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Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
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My daughter was born 15 years ago today, I wrote her stuff, but I'm all embarrased about placing it online. She had a good day today.
:)
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Sunday, January 18th, 2009
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So I've been playing tech support this weekend...
I got two laptops, one I'm setting up for the living room TV (my old one from law school), a IBM thinkpad R51. It needed to be recovered before I gave it up to the kids, so I launched rescue and recovery, and it prompts me for a password. Sure enough it isn't any password I know. So I format the C: drive using an XP recover disk and launch ubuntu off a CD to enter the hidden partition where the rescue and recovery image resides.
For those of you ever in the situation the password file for rescue and recovery lives under /preboot/utils/support/ibmpwhp.pyc, rename that file the password goes away.
Then my main laptop a Lenovo T61p just back from its fourth trip to the shop and it gave me a STOP 0x00000024, so I took the drive out and ran CHKDSK /F against it as a slave to another computer. It is working again, but it seems sluggish so I'll be defragging.
This crap annoys me. I'm having a bad luck week with computers, it is good to know though that I still got the knack for fixing this crap.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, January 2nd, 2009
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on the 26th of December, but we did anyway, here is the proof!
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Sunday, December 21st, 2008
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wind howls at my trees
night eternal and piercing
screams winter is here
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It's odd, but despite the fact it is the middle of summer down there right now, whenever I think of winter solstice I think of Winter in Chile. My last visit to Chile was in June 2006, and on dark, cold days like this one, I settle down and look at the pictures again. Despite the fact is was the middle of winter it wasn't so mercilessly cold that we couldn't go out and do things there (whereas outside my door right now it is definitely to cold to do much). So I have plenty of pics of me out doing stuff, like escaping riots, getting on TV, searching for lost treasure...
Please feel free to take a look yourselves.
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Friday, December 19th, 2008
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So this man walks into Ned Devine's (a bar in Herndon) last night with a small dog under his arm, and the bartender says... well nothing which struck those of us there drinking as odd. Then after several of the wait staff pet the dog - the guy takes the dog into the kitchen!!!
Here is a picture of said dog taken surreptitiously by my wife:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cheesy_reads and I were out at Ned Devine's with a friend of ours who was all gung ho about reporting this to the health department. She has probably forgotten the complaint since then but since I got a pic, so I feel I should report it.
Beyond never eating at the restaurant ever again what would you all suggest?
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Thursday, December 18th, 2008
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You can always tell it is Christmastime at my house because the UPS guy invariably springs a giant foam cooler at our door in which is lovingly stored 19 pounds of Johnny B's regenerating honey-baked ham. Johnny B is my father-in-law, cheesy_reads' Dad. He is a practical man, working since he was thirteen at everything from pinsetter, to bartender, to unix admin extraordinaire, and being the practical sort, he has great difficulty expressing his affection for me and mine. This is where the ham arrives. It is his expression of both his practical nature and great affection for cheesy_reads
You might recall this ham regenerates. I say that because packing the ham into the downstairs freezer this year, I couldn't help but notice eight pounds of last years ham. I calculate that five more years of this and I will have no freezer space left in the house for anything but Johnny B's regenerating honey-baked ham.
Here is the kicker: I hate ham. It is the worst meat for losing weight (besides the other cold cuts I abhor). For whatever reason despite the fact cheesy_reads likes the ham and the kids like the ham they are not going through the ham faster than it regenerates. An outside observer might suggest contacting Johnny B and requesting that he end his annual porcine bombardment.
cheesy_reads and I share this unspoken agreement that if we have some difficulty with her side of the family that I will let her for the most part do the negotiating. Actually in some cases she handles my side of the family too (apparently I'm not very good at negotiation, ironic since that is main portion of what I do for a living these days). She can discuss almost any issue with Johnny B, better than her many siblings in fact, but the ham is inviolate. She feels she can't talk to Johnny B about this without hurting his feelings. She suggested to me several solutions to our quandary:
1. That we donate the regenerating honey-baked ham to a local food bank.
This would work except I know of no food bank that takes frozen regenerating meat. They like canned and packaged stuff.
2. That we have a ham-eating party.
This might work, although I don't know how many of our friends would partake in it
3.That she might request that Johnny B give us the cash instead to divide among our many progeny, but imagining how that would go makes me shudder:
Cheesy: Hi Dad!
Johnny B: Hey Cheesy! Did you get the ham I sent?
Cheesy: Sure thing Dad, about that, could you stop? Like stodgy is on a diet, and the kids and I aren't eating as much ham these days. Could you send us the cash instead?
Johnny B: [the cold silence of rejection]
Cheesy: Dad?
Johnny B: Sure I can do that. :( resentment builds quietly
So, gentle reader, can you think of a better solution, or tell me which of the above solutions you prefer? I personally would like a solution that does not waste food, preserves Johnny B's feelings, my diet and cheesy_reads sanity.
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, November 27th, 2008
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Dear Sam,
I hope your day was as good as ours, but I really don't see how that is possible. Thank you ever so much for ditching us at the last minute and spending Thanksgiving with our insane mother. We had as fantastic a day with Dad as we could. My kids played football with him for a good hour (Chance beat the rest of the kids 22-10) and we made him Thanksgiving dinner for the first time (since in past years he always made it). In short without you and your child monopolizing his attention it was the best Thanksgiving we have had with him in years. It felt like we finally had him back after years of your domination of family gatherings with your spoiled brat and inane moodiness wearing him down and trying our patience.
Any way you could be out of town for Christmas?
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, August 21st, 2008
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Someone took this pic of me at work today...
A friend of mine is on crutches, and she needed help with her purse. Isn't it darling?!
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, August 15th, 2008
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Thursday, August 14th, 2008
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So I've lost 20 pounds since July 2nd! I've taken up bikram yoga and I got these braces, so I'm suffering both inside and outside my mouth. This would be a happy occasion, except I find myself hungry all the time, except of course when I'm sweating in a 105 degree room trying to turn into a pretzel.
Speaking of pretzels, I miss eating real food, it hurts too damn much! Chewing may be a pain, but speaking is worse. My new lisp is worthy of Castellan loyalty. Words I love to say like sexy, lustful, and sensual, have become very very fey :) Any suggestions how to overcome the lisp of doom?
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, August 9th, 2008
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So I got new fangled braces. Not just any braces, iBraces. For weight loss these braces have the advantage of being along the inside of my teeth. This also means that it will perforate my tongue if I'm not careful. This means they will completely interfere with the joy of eating. I'm likely to be very miserable the next few days.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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cheesy_reads and I were in Nevada recently with punkwalrus, takayla, and cyandesigner for Anya and Brian's Wedding! We loved the wedding but had the best time climbing hills and mesas, and taking in mammoth vistas. My favorite subject was cheesy_reads of course! We rented a convertible for the trip and while it was great on the strip it was even better out in canyons and valleys around Vegas. It had XM radio so we kept electronica going the whole time. It made the experience very trippy in a 22nd century cowboy bebop kind of way. If you have the means I recommend the experience - it's choice!
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
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Tonight is my last night in law school. My excitement is eclipsed by my exhaustion.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
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The League of Extraordinary Gentleman...would make a great name for a male exotic dance troupe.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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With such deep and heady happenings today I figured I would focus instead on some small yet good news. Fuddrucker's is trying to save my life.
They have hidden their nutrition information so I won't be stressed about how bad for me their food is. They made their service so intolerable I can't bear to visit them again. Maybe they think this will turn me vegan?
( Cows can only hope... )
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, March 20th, 2008
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Poll #1157805 Dragoncon or Comic-con
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllAre you going to Dragoncon or Comic-con this year? If you are going to one or the other would you like to share resources, such as driving, hotel, private jet?
Feel free to comment, arguing which if any is better and why, or what resources you are willing/not willing to share...
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
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And my list of obituaries of people I wish I met gets longer...especially in the Economist, they have really good obits. The one on Gary Gygax rocked, and except for the fact it means he died I look forward to the one on Arthur Clarke.
People usually tell stories reflecting who a person was and what they meant to them when they died, I was busy with my own emergency when Gary Gygax died so that will have to wait. But for Arthur C. Clarke here goes:
When thinking of Arthur Clarke most will think of him as a writer, that is what he wanted, but at least part of me will always think of him as a wicked young upstart nerd telling his elder C.S. Lewis the business through correspondence, and later at a pub...
A short excerpt from "Childhood's End" by Matthew Teague, a Popular Science article/interview with Arthur C. Clarke. August 2004 issue.
As a young man, Clarke was pals with some of Britain's fastest-rising literary stars, including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. That was before he made a name for himself in 1953 with Childhood's End and before he fell in love with the Indian Ocean's coral reefs. "I came for the sea diving," he told me of his move to Sri Lanka in 1956. "Underwater was the closest I could come to the weightlessness of space."
While we talked, something reminded him of his London days, and although he could hardly recall his latest book, conversations from decades ago still rang clear in his mind. "C.S. Lewis! I just remembered our parting words," he said. "We were at a pub. The Eastgate. Fleet Street." He leaned back in his chair, chasing the memory down the street and finally cornering it. "Ah," he continued. "As we staggered out into the street, Lewis turned to us. He said, 'I think you are very wicked people, but wouldn't the world be a dull place if everyone was good?' "
Today the world is a duller place.
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