Wake up

Posted by Thomas Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:28:33 +0000

in my head this morning: Dave Matthews Band – Christmas Song.

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Protobufs

Posted by Thomas Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:58:04 +0000

I meant to note that we open sourced Protobufs, but somehow I forgot. They are crazy awesome and you should check them out.

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In Atlanta

Posted by Thomas Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:39:30 +0000

I am. I made it back in one piece. While I was sweating a good deal of the way from College Station to DFW, I eventually cooled off. Though when I got there I thought it a good idea to walk from the end of B to midway through C terminal. Yay for exercise but down with sweat! I really enjoyed having a weekend off, even if it was all too short. I got to see a bunch of people, but didn’t feel like I got to really talk with very many of them. I think my portion of the reception went well, even if I was a bit rusty. Luckily we didn’t have to move the sound system in the Great Hall in the Family Life Center. For my own future reference, I got a haircut on Friday. It wasn’t as short as I would have liked, but on short notice, and short on time, it worked.

At the risk of sounding cliché, I really enjoyed seeing everyone. Even if I only saw you in passing it really was nice to see the faces and hug the friends I love.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been posting at least daily for some time in the photoblog, so you should definitely keep an eye on it as it should keep updating for quite some time.

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Fourth of July

Posted by Thomas Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:53:34 +0000

It’s been a bad hardware weekend for me. The filer was giving me fits, so I finally looked for any possible hardware problems. Checking smart, a brand new drive gives “HARDWARE IMPENDING FAILURE GENERAL HARD DRIVE FAILURE [asc=5d, ascq=10]“. Doing a quick search reveals that I myself have had this error before… zfs was happy with the drive, but now is showing errors at the file system level. Even after I removed it, I was having issues, so I ran memtest on it. Good thing it has ecc memory in it, because it’s also showing single bit memory errors. And, to top it off, I’ve had 2 out of my 4 new dimms go bad in my new computer build. It’ll be fun rma’ing them, because it was a dimm in each of the kits I bought, so if I were to rma them simultaneously the new computer wouldn’t be able to boot. In other news I finally put a second coat of stain onto my coffee table this afternoon. A quick search reveals it’s only taken me a year and a half to get it into a usable state (so much for being a person who doesn’t have home projects last years). So, to recap my recent spending spree, I have a new computer, new hard drives, and just since last Thursday a new tv. A frickin’ huge, ginormous tv. Everyone will have to come over to see it and all its 1080p glory. ;) It was definitely nice to have a three day weekend, even if it only really felt like two somehow. I finished the first season of Weeds, which did get better towards the end for me. I think I’m still uneasy about rooting for the good guy who is bad, though — which makes me wonder if Sopranos was the same if I’d enjoy it. I’m also looking forward to flying back to CS and getting to see people. With all of the stuff I’ve bought of late, I’m wary of another big purchase in the form of the L glass. Someone please prod me in the direction that this is a good long term investment. :)

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Weeds

Posted by Thomas Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:08:48 +0000

So I watched the first half of season one of Weeds over the past day or two. I must say I’m pretty disappointed. I just don’t really “get” the show. I think it’s because I don’t identify with Nancy. I think I love more than my fair share of deeply flawed characters (West Wing and Sports Night to mention two shows chocked full of them). But this one’s too far off the deep end for me. She lost her husband, but we seen no real emoted grief from her. I almost think she didn’t really love him nor misses him that much. Maybe you could argue that her life is so upside down at the moment that she doesn’t have time. But shouldn’t that exacerbate and expose those things she’s not dealing with? She constantly bemoans her life and how it’s so messed up, yet she does nothing to change it. Her friends are really bad ones. We haven’t seen or heard anything of her own family. I don’t understand why she thinks she has to continue down this path. She never even questions seriously what she’s doing. Why doesn’t she just get a real job? We don’t even get any rationalization why she continues to sell. Does she not have any marketable skills? Most of the other deeply flawed characters I’ve enjoyed over the years are flawed due to their undying dedication, altruism, and unwavering commitment that the job or change they are trying to achieve is for the greater good. What is she trying to do? Keep her head above water? Does she even like the town she’s in? She can’t do her own laundry? I mean it’s not like she’s the only person with problems in their life. That is life. Deal with it, but not by selling drugs, absolutely ignoring what you should be doing, and passing off morals as “not selling to kids”.

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PayPal Sucks Reprised

Posted by Thomas Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:02:44 +0000

OMFG. So when I went to BoA to ask them to get my money back from Paypal, I thought I actually would. I know how good credit card companies are at fraud. They sent me the affidavit, which I dutifully signed and sent back. A week or two later they reverse the check and I get all of the money back into my bank account. Great! But then I look at my Paypal balance. $-489. WTF? So they totally charged me for the money the bank got. What kind of system is that? I’ve done all that work (well make BoA do all that work) for naught. I call up Paypal who are again stonewalling me. “Yes we’re sorry this is unfortunate. Yes it is the expected behavior to deduct this from your account. Yes our fraud department is doing all they can to get your money back. No we don’t know when you’ll get your money back. Yes, you better hope this doesn’t go into debt collection.” So then I’m like, well, I don’t want a negative balance because I want a working Paypal account (which at this point is debatable). So I’m like, well I want it now, I’ll pay with credit. They have my credit card number on file, so I quickly click through the process. Immediately after I hit the “yes really deduct this from my credit card” button I read the fine print that read something like “this will show up as a cash advance and your credit card company may charge you as such”. Again with the wtf? At this point I’m past the point of no return, so I quickly load up my online banking to see if the charge is pending. It is, but I don’t see any extra fees. Maybe I dodged a bullet. Nope, looking at my current outstanding charges, there’s an extra $15 charge there for “CASH EQUIVALENT TRANSA[CTION]“. Oh for the love. I’m out closer to $505 due to my double stupidity. :(

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