It’s 35% transmission tint. FL allows down to 28% front sides, 18% rear & rear sides, but I hate the stepped tint look. This is enough to cut down the interior temps a ton and look good doing it. Between this and my official Audi windshield reflector, I can actually breathe when I get into my car after work when it’s hit 100 in the afternoon.

In related news, I FINALLY have a windshield that doesn’t leak. I think the weather strips up the side aren’t quite on right, but I need to get back to the dealer to look at one on their lot for comparison. The Audi glass sheds rain water a ton better than that aftermarket POS too.

In other news, I was one of the thousands of people who lined up in Titusville, FL to see Endeavor off last night. Fail. *sigh*

iPhone Push Notifications need fixing. I have 3 apps that receive push notifications – AIM, Star Defense, and Prowl. I got them in that order. After each one, I noticed that my battery seemed to drain just a bit faster. Now it’s to the point that my phone won’t even last a day with light actual usage. Example: 10% drop in a half hour. Fail. [For those playing the home game, that's 2 - count them - 2 fails for the price of one post!] Turned off Push, and I’m back to reasonable battery usage. Apple: please light a fire under your developers’ & testers’ asses and get 3.1 out (but only if it fixes battery usage with Push).

The whole argument is that you’re denying life. Right-to-lifers say that life starts at conception. Anti-genetic filtering-ers essentially say that life starts before conception.

Ok, taking those two pieces of information and assuming them as truth for purposes of a thought experiment, riddle me this [batman]. How many counts of murder should we charge an assailant with who kills a person (man or woman)? If the victim is a man, how many sperm could be created by that man that, by Anti-genetic-filtering-ers standards, is already life? And if the victim is a woman, the same question for her eggs. Now, extend that one step further. If even a single sperm or egg matures and becomes a living, breathing, walking human, how many sperm/eggs will that human create? And so on. We quickly see that the assailant should be charged with essentially infinite counts of murder. (For those who are confused and believe that there is a finite number, look up the mathematical term “limit” in your nearest pre-calculus book.)

This is wholly ungainly. Sure, the assailant has committed murder either way, and will face the stiffest penalty of the jurisdiction.

I do agree that the view held by some segments of our population – that looks at abortions like going to the dentist – is horrifying, but I also see that, in certain cases (rape, terminal illness, etc.) the parent(s) should be allowed a choice – assuming they pass a proper psychological screening and such.

As for genetic filtering, I think that selecting out certain genes – cancer (if determined), chrons, etc – is valuable and necessary for the survival of humanity.

So there. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

We cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions; we ushered in bi-partisan Ethics Reform.

We also slowed the rate of government growth, we worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for the future, and I made no lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes… but living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow.

We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands – where it should be.

We provided unprecedented support for education initiatives, and with the right leadership, finally filled long-vacant public safety positions. We built a sub-Cabinet on Climate Change and took heat from Outside special interests for our biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance.

We broke ground on the new prison.

And we made common sense conservative choices to eliminate personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, the junkets… the entourage.

And the Lt. Governor and I said “no” to our pay raises.

bolding added for emphasis

So? What would you think of this person? I’d think fairly highly of this person. Do you?

The whole article is here.

Would you vote for a bill that creates and regulates every building code in the country and will purposefully overrule any “city, county, parish, city and county authority, or city and parish authority having local authority to enforce building codes and regulations and to collect fees for building permits”?

Would you vote for a bill that reaches into every neighborhood by eradicating “any private covenant, contract provision, lease provision, homeowners’ association rule or bylaw, or similar restriction” to force localities to accept “green technologies” whether it fits in the neighborhood or not?

Would you vote for a bill that defines “energy-efficient mortgages” (with our favorite GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so what could possibly go wrong?) that artificially boosts the income of the borrower based upon how much “green technology” is employed? In other words, the socially engineering mortgage underwriting standards again? (This is just as the Democrats did in the nineties, which will lead to yet another financial disaster.)

Would you vote for a bill that moves billions in new expenses into programs that govern every aspect of human life including, but not limited to, farming; fertilizers; animal husbandry and animal diets; feedstock; soil; land use (forested, cleared, wetlands, etc); “manure management”; and creates gigantic new government bureaucracies (unionized, of course) to regulate, monitor and control American citizens?

YOU JUST DID. And that was only in the Waxman-Markey “Managers Amendment”!

Shame on you, Congresswoman Brown. You voted FOR a bill that will destroy this country. Did you actually READ HR2454? Or is abominable addition, delivered just 17 hours before you voted for it? If you didn’t read it, you’re nothing better than a lemming, following your Demonrat…sorry, forgot a “c”… colleagues off the cliff. The really terrible part is that you’re going to pull all of America over with you.

I will do everything in my power to see you NOT re-elected and have an intelligent, conscientious, worthy person put in your place who will actually READ the drivel put out by the current majority.

——————-
I did email this to her and will likely snail-mail it to her as well. I thank Doug Ross’ post for a wonderful summary of everything the Manager’s Amendment – 300 pages of filth delivered just 17 hours before HR2454 was passed – contained. Those of you who did vote Democrat in this last election, PLEASE go read the post and see what your side pushed through. Read past the obvious slams on your party (there are actually few for how much text is there), and see what they think you approve of – which boils down to removing any and all personal freedoms. If you don’t approve of this, and I sincerely hope you don’t, vote appropriately in 2010 for a new congress. More importantly, send your states’ senators this letter or one just like it, as they will be voting on it in the next few months.

The whole argument is that you’re denying life. Right-to-lifers say that life starts at conception. Anti-genetic filtering-ers essentially say that life starts before conception.

Ok, taking those two pieces of information and assuming them as truth for purposes of a thought experiment, riddle me this [batman]. How many counts of murder should we charge an assailant with who kills a person (man or woman)? If the victim is a man, how many sperm could be created by that man that, by Anti-genetic-filtering-ers standards, is already life? And if the victim is a woman, the same question for her eggs. Now, extend that one step further. If even a single sperm or egg matures and becomes a living, breathing, walking human, how many sperm/eggs will that human create? And so on. We quickly see that the assailant should be charged with essentially infinite counts of murder. (For those who are confused and believe that there is a finite number, look up the mathematical term “limit” in your nearest pre-calculus book.)

This is wholly ungainly. Sure, the assailant has committed murder either way, and will face the stiffest penalty of the jurisdiction.

I do agree that the view held by some segments of our population that looks at abortions like going to the dentist is horrifying, but I also see that, in certain cases (rape, terminal illness, etc.) the parent(s) should be allowed a choice – assuming they pass a proper psychological screening and such.

As for genetic filtering, I think that selecting out certain genes – cancer (if a gene can be found), crohns, huntingtons, etc. – would be beneficial not only to the child, but to the populace at large. Going so far as to selecting hair color, eye color, height, scholastic aptitude, …that’s a bit too Hitlerish for me.

———–

I got a fountain pen. A Pilot Plumix. It’s plastic and has a 1mm wide calligraphy-style nib. I’ve been looking for a cheap one since I got down here, and I finally found this one at Target for $6. I find that I like using it, so I may pony up for a more expensive (and less plastic) model soon. Mainly, I just want to use up the rest of this damned blue ink. I HATE blue ink. No idea why.

———–

Ran my first Tech Talk here at work. Thanks to Shompy-Joe (or 3-way-Joe…or has he graduated to 4- or even 5-way?) for holding Tech Talks while I was employed at Trisept. It went as well as I would have expected.

———–

In home theater news, my former 12-foot screen has (by space constraints) been replaced with a 20-inch screen. Dammit. The room we’re living in is only 13′x17′, and the 20″ is on my Dell computer monitor. Hate to say it, but I’d kill for a 32″ or 37″ lcd. I at least have surround sound – I bitched my analog-only Klipsch 5.1 computer speakers into being driven by my HT receiver. Man, I need a house. Man, I need to sell my house. Any takers?

———–

Pre-ordered the iPhone 3GS. Gonna give Melinda my 1st gen iPhone.

———–

I’ve switched to Safari 4 as my main Windows browser. Lightyears quicker than Firefox 3.whatever. Still using Firefox on my Mac tho – for some reason, the Google Reader keyboard shortcuts don’t work in Safari on the Mac, but they do in Windows. The only thing I wish I could find for Safari/Win is a proper ad blocking plugin. Ah well.

• The move happened pretty much as I said it would a few posts back. I got a 16′ Penske truck with a car trailer. The truck was as close to full as I was comfortable with, and there were still a few things left out for the movers to take. Overall, I’d say the Benadryl we gave Kona worked like a charm. It didn’t knock her out, but it did mellow her a bit. She stayed on the floor, between the seats of the truck for the whole drive. Here’s a pic of her passed out on the floor. Awwww.
• I want to SEVERELY MAIM (not kill…then they wouldn’t suffer like I did) whoever decided that the rental truck shouldn’t have cruise control. My right leg kept cramping up, and I’d have to use my left foot on the gas.
• We’re staying in a small (13′x17′) 1-room apartment that was built into half of a small barn. We’ve got a bathroom, a “kitchenette” that can only be called that cause it’s got a mini-fridge and a sink, and a single closet. Oh yeah, and 15′x20′ and 5′x10′ storage units (1 each) about 20 minutes away with all the rest of our earthly belongings. Except the condo. Which we still own & didn’t move. Anyone wanna buy it? Please?
• We figured out early on that we’d have to do some rearranging and significant purchasing of press-board Walmart shelving. I’ve gotten two shelving units, one to make part of my makeshift desk, and one tall unit for the kitchenette. Once we clear out some more boxes, we’ll probably get some more.
• My job is pretty neat, but that’s about all I can say about it. The commute isn’t the greatest (45min-1hr), and the hours are early. I usually get here about 6:45 am so I can get a parking spot, and I don’t leave till 4 pm. Somehow that reminds me that I NEED to make a phonecall today.

That’s it for now. I’ve got my Xbox 360 set up and playable, but I’ve downgraded from 12 feet (projector) to 20 inches (Dell LCD monitor). I needs a new tv.

The company I worked for was a registered iPhone Enterprise Developer. They wanted me to look into developing iPhone software to be deployed to sales pukes spread across the country. They were cheap, and I already had an iPhone, so they said to just put the beta stuff on my personal phone instead of buying me one specifically for dev purposes.

• March 17: Apple announces 3.0 beta 1
• March 18: Apple’s site is finally available for me to download 3.0 beta 1 from. I did, and I installed it on my phone.
• March 19: I got laid off.
• March 20: I checked developer.apple.com, and my former employer had removed my developer’s access to 3.0, effectively barring me from any future betas before the final release.
• April 12 (today): Fired up my phone after waking up to see the “connect me to iTunes or only make emergency calls” screen.

Plugged the phone into iTunes, and it told me that my phone’s software had expired and that I’d need a newer version to continue to use it. ‘Cept I don’t have access to download 3.0 beta 2. I could torrent it, but it probably wouldn’t activate with iTunes. So, now I’m stuck with a $400 brick.

I called Apple’s iPhone support number. After talking with a script-reader, she transferred me to a “Product Specialist”. I gave him my sob story, and he authorized a warranty replacement. Yay? I would have preferred access to beta 2, but oh well. Bye-bye copy/paste and notes syncing, wide-screen email and texting, and the bugs that cause half the apps I’ve bought to not work. He told me to just go to a local Apple Store and they’d take care of the replacement. Ok, cool. That was this morning. Well, today is Zombie Jesus day, which means ALL THE APPLE STORES ARE CLOSED!!

Kudos to Apple support. I’ve had issues with Apple products before, but their support staff always makes it right. Any problem I’ve had they’ve been able to fix. Apple and Nintendo are two great companies when it comes to supporting their loyal customers.

For today, I’m stuck with Melinda’s old Sony W580i and none of my phone numbers cause she can’t find the sync cable. I feel naked. (I’m not – I’m fully clothed at the moment.) I don’t have my calendar, no email, no games. How will I survive the next 20 hours?

Oh yeah, I’ll be packing my shit into boxes. So: surviving, painfully, and exhaustingly.

Of course this has to happen within a week of us moving to the other end of the country.

1. Now till Tuesday Apr 14: PACK. Lord Jesus do we need to pack.
2. Wednesday: Pick up rental truck & car trailer, load up valuables/electronics/immediate-need stuff
3. Thursday: Me and Kona leave in rental truck; Melinda stays back to supervise movers packing efforts
4. Friday: Movers load everything left into their truck & leave. Melinda & her mom head to Appleton to do stuff, and I’ll finally arrive in Jacksonville
5. Saturday: I’ll unload the rental truck & my car, confirm the storage unit, and probably sleep a ton
6. Sunday: Melinda will climb on a plane in Milwaukee and fly down to Jax
7. Monday: First day of my new job

Jesus.

In other news, I think I’ve figured out a good app to write for OSX and the iPhone. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait for iPhone development – I’ll need Core Data, which isn’t available until iPhone OS 3.0 comes out in June (hopefully). Ok, ok, I won’t *need* Core Data, but I’m too damn lazy to re-write Core Data stuff when all I need to do is wait a little bit.

In other news, I was already planning on giving notice – I accepted a position with the Jacksonville, FL Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday. Melinda, Kona, and I will be moving down there in the next few weeks once my start date has been set. We’ll miss all our friends, but good riddance Wisconsin.

I’m gonna dig into Overflow here for a bit – I’m also using Fresh, but I don’t know for how long.

I’ve tried all kinds of application launchers in OSX, and the only third-party solution I’ve liked is Quicksilver. Google it, it’s amazing. If you know what you want, Quicksilver is the quickest way to get it. If you don’t know what you want, you’re stuck digging through your Applications folder. Unless you have Overflow. By default, Overflow sits in your Dock. (For the record, I just typed “taskbar” by mistake. I hate Windows.) My problem is that I have almost too much in my dock already. I’ve also run the hack that makes hidden apps’ dock icons turn slightly transparent. When Overflow isn’t active, it’s technically hidden, so the icon fades. Yarr. So, up to the menu bar it goes, thanks to a built-in option. I also attached Option-Space as a show/hide hotkey (also a built-in option). Then I set about customizing its application lists.

By default, Overflow comes with two groups – Dock Applications and Dock Items. My “Dock Items” section was empty – probably because I only keep applications in my dock. The first group I added is called “Always On” – apps that are always running due to their inherent usefulness but don’t start automatically on boot for whatever reason (Quicksilver, Firefox, Mail, iCal, iTunes, Twitteriffic, Fresh, Address Book, and Skitch). After playing with Overflow a bit, I realized that I was an inadvertent genius in that each group name has an “Open All Items” option in its context menu. So, on boot, once Overflow comes up (auto-start, another built-in option), invoke, right-click on the “Always On” group name, and hit Open All Items. Wait a minute or so for everything to get going, and I’m set. Genius.

I then made groups for the various iLife apps, office apps (both iWork and M$ Office), “Geek” (0xED, BBEdit, Calculator+, iStumbler, Nocturne, RAIDar – for my NAS, Terminal, and WireShark), Developer (most major apps in the /Developer folder when you install Xcode), and Administration (AppZapper, Activity Monitor, Disk Inventory X, Keychain Access, Network Utility, Remote Desktop, System Preferences, System Profiler, Server Admin, and Workgroup Admin). I then realized that I had other apps that I wanted to run that didn’t really fall into those categories. That spawned the “Mostly On” group – 1Password, Cyberduck, Google Earth, Journler, VLC, and a few others. Once I got everything set up (took about 10 minutes to go through all my apps), I removed most apps from my dock – I’m now down to Finder, Dashboard, Quicksilver (it likes to die in Leopard…leaving it in the dock means it’s just a click away from relaunch), Time Machine, System Preferences, and Terminal. With the Recent Apps and Recent Downloads stacks and the Trash, I’m down to 9 items. Handy.

In other news, I’m flying down to Jacksonville, FL next Wednesday night through Saturday. Watch my tweets. I’ll probably forget, but you never know.

Via Moonbattery.

Via Moonbattery & Gary Larson.

Edit: after clicking “done” you get the options for media.

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

Ok, no biggie. But then there’s this great article (which is only great in the context of the above quote) where Obama was quoted:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times [...]“

Riiiiiight.

Look, I get it that most politicians are hypocrites. But this… Obama was supposed to bring “change” and “new ideas” to our government. Instead, he’s bringing the same old idea of hypocrisy (…and socialism, but that’s not the purpose of this post).

In minor site news, I’m going to be keeping track of my hatred for our current president by both tagging all posts regarding him with “hypocrite” and naming posts specifically about him “The Great Hypocrite“.

Go ahead and clean the poop out of your pants now…or rather not, as I don’t think this post is going to get any better.

A guy that I work with, a friend of mine, is what I’d call a “dirty, dirty liberal”. Actually, he’s pretty clean cut, but that’s about the only work-safe adjective structure I can put in front of the word “liberal” in that context. (And, if he’s reading this, he’s a real nice guy, and while I disagree with his political views almost entirely, he’s very well educated and I enjoy working with him.) Anyway, he said that Obama is getting more flack from Pelosi and other super-leftists than the conservatives. Pelosi called for a repeal of the Bush tax cuts immediately upon Obama’s swearing-in, and Obama has said “Now WAAAaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaAAAAaaiiiiittt a minute!” (Sorry, had a show with the band last night and have had Shout running through my head.) Ok, cool. Leave the tax cuts and piss off liberals.

Obama also picked a pro-life, Prop 8 supporter to give the inauguration invocation. Bitchin.

Obama supports warrantless wiretapping. While I don’t like the idea of being spied upon, if even one terrorist attack is foiled because the right people’s phones got tapped quicker than would have been possible if a warrant was required, so be it. Big-brother the hell outta this country, as long as you keep my ass alive.

Finally, and the reason for this post, is a posting at one of my friend’s blogs that Obama authorized a missile strike on two small villages in Pakistan suspected of housing terrorist cells. So, wait, Obama, savior of tree-hugging, whitey-hating, peace-loving liberals said “kill!”?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here trying to explain why I’ve decided to have his love-child [shiver]. I still think he’s the lyingest lying liar who’s ever lied a lie (2nd quote in comment). And he’s a hypocrite. After banging the anti-lobbyist drum for nearly his entire campaign, he appointed one anyway. Don’t forget that whole tax-cut/hike floating limit…first it was $250k, then $200k, then $150k – soon it’ll be $10k and we’ll all be screwed.

Saying “Obama” following “president” makes my stomach churn. While he may be a dirty, dirty liberal, he’s pissing off other liberals. I won’t go as far as invoking “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, but Mr. Obama is making me smile at an alarming rate.

That all said, I’m going to make version 2. Here are my goals:

• Bigger power supply capacitors for even better bass handling
• Slightly bigger case so I have more room to work during assembly and possible storage for extra cables, etc
• Make battery power an option, maybe, where primary power is via wall wart
• Two complete implementations of this (for left & right channel, but using pots that do two separate lines each)

Yeah, awesome. I really want to get started on it, but first I’m going to tackle converting a computer ATX power supply into a bench supply with banana plugs and everything. Before even that, I need to wait for my shipments from Electronic Goldmine (piles of random components) and Adafruit (diy Atmel programmer kit) to show up. At this point, I’m looking at least a month between now and starting on headphone amp v2. We’ll see. I still need to set up a solid station to do the soldering with power & lights, which means I need to break out my electrical tools again and move outlets around. Fun!

Anyway, enough with the ego masturbation…for now, anyway. Let’s go with a videogaming update.

Been playin the crap outta Fable 2. I’ve nearly maxed out my first character (only two spells left to get to the 5th star and a couple expressions to go), and he’s a badass. I cruised through the Knothole Island expansion, though after reading reviews of it, it sounds like nearly any half-developed character could. Whatever. I also started a second character, this time a girl. Let’s just say the game can’t hold a candle to DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball (1 or 2), but there is motion involved.

And with that, I realize that this country has just 16 minutes before the beginning of the end, and I’ve lost all enthusiasm to continue writing. Can I win the lottery and go buy an island yet?

edit: found a theme.

The two years of redneck quotes are going to disappear for now.  I’ll need to find or write a plugin that will read the current table structure and spit it out where necessary.  I’m leaning towards “write”, but that means writing PHP, something I haven’t really done.  I’ve messed with WP code here and there to do some very minor stuff, but writing a plugin that does database calls would be new to me.

A moderator at the WP support forums suggested I step to 2.7 – first install 2.3, then 2.5, then 2.7.  I’m pretty sure that I read in one of those versions they convert the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin to the built-in tagging engine.  That’d be useful, not because I think tags on my blog are anywhere close to necessary, but because I like them.  They’re cute.  I want to eat them, with ketchup.

I’m going to be upgrading the site in-place, so this sucker’s probably gonna be screwed for a while.

I should add here that the band I run lights for, Left On Sunset, was playing a show at the Brookfield Sheraton hotel in their Grand Ballroom, a gig that, for the past 6 years, was played by the Boogie Men.

T-minus 11 seconds: brain went to naughty words and trying to gather all possible causes for the loss of an entire dimmer pack: (1) blew a breaker (2) blew a fuse in the dimmer pack (3) loose cable.  Then it was T-minus 10, and my plan for the countdown was shot out the window with four of my ten color cans being out.  I can’t remember what I did, but it was probably some sort of flashing junk to make it look acceptable.

More pre-midnight backstory: Melinda decided that (somewhat correctly, but not very conveniently) that I MUST make out with her AT midnight.  I explained at least three times that I had too many things to concentrate on (lights, fog, balloon drop, etc) to have time for that.  Did she listen?  No.  ‘Course not.  Also need to add that, at this show, I was forced to use THREE separate light boards – one for front lights, one for the back color cans, and one for all the moving lights.  The balloon drop: 20-odd feet long, about 2-3 feet in diameter, we figured about 250 balloons, and at least 4 hours to fill the balloons, load them into the net, and hang it from the ceiling.  Each end is zip-tied shut, and the bottom is stiched together with fishing line that can be pulled at the correct time (and not a SECOND before) to release the balloons.  The line wasn’t long enough, so we got another spool of fishing line to tie on and make it long enough to reach my post.  My instructions from the band were to NOT pull the balloons at midnight when they started playing Auld Lang Syne, or even when they started the next song, 99 Red Balloons.  Find the song, listen to it.  About a minute into the song, after the first breakdown, the song really kicks in and starts pumping.  THAT’s when I needed to release the balloons.  I spent 10 minutes at Jeff’s (the drummer) house going through that song specifically so I knew when to pull.

T-plus 2 seconds: walked over to Melinda (who was right behind me) yelled (cause it was already loud in there), “I just lost a third of my lights.  Happy New Year,” and kissed her.  Turned back to my work only to see FOUR PEOPLE HOLDING THE LINE FOR THE BALLOON DROP.  Once it was loaded, the only person allowed to touch it was me, and only when I was ready to pull.  I can’t count how many times I yelled at the top of my lungs at these drunk bastards (including one of the technical managers for the hotel) to NOT PULL THE F*#%ING LINE!  Meanwhile, the band was staring up at their end looking worried that it might drop too early.  I had other waitstaff and audience members behind me telling me to pull, and I had Melinda yelling at me that the band was motioning me to pull (which I found out later they weren’t).  I musta pissed off about 15 people in those few minutes, but I finally got them off my ass and away from the line.  As the band was finishing with Auld Lang Syne, I had to change the lights up a bit, but I was still holding the line that I had just gotten away from the horde.  The tech manager was still standing there, looking fairly pissed off, and I said/yelled, “HOLD THIS RIGHT F*#%ING HERE!  DON’T F*#%ING MOVE IT, DON’T F*#%ING PULL IT, DON’T LET ANYONE ELSE F*#%ING PULL IT!” and handed him the line.  He thankfully listened.  I fixed up the lights as best I could, then returned my attention to the line.  I grabbed it from him, pulled the line taut, and when the band hit the right note of 99 Red Balloons, I pulled.  Man, I pulled like there was no tomorrow.  The balloons dropped, and for a few scant seconds, everything slowed down.  It was amazing.  Literally over a hundred people crammed on the dance floor, arms up, cheering, getting covered in balloons.  To borrow a word from my friend Matt, it was absolutely stunning.  And just like that, the joy ended when that tech manager walked around behind the table with the look in his face that he was going to punch out a few of my teeth.  He didn’t, but he did leave me a few choice words of his own.  I turned back to my table and realized that in the process of pulling the line out, it knocked over a small plastic cup of champagne all over one of my light boards and Andy’s laptop that we’d been using to play music between sets.  Picked up the light board first, turned it over, shook it, and set it back down, still working, thank Jesus.  Picked up Andy’s laptop (a 2+ year old Macbook Pro I convinced him to buy) while holding the power button with my thumb to force it off while letting it drain.  I handed it to Melinda with instructions to take it somewhere and dry it off, then told one of the sound guys from Badger Sound to get me paper towels for my board and the table.

Side note: in reliving this to type this entry, I’ve become so re-furious I’m literally shaking.

He finally got back with the paper towels, and I dried off what I could.  Whatever the next song was (wasn’t paying attention), I ran up to the stage, pretty much knocking over anyone in my way, to diagnose my dead dimmer pack.  Thankfully, it was simple – power cord pulled out somehow.  Plugged it back in, and it fired right up.  Problem 1 solved.

Problem 2: all the people I pissed off, most importantly Melinda.  Never found the tech manager, but I did flag down the guy that hired LOS, Adam.  (Using his name because he was really cool about the whole night, and really liked the band and our production.)  I gave a somewhat-inebriated Adam the Cliff’s Notes version concerning the tech manager, and he said not to worry about it because it looked great and made all kinds of sense in how it was [eventually] executed.  That helped.  I didn’t (and still don’t) want to be the reason LOS isn’t invited back next year.  As for how angry at me Melinda was, we straightened that out as amicably as a married couple can.

Problem 3: Champagne-ified light board and laptop.  With the laptop off, there was no way to play music after the end of the third (and final) set, but thankfully the band left me a few CDs that they’ve used in the past.  Handed one to the sound guy with instructions.  3a solved.  With nothing else available, I spit-cleaned any sticky areas of the light board.  I don’t know if any liquid got inside (which I expect it did, around the buttons and sliders and stuff), but the board continued to work without issue the rest of the night.  3b solved-ish.  Andy’s laptop: all I can say is that I turned it off as quickly as possible.  This morning, he said he was able to turn it on and use it, so it might be alright.  I don’t think any liquid got to the keyboard area or onto the trackpad, so I think it’s just some sticky areas on the case and spots left on the screen and keyboard that he’ll need to clean up.  3c solved-ish as well.

When the show was completely done and over with, we (four band members + me) unanimously agreed that this was the best show ever for the band.  With confirmed attendance over 300 (still waiting on the exact numbers), it’s the largest crowd LOS has ever played to as the headlining band.  We had every age group in attendance represented on the dance floor, from 21 to 71 (and maybe older).  The guys played Shout (Bon Jovi style, without Bad Medicine tho) and Jump Around (with sequenced-in high-pitched screech), neither of which they’d played before to a crowd (maybe shout, but I don’t think so), and both completely owned the entire room.  It was beyond amazing.  Every single song was a hit, from Every Rose (has a Thorn) to Crazy Bitch, from Save a Horse to My Own Worst Enemy.

My right knee kills, my voice is screwed (probably from F-bombing so much), and my throat feels like 2-grit sandpaper (yes, two).  (To be fair, I’ve had a cold since Sunday night, so the drainage isn’t helping at all.)  I made over twice what the band usually pays me, they bought me a room package deal so I could just sleep at the hotel after the show, and I made another $15 from a drunk guy who wanted me to add a couple songs to the between-set music playlists.  Listening to the band talk today during cleanup, it’s obvious they have a ton more confidence now after last night’s show.

Here’s to hoping the rest of 2009 is better than the first 10 minutes.

…you know, I never did get any of that champagne.

11 pointless projects

10 vague objectives

9 ranting emails

8 mission statements

7 phones-a-ringing

6 endless meetings

fiiiiiiive buuuuudgeeeet cuuuuuuts

4 health problems

3 arbitrary deadlines

2 dirty looks

and a week of unpaid leave

shamelessly stolen from my Dilbert Christmas ornament.

Welcome to the Socialism.

I’d salute, but I need to excercise my left arm as it hasn’t been raised and outstretched for a while.

– edit –

I could go on and rant about how socialized healthcare doesn’t work, about how bankrupting the coal power industry isn’t the greatest idea, about how Mr. (and I use that term begrudgingly) Obama hasn’t even yet proven he’s legally allowed to be president, about how his campaign was started in the home of one Bill Ayers (a known domestic terrorist), about how Obama wants to force unionization on workforces who don’t even want to be unionized, about the rapidly-dropping tax-”cut” limit, about how the liberal media basically placed him in office, about the hypocisy of preaching “spread the wealth” but leaving a brother in a shack in a squalid housing project in a run-down country living on $1 per month, about how Obama wants to form a “Civilian Defense Force” with as much funding as our military gets and essentially force people to join (reminds me of some left-arm-raising folks in Germany), and about how ACORN commited enough voter fraud to take care of any conservative votes the media didn’t convert.

Oh wait, I just did.  Silly me.  I sure hope I’m wrong.  Then again, history has shown that there will be greener fields ahead.

I remind you, these are the stories that made the front page.  As in, enough people “dugg” these articles that Digg’s fanciful, mysterious algorithm decided it was important to foist upon everyone.  Let’s take a gander at that list and try to determine why they made the front page. 

Strip Search of 13-Year-Old for Advil Ruled Unconstitutional

Horny teenage boys see “strip search” and “13-Year-Old” and immediately digg it.  Commie and hippy left-wingers see something about a pharmaceutical and the word “unconstitutional” and immediately get a Down-With-The-Man stiffy and smack the digg button.  Bam, front page.

Cute Girl: “You know, I’m really just a geek inside” [COMIC]

Starts with “Cute Girl”.  ‘Nuff said.

Analysts: 150 U.S. Banks Nationwide May Fail Next Year

Basic fear-mongering at work here.  Yes, it’s possible, but hyperbole gets you everywhere, including the Digg front page.

Redskins Football Team Allowed to Keep Racist Name

Ok, seriously.  Racist?  The team’s name is no more racist than calling crackers (the snack food) crackers.  The author puns his way through the short article: “A group of Native Americans went on the warpath then went to the courtroom…”  The judge took the right stand and basically told the plaintiffs they waited too long to look for the payout.  The best part: Sports Illustrated commissioned a poll that ended up showing that 75% of the Native Americans asked don’t mind the team’s name.  Thankfully, the court system denied this idiot of his payday.  Too bad the same court couldn’t have handled Nintendo’s controller suit.

10 (More) Pieces of Incredible Transforming Furniture [PICS]

Please.  This is the same 10 More I saw last week.  And the week before that.  And two weeks before that posted on College Humor.

Bush is Burning the World to the Ground

No, he’s not.  Has he picked up a flamethrower?  Ordered napalm dropped from our geosynchronous satellites?  Nope, pretty sure he hasn’t.  Although I didn’t even read the digg summary of the article, I assume the original writer invokes the Goreacle’s sacrosanct Global Warming (which doesn’t exist, btw).  C’mon, get some facts before you digg trash like this.

Develpors [sic] using unfair practices in the Apple App Store

First, does no one use spell check?  Second, I read this article the day before at TUAW.  Old.

Give Me #3 Value Meal, Super Size, With An Order of Linux

Ok, this one I actually remember reading.  I didn’t see it posted anywhere else I normally check for a couple days.  First good article in the list.

How To Beat The Claw Game

Man, this one (like the Claw Game), has been beaten to death.  Just Google it.

Turns out that Give Me #3 article is the only article I actually read from this whole list.  However, did it enrich my life?  Not really.  It just made me a little more disgusted with Best Buy for trying to sell Ubuntu for $20.  Made me more disgusted with the average consumer for not knowing better.  And, I saw it on other sites I regularly read anyway a couple days later.

Why does this piss me off?  Every time I check GReader, the unread digg story count is over 100.  I normally check it at 6:30 am, 11 am, 4 pm, and between 8 and 10 pm.  That’s over 400 stories to (pardon the pun) dig through every day for only a pinch-full (less than a handful) of worthwhile articles.

Here’s the best part: about once every couple weeks, a story bubbles up about how broken Digg’s algorithm is.  Here’s an article I found with a simple google search about it.  Here’s another.  And another.  And another.  And another.  The results just keep going.  Look, kudos to K-Rose and the rest of their team.  Digg pretty much launched Revision3, and quite a few of their shows rock.

I’m just tired of Digg.  Too many stories, too little quality.  Digg needs to implement some sort of maximum diggs per time period limiter to stop people from just digging at the first three words of the title.  That might actually make some of these snot-nosed bumblefarts from digging anything with “girl” in the title.

I chucked Digg into its own folder in my GReader account a week ago, and I’ve only opened it once.  Accidentally.

Good riddance.

So she could have IBS, or something completely else.  Food allergy is still on the table.  The only way to test for IBS or other is to do a GI biopsy.  Awesome.  Lemmie tell you what we’re not going to do right now: GI biopsies.  Why? Because it’s $87 just to walk in the damn door at the place.

Melinda and I are going tent camping this weekend.  A year back when this reservation was made for a spot at Devil’s Lake, Melinda assured me that she’d been tent camping before, so she knows what to do and stuff.  I have also been, as I was in the Boy Scouts for many years and have my share of eventful tent-camping memories (none of which involve hanky-panky with scout masters or other scouts).  I’ve set up tents, started fires, cooked over a campfire, etc.  While setting up the tent this weekend, Melinda was all about reading the instructions verbatim and stuff.  Me, not so much.  I glanced at it, but that was about it.  If you’ve set up one tent, you’ve set up every tent.  Put the poles together, slide them in the slots, stick them in the ground, add tent steaks where necessary.  After the third dumb question about setting the tent up, I asked her, “Have you ever set up a tent before?”  To which she replied, “No, but I have been tent camping though.”  “Um, ok.  Correction: you’ve slept in a tent, you haven’t been tent camping.  There’s a difference.”  So I guess what I’m saying is that this weekend is going to be awesome …something.

Here, I’ll say it.  I miss my truck.  A lot.  But I like my car.  I’ve joined Audizine (if that last link wasn’t clue enough), and it’s full of people with mostly common interests, and there are quite a few people on there in my area.  I missed the last meetup by about 3 days; hopefully I’ll be able to make it to the next one.

Oh yeah, after picking up Wii Fit, I had a Grande Soft Taco and a Cheesey Gordita Crunch at Taco Bell.  Healthy.

Well, bunk with that.  We’re trading both for a new one of these.  Engine is a 2.0L inline-4 with a turbo, spun through a 6-speed tiptronic auto tranny into Audi’s Quattro.  And yes, thank Jesus, it’s got paddle shifters.  Other bells & whistles included, of course.  It’s the only Avant (wagon) within 50 miles of me, and it just got unloaded on Friday.  It’s the first A4 Avant at this dealer all year, and we had a hold deposit on it the following day.  We’ll be completing the transaction on Saturday, after a Left On Sunset show.

Man, I’m gonna miss my truck.  Thanks, dad.

In other news, I love my new job.  w00t!  (’cept for those two days spent in Assembly…)

The Ten Commandments of A.N.U.S.

1. Thou shalt only race from a standing stop to the end of a 100-foot strip, which is constructed of an unpaved surface. Winner having the fastest time.
2. Thou shalt only use one wheel.
3. Thou shalt only use a power plant that is over five-years-old.
4. Thou shalt only use a power plant that is stock for whatever its intended use was.
5. Thou shalt not exceed the size limit of four feet in width, or eight feet in length.
6. Thou shalt compete in any of these classes:
A-Class: 750cc to unlimited
B-Class: 400cc to 749cc
C-Class: 200cc to 399cc
D-Class: Occ to 199cc
E-Class: Electric
F-Class: Rocket Class (strictly exhibition)
7. Thou shalt employ a “Deadman’s Switch,” which will render the beast inoperable in the event that the pilot is launched.
8. Thou shalt consider steering and brakes optional.
9. Thou shalt not touch the ground forward of the axle during any run.
10. Thou shalt touch the ground only rear of the axle during any run, but may not exceed size limitations.

Linkage (with video)

Week and a half off: I’m ready for you.

I’ve been thinking of doing a weekly comic using Comic Life.  Thoughts?

If I keep going, I’ll be writing spoilers.  I’ll finish by saying this is the first game in a very long time that I’ve beaten without aid of cheats, walkthroughs, or any help more than a cursory glance through the manual not on the easiest difficulty.  Awesome.

Just a little something I found while browsing the blagonet a while back. Last night, I was flipping through channels waiting for Jail to return from a commercial break when I stumbled upon one of the 20/DatePrimeLineTimeLive shows. They were talking about “bloggers”. Yeah, I don’t think I’m included in that, since I post once a week. Maybe. (Incidentally, I kinda posted on this before.) Anywho, they were talking about how these “bloggers” often sit at home in their pjs and talk about whatever is on their mind, posting videos to sites like Youtube and podcasts (which are then explained in a short sentence) to iTunes. I didn’t watch more than 30 seconds of it, but it was enough of John Stossel’s increasingly-high voice to piss me off. He’s talking about it like people who write about what they want online are doing so while smoking a reefer, snorting coke, and getting pleasured by a prostitute while hacking the military’s computers on a second computer. I expect that the sentence after I changed the station went something like this: “These youngins are destroying the validity of reported news by polluting the airwaves and wirewaves with their self-righteous ramblings that nobody reads!” [Do note that, while you read that sentence to yourself, you have to increase the volume and pitch of your voice with each word, to the point that you sound like a deranged 3-year-old at the end. Because that's what he sounds like. A deranged 3-year-old.]

What does he know about the digital age? Does he understand that most people under 30 realize that most mainstream media is contrived? Even if he does, it’s not like he’s going to report that…his employer is mainstream media. Why bite the hand that feeds?

We, the rising youth, report our own news, our own important events. What’s better is that we hear about most things a day or two ahead of the news media reporting it.

An aside moment for local news: other than weather, traffic, and local professional sports teams, local news outlets are pretty much worthless. Incredibly detailed analysis shows that (read: IMHO) 90% of the rest of the local broadcasts are human interest crap. I don’t care if some local woman’s house is overrun by cats. Good for her. I hope she doesn’t reproduce.

Returning, a second item that’s burned my shorts. I’ve had this iPhone for a week. In that week, I’ve had no less than 6 people if I like my “$100 per month phone bill”. To which I reply: “I like my $60 per month bill just fine. What is this $100 monthly bill you speak of?” Yes, the iPhone plans from AT&T are tiered, and the most expensive plan is $100 (I think…what, you assume I’d fact check? Psssh.), but that doesn’t mean that you must get the most expensive plan to “fully” enjoy the device. In fact, news outlets only reported the total monthly bill, not the cost of the data plan. Let’s look at the plan I’ve got. For $60, I get 450 anytime minutes, 5000 night & weekend, 200 text messages, and unlimited internet data. Those first two stats are very similar to a non-iPhone plan. In fact, it’s exactly the Nation 450, which is $40 per month. The iPhone plan adds 200 text messages and unlimited internet for just $20 more. The next step up in iPhone plans is $80 per month. Just like the lower plan, it’s exactly the same as the Nation 900 (900 anytime, unlimited night & weekend), albeit with added text messages & internet. Twenty dollars is all that separates the Nation 900 and comparative iPhone plan. The most expensive plan is the same. So what’s this about “Oh, man, I gotta pay $400 for a phone and $100 per month just to use it?” NO, dumbass, you pay $400 for a phone (which is right in line with fresh on the market, top of the line smartphones) and only $20 more to get a data plan over the voice you would use anyway. You’d be paying someone for voice, so that’s factored out of the equation when comparing the luxury cost of the iPhone. A personal Blackberry data plan from AT&T is a $35 per month option, $15 more than the iPhone data plan. Is the iPhone expensive? Hell yes, it’s brand new technology. (Ok, fine, all of the tech has been around, but this is the first time it was all combined in this way. It’s a brand new device. )

The cockpit is fully adjustable. The seat isn’t even attached, so you can move it wherever the hell you want. The wheel pedestal is made to be used to hold up a fishing seat in a boat, so it’s made pretty sturdy. It’s also adjustable with the cotter pin shown in a couple of the pictures. It was pretty loose (ie. the top half of the pedestal rotated a bit), so I had to add a set screw. The one I bought is a tad long, I’ll hafta go back the hardware store and get a shorter one. The pedal mount also has multiple holes its carriage bolts can fit into. There are big handle-nuts, making the entire platform near-toolless (stupid set screw). Ah well, I can look past a 45-cent allen wrench.

A nowhere-near-complete list of tools used:

• Dremel XPR 400 – Seriously. Oh my Christ is this little deal useful. If you fancy yourself a handyman (or -woman), and you don’t have a Dremel, kick your ass down to your hardware store and buy one.
• 220-01 Workstation – Literally doubles usefulness of the dremel
• MS400 Multisaw + Dremel XPR 400 = Jigsaw?! SWEET
• 565 Multipurpose Cutting Kit – Makes routing a snap
• Routing bits, sanding bits, ROTO-ZIP-style bits
• 10″ Circular-saw chop box – Some brand, I dunno. It’s my dad’s, but he never uses it, so he said I could hold on to it “for a while”. If I used the Dremel the most, this was a close second.
• Stand-alone 10″ circular saw – Again, some brand. It works.
• ‘Lecrtic screw gun & 1″ to 2.5″ screws
• ‘Lectric staple gun & 9/16″ staples
• Hand tools galore
• Palm sander
• Hand files
• The Dremel of sawhorses – it’s a sawhorse, but also has a platform that folds out so you can use it as a work surface. I have no idea how long this would have taken without it.

Wow, that is actually pretty complete. Here’s a go at the raw materials:

• 3 2″x4″x8′
• 1 1″x10″x6′ (only needed 12.5″, but 6′ means I have plenty left over if I need it for something else)
• Enough .5″ particle board for 32″x4′ (left over from my workbench build…and I have enough left still for another racing cockpit)
• 4′ of wood trim (see the flicker pics)
• 3′x12′ of the cheapest carpet Home Depot sells ($0.39/sq. ft.)
• Adjustable fishing seat post from Gander Mountain
• Bunch of bolts, nuts, & washers

All totaled, it probably took me 10 hours of in-the-garage build time. There was 20+ hours of planning and thought that went into the design that got thrown out when it got down to actually building the beast. If I had to build another one, I hope I could get it done in 8 hours, less if I had a helper. (Not to say Melinda didn’t help – she helped hold the particle board when I was cutting it in half and later when I needed a shorter test fitter – but someone helping with the manual labor stuff.)

After hauling the contraption downstairs and firing up Forza 2, I raced for about 2 hours. The cockpit felt pretty damned good, and I’d have raced longer if I weren’t tired & sore from 2 days of manual labor. There’s always tomorrow evening. Sweet.

I’m gonna hafta just scratch-build the steering wheel mount, since I still can’t think of a “pretty” way to do it, and I’ve decided to re-think my idea for securing the chair. Instead of through-piping some 2×6’s, a pair of 2×4’s with some slightly-larger-than-necessary u-ish-shaped pipe mounts could work just fine. I also need to find some cheap carpeting to cover it with. I’m thinking a trip down to Kendor for marine-grade fabric would stand up to whatever I need, and they probably have odd-shaped & sized pieces for cheap.

My next building project will be an official screen for my projector in the basement. I’m starting to look at the different methods, and everything I’ve found comes down to either framed fabric (canvass, blackout cloth, etc.) or a giant rectangle of something solid (drywall, etc.). A couple project managers at work went with drywall, but it takes a ton of work to get it right – tape, mud, sand, multiple custom paint coats, and more sanding. I’m thinking that I can go with blackout cloth for much less work, except that with my screen now 6′ by 10′, the only place that I’ve found that makes it big enough sells it by the yard on a 110″ ream for $15/yard. I’d need 4 yards, so that $60 + shipping for only the screen fabric…figure another $40+ for framing wood, hardware, and some nice black velvet to cover the front area of the frame, for a total of between $100 to $150. I shouldn’t complain, though, cause the only pre-made screens big enough I’ve found are over a grand. I think it’s hard to justify because the wall I project on is already painted white, and I’ve grown accustom to ignoring the seams between the bricks.

Enough, I’m beat. I want my damned 360 so I can try out the Bioshock demo. Stupid UPS. “We cannot guarantee any specific time of delivery, but it will be sometime between 8 am and 7 pm.” Gee, thanks for the clue.

My 360 should be back soon. I got an automated call from UPS giving me a tracking number, but I deleted it before writing it down. Der.

Reserved Halo 3 Legendary edition at Best Buy. Rock.

After getting help moving my big-ass CRT upstairs, there’s more room for my projector screen, so I expanded the image as much as I could. I now have a 146″ diagonal…that’s 6 feet by 10 feet. I also picked up one of these for the Mac Mini hooked up to the projector. There’s something special about watching Sunday night football in HD on a 12 foot screen. Awesome.
So, with the site move, I have no idea what the status of this place will be over the next few days. My account with Digital Space is up August 23, so I gotta get this move done soon. If you leave a comment, there’s a good great chance it’ll get lost.

Apple updated iLife & iWork. iLife 08 brings a brand spankin’ new version of iMovie…but people are bitching that it’s too easy to use, so Apple is now allowing purchasers of iLife 08 to download iMovie 6 HD. I’ve only played with iPhoto, and its updates are pretty slick. The “event” idea is a good one, and the splitting/merging of events is really simple. If you don’t like “events”, just hit “Photos” in the left column, and it’s back to the old iPhoto view. iWork’s Pages & Keynote got expected updates, but new to the iWork package is Numbers – Apple’s fledgling spreadsheet app. It’s missing certain basic functionality, but it’s a very slick app. One of those apps for OSX that makes me wish I was back in school to use spreadsheets again.

I’ve gone back to my SLVR. Greg will be happy. I just got fed up with carrying the BlackBrickBerry around.

I just have to wait until the empty box shipped by Microsoft (step 1 in warranty replacement of a 360) to show up after a week of 3-day shipping.

Loh: roger. Now I just need to get (a) a Live Gold subscription and (b) an xbox that doesn’t scratch my discs. Yes, that was a wonderful thing to come home to.

Been reading these for the past week or so. Pretty good stuff, even if it is the dark side.

The worst part is that I’ve caught the R/C bug again. I’ve got an older Team Associated RC10B3, an HPI Micro RS4, and a Team Associated RC18MT. (…also a Kyosho Mini-Z and a few Zip Zaps…) I got the RC10B3 used from a friend in college. It was missing a few screws, didn’t have a body, the rear tires were bald, and didn’t have an ESC. It’s pretty fun to bash around with, but I can’t bash too hard…a few of the screws holding on the front bulkhead aren’t the right size. Team Associated has discontinued it in favor of the RC10B4, so parts for the B3 are almost non-existent. I’ve dumped the most money into the Micro RS4, but I can’t really run it anywhere because it’s an on-road car, and thusly needs a perfect surface to run on. I’ve got an eBay auction page all built up for it, but I haven’t posted it yet, cause I can’t bear to see it go. My most recent waste of money is the RC18MT. The MRS4 came as a kit, so I got the fun of building it. The RC18MT came RTR, so there was no joy of building. I’ve left it stock, because it’s fast as it is (top speed in the neighborhood of 20 mph), and can soak up plenty bumps. That said, I’d like to find somewhere around here to bash it, but there aren’t any purpose-built tracks that I’ve found within an hour drive.

I need to sell all of it. …except the RC18MT. That’s mine. It has pretty good runtime, and I can drive it anywhere. The B3 will probably get me about $50 simply for the electronics. The Mini-Z comes with a tackle box and all its original parts – I added aluminum rims, a 1-degree caster block, a ball differential, aluminum battery clips, and a carbon-fiber H-bar. That could go for $100-$150. The MRS4 will go for the most, since I’ve added quite a few parts to it, including a carbon-fiber main chassis, front aluminum dogbones, and I have 3 bodies for it, along with all the original parts (’cept for one broken plastic dogbone…hence the purchase of the aluminum ones) and original box. All three come with full radio equipment; just add batteries and tear it up.

On another note, EB Games/Gamestop is running a deal right now where if you trade in two used Wii games, you can either take the money or get one brand new Wii game. I traded 4 games and got Godfather and Rayman Raving Rabbids, plus 4 more DS games and got $29.02 on a gift card. It’s good through July 8. See the bottom of this page for deets.

In other news, I was able to score myself an invite to the private beta for Skitch. Those of you not on a Mac won’t give a rip, but Mac users may look at this and drool. I know I did. I used Skitch to get the above screenshot of the site…in about 4 seconds. No Command+Shift+3, open with [insert image editor of your choice], crop, resize, resave, open ftp client, upload. Just Command+Shift+5, drag across area, drag a corner to resize the window & image, name it, and click upload. Or, you can hit Command+Shift+7 and position Skitch over the area you want to capture, and hit the Snap button. Viola! Instant screenshot. Easy as pie. Mmmm…pie.

In other news, if you haven’t been following the gaming feeds, the Halo 3 beta was released the day after my previous post. Pretty awesome, but even after a week, it needs more maps and more people playing. That, and I need more friends on Xbox Live to play with.

omg iv bout f*****g crackdown for this beta and i cant even play it i wated 2 houres now for it to -blam!- out for fu*k sace what is going on

they’re early highschool and have mobile texting bills that are going to put their parents out on the street. Chill out, people, it will be fixed when it gets fixed. No amount of whining, bitching, or poor grammar and spelling will speed the process.

In an unrelated note, I bought an Xbox 360 with Gears of War and Crackdown.

I’m trying to figure out what to do with my tax money. I’ve got a few choices, but I can’t seem to decide. Of course I’m going to save the majority of it, but c’mon, how can I not buy some useless awesome gadget?

The list, in no particular order

1. Xbox 360. No games… *cough*
2. New computer. Ie. cpu, mobo, ram, case, power supply, & video card
3. EyeTV Hybrid & antenna
4. Couple more harddrives for my NAS
5. Lexus IS250 AWD with DVD Navigation

So, with me out in the middle of bumblefart, I won’t be updating the redneck quotes. I will, however, be adding a Twitter sidebar widget to this site. I might actually post stuff to twitter, too. I can do this from my phone via a text message, so there should be multiple updates per day. By “should”, I mean “don’t expect it, but it may happen after pigs fly”. Later!

In other news, Melinda’s bird may be egg-bound. That means there’s an egg that needs to come out, but it’s stuck. It’s pretty much fatal if not operated on. Anyone have any coupons for kleenex?

edit: Kevin: hush.

edit 2: it was fatal.

In other news, I am, for some reason, interested in baseball this season. The Brewers (my home team) are 2-2 so far, but with last night’s showing, I doubt that first number will climb much. They lost

I just looked outside. It’s snowing. Hard. Like, dime- and penny-sized flakes. IT’S APRIL SEVENTH. *grumble grumble*
Right, the Brewers lost 9-3. The ‘crew got one in the 6th and the latter two in the 9th. Today’s game starts at noon, but I’m gonna hafta catch it on MLB’s Gameday online. Ah well. I could have gone to the game today for $5, but Melinda woulda been pissed. *sigh*. Some other day.

Gonna go downstairs and waste a couple hours in Oblivion. Weeeee

The movie opens with a hungry raccoon trying to steal food from a hibernating bear. The bear wakes up, gets pissed, and threatens the raccoon with death if he (the raccoon) doesn’t replenish all the food that was just decimated by a passing semi. Pretty cheery plot for a kids movie, eh? Anywho, the raccoon happens upon a familial group of wilderness animals: a very conservative turtle who happens to be the group leader, a spastic squirrel who is male (but exhibits certain *other* qualities), a group of “up-norte-eh” porcupines (dad, mom, and three small children), a single and very feminist skunk (voiced by Wanda Sykes), and a father-daughter pair of possum (where the dad is very dumb and quick to, well, play possum while the teenage daughter is hip, cool, and generally resents her dad). If you forget the fact that they are all wilderness animals, this could be any network television sitcom. Lovely. I forgot to mention that the raccoon joins this group as the rebel character who is immediately at odds with the turtle. Very soon after the raccoon meets the group, we get the biggest, most blatant piece of art-student-liberal propaganda shoved in our collective face. In short, upper-middle-class suburbia eats to excess, drives gas-guzzling SUVs, and generally isn’t concerned with the environment.

Can’t you just see the writer and give the major points of his life story? Raised by a single mom who got knocked up in her late teens, the mom was a child of the 70s. Peace, love, and DOWN WITH WHITIE. Probably raised in a half-bedroom apartment they could barely afford in the middle of the downtown area of any major city. He grew to resent anyone who could afford nice things (ie. those who went to college and got good jobs because of it), and is now a card-carrying member of at least two treehugger groups. I bet he’s torched an SUV or two in his day. What better way to get your hippy point across than to deliver it in a computer-animated feature film, to be viewed mostly by the children people who live in those exact suburbias around the country?

Yes, those of us in these United States of America who can afford to live in excess do. Why? We know it is our constitution-given right to do so. I believe the exact wording is “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. What better happiness can a human experience than knowing he/she is so well off that they can just throw away food? We can afford large vehicles to carry lots of stuff at one time, to protect us in the case of an accident, and to display our affluence. Why? Because we can.

I hate being preached to. I hate being told I should or shouldn’t do something just because someone else says so, just because it will “make me a better person”. I had a KFC Big Box Meal for dinner tonight. For those not in the know, it’s one leg or thigh (original or crispy), a chicken strip, a small box of popcorn chicken, two sides, a biscuit, and a large soda for only $6.99. It’s a TON of food, and it’s only $6.99. If I hear anybody seriously respond to the existence of the Big Box Meal with the statement, “But there are starving people in Ethiopia! We could ship this food over to them!”, it really burns my balls. Tell you what, go ship that food over there. I ordered this big freakin box of food, and I’m damn sure gonna eat it, I don’t care how many SUVs you torch or trees you have sex with. You know what? If those Ethiopians were meant to have this food, then they’d be standing behind me in line with $6.99 + tax in their bony hands waiting to order. They’re not? I guess they weren’t meant to have this food. Darwin, right? Survival of the fittest. Looking at my stomach, I can see Darwin didn’t necessarily mean physically fit; it was more of a philosophical state of fitness. I born into a family of love and sufficient wealth that I was able to have quality schooling that got me a good job. (Let’s just assume “good” means “steady” and “reasonable paycheck” for now.) I can afford to eat a Big Box Meal pretty much whenever I want. I can also afford to impress a woman enough to somehow make her want to marry me, and the two of us are financially fit enough to own a home. At this point, we’re surviving. Can someone in Ethiopia claim to be as fit as I? It depends. That Ethiopian can probably outrun a charging African lion, whereas I would be kitty food. Survival of the fittest is not only a philosophical statement, it is also situation-dependent.

There. I think I got it all out of my system. Don’t watch Over the Hedge. Puzzle Quest is total videogame crack. Maybe I’ll write about it tomorrow when I’m waiting for the dealer to finish my truck’s oil change. Assuming I don’t have my head buried in Puzzle Quest, that is.

I got Shivering Isles and Puzzle Quest yesterday. Mini-reviews/commentary to come, but I will say this: they’re both forms of video gaming crack. Now, now, Jack, keep your pants on. Shivering Isles, and its parent game, Oblivion, are more video gaming weed. Not really addictive, but you enter another state of being while playing it. You get totally engrossed in the story. Puzzle Quest is crack. Pure and simple. I’m thinking about playing it right now. I want to play it right now.

…gotta go…

Ok, ok, I can hear you, game devs. “Our high score lists will be malformed if we allow huge names!” Bullshot. Scroll any names bigger than the field you’re allowing. It’s not hard. Yous guys are all about slick animation. Something like if(name.length > fieldsize){ animate } else { display }. If the animate() function is smart enough, you don’t even need to call a separate display function. It’s not that hard! Until a big game developer sits me down and explains to me why it’s so freakin difficult, I’ll continue to curse them every time I’m limited to 3 characters. It comes down to one thing: laziness. I can’t be the only one annoyed by this. If any of my 2 readers agree, comment on it.

In other news, Ross Lectric has branched out to installing shower doors. Sweet.

That is all.

edit – that is not all. Referring to the term “perspicacious”, Melinda asked “Does that have anything to do with perspiration?”

(Melinda is taking the stupid test. See my sidebar.)

Home stuff:

I bought a book called Wiring 1-2-3 from Home Depot. I then bought a small pile of tools I didn’t have…along with a tool belt. I then proceeded [thank you Firefox automagic spellcheck] to swap the position of two lights in my basement and add a switch to the position that didn’t have one. I also installed an outlet on my ceiling to plug the projector in to. The next electrical projects include installing three new circuits for the basement, adding recessed lighting over the home theater area of the basement, and separating the garage onto its own circuit. The three new circuits for the basement (all 15 amp) will be used as follows:

1. All the ceiling lights
2. Outlets for home theater equipment
3. Outlets for computers

I’m probably gonna be pulling 6-8 amps just for lights, and I wanted to separate the computers and home theater stuff anyway, so I figure I’d throw in a third just for lights. Also, I’m gonna need to put a microwave & dorm-sized fridge on one of those circuits. I’d like to make the garage circuit 20 amps, but I’ll need to buy better romex for that – all I’ve got is 14/2. For 20 amp service, you need 12 gauge conductors. Now that I’m thinking about it, I almost want to put in the garage circuit first and get it out of the mess that is the basement/first floor guest bedroom/guest bathroom/2nd floor bedroom/front entryway circuit. Yes, all of that is on one 15 amp circuit. Along with my water softener. Excellent. Time to buy parts.

I’ve been listening to Bob & Brian via 1029thehog.com for a couple weeks now. (Listening to them right now, in fact.) The commercial breaks have different content online than via the radio station. One of the online-only ads is this stupid ass one about putting up smoke detectors in “the entire forest”. WHAT?! Stupid dirty hippies. It’s forest. Its major ingredient is wood. Second most common ingredient: dried leaves. SOMEHOW these things catch fire. Amazing, isn’t it? Sure, animals may die in the fires, but survival of the fittest, right? Maybe that western guava tree frog that just fried has a terrible debilitating trait and is living in agony. It wouldn’t live to spread that illness on. This is nature at work.

Anywho, the dog of my good friend Susan got put down yesterday. Go cheer her up.

** paused to post on AVS Forum asking for DT-400 owners in/around Milwaukee **

Anywho, the picture is huge. Makes my 36″ look positively puny…which is ironic ’cause it weighs 216 pounds. Also, while searching Digg for a new TV torrent source, I happened upon ShareTV.org. In short, HD-ish quality on demand with no commercials. Not commercials to skip through, simply no commercials. And seven feet five inches diagonally across. Sweet monkey sandwich.

This brings me to another topic: cable tv. It sucks. Why do I have to pay for five channels I’ll watch and 68 (or more) I won’t? It’s absurd. Alright, I’d get FoodTV, Comedy Central, ESPN, ESPN2, Discovery, TLC, Speed, and Weather. Fine, I’d pay for eight channels I’d watch and 65 I wouldn’t. That’s it. Allow customers to pay a per-channel fee – hell, I’d even go for a graduated pricing scale – and a lot of people would come back to cable. At this point, my next purchase is one of these and one of these. Done. Between over-the-air HD and ShareTV.org, I’ll have plenty of media to view. Now to pick up a couple [more] of these.

We’ve got a ton of boxes here, but still no furniture. We’ve been sleeping on a double-size futon mattress that’s on the floor. It’s uncomfortable as hell, but it’s on floor that I (and Melinda) own. We’re paying our own mortgage, not someone else’s. Mwa ha ha. I’m sore. Movers are coming tomorrow to get all the furniture.
I’ve started phase one of my basement project: putting a floor in. Because it’s a basement, it’s already had a little water seepage, and I’m cheap, I decided to go with those square, foam, puzzle-piece-shaped floor pieces. Sam’s Club has 2′x2′x.5″ 8-packs for $19.76. That’s about $0.60 per square foot. I bought 4 packs (since that was all that would fit in a cart) and noted that a pallet of them holds 16 packs. I think I need a full pallet on top of what I just bought to do all the floor I want. The pieces are black on one side and either red, yellow, green, or blue on the other. Obviously, I’m putting the black side up.

Check out this projector. $2370? How ’bout $800? And then receiving a gift card for $80 for making the purchase? Yeah, thanks Best Buy, you guys do have your moments.

Melinda and I will be moving within a week. Holy crap. Sweet. Crap. I’m all confused.

The Lord allowed the Bears to see the promise land, but were then refused in the most glorious way. In the fallout, I foresee the Bears having a new starting quarterback next season. They might keep their respectable defense, but the Bears’ offense will be in shambles. With Favre returning for an astounding 17th season, we could see the Bears’ 15th starting quarterback in as many seasons. Hah.

Oh yeah. Awesome.

edit: For future reference, the permanent link is in the shelf above – right-most column, named “Terminal”.

Use Google Reader. Seriously. It’s a pretty slick web 2.0 app that lets you categorize & tag your feeds to your liking. Because it’s a webapp that’s attached to your Google account (used for gmail, gcal, etc.), your read history is the same no matter where in the world you check your news. It’s got oodles of keyboard shortcuts to help you speed through your news. It’s gotten plenty of good reviews. Go ahead and try it out. I’ll even give you a kick start. Click here to subscribe to this blog in Google Reader.

Other site stuff: Melinda is now able to post stuff here. Whether she will or not is her decision (as it is my decision to keep or delete them at will ).

Full story

Turns out Nintendo released the News channel a day ahead of time. Score

1. Admin Advanced Drop Down Menus
2. Oceia bar for Wordpress
3. Share This

The first makes the admin menus super snazzy – not that any of my readers my one reader will care. Similar with the Oceia bar. The last one, though, is Share This. Check the new link at the bottom of every post, to the left of “Post in …”. It pops open a little panel that lets you add this to any number of social bookmarking sites, as well as emailing it to someone else. Schweet!

As for the site upgrade, hasn’t so much happened yet – last night, I found out my wife doesn’t have the inner ear disease she thought she’d had since the mid-90s. Indecisive thing, that medicine. Needless to say, I was a bit preoccupied.

There’s a new version of Wordpress out. Maybe this will fix the slowassedness of this site I see during the day. I turned off a couple plugins and sidebar widgets that hit external sites thinking that might be the problem. If it’s better today, I’ll re-add the flickr widget (cause I can’t believe flickr is that bogged down). I’ll get to it tonight…hopefully. If this doesn’t fix it, I’m gonna hafta figure out how to hack in timing information to see if it’s the db calls that are slow (since my host runs multiple sites on one box with the dbs on the same machine…i don’t pay for the ’spensive dedicated service).

In an unrelated note, anyone have experience switching hosting providers while keeping the same domain?

Anywho, I installed a little theme switcher plugin that would allow a per-user theme specification. Each user would pick their preferred theme and it’d get stored in a cookie on their machine. Better yet, the theme can be forced with a specific query string argument. So, the plan was to default the site to the CLI and have initial text in the CLI provide a link to the graphical version. Noooo…..that won’t work, because whenever the theme switcher is active, I can’t modify the widgets of the graphical theme. Moreover, the image behind the title at the top of the page doesn’t display, and the text is white, and it’s real damn hard to read white text on a white background. So, I’m pissed.

¹: command line interface….n00b

We got approved for a loan! Now I’ve gotta dig through my superior filing system box o’ papers to find a couple bank statements and my most recent 401(k) statement. Gonna be a long night full of papercuts.

Seriously tho, sweet. One step closer to moving in. At the inspection tomorrow, we’ll get the condo docs. We’ll also get the waiver that says the adjoining owner won’t purchase the unit we’re purchasing out from under us. It’s written into the docs that the adjoining owner has first right of refusal, but our future neighbor doesn’t want anything to do with it. Sweet.

Ever hear of the norovirus? It’s the one that’s been going around cruise ships. Apparently, there’s a strain going around the county I live in, and I just happened to draw the lucky straw. It sucks. The most solid food I’ve been able to keep down since Tuesday breakfast is a muffin and some mac & cheese. On an unrelated note, applesauce is yummy.

Why does this post have a hippies tag? Duh, I prolly caught the norovirus-ish from a damned dirty hippie.

It’ll be mine on Feb. 16. Hot damn.

And in other news, our offer for the condo was countered for a couple grand more, but we get to keep his pool table and accouterments. We’re cool with the price, but there were a couple more small things that needed correction, so we countered their counter. We’ll hear back today if it goes through.

And in yet more other news, MacWorld Expo 2007 kicks off today with a Steve Jobs keynote at 11 AM! w00t

edit: I’m a moron…Jobs’ keynote is Tuesday at 11 am. Not Monday. *sigh*

I’ve added a You Might Be A Redneck widget on the right. It comes from my daily official calendar. I’ve only got 5 of them in there now, so you might be seeing repeats often. Deal. Ignore it for a month, and there will be 30+ in there. No more repeats. Next item: the “Money Maker” widget at the bottom of the right column is supposed to be hosting google adsense ads, but it appears to not be working. I’m kinda strapped for time right now, so I don’t have time to deal with it.

Random interjection:
Go hit XKCD. The comics are hil-freaking-arious. * mostly for people of the engineering persuasion.House portion: (yet another new category)

Just put an offer down on a condo. Woo! It’s one of two side-by-side units in the building, and there are only 3 buildings in the community for a total of 6 units. Two car garage, 1.5 story (just a single room upstairs), full private basement, 3 bed/2 bath, and all appliances included. Hot damn! Dude has till Saturday to decide what to do with the offer…hopefully accept. Now to figure out how to break the news to my apartment manager…

In other news, Senior Design Bash ‘07 is scheduled for January 6-7. Should be a blast. Now if I can just find two more wiimotes…

I was originally gonna post with a link to the Greenpeace article, but the digg link is so much better. The comments contained within are priceless:

i hope those lights don’t run on batteries.

Right, I’m sure Apple uses some bizarre amount of harmful chemicals. Target somebody worthwhile. I think the setup to this little event went something like this:

Greenpeacer #1: Dude, I heard that, like, Apple, like, uses chemicals in their computers.
Greenpeacer #2: Man, that’s bogus.
#1: I know. We should, like, do something about it.
#2: Yeah, but I’m way too stoned
#1: What if we just go shine a bunch of lights at that big glass box on 5th avenue?
#2: Can they be green?
#1: Sure.
#2: I’m in, dude.

Hippy/attention whore is a dangerous combination.

My favorite comment has got to be this one:

Friends, there is a much more serious threat to our environment than Apple. This offender leeches thousands of tons of sulphur and smoke into the atmosphere every year. It ruins natural habitats, killing countless millions of plants and animals, turning their habitats into barren wastelands. Who are these gross murderers, you ask? They only go by one name…

Volcano

What are these kids thinking? Do they not understand how we, as a race, do things? Their coats, their shoes, their food, and (in this case) their flashlights with green filters are all made without regard to any environmental concerns! What about the digital cameras they used to record the event, or the servers used to host their website? If they really believed what they preach, Greenpeace couldn’t exist. Rather, it could, but all its members would live in the wilderness. Except that wouldn’t work, because they’d still need to eat, which means they’d have to kill animals and/or destroy foliage. Greenpeace is self-defeating. All the little hippy rich kids need to go home and do something productive. Like sending me some of their rich parents’ money.

I was mindlessly going through digg posts over the weekend and stumbled across this gem:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/dtBYUz43G_M" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Right. The pansy you see running away like a little girl is Carmello Anthony. He got in his one open-hand slap and turned tail. I thought he was supposed to be this big baller, this new breed of “basketball gangster”. In the video, you can see Mr. Anthony and direct participants looking for someone to “hold me back” so they don’t tear into their adversary.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Basketball is no longer about the team. End of story. Certain players have tainted the game with their juvenile attitudes and disrespect for the institution of the game. (I’m not naming names because (a) there are too many to mention and (b) i honestly don’t follow b-ball enough to know who they are.) These players may have grown physically and may have improved their basketball skill set, but their maturity level has (if anything) dropped. Why? Why has basketball devolved into a gang war fought with and excuse for rules and an orange ball? How has the game of American football been given a relative pass in this case? This is not to say football hasn’t had its own share of problems (the Vikings Love Cruise is just one example); however, football games are still games about the teams. Why? Why are we allowed to enjoy football as a team sport, commenting on the teams’ offense and defense as if they were a cohesive unit? Because, little Johnny, you can’t see the players’ faces in football. On the field, every player is every player. Unless you’re really up on your stats (or have an HD set and can read the names), it’s somewhat difficult to know who just caught the quick drop for 8 yards. Furthermore, to play football, you need a team. It’s pretty much impossible to play a football game and make successful scoring attempts (even in your backyard) with only one person on a team. In basketball, you can see the players’ faces, and it only takes one guy to drive the ball from the far side of the court and slam the ball in the hoop.

You may be thinking that I’ve been living under a rock and haven’t noticed that football has just as many star players as basketball. Au contraire, I recognize that football stars are just as plentiful. The difference is that every one of those football players would be nothing – NOTHING – without a good team to back them. How good was Brett Favre when he had a solid offensive line? Damn good. How good is he now that his offensive line could be replaced with swiss cheese and his receivers’ hands ooze butter like well-oiled movie popcorn? Not anywhere near as good. Michael Vick: pretty good, but give him to the Cardinals and watch his stats tank. Now for the basketball analog: back in the day, you could have put Michael Jordan on any team in the league and he’d have done very well. The same can be said of any good player in the sport. I already explained why: you don’t need more than one person on a basketball team to play the game. Sure, the other guys are good distractions, but only one player needs scoring ability. “But Ross, basketball keeps track of assists!” Bah. Worthless. No one is going to think you’re badass just because you’ve got the leading number of “assists”. What, you couldn’t finish the job? Pansy.

Now that I’ve listed the problems with “professional” basketball, I should probably attempt to provide solutions. The only problem is that I can’t, short of firing half the players and imposing strict behavioral rules on the remaining players. And force players to attend social-awareness training. And shock-therapy away their inflated egos. We could force the players to wear full-face helmets, but we’d still be stuck with the ability to have a single player run the game. In short, the game itself can’t be fixed. The players simply need to grow up and realize that the antics they could pull as teens can’t fly in the world of professional sports.

Anywho, I’ve got about 25 hours into Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. There is probably another 15-20 hours before I beat the game, but I won’t have truly finished the game…crazy mini-quests.