on Nikki’s laptop, which while improving the overall graphics, did not solve the flickering problem.
  • Keeping today’s food log updated.
  • Got writing done on my lunch break.

The candy canes on my desk (SweeTart and Life Saver) and the chocolate bells in the candy jar (Reese’s and Butterfinger) are tempting me. Oddly enough, I haven’t eaten either because I don’t have the nutritional information.

At home, moving our pantry shelves into the basement has prevented me from snacking as much. Laziness about going down and back up the stairs has made me abandon the desire to snack about 60% of the time. The witty plaques have returned to the kitchen wall, and I will soon have a dishwasher. This excites me in ways that kitchen appliances should not.

Ground my own coffee last night, and brewed it again on the timer this morning. It feels good, and right, and I have no idea why. In the past, I have put off brewing my own, preferring to go to a local coffee shop, even if it was to pick up on the way to work. Even chains like Beaners and Tim Hortons have benefited from my lack of desire to brew at home. Maybe it’s the enormous thermos in which I’m storing my coffee. Maybe it’s that I’ve ground the beans myself (the aroma of the beans as they’re grinding is just… indescribable). I’ve brewed -good- coffee at home before, but I’ve never really enjoyed it this much.

Also, delicious.

Looks like the drive home will be slow and careful. My guess is 2.5 inches of snow, but I haven’t checked with any weather services. I feel for the southeastern states right now; they’re not used to this sort of thing. Lizard popsicle?

Thoughts from the Day Job

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Brought some delicious Traverse City cherry coffee to work today. Got it at Horrocks, ground it in Nikki’s white elephant gift from the Cramptons (which ended up being mine, because she spoils me something fierce), brewed it in my coffee maker, and brought it to work in my white elephant gift from the Cramptons. Did I mention that it’s damn tasty?

I spent most of the Micro Center gift card that I got from my parents. Let’s see if I can tick off the ways in which I spoiled myself:

Still have a bit left on the card, for future miscellaneous geekery.

Horoscope for 23 Dec 2009:
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): According to astronomer Mark Whittle, the Big Bang began in silence. Soon it crescendoed into a majestic major third chord 50 octaves below middle A. Then it transformed, over the course of a million years, into a wistful minor third chord. In my vision of the first two-thirds of 2010, the music of your life will have a similar pattern: It begins with silence. Next, it progresses into a lush major feel, with spirited and complex contrapuntal themes. Then in June, it evolves into a dreamy, contemplative phase. By late September, however — unlike the Big Bang — you will move into a third act, in which the music of your life returns to the lively mood it had at the start, only now with the gravitas that the reflective phase has instilled.

Horoscope for 30 Dec 2009:
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): My Taurus friend Jill had a dream in which she stopped by a blackberry bush on a summer afternoon. All the ripe blackberries were too high on the bush, just out of reach. She stood there gazing longingly up at them for a long time. Finally three people in medieval garb came by, as if having stepped out of a deck of Tarot cards — a warrior, magician, and priestess. “I really want those blackberries,” she said to them. “Could you give me a boost?” They stooped down to make their backs available. She climbed up, but still couldn’t reach the berries. “Oh well, we tried,” she said. “Follow us,” said the priestess, and she did. After a while they came to another bush whose blackberries were lower and easy to pluck. Then the four shared the feast. After analyzing the omens for 2010, Taurus, I’ve come to the conclusion that Jill’s dream is an apt metaphor for your best possible destiny in 2010.

Thoughts From the Day Job

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Entry-by-entry data verification and updating on a 4,000+ entry MySQL table appeals to my anal retentive nature.

phpmyadmin’s search feature, coupled with its ability to edit multiple rows at once, has sped up my task incredibly.

Lunchtime at McD’s in Potterville shows a horrifying number of High School Students. Why aren’t they at the diner downtown?

Oregon, why do your town names make me fear you?

Thanksgiving Weekend

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I give thanks for my family. I give thanks for my ability to support them in this ridiculous economy. I give thanks that I still have my health and my sanity. I give thanks for the opportunities that I have had, continue to have, and that my family has. I give thanks for a wife who supports me, thinks of me, and cares about me. I give thanks for three sons, all of whom likely see me as a better man than I am. I give thanks for two parents who still see me for all that I can be, and a brother who is, as Hunter put it, awesome.

I give thanks for everyone and everything in my life. Also, for leftovers.

Aside from a ridiculous amount of delicious homemade food, including a deep fried turkey, much nerdery was had on Turkey-day. I learned about the differences between .dmg and .iso (not much) and between compressed and uncompressed .dmg (quite a bit). I helped to pull a shaved kitten worth of cat hair and dust out of a laptop. Never got around to working on the server, but that’s fine. I was shown a Linux distro that’s meant to be a router/firewall combo. Just all kinds of geekishness going on.

I am -so- close to having the Todd story go to print. SO CLOSE, I tells ya. I’m on pins and needles just thinking about it.

I’m trying out EVE Online, and am finding myself just as frustrated with the crashing and lagging as I was with Myst Online. Being immersed in the story will make up for a lot. So far, the technical difficulties have outweighed the benefits. So, I unpacked Myst IV and Myst V, set them on the shelf next to Nikki’s Everquest II box, and popped Myst III: Exile into the PS2.

If I’m going to start gaming again, why would I ignore the ones I’ve already purchased?

Thoughts from Work

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Feeling very twitchy and anxious. Dunno if it’s the antibiotics that I’m on, a symptom of the upper respiratory infection, or something else entirely. Yay doxycycline!

Stargate Universe is pulling zero punches when it comes to flaws in the characters. Wow. Also, old-school version of “the chair” looks creepy and intimidating. The reference to a dentist’s chair was spot on in so many ways.

Twitchiness and anxiousness have faded. Think it might be related to the brain fogs that were coming with that whole being sick thing. GO TEAM DOXYCYCLINE!

Enjoying the hell out of the newest Ubuntu version on my work laptop. It’s actually using the proprietary ATI driver, and using it well. Methinks it’s a good thing that ATI is now part of AMD.

scp is my friend.

As Aidan prepares to transition from Terrible Twos into Tantrum Threes, he’s ramping up his attempts to verbally control his universe. Now, many religious traditions ranging from Shamanism to modern day monotheisms(msmsmsmsms) have attempted to change and/or improve the world around them by putting voice and will into speech and thereby giving definition to the change that they want.

It’s not working so well for Aidan. He’s got the focus and the determination, that’s for sure. “I not in time-out, Daddy!” while sitting in the time-out chair may be a difficult approach to take, is all I’m sayin’. :)

Caffeine cat is caffeinated. Unreasonable deadlines are unreasonable. “It is what it is.”

Thoughts from Work

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Yesterday at work… let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.

I downloaded, installed, and used the Gimp in the space of about seven minutes to fix one of those “You’re joking, right?” problems.  The problem was a big deal, and I’m just thankful that the fix was quick, easy, and done.

This set the tone for the day.  Except for the quick and easy fix part.

I really want to build Hunter’s computer.  He’s probably too old for the Sugar interface, but I have to wonder if something like edubuntu would be too complex.  Probably not.  And then, of course, there’s the issue of connecting to the internet.

The preview for the new Avatar (not Airbender, which is also awesome) movie is amazing.  Watch it.  Now.

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I just bought my wife a subscription to an MMO, an expansion pack, and a Logitech gamer headset for our two-year dating anniversary. Because she wanted them.

Hee!

I got some Neil Gaiman crack and some BSG crack.

We’re such nerds.

Varied and Sundry

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Why, for the love of all that is holy, is the grease from cooked pepperoni so vibrantly red?
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There is now an HP LaserJet 4000 sitting in my basement, hooked up to the print server via parallel cable. It came with two extra boxes of toner, which was good. The toner in the printer had a damaged roller, which was printing lines down the side of the paper. Swapped out the toner, and all was good. Soon, it will have an ebayed JetDirect card, thereby removing any issues between Vista, Samba, and the little technology demons that like to mess with my network. :)

The Epson Photo Stylus 780 is pronounced dead after many, many long years of faithful service. It’ll be going to GoodWill for their electronics recycling service.
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I’ve been irritated with the way Firefox works under Ubuntu, but then, it’s always been that way. It’s always had issues. It figures, now that I don’t have problems with putting the laptop to sleep or into hibernate, that Firefox would crash literally half of the time I resume from either situation. I’ve tried installing Firefox 3.5 (Shiretoko), and it only crashes a third of the time. However, page load times are ridiculously long. This version of Ubuntu doesn’t seem to play nice with Skype, either. I’ve thought about trying OpenSuse, like George has recommended so many times, and I’ve thought of testing the release candidate for Windows 7. I’ve heard good things about the latter from , and have more Windows-only devices than I’d like to admit, so I think I’m going to take that route.

All my servers are still Linux, so I don’t feel like I’m abandoning the “cause” or anything. I am interested in the price point that Microsoft will offer for those upgrading from the free RC to the full-blown version.
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We’ve had nearly a week without Hunter or Aidan, and it’s been pretty quiet, overall. Becoming Mr. Mom while is at class has been a little rough, as Cian does not like her being gone for extended periods of time. It would have been far more rough had all three been here, of course. We pick Hunter up from his grandmother’s after gets out of class today, and we pick Aidan up from his dad and stepmom tomorrow. The dentist and doctor appointments are about to begin en masse again, but I’ve got a few good books to bring to read in between “No! Put that down!” and “Stop hitting your brother!” and “Do you want a time out?”
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I had an eye doctor appointment yesterday. It turns out that not only did DOC sell me shoddy frames and then close their Frandor location, they warped the right lens when they made it. My new doctor found little ripples caused by compression, which is usually applied at the time of lens manufacture. So, my prescription’s only gotten a little bit worse, and I’ve picked out new frames. Rather, gave me quite a bit of help in picking out new frames. Apparently, she’s not down with my idea of Nerd Chic. Heh. Then again, it was fun to pick out the ridiculous ones and say “Aw, c’mon, these are great!”